by Kayn, Debra
Chapter Thirty Four
Nova's heartbeat filled the 'Cuda. She sat on the edge of the seat and peered out the windshield looking for Emmett. Once he gave her a push, she ran and never stopped until she'd made it safely to the car and shut herself inside.
Somewhere along the way, she'd lost Emmett.
She reached behind her into her pocket. "Damnit."
Emmett had taken her phone. She couldn't even call for help.
Intent on saving her life and getting to the vehicle, she hadn't paid any attention to the bear or if the dangerous animal chased them. She opened the car door determined to go out and save Emmett when he strolled around the corner of the restaurant. No hurry in his step. No fear on his face. The dick had a smile and shook his head in amusement at her.
"You're not funny." She slammed the door, cutting off anything he could say in return and buckled her seatbelt.
He came to her window and rapped his knuckles against the glass. She glared.
"Sit tight. I'm going to give Pepper her key back." Emmet moved away from the car and disappeared inside.
The stately building impressed her. The rugged setting with the pine trees cascading the perimeter, the river flowing through the back, and wildlife right at the door probably attracted every traveler along Interstate-90.
The extra-large wood carved doors accented the entrance. A Help Wanted sign taped to the nearest window caught her attention.
An idea popped into her head, and she bit her lip to concentrate on the possibilities. Emmett said the employees stayed in the cabins out back free of charge. A bear wasn't going to frighten her. She could buy a gun and learn how to use it.
Emmett walked outside with another plate holding a cinnamon roll. He slid into the driver's side and handed her the food. "For later."
"Smart." She set the plate in the backseat and turned toward Emmett. "I've been thinking."
He put the car in reverse, turned, and headed toward the interstate. "About?"
"I could get a job here and live in one of the cabins. There was a sign that said they were hiring." She shrugged holding her hands up in front of her. "I know that's not the same as buying a house, but I've exhausted the market. I could work, put a little more money away, and by spring be ready to jump when new places came on the market. In the meantime, Nick and Shayla don't have to put up with me living with them, and this is the best part, you can see me whenever you visit your parents and even stay with me on the weekends when you don't work. That way you're not wasting gas going back and forth."
"No." Emmett accelerated the car.
"Why not?" She stared at him. "My plan was to purchase a house first and then get a job. I know it's backward, but I have enough saved to buy me some time. But, I've realized that's not going to happen, and you said yourself that winter is coming. No one moves when they can barely get out of their driveway because of the snow. I could get the job, then the house in the spring."
Emmett slammed on his brakes, bringing the car to a stop on the side of the road. Everything happened fast, and the seatbelt caught her forward movement.
"Move in with me and I'll hire you at the store," said Emmett.
She laughed catching the end of his conversation and the sound cut off in her throat when what he'd said soaked in. "You want me to move in with you? In the trailer park?"
"Yeah." Emmett looked at her. "I do."
"You know I want to buy my own place and not live in a park." She looked away because she could see the truth in his eyes. He wanted her with him.
"Give me the winter, Nova-girl." Emmett picked up her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "You can't buy a house right now anyway. If you want a job, I have a job for you. When winter is over and if you still feel like you want to follow your plan, I'll sell my place in the park and throw in my money for a down payment, and we'll purchase a house together. Anywhere you want as long as I can get to the auto parts store. I can squeeze a house payment out of my wages."
"Emmett, you can't do this for me," she whispered. "We've had two weeks of constantly seeing each other. You don't know if you'll even want to be around me twenty-four/seven."
"Been seeing you for three months and two weeks. Winters are six to seven months long here. By springtime, we'll know everything about each other." Emmett lifted her hand and pressed her knuckles to his lips. "I told you, there's nothing you can do to get rid of me. You can fight me every step of the way or move in and make us both happy."
"You really do love me." She leaned across the span of the seats.
"Start believing then, and take a chance with me."
Every argument against moving into the park disintegrated in her head. "I'll move in with you until spring, and if we love each other even more—if that's possible, I would love to buy a house with you."
Epilogue
~ Six and a half months later ~
Emmett lay on his back. His arm curled around Nova with his hand claiming the curve of her hip. She lay propped on his chest wide awake. Lately, no matter how hard she tried to nap with him after work to gain her second wind to spend time with everyone in the park when they came over to the trailer later, she found herself planning, rehearsing, and dreaming of their future.
She wanted to coordinate the perfect time to tell him she wanted to continue living with him in the trailer park and planned the big announcement for tonight. Six months of throwing herself deep into park living had shown her what she had missed and how lucky she was to have a tight-knit community rallying around her. The drama, the gossip, the friendships, and even the invasion of people hanging out with Emmett all the time—unless she pulled him inside the house to keep him to herself, in which he never minded—no longer bothered her.
The news she received last week made it almost impossible to keep the change of plans to herself. He never asked or reminded her of their agreement last fall. Preferring to work, sleep, and enjoy the moments, he seemed content to keep things just the way they were between them.
But, after tonight, his whole world was going to rock. Big time.
She caressed his strong jawline. He stirred, lifted his head slightly, and opened his eyes.
"Hey," she whispered.
He rolled her backend on top of him, and she lay fully against his body. Belly to belly. Thigh to thigh. Her bare feet snuggled between his legs.
"What time is it, Nova-girl?" he whispered, running his hands down her sides, over her hips, and palmed her ass, pulling her up against his hard cock.
She widened her legs and slipped down onto him, sighing as he filled her completely. "Eight o'clock. I'm starting to hear some talk going around outside."
"They can wait." He pumped two short strokes in her.
She lowered her head and kissed his neck, taking her time to taste, suck, and abuse the skin, knowing he'd have a mark later. He moved his hands to her back, wrapping around her. Unable to move, she relied on him. He undulated his body underneath her. His cock slid in and out in lazy sweeps. Her body warmed and pulsed.
He took one hand and cupped the back of her head, bringing her mouth off his neck and to his lips. The kiss was not soft or short, but long and deep. Her hips pressed down and up out of a need for more contact.
Emmett rolled her to her back without removing his cock from her body. She smiled up into his face. He always demanded control. Rarely, he let her go on top, and instead preferred to pin her to the bed and watch her come. Even when she gave him blowjobs, he wanted her on her knees staring up at him. She took and took from the relationship knowing he was taking care of her. His attention and dedication rivaled nothing she'd ever received in her life.
Emmett was a strong man. A stubborn man. A good man.
She rubbed the inside of her thighs against his hips. The urgency to orgasm grew and tightened within her body. She lifted her hips to meet each plunge, closer and closer.
Emmett's jaw dropped with his deeper, faster breaths. She reached between them and held his hips, guiding
him faster. Her breasts squeezed together from the position of her arms and throbbed each time his chest hair skimmed her nipples.
"Ready?" he said with a growl.
"Yes." Her neck arched and her legs tightened around him, drawing him in more. Her release snuck up fast and hard, washing through her body, her limbs.
Emmett lowered his head into her neck, pumping fast, and ground his pelvis against her, holding himself still. He shuddered in her arms. The tension in her muscles relaxed and she let her legs fall to the bed. He grew heavy on top of her and rolled to the side.
"I'm going to jump in the shower." He smoothed her hair back off her face. "Want me to leave the water running?"
The water heater in the trailer only held enough hot water for one normal-timed shower. If they shared the bathroom, she got distracted by Emmett's hands all over her naked body and usually ended up rinsing off while screaming under the flash of ice-cold spray.
She kissed him. "Yeah, thanks. I'll come outside when I'm done washing off."
"Love you." He kissed her once more and moved from the bed.
She held her fingers to her lips. He could kiss her twice, ten, a hundred times a day and she'd never tire of his lips on her mouth.
The shower started. She jumped out of bed and picked out her clothes. The snow was almost gone. Only the areas that remained in shade most of the day had yet to melt. Still hearing the water run, she took the bag she'd hid in the closet and set it behind the door. She had to time everything perfectly to get a head start on him and use the crowd outside to distract him.
She walked into the bathroom, tied her hair in a quick bun as he stepped out of the shower. She kissed the middle of his chest when they squeezed past each other in the extra-small room. Under the spray of the water, she lathered the soap all over her body and removed the showerhead from the wall. The water dropped a few degrees once the last bubbles circled the drain and she turned the faucet handle off.
Standing on the bathroom rug, she dried off and listened for Emmett in the house. Not hearing any footsteps, thuds, or banging, she wrapped herself in the bath towel and hurried to the bedroom.
Five minutes later, she kicked open the back door that stuck from non-use, hustled down three steps, and carried her bag over her shoulder around the back loop of the trailer park. It'd taken her four weeks to slip money into the register when Emmett wasn't looking and four days to sneak the cans of spray paint to Emmett's trailer in her jacket without him noticing. Her desire never to lie again made her stealthy.
She veered off the road to the laundry building and found the switch in the breaker box for the floodlight outside. Bundled against the cold, she hustled over to the street art she'd done for Emmett the first time. Once she studied the scene before her, she removed the photo Emmett had given her the night she'd painted the art. She'd gone over and over the picture memorizing everyone and their position in the photo, even taking notes on who had left the park and who moved in since.
At first, she'd been afraid to mess with her already completed street art. She hadn't painted shadow people in almost a decade and was out of practice. Spraying with a can that gave her little control over the volume of paint expelling from the nozzle made small details almost impossible, but with an added color, a hat, a pose, a shape on the figures she hoped the community of Bitterroot Trailer Park would be able to find themselves painted on the wall.
She shook the can of black paint and walked to the middle of the wall. Biting her tongue, she concentrated on short, soft taps on the nozzle. After she had finished the first person, she stood back and tilted her head. Her smile came slowly with confidence to finish her idea, and she moved forward to the wall and kept going.
Time passed until her fingers grew numb from the cold weather and she got lost in her art. She only had one more to go when voices murmured behind her and snapped her out of her zone. Ignoring those that had found her, she finished the last shadow person standing beside a larger person and linked their hands.
She'd finished.
The scene was now complete, and the art rocked.
She tossed the rattle can to the ground beside her bag and turned around. Everyone who usually gathered at Emmett's trailer in the evenings stood looking at her, but it was the man in the middle who stood in front of everyone who she needed to talk with. In all her plans, she never thought she'd be speaking in front of everyone in the park.
"I-I realized a couple of months ago I wasn't done with the piece of art I started." She held out her hand, remembered the wet paint on her fingers, and dropped her arm to her side.
Emmett stepped up beside her, gathered her hand, while ignoring the paint, and led her to the wall. She leaned into him, nervous about what he'd think of her changing the mural.
She watched his eyes study each person she added, from Shayla in the bed of the pickup to Nick near the burning barrel. In front of Emmett's trailer, she'd painted him holding her hand.
His Adam's apple moved in his neck. "You put yourself in the picture."
She laid her head on his chest and his arm came over her shoulders and looped around her. "I thought if I was staying, I deserved a place by your side on the wall, too."
"What about the house? The real home you always wanted?"
She tilted her head and met his gaze. "I don't think I was ever really running away from living in a park, but trying to keep away from the truth that caused all my pain."
"No more pain?" He studied her closely.
She wrapped her arms around his waist. "Do you want me to tell you the truth?"
"Always."
"There will always be pain when I think about my mother. The last six months, my thoughts have centered around you, your Mom, Dad, Pepper, the people here at the park, and my cousins. Those moments when I think about what she'd done to me are far and few between now." Her stomach fluttered, and she swallowed.
He pressed his lips against her forehead. "Wherever we end up, we're going to be fine."
"I truly believe that." She held him tighter and gazed up into his eyes. "I have something else to tell you."
"What?"
Her chest filled with love and she made a last-minute change to her plan. She moved to the other side of him, grabbed his hand and walked him up to the wall.
"Stay right there." She kissed him quickly and hurried over to her bag and picked up the black rattle can of paint, and then returned to his side.
With quick lines, she created another shadow person. Smaller, unidentifiable, and right beside her on the wall at knee level. Her hand shook when she let go of the nozzle. She turned to Emmett and found him staring at the wall, his eyes fixated on the spot she'd finished.
Her heart raced waiting for him to say something. Unable to hold in the news any longer, she said, "I found out last week when I went to the doctor. Remember when I told you we had to wait a little bit before going without protection when I decided to go off the shot and instead take the pills? During that unsafe time, you took me up to the mountain peak above the park, and we'd made love on the blanket atop the snow without a condom."
His eyes landed on her. She stepped closer and put her hands on his chest. "Say something, Emmett."
He moistened his lips and looked back at the wall. Then he turned his eyes on her again and said, "You're pregnant?"
"I know we never talked about having kids...or getting married, for that matter." She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. "You were so sure about us being together forever, and I'd decided to stay living with you in the park months before I even found out I was pregnant. I wanted the timing to be perfect to show you how much I love you, and then I found out the news, and I couldn't wait —"
He captured her lips and lifted her off the ground. She melted against him. Her queasy stomach relaxed and excitement filled her.
"My cousin is having a baby," shrieked Shayla behind Nova.
The crowd whooped and cheered, pressing in on them. Nova laughed against Emmett's lips and pulled
her mouth away to throw her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist. He gave her a smile that curled her toes and held her tight in a promise to never leave her.
"I love you," she shouted over the noise of the party going on around them.
He held her closer and in her ear, he said, "A baby? I'm going to be a Dad?"
She nodded. "Yes, Emmett. Yes."
Eventually, he lowered her feet to the ground, and she steadied herself against him to get her balance. Shayla swept in and gave her a hug, dancing her around in a circle. The tears came between the laughter.
Nick shook Emmett's hand and slapped him on the shoulder. Nova, caught in Emmett's smile, got picked up by her older cousin.
"Congratulations, cuz." Nick exhaled loudly. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks, Nick." She slipped down to her feet, hugged him again, and Caren got to her before she could return to Emmett.
"Congratulations, Nova." Caren's voice tremored, and Nova would feel her embrace for days.
Everyone took their moment to share the good news, the excitement of a new life inside the park, the belief that love meant more than money and a fancy house.
That a community became a family.
Once everyone had their say and started the walk back to Emmett's trailer where they'd party all night or until Emmett carried her in the trailer, she turned to Emmett and linked her hand with his.
"Is this going to be possible? Can we do this?" she asked, knowing if anyone could make sure she succeeded it'd be Emmett.
He gave her hand a squeeze and started the walk back to the trailer. "All we have to do is go slow. Everything will work out because we love each other, and I'm not leaving."
She smiled into the night. One hand in Emmett's. The other hand over her flat stomach that would soon grow with the child they'd created.
