Meant To Be: A Malsum Pass Novel

by Kimberly Forrest

  Not in the mood to hear anything more from the old bastard, who’d effectively killed his evening, Conner snarled, “Someone drag his ass home.”

  “I’m on it.” Jacob said, grabbing Joe by the arm and pulling him out of the bar.

  Conner sat down heavily in a chair, rubbed a hand over his face, and sighed. “All right, L.J,” he said, looking to the older male, “what happened?”

  L.J settled into the chair across from Conner while Zack dragged a chair from another table over, turned it backwards, and straddled it. L.J met Conner’s eyes and shook his head sadly, “You remember that little lady you asked me about? The one that bought the air mattresses and sleeping bags?”

  Conner’s forehead bunched in a frown, his wolf pacing inside him in agitation that his mate might be under threat. “What about Elizabeth?”

  “Did you know she worked for an on-line catalog?” L.J asked. Conner nodded and the older man continued, “Well, she apparently mentioned my place to some of her higher ups and one of them came into town this evening to have a look. We came in here to have a drink after our chat and that’s when Joe started acting rabid.”

  Obviously, it had been the same man Elizabeth was meeting the next day, but the fact she had mentioned The Powder Keg to her boss pleased him greatly. Part of being Pack was supporting the community and she was already doing that by planting a bug in just the right ear.

  Conner leaned back in his chair, the tension that had held his muscles in a vice, eased. “How did it go? With the catalog I mean.”

  L.J shook his head looking slightly bemused. “They want to feature my shop in their fall catalog and add my custom stocks to another catalog he’s running. It’ll be great exposure, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle even more orders. Not to mention the spotlight it’ll throw on the town.” L.J grimaced, “That’s the part Joe overheard and set him off, Walter mentioned them putting Malsum Pass on the map.” He shook his head again, looking disappointed. “I’ll need to put it in front of the council.”

  Conner nodded. “I doubt anyone on the council will be opposed to an increase in income.”

  “And you can always take on an apprentice.” Zack chimed in. “Julian is pretty artistic and good with his hands,” he said referring to one of the pack members close to his own age, “He would probably love to come work in your shop.”

  Conner reached out and gave L.J’s shoulder a pat and a squeeze. “If you want to do this, I’m sure we’ll be able to make it work.”

  Conner showed up right on time the next morning to Elizabeth’s relief. She had actually been worried about him the night before when he had had to leave so abruptly. Her mind had conjured all sorts of catastrophes that had Conner being injured or even killed. It was a silly reaction. She knew logically he would probably be fine, but all of her responses to this man seemed to border on the illogical. As soon as he got out of his truck, she’d let her eyes move over him to assure herself he was well, but she still asked. “Everything okay, then? Last night?”

  Conner had smiled, hooked an arm around her waist to pull her close, and kissed the tip of her nose which had Jeremy grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “Just a difference of opinion that got out of hand.” Then he turned to Jeremy. “You ready to check out my favorite fishing hole?”

  “Yes!”

  Elizabeth chuckled at Jeremy’s enthusiasm. “You two have fun,” she said, “I should only be an hour or two.”

  Conner dropped a kiss on the top of her head and released her. Even now, driving through the town of Rochester on the way to the meeting, she could still feel the imprint of his lips on her. She was also smiling – she felt happy and excited at the same time – and it was all because of Conner Pierce. Who would have thought?

  Pulling into what had probably once been a large farm, Elizabeth spotted Walter and his wife Gladys standing near their car. Walter, who reminded Elizabeth of Steve Jobs in appearance, was making wide arcing motions with his arms as he spoke to Gladys, probably explaining his master plan, Elizabeth thought with a chuckle.

  Gladys spotted her car first and waved. The woman was tiny at five foot nothing, but she had a big personality and an even bigger heart. As soon as Elizabeth parked, Walter was opening her door for her. “Perfect timing.” He said with an excited smile. “Let’s go in and have a look around.”

  Once inside, Elizabeth saw that the large farmhouse had been gutted and was under heavy construction. Sheet rock lined the walls, the bare floors under her feet dusted with white powder, and heavy sheets of plastic hung from the ceiling to section off certain areas. Scaffolding was set up in several places and buckets, ladders, and tools were spread about.

  Walter stopped in the middle, put his hands on his hips and glanced around him with a look of pride. His eyes went to her and narrowed in speculation. “So what have you heard?”

  Elizabeth knew exactly what Walt was asking. While it was always prudent to wait for an official memo, the grapevine at the corporate office had always been prolific. Currently, it was rampant with speculation that Walter had a new project in the works. It didn’t take a genius to figure out she was currently standing in the middle of that project – she just didn’t know exactly what that project entailed. “There have been whispers, but nothing concrete.” She said.

  Walter grinned, spread his arms and did a slow spin, “Welcome to The Pride of New England!”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Picture it, Lizzie!” Walter exclaimed. “All the fabulous artisan shops that make New England great at the fingertips of our readers! And this, here,” he said, motioning to the building at large, “this will be its heartbeat. This is where we’ll make it happen.”

  Elizabeth nodded as she looked around, her mind running through all of the places she had visited through the years, the marvels of workmanship in glass blowing, wood carving, marble and granite sculpture, and she could feel herself catching Walter’s excitement.

  “She’s picturing it, Gladys. What did I tell you?” Walter chuckled, nudging his wife.

  “I believe I told you.” Gladys countered.

  Walter let out a hoot of laughter. “Did I ever tell you, Lizzie, that my Gladys is your biggest fan?”

  Elizabeth wasn’t sure what to say to such a compliment, but Walter continued on. “Every project I’ve given you, right from the first, I’ve said to Gladys: There’s no way. But didn’t you just take up that ball and run straight for the win. Every time, Lizzie. Every. Time. No matter how high I’ve set the bar you exceeded my expectations.” He shook his head, “It’s gotten to the point that whenever I say to Gladys that something can’t be done she just looks at me and says: Elizabeth Larkin.”

  Elizabeth looked between Walter and Gladys and felt her eyes prickle with emotion at such high praise, and her chest filled with pride. She opened her mouth to thank them, but Walter wasn’t finished. “That’s why you made the short list to run this project when I decided this would be the home office of the new catalog. Then!” Walter practically lunged forward, throwing his arms wide in excitement. “Then, you go and come up here for an extended stay?” He put his hands to his head and shot them outward as if his mind was blown. “It was like a giant flashing sign declaring Elizabeth Larkin is your man!”

  Gladys nudged her husband and he looked startled as he waved his hand, “Woman, person, whatever the politically correct thing to say is. You, Lizzie. I know that in your hands, this project will take off.”

  Elizabeth looked around again in amazement. To get lead on something of this magnitude? This was huge! Her brain was already flooding with ideas and she could feel the adrenaline kicking in.

  “We’ll cover the costs for you to relocate of course.” Walter was saying and Elizabeth felt her excitement nose dive. This wouldn’t just be a huge change for her, but for Jeremy. He’d be leaving the only home he’d ever known, school, friends, and family. He had already been having such a tough time before this break. Not just at home, but at school as well. Wh
ile his grades hadn’t suffered, his teacher had told her that he refused participate in class, was quiet and withdrawn. Would uprooting him from everything familiar make it worse?

  “I’ll need to discuss things with my son.” Elizabeth said.

  As Elizabeth drove back to Bingo Road, she chewed her lip and played through all of the possible scenarios in her head. This was such a great opportunity for her, but she would not sacrifice Jeremy’s happiness to achieve her own success. She would tell Jeremy what had been offered, keeping only to the facts and not her personal feelings and assure him that his opinion mattered. She would watch his facial expressions, and body language to gauge his reaction to make sure he didn’t make a decision thinking it was what she wanted. Elizabeth blew out a breath. She felt ready, she felt prepared, she had a plan and was psyched to see this through – so it was rather a letdown to see that Conner and Jeremy were still off fishing together and not at the camp.

  She paced, she wrung her hands together, she rehearsed… finally, exhausted from the mental exercise, she slumped into a kitchen chair and checked her e-mail. Walter had sent her a list of the different shops and sites he had discovered that he wanted to feature. She skimmed through each of them, happy to see that The Powder Keg in Malsum Pass had made the list.

  Clicking on several of the links to check out the different wares, Elizabeth felt her excitement grow. She made notes, adding suggestions, and did a few searches for some other artisan shops she had visited in the past. By the time she heard a truck pull into the drive, she was surprised to realize several hours had passed.

  Jeremy burst through the door, lugging a large cooler. He looked sweaty, dirty, a little darker from too much sun, which had Elizabeth kicking herself for not sending him off with more sunscreen, but he also looked incredibly happy.

  Conner came in next with another cooler, grinning. “I’ll have you know our boy caught more than half the fish today.”

  Our boy. The words so casually said, as if they came naturally, had a lump forming in Elizabeth’s throat. She tried to clear it twice, but it wouldn’t budge. Jeremy had always been her boy, never an ‘our boy’ – but it sounded so nice.

  “Conner even showed me how to gut them!” Jeremy said excitedly and Elizabeth grimaced. Well, that certainly took care of the warm and fuzzies.

  Conner chuckled. “I don’t know about you, J.T, but I’m looking forward to grilling these bad boys up.”

  Elizabeth stood up and wiped her hands down the front of her khaki pants. She needed to talk to Jeremy but, he was in such a good mood, she hated to spoil that. On the other hand, she didn’t want to put this off. “Ah, Conner, I need to talk to Jeremy.”

  Conner’s brow scrunched. “Is everything all right? Was there a problem at the meeting?”

  Elizabeth looked from Conner’s concern to Jeremy’s face, her son’s smile disappearing by degrees, and she hated that with a few words she had ruined his day. Oh, good, ‘Mom the fun killer’ had made an appearance again; she hadn’t been missed. Elizabeth pasted a wide smile on her face. “No problem, everything’s good. Just, maybe give us an hour?”

  Conner nodded and looked at Jeremy. “You know what? I should run back home and grab my grill. Maybe some summer squash from my mom’s garden too.” He rumpled Jeremy’s hair. “Tonight, we feast!” He declared as he threw open the door.

  “Am I in trouble?” Jeremy asked as soon as the door closed behind Conner and Elizabeth groaned.

  “No, honey, not at all. I just have a decision to make and I really need your opinion on it.”

  Jeremy nodded and flopped into a chair with a sigh. Elizabeth swallowed hard and told Jeremy about the project, explained that they would need to move here if she decided to take it, and before she outlined her well-rehearsed pros and cons list, Jeremy jumped up from his seat and yelled “YES!”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “We’ll be able to get a dog now, right?” J.T asked his mother and Conner chuckled. He had been a bit worried when he’d left to go get his grill. Had something happened at Elizabeth’s meeting? Was she telling J.T that they needed to cut their vacation short? Would he come back to the camp only to find them packing their bags? Instead he’d come back to J.T running out to meet him with a huge grin, and yelling that they were going to stay; were in fact moving. He had looked to Elizabeth, who’d followed her son out onto the porch, for confirmation. She seemed excited as well, flushed with happiness as she nodded.

  Elizabeth had explained about the new project and Conner had wanted to track down her boss and give the man a sloppy wet kiss of appreciation. He had managed to single handedly remove one of Conner’s biggest hurdles and Conner wanted to howl in appreciation.

  “We’ll have to check the real estate listings,” Elizabeth was saying. “But I’ll try to look for a rental that allows dogs, okay?”

  J.T pumped his fist in the air and let out a whoop of delight. Hell, Conner would happily build them a house with a big backyard so that J.T could have as many dogs as he liked. He almost said something, but bit back the words. Elizabeth probably wasn’t ready to talk about moving in together, and bringing it up in front of J.T would be a mistake. He could hint though. “Plenty of land to build on in Malsum Pass.” He said as he fired up the grill he’d moved from his truck to the new porch.

  Elizabeth glanced at him but didn’t seem at all suspicious of his motives. She shook her head. “We’ll need to find something move-in ready; an apartment probably, though a house would be nice. Something in Rochester more than likely.”

  Conner nodded and let it go for now. At least she would be close for the foreseeable future and that was a damn good start. He didn’t need to rush things and spook her.

  Dinner was nice and simple: grilled fish, squash and sliced tomatoes. The conversation centered primarily on Elizabeth’s new position, and J.T’s excitement about moving. “You’ll be able to meet several boys you’ll probably be going to school with at the Fourth of July barbecue this week.” Conner told him. That got J.T even more excited about practicing his catching. He wanted to make a good impression when he played.

  A day of sunshine and fishing, plus all the excitement and anticipation soon took their toll on the boy. Yawning every few minutes, Elizabeth had chuckled and told him to get to bed. With a sleepy smile that had tugged at Conner’s heart, the boy had bid him goodnight.

  Conner was eagerly anticipating an evening alone with Elizabeth when she turned to smile softly at him and said, “I’ll walk you out.”

  Well, that was disappointing.

  With a frown, Conner followed her out of the camp. Once outside, she motioned to the grill. “Thank you for bringing the grill and catching dinner; it was delicious. I’ll help you lift that into your truck if you want.”

  Conner waved a hand in dismissal. “Naa, just leave it for now.”

  With a nod, she headed down the porch steps toward his truck with Conner following behind. He was running through the best ways to convince her to let him stay a little longer when she surprised him by leaning back against the cab of his truck, grabbing a fist full of his T-shirt and pulling him to her for a rather heated kiss.

  Conner fully took advantage of the moment and returned the kiss. His hands gripping her waist, he leaned into her softness and had to suppress his growl. God, she felt good. She smelled good, she tasted good. Everything about her fit against him perfectly. He could so easily get lost in her.

  One of her hands moved to his chest and pushed him away a bit. He wanted to groan, but he broke away from that gorgeous mouth of hers. “What is it?” He whispered, running his nose against her cheek and hair.

  Her hand on his chest was still holding him back slightly from her, but the other hand was gliding over his shoulder and down his arm in a caress. She looked a bit nervous as her eyes moved over his face – not that she could probably see much since they were well away from any illumination from the camp.

  She cleared her throat and continued to stroke his
arm. She was shaking her head. “This, you and I, whatever this is,” she hesitated for a moment and then blurted out. “I don’t do casual relationships. I need to know that we’re on the same page because I can’t-“

  Conner stopped her. With both hands cupping her face he kissed her and then said against her lips, “We are so much more than casual, Elizabeth. You, me, and J.T, we belong together. We’re meant to be. Can’t you feel that?”

  She nodded and wrapped her arms around him before returning his kiss wholeheartedly and Conner wanted to whoop with joy like J.T so often did. He wrapped his own arms more fully around her, holding her close as his lips moved over hers.

  The sound of their breathing mingled with the night symphony of crickets. Elizabeth’s hands pushed under his T-shirt to stroke and caress his chest and abdomen and goosebumps broke out over his skin. His erection was painfully constricted in his pants and he wanted to release it while his mind was whirling with the best way to accomplish that. They were outside, the hard ground beneath their feet, and an even harder truck bed beside them. Conner opened his eyes and reached for the door to his truck. The bench seat was soft, he could lay her down on that. Even better, when he opened the door, the dome light came on to illuminate her face. Her brown eyes were heavy lidded with passion, her lips wet and shiny from his kisses. When she looked at him and bit down on that lower lip he growled low. So sexy. A quick lift and she was in his truck, reclining backward and reaching for him to join her. The sight was so erotic, he nearly lost it right in his pants. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this excited.

  Coming down on top of her, his hips snug between her legs, he kissed her again, slow and deep. He ran a hand along her thigh, wishing she was wearing shorts so that he could stroke those incredibly sexy legs of hers. He completely lost his train of thought when she began moving erotically against him, her hips rubbing him to the point that he needed to stop kissing her so he could suck in calming breath. Her fingers started pulling at his shoulders and neck, needing him close and he loved it. He moved to her neck, kissing, biting, and then licking as he moved his way down.