Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
Wren bounced on the balls of her feet with anticipation as she read Elias’ email on her phone for the hundredth time.
Yours. Just yours .
Every time she thought the words, her heart thumped extra hard and her tummy grew warm. Over the past few days she’d had so much fun setting up and photographing his clothes—and even more fun photographing herself. Each time she stood in her makeshift darkroom—the spare bedroom in the townhome she was renting—developing the photos, she imagined the look on his face when he pulled them out of the envelopes.
I’m head over heels. Not even two weeks, and I’m absolutely smitten.
I love him .
Wren bit her lower lip, fighting back the anxiety that shouted it was too soon for love, that she was heading for one more heartbreak, one more good thing that wouldn’t last.
She glanced at the time on her phone. 7:40 AM, time to go if she wanted to get to Elias’ for breakfast. She took a deep breath.
“All right, you mean little voice. I don’t care if it’s been eleven days, or eleven months, or eleven years—I do love him. I don’t know if he loves me back, but it doesn’t matter. I’m taking the chance.” She wrapped her arms around her torso. “He’s worth it. He’s worth the broken heart if I lose him, as long as I can have just a little more time with him.”
Her phone buzzed with an incoming text, making her jump.
She looked at the screen.
You at the Lion’s Lair yet?
Wren grinned at Barbie’s message. Last night, she’d filled her bestie in on everything that had happened since the last time they talked. She hit Barbie’s contact button.
“I’m on my way out the door,” she said as soon as Barbie picked up. She grabbed her tote and dug out her key ring.
“Truth, or are you just saying that?”
“Truth.” She held up her phone with one hand and jangled her keys with the other. “Hear that? That’s my car keys.” She tucked her phone in the crook of her neck.
“I was afraid you were going to play it like you always do and back off.”
“Not this time.” Wren opened the door from her kitchen to her garage.
“Good! I’m proud of you, Wrenbird.”
Wren got into her car. “I’m proud of me, too.” She hit the garage door button to open it, started her car, and backed out.
“So when can I come visit you? I have some time off before Greta wants me on set.”
“Anytime. You know that.”
“Um, so how did the shoot go?”
“Already talked about that last night.” Wren smirked. “Are you just trying to come up with things to talk about to distract me so that I don’t chicken out and go back home?”
“Maybe? I mean, you can’t blame me. You skipped out early the last time.”
“I’m not going to this time.” She turned west onto the road that would lead her straight to Elias’ door. Or rather, the Lion’s Lair . Cute. I’ll have to tell him that one .
“You know what? I can hear in your voice that you aren’t. Go get ’em, Wrenbird.”
“Thanks, Barbie Doll. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
“I’m happy for you. And I can’t wait to meet him.”
“He’s got a lot of hot friends, just saying.”
Barbie laughed. “That’s just your way of getting me to visit sooner.”
“Maybe.”
“I’d rather live vicariously through you for the moment. I’m too busy for a beau.”
“Suit yourself. Byyyee!”
“Mwah. Byyeee!”
Wren’s heart did that fluttery thing as soon as Elias’ house came into view. The one that was always accompanied by what felt like a tiny sun warming her chest every time she thought of him. She pulled up in front and parked, then grabbed her tote and barely kept herself from sprinting to his front door. When she got to his porch, she could hear the clicking of Chuck and Penny’s toenails on the hardwood floor, followed by Elias’ footsteps growing closer. The sun in her chest grew warmer.
I feel like a teenager about to meet her favorite rockstar .
Then the locks clicked as he unlocked the door and turned the knob. The door opened, and there stood her Lion looking at her with those intense lagoon-blue eyes, so gorgeous she couldn’t move. His white tee stretched across his chest, and he wore a pair of jeans identical to the ones in her tote. He was barefoot, and even his toes were sexy.
Okay, when did I develop a foot fetish? She giggled nervously.
Elias gave her a slow, lazy grin. “First laugh point of the day goes to me and I don’t even know what I did, except answer the door. Is there something on my face? Or maybe my feet? You were staring at them.”
“They’re good feet.” Great. I’m the queen of lame comebacks again .
He looked down as he lifted one and then the other. “Had them all my life.” He pinned her with his gaze again, his eyes sparkling. “You’re not planning on stealing them, are you?”
“Oh, I’d never. I keep my thefts strictly to clothing. Specifically, yours.”
Penny chose that moment to squeeze past Elias and put her front paws on Wren’s knee as she looked up at her, tail going a thousand miles a minute. Chuck whined behind Elias.
“All right, you two, enough upstaging me,” Elias said. “Come on in, babe,” he told Wren. He quickly swiped Penny and tucked her under his arm. Wren watched Chuck follow obediently behind Elias to their room. She laughed quietly at the trio as her heart swelled.
He’ll make an outstanding father .
The sudden thought shocked her. And then, something even more shocking—she settled into the idea.
He wasn’t mad at the dogs for getting in the way twice now. He hasn’t raised his voice once with me. Even through this misunderstanding, he’s been funny and sweet. I can see myself making a family with him .
She’d never been close with a man like Elias before. The few relationships she’d braved always in ended with yelling, assuring that she’d never look back—and never get close to another man.
“All right,” Elias said as he came back down the hallway, big smile on his broad, lion’s face. “Come here.” He opened his arms wide as he crossed the room.
I love him. I never want to lose him .
Wren dropped her tote and closed the distance. She felt a magnet-like pull in her belly until she was safe in Elias’ arms. Wren buried her face in the crook of his neck and breathed in his good smell. Sandalwood with just a touch of bright, clean citrus. Warm and comforting. A rumble in his chest like a great cat’s purr told her he was happy holding her.
He feels like home. I’m home .
Elias shifted his head to nuzzle in her hair. “I’m so sorry I gave you a reason to think you somehow didn’t measure up. I never want you to feel like you’re anything less than amazing. If I ever do something that makes you doubt that, I want you to tell me and I’ll stop whatever it is. Then I’ll do everything to remind you how much you mean to me. If we just keep talking to each other, this won’t happen again.”
Elias shifted and tilted her chin up with his finger until she was looking into his eyes. “Is all forgiven, baby, or do you need me to do something else?”
Can this be real? Elias never yelled, never got defensive, never blamed her. Sudden tears sprang to her eyes.
Don’t let him see you cry. What a turn-off .
Wren desperately wanted him to laugh.
“Some clothesnapper I am.” She laughed quietly. “We haven’t even gotten to the negotiations and you already have me in tears.”
Elias didn’t laugh. If anything, he looked even more serious as he gazed into her eyes.
“Sorry. I’m a mess,” she went on. “Didn’t mean to spoil the mood.”
“You aren’t spoiling a thing, baby.” He gently brushed away the first tear that fell.
“It’s stupid.” Wren wiped her eyes. “I just don’t like arguments. I’m usually okay, but sometimes it sets me off, like now.”
“Hey, no need to explain.” Elias stroked Wren’s hair. His fingers felt so good running through the strands. When he got to the ends, he rubbed them between his fingers, sending tingles back up to her scalp. She snuggled in closer to his body, laying her head on his shoulder, loving the warmth from his strong arms encircling her. He held her until her heartbeat steadied.
Now maybe he’ll laugh. Say something funny .
“When I was a kid, my parents yelled a lot right before they split up,” she heard herself say instead. She never told anyone, especially a man she was involved with, about her family. But the words flowed.
“It was when the economy went to hell and tech companies were laying people off right and left in Seattle. Both my parents worked in tech and my dad got laid off first, and my mom lost her job six months later in the next wave of downsizing. Neither one of them could find work, and they didn’t have much in the way of savings so they started skipping mortgage payments. Of course I didn’t know what was going on, I just knew that all of a sudden, my parents seemed to hate each other. They’d go silent for days, then out of nowhere, one or the other would burst out screaming and yelling about whatever. So I’d go running to my room and put a pillow over my head.”
Elias stroked Wren’s hair. Amazing how much it calmed her—that simple touch that he did without even thinking. She lifted her head so she could read his eyes.
“I didn’t get what they meant when I’d eavesdrop and overhear them talking about losing the house. How can you lose a house? Was the earth going to open up and swallow it? Was it going to slide down the hill and into Puget Sound? I decided that was it, that was why they were yelling. They were afraid the house was going to slide down the hill.”
Elias gave her a warm grin. “Little kid logic.”
“Right?” She chuckled. “So, using my little kid logic, I went into the side yard, the one on the opposite side from the Sound, and took some clothesline and tied one end around the faucet sticking out of the wall. Then I looped the other around one of the pickets in the fence. I pulled the rope as tightly as I could, then tied the other end to the faucet. I ran in and made my parents come out to see my brilliant solution. I told them that we didn’t have to worry about the house sliding down the hill anymore.”
Wren grinned as Elias chuckled. “Cute.”
“They both laughed, too,” she said.
Elias’ smile changed from amused to considering. “I bet you kept making them laugh after that.”
Wren’s eyes widened and her heart bumped at his observation. “You know what? I did exactly that.” She thought for a moment. “Yeah. From that point on, I did everything I could to keep their laughter going. Silly, stupid kid stuff. I borrowed every joke book I could find from the library and memorized them. I got really good at predicting when the next outburst was going to happen, so I’d try and distract them by telling a joke, or just acting goofy. Anything to get them to laugh.”
“Did it work?”
“Kinda, yeah. It did.” Wren nodded. “Not every time, but enough that it became my default way of communicating. I got to a point where everything that came out of my mouth was meant to make someone laugh. It got me peace and quiet at home, and earned me friends at school.” Wren grinned. “The teachers didn’t always appreciate my commentary but some did. Some would crack up right along with the rest of the class.”
“Wren Stapleton, class clown.”
“Guilty as charged.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “Eventually, though, nothing made my parents laugh. We were probably three or four months behind on the mortgage. That’s when they split up and put the house on the market. I stayed with my mom as we went from one motel room to the next. One week, we were short on money, so we lived in the car.”
Elias’ looked heartbroken. “That must have been scary.”
“It was.” She took in a deep breath that was half sob. “Mom didn’t get along with her parents and I’d never met them. But she was desperate so she called them. We moved in with them until the house sold and we had some money again. My grandparents were yellers, too.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to go through that.” He kissed her forehead.
Wren shook her head. “Actually, it wasn’t bad. They didn’t yell at me. They doted on me. Thought I was the funniest thing going. I loved them, I really did. They were just loud, you know? Arguing was a way of life, a way to get your point across. I didn’t understand that there wasn’t malice behind it. They never said things like my parents did, they never said ‘I hate you’ or ‘It’s all your fault.’ But by then, any yelling made me anxious. But loud laughter didn’t. So I kept them in stitches.”
She laid her head against Elias’ chest, suddenly exhausted. And yet, she also felt like a burden had lifted from her shoulders. Elias didn’t push her away. He just kept stroking her hair.
“Baby, I don’t ever want you to laugh when you really want to cry. When you laugh, I want to know it’s real, that it’s because something has tickled you. Because I’ve done something goofy that’s made you happy.”
Wren nodded against his chest. “You do make me laugh for real, I promise. Just please don’t question me or yourself every time I do laugh. That’ll take the fun out of everything.”
“I promise, so long as you promise to always tell me when you aren’t comfortable.” He tilted her chin up again. “I know how your parents messed you up with their fighting. That doesn’t need to be us. I don’t like yelling at the people I care about, either. Maybe if we keep on treating each other like friends, with respect, then it won’t ever come down to fighting like that.”
Wren grinned at him. “Friends with benefits I hope.”
“Friends with many, many benefits,” he told her. Then he moved in for a kiss.