by Elks, Carrie
“Is that it?” she asked, tipping her head to the side. “Is the business meeting over?”
“It is. But the date isn’t.”
Oh.
He reached for her hand, curling his fingers around her palm. “There’s something else I want to talk to you about.” He ran his thumb up and down her wrist, sending electric waves up her arm. “Or tell you, really.”
His eyes caught hers, and the way he was looking at her stole her breath away. As though every emotion she was feeling he was reflecting right back at her. “What is it?”
“I’m so sorry for talking to you the way I did when Riley ran away. I was a dick and I took my frustration out on you. I know you were only trying to help and I pushed you away.” He gazed at her through his thick lashes. “I’ll never do that again.”
“I just wanted to make things right.”
“I know. And I should have accepted that. I should have known that a problem shared is a problem halved. Instead I assumed you were thinking about yourself.”
“I’d never do that. Not when it comes to Riley. She should always come first. She’s your daughter and she needs your support.”
“I know that. I think I always did, somewhere deep inside me. I was just too scared to see if it was true.” He looked down, his brows knitting together. “I’ve not always had the best experience with girlfriends. My last one asked me to send Riley away.”
Ally frowned. “What a bitch.”
That made him laugh. He looked up with a grin on his face. “I know. Thank God I saw that before it was too late.” His expression turned serious. “I talked with your dad the other day. He had some wise words for me.”
“My dad?” Her brows shot up, surprise making her mouth fall open. “What did he have to say?”
“That there’s more than enough love to go around. And part of being a parent is learning to let go. To let your child make their own mistakes. To show them how to be healthy by having your own life, too.”
Tears stung at Ally’s eyes. “Dad never did that,” she whispered.
“I know. And I can tell you he regrets it. He told me not to end up regretting it, too.” Nate ran his finger in a circle around her palm. “Riley and I have started family counseling again. I want her to have a safe place to be able to talk to me and tell me what she really thinks. What she needs. Without ever being afraid of upsetting me.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Ally said.
“We had our first session this morning. She told me she wanted me to date again. That she didn’t want to worry about me being lonely whenever she went out.” That smile was playing at his lips again. His eyes caught hers. “She wants me to date you,” he said. “Which is pretty cool, because that’s what I want to do, too.”
“Oh.” Ally felt breathless.
“I’ve fallen in love with you, Ally Sutton,” he said, his voice strong and true. “With every part of you. And I know I’m not much of a catch. A single dad of a teenager with issues. You should probably run as fast as you can.” He glanced down. “Or maybe hobble.”
She grinned.
“I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I shouldn’t ask you to be mine, but I’m a selfish enough bastard to do it anyway. I want that last photograph on the wall to be the three of us. Because I can’t imagine my life turning out any other way.”
The tears that had been threatening for the past few minutes were spilling over. “That’s the nicest thing that anybody’s ever said to me,” she whispered
“You better get used to it. I plan on telling you every day.” He stood and reached for her hand, pulling her into his embrace. She closed her eyes as he pulled her in tightly, her face resting against his muscled chest, their bodies aligning as though they were made for each other.
He wiped away the tears from her cheeks then tipped her chin with his finger until she was looking up at him. “Will you date this old man?” he whispered.
“Yes.” She nodded. “Yes, I will. Because I love you, too.” She was smiling through the tears. “And I love your daughter, Nate. So much. I want nothing more than to be in both of your lives.”
“Thank God.” He dipped his head until his lips captured hers, his arms tightening around her waist. She could feel every part of him against her – his hard chest and stomach, and the burgeoning desire that lit a fuse inside her she wasn’t sure would ever go out. She could spend the rest of her days in his arms and it still wouldn’t be enough.
She could never get bored of this man, and from the way he was kissing her he felt exactly the same way.
And there was nothing she wanted more than that.
* * *
They’d been kissing like hormone-filled teenagers outside her apartment for the last ten minutes. “I should leave,” he murmured against her lips, though he was reluctant to let her go.
“One more kiss,” she whispered, pulling him in closer.
“I wish I could come inside.” One of his hands was holding her waist, the other cupping her jaw so he could angle her face perfectly. Enough so he could plunder her mouth as she rested back on her apartment building wall. God, she tasted delicious. Everything about her was soft and enticing.
“I wish you could, too,” she said, sliding her hands up until they reached the hard planes of his abdomen. His body tensed at the sensation.
“God I need you.”
“I need you, too. I’m not going to sleep tonight.”
He smiled against her mouth, loving the idea of her being so wound up with desire that she would toss and turn. “I’ll call you when Riley’s asleep. We’ll see what we can do about that.”
“You should go,” she said, Riley’s name making her blink her eyes open. “She’ll be wondering where you are.”
He sucked a deep breath in, trying to calm down, but it was no good. He was too tightly coiled for that. “Yeah, I’ll go.” He ran the pad of his finger from her temple to her jaw, loving the smoothness of her. “Are you sure you can put up with me having to go home and be a dad?” he asked her. “Making out like teenagers and having to go home all frustrated?”
She grinned at him. “You’re worth it. And anyway, I kind of like making out like a teenager. Half the pleasure’s in the anticipation.”
“If you say so.” He kissed her again, his lips soft against hers.
“You really should go,” she said, her voice reluctant.
He pulled himself away from her, enough to leave a few inches of space between them. Immediately he missed the feel of her body against his. “I’ll call you when I get home.”
She smiled. “You do that.”
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers one last time, using every piece of willpower he had to pull himself back again. It was late, he needed to get home. As much as he wanted to be with this woman forever, that need would have to wait.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
“And the day after that,” he told her. “And the next day and the next day…”
She laughed. “I get it.”
“You will.”
“Now go home,” she said, grabbing her crutches and leaning on them. “I’ll speak to you later.”
“Goodnight, baby.”
“Goodnight.”
He watched as she turned on her crutches and walked into the lobby, pressing the button for the elevator. When the doors pulled open, she walked inside and lifted her arm in a wave.
He waited outside until he saw her living room light come on. Any other time he would have seen her up to her apartment, but his willpower right now was paper-thin. Instead he pulled his phone out and quickly tapped out her number.
“Hello?”
“I was just checking you’d unblocked me.” He smiled, remembering how she’d admitted to blocking his calls earlier that evening, telling him she couldn’t bear to hear his voice when they were apart.
She chuckled. “Yeah I unblocked you. For now.”
“Glad to hear it. I’l
l call you in a bit.”
“Drive safely.”
“I will. Oh and Ally?”
“Yeah?”
“You better get used to me calling you. Because I intend to do it all the time when we can’t be together. I can’t get through the night without hearing your voice. I’ve tried it for the past few days and it’s almost killed me.”
“I like the sound of that.” Her voice was warm. “And you’d better get used to me calling you, too.”
He was planning on it, because everything about this woman was a breath of fresh air in his life. His heart ached for her, his body thrummed for her, and his mind craved her. He could spend the rest of his life talking with her and still never get enough.
“Speak to you soon, baby.” He grinned as he ended the call and walked back to his car, sliding in behind the wheel. As the engine sparked to life he had to force himself not to blue tooth dial her again.
The rest of their lives were beginning. He could wait another five minutes to hear her voice again.
Epilogue
Ally walked out onto the beach in her bare feet, smiling as her soles sunk into the warm, dry sand. She closed her eyes to appreciate the moment, though not even her eyelids could block out the brightness of the sun. It was a perfect late fall/early winter day in Angel Sands – the only clouds in the sky were the wispy, barely-there kind that reminded her of a shimmering veil.
“How does it feel?” Nate asked. She opened her eyes to see him watching her, amusement curling up his lips. “You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”
“It’s amazing.” She wriggled her toes. “No itching, no crutches. Just me and the sand. I can’t wait to run again.”
“Hey, don’t run before you can walk,” Ember joked. Ally grinned at her. It was late afternoon and they were all gathered on the boardwalk next to the coffee shop, as though there was some kind of minor miracle going on instead of an ankle cast being removed. Her friends had all been waiting here for her when she and Nate had gotten back from the hospital. Ember and Brooke, Ally’s dad and Lorne. And Riley of course. Even Frank Megassey had snuck out of the hardware store to make sure everything had gone okay with the removal.
“Did they use a circular saw?” he’d asked her.
“Just a little hand held one.”
“Did you get a look at what make it was?”
She’d laughed and shook her head. It was such a typical Frank thing to ask. You could take the man out of the hardware store, but you couldn’t take the hardware store out of the man.
“You want to go paddle in the ocean?” Riley asked her, slipping her hand into Ally’s. In the few weeks since she’d come back from Boston – and Nate and Ally had begun dating in earnest – Riley had welcomed Ally in with open arms. According to her, Nate was so much easier to deal with when Ally was around.
“I can actually leave the house without worrying about him anymore,” Riley had confessed one evening as she was getting ready for a study session at Laura’s. “Tell me you’re going to stick around.”
“You can bank on it,” Ally had promised her.
Riley and Nate were beside her as Ally walked down to where the ocean was lapping at the sand, rushing up then slowly receding, leaving the yellow grains wet and glistening. She leaned down to roll up her jeans, and wobbled for a second.
The next moment she felt warm, strong hands curling around her waist. She didn’t have to look behind her to see who they belonged to because she knew. Just as she knew the sound of his breath, the fragrance of his skin. In the past weeks she’d gotten to know every single part of him.
The man never failed to take her breath away.
The water was cool as it lapped over her feet, rising up to her ankles before it pulled away again. “That feels good,” she said, leaning her head back on Nate’s chest. He tightened his hold on her. Riley didn’t seem to mind – maybe she was getting used to their public displays of affection.
Or maybe she’d seen the worst, and anything was better than that.
“I’ve got something for you,” Nate whispered in her ear.
Ally turned her head, angling to look up at him. She raised a single eyebrow.
“Not that,” he said, laughing. “Though now that you’ve mentioned it…”
“Enough! Seriously, you guys. I’m going to get a smoothie.” Riley mock-stomped off, her eyes rolling at them, though Ally could tell she wasn’t really angry.
When she was out of earshot, Ally grinned lasciviously at him. “You know, I was just thinking about all the possibilities now that the cast is off.”
“It’ll be like starting all over again.”
“Are you free tonight?” she asked him.
“Always.” He dropped his head to kiss her, his lips lingering on hers. “Or at least for a couple of hours before bedtime.”
“That’s all it takes.”
It was his turn to raise his eyebrows. “With what I’ve got in mind, it’ll take a damn bit longer than that.”
“Promises, promises.” The grin was still on her face. “Anyway, stop changing the subject. What have you got for me, other than… you know?”
“Come back up the beach. I’ll show you.”
Her friends were sitting at one of the tables on the boardwalk. Brooke and Ember were drinking coffee, and Nick had a milkshake. Lorne and her dad were gossiping, and though she couldn’t hear what they were saying she could tell they were having a great time. Through the glass windows she could see Riley leaning on the coffee shop counter, talking with Brad as he made her a drink.
A shot of warmth blasted through her. Everybody she loved was here. Some she was related to by blood, others by friendship, but they were all her family. Was there anybody as lucky as she was?
“Here it is.” Nate reached for a large white box he’d left at the edge of the boardwalk. It had a sports logo emblazoned on it.
“You bought me shoes?”
“I owe you a pair, remember? I figured you could do with some new ones.”
“Let’s try not to throw these ones in the trash.” She winked at him, her equilibrium returning. Slowly she prized the lid off, revealing a bright new pair of running shoes. She pulled them out, admiring them. “These look expensive,” she murmured. “Thank you.” She turned to put her arms around him, but he was already kneeling down on the sand.
“You want a hand putting them on?”
“Sure.” She shrugged, not telling him he looked a bit weird kneeling next to her. She watched as he pulled the shoes out of the box, lining them up next to her feet. For a moment he stared down at them, then reached out to run his finger from her ankle to the tip of her toes, making them curl with delight at his touch.
He slid the first one on and tied the laces, then angled the second one on to her toes. Ally frowned when the sole of her foot scraped against something hard. “Is there a stone in there?” she asked, pulling her foot out. “Something about it feels weird.”
“Take a look.” Nate’s voice was gruff. He was definitely acting strange. Still, Ally took the shoe and tipped it so she could see inside. Sure enough there was something there. It slid down to the heel, catching the light as the sun’s rays shone down on it, and she realized it wasn’t a stone at all.
It was a ring.
* * *
Nate watched as Ally slowly reached into the shoe, pulling out a gold band set with a square cut diamond. She looked at him, her eyes wide, and her lips trembling. “Nate?”
He was more nervous than he’d thought he would be. What if she said no? Ally held the ring between her forefinger and thumb and he gently took it from her, holding his breath as he held it to the ring finger on her left hand.
“You probably think I’m crazy,” he said, his voice thick as his eyes met hers. “But I nearly lost you once and I never want to do it again. Since you came into my life it’s like the sun finally came out, and bathed everything around me in light.” He gave her a gentle smile, loving the way she was sta
ring at him with those big blues, hanging on every word. “You’re absolutely perfect,” he told her. “You’re funny, you’re beautiful, and you have the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met. It would truly be my honor if you’d agree to be my wife.”
“Yes,” Ally whispered. Without saying a word he slowly slid the ring onto her finger. With his eyes locked on hers he lifted her hand to his lips, kissing her skin and the ring. His body flooded with relief and exhilaration combined. There was no way he was ever taking this grin off his face.
“You’ve made me the happiest man on Earth.”
“Does Riley know about this?” Ally asked him.
“I spoke with her about it yesterday. She was so excited.”
He looked up to see his daughter watching them through the glass window of the coffee shop, her grin wide as she clapped with delight. Ember, Nick, and Brooke were watching them, too. From the expressions on their faces they’d be quizzing Ally about everything very soon.
Then he looked over at Lorne and Grant – Ally’s father and her almost-dad, the two men who had been the biggest part of her life until now. He hadn’t asked them for her hand in marriage – Ally was nobody’s to give away – but he had consulted them and asked for their blessing.
They’d given it willingly.
He probably had only one more minute before they all ran down to congratulate them. Sliding his fingers into her hair, he angled Ally’s face until her lips were only a whisper away from his.
“You’re my best friend,” he told her. “My soul mate, my everything. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He slowly pressed his lips against hers, closing his eyes to try and control the emotion that was bursting through him. Was it really possible to have everything? He thought it was. Only a few months ago he’d arrived in this town desperate to make a change.
And he’d found the woman who changed everything.
She kissed him back and it was as though nobody else was there. Just the two of them losing themselves in each other, and that huge sparkling ring on her finger.
