“I don’t flirt with her. She belongs to our brother.”
I laughed. “You want to tell Carla that marrying Owen will make her his property?” I shook my head. “Make sure you wear a cup when you do. She’ll kick your gonads so far up, they’ll be stuck in your throat.”
“Dude, I’m not telling her anything. Just stop breaking my balls because I like her. She’s going to be family.”
Paxton had admitted to being half in love with her in high school. He said he wasn’t anymore, but I wasn’t convinced. There was something about the way he looked after speaking to her that made me think he was either lying to me or lying to himself. Or maybe he was envious of the love our brother had. It was also a possibility that I imagined something that was there for my amusement. No matter what, it got a rise out of my younger brother, which was a perfect distraction for me.
“When are you going to find your own girl?”
“When are you?” he grumbled as he collapsed against the blue pleather seat. “God, I can’t believe Carla told you I liked her.”
My future sister-in-law, Carla, who everyone called Carl, had impeccable timing. She laughed loudly before she made Pax scoot over. “I think it's cute that you liked me in the first place.”
“Stop ganging up on me.” Pax’s lips stretched into a thin line. “Having one Eli is enough.”
Carla sat taller and pressed her palm to her chest. “I’ve reached Eli levels of mockery? I’m honored.”
“You’re hilarious,” Pax grumbled.
“You realize this was the stuff I was talking about, Pax. You’re blushing,” I said, causing my brother to roll his eyes and curse under his breath.
Carla looked at me, amused. “I guess we should stop picking on him for now,” she looked at Pax and turned back to face me. “Do you have any clue when Owen will get back? He’s not picking up his phone.”
I glanced at my watch, frowning. My brother was late, but one look out of the window confirmed why. It was snowing hard enough to block the visibility to the stores across the street.
She followed my gaze. “It’s really coming down.”
“Only in the last couple of minutes. You should head over to Owen’s place before the snow keeps you trapped here. Which I wouldn’t wish on anyone because the central heating upstairs is down.”
“I was thinking you’d turned it off to torture me,” Pax complained as he rubbed his hands together. “Or to keep me doing my work instead of falling asleep.”
“Did it work?” I asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Nah. Now I’m down here getting warm on the outside and freezing my innards by eating your ice cream.”
I pushed my plate in his direction. “Eat the rest of it, and then head on home.”
“What about you?” Pax asked. “You shouldn’t stay either.”
I looked at the spreadsheets in front of me. “I’ll finish up the finances for the month, and I’ll be done.”
“But,” Pax began, confused, “there are still a few days of January left. Wouldn’t it be better to do it all when the month is over?”
I shook my head. “We don’t have any projects to work on until February, which you would know if you had read the report I sent you this morning.”
My brother let out an exaggerated sigh as he slid his arms into his jacket and nudged Carla out of the booth. “I’ve got a busy schedule. With winter upon us, the days are shorter, and things are slowing down at work, but picking up in my social circle.”
“You mean the Geriatrics Are Us fan club?”
“Someday we’ll be old too. And I hope there’s someone willing to shovel our driveways or mow our lawns.”
Carla laughed as she bundled herself into her purple parka. “I’ll be leaving too. Do you need a lift, Pax?”
“Nah, I drove here this morning.”
She looked at him slack-jawed. “You drove your car? Here? In the snow?”
Pax made a face. “Just because I crashed a few times back in the day doesn’t mean I’m an atrocious driver.”
“Yes, it does,” I interjected. “Carla, please take Paxton home. I don’t trust him behind the wheel. He’s liable to run over the very people he helps.”
Pax swore at me but accepted the order. When it came down to it, he knew as well as I did, he’d barely made it to the office alive this morning. He had failed to change the tires on his car for the snow this year. He was convinced it would clear up in a day or two like it always did.
However, this winter had arrived with a vengeance and brought the heaviest snowfall Frazier Falls had seen in thirty years. Blankets of the white stuff kept the masses inside.
I smiled to myself as Pax and Carla left Alice’s Diner, leaving me in blessed silence. It only took fifteen minutes to finish up the report I’d been working on, but something was keeping me from heading home. I didn’t know what. Maybe it was because my house was empty.
There was something satisfying about working in the peace and quiet of an empty office or the corner of the diner, but going home to an unoccupied house was another feeling entirely.
I wasn’t lonely. I wasn’t. Getting the fire going in my living room, cooking dinner, and sitting down with a beer to watch a movie while the snow continued to fall sounded great, but in order to do that, I had to first set foot inside a cold, empty house, and then wait for it to become welcoming.
Shit … maybe I was lonely. The idea of someone at home waiting for me sounded wonderful.
The reality was, even if I were to find a girlfriend, asking her to get a fire going for my return was ludicrous—and old-fashioned. It was right up there with telling a woman she was a man’s property.
The way things worked between my mother and father was different from how couples behaved these days. The Cooper household had been warm and welcoming because of Mom. I relished the memories of my childhood in winter. A blazing fire. Hot cocoa. Cookies straight from the oven. My mother’s smile. That was the best. The thing I missed the most.
I shook my head; I wasn’t twelve anymore. I was thirty-four and quickly approaching thirty-five. Hell, I was certain I was more of an adult than Owen was half the time. He still kept secrets like his propensity for panic attacks. Only a few months ago, he had a complete meltdown in public at his architecture conference. Sometimes I felt like the older brother. Though I took comfort in knowing he was doing much better now, I couldn’t stop worrying, regardless.
“Hey, where is everyone?” Owen called out. I looked up to see him entering the diner. He was covered in snow. His boots were packed with the stuff, insulating the sound of his footsteps when he walked inside. The cold wind breezed past the open door, bringing with it a flurry of snowflakes.
“Close the door,” Alice called from the counter. “Were you born in a barn?”
He grinned and shut it, though it barely made a sound through all the snow gathered around the frame.
“It’s getting bad out there.”
“That’s why everyone went home,” I said. “Pax came in late because of it.”
“He was up at the mill this morning,” Owen moved toward the booth. “Then he went into town to help out Lucy Rogers and John Reilly.”
“Why did John need help?”
“You honestly think he could unload all the stock in this weather? The kegs would be half-frozen. Pax, not wanting to go to Huck’s if John had to close the bar, helped him out.”
“How selfless of him,” I said with a measure of sarcasm. “By the way, Carla came by earlier.”
His eyes lit up. “When did she leave?”
“About ten minutes ago. I told her to go straight to your place.”
“Thanks, Eli. Do you need help with anything?” I could tell he was hoping the answer would be a resounding no.
I shook my head, smiling. “I’m about to head out myself. Did you take the truck?”
“I did. Do you want a lift home? I don’t think your car will cut it in this weather.”
“
I could take the company truck.”
“Don’t be silly. Grab your jacket, and we’ll swing by Wilkes’ convenience store for beer.”
“I’m not going to your place to drink.”
He looked at me. “Doesn’t mean you won’t want some for yourself.”
“Very true. But nah, take me straight home if that’s okay.”
I paid the bill and shrugged on my jacket. We dashed through the falling snow in a hurry to get to my house so Owen could get home to Carla.
I reasoned that I didn’t have space in my life for a girlfriend, even if I had wanted one. The business and my brothers were enough to handle. And yet, when I set foot in my cold, empty house, I felt hollow.
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Acknowledgments
There are so many people to thank. This trilogy has taken a long time to get from thoughts to paper to upload. Originally this was going to be the Lockharts, but it wasn’t quite right for the four brothers, so I took a turn, and the Coopers were born.
There have been many collaborators along the way.
A big thanks to the following people who either collaborated, edited, proofed, beta read, made covers, or simply added support. In no particular order.
Kasi, Janice, Hayley, Brooke, Melanie, Victoria, Tim, Angela, The Book Nook ARC readers. Kel’s Belle’s ARC readers.
Most of all, thanks to thousands of fans who read my books and coming with me to small town America. This is real life romance with a touch of fiction. I hope you enjoyed the journey.
Kelly
About the Author
International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-nine years, their dog Sophie, Ginger the cat, and a green cheeked conure named Rosco. She has three amazing children, whom she loves to pieces.
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Rescue Me: A Frazier Falls Novel Page 18