Love Starts with Elle(92)
As she stepped into him, Heath inhaled the scent of her skin, felt the curve of her hip beneath his palm, and led her in a slow sway to the melody of their beating hearts.
TWENTY-EIGHT
After buckling Tracey-Love into her car seat, Heath jogged up the studio steps two at a time. “Elle, you ready?” The door rattled under his light knock.
She opened, sleepy-eyed and sexy. His hand tingled with the ghost feeling of holding her the other night. “What’s up?”
“Got something to show you.” He followed her halfway across the studio, but kept his distance. Their last dance had awakened a spark of love and he didn’t want to fan any flames. “What’d you do last night, party?”
“Ha, yeah, me and Mama, helping Jules plan her wedding, woo, tying one on.” She stooped to the mini-fridge, twisted open a Diet Coke. “I can’t wake up today. After prayer, I came home and fell asleep.”
He made a face. “You okay, planning your sister’s wedding?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. Please, get the girl married.” She raked her hand through her tousled hair. “I’m way over my own marriage fiasco. Besides, I haven’t seen Jules this happy since before Rio was born.” She offered him a cola.
He declined. “But can you spare an hour or two to go with me? I want to show you something.”
“Sure, I was going to pick up Rio from the babysitter for Jules.
Is Tracey-Love in school or with you?”
“She’s in the van. Let’s get Rio and go.”
“Not so fast, now. Where to and is food involved?”
“It’s a surprise and food most definitely can be involved.”
“Can I have five minutes to shower?”
Heath’s eyes widened. “Five minutes? Marry me.”
“Okay,” she said in a lazy, sleepy voice.
His pulse thumped. You’re messing with me, Garvey. And you don’t even know it.
“See you in the van. Five minutes.”
At 7-Eleven, Heath gassed up and bought Elle a couple of sugary donut sticks at the check-out counter. He tossed them to her when he slipped behind the wheel. “I believe this fulfills the food requirement.”
She tore them open. “What, no coffee to dunk them in? Cheapskate.”
He grinned and turned the ignition. “Can’t set the bar too high. Won’t be able to live up to my stellar reputation. Which way to pick up Rio?”
“Yeah, got to protect that stellar rep. Turn left out of here, then the first right.”
After picking up Rio from Shirley’s, Heath drove out to St. Helena Island with the windows down, the radio blasting a Sara Evans’s tune, and the wind filling the van. At Cusabo Road, he eased off the gas and drove up to a pale-yellow clapboard house nestled among pines and live oaks.
He cut the engine and popped open his door. “Well, what do you think?”
Elle stepped out as Heath unbuckled the girls. “Are you buying this?”
“Yep.” Swinging TL up in his arms, he stood beside Elle, who gripped Rio’s hand. “My own St. Helena cottage. Nothing fancy, but when Marsha Downey brought me out here, I fell in love with it.”
Tracey-Love smacked her palms to the side of Heath’s face. “Are we going to live here, Daddy?”
He touched his nose to hers. “Yes, when we visit. Want to see inside?”
“Yeah.” She squirmed to join Rio and took Elle’s other hand. The three of them walked under the canopy of shade toward the front steps.
The scene tugged at Heath. It felt too much like a family. He was leaving, moving back, joining Rock’s battle. He’d already been reading case histories, gearing up for his first day while the novel languished.
But Elle, unlike Ava who charged his young-man lusts and challenged his ego, caused him to pioneer a new part of his soul, discovering an area of his heart reserved for her.
Was it possible to find first love a second time?
Heath conjured up images of them, aging and gray, sitting on the cottage porch chatting about the kids. She’d paint in a sunlit corner while he tapped out his next best seller. And when the moon rose to its phoenix above the circle of the earth, he’d take her in his arms and dance to the melody of their hearts.
“Heath. Hey, bubba, did you hear me? Are you going to add a porch?” Elle stood on the short board steps, smiling.
Sweat beaded on his brow. And he stood in the shade. “Um, yeah, add on. Sure. Hadn’t thought much about it, but why not?”
“This side of the house will get the good evening shade. A porch would be perfect.”
Beautiful, dude, you’re fantasizing about your twilight years with a woman who’s fantasizing about front porches and the evening shade.
Elle stepped aside as he unlocked the door.
Inside, she spun around to see every angle. “I know why you fell in love with it.”
“The seller did the remodel.”
The house was prettier to him this afternoon than when he’d toured it with Marsha. The pine floor shone like glass in the light falling through the windows. The pinkish-beige walls cast warm hues, and Elle stood in the middle of it all.
“It’s so bright.” She walked to the far corner and peered out the window. “I could paint in here.”