Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs #1)(17)

“Why would I go home with you when I could go home with her?” Doug protested, his voice overloud and his expression bordering on belligerent.

“Because I’m not giving you any choice,” Elijah said, and that was the end of it. Cora was fairly certain Doug knew better than to balk, that he’d be stupid to try to stand up to Elijah, because he didn’t object again. “Gavin” met his brother and took hold of Doug’s other arm, and Cora was left to drive home alone.

“That was nice,” she said on a long exhale.

Darci smiled as if she was holding something back. “What?” Cora asked.

“Eli could tell you weren’t comfortable, that you didn’t want to take Doug home.”

She straightened. Of course she didn’t want her drunk octopus of a neighbor in the car with her. But Darci was intimating something more than that. “What do you mean? Elijah was clear across the room. How would he know anything?”

“You’re kidding, right? He’s been watching you all night. Every time I glanced up, he had his eyes on you. I’ve known him for a year and have never seen him so focused on a woman. I think Doug got a little too close to what Eli wants himself.”

“That’s not true,” Cora argued. “Eli was simply being a stand-up guy by putting me out of my misery—knew he was better equipped to handle Doug in his current condition than I am.”

“If you say so.” Her singsong voice indicated she didn’t believe that at all, but she didn’t belabor the point. “It was great spending time with you,” she said. “I’m glad you’ve come to town. What with the divorce and dealing with my ex since I moved here, it’s been hard to make friends. And now it’s too late to be that new girl who gets introduced around. So...I’m happy to meet someone who’s starting fresh and might be open to getting to know me.”

“I’m definitely open to that,” Cora said.

“Even though I’m quite a bit older than you?”

Cora waved her words away. “Age doesn’t matter when it comes to friendship.”

“That takes care of that, then. Now maybe I’ll have someone to do something with when the weekends roll around and my kids are with their dad.”

“I’m sure I’ll be looking for a chance to get off the campus.” She waved as Darci walked down the street to her car, but her mind wasn’t on her new friend. She kept mulling over what Darci had said about Elijah, and realized she was right. Elijah wasn’t just being a good guy in general when he took Doug off her hands. He was looking out for her—specifically.





Chapter Six

Elijah found Cora leaning up against the side of his truck when he came out of Doug Maggleby’s house.

“Thanks for putting my neighbor to bed for me,” she said as he walked toward her. “I was not looking forward to that.”

He could tell. She didn’t like Doug touching her, and he hadn’t liked it much, either. “No need to thank me. He’s not your responsibility.”

“He’s not yours, either.”

He shrugged. “It’s not like I was going out of my way.”

She tucked her long brown hair behind her ears. “So you didn’t do it for me?”

He had done it for her, but he preferred to downplay that part. “No.”

He assumed she’d let it go at that, but she gave him a skeptical once-over.

“What?” he said.

“You’re so full of it.”

He felt his eyebrows go up. He wasn’t sure he’d ever had another woman say something like that to him before. “Excuse me?”

“You’re acting like you’re not interested in me, but...”

This new girl was nothing if not unpredictable, Elijah decided. She didn’t play by the usual rules—at least not the old-fashioned rules he’d grown accustomed to living out here in the country. Problem was...she was right. He was interested in her. But he couldn’t let himself act on that interest. “What makes you think so?” He rested both hands on the truck, one on either side of her. He figured if she was going to challenge him, he was going to challenge her right back.

But she didn’t flounder for a response, didn’t back down. She wasn’t intimidated in the least, even though he had her penned between his arms and virtually towered over her.

Her gaze lowered to his mouth. “The way you look at me.”

He tensed with the desire to press her up against his truck and kiss her soundly. She was baiting him, trying to see what he would do, which left him torn. Part of him felt she deserved to get a bit more than she bargained for. The other part knew better than to let things move in that direction. He’d been keeping his distance from her for a reason.

“You’re the one who said you had a boyfriend,” he said. “Maybe you’ve forgotten the other day. I was carrying in your boxes, you were acting all concerned, as if that might mean you owed me something, and then you said—”

“I remember,” she broke in.

“So...what’s up with that? Where’d your boyfriend go?”

She lifted her chin defiantly. “I broke up with him over a month ago.”

“You lied?”

Still, she didn’t back down. “Basically.”