by Jo Noelle
The next day, another letter came from Mitzi.
Dear Elena,
I’m so sorry for the frustration of my last letter. I’d be glad to have you lease the property. I’m having some problems with the construction company that will be building on that land, and would like to offer you a month-by-month lease until I get that worked out. I’d like it if someday you called me Mom.
Mitzi
Holy whiplash! Elena was beginning to understand why she’d never seen her dad mourn his divorce. It had happened long before she could remember, but he never brought it up. She wondered if he was trying to save her from having a bad opinion of the woman. Elena was even more grateful for the home and love her dad had given her. By his example, he’d taught her to move past hurt and continue to love. She wrote a letter back.
Dear Mitzi,
Thanks for the leasing offer. I’ll let you know.
I accept your apology. Someday we might have a relationship, but we don’t for now. You’ve lived the life you wanted, and it didn’t include me. I appreciate the offer, and I’ll consider it, but for now it’s enough that I’ve met you.
Sincerely,
Elena
She sealed the envelope and put it in the stack to go out the next day. Then she pulled out her phone to text Chase. I saw the song.
12
Chase Dermott
Chase thought he was having a heart attack—tight chest, shallow breath, a little lightheaded—as he stood by his car in the parking lot behind Treasure Mountain Pawn. He pulled his phone out and read the message. It was the same as it had been the previous dozen times he’d read it. Meet Elena and I out back of the store. He’d been sitting in his car waiting for them to arrive. For the last few days of the tour, he had texted Elena, but never received a reply after her saying she saw the guitar solo, or even since he’d told her he was back.
Tug’s pickup turned the corner, and Chase saw Elena riding shotgun. His chest squeezed tighter, but in a good way. Bless you, Tug. I swear I’ll never call you “Neanderthal” again.
Chase saw Elena jumped from the truck before it was at a full stop and ran around the back toward him. Her broad smile faded as she came closer to him and disappeared when she stopping abruptly a few feet away. There seemed to be an invisible fence, keeping her away from him. He supposed there was. She was still hurting.
Tug opened the back door while they stood like statues, neither of them making the first move. Chase wondered what it should be. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her until they both forgot the pain, but he had enough sense to keep his hands in his pockets.
Tug waved his hand toward the open door. “Well, don’t just stand there. Come on in and have a little privacy for your reunion or fight. Don’t know which yet.” Then he walked inside.
Chase approached Elena’s side and reached out to place his hand on her back as they entered the building, but she hurried ahead of his touch. Knowing that Elena would flee rather than feel his hand on her sent new anguish searing through his heart.
When they reached the office, Elena sat in a chair with a desk between them. He realized that the initial shock or excitement had worn off. He still longed to hold her. He’d missed deeply and just a taste of it outside when she’d ran toward him lit a fire in his chest. But that burned out fast, and they were starting over in a different place.
Tug leaned through the door. “I’m gonna go get some donuts. You want maple?”
“Yeah,” Chase answered, and Elena nodded along. Again, Tug was giving them time together to work it out if they could. He was staring to really like the guy.
“Back in a few.” The bell on the front door jingled as Tug left.
“So, your tour’s over?” Her face was impassive, but there was a little crease between her eyebrows.
“Yeah.” They had more important things to talk about, but Chase tried to be patient while they figured out how to do that. “We’ll be on the West Coast and in the southern states next time.” He sat quietly after his answer. Elena needed to control this conversation. We would give her any answer she asked for. No more hiding. In many ways, he felt like he was on that narrow trail. Looking either way could be bad. He had to focus on Elena and stay close to her.
Before Chase could start the conversation they both needed, the bell on the front door rang. They both took a deep breath, then walked out to see what the customer wanted. Chase wished he’d asked Tug to lock it on his way out.
A scruffy man in his mid-thirties barreled to the hallway they were exiting. He waved a handgun like it was a toy. Chase hoped it was but pushed Elena behind him in case.
“Open the register!” he yelled, spit flying from his mouth.
Elena started to walk that way, so Chase positioned himself between her and the man. Chase worried that the gun could go off any moment the way he was waving it around.
Elena pressed a key, and the drawer popped open. “We haven’t had any customers yet, so we don’t have much money.”
He glanced around the room and back at Chase and Elena, again and again, the gun swinging wildly. Even when he wasn’t moving, his hand wasn’t steady. Chase just hoped it didn’t go off before they could give him what he wanted and get him out of there. Fear tightened the muscles in Chase’s neck and shoulders but also increased his focus. His arms and legs tensed, waiting for an opportunity to take the man out before any harm could come to Elena.
“Unlock the guns,” he bellowed.
Elena took a key from the register. Her hand was shaking as she unlocked the chain strung through the trigger guards.
As the robber watched what she was doing, he must have noticed the surveillance camera and shot at it, the blast sounding like fireworks, missing by a couple of feet. Chase’s pulse hammered through him, knowing for certain then that it wasn’t a toy.
“Turn that off,” he barked. “Give me your phones. On the counter.”
Chase pulled his from the pocket near his knee as he watched the man closely. Elena took hers from her back pocket, her finger on the “power off” button.
“I can turn off the camera. The controls are in the office.” She pointed to the office they’d just left. “Do you want me to do it now?”
Her voice was low but steady. How did she sound so calm?
“Now!” the man yelled.
They both startled, and the guy followed them down the hallway. Elena reached across the desk and hit a button, powering off the system.
The man backed up toward the salesroom. Although he had the gun pointed in their way occasionally, it turned away from them when he often looked over his shoulder. Chase saw the door to the storage room just ahead. He had to get Elena into that room. When they got near, and the man looked up at the guns on the wall, Chase threw one arm around Elena, opened the door, he pushed them through the door, locking the door behind them.
It wasn’t secure enough and immediately dragged a workbench in front of the door. Chase would have liked to be anywhere else at this moment, but this was the safest place for them right now in the store. No windows—only a door and a lot of boxes. At least, they controlled some of their own safety.
Chase hoped the guy took everything he could hold and left. “Are you okay?” Chase asked, taking her to the corner farthest from the door.
“I’ll be all right. This isn’t my first robbery.” Tears gathered in her eyes, and Elena touched his face. “Thank you. It’s not something I’ll ever get used to.” She pushed the back of her hands across her face to swipe at the tears.
His stomach clenched when he considered the fear he felt, and she had done this before. “This is my first. How am I doing? ’Cause I feel like a wreck, and I’d kind of like to throw up.” He took her hand and pulled her to sit on the cool concrete floor with him. They were quiet, and he strained to listen for any clues about what was going on out there, before he asked, “Why did you turn off your phone?”
“When the surveillance equipment is shut down, the securi
ty company calls my phone and Tug’s to see if it’s really an emergency. I couldn’t have that guy know what was happening. It might have freaked him out.”
“More than he already was.” They looked into each other’s eyes. Elena didn’t say it, but Chase knew she’s thinking what he was. Tug got the call. He will have called the police, and they’d be there soon. They sat quietly in the little room. Chase’s mind whirled with contingent plans to protect Elena if the door busted open.
Chase’s heart was jumping against his ribs. Yeah, the robbery heightened his nerves, but he knew he had to talk to Elena. Several times since he’d known her, he thought he should wait for a better time. He wasn’t going to wait again.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking with the emotion in the words. “I’m sorry.” How many times will he need to say it before she forgives him? How much time will she give him to prove it?
Her back straightened, but her voice quivered. “Why didn’t you tell me about your band?” She didn’t look at him when she asked the question, like she was afraid of the answer. Instead she looked at her clasped hands in her lap, one hand’s fingers squeezing the others with pent-up frustration.
His stomach clenched tight. She didn’t seem to be asking why Chase didn’t tell her, as much as she’s asking why he would lie to her. It was the question he wanted her to ask and also the one he most feared. He tried to hold on the bit of hopefulness he felt because she was willing to talk to him about the hard part. His brain sifted through answers, and his stomach flipped at the inner turmoil. His fingers pushed through his hair. As soon as he noticed, he lowered them to rest on his lap, trying not to let on how stressed he felt. Too late.
“Why? Because I was scared. I’ve tried to date the last couple of years, but it never worked. No one saw me anymore. I didn’t notice it as much in college as I did when our band started to climb the charts. The last one was the worst. When she dumped me, she was already sleeping with the lead vocal for the band we opened for. I couldn’t get away from her for the rest of the tour, or the realization that I was a rung on the ladder she used to get to him. That was almost a year ago.”
His explanation hung over their silence, but he knew he hadn’t answered what she really wanted to know. “You want to know why I lied—because I was afraid I wouldn’t get a chance with you, and then later it was that I would lose you.” Chase looked straight into her eyes and continued, “It was stupid, and I know I was a jerk. I’m sorry.”
Elena turned her knees toward him and looked into his eyes. She didn’t say anything, but while they sat in silence her features softened, losing the edge of anger. Finally, she lifted her hand between them, counting off on her fingers. “Stupid, jerk, and sorry. Yup, those were the ones I thought of too.”
Then she asked another question. “Why didn’t you say good-bye? I mean—I know I broke up with you, but you didn’t come over. You didn’t fight for me—for us.”
He lifted his knuckles to graze her cheek. No, he’d been wrong before. This was the question he dreaded. “I did come to talk to you.” He shook his head, trying to clear the memory of her voice. “I parked out back and was coming into the store when I heard you telling Tug that you were going to get every dime you deserved from me. Images of the gold diggers from my past still haunted me, and I couldn’t see you that way. I had to leave.” Elena was shaking her head, but Chase continued. “I realized you were probably right. I’d ruined your chances to have a normal life. I knew I could help you keep this store, though, so I sent you a check to get your taxes cleared.”
Elena shifted to look into his face. “You sent the check?”
“Yeah. I don’t want you to lose your dreams because of me.” Chase couldn’t stay away and leaned over to kiss her forehead, but he wanted so much more of her. “Did you use the check? I want you to get your antiques store.” What he really wanted was days and weeks and months to learn everything about her. It was a selfish reason, but aside from that, he wanted her happiness.
“It’s a loan.” Elena’s hand cupped his cheek, quickly moving her finger to his lips when he started to protest. He couldn’t help but lean into it. He was starved for her, then she pecked his lips. “And to clear it up, when I said ‘he owed me,’ I was talking about a banker, not you.” Elena told Chase about how she set the creeper up and applied for a new loan. She still got turned down, “but this time, it was an honest denial.”
“I’m so proud of you.” Chase stood pulled her into his arms. “You’re amazing.” His hand brushed down her hair, shoulder, and arm, then he lifted her hand to his neck. Her other hand came up as well, smelling like vanilla, her fingers playing with the back of his hair while her golden eyes gazed into his.
He knew she was the one he wanted in his future, but she had to want it too. If she wanted him to stay, he would. If she said to leave, he’d have to. He completely trusted this woman with his heart. His head bowed to hers, and claimed her lips, pulling her close, feeling her softness. They wrapped their arms around each other and kissed like they were starving and this was bread. Then they pressed their foreheads together, eyes closed, breathing each other’s air.
When Chase opened his eyes, Elena looked as dizzy as he felt.
13
Elena Maurell
Chapter 13
Elena Maurell
Something crashed against the wall outside the storeroom, startling Elena. She moved to the door and tried to listen more intently to identify what she thought she heard. A shelf clattered to the floor. Someone was wrestling. Then she heard a gunshot, followed by yelling. She must have reached toward the doorknob because Chase pulled her backward into his arms.
Some moments later, he asked, “Do you hear that?”
Elena listened. “Nothing. Do you think it’s safe to go out?”
They heard sirens, then within minutes, the knob on the door wiggled, but since it was still locked, Chase had to open it from inside. Detective Clark was standing in front of him.
“You two okay,” he asked.
“Yeah,” Elena said as she pushed out the door. “Who was shot?”
From the front of the store, a woman yelled, “Lie down. Someone strap this guy to the gurney.” When she rounded the corner, she could see out the front window to where the robber was being put in the back of a squad car. On the gurney by the cash register, Tug was bleeding through his pant leg.
Tug tried to sit up. “There you are. You’re okay. I got the call and came right over.” An EMT pushed him back on the cot, but Tug shrugged him off. “It’s a flesh wound. No big deal. I refuse transport. Give me the paper to sign.”
Detective Clark walked past them. “You’re supposed to call 911 not engage the robber, Tug. Leave that to the police.”
“Just thank me for laying on ’im and be done, Clark,” Tug said.
The detective shook his head and turned to Elena and Chase. “We’ll need statements from both of you. Stick around.”
“We’ll be over there,” Chase answered and led Elena back to the office and shut the door. The kiss started softly until Elena tightened her arms around him and leaned onto his chest, closing the space. Her heart was content with him—this amazing man who would her to help her get her dreams even though she’d shut him out. He’d made mistakes and so had she, but they weren’t bigger than loving each other. The kisses grew with intensity as the shivers of pleasure darted through her body, leaving her dazed and breathless. Chase kissed her ear and neck and the crook of her shoulder. A small moan escaped Elena’s throat, then his lips found hers again.
When he pulled back, he said, “I have to know if you can forgive me.” His eyes bore into hers with tenderness and a little desperation. “Can we start over?”
“Of course, I forgive you.” Then Elena shook her head. “And no, we can’t start over, but we can start again where things got messed up.”
Chase held her face in his hands. His lips rested against her ear, and warm breath accompanied his word
s. “Then pack a bag. We have a date tonight.”
Although she was surprised, Elena didn’t move her head away at all. She liked the feel of his breath and the movement of his lips as he spoke. “Why do I need a bag?”
“Because our date is in Nashville.” He kissed her just in front of her ear. “We have a jet to catch.”
Peak City Romances
About the Author
Jo Noelle is a Colorado native but lived in several other mountain states--Idaho, Utah, and California. She has two adult children and three small kids.
She teaches teachers and students about reading and writing, grows freakishly large tomatoes, enjoys cooking (especially desserts), builds furniture, sews beautiful dresses, and likes to go hiking in the nearby mountains.
Oh, and by the way, she's two people--a mother/daughter writing team. We write sweet romance stories with contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, or time-travel twists.
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