Chapter 11 Em
Em
“Hey,” I stammer, finding myself speechless the moment I open the door to a dressed up and very handsome Jude standing on my stoop. Even if I wanted to—newsflash, I don’t—I can’t drag my eyes off of my husband. Yeah, that’s still going to take some getting used to.
His smile is all-knowing as he makes a point of looking me up and down and doing it so slowly I swear I can feel his gaze sweeping over me. “Hey, yourself. You look beautiful.”
“Thanks.” That’s when the typical first date awkwardness takes over and we just stand there, staring at each other. Good to know an accidental marriage doesn’t help avoid that.
“So…” he says slowly, snapping me out of my frozen state.
“Sorry, sorry.” I step back and sweep my arm out. “Come in.”
He chuckles and comes inside. “I’m not too early am I?”
“Nope. Besides, if you were late, I’d have been expectin’ you. Now, you’re here lookin’ like that,” I wave my hand up and down, “and I’m feeling a little underdressed. So now I have time to change.”
“Em,” his voice drops low and I definitely feel that in places we won’t mention. “You’re so stunnin’ I’m standin’ here considerin’ stayin’ in instead of takin’ you out to show my wife off.”
“You flatter me, hubby.”
He shrugs. “Isn’t it my duty to put your worries at ease?”
I cock my head. “You do that just by lookin’ at me that way.”
That brings an even bigger smile to his face. “Good. Cause I like lookin’ at you and plan on doin’ it all night.”
I shoot him a smirk. “That’s lucky, because I plan on doin’ the same.”
That earns me a heated stare. “Have at it, wifey.”
“How are you so good at this whole dating your wife business? Anyone would think you’d done it before,” I muse.
He turns serious. “Nope. Always said I was goin’ to be a one and done guy.
Knew I’d know my One the moment I met her.
” He steps closer and my breath catches in my throat as his molten eyes lock with mine.
Lifting his hand to my cheek, I lean into it on instinct.
“Since you’re an earthquake girl, I’ll put it like this.
The minute I laid eyes on you, my life as I knew it jolted.
It was like two tectonic plates pulled apart thousands of years ago were suddenly on a direct trajectory straight for each other, destined to slot back into place. ”
“A perfect fit,” I whisper.
“Like it was meant to be,” he murmurs back, his gaze pinned on my lips.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Jeez. We really need to get out of here because I can’t think of anything I want to do more right now than kiss this man and keep kissing him. Judging by the look on his face and the heat blazing in his gaze, he’s of the same mind.
Thankfully—and also disappointedly—he huffs out a breath and steps back, the loss of his touch making me sway where I stand. I have butterflies. This man—my husband—gives me butterflies. Lord have mercy.
“I’ll just uh…” I stammer again.
“You go finish doin’ whatever you need to do. I’ll wait.”
I nod, my tongue feeling too big for my mouth all of a sudden.
“I won’t be long,” I say over my shoulder as I rush toward my bedroom.
“No rush. I am early, after all.”
I may not see it, but I know he’s not only watching me go, he’s smiling while doing it. He’s not the only one.
Ten minutes later, Jude locks the door after me and leads me to his surprisingly clean truck, opening the door and shutting me in before rounding the hood and getting in beside me.
The restaurant Jude chose is another one of my favorites and for a moment, I wonder if he’d spoken to one of my brothers about it.
“I love it here,” I say once we’re seated at our table.
“I wasn’t sure where to go, and since we’ve already had takeout from the restaurant you force yourself not to eat at every day,” he says with a smile, “But I went online and this place had so many rave reviews, I figured it was a safe bet.”
It’s not lost on me just how thoughtful Jude is. He has already shown me many times just in the way he acts and with the things he does.
“I’ve been meanin’ to try it out, so thank you.”
His face brightens. “I’m just glad I got it right. It is our first date, after all. Start out how you plan to continue and all that.”
I cock my head. “What about our Thai takeout?”
“That was me bringin’ food offerin’s to cushion the blow of my news.”
“I get that, but we talked, we ate together. Isn’t that a date?” I ask.
“You make a good point. Maybe this can be our first proper date.”
“OK,” I whisper just as the waitress arrives with our drinks—an IPA for Jude and a chardonnay for me.
After ordering food, we’re left alone again and I catch Jude watching me across the table. “How’s your week been?”
“We’ve talked every day since you left,” I remind him.
He lifts his chin at the same time he shoots me a challenging brow. “Maybe I like the way your face lights up when you talk about your job.”
I start to wonder if there’s any way to control myself around him. Blushing, tripping over my words, butterflies… What's next?
“People’s eyes tend to glaze over when I start talkin’ about seismic monitorin’, frackin’, and climate change.”
“Not me. I’ve actually been readin’ about it so I wouldn’t seem like a total idiot over dinner,” he says, surprising me.
“Really?”
“Yep. Even went to the Timber Falls Library and made friends with Mrs. Harrison.”
I splutter out a laugh. “She’s still there? She was my English teacher back in high school. I’d heard she was workin’ at the library now. How funny.”
“She was a great help. I told her I had a lady friend I wanted to impress and she loaded me up with books.”
“And how did that go for you?” I muse, sipping my wine.
“I can now say I’m almost an expert on the Alaska-Aleutian subduction system.” His lips twitch. “Obviously not as much as you are, but once I started, I kind of got hooked and then made the mistake of goin’ online and fallin’ down a rabbit hole of videos.”
I stare wide-eyed over the table. “Really?”
He leans forward to lean an arm on the table. “You said that already, wifey. I’m takin’ an interest in your career because I want to get to know you better. This is just one of the ways I figured I could do that.”
“Sorry, I’m just… it’s unexpected. I’m flattered.” Impressed… kind of loving the fact he did it. All of the above. “Do you really want to talk about it?”
“You’ve been fascinated by earthquakes since you were a kid. I was the same with plants and makin’ things better for the environment rather than worse,” he explains. “There’s common ground there. Isn’t that part of gettin’ to know someone? Findin’ shared interests?” Oh, he’s good.
“Touche, hubby,” I reply. “You’re right though. One of the things I wanted to do when I first took the job here was to help make things safer for people but also see if there’s anythin’ we can do to slow down the natural processes that cause earthquakes and landslides.”
“Don’t forget volcanoes,” he adds. “By the way, I didn’t know there were so many here.”
“Fifty are ‘active’ status. There’s a lot more than that though, yeah.”
This conversation is so surreal to me. I’ve got work colleagues I can geek out with, that’s just a perk of the job. But having someone in my life that I can share my passion with—who’s actually interested in what I do—that’s something I never expected.
“Sorry,” he says. “The last thing you probably want to do is talk about work at the end of the week.”
I stare at him, and for a moment I wonder if he’s actually real. “It’s not that. You just keep surprisin’ me, that’s all.”
“Is that a good thing? Lots of people think I’m too much sometimes.”
“I can’t think of a time when I’ll ever think you’re too much, Jude,” I say, leaving no room for doubt in my tone. “I guess I’m realizin’ that this isn’t a typical date. There’s no wonderin’ whether you like me or if I like you back or stressin’ about whether you’ll want to see me again. It’s—”
“So much more than that.” It’s a statement, not a question. “Why don’t I just lay it all out there and you can tell me what you think? Cause I think we’re both overthinkin’ things and maybe if you know where I’m at, that might help?”
“Please!” I say, a wry grin curving my lips. “Analytical minds are good for a lot of things, but not in situations like this. Then you get confused and decide you need to run off a mountain to clear your head.” I wave my hand in the air, “like me comin’ back to Palmer, work, my house.”
“OK. Let it be stated that I really hope this doesn’t send you runnin’, but to give you some peace of mind and clarity, I’m willin’ to take the risk.” I’m really starting to think this man is too good to be real.
I nod, my heart’s lodged in my throat as I wait for whatever he’s about to tell me. Thankfully, he doesn’t make me wait long.
Jude holds his hands out over the table, wiggling his fingers until I take the hint and tangle my fingers with his. Then he proves—yet again—he’s not just a good man, he might just be one of the best.
“I want to get to know the woman the mountain has chosen for me. I know what I feel in here,” he taps his chest, “and the more we talk and the more time we spend together, that feelin’ has only gotten stronger.
” He pauses, letting that sink in. “When I’m not with you, I’m thinkin’ about you.
And when I do that, I find myself wantin’ to know everythin’ about you; the good, the bad, the happy, the sad.
All of it, Em.” I stop breathing. “I watch TV and wonder what you’re doin’, or if you’re cheatin’ and watchin’ the new episode of our show without me.
” Our show… “And already know there’s so much more to you than what you’ve shown me so far and that—most of all—is what I can’t wait to discover. ”
I’m speechless. Literally devoid of words. If my hands weren’t holding his right now, I’d pinch myself. Since I can’t do that, I dig the heel of my shoe into my other foot just to make sure this is real.
There’s something so certain about the way he talks about me—about us—and that confidence is exactly why I’m so comfortable with him.
For the first time in forever, I feel safe with someone other than my family. That’s how I know I can be completely honest with him and—unlike me—he won’t run. Though there’s no way I’m running away from him now, that’s for sure.
“I want to get to know you too,” I say quietly. I mean it too. Every text and phone call we share has revealed a little bit more about my husband. And every new little nugget of information intrigues me.
Like how he truly loves plants and landscaping that complements the environment rather than distracts from it.
How he enjoys living with his brothers, their wives and Wyatt.
How he grumbles about Grumps the donkey and his shenanigans, but one of his biggest achievements so far was training him to walk down the aisle for Will and Case’s double wedding to Birdie and Isla. Even if it did go pear-shaped at the end.
All of it has proven that Dad chose right. Jude is a good man.
There’s also the way he kept showing up to be there for me and my brothers after Dad’s passing, and not in an intrusive, overbearing, unwelcome way either.
He simply made sure I never felt alone and had everything I needed, unwittingly helping me to start navigating my grief and the season of change I was facing.
“Take care of my girl” Dad had told him, and without hesitation, Jude stepped up and accepted the job.
Now he’s here, after driving hundreds of miles for the second time in a week, just to spend time with me, proving he’s a man of his word and the very definition of ‘if he wanted to, he would’ because Jude Cooper has, and has said he’ll continue to do so.
“I’m glad you’re here, hubby,” I whisper past the sudden lump in my throat.
“Nowhere else I’d want to be, wifey,” he replies.