Chapter 13
Joel
It’s damn near painful the moment Ellyn separates herself from my body to stand.
“I should head home,” she says.
I might only be a former gangster and hitman for my father turned rancher, but I’m damn certain I hear a hint of reluctance in Ellyn’s voice when she says this.
Rising to my feet as well, I tell her, “I’ll walk you.”
There’s not a chance in hell that I’ll let her walk back to her house alone.
Though Harlington is an extremely safe town and our neighborhood hasn’t had a break-in or any crime in years, it’s dark out and the thought of Ellyn walking alone anywhere in the dark doesn’t sit right with me.
I’ll take every opportunity I can to be in her presence for as long as I can. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to throughout the past few hours while holding her curled in my arms as we watched my daughter-in-law perform her heart out.
“That’s not nec—” She stops when I hold up my hand and glare down at her. Ellyn’s chuckle is smoky and electrifying.
It sends all sorts of weird tingles down my spine.
“I won’t argue,” she says. “I’ll let you be the gentleman.”
If you only knew.
There’s not one gentlemanly thing that I want to do with or to her.
A few minutes later, we’re exiting out of my driveway onto the street toward her house.
“Do you like living alone?” I ask while moving so that I’m positioned on her left side, closest to the street with her on the inside.
“I do.” She nods after looking toward the sky for a moment. “To be honest, if I knew how much I would like it, I would’ve asked for the divorce sooner,” she confesses.
“Then it was you who wanted the divorce?” I ask as we come to the stone path that leads to her porch.
“It was.”
“Did he cheat on you?” I scoured more of her YouTube videos than I care to mention, but in none of them does she talk about why she got a divorce. Which, fair, she deserves her privacy.
But the idea of some bastard cheating on her makes me see red.
“No,” she says casually. “Not that I know of,” Ellyn adds. “But who knows.”
“You sound like you don’t care.”
She grins over at me as we approach the top of her wooden porch.
“I did. And, in all honesty, I have my suspicions, but that’s not the reason I asked for the divorce.
And trust me when I say it took me a lot of counseling and therapy sessions to get to a point where I could feel at peace with it all. ”
“But you got there?” I have to ask. She said earlier that she doesn’t miss her ex, but I need verification. And I’m a selfish bastard for asking because I did admit to missing my wife even though Gina’s been gone for over two decades now.
“I did.”
She comes to a stop in front of her door, after the motion sensor lights on her porch come on. The lights on the inside of the house turn on as well. I’m glad to see she has that safety measure in place.
“The counseling helped?” I ask.
“So much.”
I shove my hands in my pockets and glance down and to the side. “After Gina died, too many people told me I should go to grief counseling. I told them exactly where they could stuff their damn suggestions.”
Ellyn smiles.
Sighing, I run a hand through my hair.
“Took me years to finally go speak to one of those shrinks. Not until after I recognized how my own pain and grief caused me to hurt my boys. Especially Ace and his wife, Savannah.”
“But you went eventually?” Ellyn asks.
“Reluctantly. After Ace stopped talking to me.” I shake my head. “Long story. Anyway, you should get inside.”
“Thank you for dinner.”
I run the outside of my palm along her cheek. “Thanks for your help with the lights.”
“I didn’t do much.” She splays her hands against my chest, and I wonder if she can feel the way my heartbeat increases beneath her touch.
My gaze drops to her lips. And this time, the hunger welling up inside of me is too great to deny myself a taste.
Without another thought, I lower my head until my lips feel hers. A groan rips from my throat. Her lips are even softer than I’d imagined. And I’ve spent more hours than I’m proud of imagining what they would feel like.
Ellyn rises onto her tiptoes, meeting my kiss.
She tastes equal parts sweet and savory. Before I know what’s happening, I drop my hands to her waist, pulling her into my body. My cock grows harder by the second, and I know it might take an act of nature to get me to separate my body from hers.
Except it’s Ellyn who pulls back.
She’s panting as she blinks up at me with dazed eyes.
Then I remember her injuries. Instantly, I loosen my grip on her waist and take a step back.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
The smile on her face shoots straight to my chest.
“Far from it,” she replies. “I haven’t felt this light in a long time.”
I cup her face and neck with my hand. “Good.”
Damn, what I wouldn’t give to spend the night in bed with this woman. But something’s urging me to take things slow. I don’t want to rush this.
Ellyn wouldn’t be the first woman I’ve bedded since my wife died. There’s been more than I can count. None of them, not a one, has made me contemplate bringing them home and not letting them leave.
I never came close to thinking of inviting those women to meet my boys or get close to my family. I was determined never to open my heart to another woman in my lifetime. One love of a lifetime was as good as I could get.
It was more than I deserved.
But as I gaze into Ellyn’s shining brown eyes, that resolve starts to wane.
No. The truth is, it started to dissipate a long time ago. Maybe since the moment I found her on her bathroom floor, calling for help.
Yet, even as I think this, I wonder if it hadn’t actually been the moment she stood in her front yard and told me that she had no intention of decorating her house for any holiday, let alone Christmas.
It was that moment that I decided I wanted to figure her out. To know more about her.
“Next weekend, Walt’s restaurant starts their holiday menu,” I say, my voice sounding odd to me.
Ellyn raises an eyebrow as if waiting for me to elaborate.
“The food isn’t as good as mine. And I tell him that every year,” I point out, making her laugh. “But it’s tasty and no one’s died from it yet.”
She guffaws louder. “Is this your way of asking me out on a date?”
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Whether or not you say yes.” I shrug. “If so, then yes, I’m asking you on a date. If you say no, then I’m just a man standing on your front porch who can’t stop staring at you.”
“A stalker of sorts?”
“I’ve been called worse.”
She dips her head, grinning.
“Yes,” she finally says.
The damn smile on my face is probably bright enough to light up the night sky. I haven’t felt like this in … ever.
“Yes?” I ask, confirming because I need to hear her say it again.
She nods.
“Oh, there’s line dancing, too. My favorite bar on the Riverwalk turns into a space for dancing after dinner.” I frown as I remember her injuries. “But we probably won’t—”
Ellyn surprises me when she cuts me off with her lips on mine. I don’t pull away from the kiss. I’ll never, ever shy away from the opportunity to kiss or touch her.
“Yes to dancing, too,” she says when she pulls away.
“Your hip.”
“Will be one hundred percent by next weekend. I’ll make sure of it.”
“You will not try to speed up your recovery on my account. If yo—”
Another kiss immediately silences me.
It’s me who pulls back, laughing. My belly fills with something strange as I stare into Ellyn’s shining eyes.
“Don’t think that just kissing me is going to make me forget about your injuries,” I gripe. “I’m not going to let you hurt yourself just because—”
“I can’t wait,” she cuts me off.
Looking into her eyes with the fluttering still happening in my belly, I’m reminded of a conversation I overheard years ago between Micah and Ace.
Ace was telling Micah about the first time he’d met Savannah. “My stomach started feeling all funny,” Ace had said.
It took me a long time to realize that what he was expressing was the first signs of falling in love.
I take a step back.
“Next Saturday,” I grunt. “You ice and rest that hip and wrist before then.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” she says as I take another reluctant step back.
I stare for a few more beats before turning to leave. But when I make it down to the first step, I stop and turn back, pointing at the door.
“And don’t forget to lock the door behind you.”
She pushes open the door. “I always lock the door.”
“Good, that’s good. Harlington is one of the safest towns in Texas, but you never know who or what could lurk around out here,” I say, knowing I’m sounding like a fool but I can’t seem to close my damn mouth.
“Okay,” she replies, laughter in her voice as she steps into the front door.
“And the windows,” I yell out, pausing on the third stair. “A lot of people lock the doors but then fool around and leave the windows open. What kind of sense does that make? There are criminals who will figure out a way in through that window.
“Make sure all of the windows are closed and locked,” I say firmly.
“Anything else?” she asks, her lips twitching.
“Yes,” I say, fully turning to her once I reach the bottom of the porch. “Have a good night.”
“Thank you.”
I watch as she goes in, but right before she closes the door, I call out, “And don’t forget to ice that hip. And your wrist.”
I hear her laughter through the door.
My smile is a Texas mile wide my entire walk back to my house.