by Norah Wilson
The tears that had gleamed in Arden’s eyes earlier fell now. He dashed them away. “That would be appreciated, Son.”
“I’ll help too.”
This time, all the astonished gazes turned on Ember.
Titus was the first the break the silence. “Um...you’re a doctor.”
“So? I can still be a doctor and drive a tractor in the evening, can’t I? Well, maybe not this year; it looks like you have things pretty much set for winter already. But I can help next spring. And at harvest time.”
“What about California?” Arden said. “Your friends who called...I thought...”
She glanced at Jace, then back to her family.
“I was tempted,” she admitted. “Really tempted. But what’s a state-of-the-art facility and a lucrative practice got on a resource-challenged area with a doctor shortage and a capped income?”
Her father and brothers surrounded her, laughing and congratulating her. After much hugging and back-patting, she emerged from the knot of Standish men and turned to Jace.
He was waiting for her. When their eyes met, electricity arced between them.
Behind her, her family scrambled.
Titus suddenly had to go see Ocean. Scott and Arden, overcome with hunger, disappeared inside to make a “proper breakfast”.
Then Jace and Ember were alone.
Chapter 34
EMBER FELT suddenly, stupidly nervous. Maybe because they were standing outside in full view of the house.
“Why don’t we take a walk down to the Far South Barn?” Jace suggested, as though divining her thoughts. “I haven’t been in there with you since we danced together at Christmas, ten years ago.”
She laughed. “We did a little more than dance, if I remember.”
“Not much more. Scott always had a sixth sense about that stuff.”
“He did, didn’t he?”
He held out his hand and she took it. But instead of leading her toward the barn, he pulled her into his arms. Crushed her to him, he kissed her hard. She kissed him right back.
“Thank you for not running.” His blue eyes blaze down at her. “For trusting me.”
“I kind of did run.” She pulled back slightly. “In fact, I thought about flying out to California to visit with the colleagues whose practice I was ninety percent sure I was going to join. But even as angry as I was, I knew I needed to cool off before doing anything stupid. And I knew something else.”
“What’s that?”
“I knew I loved you.”
“I wasn’t going to let you go this time.” He ran his hands possessively over her back. “If you’d run to California, I was going to come after you, Ember Standish. I always will. All the way to the ends of the earth and back again, if I need to.”
“You won’t need to.” She laid a hand on his face, feeling the smoothness of his clean shave. “It took me a few days to chill out, but when I did, I realized I did trust you, no matter what that document said. You’d just spent days showing me who you are, and that person would never betray me or my family. And now, what you’ve done for us, saving the farm... I’m so sorry, Jace. I know it cost you your job.”
“That’s no loss. I wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway, not with Terry’s philosophy, methods, and ambitions. I only stuck it out this long out of a loyalty to Dad, to try to counter Terry’s worst impulses. It’ll be a relief to be out of there, to start focusing more on my own projects.”
She couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fear at the memory of Terry’s fury. No one liked to be thwarted, but she had a feeling Terry didn’t cope well with being beaten. “Could Terry make things hard for you?”
“He’ll probably try to get at me obliquely, but he won’t come at me straight-on. He’s smart enough to know I spoke the truth when I said I had evidence of ethically questionable if not illegal conduct. He won’t risk exposure, for himself or his cronies. And besides, even if I’m out of WRP as an executive, I still own a good chunk of the company’s shares, thanks to Wayne. Not enough to command the board, obviously, but enough to merit some deference from them. There’s a couple men who’d love to get their hands on my shares—they’ll listen to me, if only to court me. Maybe it’ll help to keep Terry in check.”
She went up on her tiptoes for another kiss, this one achingly tender. “Thank you,” she breathed against his lips. “Thank you for having my back.”
“That’s something I can honestly say I learned here, hanging around the Standish household.” His voice was endearingly rough and gravelly. “You guys might have your differences—some pretty fiery differences—but when the chips are down, you’ve always been there for each other.”
“That’s what family’s all about, right?”
“Right.” He brushed an errant strand of hair back behind her ear. “Is that why you’re staying in Harkness?”
She heard the unspoken question behind his words. “Family, the people of Harkness, this old house...they were always part of the equation, and yet when I came home, I was almost completely certain I was California-bound. It would have been a dream job. And much as I loved it here, there was something missing. Then Dad sent me out to your father’s camp.”
He chuckled. “Where you cursed me as soon as you set foot inside.”
“I guess I did, didn’t I? But we figured it out. We worked it out. And now with you in my life, I’ve found the missing piece. It all fits together perfectly, and I wouldn’t want to practice anywhere else.” She cupped his face in both hands. “I love you, Jace. I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.” He lifted her off the ground, his arms wrapped around her butt.
Laughing, she looked down at him. “Your turn.”
“You had me at son of a bitch.”
She laughed all the harder. “Come on, you can do better than that. Say it.”
His face sobered. “I love you, Ember Standish. Madly. To the ends of the earth. For this life and beyond.”
He let her slide down his chest, and her breath caught at the delicious friction. “Much better.”
“I don’t think I ever stopped loving you,” he said. “That’s why I’ve avoided you, this place. The idea of seeing you hurt too much. But Terry was right about one thing. My love wasn’t—I don’t know...mature enough, I guess—to weather the adversity he put in our paths.”
Ember’s heart squeezed painfully and tears pricked her eyes. “You may be right. We were so young. As heartsick as I was being in Ottawa without you, I think part of me needed to learn that I could do it. Stand on my own.”
“You sure did that. And I’m proud of you for it. Watching you with those accident victims... You were amazing.” His gaze was serious, the heat in them banked. “In these past few days, I’ve come to love you so much more. It feels wider, deeper. Worthier.”
The tears finally fell, hazing his face. “We got a second chance, Jace. A priceless, precious second chance. Let’s make the most of it.”
“Marry me,” he said.
She blinked at him to clear the blur of tears.
He took her hand and pressed it against his chest so she could feel the wild, pounding proof of it. “We’re not kids anymore, Ember. We’re fully formed adults, and I, for one, know exactly what I want. I want to marry you. And I want to have kids with you. Kids with a double-barreled Standish-Picard last name, because obviously you’re going to keep your name.”
Her eyes widened. “Kids?”
“If you want them.”
The joy in her chest felt too big to contain. Too effervescent. “Yes.”
“Yes what? You’ll marry me or you want kids?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you. And yes, I want kids. Not right away, but eventually. Two, at least.”
“Two, huh? I guess we’d better start looking for a three bedroom house.”
“I said at least.”
He laughed and swept her into another kiss. Inevitably, her elation morphed into d
esire, liquid and shimmery in her veins.
She pulled back, her hands sliding under that cashmere sweater to explore the warmth of his muscled abdomen. “Didn’t you say something about checking out the Far South Barn?”
“I did.” He slid his hand over her shoulders, down her arms, sending a frisson of delight through her. “Is Scott going to turn up and bust us?”
“He absolutely will not. Come on.”
She took off running toward the barn, getting the drop on him like she used to when they were kids. Jace watched her racing toward the old outbuilding, red hair flying out behind her. If his ankle was a hundred percent, he could have put on a burst of speed and caught up to her, sweeping her off her feet. As it was, he didn’t have a hope. But he didn’t mind. His bright, beautiful, joyful Ember wasn’t running away. She was running toward their future. With her unstoppable energy and zest for life, she’d always been a few steps ahead of him, and probably always would be. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
With a prayer of thanks to Arden for sending Ember to him in that lonely cabin in the woods, he started after her.
Chapter 35
ARDEN KNEW where Scott had disappeared to.
One minute he’d been sitting there, sipping celebratory champagne with Ember, Jace, Titus, and Ocean; and the next—gone.
He’d be outside, over by the woodshed. That’s where he’d often gone when he was younger, to work out any problems on the wood to be chopped. Or just to think things through. The boy wasn’t much for talking, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a great depth to him.
He and Margaret had done their best to show him a warm and loving home. As far as they were concerned, he truly was their child, as much as Titus or Ember were. But there had always been a loneliness in Scott, despite the embrace of family. It was always there, a sliver of apartness that he couldn’t quite drop. Margaret always swore to Arden it would pass in time.
Arden shook his head. Margaret hadn’t often been wrong, but she’d been wrong about that.
He closed the screen door quietly behind him. Axl rose stiffly from the rag rug he’d been sleeping on.
“Feel like stretching the old legs?”
Axl’s answer was to pad across the porch, down the steps and onto the grass. It was a cool evening, and the dog’s nose quivered with the scents of the autumn night. His ears perked to some sound beyond Arden’s own hearing.
“Go on, then,” he said to the dog. “Go do your perimeter patrol.”
With that approval from his master, Axl loped slowly off toward the property line where field met woods. He wouldn’t go far, and had long since learned to stay clear of porcupines and skunks.
A roar of laughter came from inside the house as Arden crossed the yard and headed toward the woodshed. He was glad he’d only closed the screen door behind him—the sound of such laughter was long overdue in the Standish house. But hopefully, there’d be lots more now. And if he was really lucky, maybe he’d even hear the laughter of grandchildren before too many more years passed.
When Titus had told Arden that he’d found love with Ocean—a confession liberally peppered with the usual ums and ers that came with any discussion about emotion among Standish men—Arden couldn’t have been happier. Or so he’d thought. But this afternoon, when Ember and Jace announced their engagement, his old heart had practically burst with joy and gratitude. That rat-faced bastard Terry Picard had tried his best to destroy any future for those two, but love had prevailed.
Faye had been there, of course, for supper. She’d even baked a beautiful chocolate cake as her contribution to the celebration. He’d driven her home twenty minutes ago. Now he was free to have a word with Scott.
With the house full of happy lovers, Arden sensed Scott’s restlessness. Oh, the boy was genuinely happy for his siblings, but sometimes a body couldn’t help but yearn for things they didn’t have—or felt they couldn’t have.
As he walked on, the sounds from the house faded, but they weren’t replaced by the thwack thwack of wood being chopped.
Just silence.
He quietly rounded the corner of the building to find Scott sitting on the chopping block, looking off toward Harkness Mountain. Back bent, he sat with his elbows resting on his knees. He lifted one hand and Arden saw the glow of a cigarette as he inhaled, smelled the smoke as it drifted by. Ha. Still sneaking smokes. As if Arden could still give him hell for it. The boy was twenty-eight, for Pete’s sake. Of course, if Margaret were still here, she’d have given him hell, age be damned.
Arden quietly backed up behind the shed. Clearing his throat, he approached again. This time when he stepped around the corner, Scott was on his feet, the butt already ground out beneath his boot.
“Hey, Son,” Arden said.
“Hey, Uncle Arden. Have a seat.”
The only thing resembling a seat was the chopping block Scott had just vacated. Arden sat, and Scott moved to lean against the faded shingles of the shed. Arden glanced off toward the mountain Scott had been studying. It was little more than a dark smudge against the horizon.
Axl chose that moment to join them. Panting despite the cool evening, he padded over to Scott for the petting he knew he could get. But even Axl had to sense Scott’s turmoil, for he gave a lonesome whine.
“That was mighty nice of you to offer to stay a while, let your brother get a rest,” Arden said, “but you don’t have to. With Ember being around and Faye looking in on me from time to time, I’ll be good by myself. Titus and Ocean can still take some time, have a getaway or whatever.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m looking forward to it.” Scott looked up from petting Axl’s greying head. “I think the chimney should be our first project. You game to help?”
So, it was like that. Although he’d managed to sound remarkably convincing, Arden knew Scott would rather be just about anywhere else. Not that Scott would admit it. And not that Arden had really expected anything different. Scott had pledged his time, and he’d put it in, every last day, all the while hiding how it ate at him.
Arden nodded. “Chimney first? That’s a good plan,” he said. “Titus noticed the liner needed replacing last fall, but we haven’t been in much of a hurry to fix it. Not much call for fires in the fireplace with just him and me. But with more folks around, I can see it’ll be in demand.”
“More love birds who want to curl up in front of a fire, you mean.”
“Your mother and I used to spend quite a bit of time in front of that hearth.”
Scott grinned. “Yeah. If I remember, you usually dozed off while she read or knitted.”
Arden smiled, remembering. After a moment of silence, he said, “You’re off to Montreal tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” Something flickered in his face. “First thing in the morning.”
“That was a pretty long job, huh?”
“Pretty long, I guess. A few months.”
“A special one, maybe?”
Scott shot him a look. “Why would you ask that?”
Arden shrugged. “You get this look on your face sometimes when you talk about it. I just wondered.”
Scott pushed away from the shed’s support. “I made some friends there. One of them’s just a kid. She kind of reminds me of me.”
“Does this kid have a mother?”
Scott didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “She has a very nice mother. A single-parent who’s way too busy earning a living and taking care of her kid to mess with any man.”
“So the kid’s not...?”
Scott frowned. “Not what?”
Arden blushed. Margaret would be so much more delicate with this stuff. “Yours.”
“Mine? Good Lord, no. I just met the two of them a few months ago.” Scott came to stand beside Arden. “There’s nothing in Montreal but a job that needs finishing up, okay?”
Arden stood. “Okay, Son.” He looked up toward the house and the warm, yellow glow of light spilling from the windows. “Coming in?”
&nb
sp; “Not yet, but you go ahead. I think I’ll go for a walk, work off some of that chocolate cake.”
Arden swallowed an ache of tightness in his throat, wishing like hell he could reach that loneliness. Knowing he couldn’t, he settled for laying a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “I’ll leave the porch light on for you.”
“Thanks, Uncle Arden.”
~~~~~*~~~~~
Scroll down to read an excerpt from Promise Me the Stars, Book 3 in The Standish Clan series.
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Also in this Hearts of Harkness
Contemporary Romance series:
A Fall from Yesterday, The Standish Clan #1
Promise Me the Stars, The Standish Clan #3
Romantic Suspense
Fatal Hearts, Montlake Romance
Every Breath She Takes, Montlake Romance
Guarding Suzannah, Serve and Protect #1