“Oh. Um. I’m here to take her to the dance.” Deacon’s voice was terribly shaky.
“Come on in, kid.” Evan stepped back and let Deacon come through the doorway. He caught my eye and grinned. “Madison is right over there.”
Madison stood again, this time much slower. She grabbed her coat from the chair. “Hey, Deacon. Let’s go.”
“Wait a minute!” I held up my phone. “I need a picture.”
“Aunt Noelle,” she hissed.
“I know. You’re so glad I remember.” I rolled my eyes. “Just smile and try to look like you don’t hate me right now.”
She and Deacon stood stiffly, keeping a few inches between them. I decided that I liked Deacon. He took Madison’s coat and helped her into it.
“My mom is picking us up from the dance. I’ll have Madison home by 10:00.” Deacon looked me in the eye.
“Have fun, you two.” I winked at Madison. “Watch out for that legend.”
Her cheeks turned pink and she hurried away before Deacon could see. I followed them to the door and waved to Deacon’s mom. I was surprised when he opened the backdoor for Madison.
“That kid is like a young Evan Gray. Madison is going to be so in love after tonight,” I said. “Hey, what were you two talking about when I came in earlier?”
Evan was standing in the middle of the living room, looking oddly nervous. “I asked her for some advice.”
“Advice on what?” I asked.
“On the right way to ask you to marry me.” Evan looked me dead in the eyes before slowly dropping to one knee. I saw the slight grimace, but Evan smiled through it. “She said her only advice would be for me to ask you right away. She said we’ve waited long enough.”
“She’s a smart girl,” I said, swallowing hard.
“I know I’ve asked you this before and it was never the right time. It feels different this time, Elle. It feels right.” He took my hand, the one that already had the ring he’d given me so long ago. The second ring he slipped onto my finger held a large diamond. I recognized that ring right away. It had been his mother’s ring. “Noelle Sutton, will you marry me? Will you be my forever?”
I pulled him to his feet and threw my arms around his neck. “Yes. I’ll be your forever, Evan Gray, if you’ll be my always.”
“Always,” Evan said. He pulled back and I looked into his twinkling blue eyes, suddenly seeing him as I had twenty years ago. “This is easily the best night of my life, Noelle Sutton.”
“Because of what I’m going to do to you in that bedroom?” I guessed.
He shook his head, ignoring my innuendo. “Because this is the night I finally found my way back to you, and I plan to stay here forever.”
About the Author:
Hunter J. Keane lives in Chicago where she surrounds herself with good food, great books, and fantastic friends. She is the author of the numerous romance series, including the Second Chance Series, the Restless Hearts Series, the Forever Moore series, and her newest series, Starlight Valley.
Connect with Hunter Online:
www.hunterjkeane.com
Buy Hunter’s books on Amazon:
Hunter’s Author Page
Keep reading for an excerpt from
Home with You
CHAPTER ONE
“M other. Please stop. I’m fine.” I rolled my eyes at the phone. “Yes, I am aware what day it is. I’m not going to fall apart.”
My mother continued to say a bunch of words that fell on deaf ears. The truth was that no matter what I said to her, I was falling apart inside and I’d never let her know. She was thousands of miles away and there was nothing she could say or do to make me feel better.
“I need to go. I’m meeting some friends for dinner in an hour and I still need to change.” The lie left my lips so easily that even I almost believed it.
“That’s good, honey. I’m glad you won’t be alone.” Mom sighed in relief. “You call me if you need to talk later.”
“I will,” I said. We both knew I wouldn’t call. The time difference between us always prevented me from calling her at night.
When my mother had announced three years ago that she was moving to Italy with her new boyfriend, it had been a shock. My father had only been dead for two years at the time. Now, the long-distance was just part of our new normal.
I hung up and took my glass of wine into the bedroom. I was in no hurry because I didn’t actually have dinner plans. What I did have was plans to do was to drink a bottle of wine and cry myself to sleep. I was already on my third glass of wine and feeling tipsy enough that I didn’t stop myself from removing the black garment bag from my closet. I hung it on the back of the door and then slowly unzipped it.
The dress inside was the purest white fabric I had ever seen. It was satiny and lacy and perfect. I’d spent six months searching for that dress and never even got to wear it. That seemed wrong and I decided to do something about it. I quickly stripped out of my clothes and slid into the dress. It fit perfectly, just as I remembered. As I stared at myself in the full-length mirror, the tears came in a sudden wave. I collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
Today was supposed to be my wedding day. My fiancé, Eric, had proposed eighteen months ago and I had never been so happy. We had been dating since high school, almost seven years of being in love before putting a ring on my finger. I had meticulously planned every detail of the wedding except for the most important thing– making sure my fiancé lived long enough to marry me.
Eric died in a freak accident six months ago. He was biking to work and was hit by a cab that ran a red light. I’d been slowly trying to piece my life together ever since. As hard as it had been in the beginning, I’d thought I was doing a little better recently. I no longer cried myself to sleep every night and I’d stopped calling Eric’s number just to hear his voice on the outgoing message. Today, I had felt myself spiraling down. I was supposed to become Mrs. Eric Bakerson at 3:00 today. That time had come and gone and I was still Emery Scott.
I managed to compose myself enough to tear away the wedding dress. It was now stained with my tears, but that didn’t matter. No one else was ever going to see that dress. I was cold sitting on the floor in just my underwear, so I grabbed the first thing I could from the closet. It was one of Eric’s old hoodies.
I hadn’t found the strength to go through his things yet. His clothes were still neatly hung in my closet, his toothbrush still next to mine by the sink. As I slipped on his hoodie, his familiar scent washed over me and I started crying again. I stuck a hand into a pocket and was surprised to find something there. It was a phone.
I knew that Eric’s phone had been with him when he died. The hospital had given it back to me in a bag with all his other possessions. The phone I had just found was not that phone. I tried to turn it on, but the battery was dead. I was too intrigued by this finding to give up that easily.
After plugging the phone in, I went to the kitchen and poured the last of the wine into my glass. When I went back into the bedroom, the phone had charged just enough for me to turn it on. A second later, it flashed with an alert that there were 137 unread text messages and 35 new voicemails.
Even before I read the first text, I knew that everything I had believed to be true about Eric was about to change. It took me an hour to read every message and listen to every voicemail. When I was done, I felt completely numb. I’d never believed that Eric and I had a perfect relationship, but I had thought we were both happy. I had thought we were both completely committed.
Now, I knew the truth. Eric had been seeing someone a woman named Claudia for three years and she was pregnant with his baby. Not only that, Claudia had no idea that Eric was dead.
I eventually opened a second bottle of wine and passed out halfway into finishing it. I woke up on the floor, wrapped in my wedding dress which was now stained with red wine. It was a Monday morning and I was late for work.
As much as I would’ve loved to take the day of
f and recover from my hangover and newfound trauma, I didn’t have that luxury. I’d already taken off too much time after Eric’s death and my work performance had been terrible. If I wanted to keep my job, I needed to at least put in an appearance.
Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for my boss. He called me into his office as I was attempting to sneak by to get to my desk. He started off nice enough, telling me again how sorry he was about my loss. That quickly turned into a diatribe about how much he hated the brutal nature of our industry and ended with me being handed an eight-week severance package and a polite suggestion that I pack my desk and leave. It was probably a good thing that I was still numb from my discovery the night before. I didn’t have the ability to pity myself more than I already did.
That numbness lasted almost a week. I spent that time hiding out in my condo eating greasy food deliveries and watching bad television. Eventually, I decided to put a weak attempt into finding a new job.
As I was scanning job postings online, I distracted myself by messing around on social media sites. Nothing made you feel better about your current situation than seeing people you hadn’t spoken to in ten years boasting about their adorable children and perfect husbands. It was a very painful form of therapy.
One post caught my eye, probably because it didn’t include a picture of someone’s “best meal ever.” My old friend, Lucas Cooper, was looking to hire seasonal workers at his ski resort. Luke and I had been close friends in college. We had both been dating people who attended other colleges, so we spent a lot of time together when our other friends were busy trying to hook up.
Luke had come to Eric’s funeral, but I couldn’t remember if I even talked to him. I didn’t remember much from the days right after Eric died. Prior to that, I hadn’t seen Luke since graduation. He had moved back to his hometown, Starlight Valley, to take over his family business when his father died. We’d stayed in touch through occasional emails and texts, but even that had stopped once I got engaged.
I found myself clicking on the link to the resort’s website. It looked quaint and picturesque. The idea of living in a small mountain town was so different from my current situation that I found myself idealizing it in my head. Beautiful mountain homes, crisp white snow, and starry skies.
I knew I was crazy to even consider moving someplace like that. Starlight was far away and I didn’t know anyone in the area other than Luke. Any jobs at the resort would be season and minimum-wage, a far cry from my fancy corporate career. I had to be insane to even consider it, but somehow, I was still emailing Luke.
Everything went fast from there. Luke was thrilled to hear from me and couldn’t wait to chat about a potential job at his resort. He asked if I had time for a quick all and since I had nothing but time, I told him yes.
When my phone rang, I felt breathless as I answered, “Luke?”
“Emery?” His voice brought back a million memories. Luke was one of those people that everyone loved to be around. He was smart, funny, a little nerdy, and had the most contagious smile I’d ever seen. He was also undeniably handsome and best of all, he had no idea that he was.
“It’s good to hear your voice,” I said.
“Same.” He cleared his throat. “How are you, Em?”
“I’m alright,” I said. “The days are getting easier.”
“Are you really thinking about moving to Starlight?” he asked skeptically. “You should know, we don’t even have a Starbucks.”
I laughed. “How do you survive?” I said. “Luke, I think I need a change. I can’t expect things to be different when everything around me stays the same.”
“Are you sure you aren’t just running from the things you don’t want to deal with?” he asked, incredibly astutely.
“Is that so wrong?” I asked quietly.
“No.” He paused before saying, “I think I might have something that would be a good fit for you. When are you looking to make the move?”
“Now?”
Luke chuckled. “How about we aim for the first Monday of December?”
“Sure. Whatever works for you.” I found myself smiling a rare smile. “What’s the job you have in mind?”
“We need a new manager at our shop. Someone to oversee staff, handle inventory, do some small marketing stuff. It won’t be the same as a fancy office job in the city, but you’ll get to work with some good people.” Luke added adorably, “Best of all, you’ll get to work with me.”
“Sounds like a dream job,” I said, my smile growing. “Do you need me to fill out an application or something?”
“I think I can make this hire on good faith. If you’re still the same Emery I remember from college, you’re more than qualified for this gig.” Luke said something to whomever was in the room with him. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need to be on another call soon. I’ll send you some information so you can make sure you really want to do this.”
“I do,” I said quickly. “But I’ll look everything over.”
“Sounds good. We’ll talk soon, Em.”
I hung up feeling a bit shell-shocked. In less than an hour, I had made a big decision that would alter the course of my life. Did I really want to go through with this? For so long, I had been sailing a charted course, always making the smart and practical choice, even when it didn’t feel right to me. I had rarely felt comfortable in my own skin and up until that moment, I’d had no idea how to fix that. But trying something new, even if it was a little crazy, terrified and excited me. It made me feel alive.
For the first time in my life, I was doing what I wanted to do regardless of what other people might think. If it didn’t work out, fine. But I owed it to myself to take a chance. I owed it to myself to try to be happy again.
Get Home with You now.
Back to You Page 14
