by Marie Force
“Tell me there are more of these amazing Abbott brothers,” Emma said with another not-so-subtle glance at Colton.
“Four more single brothers at last count.”
“Hmmm, I might be due for a weekend in Vermont one of these days.”
“Any time you want. I’d love for you and Simone to meet them all. They’re the most awesome family.”
“Are you going to move, Luce?” Emma asked softly. “After meeting him and hearing how great he was when you were sick, I wouldn’t blame you if you did, despite what I said the other night.”
“No, I’m not moving. I could never leave you or Simone or Dad. Not to mention I have a business to run. No, I’m staying put, and he knows it.”
“So he’s going to move?”
“I don’t think so. His whole life is in Vermont.”
“Not anymore it isn’t.”
As Lucy thought about what her sister had said, Colton came over to her carrying a steaming mug.
“Tea,” he said. “I found it in the cabinet and thought it might taste good to you.”
She took the mug from him with a grateful smile. “Thanks.”
“Do you think you could eat something? I made eggs and toast.”
“That actually sounds pretty good.”
“Emma? Coffee? Tea? Eggs?”
“Coffee sounds good, but I can get it myself.”
“I’ll do it. How do you like it?”
“Just some cream would be good.”
“Coming right up.”
When he walked away, Emma made goggle eyes and fanned her face with her hand, nearly making Lucy choke on her tea. Her first sip of the lemon-flavored liquid settled in her tortured stomach and seemed destined to stay there, so she took another.
Colton brought Emma’s coffee and a plate with eggs and buttered toast for Lucy.
Her mouth watered at the tempting aroma. “That smells great. Thanks.”
“Sure thing. Now don’t talk about me while I’m right over there. Simone and I are watching you two.”
Simone’s giggle made Lucy and Emma smile.
“Hey, Simone,” Lucy said. “Will you take Colton with you and go get my mail? The keys are on the table.”
“Come on, Colton. Let’s go get Auntie Lu’s mail.”
He dutifully followed Simone to the door. “I know why you’re trying to get rid of me.”
Lucy gave him the biggest brightest smile she could muster. “I just want my mail, and Simone can’t go alone.”
“Right . . .” To Emma, he added, “Whatever she says about me, it’s all true.”
“I have no doubt,” Emma replied dryly. As soon as the door closed behind them, Emma pounced. “Spill it.”
“He told me he loves me after I’d been puking for hours and looked like death.”
“Oh, Luce,” Emma said with a sigh. “I’m so happy for you. No one deserves to be loved by a great guy more than you do.”
“I’m happy for me, too.”
“What did you say when he said it?”
“I told him I love him, too, because I do. I think I have for a while now. I’m trying not to think about all the issues we still have to work out, but whenever I’m with him, it’s easy to forget there’s anything standing in our way.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
“I hope so.” Lucy took a small bite of the eggs and toast, which seemed to satisfy her aching belly rather than aggravate it as she’d feared. “So I have Book of Mormon tickets and reservations for tonight that I won’t be able to use. You should take them and ask someone to go with you.”
“You can’t just give away tickets like that! You have to try to go.”
“I know I won’t feel like schlepping uptown and dealing with the crowds. Not tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. They’re all yours. You can bring Simone over here if you can’t find a sitter on short notice.”
“You don’t want her underfoot when you get so little time with him.”
“She won’t be underfoot, and we’d love to have her.”
“If you’re sure . . . I suppose I could see if Troy wants to go.”
“Send him a text, make some plans, get dressed up, have a night out. Simone can even sleep over if you want. Go have fun. With the way I feel, there’s no chance of her seeing anything that’ll scar her for life.”
“Well, that’s comforting.” She sent the text to Troy, who wrote right back to say he’d love to go. “I guess I have a date with Troy.”
“Simone is thriving, Em. It wouldn’t kill you to take some time for yourself once in a while.”
Before Emma could reply, the door flew open, and Simone came in carrying the mail and a bundle of yellow flowers.
“Were those in my mailbox?” Lucy asked as Simone presented the flowers to her.
“No, silly, we got them at the corner. Colton said I should bring you flowers ’cuz you’re not feeling good.”
“Colton said that, did he?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, thank you, honey. They’re lovely. Will you put them in a vase for me? There’s one under the sink.”
“Yep.” Simone took the flowers and dashed into the kitchen to find the vase.
“Thank you for the flowers,” Lucy said to Colton.
“They’re from Simone. It was all her.”
“Somehow I doubt that.” Lucy flipped through the mail and found a pink envelope with Cameron’s handwriting and new return address in Vermont. “Oh, something from Cam!” She tore open the envelope to find an invitation to Hannah’s bridal shower the following weekend and a note from Cameron that said, Hannah told me to make sure you’re invited. Hope you’ll come. Let me know if I can pick you up at the airport, train station, etc. You have to come! We all want you here!
“What is it?” Emma asked.
Lucy glanced at Colton. “An invite to Colton’s sister Hannah’s bridal shower. She’s getting remarried in two weeks. Her first husband died in Iraq seven years ago.”
“Oh, good for her.” Emma looked up at Colton. “Do you like the guy she’s marrying?”
Colton nodded. “Very much so. We’ve known him since we were kids, and he was a close friend of Hannah’s husband Caleb’s, too. She and Nolan are great together.”
“That’s awesome,” Emma said with that same hint of wistfulness Lucy had noticed earlier. She made up her mind to continue encouraging Emma to get out more now that Simone was older and becoming more independent all the time.
“Will you come for the shower, Luce?” Colton asked casually, but she didn’t miss the look of longing he sent her way. “You could fly back with me, and I’ll drive you from Burlington.”
“Let’s talk about that later,” she said with a warm smile so he’d know she wasn’t dismissing him or the idea outright. The invitation had filled her with yearning to be part of Hannah’s special day and to see Cameron and the rest of the Abbotts again.
“We should get out of your hair,” Emma said as she stood to leave. “I brought you some muffins and ginger ale. If you change your mind about tonight, text me.”
“Not going to.”
“You should at least ask him if he minds.”
“If I mind what?” Colton asked from where he sat on a bar stool at the counter that divided the kitchen and living room. He was reading the paper and drinking coffee. She couldn’t deny he seemed to belong there in the midst of her home and her stuff and her people. Nor could she deny that she loved that he’d made himself at home in her place.
“Watching Simone while Emma uses the tickets I’d gotten for a show I’m not going to feel up to.”
“Someone has to watch Simone? I figured she probably babysat other people’s kids by now.”
“I told you,” Simone said indignantly. “I’m eight! I can’t stay alone yet. Don’t you know anything about kids?”
“Apparently not much, but if we have to watch you, I suppose it’s
okay.” He made a show of acting put out, but they all knew he was kidding.
“When I come back I’ll bring Rebecca and my pretty princess game. It’ll be so much fun! Mommy, can I bring my Dora sleeping bag and sleep over with Auntie Lu?”
“Absolutely,” Lucy answered before Emma could object. “And I can’t wait to see Colton dressed up as a princess. He will be so pretty.”
“Yes, he will,” Emma muttered under her breath, making Lucy snort with laughter.
“What kind of snacks do I need to have on hand for this sleepover?” Colton asked Simone.
She recited a long list of treats that he dutifully recorded.
“Got it.”
“If you give her all that, you’ll be cleaning up more puke,” Emma said.
“I’ll be selective,” Colton said with a wink for Simone.
“Come on, Mommy.” Simone dragged Emma to the door. “I’ve got to go home and start packing.”
Emma rolled her eyes at them and allowed her daughter to tug her through the door.
Colton closed it behind them and came to join Lucy on the sofa. “You look better.”
“I feel a little better, but still weak.”
“Sorry you had to give up the tickets.”
“Me, too, but I know I won’t feel like it, and I’d hate to see them go to waste.” She reached for his hand. “I was looking forward to taking you to the theater.”
“We’ll do it another time.”
Lucy leaned her head back against the sofa and looked over at him, drinking him in.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just like to look at you.”
“I like to look at you, too.”
“Especially when I look so fantastic.” Smiling, she said, “Thanks for being so great with Simone. She’s crazy about you.”
“She’s adorable, and oh my God, she looks just like you!”
“I know. Em says she huffed and puffed and gave birth to her sister.”
Laughing at her description, he said, “You ever think about having kids of your own?”
Damn that creep of heat that overtook her face. Why did she have to light up like a stinking firecracker every time he flustered her, which was all the time? “Not really. It’s not something I see happening for me, with the business and everything. That’s somewhat all consuming. Plus I have Simone, and she’s like my kid, too.” She glanced at him. “What about you?”
“Not something I’ve given much thought to. Maybe in the far-off future. After meeting Simone though, I can’t help but wonder what a little Lucy would look like.” This was said with that charmingly adorable smile that made her insides flutter every time he directed it at her.
Lucy was suddenly overwhelmed with yearning for things that might never be possible for them. She tugged her hand free. “Why are we even talking about this?”
He tightened his grip on her hand, refusing to let her escape. “Because it’s what people talk about when they’re building something together.”
As quickly as the yearning came, it drained away when the realities of the situation reminded her she had no business pining for anything permanent where he was concerned.
“Why are you frowning?”
“Am I?”
“Uh-huh.”
“The usual reasons.” She forced a smile, determined not to spoil the time they had together with worries about a future neither of them could predict. “It’s so nice to have you here.”
“It’s nice to be here.”
“I’m sorry for what happened yesterday. I feel terrible about leaving you stranded at the airport.”
“It worked out fine. I’m just glad you’re all right and feeling better.”
She diverted her gaze to the invitation on the coffee table.
“I have an idea,” he said.
“About?”
“About how you can come to Vermont for Hannah’s shower and stay there until the wedding.”
“This I’ve got to hear.”
“What if you spent this next week doing all your meetings and getting everything together you needed to work in a quiet, peaceful setting with only a horny mountain man to disturb you every couple of hours. Imagine all the work you could get done in this peaceful, bucolic setting I’ve described for you.”
In addition to his many attractive qualities, he was also endlessly entertaining. “You seem to have given this some considerable thought.”
“Only since you got the invitation from Cam, which I knew nothing about in case you wondered.” He rubbed at the whiskers on his jaw. “When I got my cell phone, the guy at the store tried to talk me into one of those mobile wireless thingies. What do you call them?”
“Broadband?”
“Yeah that. Do you have one of those?”
“I do.”
“Excellent. I have a generator that you can use to charge your computer and phone and broadband thingie. The connectivity on the mountain is some of the best in the area because of the unrestricted access to the towers in St. J. You could get a ton of work done. And you could be with me for two whole weeks in a row.” He bent his head to leave a line of kisses on the back of her hand before turning it to deliver one very persuasive kiss to her palm. “Two whole weeks together, Luce. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
She caressed his cheek. “It would be very awesome.”
“So you’ll do it? You’ll come home with me next Saturday and stay through Hannah’s wedding?”
“Will you hate me if I ask for a little time to think about it and to figure out if I can make it happen with work?”
“No, Lucy, I won’t hate you. How could I hate you when you know I love you?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath that she released slowly. “So I didn’t dream that you said that in the middle of the night?”
“Look at me.”
Forcing her eyes open, she met his intense gaze. “I love you. I want to be with you as much as I can. I’ll take whatever I can get. A day, a weekend, a week, two weeks, a month. I’ll take it.”
“But at what point will that stop being enough for you? For both of us?”
Colton curled his hand around her neck and drew her in for a soft, tender kiss that brought tears to her eyes. He made her feel safe and cherished and protected from everything other than the heartache she knew had to be coming right around the next corner.
CHAPTER 26
And now for some stats . . . First boil: March 9. Last boil: April 23. This date broke the record by three days.
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, after the boil
“Kiss me back,” he whispered as he stretched out next to her on the sofa, their legs intertwined, arms wrapped around each other.
Lucy pushed aside all her worries and fears to give into the sweetness of his kisses. Nothing had ever been better than the way she felt when she was surrounded by him, consumed by a kind of pleasure she’d never experienced before. At times like this, when she felt closer to him than she’d ever been to anyone, it seemed hard to believe anything could keep them from having it all.
But then reality intruded, as she thought of her company and the people who relied on her, the clients she’d worked so hard to cultivate, the family that counted on her, and it all seemed quite impossible to reconcile with her growing love for a man who lived and worked six hours from her.
She turned her face away from the kiss.
Breathing hard, Colton held her close and burrowed into the curve of her neck, leaving a trail of fiery kisses on her sensitive skin that made her shiver in response to him.
“God, Lucy, what you do to me. I promised myself I wouldn’t touch you today when you’ve been so sick, and the minute we’re alone I’m kissing you like I’m drowning and you’re my only source of air.”
He sounded so angry with himself and maybe frustrated, too. She regretted being the cause of either emotion when he’d done so much for her while she was sick. “There’s no reason you can’t touch me, Co
lton. I’m much better, and I love when you touch me.”
“I shouldn’t touch you. Not now.” Though his words sounded pained, he made no move to release her.
“Why not?”
“Because one touch is never enough with you. I always want more, and you need to rest and relax and recover, not be pawed by your boyfriend.”
“I love being pawed by my boyfriend.”
“Lucy.” His low growl made her laugh.
She took his hand and guided it down the front of her until it was pressed against the heat between her legs. “Does that feel sick to you?”
“God, no. It feels hotter than hell.”
“Touch me, Colton. Make love to me. I promise I won’t break.”
“You need to rest, Lucy.”
“I will. After . . .”
He moved quickly off the sofa and slid his arms under her, lifting her into his embrace effortlessly.
Lucy put her arms around his neck and peppered his face with kisses as he walked them into the bedroom, where he deposited her gently on the bed.
Leaning over her, he gazed at her reverently as he moved slowly and carefully to untie and open her robe. Underneath she wore only a T-shirt and a tiny pair of panties she’d bought with him in mind. At some point during the night, she’d kicked off the sweats that had made her feel overheated.
His hands trembled ever so slightly as he moved them over her body, setting her on fire with his gentle strokes, and he hadn’t even touched her skin yet. “Sit up.” He helped her up, pushed the robe off her shoulders and reached for the hem of her shirt, lifting it up and over her head before helping her to lie down again. Standing by the side of the bed, he gazed down at her as he pulled off his shirt and unzipped his pants. Then he was propped above her on one elbow, looking down at her with love in his eyes. “You are so beautiful. So incredibly beautiful.”
Her first inclination was to object. She wasn’t beautiful. At best she was attractive. But he made her feel beautiful with the way he looked at her, the way he touched and kissed her.