The offer took her by surprise. At first, she expected the feeling of claustrophobia to hit her, but it never did. Instead, she was filled with a warmth of being wanted and accepted by this wonderful group of seniors she was proud to call friends. After talking to Doris and Paige about commitment, and how it was so much about living in the moment, a feeling of strength came over her at the idea of committing to a job and an island, instead of fear. She was much more confident now. And, after her mancation this spring, she also knew she truly didn’t need a man to help her navigate through life.
Though she did want a man.
A particular one.
One who was standing over by the punchbowl right now, looking a little awkward, staring at the cheese platters with a plastic cup in his hand.
“Elliott!” A smile overtook her as she drew nearer. He gave her one of his sexiest grins. The one that looked shy and mysterious at the same time—as if they had a wicked secret to share, which, given their previous wild night, she supposed they did.
He held her gaze until she had to look away—but only to take in the rest of him. His crisp white collar framed his Adam’s apple; the sleek lines of his black tuxedo outlined his strong shoulders. He had his glasses back on, and his new updated frames looked sexy and comfortable on him. His hair was combed neatly, but a few wisps had already escaped down his forehead, and his black bow tie sat just crooked enough to look very Elliott.
He threw her another mischievous grin when he realized she was checking him out.
Natalie reached out to give him a hug. The only thing that stole away from her joy at seeing him look this good was that he’d done it for another woman. And that he very well might hate Natalie right now.
But his smile never wavered as his bright-blue eyes took her in from head to toe. Hate was not part of his repertoire of emotions.
“Wow,” he said. “You look . . . Wow.” He shook his head.
She’d worn her hair down, letting it cascade down her back. The dress was like nothing she’d ever worn before—true Old Hollywood glamour, fitted against her body from top to bottom, with a layer of long-sleeved lace covering her collarbone and sitting off her shoulder. Her shoes were not too high—she was tall enough—but they were definitely more sparkly and strappy and feminine than she was used to. She felt strong. And happy. And confident.
She pushed a few curls off her shoulder. “Thank you. You look amazing, too.”
He gave her a return grin that bordered on relief.
“Where’s your date?” she asked, breaking the spell.
He cleared his throat. “No date.” He put his cup down.
“No date? But where’s . . .” She looked around briefly and tried to remember the woman’s name.
“As I said, I have no interest. Can I get you something to drink? Punch is here, or I could go to the bar for a gimlet.”
“But what . . .” She tried to put everything into place but had to reframe how she thought the evening would go. But mostly she couldn’t help the joy bubbling up that this fine-looking man right here had no lady on his arm.
“I have something for you,” he said.
Before she could figure out what he was talking about, he stepped a little closer. “But first I have to ask you something.”
She looked up to meet his gaze.
“Would you be my date tonight? No pressure. No commitment except tonight. But I’d love to have you near me all night.”
Elliott’s manly, salty scent drifted up around her and made her slightly heady for a second, as it instantly launched her back to the memory of being against his naked body. She managed a bob of her head as her voice disappeared.
“Good,” he said. “Then let me get the something for you.”
He leaned down underneath the punch table and whisked out a pot of light-yellow gerbera daisies that matched her dress perfectly. “I always get the color right. Law of probability,” he said with a wink. He handed them to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick you up at the door. But I’ll have you note I don’t have on dungarees.”
Natalie smiled. “No, you don’t. And your shoes are polished, too.”
“And may I be the first to say you have sea lion hair?”
Natalie laughed and took the potted daisies. “Thank you.”
“Natalie?” Katherine from the prom committee came up behind her, broke the spell, and grabbed Natalie’s hand. “It’s time to get things started.”
Natalie looked up at Elliott with disappointment and apology.
But he simply met her with a proud grin. “It’s your turn to shine now,” he said. “I’ll be waiting for you. First dance.”
Natalie kept him in her sights as Katherine pulled her away. First dance? Her pleasure. The idea that this man was hers all night settled her soul as she shuffled up to the stage with her arm curled around her potted plant. She was ready to start the party.
Natalie welcomed the families, explained the evening’s lineup, encouraged everyone to mingle and enjoy cocktails, and cast furtive glances at Elliott as he made the rounds among his new island friends.
She lugged her potted plant around proudly, explaining to everyone who asked that her date had bought it for her because they both preferred live plants. Hours later—after dinner, soft swing tunes, and making the rounds of hellos—she stood again with the microphone in one hand and the plant in the other and announced the three nominees for Senior Prom king, then the three nominees for Senior Prom queen. The court shuffled forward, and all took their places at the front of the room.
“And your new Senior Prom king and queen are . . .” Natalie announced. “Stanley Koll and Marie Cosgrove!”
The entire place exploded into applause.
The Colonel walked across the front of the room and bowed to ask for Marie’s hand. She took it, and the two of them spun out to the dance floor to a slow Tommy Dorsey tune that Natalie had picked out. But as Natalie was clapping frantically through her tears, the Colonel walked up to the band director and whispered something in his ear. The band came to a halt. Natalie frowned. What was the matter?
The band director stopped, turned toward his band, raised his hand in the air, and they all broke out into a modern hip-hop song that Natalie didn’t even know, heavy on the bass.
Stunned, she began to march over to see what the problem was, but Doris and fourteen others sauntered out to the dance floor and joined in with the Colonel and Marie—all doing a flash-mob dance. As the music thumped and the base boomed, all twenty seniors swiveled, shook, and clapped their hands in unison, all in a line. The guests—all the seniors’ families, children, grandchildren, and friends—went wild, everyone leaping out of their seats and joining in the clapping, straining to get a better view of the Colonel and Marie and the others doing their moves.
When the dance was over, the guests continued clapping uproariously as the Colonel hugged everyone, Marie hugged everyone, and Doris hugged her whole troupe. Finally, the Colonel lifted his hand and struck up the band again into the original tune.
As the Tommy Dorsey tune swelled onto the dance floor, and Natalie stopped clapping and smiling, the lights finally dimmed, and the Colonel and Marie went back to their slow waltz. A few bars in, the Colonel started calling others out. Ballroom dancing for the evening officially began.
“That was great,” Natalie heard behind her.
She looked over her shoulder to see Elliott, beaming at both her and the dancers.
“I had nothing to do with that,” she admitted.
“Yeah, that had Doris written all over it. I heard the music on her player during one of my dance lessons and wondered what they were up to. Would you join me in this dance?” He held his arm out in a formal pose.
“Wow, you look like you know what you’re doing.”
“The Colonel and Doris have been pounding this stuff into my brai
n. Is it working?”
“It must be, because I really want to dance with you right now.”
Elliott pulled her out onto the floor. He picked up the waltz rhythm as quickly as he had during their practice and glided her around the floor, his hand firmly at her back.
Natalie enjoyed being in his arms, especially when he brought her closer to his chest than necessary. He smelled delicious—some kind of great aftershave she’d never noticed on him before, something with a musk undertone that smacked of daring and masculinity. He held his chin high, as Doris had probably instructed him to do, but would let just his eyes drop to meet hers and give her a playful grin.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” she finally asked.
“I’m getting up my nerve,” he said.
They swung around the edge, moving in their perfect one-two-three, one-two-three, and Natalie closed her eyes and relished the dance while she had it. She’d have to get up a little nerve, too. She needed to tell Elliott all he’d meant to her. And maybe venture into some new plans.
When the dance ended, the couples gathered to clap for the band; then the next tune started up.
“Want to go outside?” Elliott asked.
When she nodded, he guided her through a set of French doors along the side of the ballroom. They walked along the balcony until they couldn’t be seen from inside, then Natalie turned and gulped in several deep breaths of sea air. She twisted her dress until she could breathe better. She was nervous now. She wanted to talk to him, too, but admitting how she felt about him, hinting that she’d like to make more of a commitment—it would all take a lot of courage. And she was terrified another panic attack would begin.
And if it did, what was her mind telling her?
She took a deep breath and told herself to take the chance.
Elliott tugged at his collar. Damn, these bow ties were stifling. He loosened the knot ever so slightly just so he could get a little extra air. He jostled the velvet box he had in his pocket—finally secured there after a forty-five-minute hunt with Nell this afternoon. The Colonel was right—they’d done everything slightly out of order, and he might have mucked things up a little, but he had to try.
“So we have some talking to do?” she asked.
She was smiling—so beautiful, so sweet—but Elliott’s heart was racing. He was terrified about what he was going to do. And he was terrified at what her reaction would be.
“I do,” he said anyway, his throat barely squeezing the phrase out.
And then he got down on one knee.
Natalie frowned at Elliott on the balcony concrete, wondering what on earth he was doing, and then . . . Oh God . . . Her heart started racing again.
“Natalie, I kneel before you as a man of honor, respect”—he glanced up at her—“a whole lot of courage . . .” He laughed. “And most of all as a man of adoration.”
The ocean wind ruffled his hair as Natalie watched the crown of his head, and she watched as the moonlight played a circle in his hair. She did know he adored her, and hearing him say it now filled her with a warmth she’d never experienced. It settled first in her brain, then down her spine, then in her heart and stomach as it slowly calmed her.
“I want you to know how much you mean to me,” Elliott said, “and how much you’ve meant to me the whole time I’ve known you. I used to think I was just a loner by choice—that I threw myself into work because it was easier than being with people—but now I see that I just hadn’t met the right people. And I definitely hadn’t met the right woman.
“I pretty much needed lessons in everything—how to date, how to dance, what to wear, what not to wear . . .” He glanced up. “But the one who taught me the important thing was you. You taught me how to love, and how to accept love, and how that means that you want to take care of each other and stand up to anything or anyone who gets in the way.
“The Colonel told me a few times, and again just a bit ago, that time was of the essence—he said once you know you’re in love with someone, why would you let another day go by without wanting her in your life? So I thought I’d ask . . . and see if you would consider staying here with me on the island, and making a life with me?”
Natalie gasped when he pulled a box out of his pocket. She suddenly felt unsteady on her feet. She waited for the panic to set in. But the box was huge.
“This isn’t an engagement ring.” He reached out to steady her. “I know better than to mention marriage around you.” He grinned. “I thought we’d just take a small step.”
He opened the box to reveal the female version of the Star Trek TAG Heuer.
“When this prize came to me as a his-and-hers set, I never thought I’d have a wife or partner to share it with. I never thought anyone would understand this kind of thing, or appreciate it like I do.” He laughed. “I’ve never given a woman a piece of jewelry in my life, and I’m so happy the first—and, hopefully, only one—is you. Whatever happens, I want you to have it.”
“Elliott, I can’t take this. You should save it for—”
“No, it’s yours. You were my other half these past few months, and I want you to have it. But I hope we can wear the matching set for a while, Natalie. I know you’re a commitment-phobe, and I don’t expect you to promise forever, but I’m wondering if you’ll give me a chance at a little while. I want to tell you and show you how I feel—I’m in this. All the way. I love you, I’m yours, and I’m here to work on making your life better every day.”
Natalie stepped back and stared. She waited for her heart to start skipping and the panic to set in. She waited for the crushing sensation, the tight chest, the feeling that she couldn’t breathe.
But . . . nothing like that came.
Instead, she looked at the man before her, and all she felt was tenderness toward him, care coming from him, joy at the idea of his company every day, anticipation of more beautiful sex, and—most of all—love, which felt like all those things combined. And, just as Paige said, it felt like friendship with a whole lot of attraction.
“Your sister doesn’t approve of me,” she finally said in the smallest of voices. She couldn’t imagine tearing Nell and Elliott apart. They’d been through too much together.
“She helped me find the watch, actually.”
“What?”
“I’d given it to her to save for a niece someday, but I talked to her, Nat, and told her what you mean to me. I told her I would always love her and be grateful to her, but I needed to start my own life, and make my own decisions about who I wanted in it. And when I told her how much I loved you, she started crying. And then she helped me find the watch. It was always meant to be a set.”
“Really, Elliott?”
“Really.”
“Then, yes,” she said when she could finally find her voice.
His eyebrows shot up under his messy hair, which had come undone from the gel and was back to its normal style now, much to her delight. “What?”
She pulled him up to hug him. “I’m saying yes. Yes to the watch. Yes to you. Yes to staying on the island. Yes to starting a relationship with you.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t believe it. I thought you’d . . . Well, forget what I thought. I just . . . Wait, you’re saying yes?”
She laughed and threw her arms around his neck. “It sounds like you’re the one who’s shocked now.”
“A little.”
“I talked to Paige and Doris earlier, and they both convinced me that commitment isn’t the scary thing I used to think it was. Doris said you need to stop worrying about possible future failures and just live with what makes you happy in the present. And I can do that with you, Elliott. You make my days so much happier. I fell in love with you a long time ago, I realize. And I can commit to you, and loving you, and making our life together—hopefully a long li
fe together—the best it can be.”
“You’ll live with me here?”
“Yes. I’ll be close to my sister, and my niece, and my new nephew, and the seniors. The Colonel wants me to take the new job opening as activities director. It’ll be perfect. You can work at the center. And Nell and Jim might come back someday, and then you’ll have your nephew here, too. And we can continue our . . . lessons.”
“Our lessons?”
“I’m thinking of even sexier ones.”
His smile grew wicked. “You know I’m going to ruin the curve on that.”
“I look forward to it.”
He pulled her toward him “I’m the luckiest man in the world.” His mouth found hers, and he kissed her with a combined fierceness and tenderness she was growing to love about him.
When she finally broke away, they walked back through the French doors to several sets of eyes suddenly on them.
“She said yes!” Elliott announced.
The room let up a collective cheer. Doris hustled over to embrace both of them, Marie gathered them into a group hug, the Colonel saluted, and even George and Sugar and John-O and June seemed in on the plans.
“Did everyone know about this?” she whispered to Elliott.
“I had some support,” he said.
Nell approached from the side, beaming with Jim, and held out her hand.
“Can we start over? I’m Nell, and thrilled to meet the woman who finally stole my brother’s heart.”
Natalie reached for her hand, but Nell pulled her into an embrace.
As Natalie glanced behind them, she saw Paige across the table give her a thumbs-up.
The whole group danced until morning—quite a feat for the seniors in the room, but they were all having a fabulous time.
When the lights finally dimmed after the last dance, Elliott took her hand, touched the watch that now sat beautifully on her wrist, and tugged her out the front door, starting down the hill.
The Kiss on Castle Road (A Lavender Island Novel) Page 30