Chapter 23 That Perfect Moment in Summer
That Perfect Moment in Summer
Callan
A message pinged. I wouldn’t have checked my phone at work for anyone else, but I knew it was Erin.
Erin
LOIYOUVE
I’d always been bloody hopeless at Unscramble, but I knew what this one said.
I love you.
The box of packed berries fell from my arms, thudding on the concrete floor of the packing shed, and I stumbled, my hand reaching blindly for the wall. A group of workers crowded me. There was a lot of, “You okay, boss?” and someone asked, “Do you need an ambulance?”
Did they think I was having a heart attack? I pressed my fist into my chest. Maybe I was. I was definitely going into some kind of shock. My body was shaking all over.
“No… I…” My lungs locked up. “I need to go.”
Usually, when I finished work, I headed straight for the shower. Erin knew I worked on a farm, but she didn’t need to smell that fact. But today, I headed for the kitchen. I had to see her. The back stairs leading off the farm blurred as I pounded up two at a time.
I could hear Jeremy barking before I got to the kitchen.
“I’m not at the cottage,” was Erin’s reply.
I angled my head around the doorway. Erin’s back was to me, but flour coated her hands, a white smatter dusted all the way to her elbows. She was kneading a lump of dough on the countertop. Her phone sat beside her.
“You’ve had your fun trying to make me jealous,” Jeremy said over the speaker.
Laughing, Erin replied, “But don’t you want to hear about how I rode Callan before he left for work this morning? I did, you know. For hours.”
My cheeks heated. It wasn’t entirely a lie. This morning, she’d woken me with kisses just before the sun came up.
“Let me say goodbye before you head off to work,” she’d whispered.
Then, she’d straddled me, her fingernails clawed into my chest hair, her hips tilted at just the right angle to take all the pleasure for herself. No man could last hours with her on top. Ten minutes was enough torture. The second best orgasm of my life. Nothing would ever beat our first time.
Erin was still laughing. “His dick is incredible—”
“Is this what living in the country does to you?” Jeremy said. “When did you get so vulgar?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she cooed. “I forgot our rule for playing was that we wouldn’t share details. Do you like hearing about how much I love fucking Cal—”
“Stop saying his fucking name!”
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Erin’s kneading slowed. She was reconsidering something. I could tell by her heavy sigh. “Look, Jeremy. I don’t want to use Cal like a pawn in our divorce. Don’t get me wrong, the sex with him is amazing, but what we have is so much more than that. I love him.”
“Erin, you don’t love him. This is a normal reaction to infidelity—”
“Don’t bother with your psychiatrist babble.
You might’ve been able to use it to guilt me about Lila, but I’m on solid ground with Cal.
I love him. I didn’t feel that way before, but now that I do, I can’t imagine how I wasn’t with him my whole life.
I’m even more certain I have no feelings for you.
I thought I hated you for a while, but now even that seems…
almost… pointless.” Her palms worked along the counter, kneading the dough again.
“I’d rather put all my feelings and energy into the people that matter in my life.
Cal. Til. So many people. But you’re not on the list… ”
A small smile stayed with me as I eased away, my steps silent as I headed for the shower.
Ten minutes later, I sneaked up behind Erin and wrapped my arms around her waist. My hair still damp and my face freshly shaven, I rubbed my cheek into her neck.
Droplets of water beaded on her skin, but she didn’t wipe them off.
Her fingers looped over my arm, absentmindedly tracing the long veins as she held the phone to her ear with her other hand.
“Well, can I get a restraining order against Jeremy or something?” She must have been on the phone with her lawyer this time. “I don’t care what the letter said. He doesn’t come down here to visit Matilda. He’s just creating trouble.”
I kissed her neck. “Hi,” I whispered.
Erin tipped up her chin so I could see the frustration weighing in her eyes, but also the smile she had for me.
“I’m sorry,” she said to the lawyer, her tone sharpening, “but if Jeremy’s making a big deal about me being in a relationship, I’d like you to write back to his lawyer reminding him why our marriage ended in the first place. ”
I chuckled into her hair and pressed my lips to her temple.
“I do want the best settlement I can get. That doesn’t mean he can push me around or that I’ll put my life on hold.
Jeremy needs to understand I’m in control now.
Not him. So, I’m instructing you to go nuclear levels of petty—whatever that looks like for lawyers.
” She held her phone away, hit the speaker button, and whispered, “I want a better kiss than that.”
I brushed my lips over hers while her lawyer’s crisp, nasal voice read Erin the riot act to “reconsider forming any attachments before filing for divorce.” That earned me the slip of Erin’s tongue, and she only pulled away from that unforgettable kiss when her lawyer barked, “I’ll draft another letter, but consider your priorities carefully if the maximum settlement is still your goal. ”
“I appreciate it,” Erin said. “I’ll review the letter as soon as you send it through. Bye.” She dropped her phone on the counter and sighed. “I think my lawyer will celebrate my divorce even more than I will.”
“What set all this off?”
“Jeremy lawyered up today. It seems that my having a sexy boyfriend tipped him over the edge.”
I grinned. I liked being her sexy boyfriend a lot. “Are you worried?”
“Nope. Bring it on. It’s his money he’s wasting.” She reached up and flicked my damp hair off my forehead. “And what about you? You’re home early. All done for the day?”
“It was either that or the team was about to have me carted off to the emergency room.”
Erin’s eyebrows pinched together.
“I may have had a strong reaction,” I continued, “to a certain game of Unscramble.”
She bit down on her lip. “I saw you’d read it, but you, um… didn’t respond, so I thought…” She lifted her shoulder.
How could she still be scared of admitting her feelings to me? Even before we were an “us,” we’d been through hell and back. “I love you, Erin.”
Her thumb soothed against my scarred cheek. “I love you, too.”
If I thought those words would pack less of a punch to hear them directly from her lips, I was wrong. My dopey grin was too big for my face. My cheeks burned.
“Another thing to celebrate,” I said. “Let’s go out to dinner.”
Erin popped her hip and gave me one of her deadpan stares. “I don’t think people celebrate saying ‘I love you,’ Cal.”
“Why not? We’ll start a new tradition. Where’s Til? She needs to come.”
“She’s watching a movie in the living room.” She untied her apron, but I slipped it off her shoulders. “I’ll go get her.”
“Sounds good.” I folded the apron and was about to drop it beside the mixer on the countertop when I noticed the oversized yellow envelope parked there. “Hey, what’s this?” I tapped it with my knuckles.
Erin shrugged. “Mim left it for you.”
“For me?” I grabbed the envelope and lifted the flap. “You sure it’s not something for Bronte about her bed and breakfast? It’s from our family’s lawyers—” My words stopped when I scanned the letter on top.
Erin’s hand touched my shoulder. “Cal?” I caught her brows knitting with worry before my gaze snapped back to the papers.
“It’s…” I flicked to another page. Another. “It’s… the succession planning documents for the farm. Updates to the family trust. The… land titles…” I flicked past more pages with red “Sign here” stickers plastered at the edges. On the very last page was a sticky note filled with Dad’s handwriting.
You earned this a long time ago. It’s a privilege to call you my son.
The sting of emotion blurred the note. I didn’t bother wiping the tears away. Erin would understand. “I… I can’t believe it,” I said. “Dad’s signing over control of the farm to me.”
“Officially?”
Speechless, I nodded.
“Cal, you did it.” She barreled into me, her arms flinging around my shoulders to squeeze me in a hug. “I’m so proud of you. This is the best thing that could have happened.”
Erin was wrong. She wasn’t usually, but this time, she was.
The best thing happened an hour before when she told me she loved me.