Family Bonds- Emily and Crew (Amore Island Book 4)

by Natalie Ann

  Emily laughed. She didn’t think she was meaner as much as, being the older one, she felt she had to carry the burden. That Penelope looked to her for suggestions and advice. She liked being in control, she knew that, but she liked things a certain way. Penelope did too, but just in a different aspect of the business.

  “That’s right. You’ve got your staff when it comes to marketing and if they don’t toe the line you are right in their faces letting them know.”

  Her mother snorted. “She has you there, Penelope.”

  “Fine. We both do our jobs and we do it damn well. And we both should be able to have a life outside of the hotel. I’m glad you found Crew,” Penelope said.

  “I’m glad he found me,” she said back.

  “He did get the ball rolling,” her mother said. “So tell us more.”

  “There isn’t much to say,” she said, frowning. It bothered her she didn’t know much about his past. “I’ve told you everything I know about him. I’m hoping to maybe learn more tomorrow when I meet his grandmother.”

  “You don’t ask questions?” her mother asked.

  Wasn’t that what Crew said for her to do too? “I do. But I don’t want to pry either. I told you he was looking to buy that house and that they agreed on a price. Now they were just working out timelines.” She didn’t tell them how Crew didn’t tell her he was looking until she saw him. That would just prove her mother’s point.

  “How come you aren’t with him and his grandmother today?” Penelope asked.

  “Because Lucy’s flight was delayed and they missed the last ferry yesterday so Crew got them a hotel room. He didn’t want to rush her this morning, but they are on the island now. He was going to take her out and then to the store to buy what she needed for dinner tomorrow. They haven’t seen each other since Thanksgiving. I just wanted to give them this time alone.”

  “Did he say he wanted the day with his grandmother?” Penelope asked.

  “No. Not specifically, but when I suggested it, he didn’t argue.”

  “Which could come off a lot of different ways,” her mother said. “He could think you needed an extra day to meet her or that you are letting them spend time together.”

  “It might be a little bit of both. I know his grandmother is everything to him. Look at how close our family all is. He doesn’t have that. I’ll be here when Lucy goes back, he knows that.”

  “But does he?” Penelope asked grinning. “It’s not like you’ve said you love him.”

  She squinted her eye at her sister. “Brat.”

  “So where is your girlfriend?” Crew’s grandmother asked him on Saturday afternoon. “I thought I’d get to meet her today.”

  “She’s having dinner with her parents and sister tonight since she’ll be here for Easter tomorrow.”

  “That’s odd,” she said. “She can’t have a holiday away from her parents?”

  “I don’t think it’s that. She knew I wanted to spend some time with you and we had things to do.”

  “I guess when you put it that way,” his grandmother said. “Why don’t we go to the store and get what we need?”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to relax a bit first? It was a long day for you in the airport, then the hotel yesterday and the ferry ride today.”

  “I’m probably more active than you half the time, Crew. Don’t insult me.”

  He laughed. “God, I’ve missed you. I’m hoping you’ll love the island when you’re here for the week and I can convince you to stay. I heard Emily’s family members are building houses or townhouses in terms of a retirement community. What do you think of that? Live in style here on the island?”

  “With a bunch of rich snobs,” she said.

  He frowned. “Now that is judging and you know how much I hate that.”

  She laughed. “You got me there.”

  “And Emily isn’t a snob and neither is anyone in her family that I’ve met. They are all pretty down to earth.”

  “We come from a down to earth type of family,” she said.

  “We do.”

  “So Emily knows about the house you’re buying?”

  “She does.”

  “Does she know you are paying cash?”

  “No,” he said, expecting this to come up and he was prepared. “And it’s a personal thing. I don’t ask about her finances so why would she ask about mine?”

  “Because she probably expects you are taking a loan.”

  “So? It’s not her business what I do with my money. At least right now.”

  “Do you love this girl?”

  He looked the other way. Yeah, he loved her and hadn’t told her and was trying to find the right time.

  What he’d felt for her originally had been attraction for a woman that was always friendly and nice and went out of her way for someone she could totally dismiss. He wanted to get to know her and did. As much as they had their little tiffs, they got along pretty well and she didn’t judge him even when he thought she might.

  He’d been burned before.

  He’d been looked at for his money rather than himself.

  He’d been used.

  He’d been mentally abused.

  And he’d been deceived.

  But here on Amore Island...he was in love.

  “Yeah,” he said, finally admitting it out loud.

  “Then how do you think she is going to feel if you don’t tell her more about yourself and she finds out?”

  “She probably won’t be happy. I think she might be upset she didn’t know, but will be more pissed if she finds out from someone else.” Not that he could imagine how that would happen, but he had to decide if he was willing to take that chance.

  Another day though.

  “Exactly. A woman scorned,” Lucy said. “Just remember that. Now let’s go get food for tomorrow. Do you even have pans for me to cook a meal in?”

  “We’ll go buy whatever you need because I’m sure I don’t. I’ll take the long way so I can show you around town here.”

  “Is there only one main strip or town on the island?”

  “Nope. We are in the north end. The south end almost mirrors things. Some of the same stores, some different. It’s all Amore Island, but from one end to the other it’s about forty-five minutes so the locals tend to call it the north and south. I’ll give you some more that I’ve learned and how Emily’s family really plays a part in it.”

  “Oh goodie. A history lesson.”

  “Wiseass,” he said to her and then hoped in the next week he really could convince her to move here. He might have found Emily, but there was part of him that needed his family close by too.

  29

  Blood Pumping

  “My grandmother can’t wait to meet you,” Crew said when she was grabbing her jacket. He wanted to come pick her up and she wasn’t sure the reason.

  “I can’t wait to meet her too. I could have driven there.”

  “She pushed me out of the house and slapped my hands for reaching for her food.”

  “Ah. Do you miss your grandmother’s cooking?”

  “She was always a good cook. My mom was too. I miss home-cooked foods but not enough to learn much on my own. You’re making up for it though.”

  “Good to know,” she said, glad she could give him some of what he’d been missing. “So you were being like a kid trying to stick your finger in cookie dough and she kicked you out?”

  “Do you have cameras in my place?”

  She laughed. “No. Were you really doing that?”

  “She was baking cookies this morning and then making a chocolate mousse pie. Now she’s got the ham in the oven.”

  “My parents and Penelope went to my uncle’s house in Boston today. I think they were having ham too.”

  “Do you like it?”

  “Not as much as I love mashed potatoes. Are we getting them too?” she asked.

  “You can’t have ham without mashed potatoes. At least in our house.” He lean
ed in to kiss her and she loved this little playful side of him. What she wished she could do was tell him she loved him too, but now wasn’t the time. “The other reason I wanted to pick you up is because then I get to bring you home. I won’t get to spend much time alone with you while she is here.”

  “Ah, so you are horny,” she said back with a big grin.

  “Always for you. Is that a bad thing?”

  “Never. I heard this saying once. Sex can’t make a relationship, but it sure the hell can break one.” She knew sex wasn’t what broke up her and Simon, but it did make her look back and know she just wasn’t as physically attracted to him in the end.

  He was good looking, but he didn’t turn her on.

  He didn’t get her blood pumping or her heart racing and she sure the heck didn’t want to have makeup sex with him.

  Hell, she and Simon fought enough, you’d think they would have been pros at makeup sex, but yet never had it. They went to their own corners and waited the other one out.

  Not good, she was realizing.

  “I don’t think sex would break anything with us, but it sure is fun. I’d like to think there is more to us than the physical,” he said.

  It was the first time he’d come close to saying anything like that. To making her think or wonder if he might be feeling what she was.

  Could he be in love with her too? Sometimes she felt that might be the case.

  “I think so too,” she said. “But we should go before your grandmother suspects that we might be here having a quickie.”

  “She probably does. I should warn you. She can be a little crude.”

  “No, really? Will she swear like you do?”

  He laughed. “She’s been known to, but she might not be on her best behavior. I’m telling you, she’s gotten worse since she moved into that retirement community. I don’t even want to know the things that go on there.”

  “You know there have been things said about venereal diseases in nursing homes.”

  He put his hands to his ears. “Urgh, stop it. Don’t talk like that.”

  She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped. “I’m not making it up and you know it. All those single elders getting it on. Good for them to get it up.”

  “Stop. What did I ever do to you to have you torture me this way?”

  “Okay. I’ll be good. I promise.”

  At least she was more relaxed now while they drove the few minutes to Crew’s house. She grabbed the wine she’d bought along with some more beer she’d had shipped in for him, and they went in the house.

  “It smells even better in here now,” he said. “I could get used to this.”

  “Coming home to food on the table?” Emily asked. That wasn’t something she could or would ever do on a daily basis. If that was what he wanted out of someone, it wouldn’t be her and she tried to not let it bring her down.

  “It’s nice now and again, but I don’t expect it. My mother worked all odd hours and didn’t always have dinner at night for us as a family. Sometimes my father threw something together. Sometimes I was on my own or my grandmother came over with leftovers.”

  That made more sense. It was nostalgia for him. “My mother never worked so we always had dinner at night. My father worked a lot so he wasn’t always home for dinner, but it was us three girls then.”

  “Times have changed, haven’t they? So many women work now and run a household. It’s a balancing act for sure. You do it well.”

  “I don’t really have a household, but thank you. You are full of compliments today.”

  “So you’re the high-priced escort that my grandson paid money for?”

  “What?” Emily said, stopping in her tracks when they walked in the kitchen. It was the last thing she expected to hear come out of Crew’s grandmother’s mouth.

  She was expecting to see this little old lady, but rather Lucy looked a lot younger than her seventy years. She was dressed in stretchy jeans that looked more like leggings and had on a pair of gray UGG boots on her feet with a cotton shirt.

  She looked comfortable and stylish at the same time. And she was calling Emily an escort.

  “Grandma,” Crew said, laughing. “We talked about this. You’ve been referring to her as Emily for months. That’s not very nice. I’m so sorry. I told you she might be crude, but even I didn’t think she’d say that. Grandma, this is Emily Rauch. Emily, my grandmother, Lucy Hanson.”

  “It’s nice to meet you,” she said. “I think.”

  Lucy laughed. “She’s got some spunk to her. And she brings some damn good wine. Pop it open and pour us a glass, Crew. Put yourself to work.”

  Emily watched as Crew did what his grandmother asked. “I need to learn how to do that. What’s the secret? Is it the home-cooked meals? By the way, it smells wonderful in here.”

  “Thank you,” Lucy said. “Crew will lay his life down for those he loves. He’s loyal that way.”

  She felt her face flush and looked over to see Crew’s face doing the same. Interesting.

  “I’m not a dog,” he told his grandmother.

  “If I held these cookies up in the air I bet I could get you to beg.”

  Emily started to laugh, knowing she was going to enjoy this meal and that she’d never been to one like this before.

  “That’s wrong, Grandma,” Crew said. “If you loved me more you’d send me cookies weekly and I wouldn’t have to try to steal them while you made them.”

  “You don’t need me to make you cookies when you can just go buy what you want. I saw that bakery on the way to the store. I’d be in there every day.”

  “But nothing tastes like cookies out of the oven,” Emily said. “We used to steal them from my mother all the time too right when they were done. What kind did you make?”

  “My favorite,” Crew said. “Right, Grandma?”

  “And your favorite is what?’ Emily asked, looking at the two of them.

  “Oatmeal raisin.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “But you’ve got chocolate mousse pie too, right?”

  “Emily is a chocolate whore. If you put it in front of her she eats it all, but she won’t have any in her house.”

  “Crew,” Lucy said. “You gave me shit for calling her an escort and you just called her a whore.”

  She started to laugh. “When it comes to chocolate, he can say that. I do tend to steal it from anyone that has it but won’t buy it for myself. You can eat all the cookies you want though. I’m not a fan of oatmeal.”

  “Guess that is why Crew said he wanted the pie. Normally all he wants is cookies and never pies. Must be he was thinking of you.”

  Considering she’d just been called an escort and a whore in not so polite words, she found that she was still smiling and couldn’t wait to see how the rest of this dinner went. “Are all your holiday dinners like this?”

  Crew’s smile dropped a little, but Lucy’s stayed. “They used to be. My daughter, she was a little pistol. Crew’s father though, he was quieter. But man, if you ticked him off, you better run for the hills.”

  “Sounds like Crew got the best of both of them.”

  “He did,” Lucy said. “They were great people. Maybe not your type of person, but they were good to the core.”

  “Why not my type of person?” she asked. She was more bothered by this than being called an escort.

  “They didn’t come from fancy backgrounds. You can tell by me. Crew told me your family founded this island.”

  “They did,” she said with her chin lifting. “But there are plenty of Bonds that are far from fancy. Myself included. Crew will tell you he’s seen me at my worst and still came back around.”

  Lucy looked at her grandson. “She had the flu. She was a mess. But so cute with it. I brought her soup and she sneezed and coughed on me.”

  “And you were sick,” she said, “and let me tell you, that wasn’t a pretty sight either. Talk about grouchy.” She put her hand over the side of her mouth and whispered loudly,
“And kind of stinky.”

  “You took care of Crew when he was sick?”

  “I did,” she said.

  “She washed my dirty sheets for me, Grandma.”

  Emily flushed deep red over that statement. “They were damp and you were damn sick. It wouldn’t have been healthy.”

  “You swore,” he said, grinning. “You only swear when you are annoyed or embarrassed.”

  “I might be both.”

  Lucy laughed. “You are just what my boy needs.”

  “I think he might be what I’ve needed for a long time too.”

  30

  Work A Little Harder

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Crew asked hours later when he brought Emily back home.

  “It was touch and go there for a bit in my mind. Your grandmother sure is a character.”

  He laughed. “She is. Thanks for understanding.”

  “Of course I do. Plus it’s not your fault what comes out of other people’s mouths. I know that with my family too.”

  Which made him wonder what might be being said in her family. Then he had to tell himself not to think that. He’d seen it enough now that no one really was judging him at all. At least those close to Emily and it seemed that was all she cared about.

  “I know. But I didn’t want you to think I was talking crap about you.”

  “I know you didn’t call me an escort. If you had I’d kick your butt to the curb. It was funny when your grandmother explained why she did it though.”

  He was glad his grandmother at least did that and Emily seemed to understand and even laughed about it.

  “She likes to be funny.”

  “Do you have to get back right away?” she asked, moving closer to him and putting her arms around his neck, her lips to his. “I think I was a very good girl today. Or maybe I was a bad girl and you need to put me in my place.”

  He grinned. “You were a good girl. I like when you are a bad girl too. Do I have to put you over the arm of the couch again?”

  “Oh. I’d like that. But I was thinking more along the lines of me having a little snack.”