It's Only Love(40)

After a long look down at his coffee, he shifted his gaze to meet hers. “I’m in a good place right now, largely thanks to you. But the dark moods come on me when I least expect them, and sometimes they last awhile.”

“Maybe they won’t come back if you’re happy.”

“We can hope not, but they always seem to come back, no matter what I do.”

Ella put down her fork and pushed her half-finished breakfast aside. “I’m not afraid of the dark, Gavin.”

“You haven’t seen the dark. How can you know that?”

She reached across the counter for his hand. “Last night, you said you’ve been happier in the last few days than you’ve ever been. I have been, too. I’m not going to run away the second things get difficult or challenging.”

“I don’t expect you to put up with me when I’m dealing with that.”

“I want to put up with you all the time—good, bad, ugly. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. Unless you want me to.”

He bent his head over their joined hands, bringing hers to his lips. “I want you right here with me, which still makes me feel selfish at times.”

“Why would you feel selfish when I’m exactly where I’ve always wanted to be?”

“You’re so open and honest. Does it ever scare you to have so much on the line?”

After he’d just complimented her honesty, she couldn’t very well lie to him. “Yeah, it does. Sometimes. But then you hold me and kiss me and make love to me, and the fear becomes so secondary to how I feel when I’m close to you.”

“How do you feel?”

“Overwhelmed in the best possible way. Thrilled to finally have a chance to see what this could be. Hopeful for both of us. Madly, completely and utterly turned on, like I’ve never been before.”

“Those are all good things.”

“Yes, they are, and they make the fear easier to handle.”

“I don’t want you to be afraid.”

“Goes with the territory. Any time we put our hearts on the line for something so important, a little fear is to be expected.”

“For the second day in a row I have no desire to go to work and every desire to spend this day with you.”

“That’s what weekends are for.”

He kissed her hand again before releasing it. “How many more days until the weekend?”

“Four.”

“That’s a lifetime.”

“You’ll survive.”

“I’m not sure I will.” With a deep sigh he turned away from her, rinsed out his mug and left it to dry on a dish towel. “Can you be ready to head into town in a few minutes?”

“Yep.” While he went into the bedroom, she finished her coffee and took her plate to the sink to wash it. She was drying it when the invitation to Dylan’s wedding caught her eye on the counter. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Gavin was still in the bedroom, Ella picked up the RSVP card and saw that he had checked the “Sending Regrets” box but obviously hadn’t mailed it yet.

It was none of her business. She knew that. But she wanted to do this for him anyway. She wanted to give him back some of what he’d lost when Caleb died, and his friends were a great place to start. She tucked the card into the built-in bra in her tank and then went into the bedroom to get ready to go.

“What’s up tonight?” he asked.

“I’m making that pork tenderloin you made me buy.”

“With the applesauce and potatoes?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll never survive until dinner.”

“I’ll make you a ham sandwich for lunch when we get back to my place.”

“Mmm, with lots of mayo?”

“Ewww. If you insist.”

“I do. I insist.”


*

If yesterday had been a great day for Ella, today was even better because she’d caught up on her sleep. She floated through her daily routine on a cloud of happiness, trying to work while sensual memories assailed her. The way he’d entered her from behind and driven her slowly mad before giving her what she wanted and needed.

The heated kiss he’d left her with this morning after bringing her home. The promise of more of the same tonight.

A knock on her office door reminded her that she was at work and expected to function, not daydream. “Come in.”

Her brother Wade ducked his head in. “Busy?” Wade most closely resembled Will with his honey-colored hair, but his face was leaner, more angular, and his hair was much longer than Will’s.

“Never too busy for you.”

Smiling, he came in and shut the door, which had Ella wondering what was on his mind.

“What’s up?”

As he always did when he came into her office, he grabbed the stress ball on her desk and took a seat to play with it. “I was about to ask you the same thing. You’ve been hiding out all week, when you’re not walking around with a goofy grin on your face.”

“My grin is not goofy.”

“It’s extremely goofy. Everyone is talking about it, in fact.”

“Whatever. It’s high time I gave them something to talk about, wouldn’t you say?”