Call it fate, p.22
Call it Fate, page 22
I flashed my smile back at him and straightened my back, returning my attention to Beverly. “I’m sorry, Beverly. Monday won’t work for me as I’ll be out of town. We’ll have to find another time to talk. Or better, I’ll email you the final plans my committee has already made. At this late date, I’m not open to making new changes, but I am so glad to have your offer to help. You’ll let me know when you’ve got it to the newspaper and radio station, right?”
“I, uh…”
“That’s great. I’m so grateful, again, for your offer to help. I’ll see you soon, I’m sure.”
I linked my arm through Zach’s and ushered him away quickly. I didn’t slow my steps until we were outside, where I blew out a breath of relief and leaned against the brick wall.
“Want to tell me what that was about?”
I grinned at Zach. “I just pulled a ‘Beverly’ on Beverly herself.”
Zach scrunched up his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I opened my mouth to explain, but he held up his hand. “It doesn’t matter. All I really care about is hearing you say you’re going out of town. I assume that means you and Iain are coming to Charlotte with me?
I wrapped my arms around his waist and tilted my head up. “We are.” I rose on my toes to kiss him, happy when he eagerly accepted it.
His lips trailed across my cheek until they nuzzled my neck under my ear. “I loved seeing you take charge like that. That was very sexy,” he growled in my ear. “And I should know. After all, I’m bringing sexy back.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “Come on, stud. Let’s make Sterling jealous. Take me home and show me instead.”
He didn’t disappoint.
Chapter 32
Emalee
* * *
As we drove through the streets of Charlotte on the way to Zach’s place, I had a sudden sense of déjà vu. The same small thrill of excitement lit something inside of me, the same as it did when I’d first arrived to go to school. Mostly, I thought, because it was different. Not only the size, but the pulse of the city was elevated, not so much as to be overwhelmed like I was sure I would be in a city like Chicago or New York but enough to know that something different could greet me every day, unlike in Sterling Mill.
Iain appeared to feel the same. He strained his seatbelt staring out the window, amazed by the tall, shiny chrome and silver buildings that reflected the afternoon sun in the business district. He gaped at the sight of people riding Segways while dressed in business attire.
Zach pointed to a very modern, white brick and steel building on the corner of an intersection. “That’s where I work.”
Iain bounced in his seat as he strained to see through the tinted windows. “Can we go inside?”
“Sure. Maybe tomorrow,” his dad told him.
“It’s so big,” I commented.
“It’s a state-of-the-art facility. We can do almost any kind of surgery and are taking a leading role in trying out alternative medicines and therapies for animals. Doctor Anders is considered one of the best vets in the country. I was incredibly lucky to get an internship there while I studied and even luckier to be hired by him as an associate vet.”
“I think he was lucky to get you, too,” I said, earning a dazzling smile from him.
I froze as I saw the Johnson and Wales cooking school in the distance. I tried to shove the past from my mind, but Zach caught it.
“Do you miss it?”
I pretended not to know what he meant. “What? The city? Sometimes. Obviously, it’s very different from where we live.”
He threw me a look from the side of his eyes. “No, I meant cooking school. Actually, I mean more than that. You used to have dreams of being a chef in a restaurant. I know why you gave it up back then, but have you ever thought about going back and finishing your degree and doing something different?”
That was a loaded question. “Sometimes what we want and what we need to do are two different things.”
“But if circumstances were different, would you?”
“I don’t know. I actually love what I do now.” It was true. But Zach’s question, in addition to seeing my old cooking school, made me think. Was it because I’d settled for doing it when there’d been no other option? If I hadn’t come home, where would I be now? Working in a hot kitchen while someone else was the boss? Working countless hours to make a dream come true with no time for a family? In the end, it didn’t matter. I couldn’t afford to go back to school, either financially or practically.
I swiveled in my seat. “Would you leave this? This fancy state-of-the-art facility and go somewhere else?”
He was silent for a few minutes. “It would be hard. I’ve worked hard to get here. I guess it would depend on if I got the internship or not.”
We both fell into silence. They were tough questions but important ones. I knew Zach brought me here to show me the opportunities we’d all have if we moved here. There were more pluses for moving to Charlotte than there were to stay in Sterling Mill.
I reached over and massaged the back of his neck. “I do have a lot of good memories here,” I said softly.
He smiled and grabbed my hand and brought it around to his mouth and kissed the back of my hand. “Me, too.” He rested my hand on this thigh, covering it with his own as he navigated the streets, highlighting a few areas of interest to us both.
We continued another block, and then Zach turned into a large complex filled with three-story, robin’s-egg blue buildings with white trim. He pulled around to the back, hit a button on his visor, and a garage door opened.
“This is so cool,” Iain exclaimed. “It’s like pulling into the bat cave.”
“Well, it might not be that cool,” Zach replied, “But I like it.” He glanced at me. “It’s close to work but also to some great restaurants and parks.”
Iain didn’t wait to unstrap and hurry out of the car. “Come on, Milo!”
“Woof!”
Zach and I gathered our suitcases, and he led us into an elevator that brought us up to the third floor. Zach opened the door and guided us into a huge, bright room. There were floor-to-ceiling windows on two walls plus an eating cove. The walls were white, and the floors were a grayish wood. The kitchen was next to the eating cove, with white cabinets and light gray granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. It was quite the contrast to the white of my home. Everything here was deliberate, sleek, and modern—and reeked of money. Mine was white because no one had taken time to update it.
“It’s so big.” Iain stood in the center of the room and spun in a slow circle. “Where’s my room?”
“Down here.” Zach headed down a long hallway with Iain right on his heels. Before I could catch up, I already heard Iain’s excited, “Wow! Is this mine?”
I peered over Zach’s shoulder, where he stood beaming. “I called someone to create this room just for you. We can change something if you don’t like it.”
“I love it. Thanks!”
At least in here, it wasn’t so white. Three of the walls were painted a light gray. The fourth wall was a dark blue. A full-sized bed with a patterned gray and blue padded headboard was against that wall. A chest of drawers, the closet door, and a desk were painted the same blue as the accent wall.
But what really caught the eye was the hexagon-shaped piece in the center of the remaining floor. It was shades of blue and green padded wedges that fit together for seating but also looked like they could be separated.
Iain wasted no time jumping over one side and into the middle until he saw something more interesting. A plastic racetrack for small cars climbed part way up one side of a wall, complete with a loop that would send the car onto another track on the floor.
“Wow, can I really race cars on that?”
“I believe so,” his dad answered. “See if you can figure it out. I want to show your mom the rest of the condo, then I’ll come back.”
“Okey dokey.” He pulled out more racetrack. “This is so cool!”
“Wow, you really went all out,” I said, feeling the small pit in my stomach that had been there since we left this morning grow into a large knot. Iain would never want to leave here.
As if he could read my mind, Zach looked at me with uncertainty creasing his eyes.
I sought to reassure him. “It’s awesome, Zach. You’ve spoiled him, but I think in this instance, it’s okay. You’ve made him feel comfortable and at home.”
Zach led me back past the kitchen to another shorter hallway. “That’s the half bath,” he said, pointing to a door partly open. “And this is my room.”
He hesitated before pushing the door all the way open. “Yours, too, if you’re comfortable with that. I know we haven’t talked about how this will look to Iain. If you want to stay in the guest room, I understand, but I really want you in my bed.”
He pushed the door open, and I went in ahead of him. His room was painted a light gray. Instead of the ash-colored flooring that was in the living room and kitchen, in here, it was a warm brown. A soft, silvery-gray area rug that made me want to sink my bare toes into it took up much of the floor. On top of the rug was a king-sized bed centered in front of a wall-mounted headboard made of several rows of padded dark gray rectangles. A quilted pewter comforter covered the bed along with an abundance of pillows.
Three windows allowed for maximum natural lighting, but there were long silver and black patterned heavy curtains that could be used to block it out. The furniture was a masculine dark wood with straight lines. Recessed lights finished the room.
“This is really nice, Zach.”
“It does look nice, doesn’t it?” He looked around the room. “I wasn’t sure what she had planned, but I trusted her.”
“Her? And do you mean this is new to you?”
He looked a little sheepish as he shrugged. “I didn’t want any reminders in here.”
Reminders? Oh, god. I hadn’t really thought of Zach and other women. “Oh. You mean other…girlfriends.” I almost choked on the word.
He pulled me close, but I remained rigid. It wasn’t fair, but I couldn’t help how I felt.
“I won’t lie to you. Honesty, remember? I’ve dated. But I know the reason nothing ever lasted was because they were never you. I wanted this room to be like a fresh start, not just from reminders of other women but from the angry memories I had after you left.”
He kissed my forehead, then my cheek, then slid to the corner of my mouth. “Don’t be upset, sunshine.”
He was trying. I would, too. “Thank you for making the changes. I don’t think I could have stayed in here otherwise.”
“Does that mean you’ll stay here?”
I nodded and was rewarded with a lingering kiss that made me long to try out his new bed.
“There’s one more thing,” he said, and I looked at him expectantly. “While we’re here, I’d like you to give this place an honest chance.” Before I could say anything, he hurried to continue. “I’m not saying we have to decide now, but I want you to honestly consider what opportunities there are for you and Iain here.”
“Okay.”
“Really? I expected more of a fight.”
I shook my head. “Nope. You’ve tried hard to fit into my world. Now it’s our turn. We can’t have an honest conversation about our future if we don’t have the full picture.”
He kissed me again. “This feels right with you, Emalee Dawson. I love you more now than I did the first time I met you, and I promise you, my feelings were strong and true then.”
“You love me?”
“More than ever. You and Iain and all your silly shirts. I’m not a stupid man. I know when I’ve been given a second chance, and I don’t intend to screw it up.”
The words I’d been pushing back for weeks burst forth. “I love you, too.”
Relief transformed his face. He was still smiling when he kissed me, a long, sweet kiss that conveyed all of the emotions we were feeling.
“Mom! Dad! Come see what I built.”
The moment would have to be postponed, but we both knew we’d be giving his new bed a workout tonight after Iain fell asleep.
Chapter 33
Emalee
* * *
“It’s been too long.”
“Definitely,” I agreed as I hugged Bristol a second time. She’d called on our first morning in the Queen City and invited us to come over.
She stepped back and looked at me. “You look great.”
She was more restrained with her greeting to Zach. “Hey. Nice to officially meet you.”
“Likewise.” He returned her handshake.
We were at the big house she shared with her dad, the man I called Uncle Brock.
She turned and high-fived Iain. “Hey, big man. You’ve grown. You know how to drive a car yet?”
Iain giggled. “No, silly. I’m only six.” He held up six fingers.
Bristol’s jaw dropped. “No way. I thought for sure you were sixteen. Darn. And here I’d made arrangements for you to drive Number 56.” She winked at me.
Iain’s eyes turned into wide saucers. “No. Way. You were going to let me drive it?”
My cousin grinned. “Well, not if you don’t have a license, but maybe you’d like to ride in it?”
He jumped up and down. “Seriously? You’re the best!”
“Dad is going to meet us at the track.” She looked at me and Zach. “You guys are coming, too, right?”
I’d been to the track with Uncle Brock’s team before, but based on the excited smile Zach was giving her, he was just as excited as Iain.
“I didn’t know you like racing.”
“It’s got fast cars, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m interested.” He gave me a look that said, duh, making both Bristol and me laugh.
We followed Bristol’s Shelby Cobra she and her dad had restored together to the speedway. Iain held Zach’s hand, halfway skipping as we headed to the track, keeping up a constant stream of facts to educate his dad, who wasn’t familiar with car racing.
“Did you know the cars can go faster than two hundred miles an hour? Did you know if the driver doesn’t way five hundred pounds, they add weight to him?”
“Two hundred pounds,” Bristol corrected with a grin.
Iain rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Two hundred pounds. Anyways, they wear out tons of tires ‘cause they go super fast. Uncle Brock says it gets boiling hot inside, too, like a bazillion degrees.”
Zach looked at Iain and chuckled. “Wow. That’s really hot. I don’t know how he can stand it.”
“Right? And my Uncle Brock has won, like, tons of races. He’s got a gazillion trophies.”
“Well, maybe a few less,” a voice called. “How’s my biggest fan?”
“Uncle Brock!” Iain took off toward the tall, bearded man wearing a red and white racing suit with the top half shoved down and tied around his waist using the sleeves. He easily caught Iain and swung him up in his arms. He gave me a tight one-armed hug and shook hands with Zach after I introduced them.
“Want to ride the track with me?” he asked Iain.
“Really?”
If we thought his smile was big before, it was nothing compared to the awe that lit up his face.
“Is that all right, Mom?” Uncle Brock winked at me. He knew I wouldn’t say no to the face that was beaming back at him with pure hero worship.
I trusted my uncle. I winked back at him and said, “Okay, but nothing over a gazillion miles per hour, you hear me?”
Uncle Brock grinned and offered me a mock salute before taking Iain by the hand and leading him over to some other men. He paused halfway across the track and looked back at Zach. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked as if it should have been obvious that he was included.
Zach gave me a look that was nearly a carbon copy of Iain’s. “Go,” I said, laughing. Apparently, the level of excitement was not limited by age.
Bristol nudged me with her elbow and motioned for us to head up to the stands where we would get a better view.
“This might even beat meeting Milo,” I joked to Bristol as we watched Iain and his dad peer inside the car while Bristol’s dad told them how it operated.
“It’s good to see you back in town.” I could hear Bristol’s enthusiasm over the roar of the engine below. “I feel like I’ve been trying to get you to visit forever. Your man asks you once, and suddenly you’re here.” She nudged me with her elbow, but I knew by her grin that she wasn’t upset with me.
“It feels a little strange to be here,” I mused. “That part of my life feels like eons ago.”
“A lot has changed since then.” Bristol stared out at the track, but I suspected it wasn’t what she was seeing.
“You could come back home, too, you know.”
She glanced sideways at me. “This is home now.”
“Sterling Mill will always be your home, too.”
She nodded, but I knew she was only being polite. She’d only been back once to Sterling Mill, and that was five years ago, to bury her grandparents. Despite her brother and sister still living there, they went to visit her, not the other way around.
“It doesn’t feel the same,” she said, and I knew she was thinking about her grandparents who’d helped raise her and her older siblings.
“I’m just glad we caught you guys when you’re in town. You’ve been on the road a lot.”
“Yeah. We’ve been testing out a new engine on different tracks.” She grinned at me. “So, you finally found Zach. I couldn’t believe it when Cam told me what was going on.”
I nodded. “It was crazy.”
“He and Iain seem to have hit it off.”
“He’s a great dad, and you know Iain. He’s pretty easy most of the time.”
“What’s your plan once his time in Sterling Mill is over?”
