Love and the Laws of Motion

by Amanda Weaver

  “It was no problem at all. Drive safe. The road down the mountain is a little scary at night.”

  It was scary even in broad daylight, when she’d only had her license for a few months. At night, it was absolutely terrifying. But she was working on that. A little fear wasn’t going to keep her away from McArthur’s mountaintop observatory.

  “See you next month!” Cameron called as he trailed his mother out of the observatory. Livie waved them off, pausing for a moment at the door to breathe in the night air.

  This high up, it was cool at night, even now, in late spring. The pine-scented air was so crisp and clean here in western Colorado, like taking a drink of freezing cold, crystal-clear water. Down the mountain, in the valley below, the mid-sized college town of Greenvale, and the McArthur campus would still be busy and lit up, but up here on the mountain, it was pure darkness. The only sound was the whistle of the wind through the thick pine forest around the McArthur Observatory.

  Overhead, the sky was carpeted with stars, something she’d never really been able to see back home in Brooklyn. Tonight, a new moon night, the Milky Way was visible, too. Occasionally, you could even see it down in Greenvale, if you got far enough away from the lights.

  She held her hand out in front of her, pale gray-blue against the inky darkness. Without a moon, the stars provided the only light. Starlight. Here, she could actually see the starlight, another thing she loved about McArthur.

  There was quite a bit she liked about McArthur. They’d bent over backward to accommodate her, showering her with resources and attention. The state-of-the-art labs and computer equipment had taken her breath away the first time she’d toured the Astronomy building. The academic staff was littered with the best and brightest of the astronomy world, all of them eager to help her puzzle out her research. All along, all she’d wanted was the chance to work on this research, and now she had that chance.

  All the other grad students bitched about their tiny campus apartments, but Livie loved hers. After living her whole life in the Romano house, surrounded by other people and generations’ worth of stuff, her own place felt miraculously uncluttered and serene. She hadn’t even known what she valued in her own space until she had it. She might have never figured that out about herself if she hadn’t left home.

  She’d worried her fellow students might view her as an oddball, turning up with her old professor’s research in the middle of her third year, and trailing rumors of an academic scandal in her wake. Instead they’d been interested and welcoming. They’d started inviting her to departmental get-togethers before she’d even unpacked her bags, and this time, Livie said yes. Maybe she’d never be the life of any party, but she now had a handful of people she considered friends, people who were happy to tell her how to find the grocery store, or where to find the best coffee on campus. Everywhere she looked, people were willing to help her out. All she had to do was let them.

  Not that she didn’t miss home. At least once a week, she’d be hit with a painful bout of homesickness, missing her family so much she could cry. But it never lasted long and there were a million other things she loved about being at McArthur—things she never would have had back in Brooklyn—that it made it worth it.

  Although she’d been planning to go back home for the whole summer, she’d just heard from the Very Large Array radio telescope observatory in New Mexico that she’d been granted a research slot this summer. That meant all she’d get would be a quick visit to Brooklyn before she headed to New Mexico, which made her sad and excited at the same time.

  With one last glance at the Milky Way, she went back inside to shut the observatory down for the night. The sliding doors on the dome were sticky, as usual. She was still wrestling with the controls when the sound of gravel crunching underfoot outside sent her heartbeat into overdrive.

  This quiet mountainside was safer, by anyone’s estimation, than the New York City streets, but it was all about what you were used to. In New York, being surrounded by people twenty-four hours a day made Livie feel safe. These dark, empty parking lots made her jumpy as hell.

  “I always knew you’d be a good teacher.”

  She spun around, hand clapped to her chest, already scrambling for her cell.

  Nick was standing in the open doorway.

  “Nick! Jesus, you scared me.”

  He grinned, and her heart began pounding for an entirely different reason. It had been months, and not a single word from him. She’d have assumed he’d been sent off to jail, but Google searches turned up nothing on him. Well, Nick had never been findable online, but there were no indictments, no court cases, no sentencing—none of the official information you’d expect to see if he went to jail. It was like he’d just vanished.

  And now here he was, looking too good to be true, in jeans and a leather jacket, his hair windblown from the breezy night outside, and his dark eyes watching her like she was the most precious thing he’d ever seen.

  “You just created a new astronomer.”

  “What?”

  He jerked his chin toward the parking lot down the hill behind him. “That kid. I’m not sure what he was into more, the Horsehead Nebula or you.”

  “Oh, come on.”

  “I’m serious. That kid had stars in his eyes.”

  His sudden appearance had shocked her senseless, but now her brain was coming back online, asking all sorts of questions.

  “How did you find me here?”

  “Come on, Liv. I found Interpol’s most wanted in an hour. You think you were much of a challenge?”

  She laughed nervously. “I guess that’s true.”

  Nick’s answering smile faded and his eyes grew serious. “How have you been, Livie?”

  “I should be asking you that question. Where have you been? You vanished.”

  He made a face, then pushed off the doorway and wandered into the dark gloom of the observatory. She could barely pick out his features in the low light. “I told you, I didn’t have a lot of control over my situation.”

  “Which was?”

  “Going into lockdown for a while? They didn’t let me out much. Like, not at all.”

  She swallowed hard. “You’ve been in jail.”

  “No, I’m much more valuable to them out of prison than in.”

  “Then where—”

  “The government has all kinds of hidey holes where they can keep people who are proving useful to them.”

  “Nick, just tell me what happened to you.”

  He circled around the telescope. “I’m trying. There’s a lot I can’t tell you about. Most of it, in fact.”

  Then he stopped, now only a few feet away from her. “But there’s one thing I can tell you. I thought about you every day. A dozen times a day. More. And as soon as they let me travel, I came straight to you. I missed you, Livie.”

  She’d been trying so hard to keep her emotions in check since she’d turned around to find him standing there. Sure he’d told her he loved her that day last year in Dean Haverman’s office, but then he’d walked out the door and disappeared. For four months. Half the time she suspected she’d dreamed the whole thing. The only proof it had all really happened was when Langley’s indictment had come down a couple of months ago.

  Throughout all these months, as she’d navigated her move, as she’d built her new life in Colorado, as she’d gotten down to doing the work she’d come here to do, she’d done her very best not to think of Nick, not to pin her hopes on that declaration, not to sit around waiting for him to show up. He’d told her not to. She hadn’t. She’d gotten on with her life like Nick DeSantis had never been a part of it and never would be again.

  But here he was, back again, and in an instant, she knew he’d never left her, not for a second. He’d been right here, hiding in her heart, and with the slightest encouragement, she could fall just as much in love with him
as she’d ever been.

  “I missed you, too,” she finally admitted to him.

  A slow grin unfurled across his face. He slid one hand along the length of the telescope as he took a step closer. “You cut your hair.”

  Automatically, she reached up to touch it. It was a little past her shoulders now, and slightly thinned into long layers. She’d done it right before she’d moved to McArthur, part of her quest to become a new and improved version of herself. Gone were the oversized flannel shirts and shapeless jeans she’d lived in back home. Gone was that curtain of hair she hid behind.

  Nick seemed to like this new version of Livie. His eyes roamed down her body, slowly taking in her skinny jeans and the thin V-neck sweater she wore under her lightweight leather jacket. He raised his eyes to hers again, and the intensity of his gaze sent a shock of awareness through her. “You look really good.”

  “So...so do you.” Apparently there was enough of the old Livie still hanging around to leave her tongue-tied the minute Nick so much as glanced at her.

  “Are you happy?”

  His question took her aback. “Happy?”

  “Here. McArthur. Are you happy here?”

  “Oh. Yes. I mean, how could I not be? The facilities are amazing. The faculty is totally supportive of my work. I have all the time I need. I only have to teach one lecture class, and no lab.”

  “What was this then?”

  “This is just community outreach. I volunteered.”

  He chuckled. “You volunteered to deal with people?”

  “I know, I know. But it’s fun, you know? Showing people all the cool stuff out there. Like that kid tonight. He’ll never forget this.”

  Nick scoffed softly. “He’ll never forget you, that’s for sure. How about Colorado? Do you miss home?”

  Sometimes she missed it so much she couldn’t breathe. But that was getting easier. She was proud of her life here, because it was hers. She’d gone out and worked for every part of it. Nothing had happened by default, because she was too afraid to try for more.

  “Yes,” she finally answered. “I miss my family. But I’m happy here, too. What about your family?”

  “I told you, I came straight to you. They’re next on my list.”

  “Nick, you should at least call them. They’ve had to go years not knowing where you were. Don’t do that to them again.”

  “Relax, I called before I went away and called again on my way out here. I promise, I’m not hiding from them anymore. I’m all done with that. But the reunion will have to wait until later.”

  “Later?”

  “After. Look, Livie.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair, looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself. She’d never seen Nick this nervous. “I know I didn’t ask you to wait, and if you didn’t, I’ll understand.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He waved a hand at her. “You look different, with the haircut and the clothes. And you’re starting this amazing new life out here. If you decided to leave your old life behind, leave me behind, I’d understand. It’s no more than I deserve.”

  She still wasn’t great with men and relationships, but she had a tiny inkling of what he was trying and failing to say. It made her oddly feel better, seeing him so unsure of himself, no charm to fall back on. Anything he was saying this badly had to be one hundred percent genuine. “Are you asking me if I’m seeing anybody?”

  He exhaled and looked at her with pure desperation. “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “You’re not?” His eyes lit up with a cautious hope, but he held still, not assuming anything, waiting for her to tell him what she wanted.

  She shook her head and took a step toward him, reaching up to run her finger down the length of the telescope. “See, a lot changed for me when I moved out to McArthur, but there’s this one thing that didn’t change, even though sometimes I wished that it would.”

  Nick tracked her slow approach with hungry eyes, every inch of him tense and unmoving. “What’s that?”

  “The problem is, I fell in love with you the minute I laid eyes on you, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to fall back out again.”

  He let out a shaky huff of laughter. “Livie, will you do me a favor?”

  She stopped, no more than a foot away from him. “What’s that?”

  He moved suddenly, planting his hands on the telescope on either side of her head. “Stop trying to fall out of love with me, okay? Fall all the way fucking in. Because I promise, I’m here, too, waiting for you.”

  Her eyes began to burn and her throat felt tight. “I think I’m already all the way in,” she whispered.

  He leaned in, until his lips were just a breath away from hers. “And see? Here I am.”

  He closed the distance, kissing her with a slow, thorough tenderness that made her knees go weak and her body catch fire. His hands roamed everywhere as he explored her mouth, as if he couldn’t get enough of touching her—her face, her hair, her neck, then down her back to her hips, and back up to cradle her face again.

  “I love you, Livie,” he murmured between kisses.

  “I love you, too. God, I’ve wanted to say that for so long.”

  “Keep saying it.” He kissed her again. “I want to hear it every day for the rest of my life.”

  The implication of “forever” made her heart leap with joy, until she remembered that there might be an expiration date on this interlude.

  She pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “And will you be here to hear it?”

  He flashed that crooked grin that had first made her go weak for him. It still did. “Are you asking if I’m going to cut and run again?”

  “Yes. And also if armed agents are going to show up to disappear you again.”

  He chuckled, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone. “No, we’re all square again. Although my job situation has changed a little bit.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I work for them now. No more fun freelance gigs. I’m exclusively on the government’s payroll.”

  What did that mean? Was he leaving again to disappear into one of their oubliettes?

  “It’s got its pros and cons,” he continued, leaning in to nip at her bottom lip.

  “Like?” The feel of his teeth scraping across her tender skin was making her go tight in all kinds of interesting places, and she was dangerously close to tossing aside her need for answers in favor of her need for sex.

  “Well, the pay isn’t great. I’m a civil servant now, with a civil servant’s salary.”

  His hand skimmed up her rib cage, stopping just shy of her breast. Her nipples ached to feel his touch. She was practically panting with it. “That’s rough.”

  “It is,” he conceded, sweeping his thumb back and forth across her midsection. With each pass, the tip of his thumb barely brushed the underside of her breast. She clenched her thighs together against the sharp ache of desire. “Although I do get to keep all the money I already have, and there’s loads of that. Plus, there’s a perk.”

  “There is?” What were they talking about again? All she could think of was getting his hands on her bare skin as quickly as possible.

  “Yep.” He pressed another soft kiss to her lips, licked her bottom lip briefly before drawing back. She shivered in his arms. “I can work from home. And home can be anywhere I choose to make it. I want to make it wherever you are.”

  Finally some part of what he was telling her sank in. “You’re not leaving again?”

  He looked down at her, all teasing gone from his expression. “I’m not leaving, as long as you tell me I can stay. Livie, can I stay?”

  Her fingers curled into the back of his neck, drawing his face down to hers. “Please stay,” she whispered, just before
she kissed him.

  * * *

  Watch for Love Around the Corner, the third book in the Romano Sisters series, coming from Amanda Weaver and Carina Press in spring 2020.

  Reviews are an invaluable tool when it comes to spreading the word about great reads. Please consider leaving an honest review for this or any of Carina Press’s other titles that you’ve read on your favorite retailer or review site.

  To purchase and read more books by Amanda Weaver, please visit the author’s website at www.amandaweavernovels.com/books.

  Acknowledgments

  Every book takes a village to produce, but I’ve never felt the truth of that as much as I have during the writing of this book. So many people helped me shape it, refine it, and perfect it, and I owe them everything.

  At one point in the history of The Romano Sisters, there was no book here. The book I’d intended to write in the middle fell apart and I had to come up with an entirely new story for Livie that would fit in between Jessica’s story and Gemma’s story. My agent, Rebecca Strauss, listened to me bounce ideas off the wall, trying to come up with something. With her guidance, I came up with a whole new story and a whole new Livie, and this one is so much better than what was there before.

  I owe a huge thanks to my husband, Matthew Ragsdale. Well, I always owe him a huge thanks, but for this particular book, he gamely read countless scientific articles and brainstormed Dr. Janet Finch’s entirely fictitious astronomical theory.

  Here’s the thing about this book. I decided to write a book featuring an astrophysicist heroine when I don’t really know a thing about astrophysics. Thankfully Dr. Ashley Pagnotta was willing to make sure the mess I’d written had some basic scientific accuracy. I could not have gotten this far without her, and any remaining scientific errors are entirely my own.

  All science aside, many thanks to Anne Forlines for invaluable feedback about these characters and their relationship. I couldn’t do it without her.

  And this book owes everything to my editor at Carina Press, Alissa Davis. Her insights are always spot-on, but this time, her comments led me to a dozen revelations about these characters and their story that I’d never have reached on my own.