Love like Yours Series (Box Set #1-4)

by Nicole S. Goodin

  “Jesus, woman, leave a guy hanging?”

  A giggle escaped my lips as I typed out my reply.

  “I’m free.”

  I was a little worried about what this would mean for me and Lawson. I’d always had the fact that I was still married to hide behind. It was pretty bloody obvious that there was something more on the cards for us, we had never actually said the words to one another, but somehow, I think we both just knew.

  My phone vibrated again.

  “Rudimental – Free.”

  Holy shit.

  My heart thumped in my chest.

  He gets it.

  “Quuuuiinnnn!” I bellowed down the hall.

  I heard Quinn running down the hallway before flying through my door.

  Oops.

  “What? What the hell happened?”

  I held up my phone to show her the text from Lawson and watched as a smile spread across her face.

  “How does he know?” I was feeling a little bewildered.

  Quinn sat down next to me on my bed and shook her head. “I don’t think he does know, El.”

  “What? But...what? I’m a little confused here. You didn’t tell him about our thing?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what to tell you, babe. Lawson has always been into music. And movies. He has a way with words that takes my breath away. I guess it’s just him. Ya know?” I knew exactly what Quinn meant – it didn’t matter that she was making absolutely no sense. I just understood her.

  Like he understands me.

  “Wow,” I breathed.

  “Wow,” Quinn repeated.

  I fell back down against my pillows and stared at the ceiling. “Quinn... I’m just...”

  I’m getting lost in him.

  “I know, El, I know,” she replied as she squeezed my hand.

  And she did know.

  Because she understands me too.

  ***

  I lay staring at the screen of my phone for a long time after Quinn left my room. I couldn’t believe that Lawson – without even knowing it, had communicated with me the best way I knew how. It was ironic really, that he had got there effortlessly, whereas Baxter hadn’t even wanted to try. I knew he was probably sleeping by now but I decided to text him back anyway.

  “Everything has changed and yet, I am more me than I’ve ever been – Iain Thomas”

  I jumped when my phone vibrated on my nightstand.

  “You’re the only you I know, beautiful.”

  I released the breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding and drifted off to sleep, allowing myself for a minute to believe that maybe, just maybe, I might be worthy of a man like Lawson Pierce.

  26. Lawson

  It was way too bloody early to be up on a Saturday morning, but I had a surprise to pull off. I had planned it that we would take my truck – the boot space was huge, I had a storage system on the roof racks, and it had seven seats, so it would save us taking two vehicles. I had no idea what story Quinn was going to spin Ellerslie, but I knew I could rely on my sister. I was picking Quinn, Ells, Reeve and Lisa up at their building. Colt was already with me since he lived close by.

  “Thanks again for letting me tag along this weekend, man, it’s gonna be a good time.”

  I glanced over at Colt. He was a good guy, young as shit, but a good guy. “No worries, do you board?”

  “Nah, not really, I’ve been one time, but I was pretty shit.”

  I chuckled. “Well I hope you’re ready to get an ass whooping down the slopes, I don’t know what Quinn’s told you, but she is an amazing skier.”

  His face paled slightly. “Shit. I didn’t ask about that. I’m gonna get my ass handed to me.”

  I laughed at his worried expression and he eventually joined in.

  “Screw it, I don’t even care. I know she’s your sister, but I’d take a beating any day of the week from that woman.”

  I held up my hands, willing him to stop talking about my sister. “I’m staying out of it. But if it comes to placing bets, I’m betting on her.”

  ***

  We pulled up outside their building at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was still dark and freezing outside. I sent Quinn a message to let her know we’d arrived.

  “Q, we’re here.”

  “Drive under, code is 4582.”

  I pulled in the underground entrance and punched in the code. Reeve and Lisa were already waiting for us when we pulled to a stop and we jumped out to help them load up all of their bags.

  “Holy shit you’ve got a lot of stuff,” Colt huffed as he lifted a bag into the boot.

  “It’s Quinn and Ellerslie’s stuff too, we grabbed it on the way down so El wouldn’t see.”

  “Where are they?” I asked Reeve.

  He looked at his watch. “Q should have woken El by now.”

  “What is she telling her?”

  Reeve laughed. “Bugger if I know, but it better be good, El won’t be happy about getting up this early.”

  I laughed too, I had never spent the night with El, but she’d told me on more than one occasion that anything before 6.30am wasn’t considered morning. I checked my phone and found a text from Q.

  “She’s up. SO grumpy, but up – I told her there’s an emergency at the office and to meet me at the car.”

  I showed Reeve the text at the same time as the elevator doors opened and Quinn stepped out. “Holy shit, you owe me, Law, I’m not at all a morning person, but that girl could have done with an extra hour or two in bed. She should be down any minute.” The grin on her face showed that she wouldn’t hold it against her for long.

  “Go get in the truck if you want. I can wait for Ells.”

  “Oh, I bet you can,” Quinn smirked. She patted me on the shoulder on the way past. “Just friends, huh?” she taunted as she rolled her eyes at me.

  Hell no. Not when I’m finished.

  Quinn gave Colt a quick peck on the cheek, and they all climbed into my truck. I decided to blow my cover a little early as I typed out a message to Ellerslie.

  “Spend more time doing things that make you forget about the time – Charlotte Eriksson.”

  The doors to the elevator opened, revealing Ellerslie staring down at her phone, her head cocked to the side and her brow furrowed in confusion.

  I chuckled and her head snapped up. “What’s the matter, pretty girl?”

  “What... what are you doing here? Where’s Quinn?” She stumbled slightly as she moved towards me, her eyes never once leaving my face. She was absolutely stunning. She had applied a tiny bit of makeup and thrown her hair up in a loose ponytail. Her tight jeans and long sleeve t-shirt fit her curvy body like a glove.

  She’s perfect.

  I flicked my head in the direction of my truck. “She’s in the truck. We’re all just waiting on you, Ells.”

  “What, who?” A grin spread across her face. “Lawson Pierce, what are you up to?” I pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head lightly.

  God, this feels right.

  I released her and took her hand instead. “Why don’t you come and find out?” She looked like she wanted to argue, but instead let me lead her around to the passenger door. I swung it open and nodded at her. “Up you go.”

  She gracefully climbed into the truck and gave a surprised gasp when she turned and saw who was waiting. “What the hell is going on in here?” she squeaked with excitement.

  “I wanted to surprise you. These guys were kind enough to help me kidnap you for a couple of days.”

  Her eyes widened. “A couple of days?”

  Quinn piped up from the back seat. “We’re not coming back till Monday night, I’ve had West clear your schedule and everything else is all taken care of.”

  “I can’t believe you guys did all this.” El looked back and forth between us all. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.” She beamed her breathtaking smile at me.

  I moved to shut her door. “Shit! Wait, I need to go pack. Wait..
. where are we going?” She tried to climb back out of the truck.

  I pushed her gently back in by her shoulders. “Oh no you don’t. It’s all done. We’ll buy you anything Quinn didn’t remember to pack.”

  I saw her gape again and took advantage of her moment of surprise to shut the door and move around the truck to my door. I gave myself a mental fist pump for pulling this off in less than 12 hours – climbed in the truck and got ready to start what just might turn out to be the best weekend of my life.

  ***

  I glanced over at El again, and she smiled the same beautiful smile she had been giving me the whole trip.

  That damn smile.

  We had been on the road for a little over an hour and Ellerslie was starting to run out of guesses about our destination. I had shaken my head and laughed as they had become more and more ridiculous. Quinn and Colt had taken up a game of I spy in the back, and Reeve and Lisa were both asleep in the middle row – there were no prizes for guessing why the two of them were so tired today.

  “Holy shit, I know where we’re going.” I quickly glanced over at Ellerslie. Her jaw was hanging open and she was looking at me with what could only be described as complete shock.

  “And?” I prompted her.

  “Do you listen to every little thing that I say?” she half whispered.

  I looked at her with a frown. “Of course I do... I wouldn’t ask you questions if I wasn’t going to listen to the answers, Ells. Trust me, you’re worth listening to.” I didn’t know how long it was going to take for me to get it through her head that she was worth it, but I was willing to put in the time.

  “We’re going snowboarding, aren’t we?”

  I grinned. “You got it, pretty girl. Took you long enough.”

  “Lawson, are you serious?” she squeaked. “I can’t believe you organized all this. We only talked about this last night, and it was barely a passing comment... I just... I can’t believe you did all this.” Now I was getting worried that I had gotten it wrong. She looked completely bewildered, and when I risked another look at her face, I saw tears building in her eyes.

  Oh hell no.

  I reached over and laid my hand on her knee. “Ells, what’s wrong, honey? I’m sorry if I got it wrong, I thought you’d enjoy—”

  She squeezed my hand and interrupted my rambling. “No, Lawson. God no. It’s amazing. I just can’t believe you did all this for me, I’ve never had a man listen to me the way you obviously do. It’s just... it’s really overwhelming that you would go to all this effort to include me in something you love doing. I really appreciate this... you have no idea.”

  I blew out a shaky breath. God, her tears had the ability to completely fuck me over. I was usually so sure of my ideas and plans – then again, I hardly ever did things in the spur of the moment as I was doing now.

  Ellerslie Rush had me throwing all my rules out the window.

  I flipped my hand in hers and intertwined our fingers. It was an intimate gesture – much too intimate for two friends. She didn’t seem to mind, and I sure as hell didn’t either. If I had things my way, I would be getting intimate with every single part of her.

  “You don’t need to thank me, Ells. I love that I’m getting your company for the weekend. As long as you have a good time, that’ll be all the thanks that I need. Besides, I’m really looking forward to seeing you on a board.”

  She began slowly running her thumb up and down the side of my hand. “You know I’m probably not going to be any good, right? You can just stick me on the baby slope with an instructor. I don’t want to ruin your trip.” She crinkled up her nose in that sweet little way she was so good at.

  No way in hell.

  I could already imagine the vultures getting their hands on Ellerslie. I had seen the way some of the male instructors interacted with women learning how to board and ski. Hands lingered a little too long... words were whispered a little too closely.

  Yip, no way in hell.

  “There is no way I’m dumping you and going off, Ells – you can lose that thought from that pretty little head of yours right now.” I think I managed to keep the protective edge from my voice, but the words came out in a panicked rush.

  Get a grip, man.

  “Can I be honest?” she asked.

  “Always.”

  “I was really hoping you’d say that.” She gave me a huge smile and did a little excited jiggle in her seat. “Eeeeek! I’m so excited.” I knew in that moment that I would do whatever it took to see that look in her eyes, for as long as she’d let me.

  “So you finally figured it out, huh?” Quinn called from the back.

  “It didn’t take me that long, smart ass,” El threw back, loosening the hold she had on my hand as she turned to look at Q – I took that as my cue to put both hands back on the steering wheel.

  I thought I heard Quinn mutter something about me jumping through hoops for El, but I chose to ignore her.

  She’ll keep.

  “Holy hell, Q, I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see you tear it up.”

  Quinn’s laughter filled the car. “Don’t put me on a pedestal too early, girl, I haven’t skied in a looooong-ass time.”

  I snorted. “Are you still pushing that speech, Q?” I nudged Ellerslie so she would look back at me again. “You should have seen her when we were younger, she’d hang around the chairlift, looking like a lost little puppy. Some poor young mug would take pity on her and offer to buy her a drink and offer some ski tips. Next thing they knew she would ski off like a pro, throwing a thank you over her shoulder.” I laughed at the memory. “That’s if she wasn’t hustling some stuck-up preppy kid out of their lunch money.”

  El busted out laughing and Quinn yelled at me. “Screw you, Lawson. That is not even what happened.” I caught Quinn’s eye in the rearview mirror and we both erupted into laughter.

  My little sister the hustler.

  ***

  “Ten more minutes according to the GPS,” El called back to the others. Everyone was getting a bit restless. It was still pretty early, but I knew everyone was itching to get on the slopes. We were planning to make a quick stop in at the house we were borrowing from Tyler, one of my architects. He was a top guy, and he hadn’t hesitated to let me use the place his family owned for the next couple of days.

  A few minutes later we pulled up to the large white front gates. “This is it.”

  I lowered my window and punched in the code Tyler had given me – we pulled in as the gate swung open. The driveway was long and winding, and the lawn was covered in snow. The huge white two-story house came into view as we cleared the line of snow-coated trees alongside the driveway.

  “Holy. Fucking. Shit.”

  I snorted at Ellerslie’s statement. “You kiss your momma with that mouth?”

  El huffed out a laugh. “Sorry. But damn, that’s a nice place.”

  I had to agree with her. I actually knew just how nice it was, considering my company had built it about three years ago. I decided a little bragging might be called for. “It really is. It’s actually one of my favorite builds so far.”

  I couldn’t help the smug smirk on my face as I watched her jaw drop. “Shut up. You built that?”

  “Well... Not single-handed. But yeah, my company built this beauty.”

  She turned to face me as I pulled the truck to a stop outside the front door. Her face was lit up and her eyes danced with excitement. “I think I’ve severely underestimated exactly what you’re capable of, cowboy.” She gave me a flirty smile before Quinn interrupted the moment with her usual no-bullshit attitude.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s fantastic, blah, blah. Let’s go inside.”

  27. Ellerslie

  This whole morning was a whirlwind. I don’t think it was so much the day, as it was Lawson.

  He was a whirlwind.

  He had turned my world completely upside down and I found myself fumbling around, trying to remember which way was up. It was exciting, n
erve-wracking, and exactly what I needed. I had no idea how I would be able to return the favor to him for doing all of this for me, but I was determined to try.

  “Holy crap.”

  “Ah. Yeah,” Lisa replied. “Please tell me you don’t all own mansions like this.”

  I shook my head. “Na ah.”

  “Well, not all of us,” Quinn muttered under her breath.

  Lisa, Quinn and I stood staring at the massive entrance. The boys had insisted they get the bags from the truck, and I wasn’t going to argue. It was freezing out there. This place must have had staff here at some point, as the lights were all on and the heating had been switched on too, making the space toasty and warm. I was incredibly grateful to whoever had organized that for us.

  A cold blast of air slapped me in the face as the boys barged through the door, carrying two cases each.

  “There’s four bedrooms, so Lisa and Reeve, you guys are together. And if Ells and Quinn want to share too?” Lawson turned to us in question.

  “Just show us the way,” Quinn replied.

  I hadn’t even had a chance to think about sleeping arrangements for the trip, but I was relieved to hear that I was sharing with Q. And if I was being honest, I was also glad that Colt and Lawson would both have their own rooms. It would make things a lot less awkward if Quinn decided to spend the night in Colt’s bed.

  Or if I end up in Lawson’s.

  I tried to push the thought away as quickly as it had come. That was definitely not what I needed to be thinking about. But watching his huge shoulders and arms flex with the weight of both mine and Quinn’s suitcases was making it difficult as hell.

  Once we were all settled into our huge bedrooms – which of course all had their own bathrooms, we headed back down to the kitchen to make a plan for the day. It was approaching 10.00am and we were all getting hungry.

  “Oh my god,” I moaned as I looked around. “This kitchen is perfect.”

  “And even more importantly, it’s full of food,” Quinn called as she rummaged in the giant pantry.

  Marble tops? High-end appliances? Flawless style? Check.