With a single firm thrust, Eli was inside me. He was true to his word. He didn’t last long, but for the time we were connected, he was desperate and passionate and wild.
When we finished, the two of us could barely catch a breath. Eli picked me up and gingerly put me on my feet before wrapping me up in one of the fluffy robes.
“Now, it’s time for the bath.”
I eyed him warily, still struggling to regain my composure after what he’d done to me. “I don’t have my bathing suit on, and neither do you.”
He grinned as he threw a robe on himself.
“I like you naked.”
Chapter Nineteen
Eli
Emily and I basked in the kind of fuzzy, satisfied glow you could only get from staying up all night in bed with someone you were crazy about. Even now, driving back to Frazier Falls in the pale morning sunlight, all I had to do was look at her, and I was filled with an insatiable desire to pull to the side of the road and undress her once more.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, a curious expression on her face.
I cocked my head to one side and raised a suggestive eyebrow, satisfied to see Emily’s face blush because she knew what was on my mind.
“I’m remembering the outdoor bath,” I finally said. “I wish we were back there.”
“Oh, you do, do you? It seemed to me like you couldn’t handle the heat for all that long.”
I laughed. “Champagne and hot water are a dangerous mix. With that winter air on our faces, and with you having nothing on …” I sighed dramatically. “I almost wish we could live there.”
“Almost?”
“I doubt we could sleep in water without the risk of drowning.”
“That’s the only issue you see with living in an outdoor bath?”
There were all kinds of problems with the concept, but it was my fantasy, and I was going with it. Anywhere I could have Emily on demand was a place I’d want to be.
“Your skin would get wrinkled, too, and wrinkling your soft skin would be a crime.”
“Oh, that’s terrible,” she replied. “Definitely not an option.”
“Definitely.”
“Do you have to work this afternoon, Eli?”
Taking my eyes from the road for a second to look at her, I answered, “No. Why?”
“I thought that we could maybe … I don’t know … extend the date a little longer in your bedroom?”
A small, excited smile curled my lips. “I like the sound of that. We could make pizza. A real one this time, from scratch.”
“No frozen ingredients in sight?”
“None.”
“Then it’s a date.”
Satisfied with the direction my day was going, I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and continued toward Frazier Falls. Who knew we’d get two dates out of one?
Emily was fiddling around with the radio stations when a phone buzzed.
“Is that mine or yours?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the road.
“Oh—it’s mine. Excuse me for a minute,” she said as she pulled her phone from her purse. She accepted the call and covered the phone long enough to tell me,—“it’s my boss,”—before turning away to have the conversation as privately as possible.
I tried my hardest not to listen, but within the confines of the truck, and bearing in mind that Emily hadn’t chosen a radio station, I could hear everything her boss was saying as clearly as if I were having the conversation with the man myself.
“Emily, I’ve got news,” he said.
“Morning Don, great to hear from you. How are you?” Emily said in a sweet voice that told me the two of them got along well.
“I thought you’d be done with pleasantries and small talk by now, given how much Frazier Falls has grated on your nerves.”
Emily glanced at me before letting out a small, uncomfortable laugh. “I’m not at rock-bottom yet. What’s this news?”
“Pete’s pushing for you to come back. His words were now or never. I figured now was better than unemployed. I was able to book you a flight out today. It’s the only one I could get with all the cancellations and delays. It leaves at five. Can you make it?”
I risked a look at her only to see her eyes light up right before they dulled.
My mood slumped immediately. I knew what Emily was doing. She was trying to act like this wasn’t the best news she’d heard in weeks.
“No, that’s great, Don, I can make that. Send me the details?”
“Already have. You can take tomorrow to organize yourself, but you need to be here Monday to discuss everything about that Green House Project you sent the information about.”
Her tone lifted as if she were happy. “That’s wonderful. I think we can do something with it this time. Especially now that they’ve gained international clients.”
For a brief second, we exchanged looks. I tried to keep mine neutral. On the outside, I was calm and accommodating. Inside, I was a mess of jumbled feelings that ranged from hurt to anger. On the steering wheel, my hands clenched so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
After saying goodbye, Emily ended the call, leaving a heavy cloud of silence hanging over us. All of that wonderful, sunny atmosphere we’d cultivated during the last twenty-four hours was gone. It was as if it had never existed.
“I guess our plans are canceled.”
Emily reached over to touch my arm. “Eli—”
I shrugged my arm away. “No, it’s fine. I always knew you’d leave. I didn’t realize it was going to be today.”
“It’s not like there was anything I could have done.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, but immediately regretted it.
Emily grumbled. “What was that all about?”
“What was what?”
“Don’t act childish. Why did you roll your eyes? Are you implying there was something I could have done differently?”
I had to finish what I’d inadvertently started. Pax said we needed to talk it out. Let’s see how brutally wrong he was.
“Don asked if you could make that flight. You could have asked him to move it to tomorrow. You actually had plans with me.”
“Are you serious?”
“He booked a flight without consulting you first. It would be reasonable for you to have had plans. Which you do.”
“Which I did. Eli, I’ve been trying to leave for weeks. I have a job to do.” She shook her head. “You want me to miss that plane because we made plans to stay in and make pizza? Is that what you’re saying?”
“When you put it like that …”
“When I put it like what?”
I resisted the urge to raise my voice. I already knew this would be a fruitless argument, but now that we had started it, I found that I couldn’t stop.
“Why are you willingly tossing away what we have together?”
She paused as I struggled to keep my eyes on the road. “Excuse me?” she uttered softly.
“You sound like you did on the evening we met. Is ‘excuse me’ all you can say to a question you don’t want to answer?”
“Who are you to say that I’m willingly tossing away what we have? What do we even have in the first place? We knew what this was.”
“Tell me then, what was it?” I hated that my voice had reached levels of agitation that made my words echo in the small space.
“Temporary,” she burst out. “Or have you turned this into something it’s not in your head—maybe another one of your stories? I always knew this would end when I left Frazier Falls, and so did you. If you suggest otherwise, then you’re flat-out lying to yourself!”
“Damn it, Emily!” I pounded on the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt a couple of streets away from where Emily’s mother lived. I turned around to face her, my heart beating way too fast to continue driving.
“Damn me what, Eli? This was always the scenario.” Emily’s voice was like thunder, echoing through my so
ul.
I shook my head in frustration. “Why are you lying? Why are you making this out like what we had was nothing? Is it to make leaving me easier? There’s no way in hell that what’s been going on between us is casual.” I shook my head. “No way. I can’t believe that.”
“You can believe what you want, but that doesn’t make it different. I have to go.”
Emily turned from me to wrench the passenger door open. I grabbed onto her arm to prevent her from leaving.
The glare she threw at me could have cut through steel. “Let me go, Eli.”
“No.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “I’m telling you to let me go.”
“Not until you’re honest with me.”
“I’m being honest with you!” she screamed, angry tears filling her eyes as she tried to pull away.
“No, you’re not!”
“Stop telling me what I think.”
“Then stop lying!”
“Eli.” The fight in her voice was gone. “Please let me go before you ruin everything.”
I laughed bitterly. “How can I ruin something that you claim doesn’t exist? According to you, it was all in my head.”
“Don’t do this. Don’t. You’re asking me to choose, and I can’t. Just let me go.” She stared at me with pleading eyes.
As much as I wanted to keep her, I knew I couldn’t, so I let her go.
Emily got out of the truck and grabbed her bag. I dug my fingernails into the steering wheel, breathing heavily with my eyes closed. Then I turned off the engine and left the truck to follow after her as she made her way down the street.
“Emily, wait,” I called out. She spared an angry glance over her shoulder, then hurried forward. “You’re making this so much harder.”
“What else would you have me do?” She turned to face me so quickly that she slipped on the ice that lined the concrete.
I reached out to steady her. “All I’m asking is for you to admit that we were more. It would be nice if you could give me a kiss goodbye.”
“Are you trying to torture me?”
We stared at each other; our faces hot and red from arguing, while our breath clouded up the air in front of us. We had come to a resolute stand-still.
The way I felt for Emily went deeper than liking her. I was certain she more than liked me back, but she didn’t want to admit it because she was going to leave, regardless.
When it came down to it, if she asked me, instead, to move to Los Angeles with her, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I couldn’t. And that was what did it for me. It was unfair of me to try to force her to stay.
I took a few steps back. Her eyes widened slightly as if she hadn’t expected me to give up so easily. What she didn’t know was this wasn’t easy at all.
“You’re right,” I said, as slowly and as calmly as I could. “There’s nothing else to say. I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.”
“Eli …”
“Have a safe flight home,” I turned away and walked back to my truck as quickly as I could. My hands trembled as I opened the door. I fumbled with the key and dropped it twice before I shoved it into the ignition and started the engine.
When I looked up, Emily Flanagan was gone.
Chapter Twenty
Emily
“Good work today, team,” Don said.
“Easy for you to say. You had a working lunch that lasted all afternoon,” I tossed out.
“True, but the food was awful, and the company was worse. I’d go so far as to say my afternoon was more torturous than yours.”
Sadie leaned back in her chair and clucked her tongue in response. Her head shook in sync with the sound.
Don turned to her. “Just be happy I’m not making either of you work overtime.”
“There’s nothing that would require overtime. Emily and I are efficient and work well together,” Sadie glanced at her. “Can you believe Pete would consider breaking up the A-team?”
I arrived back at work weeks ago to a raging Pete, complaining about hiring people that never worked. He was halfway to telling me I was fired when I handed him a packet of information I’d compiled about the Green House Project.
“No chance of that happening now that we’re on board with the Cooper brothers. It’s even sweeter that Emily has a connection.”
I wasn’t listening to the conversation until the Green House Project was mentioned. Almost a month had passed since I’d left Frazier Falls in a wave of anger and grief. I didn’t want to acknowledge the heartache, but four weeks later, I was finally able to accept the fact that I’d been truly upset about leaving no matter how I tried to convince myself otherwise.
It had been so easy to lie to myself, and I was furious at Eli for everything he’d dared to say out loud. We weren’t supposed to say anything even vaguely truthful. We were supposed to go on having fun, spending time with each other right until the last moment I spent in Frazier Falls.
But Eli ruined all of that by forcing me to face my feelings. I’d told myself a dozen stories. He was a pleasant distraction. We used each other to fill the boring gaps in our lives. We had nothing in common but sex. But that wasn’t true.
I convinced myself that he’d been more involved than me. The relationship had been in his town, in his stores and cafes, and in his house. That was another lie. I missed my mother’s hugs. I missed Alice’s pie. Hell, I missed Eli Cooper with every breath I took. While I tried to convince myself that he was no one to me, he occupied all my thoughts. Today, I’d even accidentally named a park after him. Smack dab in the middle of Culver City would be Cooper Park instead of Copper Park.
Had I made the biggest mistake of my life when I left? The answer was a sorrowful no. I couldn’t have it all. The job market in Frazier Falls wasn’t ideal for a girl with a geography degree, and a penchant for city planning. Neither Ma nor I were fond of hunger. And another epic storm without a back-up generator wouldn’t be good. I wasn’t forsaking Eli—I had to choose my mother. Eli would survive if I left, but my mom might not survive if I stayed. My love for her tied me to California and a job that seemed less appealing each day.
God, this was so messed up. I couldn’t believe I was sitting here at my desk, in a job I once loved, in a city I once loved, surrounded by people I still loved, and yet, I was miserably unhappy because the two people I loved the most were in Colorado.
Oh. My. God. I loved him.
“Flanagan? Emily Flanagan, hello?” Sadie waved her hand in front of my face.
I blinked before slowly turning around to see Sadie and Don looking at me with puzzled expressions.
I gave them a smile that ended up being more of a grimace.
“Sorry, I was daydreaming.”
“Must have been a pretty shitty daydream,” Sadie said. “Can you have a daymare? That sounds weird.”
“Something on your mind, Emily?” Don asked kindly.
“Um, not really. Sort of. Yeah.”
“That’s one hell of a confused answer,” he said.
I turned to my computer and pulled up the project details that I’d been working on. “Take a look at this.”
He moved behind my chair and scanned the screen in front of him, then looked at me. “This is pretty thorough. Where did you get the time to construct this?”
“By not sleeping,” I joked, even though it was true. I hadn’t slept a full night in weeks.
“That explains why you haven’t gone out for drinks the past couple of times, either,” Sadie grumbled.
I ignored her. “Owen Cooper’s Green House Project, as it stands, is built around the idea of constructing brand new, affordable, ecologically friendly houses, which is wonderful, but…”
Don frowned. “But?”
“Building from scratch every time isn’t something that will work in most environments. But if we were to, how should I put it, shrink Cooper’s idea in order to implement parts of his eco-friendly designs into existing houses and apartment buildin
gs, then that might be a more effective strategy toward creating environmentally friendly homes in urban areas using what we already have. I was thinking—”
“There’s even more to this scheme of yours?”
I smiled weakly. “When is there not more?”
“You’re right. Continue.”
I pointed to a few schematics in my plan. “The idea came to me when I was working on those park specifications. There’s no reason why we can’t incorporate these ideas into the green spaces we have. It would be great for the parks we’re planning in the future. There’s the possibility of building entire Green House neighborhoods. If we constructed mini-wind farms or park-based solar panels which local, low-income housing was connected to, then we’d effectively set up a social energy grid which would simultaneously power local residences using green energy, and also help with the financial burden of rising energy prices for the residents. On top of that, having communal energy stores would be useful if abnormal weather hit, causing the national grid to go down.”
Of course, I was thinking about how my mom was left in the lurch whenever her power went out. Half of the inspiration for this entire project came from her, and my desire to fix her problem.
Don was silent for a few moments, which I knew was a good sign. It meant he was seriously considering my proposal. Eventually, he grinned.
“I like this a lot. It could do with a little more refining, and possibly a trial-run somewhere smaller, but I like it.”
I grinned back. I had barely slept as I worked on this plan. It had acted as an excellent distraction from the rest of my problems. Now that I had Don’s approval, I would have to get in contact with Owen Cooper or Carla Stevenson to go over my proposal with them. That filled me with excitement and dread.
What would Eli have told them about the way I broke things off? There was a reasonable chance that my prospective business partners would consider me an awful and unreliable person.
And yet, something told me that Eli, despite the way things ended, wouldn’t do that to me. He was as judgmental as I was, and had an opinion about every person he met, but he was a reasonable man beneath the sarcastic comments and catty remarks.
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