Love Starts with Elle(64)

Elle slipped the folded check into her bag. “Then I’m glad my first sale is to you, Heath McCord.” She sat in front of his open laptop. “When do I get to read your first chapters?”

“It’ll cost you.” He pushed the laptop closed, afraid she’d see her reflection in the voice and movement of Kelly Carrington.

“Five hundred dollars?” Elle retrieved the check, waving it under his nose.

Heath laughed. “Keep your money, Garvey. You can read it when it’s ready.”

She captured his arm with her hand. “I owe you more than money, Heath. How can I replay you for speaking to Mitzy Canon? It’d take years, if not a lifetime, for me to get her attention.”

“Elle, it was my pleasure. Besides, I didn’t do much. Just asked my boss for an introduction.” When he peered at her, his heart stirred. Pulling away, he called for TL again. “Let’s go, Daddy and Miss Elle are hungry.” He turned to Elle. “She’s going to be a woman who is always late.”

Elle sat back in the club chair, legs crossed, foot swinging. “My sister Mary Jo drove Daddy nuts. We actually left her behind several times. Daddy thought everyone was loaded up and off we’d go.”

Tracey-Love bounced into the room. “It’s about time, girly. girl.” Heath swung her up in his arms.

In the van, Heath snapped TL in to her car seat while Elle combed and tied back her hair.

“There, ready to go. Daddy strapped you in and Miss Elle fixed your hair.”

Tracey-Love grinned, hugging her doll, crossing her ankles as if she’d been ready to go for hours and the grown-ups had kept her waiting.

Opening Elle’s door, Heath said, “To Luther’s for a burger.”

A car turned onto Coffin Point. Heath leaned toward the sound. A blue Ford rental stopped next to the van.

“Who’s that?” Elle stooped to see the man behind the wheel.

“You know him?” Heath stooped too.

“Oh my gosh.” Elle snapped back her head. Heath glanced between her and the man stepping out of the car. Her cheeks paled under wide, unbelieving eyes.

“You know him?” But as she uttered, “Jeremiah,” he’d recognized the former star athlete.

The man was large, commanding, absorbing pheromones. Heath puffed out his chest, lifted his chin.

“Hey, Elle,” said the pheromone hog, surprisingly low and uncertain.

“What are you doing here?” Elle moved into the space between them.

Yep, drawing all the female molecules for himself. Heath knew the type. Hated them.

“Hey, babe.” Jeremiah’s smile was white, magnetic, a beacon.

Heath took a step into the space too. Couldn’t send Elle to the sharks alone.

“Jeremiah, what are you doing here?”

“Came to see you, Elle. I’ve missed you.” He peered at Heath. “Jeremiah Franklin.”

“Heath McCord.”

Their hands clasped with a pop.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Jeremiah motioned to Elle, then Heath, his confidence surging beyond his tentativeness.

“We’re on our way to dinner,” Heath said with another step toward Elle.

“I was wondering if we could talk.” Jeremiah tipped his head to one side, eyes squinting, his tone solid but beckoning.

“We’re on our way to dinner,” Heath repeated.

Elle pressed her hand against his chest. “Give us a minute, Heath, please?”

Was no an option? He’d rather stand sentry to make sure this guy didn’t hoodwink her. His vibe was snaky. If Heath walked into his church, he’d have left before the announcements.

“Heath, please.”

“I’ll wait inside with Tracey-Love.”

Back in the cottage, Heath tucked behind the sheers and peeked out the window slats. Jeremiah chatted with Elle, all cool and breezy, as if he were asking her out on a first date.

With her back to him, he had no idea what was going on with her. She nodded her head. Jeremiah stroked his hand down her arm, then angled to kiss her forehead.

Ooh, she was coming to the house. Heath jerked away from the window.

“Heath?”

“In here.” He met her at the door, struggling to tone down his attitude. “What does he want?”

“Heath, easy. He didn’t break your heart.”

“No, but this is a perfect play from the guys-with-big-egos book. Drop a girl, realize there’s nothing better out there, and come running back.”

“Heath, I need to hear him out. He came all this way.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Heath, what is your problem? I need to go with him, see what he wants.”

“Of course, because it’s the perfect play from the book—the dumped girl goes running back to the guy-with-big-ego because she’s stupid and he gets what he wants.”

“Stupid? Because I want to hear why he flew fifteen hundred miles to talk to me? And stop calling him guy-with-big-ego. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black.”

“Me? No, don’t put me in his brand of he-men. This is what’s wrong with women.” Heath gestured wildly, hands in the air, as if the entire female population was running amuck. “You forget yourselves, turn off your brains the moment a handsome man says pretty please. But we like the chase, Elle. Don’t let him manipulate you.”