I stood up. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
Judy looked at her daughter. “Emily, why don’t you go and grab some food with Eli, he must be starving. Maybe you can sneak me in a burger.”
“No burgers, Ma. Maybe some broth.” Emily looked at me. “Are you hungry?”
I was hungry. Hungry for her kisses, her touch, and her words. I held the door open. There was a small smile on her face as she mouthed ‘such a gentleman’ to me. I bit back a laugh.
We spotted the doctor in the corridor, so I asked him to check in on Judy before both Emily and I headed for the cafeteria. When we walked past an empty room, she pulled me into it instead.
“What are you doing?” I asked in a hushed voice as she closed the door behind us.
Her bright eyes bored right through me. “I don’t need food right now. Okay, I do, but not as much as I need to talk to you first.”
“We don’t need to do this right this second.”
“Yes, we do. I do. Eli, I’m so incredibly sorry for how I left Frazier Falls. It wasn’t fair. And you were right; I wasn’t being honest.”
I looked down at her as she tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear, which fell back in front of her face as soon as she pulled her hand away. I brushed it back with my hand and kept my hand on her cheek. Emily gasped in surprise at the gesture.
“You haven’t done anything that needs forgiving,” I said, keeping my voice even.
Emily raised an eyebrow. “But I have. I was wrong.”
I cocked my head to the side, still catching up with the conversation. “Did you say you were wrong?”
“Of course, that’s what you’d hear.”
I chuckled. “We were both at fault. I’m as much to blame. I knew what the answers to all of my questions were already. I was the immature one for forcing you to answer them out loud when we both knew how painful those answers would be. I wanted something from you that you couldn’t give me. Can you forgive me?”
Emily nuzzled her face against my hand. I gently stroked the edge of her jaw with my thumb, feeling as if every ounce of exhaustion had left my body to be abruptly replaced by another feeling entirely.
“Forgiven,” Emily said, as she turned her face into my hand and kissed my palm.
I bent down to rest my forehead against hers. “What’s this about you moving to Frazier Falls?”
A smile blossomed on her lips. “Turns out, it’s not as dismal here as I thought. Maybe there are one or two people here that I like.”
I grinned, sliding my arms around her waist to pull her in closer. “Maybe?”
“Okay, definitely.”
“You don’t feel any regret about having to move?”
She shook her head. “None, I’m where I need to be—where I want to be.”
“In an empty hospital room with me?”
She glanced behind me, pushing me forward slightly with her body.
“There’s a bed. What more do we need?”
I ran one of my hands up her back to her neck, my fingers gently clutching at her hair in order to pull her face up. I kissed her, softly at first, then harder. By the time I felt the edge of the bed hit my back, our kiss was ferocious, the two of us desperate for each other.
“Nothing, I need nothing,” I said as Emily hugged me tightly. “Nothing at all.”
I leaned against the bed, pulling her into my lap. She dug her hands into my back, underneath the fabric of my shirt, while my hands slid over her hips.
“I want you to make love to me.” The breathless, lustful plea was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
I chuckled, my voice soft and low, “Did you forget what it felt like to be together?”
She bit my upper lip, her eyes heavy-lidded and mischievous.
“I could never forget what perfect felt like.”
I kissed her, long, hard, and lingering as my hands clutched at her bottom, and my insides coiled within me, desperate for more.
I pulled away and smiled. “How about I remind you daily?”
“Promise?”
“That can be arranged. Better make it worth my while, though, Flanagan.”
She widened her eyes in mock outrage. “Excuse me?”
And there it was,—that phrase that had so infuriated me upon first meeting Emily Flanagan, but that now sounded beautiful leaving her lush lips.
“I love you, you know,” I said, matter-of-factly.
Emily raised an eyebrow. “You do, do you?”
I kissed her neck, pressing my teeth in enough to hear her gasp.
“Do you not want to know if I love you, too?” she asked, her voice breathless.
“You said so when you asked me to make love to you, which I will do as soon as I get you to my bed.”
She entangled her fingers in my hair and pulled my mouth back to hers.
“I guess I did.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emily
Early April in Frazier Falls was beautiful. The warm spring sunshine coaxed the flowers and trees to bud and bloom. Everything was green and blue and yellow, with no snow or rain in sight.
It was a world away from the hellish winter that had battered the town into March. There wasn’t a single person in Frazier Falls who would wish that winter upon anyone. It had been too severe to comprehend fully. The damage it dealt to people’s houses, and the parks, and trees, and roads, as well as people’s health, had been extensive. It would take a long time to recover from it all.
However, Cooper Construction was doing a damn fine job of whittling away at the first two problems on their own.
Nearly all on their own.
“Flanagan, come over here for a moment.”
“Hold your horses, Owen,” I called back, putting down the plans I’d been looking at.
He waved me over to a scale-model house based on my mother’s floor plan.
“How do you think this looks?” he asked. “If we go in right underneath the porch, we won’t have to dig up too much of the foundation. It’ll probably take longer to install the underground heating system this way, but it will minimize the nuisance to your mother while we do it.”
I smiled. “It looks great. What about the solar panels? Ma’s house isn’t south-facing, and it’s got some pretty large trees around it.”
“Already sorted. We’re going to put them on rotational platforms, so they’ll move to catch the sun.”
“Oh, like a sunflower?”
He smiled. “That was the inspiration. Might take your mom a while to get used to them sticking out of her roof like an alien antenna, but she will.”
I had one final question. “What about the—”
“Yes, we’ll put in a backup generator while we work on the new heating system. Don’t worry, Emily.”
“Can’t exactly blame me.”
He chuckled. “I guess not. How is the park design going? Do you have all the specs I need, yet?”
“Nearly,” I replied. “I’m trying to integrate a small kitchen into the building plan if I can.”
Owen raised an eyebrow. “A kitchen?”
“Yes, in case anyone gets caught in bad weather, or a kid gets lost. They could make a cup of tea or get some juice and snacks while they wait to be picked up.”
“And how do we prevent people from simply going in and stealing all the food?”
I shrugged. “An honesty system?” It didn’t seem like a stretch in a small town like Frazier Falls, where everyone looked after each other. Or I should say, the Cooper brothers looked after everyone.
“Keep working on it, and I’ll figure out how to implement it. It’s not a huge space, after all. Maybe running water and a microwave?”
Eli leaned against the doorway of Owen’s office, watching the two of us with amusement. “Can I have my girlfriend back? I swear you spend more time with her than I do.”
“I agree,” came Carla’s voice from behind him.
It was true, ever since Owen brought m
e on as an Urban planning consultant, the amount of work had doubled. Big cities were afraid to take the plunge, but with me on board to answer questions, it wasn’t as risky.
“Owen,” Carla said. “We have a meeting with the caterer, remember?”
Owen’s eyes widened immediately as he rushed out of his seat. “I absolutely didn’t forget. Let’s go, and we can grab an early dinner afterward?”
They left, leaving Eli and me inside Owen’s office. He walked over and kissed me lightly.
“I don’t spend more time with Owen on purpose, but it’s natural that I spend a lot of time with him at work, since, you know, we’re working together.”
He laughed as he took my hand, leading me out of the office and back over to the desk that had become mine. The desk that sat right next to Eli’s.
“I know,” he admitted. “I wish I had a clue what the two of you were discussing so I could join in, but it’s above my pay grade.”
“Or your intelligence,” Pax called out.
Eli gave him the finger while I giggled behind his back.
“On that note, I need to get back to work,” I said. “Don wanted an update on the progress I’ve made so far.” Since I’d moved to Colorado, Pete had increased his interest in the Green House Project, which meant Don and I were working together again, but in a different capacity. I still worked for him, but that was because he was a client. Los Angeles fully intended to put the Green House Project to work in its new urban renewal plan.
“But I asked you yesterday to take this afternoon off.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t think you were serious.”
“And what part of my request wasn’t serious?”
“I figured you weren’t thinking clearly,” I leaned in and whispered, “since we were pretty naked at the time of the request and—”
“Naked?”
“Oh God, don’t give Pax any more cannon fodder,” Eli shivered. “He’s bad enough as it is, but I did actually want to take you somewhere.”
“Okay, you have my interest. Where do you want to take me?”
“It’s a surprise.”
I rolled my eyes. “Can’t it wait until I’ve finished the report?”
“I thought the report wasn’t due until next week.”
“Do you listen to all my conversations?”
“Baby, I hang on your every word.”
“Especially when I’m chatting with Don,” I said, amused, as I turned off my laptop, cleaned up my desk, and grabbed my denim jacket from the back of my chair.
Eli spluttered incoherently for a few moments. “Not true,” he protested.
“Aw, you jealous of her old boss, Eli?” Paxton teased from his corner of the office.
“Give it a rest.” He looked at me. “I’m not jealous of Don, exactly. It’s just …”
“Just what?”
“You never told me how good-looking he was.”
“Is that an issue? Surely you should be grateful that I never thought enough about how good-looking he was to bring it up in the first place.”
“Oh, she’s got you there, Eli,” Paxton teased.
“Shut up.”
“It doesn’t matter if he’s good-looking or not,” I continued. “I think Don has more interest in being my dad than anything else.”
“Kinky.”
“Paxton,” I warned. “You’re pushing it.” For a brother who was known as the town mute, he sure had a lot to say lately.
“Come on, let’s head out.” Eli took my hand, and he led me outside.
We drove in his truck for a few minutes before he glanced at me and asked, “So, how is it working out? Are you enjoying your job? Owen can be a bit intense when it comes to his design work.”
“Oh, no, Owen is great,” I replied enthusiastically. “He’s wonderful to work with and has such good ideas. He implements everything I need as naturally as if he came up with the requirements himself. I’m glad his work is gaining recognition.”
“Should I be jealous of my brother rather than your old boss?”
I ignored his comment. “With Frazier Falls as town zero, I think we’re looking at a pretty successful trial of my ecological redevelopment plan.”
He hesitated before asking, “Do you think you’ll ever want to move back to Los Angeles to help them implement the plan? I mean, this was your idea.”
“I’ll have to go back soon.” I watched his face fall. “To get my stuff. Now that I’ve stayed here long enough to enjoy it, I don’t know how I ever managed to live in the city for so long. I feel much … healthier here. Not just physically.”
Eli’s smile grew bright. “That’s probably because you don’t have to worry about your mother being a thousand miles away anymore.”
“Probably.” I glanced at him. “I don’t think that’s the only reason.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I think a certain someone’s companionship has made me realize how lonely I was in California.”
Eli surprised me by laughing loudly.
“What?”
“You’re only realizing that now?”
“Yeah, why?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s nothing, just … spending time with you made me realize how lonely I’d been after three days. And it took you three months? God, that’s a long time to lie to yourself.”
“You’re right again. Are we close to where we’re going?”
“Almost,” Eli replied as he turned a corner and passed by his house.
“I thought there wasn’t much up this path except another road into the forest?”
“There wasn’t—past tense.”
“And there is now?”
“Wait and see.”
I sat in the passenger seat impatiently as Eli seemed to drive as slowly as possible along the road that hugged the Cooper side of the forest. The large oak trees were beginning to unfurl their spring leaves.
I rolled down the window an inch or so in order to enjoy the sounds of the birds singing, and to feel the warmth from a beam of sunlight shining on my face.
I closed my eyes, thinking about how gorgeous the forest was.
The car suddenly stopped, startling me out of my newfound Zen state. I opened my eyes and looked at Eli.
“We’re here?”
He nodded, grinning, “Yes, we’re here.”
I got out of the car and followed him down a winding path that led into the forest.
“Where are we going?”
“Hold on a minute more. The road isn’t finished yet, we can’t drive all the way in, but in a week, that will change.”
The end of the path spilled into a clearing, where a house seemed to melt into the forest. It was a beautiful, understated piece of architecture. It looked like it had grown from the earth on which it was built.
“Eli, this is … wow. Did Owen design it?”
“Yes. This one is my favorite.”
He held my hand once more and walked me inside. “It’s built using lumber from the forest, and local stone. All the windows act as solar panels. The whole thing is state-of-the-art, but from the outside, it looks like a log cabin. My brother pulled out all the stops for this one.”
I glanced up at him. “Did you bring me here to brag about your brother? Not that I mind …” I walked up the steps. “Can I take a peek inside? I do enjoy peeping inside other people’s houses.”
“You can go in, Emily, because it’s ours.”
I paused with my hand on the door handle of the perfect wooden house. “Excuse me?”
“It’s ours. If you want to be with me, that is. I’ve wanted to sell my current place and move into one of Owen’s eco-homes for a while, and I figured you probably didn’t want to stay in your mom’s house forever.”
He opened the door and led me into the center of the room, where he’d already placed a bottle of wine, a candle, and a blanket.
I turned around to face him, a small smile lifting my lips. “Are you sure you can handle
living with someone like me?”
He bent down and kissed me. “I know I can’t handle living without you.”
I looked around at the beauty of the hardwood floors, the pale cream walls, and the forest beyond the windows.
This town had become everything. It was more than a community. More than my home. With Eli by my side, it was my future.
My mom once said I had to make big decisions for love. In the end, I knew that loving Eli was the easiest decision I’d ever make.
Thank you for reading.
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Sneak Peek into Defend Me
Paxton
There’s a reason we’re born with two ears and one mouth. We’re supposed to listen more than we talk. If there was one thing I knew with absolute certainty, it was that I learned a whole lot more about what was going on around me if I kept quiet and paid attention.
“Paxton, do you want the usual?” Alice breezed toward me, pad in hand and a pen sticking out of her poof of hair.
I’d commandeered my brother’s booth for the moment knowing he wasn’t going to show up. “Yes, coffee and apple pie, please.”
“Coming up.” She leaned a hip on the chipped Formica table. “Where are those brothers of yours?”
“Not here.”
“Obviously.” Alice popped me on the head with her pad and walked away.
My brothers were at Reilly’s waiting for me. That’s what I wanted to believe, but the reality was they’d be at Reilly’s with their significant others and not notice my absence. Their pairing up would leave me the fifth wheel or worse, Rich’s date, which was always awkward because he wasn’t my type.
Shelter Me: A Frazier Falls Novel Page 16
