One Week With Her Husband (Eden Manor Book 3)

by Noelle Adams

  He was finished with two of them already, and Cassandra stroked them with awe as she admired the beauty of the glass and framing.

  “I hope I can make things as beautiful as you can,” she murmured, both her emotions and her aesthetic senses touched by the colors, the artistry, the history of the pieces.

  “You can.” Silas wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him. “You definitely can.”

  She smiled and looked up at him. “When are you going to take them back over to Eden Manor? I can’t wait to see them back in the house.”

  “I can take these two over any time. We can do it this afternoon, if you want something to do, although we won’t be able to get them up until Joe’s guys are there to install them.”

  “That would be good,” Cassandra said, feeling strangely restless and like she wanted to see other people—maybe just to prove to the world that she was really married to Silas Vance again. “I’ll call Kelly and make sure it’s a good time.”

  She went to make the call, and she found Silas in the cabin afterwards. “Kelly said we can come over any time. Her sister and the kids have gone back to Savannah, and there are some other workers there today anyway. They’re really excited to see the windows so they want us to come right away, if we can.” She paused when she realized that Silas had been looking in a little cedar box that had been on the mantle of the cabin for as long as she could remember. “What were you doing?”

  He cleared his throat, closing his hand around something from the box. “Just tell me if it’s too soon.”

  “Too soon for what?” She really had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

  He walked over to her and reached down to lift up her left hand. When he opened his other hand, she saw he held her wedding ring and engagement ring, which she’d taken off and left with him when she’d walked out three years ago. “Do you think you’re ready to wear them again?”

  She nodded mutely, filled with unexpected emotion.

  He slipped on the two rings and raised her hand to kiss them. He still wore his wedding ring. He’d never taken it off.

  “I know it’s going to take some work,” he said softly, thickly, “but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure we stay together for the rest of our lives.”

  She nodded again, still not able to speak.

  He seemed to understand. He didn’t need her response in words.

  ***

  Just over an hour later, they were driving up to Eden Manor in his truck, with two stained glass windows packed carefully in the back.

  Cassandra smiled as she saw Peter and Kelly standing outside in front of the porch, talking to Joe and Vanessa, who were showing them something on a clipboard.

  Peter evidently saw the truck as Silas put it into park, and he gave them an enthusiastic wave.

  Cassandra chuckled. “He’s just adorable.”

  Silas grunted and narrowed his eyes at her. “Adorable?”

  “He really is.” She laughed even harder at his expression. “Don’t be jealous. He’d have to grow a beard and put on four inches and really bulk up and get rough looking before he started to interest me.”

  “Okay then.” Silas leaned over to kiss her briefly. “Just make sure you remember that.”

  She was still giggling as she saw another couple approaching the others from around the house. “Oh, look. Missy and Zach are here. They’ve been doing the landscaping, you know.”

  “I know,” Silas muttered. “What’s he doing here now?”

  Cassandra looked at him in surprise. “Zach? What’s wrong with him being here? What’s the matter with you?”

  “He was always into you. You think I didn’t know that?”

  “You’re crazy, Silas. We were kids when he had a crush on me. He’s insanely in love with Missy now. Didn’t you know that?”

  “Missy?” Silas’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

  “Yes, seriously. You’ve really been out of touch lately. All kinds of stuff has happened while you’ve been hiding away in the cabin. There’s no one over there who is a threat to my love for you, so do you think we can go say hi now and get some help with these windows.”

  “I guess so,” he muttered, a glint of humor in his eyes, beneath the brooding. “I love you, you know.”

  “I know. I love you too.” She leaned over to kiss him before she got out of the truck.

  He took her hand as they walked over to join the others, and she felt a swell of pure joy as she squeezed his hand.

  For just a moment, it felt like the rest of her life was lying before her like an opened book, like an untold story.

  So much sweeter because she had no idea how it would end.

  Epilogue

  Two months later, Cassandra was getting out of Silas’s truck again on the driveway at Eden Manor.

  The work on the old place was finally done, and Peter and Kelly were having their friends over for dinner to celebrate.

  Silas walked around the truck until he reached her, and he smiled before he took her hand as they walked toward the front steps.

  “Looks like we’re the last ones here,” she said, noticing an old pickup she knew belonged to Zach and Vanessa’s SUV already parked in front of them.

  Silas frowned. “I was almost done with that lattice, so it would have been stupid not to finish up before I stopped. We’re not late.”

  “Well, we might be a few minutes late,” she replied, smiling so he would know she wasn’t annoyed anymore, although she’d been frustrated earlier when she was trying to get him to stop working so he could shower and dress. “But I’m sure they haven’t started dinner yet. Doesn’t this place look gorgeous now?”

  “Yeah. It really does. They’ve done a great job with it. Peter said they were already booked up three months out from their opening weekend.”

  “That’s what Kelly said too.”

  Silas paused on the porch, reaching out to brush her hair back from her face. “Just think of all the people who will see and love that mural and ask you to do work for them.”

  He’d been trying extra-hard to be encouraging about her art lately, since she’d had to take a part-time job at Grounded until she built up enough business with her painting. Silas’s income could easily support them, but she wanted to do her part too. Last week a couple had called her, after seeing the mural at Eden Manor, and wanted her to do sofa-sized painting for them. She’d also signed up for several different craft and art fairs in the surrounding area. She was hopeful that eventually she could have enough business to quit the part-time job.

  Silas was already building her a little art studio not far from his workshop so she’d have a quiet, private place to work.

  “And the really good news,” Silas said, opening the storm door and holding it for her, since the front door had been left open in a clear invitation for them to enter, “is that now Joe and Vanessa are done with Eden Manor, they can finally come out and do the expansion on the cabin.”

  Silas had offered for them to move into town, but Cassandra felt like the cabin was more of their home now. They couldn’t live forever in a one-room cabin, however, especially now that they were talking about adopting, so they were going to build out the cabin, adding two separate bedrooms, another bathroom, and a larger kitchen, and they’d hired Joe and Vanessa to do the work.

  Cassandra was excited about it. She was excited about so many things now.

  There were so many different possibilities waiting in her future that she couldn’t even imagine at the moment.

  In response to the swell of excitement, she pulled Silas down into a quick kiss. He kissed her back and gave her a tight hug, just before the others—Peter and Kelly, Joe and Vanessa, Missy and Zach—came out of the dining room to greet them.

  The first thing they discovered was they’d missed the announcement of Joe and Vanessa’s engagement. Vanessa was brimming with joy and showing off her ring, and Cassandra was thrilled for her, although she kept a close eye on S
ilas to make sure he wasn’t secretly upset.

  Vanessa’s first husband, Carl, had been his best friend. It might be hard for him to see her getting married now to someone else.

  Cassandra couldn’t see any shadows in his eyes, though, and after a few minutes he wrapped an arm around her waist. “I’m fine,” he murmured into her ear.

  “Just making sure.”

  “Joe’s a good guy, and Vanessa deserves to be happy. Carl would want her to be happy.”

  “I know.”

  “Things don’t always end up the way we expect,” he said, still speaking low so no one else could hear.

  “I know.”

  “They can still be good.”

  She smiled at him, strangely emotional. “Really good.”

  He kissed her quickly, and then they rejoined the conversation.

  They all toured the house and grounds, and then they had a delicious dinner. The conversation ranged from sports, to the house Missy had just sold to a nice couple moving to the area, to the planned visit to Eden Manor by Cyrus Damon, the eccentric billionaire uncle of Peter and Kelly’s investor—something that both excited and intimidated them.

  Through it all, Cassandra had a really good time, and she could tell that Silas did too. He didn’t talk much, unless someone asked him a question, but he liked these people and he wasn’t eager to get away from them.

  He might still be big and rough and strong and gruff, but he wasn’t a recluse anymore.

  He would never be the life of the party, but he was a good man. A committed friend and a wonderful husband. He would be a great father. They couldn’t get serious about adopting yet, not when they were still living in a one-room cabin, but in another year, they could start the process. Both of them wanted to. If, for some reason, adoption didn’t end up working out for them, it would be a real disappointment, but Cassandra knew they could still be happy anyway.

  Life was like that. Strange and surprising and heartbreaking and beautiful—and she didn’t need to control the outcome.

  Her life with Silas was going to be good.

  ***

  This is the last story in this cycle of the Eden Manor series. I’m thinking about writing another cycle, however, set after the bed and breakfast opens and featuring some familiar faces. The earlier stories are One Week with her Rival (Joe and Vanessa’s book) and One Week with her (Ex) Stepbrother (Zach and Missy’s book).

  My next release is a standalone novel, Fooling Around. An excerpt can be found on the following pages.

  If you want to read more about Peter, Kelly, and their family, you can check out the Beaufort Brides series: Hired Bride, Substitute Bride, and Accidental Bride.

  If you’d like to keep up with my new releases and sales, you can sign up for my low-volume newsletter.

  Excerpt from Fooling Around

  Closing the drawer, she returned to the rocking chair and sank down into it again.

  She felt so bleak and lonely it paralyzed her. She was trying to talk herself out of it—trying to make herself do something constructive—when her phone rang again.

  This time, it was probably her sister, Marie.

  She found enough energy to lift the phone and was surprised to see it was a number she didn’t know. She didn’t usually answer numbers she didn’t recognize, but she needed something to get her out of this boneless slump. She connected the call. “Hello?”

  “Is this Julie Nelson?”

  The voice sounded vaguely familiar. “Yes.”

  “This is Eric Vincent.” He paused as if she were supposed to recognize that name.

  “Yes?”

  “I was in the elevator with you earlier.”

  That was why the voice had triggered familiarity. Of course, it was him. That big, handsome, arrogant, rude man with the broken leg. “Oh. Hi.”

  “You left the hospital before I could speak to you.”

  “I had things to do. I didn’t think we were sticking around for hugs and kisses.” She wasn’t usually so snarky, but she was tired and his attitude had really bugged her on the elevator.

  “I have a proposition for you.”

  She blinked. Despite their unexpectedness, the words were just like him. No niceties. No small talk. No explanations. No apologies for calling a stranger out of the blue and interrupting her day. Just a blunt declaration, as if he had every right to make it. “A proposition?”

  “Yes. I broke my leg two weeks ago, and I’ll be in a cast for at least three months. This is a problem for me.”

  “I imagine it would be a problem for anyone.”

  “Sure, but I have very little patience with people fussing over me.”

  This didn’t surprise her. She waited for the rest of whatever strange proposition he was about to issue.

  “I need a little help, though, for the next three months, and I need someone who isn’t going to drive me crazy.”

  “And?”

  “And I want you to be that person.”

  She’d been rocking back and forth in the chair, but on these words she froze, tilted forward on the rocker.

  “Did you hear me?” he asked, sounding slightly impatient.

  “Of course, I heard you. I just don’t understand what you’re thinking. I told you I’m not a nurse.”

  “I don’t need a nurse. I have nurses. I have a PA who helps me with my normal daily stuff. I need a different kind of assistant for the next three months. Someone who will just help me out with getting around and making me comfortable.”

  “Just how comfortable are you thinking?” she asked, her eyebrows arching as she thought about what this strange, entitled man might be asking her.

  His voice was very dry as he responded, “If I wanted that kind of assistance, I promise I could find it easily—without paying for it.”

  She had no doubt that was true. He was good-looking and gave off that confident, successful vibe. He was probably tripping over women who wanted him romantically, sexually, domestically. “So what exactly are you asking me to do?”

  “Be my assistant for three months. Just handle little things like you did on the elevator. Keep me from going crazy.”

  She tried to think back to what she’d done for him. She couldn’t remember anything, except that she’d given him a bottle of water, since he’d looked so hot, and she’d adjusted his footrest after he’d bumped in to the wall. Her mother had used a wheelchair for several weeks after her first stroke, since the paralysis had kept her from walking, and he had looked uncomfortable with the way the leg rest was set.

  “So what do you say? I’d pay you well.”

  His matter-of-fact tone brought her out of her thoughts. The man actually thought she would do it. “And it didn’t occur to you that I have a life? A job? A family? You think I can just pack up and work for you for three months?”

  “I asked about you at the funeral home. They told me your mother had just died, and you didn’t have any other family commitments. I’ll pay you enough to make it worth it for you to quit whatever job you have.”

  He was serious. He was absolutely serious about her tucking him in and mopping his brow for the next three months. “I don’t even know who you are.”

  “I told you. I’m Eric Vincent. I played football for a while and then I developed a popular video game. Just Google me if you want more information.”

  She frowned as she got out of her chair and went to her computer. The man was smugger than anyone she’d ever met. “I didn’t ask for your resume. I don’t know anything about your character. I’d have no idea what I was getting into with you. I’m not in the habit of trusting strange men I meet on the elevator, you know.”

  As she spoke, she typed his name into a web search on her laptop, and she felt a tightening of annoyance as she saw the list of results. The slick website of the sports video game he’d developed—one that even she had heard of. Dozens of articles about his selling out to his partner and some other investors for almost two billion dollars last year. Hun
dreds of mentions of his sports, entrepreneurial, and romantic prowess. A money blog speculating that his net worth was an astronomical sum. Pictures of him in uniform when he played college and professional football. A women’s magazine listing him as one of the sexiest bachelors in the world last year. A number of columns guessing about the new project he was evidently working on now.

  No wonder he was so arrogant. The world evidently believed he could do no wrong.

  “I can give you character references, if you want,” he said, sounding almost amused, as if she was being silly and old-fashioned. “You can talk to the rest of my staff. They’ll tell you I’m rude but not in the habit of taking advantage of anyone.”

  “This is crazy. How much are you going to pay me to make it worth picking up my whole life to follow you around for three months?”

  “What’s your yearly salary?”

  Her yearly salary was pittance, since she made less than $3000 for each online class she taught, and since she was an adjunct, the money didn’t come with any benefits. “That’s none of your business.”

  “All right. I’ll give you $100,000 for three months work.”

  She swallowed. It would take her at least three years to make that much at her current rate.

  But being in the elevator with the man for ten minutes had made her want to strangle him. Plus, he was weird and obnoxious, and this whole thing sounded suspicious. “I don’t think--”

  “$200,000.”

  “I’m not negotiating for more money. I actually don’t want to do this.”

  “$500,000.”

  Who was this guy, to throw around those kinds of numbers? “You’re crazy. You can advertise for a nurse and get someone a lot more qualified than me.”

  “I’ve had four nurses in two weeks. They’re not working out for me. I want you.”

  “I don’t care if you want me. I’m not on the job market.” She’d always planned to teach History at the college level—a small college where she could get to know her students and wouldn’t have a lot of pressure to publish all the time. She’d never finished her PhD, though, and she couldn’t imagine trying to get back into her dissertation right now.