by Lucy Score
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. She got past me. Don’t tell Gia!” Beckett picked Aurora up, tossed her over his shoulder, and sprinted through the door with the little girl giggling. It slammed shut leaving them in stunned silence.
Diesel sauntered over and put his big, gray head on Emma’s lap looking mournfully at the mushrooms.
The door burst open again. “Shit. Sorry,” Beckett stumbled around the table into the living room and grabbed Diesel much the same way he’d carted Aurora out and hauled ass for the door.
Niko picked up his glass of wine. “Well, that’s never happened to me before.”
“Did that really just happen?” Emma covered her face and groaned. “My step-brother-in-law boss just witnessed our post-coital bliss.”
“That should make the next family get-together fun,” Niko quipped.
“I need to get my own place,” Emma decided. “I’ve been putting it off because I wanted to be sure I was staying, but I cannot live in my sister’s backyard forever.”
“We’ll go house shopping,” Niko said, leaning in to taste her neck. “After.”
“After what? Dinner?”
“I was thinking maybe we should skip straight to dessert and circle back around to dinner.”
––—
Hours later, wrung out and sated, Emma laid her head on Niko’s chest in the dark. She listened to the thud of his heart as it slowly returned to a measured pace. “Would it be wrong to say I’m so glad you had a life crisis? Because I’m feeling rather grateful at the moment.”
He laughed softly, lips moving against her hair. “I’m not feeling particularly regretful myself.”
She sighed and used the pads of her fingers to trace meaningless patterns on Niko’s chest. He let her play in silence for a few minutes before drawing her fingers to his mouth to kiss each tip. “How are you not taken, Emmaline Merill?”
“The pickings around Blue Moon can be… an acquired taste,” she said diplomatically.
“What about before? In L.A. There’s no way you were single out there.”
“I became very particular when I lived there,” she admitted. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time unless Aurora is going to jump on the bed and ask to sleep over.”
Emma debated with herself. Opening up about past mistakes made her feel uncomfortably vulnerable. But Niko had been nothing but honest with her. She cleared her throat and took the plunge. “When I first moved to L.A., I was very young, very naïve,” Emma sighed, fighting the internal flinch at the memory of her own stupidity. “There was this guy who was several years older than me, more experienced, incredibly good looking.”
“He sounds like a dick,” Niko said, squeezing her hand.
She gave a wry smile and returned the squeeze of his hand. “He would surprise me with flowers, gifts. There were fancy dinners out, a weekend in Napa. It was enough to keep me from questioning why he never answered his phone when I called or why we never spent the night at his place.”
She could tell he knew where she was going with this story.
“I was just a shift manager at the time, so I’d work catering jobs on the side to make ends meet. I was mixing a Manhattan at a fundraiser when I saw him. He was supposed to be ‘out of town on business.’ But he was there with an aspiring model/actress. Beautiful, young, naïve.” She gave a sad laugh.
Niko threaded his fingers into her hair and stroked but said nothing.
“I controlled my considerable temper and bided my time. He wandered off to make a phone call—me on my cell, oddly enough—and I approached her with a tray of canapés and a line about how handsome her date was. They’d been ‘dating’ for two months. I was the other woman.”
“So what did you do?”
“Because you know I did something.” This time her smile was real. “I dragged Thandie—that’s her name—into the ladies’ room. I broke the news, maybe a bit harshly.” She regretted that, but it couldn’t be helped now. “When she recovered, we took a selfie together and texted it to him.”
“Cold. I like it,” Niko grinned.
“He called me first, which hurt Thandie even more and pissed me off even more. After I gave him a piece of my mind and hung up on him, he called her and gave her the same apologies, the same promises.”
“Did it work?”
“Not then but eventually. They got married a year later and divorced a year after that.”
“What about you?”
“I became much more selective about who I dated. I’d been seeing someone leaning toward serious when Jax showed up in L.A. with a job offer.”
“What happened to ‘leaning toward serious’? He didn’t want to switch coasts?”
Emma sighed. “He wouldn’t have wanted to. His life and job were there. It wouldn’t be fair to ask him to uproot everything for me.” She hadn’t actually asked Mason, hadn’t given him the chance to say no. But it was for the best. They’d both been disappointed that things hadn’t worked out, disappointed but not devastated. It was, Emma thought, how adults parted ways, civilly and without drama.
“What made you choose here over him?”
“Family,” Emma said without hesitating. “I missed my dad, and with Gia and the kids here, the decision was a no-brainer. I missed birthdays and Sunday lunches and pop-ins. I’m happy here. I feel like I belong and what I do matters to people here.”
“That’s a good feeling.”
“Nikolai?”
“Hmm?”
“When are you going to let me see the wedding pictures?” she whispered.
He pinched the flesh of her arm and made her squeal. “One-track mind.”
She trailed her fingers lower over his abs and then lower still to wrap around his shaft. “Maybe a two-track mind.”
––—
Blue Moon nights were quieter than the city, and Nikolai couldn’t remember ever enjoying a night more than this one. Emma slept soundly in his arms, her leg thrown over his, one hand resting over his heart.
In his considerable experience, there’d never been a woman who had captivated him, body and soul, like Emmaline. What happened here tonight had changed everything for him, and he needed time to process, adapt, refocus. He’d lost himself in her and in that loss had found something bigger and more essential than what he’d known before.
It was love between them, of that he was certain. He didn’t understand what it meant, yet. But he did know he wasn’t letting this woman out of his arms.
Emma cuddled closer to him in her sleep, and his lips curved. She wasn’t so concerned with vulnerability in her sleep. His serious, reserved girl needed him to tease out the adventuress in her. And he would show her what lay outside the lines, just beyond the rules.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Emma was in her kitchen, dreamily putting away dishes and recalling every detail of the night before when an insistent knock on her front door broke through her reverie.
She found her sisters on her doorstep, Gia looking annoyed and Eva looking guilty. Mr. Snuffles, her father and Phoebe’s pug, cocked his head to the side at Eva’s feet.
“I have to find out from my husband who spotted Niko’s motorcycle out front this morning that my incredibly picky sister is dating?” Gia snapped. She was dressed for yoga and had her hands on her hips.
Behind Gia, Eva was gesturing wildly and shaking her head at Emma.
“And I have to find out from my other sister that my oldest sister is dating without having any prior knowledge myself? That’s just unacceptable, Emma,” Eva said when Gia turned to look at her.
Emma had to hide her smile. Eva was playing the victim so Gia wouldn’t be mad at her, too. She’d let Eva play it out and hang it over her head later, Emma decided. Same with Beckett who hadn’t come by the knowledge due to a bike on the street but an eyeful of naked people on the couch.
“Jesus, guys. It’s not like that exactly, and it literally just happened in the last twelve hours!”
“Th
at is practically a century in Blue Moon gossip time. Now you owe me details, and I’m not leaving until you give me some. And a snack. I’m hungry and grumpy.” Gia shoved past her into the kitchen and flopped down on a barstool.
“Come on in. Make yourself at home,” Emma said sarcastically, stepping aside and let Eva in too. “Whoa, do not let that snot machine anywhere near my nice furniture,” she warned Eva.
Eva scooped up Mr. Snuffles and cuddled him to her chest. “Don’t you listen to your sister, Mr. Snuffles. She loves you. She just shows it by being bossy.”
Emma knew better than to argue with Gia and pulled the orzo salad out of the refrigerator. She produced three forks and leaned on the opposite side of the island.
“So what do you want to know?”
“How did this happen? Are you out of your mind? Niko is the opposite of your type. How serious is it? Have you had sex? And was it amazing?”
“Yeah, all those things she said,” Eva agreed innocently.
“Okay, first of all, let’s clarify something. We’re not dating. We were friends, and then we had sex,” Emma explained.
“That is so not you. Did you sustain a head injury? Have you been getting weird headaches?”
“Just the two sitting in my kitchen,” Emma said blandly.
“Sex makes you grumpy,” Eva teased.
“I do not have a head injury, and I’m not grumpy. In fact, I’m deeply and incredibly satisfied if you must know.”
“Hang on. So if it’s just sex, I don’t know if I lost. I have to check with Summer,” Gia muttered, digging into the salad with gusto.
“Why do you have to check with Summer about my love life?”
“We had a bet. I said there was no way you and Niko would get together because you’re immune to the whole sexy, dangerous, bad boy type. Summer thought Niko would wear you down. I just don’t know if we clarified between sex or relationship.” Gia frowned. “You know what? I’m not even going to tell her. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”
“You have lived in this town too long!” Emma accused. “You can’t bet on my sex life.”
“Can and did,” Gia shrugged. “You can bet on mine if you want.”
“How can you possibly have a sex life?” Emma demanded. “You have three children.”
“Beckett is very creative about timing, and we’re very motivated,” Gia said smugly.
“Wow,” Eva sighed.
“I’m impressed,” Emma agreed.
“So what else have I missed out on?” Gia demanded. “Did you two run off and elope? Eva, are you secretly starting a second career as a stripper?”
Eva dropped her fork and studiously avoided eye contact. “You know me. You can’t keep me away from those technical manuals.”
Hmm, Emma thought. There was something there. She’d need to browbeat it out of her sister later when she wasn’t expecting it.
“Did you know that Jax and Joey have two kids living with them?” Emma ventured.
“Now you’re just messing with me,” Gia laughed, scooping up a forkful of orzo.
“Nope. Dead serious. Reva and Caleb moved in Sunday night after the wedding. Their mother abandoned them three weeks ago, and Reva’s been trying to hide it so she and her brother can stay together.”
“Oh!” Gia’s face went through the stages of shock and sadness. “Oh, those poor kids. What do they need? Does Caleb need toys? Roar’s due for a purge. How about some dinners? We can alternate.”
“What about school supplies? I’d be happy to take the kids shopping?” Eva offered.
Emma smiled. Her sisters were damn good people. “I think what would help them out the most is an attorney. The goal is to keep Reva and Caleb together, and if they go into foster care, that’s going to be tough.”
“I think I know where we can find the best, sexiest, smartest attorney in the state,” Gia said, pulling out her phone.
“What about their father?” Eva asked while Gia texted Beckett.
“Not in the picture,” Emma shook her head.
“We were lucky, weren’t we?” Eva sighed.
“Very.”
Gia’s phone rang, and they listened as she filled Beckett in.
“You’re the best, smartest, sexiest, most amazing man in the universe,” she chirped. Emma and Eva mimed throwing up when Gia hung up. “Okay, Beckett is going to talk to Jax and Joey and Donovan.”
“Speaking of our fair sheriff,” Emma said, eyeing Eva. “Did you two enjoy your dance?”
“Oh, my God. Eva!” Gia pounced. “You need to move here and marry Donovan, and then we’ll all be together!”
Emma and Eva rolled their eyes. “What is wrong with you?” Emma demanded.
“I think it’s post-pregnancy hormones. I’ve been thinking about joining the Beautification Committee,” Gia confessed.
“If you do that, I’m disowning you,” Emma gasped.
“That’s what I love about you, Em. You’re so non-judgmental,” Gia teased.
“What exactly is the Beautification Committee?” Eva asked.
“It’s a secret committee that spends their free time trying to pair off unwilling townsfolk to create the illusion of happiness and stability.”
“Really?” Eva’s interest was piqued.
“It’s a non-consensual matchmaking service,” Gia corrected.
“I love you, but you’re insane,” Emma told her.
“Agree to disagree. Now, let’s get back to sex with your gorgeous Russian friend,” Gia said, pushing them back on track. “What does this mean? Are you seeing each other? Is it going to happen again?”
––—
Niko lined up the memory cards on the island and wiped his palms on his jeans. He’d put off reviewing the wedding pictures for a day. Emma had consumed his every waking thought since that first life-altering kiss under the stars. Their stolen night together, so fresh in his mind, was a turning point for him.
And now it was time for another.
It was nerves, a fear that the flow and energy of the day’s shoot had resulted in shit.
But there was only one way he’d find out. Niko shoved the first card into the slot on his laptop and drummed an impatient beat on the granite while the images loaded.
Was it just him, or was the house too quiet? he wondered. The twins were at daycare, Carter was outside running a new fence line, and Summer was hibernating in her office masterminding magazine matters.
He opened a playlist, and eighties metal drowned out the silence.
The pop-up on his screen told him the images had successfully uploaded to his cloud. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” he murmured to himself.
Diving in, he clicked at random, opening a ceremony shot.
It wasn’t bad.
Phoebe was laughing at something the minister was saying while her sons were peering over her shoulder. Franklin, smiling his biggest smile held her hand, while his daughters laughed. There was some life there. If he were editing, he’d sharpen the focus on Phoebe and Franklin and soften the rest. Maybe go grayscale and up the contrast.
“Okay, one acceptable shot,” he muttered. “What else is in here?”
The next was better and the next even better than both of the previous. “Now we’re talking.”
He grabbed that one, a shot of Phoebe and Franklin looking deliriously happy on the dance floor, and played with the highlights until he was satisfied. One down and three to go before Phoebe’s request was fulfilled.
He lost track of time and count of the images he’d pulled for editing. There was one of the brothers ranged around the bar in easy camaraderie, a round of beers in their hands. There was another of Phoebe dancing with Beckett, his forehead resting on hers as they grinned at each other. Another of Franklin surrounded by his daughters as they all hoisted flutes of champagne skyward.
There was another that tugged at him. Franklin and Emma taking a turn around the dance floor. He’d caught them over the shoulders of other dancers a
nd sharpened the focus, blurring everyone else to isolate them. Franklin smiled tenderly at Emma. But it was Emma’s face that went straight to his heart. Tears in her eyes and a tremulous smile on her sweet lips. It was a beautiful moment between father and daughter, one that could be treasured forever now.
He hit pay dirt with another ceremony shot. Their heads bowed in a spontaneous moment of remembrance, Jax’s hand resting on Beckett’s shoulder, Beckett’s on Carter’s. A bond of brotherhood and grief and hope for the future. Emma, her own eyes glistening, handed tissues to her sisters behind her. Phoebe and Franklin squeezed hands and bowed their hands.
No one could look at that picture and not feel.
He sat back, rolling his knotted shoulders. He’d already edited twenty shots that were damn good. But there was one more he wanted to see. The very first shot of the day.
He scrolled to it and opened the file.
Emma.
He’d captured her mid-twirl, looking over her slim shoulder at him, the blush of her dress highlighting the happy flush of her cheeks. The green of her eyes didn’t need enhancing as they sparkled with joy. Her lips, glossed and pink curved in feminine knowing. Her hair, a fiery red under the spring sun, flowed out with the momentum of her turn. She looked like a fairy princess who would lead him down a forest path and never let him escape. She was luring him in, and he was too enamored to be afraid.
He stared as if hypnotized by emerald eyes and the smile that promised a life of laughter. He was still staring when his phone rang next to him.
“Yeah?”
“Hello to you, too.” Amara was too used to dealing with temperamental talent to take offense to a brusque greeting. She’d been his agent for three years now and had landed him every dream gig he could have envisioned. And never once complained about a thing.
“Sorry, Am. I was working. What’s up?”
“Working? Well, that’s a good sign. I was beginning to think you were going to give it all up to play scarecrow up there.”
He hadn’t exactly explained to Amara why he was taking a sabbatical, but she was smart enough to put two and two together.
