“They’re probably still skiing,” Luke said.
I bit my tongue to keep from saying something rude about Luke’s friends. “The nurse said you need to stay here overnight. They are admitting you and will take you to a room soon.”
“How did you get ahold of Shelly?” Luke asked. “You don’t have her number.”
“Actually, we had just run into each other in town.” I smirked. “Shelly was helping me pick out your Christmas present.”
“For real?” Luke grimaced and Shelly laughed.
“Relax, little brother. I didn’t tell her about your weird Princess Leia fetish.” Shelly gasped and pretended to be embarrassed. “Oops.”
“Every male who has hit puberty has that fetish,” I said when Luke glared at Shelly. “I’ve already got a gold bikini in the back of my closet.”
Luke looked at me in surprise. “You do? Why am I just now hearing about this?”
“I think this might be my cue to leave,” Shelly said. “I’m just going to step out into the hall and give Mom a call. She’s worried sick right now.”
“You shouldn’t have told her,” Luke grumbled.
The nurse returned a few minutes later to take Luke to his room. After he was settled in, Shelly announced that she was leaving. “My children will eat my husband alive if I don’t get home soon and start dinner,” she said. “Emery, just call me if you need anything. You have my number now.”
“I do. Thanks.” I was surprised when she hugged me before leaving.
“Can I get you anything?” I asked Luke. “Are you thirsty? Cold?”
Luke grabbed my hand and pulled me onto the bed. “I wouldn’t say no to a sponge bath.”
“I’ll get your nurse. Carl just started his shift,” I teased. “I’m sure he has a gentle touch.”
“You’re supposed to be nice to me,” Luke said, pouting. “I could’ve died today.”
“I’m aware.” I brushed his hair off his forehead and pressed my lips against his warm skin. “I was really worried about you, Luke.”
“Em, I’m sorry.” He touched my cheek with his good hand. “Come here. Lay down next to me.” I did so hesitantly, afraid that I might injure him. Luke laughed. “You’re not going to hurt me, Em. They’ve already loaded me up with painkillers.”
I looked into his eyes. “You have to be more careful, Luke. I can’t lose you.”
“Lose me? Darling, you’re not going to lose me. I’m not going anywhere.” He sighed. “This is because of Eric, isn’t it?”
“He just died, Luke. One minute he was there and the next... he was gone. He was young and healthy.” I swallowed down emotions that I hadn’t felt in weeks. “I barely survived losing him and I didn’t love him nearly as much as I love you. I can’t lose you. I won’t survive a loss like that.”
Luke shifted so he could put his good arm around me. “You’re not going to lose me,” he repeated. “It will take a hell of a lot more than a stupid skiing accident to take me away from you. Emery, you and I are going to have a lifetime together.”
We both knew that Luke had little to no control over how and when he might die, but his lie was convincing. I wanted to believe that we would have a lifetime together. Luke’s breathing slowly deepened and I knew the pain medication was taking effect. He drifted in and out of sleep for the rest of the night and I eventually moved to the chair by the window. I wasn’t going to get any sleep in the hospital, but I also couldn’t go home. I didn’t want to be alone in my house.
I left the room just before sunrise to find a cup of coffee. As I was leaving the cafeteria, I bumped into my doctor.
“Emery, right?” she said, looking surprised to see me.
“Yes, hi Dr. Ellis.” I didn’t know what to say to her.
“Are you visiting someone?” she asked.
I nodded. “My boyfriend had a little skiing accident yesterday. He’s supposed to be discharged once the doctor makes his rounds.”
“I see.” Dr. Ellis smiled. “We got your bloodwork back and everything looks good. There was something that I wanted to discuss with you. I was going to give you a call on Monday, but I have a moment now.”
“Oh, okay.” I felt flustered. “It’s nothing bad?”
“Not technically. Surprising maybe.” She stepped to the side and we were alone in the hallway. “You had mentioned that your period was late, so I went ahead and had that tested as well. It’s likely still very early, but your bloodwork shows that you are pregnant, Emery.”
My mouth dropped open. “Pregnant? How? That’s not possible.”
“I’m assuming that’s a rhetorical question and I understand that perhaps this wasn’t planned.” She smiled sympathetically. “It also could be a false positive, though that’s very, very rare. I’ll want to see you in a couple of weeks. Call my office on Monday and set something up, okay?”
“Okay.” I nodded, feeling numb. In my wildest dreams, I never suspected that I might be pregnant. I’d assumed my cycle was just off because of the move and other stressors. Luke and I had been careful, but I guess we hadn’t been careful enough.
It took me a long time to compose myself enough to rejoin Luke. He was awake now, sitting on the edge of the bed and wearing his own clothes.
“Hey, beautiful. I was worried you had abandoned me,” he said.
“Coffee,” I said, holding up the cup. I hadn’t taken a single sip. I’d already decided that I wasn’t going to tell Luke just yet. I didn’t want him to find out in the hospital while he was still under the influence of painkillers. But now I had to pretend like I wasn’t carrying around a bombshell that had the power to change his life forever. “Did your doctor come by yet?”
“Not yet. The nurse said he’s down the hall.” Luke looked at me closely. “Is everything alright? You look a little pale.”
“Everything is fine. I’m just tired,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
He gestured for me to sit next to him. “Much better. I suspect I’ll be ready for that sponge bath when we get home.”
“We have something we need to talk about when we get home,” I said, forcing a smile as I sat next to him. “And I think you’ve still got five smelly guys staying at your place.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Luke grimaced. “Did you ever hear from Jared?”
“He called me last night after you were asleep. Said he was glad you aren’t dead.” I frowned. “I may have cussed him out.”
Luke laughed and put his arm around me. “I’m sure you did.”
“Mr. Cooper?” The doctor had arrived and I moved quickly away from Luke. The sooner he got discharged, the sooner we could go home and I could tell him the news.
If Luke noticed how quiet I was being on the drive home, he decided not to say anything. “Can you take me to my place?” Luke asked.
“Your place? Are you sure?” I asked.
“Don’t worry. The guys are leaving soon. They just want to see me before they go.” Luke reached over and took my hand. “I’ll even let you cuss them out again.”
“Luke, do you think we’ve been moving too fast?” I asked.
He squeezed my hand. “It sounds like you think we have been, Em.”
“No.” I sighed and took the turn that led to Luke’s house. “It’s just, a lot has changed for both of us in the last month and I don’t know if either of us has thought about what that means for our future.”
“Speak for yourself,” Luke said. “I’ve got the next ten years planned out already.”
I parked the car and looked at him. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” He grinned. “We’ll keep dating for the next six months and then I’m going to ask you to move in with me officially. We’ll live in my house while we remodel the other house. I’ll propose to you in a super romantic way and you’ll cry and say yes. We’ll get married and then settle into our new home. You’ll be pregnant, so I’ll do the heavy lifting. We’ll have four kids. I will want more, but you’ll convince me that your body h
as been through enough and I’ll get a vasectomy. I’ll whine about it more than I should, especially considering you’ve had four of my kids. As the kids are hitting middle school, I’ll sell the resort so I can spend more time with them. We’ll add some stables to our property because our daughters will insist on having horses.”
“Wow. You weren’t kidding. You’ve been giving this a lot of thought.” I forced a smile. Luke’s plans sounded nice, but I was carrying information that was going to change everything he’d planned for us. “Four kids?”
“Two of each,” he said, still grinning. “They’ll have your eyes.”
I shook my head, still smiling. “We’ve only been dating for three weeks, Luke.”
“I know what I want, Em.” He looked me right in the eye and without hesitation said, “I want you. I want to marry you. I want to have babies with you. I want to raise a family with you. I want to grow old with you.”
I had to look away because my eyes were filling with tears. “I want those things, too, and I want them with you, Luke.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Luke’s house was packed with guys and ski gear. I nearly fell over a pair of ski boots left just inside the door. When I swore, Luke grimaced and said, “They’ll be gone soon, Em.”
They guys all yelled and clapped when Luke walked into his living room. It was just as trashed as the foyer had been. There were empty beer bottles and leftover food on every surface. I left Luke with his friends and went to the kitchen. As annoyed as I was that the guys had destroyed his place knowing full-well that he was recovering from a head injury, I was glad to have something to focus on other than my unexpected baby news.
I rinsed dishes and loaded the dishwasher, cleaned counters and scrubbed the floor. When I was done in the kitchen, I went through the bedrooms and stripped sheets from the beds. I got the laundry going and then went to the master bedroom and made the bed with clean sheets. Luke would need to rest soon and I wanted him to have a clean, comfortable place to sleep.
“Em, you didn’t have to do all this,” Luke said when he found me fluffing his pillows. “I didn’t ask you to bring me here so you would clean the whole house.”
“Someone needed to do it,” I said. “Besides, I like taking care of you for a change.”
“You are amazing. Thank you.” Luke came over and put his good arm around me. “The guys are gone. It’s just you and me.”
“Sounds dangerous,” I joked.
Luke brushed my hair back. “In the car, you said that we needed to talk about something. What’s up?”
“Right. Before I do that, I need to run over to my place. I want to grab my things before it gets dark.” I glanced at the bed. “You should lay down and get some rest.”
“Em, I’m not letting you go there alone. I haven’t gotten around to changing the locks yet.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t need to do that. I’ll only be gone for five minutes.” I tried to look stern when I said, “You need to rest.”
He shook his head. “I won’t be able to rest if I’m worried about you. Let me go with you and then I promise I’ll rest when we get back.”
“Fine.” I sighed. “I can’t say no to you.”
“We’ll test that theory later,” he said.
When we got to my house, Luke approached the door first. He turned the doorknob and the door swung open. “Em, I have to ask– are you sure you locked the door when you left yesterday?”
“Absolutely sure,” I said.
“Go wait in the car,” Luke said.
“I’m not letting you go in there alone,” I protested. “We should call the cops.”
“I’m not going to call the cops. It’s just a busted lock, Em. I can handle this, just wait in the car.”
“Your arm is in a sling, Luke.” I reached for my phone. “Either you let me go in there with you, or I’m calling the police.”
He sighed. “Fine. Let’s just get what you need and get out of here. I’ll have Greg come over tomorrow to change the locks.”
Luke might have said that it was just a busted lock but if he had believed that, he wouldn’t have been so nervous about me following him inside. Just like last time, I didn’t immediately notice anything missing or out of place. It wasn’t until Luke pulled up short walking into the master bedroom that I started to worry.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, stepping around him.
“Em, don’t.” He grabbed my arm. “We need to call the police.”
It took me a second to see what had rattled Luke. “Is that...me?”
“Yeah.” Luke nodded. “It’s from Friday night.”
The picture had been left in the center of my bed. It was a black and white photo taken in bad lighting. In the photo, I was asleep on my bed, wearing Luke’s shirt and nothing else. It had no doubt been taken in those few minutes between when I had fallen asleep after texting Luke and when he had woken me up.
“Someone was here?” I said, not quite comprehending.
“Someone might still be here,” Luke said, backing toward the door. “Come on. Let’s go outside and call the police.”
It took the police almost an hour to arrive. Luke and I waited in my car, neither of us doing much talking. After the police did a quick check to make sure no one was still in the house, we moved inside and sat on the couch while they did a more detailed search of the bedroom.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I said, mostly to myself. “I don’t even know anyone in Starlight. Who would do this?”
“I don’t know.” Luke was glaring straight ahead, his fingers digging into his leg. “It had to be someone that knew you lived here alone.”
“But I usually wasn’t here alone,” I said. “Whoever it was knew that you weren’t here that night. That means he was watching me.”
Luke looked over, his jaw clenched. “When I find this guy, he’s going to be sorry.”
The police came downstairs and they had a lot of questions, the most important one being whether I knew who might have broken in. I explained that I had only recently moved to town and only knew a few people, namely my coworkers. Then I thought of someone who might have a very good reason for harassing me.
“Collin,” I said suddenly and Luke flinched.
“Who is Collin?” Officer Scholz asked.
“Collin Rasman. He used to work for me,” Luke said. “He and Emery had a bad encounter last week.”
“A bad encounter?” Officer Scholz pressed as he jotted down a note.
I nodded. “Collin had asked me out a few times over the last three weeks and I turned him down. When he found out that Luke and I were dating, he didn’t take it well. A few of us grabbed a drink after work on Monday and Collin showed up and confronted me. He grabbed me and shoved me against the wall.” I felt Luke tense next to me. “I was able to shove him away, but he was pretty angry.”
Officer Sholz pursed his lips. “You just shoved him away? That’s how it ended?”
“No.” Luke leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “He confronted her again and said some inappropriate things. I slammed him against the wall and fired him. We have cameras in the bar that recorded everything, if that would be helpful.”
“Yes, I’d like to see that.” Officer Sholz closed his notebook. He held up an evidence bag holding the photo we had found on my bed. “And you’re sure that this picture was taken Friday night?”
I nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“That’s how I found her when I came over Friday night. That picture had to have been taken within a few minutes of my arrival.” Luke’s hand curled into a fist on his leg. “Whoever it was might have still been in the house when I got here.”
“And you said the door was unlocked? Was that unusual?” Officer Scholz asked.
“Yes, it was unlocked. I was surprised because I have a key, so I usually just let myself in that way. Emery always locks the door before she goes to bed.” Luke put his hand on my knee.
“We’ll do that,” Luke said. He stood and walked the officers to the door and I went upstairs to throw some of my things into an overnight bag. Luke was nervously pacing the living room when I returned.
“Let’s go,” I said. When Luke didn’t respond right away, I hesitated at the door. “Luke? What’s wrong?”
“This is my fault,” Luke said.
I rolled my eyes. “Get over yourself, Cooper. We don’t know why Collin did this or even that it was him.”
“It was him, Em,” Luke said confidently. “That picture wasn’t really about you. He’s sending me a message. He wants me to know how easily he can get to you.”
“You mean he isn’t helplessly obsessed with me?” I joked.
“Em.” Luke looked annoyed. “Don’t make light of this. He threatened you.”
I shrugged. “I’m not going to give credit to some coward that sneaks in when I’m sleeping as being anything more than a nuisance. We’ll get my locks changed and the police will put the fear of God into him.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Luke said, but he followed me outside.
When we got back to his house, I convinced him to get some rest only by agreeing to lay in bed with him. “You are supposed to be resting,” I scolded him when he wouldn’t stop kissing my neck. “Doctor’s orders.”
“Speaking of doctors... how was your appointment?” he asked.
“Oh. Fine. My knee is fine.” I felt a chill run down my spine. I’d had every intention of telling Luke my news but now that there was nothing stopping me, I couldn’t think of a good way to bring it up.
“That’s good.” Luke resumed kissing my neck. “I need you in top shape for what I have planned for you.”
“Says the guy with his arm in a sling,” I teased. “Actually, can you stop for a second? I need to talk to you about something.”
Home with You (Starlight Valley Book 3) Page 11