“You didn’t have a girlfriend?” she gasps in mock surprise.
“No. I was sort of in between, then.”
I pull up to the house, getting out, Emma keeps the conversation going.
“So how did you decide on whom to take?”
“I went with Jenna because I knew her. I figured I’d enjoy it more if I went with someone from our group.”
Once I’ve let us in and locked up, I reach out to brush my hand up the length of her back.
“Did you? Enjoy it more?”
I’m really surprised by the interest. Emma isn’t one to just talk.
“Turned out Jenna liked me more than I was aware of. It was uncomfortable at first,” I admit. There’s no way I’m telling her Jenna was my first.
She smiles softly as we reach the den. Then she turns away from me, walking slowly to the massive bay windows. I can see her reflection clearly.
“What was yours like?”
“I didn’t go,” she says, and I shouldn’t be surprised. “What did you dress up as over Halloween?”
She tries to change the subject back to me, but this time I’m not going with it.
“You’re doing it again.”
She glances over her shoulder. “Doing what?”
“You’re not talkin’. You’re avoiding. Why didn’t you go?” I keep pushing the subject.
She shrugs it off. “I had no one to go with. It would’ve looked daft for me to have taken Barry, so I didn’t go.”
I can’t understand how she had no one ask her. Are the men blind?
“Did no one ask?” I ask dumbstruck.
“They wouldn’t,” she says. “I kept to myself, Aiden. Why would someone ask the dodgy girl?”
I was really her first date. It hits like lightning. Then another thought hits.
“Did you ever have a boyfriend?” For the first time I pray that she’ll say yes. Everyone should date in school.
She turns around with a shy smile on her face. “You look worried, Aiden.” She walks toward me and I crave to touch her, soothe her, but she’s finally talking. “I might not have all the experience you do, but I at least had one boyfriend,” she flushes, “when I was twelve.”
I burst out laughing. I shouldn’t, but she’s being cute again.
“He was a real looker, I’ll have you know.” She comes over and pokes me in the chest. “Blue eyes one could drown in. I was madly in love with the bloke.”
I take hold of her hand and tug her closer. My eyes drop to her mouth.
“Who taught you to kiss?”
“You’re not going to believe me if I say him, are you?” She flushes bright red.
I shake my head slowly. “No.”
“My brother’s friend. The same one who taught me how to drive. He was kind enough.”
Her shoulders start to jerk, as she struggles to keep in her laughter.
“He took it upon himself to teach you quite a bit.”
“He was really kind and considerate,” she bursts out laughing.
“Was he now,” I growl, leaning in.
“Uh-huh.” She’s all smiles as she leans back playfully. I slip my arm around her to keep her from moving.
“Show me,” I whisper.
Her eyes lock with mine. They’re sparkling with fun.
“Show you?”
“Yes, show me how this kind friend taught you.”
Her eyes dance between my mouth and my eyes, then she nods, taking my hand. She leads me to the couch, nudging at my shoulders to sit down. She curls up next to me, her face is endearingly cute as she starts to lean in. Her lips are feather-soft against mine, at first. Then I feel her fingers brush against my jaw, tentatively, as if she’s asking permission to touch me.
She pulls away slightly, her breath hot before she nips at my bottom lip, sending a streak of lightning down to my abdomen. I force myself to sit still, to let her show me this, but then her mouth closes over mine and hands slip into my hair. And I fall.
I breathe her in. I let her in. I drink Emma in.
Her tongue slips slowly over mine, lightning strikes again, and I groan. I want so much more of her, all of her. And then she pulls away, smiling. I watch her walk to the stairs leading up to the books.
“You’re gonna read now?” I ask, a little too hoarsely.
She’s not going to read now. No way of that happening.
“I was thinking about it, why?” She’s teasing me. She is really enjoying this.
“I was thinking bed,” I say, stalking over to her.
She’s trying hard not to smile. She starts to backtrack down the passage, not taking her eyes off me.
She shakes her head, widens her eyes and juts out her bottom lip. The look goes straight to my heart. “But I’m not tired,” she laughs.
She looks behind her to check for the stairs, and I go for her. It’s the most beautiful sound ever when I throw her over my shoulder. Imagine Julia Roberts laughing out loud. That’s Emma. She has a beautiful laugh, and it seems that once she starts, she can’t stop.
I throw her down on the bed and pin her arms down with my legs.
“No! Aiden!” she squeals, squirming to get away from under me. My hands aren’t even an inch from her sides, and she starts to thrash with wild laughter. “Noo, please!” she gasps.
I settle my hands on her sides, and she twists to get away.
“It’s unfair,” she squeals. “You’re stronger. You’re-” she screams with laughter as I move my hands.
“Sorry, they slipped,” I tease, “I’m not even ticklin’ you. I haven’t started,” I move them another inch and she throws her body hard into mine, erupting with laughter.
“Sto-op!” She squeals. “I’ll do anything.”
I move down and take hold of her hands, trapping them next to her head.
“Anythin’?”
“Yes.” She’s nodding, smiling, laughing. It’s perfect.
I lie down next to her and brush some of the hair from her face, drinking in her happiness.
“Did you know eagles mate for life?” Her eyes are sparkling from all the laughter.
“Yes.”
“I want to make you laugh. I want to make you happy,” I say, and she smiles wide.
“You do make me happy.”
“For the rest of your life,” I finish. “I want you to be my eagle.”
She takes a deep breath and stares at me.
~*~
Chapter Twenty Nine
Emma~
Me. Him. Us. I don’t know.
I don’t want to marry just because he doesn’t want me to go back to England.
I want to marry someone, someday, because he can’t imagine his life without me. I’d love to say yes, but I want Aiden to feel the same way about me that I feel about him.
He’s heard the words “I love you” all his life, and they come easily to him. I’m not going to tie him down because he feels some sense of responsibility for me, because he feels sorry for me. That would turn on me one day, when he meets the woman of his dreams, and that would break me.
“Emma,” he whispers, when I don’t answer him.
How do I tell him all of this?
It’s such a incredible proposal. He even did the bloody eagle thing.
“I love you, Aiden,” I start.
He lifts himself up, leaning over me. He knows me so well. “But?” he frowns.
I lift my hand to his face and trail down the side to his jaw.
“I’m not going to tie you down.” I place my fingers to his lips so he’ll listen. “You’re a great man for wanting to help me, and you’ve shown me there are still good ones out there. But I’m not your responsibility. I’m not your problem. One day,” I swallow hard. They say if you really love someone, set them free. I don’t think that person really loved anyone before. “One day you’ll meet that woman that will sweep your feet right from under you. I don’t want to be in the way.”
He doesn’t say anything. His
shakes his head before he gets up and leaves. He just walks away.
~*~
When I said he left, I meant he got in his car and left. When my mother got real bad, I could see her face. I could always tell how bad it was by reading her face.
I don’t know how bad this is. Two hours later, I’m a wreck. I’m biting my bloody nails. I haven’t done that in a while.
I grab my phone and a blanket, and curl up on the couch in the den. I have all the lights off so I can see his lights come up the drive. I jump with every creak the wood makes.
When it reaches the two hours and forty minutes mark, I break down and call Chloe.
“Did you have a nightmare?” she answers.
“You could call it that. We had a fight. He just got in his car and left. What if he’s been in an accident?”
“Calm down, Sunshine. Take a breath,” she says.
“I don’t know where he is.”
“Maybe he’s gone to one of his brothers. They’re having a nice relaxing chat and you’re worried about nothing. Tell me what happened.”
“He asked me to be his eagle.” I start to cry again.
“Eagle?” She sounds confused.
“He asked me to marry him.”
“What?” She squawks. “Then why did he leave? You should be having hot sex right now.”
I facepalm myself. I shouldn’t have phoned Chloe.
“I said no.”
“What?” She squawks again. “Are you bloody mental?”
“He doesn’t love me that way! If I say yes and he meets the woman of his dreams, what then?”
“Sunshine, I’m going to throttle you! You’re bloody daft at times,” she snaps. “Of course he loves you. The man traveled across the world for you. He faced Attila the Hun for you. He. Loves. You!”
“Do you really think so?” I ask, still unsure.
“Emma! So help me God. Just because your mother is mental it doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t love you. I love you. Aiden loves you. Your gran loved you.”
“I love you too,” I say.
“When he comes back you tell him yes.”
“Alright.”
But as soon as I cut the call and I’m alone in the dark, the doubt settles right back in my chest. I end up feeling dreadfully anxious.
Finally, lights shine up the drive. My stomach churns. I get up, folding the blanket. Once that’s done, I don’t know where to wait for him.
Is he angry?
The door opens and I stand rooted to the floor, my heart pounding. It’s too late to move. I fold my hands over my stomach to ease the pain and tension. I hear him take the stairs, and now I’m left wondering if I should go to the bedroom or just wait for him. I glance down at the blanket. I should’ve put it away. I hear him come down again, and I go rigid. Oh Lord.
“You’re still up?” he asks. He’s standing in a dark spot, making it hard to see his face. I can’t see if he’s angry.
I nod. “I was waiting for you,” I say carefully.
“I just needed some time. Went over to Zac’s.” He sounds calm.
“Alright.” I nod.
“You’re gonna come to bed?”
“Yes.” I wait for him to move before I follow.
When he goes into the bathroom, I duck in under the covers. If I should roll to my left during the night, I’d fall off, that’s how close to the side of the bed I’m lying. My muscles are starting to ache, I’m so tense.
I hear him come out and get into bed, and I resist the urge to move, because I’ll fall off. I press my face into the pillow and pray that sleep will come fast.
The only thing that comes is Aiden’s arm as he slips it around my waist, and I almost fall off the side with fright.
“Emma?” He leans over me and I keep still. “You’re scared?”
Aiden is strong. He just drags me back and pulls the pillow away, oh gosh, yeah. It’s a bloody free-for-all. (If all else fails, cry.) It didn’t work with my mum. It works with Aiden. I feel utterly horrible. I curl up against him, and his arms cocoon me to his chest.
“I do want to be your eagle,” I sob, like a bloody soap opera drama queen. “I don’t want anyone else to be your eagle.” Oh bloody hell, stop me now. “I didn’t mean to make you angry.”
“You didn’t make me angry,” he says, and that opens up the floodgates to the Niagara Falls. “I was just frustrated. I don’t know how to make you understand that you’re all that matters in my life. I tell you I love you, but you don’t believe me. It’s frustrating that I have to pay for what others have done. I understand you don’t trust people, but Emma, I’d like to think I’ve proven myself by now.”
“I do trust you,” I argue.
“Then why were you scared of me?”
“I don’t know how you’ll be if you get angry, or how to calm you down,” I admit, feeling rather stupid about my behavior.
“I’m not your mother, Emma. If we have a fight about something then I want you to voice your opinion on how you feel. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to leave. I’m not going to hold it against you. We’re going to talk about it and argue and get over it, like normal people do.”
“Alright.” I smile tearfully. “You really love me, just for just?” I ask making the face he liked earlier on.
He smiles immediately. “I love you just for just.”
“Yes, Aiden,” I whisper, placing my hand over the ink on his chest. “I’d do anything to be your eagle.”
“Will you marry me, Emma Walker?” His hand brushes along my jaw, tilting my face up to his.
“If you’ll marry me, Aiden Holden.”
He presses his lips to mine, kissing me tenderly. I feel it all the way to my toes.
~*~
Marriage isn’t for the fainthearted.
So we’re eloping. Sort of. Just up the road. Not to Vegas or some elaborate place. The pastor has agreed to marry us in his office. No courtroom.
Thank God.
No walking down the aisle.
Thank God.
Only Zac, Wyatt and his parents. Four people I can handle.
I’m thanking God a lot lately.
So, two weeks later, when Mrs. Holden comes to pick me up, I push through.
“Hello, darlin’,” she greets me warmly. “You look gorgeous.”
I’m wearing a plain silk dress. (Yes, I’m wearing a dress after I said I’d never wear a dress again. I’ll make an exception this one time.) Really, nothing fancy. It got my attention because it had no frills. Long sleeves, tight bodice, then it hangs straight down in pleats. It’s feminine. It makes me feel like me.
I have my hair pinned with butterfly clips. Gran loved butterflies. It’s to honor her, so she’ll be with me.
“Are you ready, darlin’?” my future mother-in-law asks.
“Yes,” I smile, “but before we go, I’d like to thank you for raising such a wonderful man. Because of you being such a great mother, I’m marrying a great man. I hope I can learn from you one day.”
Oh hell, I’m gonna cry before I even get to Aiden.
Mrs. Holden wipes at her cheeks. “It’s my pleasure, darlin’. You enjoy him. Welcome to the family. I’ll be more than happy to be a mama to you,” she smiles.
I’m going to look like a bloody panda. I can’t cry. No happy tears yet. I promised Chloe photos and I can’t look like a panda in them.
~*~
Chapter Thirty
Aiden~
“Do women have this set rule about makin’ a man wait?” I ask Zac, when Emma is ten minutes late.
“Laurie was only five minutes late,” he grins at me.
Wyatt comes running up the stairs of the church. “She’s here, bro!”
“Breathe, Aiden. Blue is not a good skin color,” Zac cracks.
I knock him on the arm and start down the stairs, but before I get halfway Mom appears with Emma at her side, and I freeze.
IT’S MY NUMBER ONE MOMENT.
Emma has h
er arm hooked through Mom’s. Emma is holding my mom.
She looks at Mom, as if for permission, and Mom leans in, kissing her cheek.
Dammit, I’m gonna cry.
Emma lets go and starts toward me, and only then does she start to look nervous – not with my mom, our mom. Nervous laugher bubbles over her lips when she gets to me, looking way up from the stair below. She takes my breath away with the dress falling soft around her.
“Hey.”
“Hey, you,” I whisper back, with a dumbass smile on my face.
I take her hand and I speed-walk, Emma style, right to the pastor’s office. I want this over with, before she changes her mind on me. Everything goes as planned, until old Pastor Doug decides to ask if anybody has something to say. Emma takes a deep breath, making my heart sputter to a standstill.
I stop breathing.
“I have,” she says, and I wait for it. But she doesn’t tell me to take a hike. She turns to me, and her face shows so much love for me, I can’t swallow past the lump pushing up my throat. She gives me that look, the one only she can. The one that makes me feel invincible.
“Aiden,” she starts, “Gran once told me that if you give yourself to a person, you give them part of your soul. You’re my soul mate in every way. I’m glad half of my soul is with you.”
Okay, so I’m crying in front of my folks and my brothers. I don’t give a damn.
“You have all of my heart, Emma,” I whisper with the little voice I have left.
Pastor Doug better wrap this up, fast.
He runs through his lines and we say our ‘I do’s, and then I start praying he remembers what I asked him.
“I give you Aiden and Emma Holden,” I grin like a dumbass. “Mr. and Mrs. Holden,” he adds anyway, scowling at me. “I have to say it, son. It’s tradition.”
Wyatt bursts out laughing first, then Emma, and like I said, hers is infectious. We’re all laughing, not even a second into our marriage.
I’m the only one that cried.
~*~
I take her to Oceans Isle beach for our honeymoon. I’m sentimental. Sue me.
That’s where she gave herself to me. That’s where our honeymoon will be. I have a surprise for her.
We have four and half hours to kill on the road. A comfortable silence settles around us, and I even forget to put the radio on. It’s just us and the road. Emma starts humming a tune that sounds familiar.
Wake Me Up (Love Knows No Boundaries) Page 25