by Taryn Quinn
“Right.” Paisley nodded vigorously as she faced me again. “So, tell us, what exactly are your needs today?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Is this going on YouTube? I feel like I’m being videotaped to be made fun of later.”
She surprised me by letting out a light laugh. “I like you. You seem responsible.” She looked me up and down again. “Nice coat. Burberry? You must have a job.”
I took another look at my surroundings. The hidden camera was going to become apparent at any moment, I just knew it. “I do. Two, in fact. One is a bit more…transient, but the other is quite stable. Are you sure Ellie isn’t here? I really need to talk to her.”
Paisley cocked her head, narrowing her eyes. “Are you going to let her shape your hair? It’s overgrown.”
“I like it that way,” I said defensively.
I didn’t add I hadn’t gotten it cut since just before I’d met Ellie. Depression tended to do that to a man.
“But yes, she can cut it. She can do whatever she wants to do to me.” At Paisley’s arched brow, I cleared my throat. “I mean, hair-wise.”
“I’m sure.”
I stayed silent.
“Good thing Ellie saw you first. Then again, there was a reason she hasn’t seen you since. And why might that be?”
I was pretty sure they knew who I was. And that meant Ellie had mentioned me. She hadn’t forgotten me the minute she’d rolled out of bed.
Logically, I’d known it wasn’t possible. Not after the connection we’d had—and probably still had, if she would just give it a chance.
Somehow I’d have to make her see I was worth the risk.
“It was her choice. I’m here to see if perhaps I can change her mind.” I hoped I sounded confident and not overdue for a visit from Sheriff Brooks.
“Is that right?”
“Yes. I’m not here to be a nuisance.” God, was I being a fool to do all this? “Look, I just want to see her. I need to see her. I—” I broke off at Paisley’s widening smile. “What?”
“Oh, you’ll do, won’t you? Wait right here while I get her.”
I crossed my arms. “I thought you said she wasn’t here.”
“I said she wasn’t available. If you didn’t get past the gate, I would’ve told you that she’d moved to Montana. But you made it past level one. Don’t get cocky. You’re got many levels to go.”
I shook my head as she headed into the back. “This town is always going to keep me on my toes.”
“You’ve got that right,” Melody agreed with a wink.
Twelve
“Oh, good. There you are.” Paisley pushed me farther into the back to the room where we did waxing and frowned at me. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.”
She grabbed my hands. “Well, I have some news you may not be excited about. I can get rid of him if you really want me to.”
“Rid of who?”
“Hottie artist dude. Your delicious hookup.”
I crossed my arms over my middle. “How do you know about Callum?”
“Honey, this is Crescent Cove. Who doesn’t know you were kissing a piece of stranger hotness in the park?”
I flushed. Here I’d thought I’d kept a low profile since that day. Little did I know I was still a topic of conversation. “Are people talking about me?”
“Oh, honey. Not like that. We’re just all suckers for romance in this town. Especially in the winter. Nothing else happens around here except babymaking, you know that.” Paisley frowned. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
I didn’t know about the rest of her statement, but babymaking was right. Maybe. “Wait, is he here?”
“That’s what I was saying. He’s out front looking for you.”
“Here.” I could still breathe, I was almost sure. “In the salon?”
“What else does here mean? Are you all right? You look really pale.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“I can get rid of him, easy peasy. I’ll just dropkick him to the street. He didn’t tweak my crazy stalker dude radar, but I’ve been wrong before.”
“No. He’s not that. He’s been very respectful.”
“Not too respectful, I hope.” Paisley’s smile was wicked. “He looks a bit buttoned up, but seems like maybe not all the way, you know?”
Oh, I knew. He was gentle and sweet, but also I had a memory of him flipping me over and banging the hell out of me on a loop in my dreams. I tried to ignore those particular urges, but if he was here?
And then there was this little lateness thing.
Late.
He was here.
And I could not deal with that right now. No way. “Yeah, get rid of him.”
She hooked a thumb toward the front. “Okay. He’s dust. Do you want like forever dust or…come back later when I’ve prettied myself up?”
I touched my hair. “Do I look that bad?”
“No. Of course not. You always look amazing. But you know, a killer ‘you can’t have this’ kind of look. That kind.”
I shook my head. I’d tried that before. I’d caved like an overcooked soufflé and ended up going to the festival then losing all my clothes. “I’m not ready to see him. I—”
I’m afraid I might be pregnant, and I can’t deal with it on my own, let alone deal with freaking out in front of my possible baby daddy.
Oh, and I had to talk to him here in front of my co-workers. You know, no big deal.
Paisley drew me into her arms and hugged me hard. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay.”
My eyes misted, and I leaned into her for a second. I linked my arms around her and hugged her back. “Thanks.”
“Us girls gotta stick together.”
I nodded. “Okay.” I dabbed at my eyes. “Send him back to my chair.”
“I’ll be right here if you need me.” She squeezed my arm one more time and went back to the front.
I believed her. It was a new feeling for me. It remained to be seen just how much I’d need my new friend.
I stopped at the lockers and put on my smock again. I fluffed my hair and detangled my hoops from the fresh highlights Paisley had done for me the day before.
“He’s just a guy. You can talk to him and then…” I stared at myself in the mirror.
And then…what?
Then I’d deal with whatever came next. That was what I always did.
Pushing open the curtain, I straightened my shoulders and crossed to my station. I took a minute to soak all of him in. It should have been easier to see him by now.
My gaze tracked down his long, muscular frame. His Burberry coat was open over one of his usual cardigan sweaters. This one was a soft gray like his eyes. His jeans had stress wears in all the right places and a pair of battered Timberlands peeked out from the frayed cuffs. Again, there was an affluence to him that didn’t quite match his artist moniker.
I thought most artists made their money posthumously—unless they were in the city. Maybe Syracuse wasn’t his home either. Maybe a lot of different things. I didn’t really know Callum MacGregor very well.
Well enough to sleep with him.
Well enough to make a baby.
Maybe.
“Ellie?” He stepped closer.
I’d totally zoned out. “Sorry. I’m a bit distracted. Did you want a haircut?” I immediately reached up to sift my fingers through his hair. And I wished I hadn’t. I was used to touching because hair was my job.
Callum wasn’t just a head of hair.
His cedar and brisk winter air scent set me back on my heels. It dragged me back to the festival and his arms around me.
He leaned into my touch, his eyes closing. “I missed you touching me.”
I dropped my hand. “I’m sure you could find another hairdresser a bit closer to you. If you’re looking for a discount, the MoneyMaster coupon expired last week.”
His smile made me light up inside in a way I’d almost forgotten I could
. He had given me that at Christmas. “I can pay full price. Why does everyone think I’m cheap?”
“Because you spend all your dough on hot cars and fancy threads?”
I decided to touch his tweed coat this time. Why, I did not know. It looked soft, and I just wanted to lay my head on it and rest. Not plan or worry or stress for one freaking moment and let someone else take care of me.
Not that he’d offered. Or that he wanted to. Just something about his open, hopeful expression and the fact that he kept coming back for me, time and time again, made me want to trust he’d give me a safe place to land for just a little while.
My mom had left me, but this virtual stranger wanted to be in my world. I couldn’t figure out how to handle it, so I kept screwing it up.
And now I might be screwing up a life that wasn’t even solely my own if I continued on this path.
“Ellie,” he murmured as my chin wobbled. I gripped one of his buttons to keep from letting the tears I didn’t know I’d stored up flow. “What is it?”
I didn’t look up at his face, just stared at his pearlized button clutched between my fingers. “Can we go somewhere?”
“Sure. Of course.” His voice was so gentle and not the least bit judgmental. “Where would you like to go?”
“Not anywhere with a bed,” I said a touch too loudly, squeezing my eyes shut at the muffled laugh I heard from behind me.
“Who needs one of those? I’ve heard Crescent Cove trees are mighty sturdy.”
I shook my head, laughing despite my nerves. And embarrassment. And about fifty other emotions he stirred up in me so easily. No wonder I wanted to flee every time he got too close.
“No beds,” he said low enough for my ears only. “Let’s go for a ride. In a car,” he added for the benefit of my eavesdropping coworkers.
I couldn’t exactly blame them. Apparently, Callum and I were big news in town. I didn’t know why when it came to that either, but I was beginning to think there were a few things I needed to learn more about.
Swallowing deeply, I looked up at Callum. People too.
“Okay. Let me get my jacket.” I turned toward Paisley to ask if it was all right, but she was already waving me off. “Oh, I have Mrs. Bloom coming in.”
She waved me off. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Are you sure?”
“Totally. Get out of here, you crazy kids.”
The word kids stopped me in my tracks. At least that was a bright side. Just one kid. Maybe.
Then again, Callum had triplets in his family. Was that hereditary? I gazed down at my stomach, nicely hidden by my smock.
Nope, I was not going there. I wasn’t a big person. There was no room for…all that.
“Are you okay?” Callum asked, peering over my shoulder as I stared at my belly.
“Yes, I’m fine. One second.” I whipped off my smock and returned it to my area before grabbing my jacket.
He was waiting for me by the door, and we walked out to the street where he’d parked in silence. When he motioned to a Jeep instead of his hot yellow car, I did a doubletake. “You sold it? Why? I have good memories of that car.”
“Me too.” The huskiness of his voice made me curl my fingers into my palms. “But no, I’m just getting some custom work done on it at Dare’s shop. He gave me this loaner.” He opened the passenger door for me. “What do you think of it?”
“I love Jeeps, but if you get one, I hope you paint it neon green. Normal colors don’t seem to suit you.”
“They don’t?” He sounded inordinately pleased.
“Not anymore. I mean, when I first saw the grandpa sweater—” I couldn’t stop from giggling when he poked me in the side. “Very attractive grandpa.”
“That’s better.” He frowned. “How old are you anyway?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Whew.”
“What about you?”
“Thirty in a few months.”
“Did you suddenly think I was barely legal? Little late to worry.”
He leaned in and spoke against my temple, ruffling my hair with his deliciously warm breath. “I’d have to take my luck with that sort of sin, since I can’t seem to stay away. Now get in.”
As I did what he asked, I realized I was shivering—and not from the cold.
My hottie artist hookup was dangerous. Not physically, but in every other possible way.
He didn’t tell me where we were going, and I didn’t say anything as he drove up one of the side roads that led around the lake.
Until he stopped at a hidden lane called Wolf Hollow Way and signaled to make the turn.
We were near the house. My house. I’d never gotten quite this close before because this was a private road surrounded by enough trees to make me think of all the scary movies I was only brave enough to watch with all the lights blazing and a big bucket of popcorn. He veered off and drove into a clearing that opened up near the lake, pulling to a stop close to the water.
I opened my door and stepped out, taking a deep breath of air tinged with the scent of the lake. The sun glistened off the cover of ice, nearly blinding me for the second it took to pull out my sunglasses from my jacket pocket.
“You’re going to get arrested for trespassing,” I warned instead of all the much nicer things that flitted through my brain.
Like…
How beautiful. Thank you for showing me this. How did you know I needed the water and the sunshine?
He didn’t blink as he walked around the Jeep to stand with me. I moved back and he shut my door. Always a gentleman.
I didn’t know how to share the sweeter parts of myself with him without being worried that he’d toss them back in my face.
For a moment, he shifted from foot to foot, as if he was weighing what to say. Then he went for broke.
“It’s not trespassing when you own the place.”
“You…I…what? Here? My favorite spot? Why?”
He turned to me, a smile curving his lips. “Turns out you have amazing taste.” He stepped forward and cupped my elbows, his touch easy. “I was supposed to invite you to a nice, casual lunch. Then I was supposed to get a haircut. So far, my day isn’t going as I planned at all.”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
In another situation, watching the color leech from his face might’ve been funny. Right now, it wasn’t. Not at all.
“Say that again.”
“I think I’m pregnant. I don’t know for sure. I haven’t taken a test. I’m just late, and I’m never late—Callum, put me down!” I screeched as he lifted me up in the air, spinning me around so fast I gripped his shoulders to keep from falling. But he held on to me securely, never letting go even when I slid down his body back to the ground.
He pushed my sunglasses on top of my head and cupped my face in his hands. “Can we go find out now?”
His gray eyes were filled with excitement and terror and what seemed like genuine pleasure. “Did you understand what I said? What it means?”
“Yes, I was there that day in health class. When sperm meets egg, you get a baby or babies—”
“Baby. Say it with me. B-a-b-y. As in one, singular. I don’t have the capacity for triplets.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised how elastic—”
I reached up to close his lips with my fingers. “Unless you want me to talk about how elastic your male body parts are, please don’t.”
He chuckled and nodded, so I dropped my hand. He immediately grabbed it and lifted it to his mouth to kiss my knuckles. “I was warned about Crescent Cove. I can’t say I really believed it, but it didn’t stop me from being with you. Nothing would. Not a hurricane or a blizzard or a Dear John note on the dresser when I was already on my way to falling in love with you.”
The words spun around dizzily in my head. I stumbled back to lean against the Jeep because the world was tilting, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was just because he was a gorgeous, wonderful, insane man.
He moved toward me instantly. “Are you all right? Do you want to sit down? I don’t have the keys yet, but there are chairs on the wraparound porch.”
I shook my head, pressing my lips together against a smile. Warmth bloomed inside me, the kind that even my logical mind couldn’t squash. “I didn’t even know the house was for sale.”
“Me either. My timing was just right. Guess it was fate.”
“Fate or not, you can’t fall in love in not even a day. It’s not possible.”
“Tell that to Ariadne, who fell in love with Theseus as soon as she saw him on the dock, which probably isn’t that dissimilar from a gazebo—why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know who those people are.”
“They’re from Greek mythology. I teach it at the community college. It’s not as fancy a position as Lennox has with his powerful law firm, or Finn with his architectural firm, but it suits me. I’m a good teacher.” Not so subtly, he moved closer to me. “I have patience and a love of the subject material.”
“You have good hands too,” I mused idly as he cupped my hips. Then I laughed again, feeling like the hugest fool who had ever lived. “You’re really a professor? I thought you were a flighty artist with an inconsistent income.”
“I really am a professor. And I can be flighty. And my income can be inconsistent, though less so in the past couple of years thanks to my paintings.” He rubbed his thumb over my lower lip. “But I’m exceptional at making promises. I don’t give my word unless I can keep it.”
“Callum,” I whispered, but I wasn’t strong enough to hold him off.
Not when I so badly wanted him to line up our mouths and kiss me like he’d missed me so much over the past six weeks. Just as I’d missed him.
He slid his fingers through my windswept hair, his lips gentle and persuasive with that undercurrent of need that had me rising to my tiptoes to meet his kiss. I wound my arms around his waist, nestling them under his long coat, and just allowed myself to sink into him. To enjoy for a moment without thinking about the next.
