Counting On It (Hearts for Ransom Book 1) (17 page)

She reluctantly let him lead her back to the landing, and to one of the three doors there. It opened into a bedroom with what she guessed to be a queen-sized bed and matching furniture. The walk-in closet wasn’t nearly as big as his, but it had more than enough room for Emily’s entire wardrobe.

The next door was a full bathroom, and again, he had made good use of space. The shower stall set opposite the sunken tub, and a double sink with lit mirrors above it covered one wall.

The third room was another bedroom, identical to the one they had just left, except it stood empty.

He led her back to the landing and then started down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, he showed her another door, which she had totally missed. It was another full bathroom, much like the one upstairs between the bedrooms.

Once they were back in the living room, he spread out his arms. “So, what do you think?”

She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He immediately closed his arms and held her tightly.

“It’s perfect,” she said softly, before kissing him.

She initiated this kiss, and he let her control it. They were both shaking when she finally pulled her lips away from his.

“Spaghetti, Emily.” He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. “I’m going to cook spaghetti before I forget all my good intentions and the reasons why I can’t take you up to my bed and make love to you until we both forget our own names.”

The second option sounded just about perfect to her, but he was right. She walked back into the kitchen with him.

“My turn,” she told him as he set about preparing their dinner.

“Shoot.”

“Where do
you
see yourself in ten years?”

He stopped with the pan half in the sink and stared at her. “I hope and pray I’m wherever you are.”

Her heart sped up and was beating so hard she figured he could probably hear it.

“You can’t say stuff like that to me, and tell me we can’t make love, so you’d better just be quiet and cook our dinner.” Unless he wanted her to do her best to seduce him.

“I do love you, Em.” He smiled at her before he filled the pot with water.

She sighed. “I know you don’t think I’m in control of all my faculties, but one thing I am sure of—I love you, too.”

He set the pan on the stove and turned the burner on. “Six months, Emily. If you can still tell me that in six months, I’ll move mountains to be with you.”

“Six months?” She wanted to scream. “Why so long?”

He walked over to her and framed her face with his hands. “We’ve waited seven years. If this is real for you now, it’ll still be real for you in six months. And it will be worth the wait. You can count on it.”

“Sometimes, I think you hope I fall out of love with you.”

He gave her a quick kiss. “I’m not usually a praying man, Emily, but I’m praying like crazy that you
don’t
.” He released her, then turned back to his cupboards. “Do you like garlic bread?”

“I’ll only eat it if you do. You won’t kiss me anymore if I have garlic breath.” She giggled.

“Well, I can’t have spaghetti without it, so we’ll have to hope we cancel each other’s breath out.”

She sat on one of the kitchen chairs and watched him as he prepared their dinner. Her heart felt like it was going to burst. Six months. It felt like an eternity. But what he had said was true. It…
they
would be worth the wait.

“About ready to call it a night, Boss?”

Logan looked up from his desk to see Mason in the open doorway to his office. He hadn’t even heard him climb into the small site supervisor trailer.

“As much as I’d like to, we’re so far behind we may not make our deadline. I need to get these plans changed since Mrs. H. wants that extra closet now.” Their clients, the Hoppers, had been very specific about their expectations, and Logan had personally assured them Taylor’s would meet them.

Mason walked on into the office and sank onto the chair facing Logan’s desk. “How’s Emily?”

“She’s doing much better than I thought she would.” He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “We’re together at her place or mine whenever I can get away from here.”

“Still no dates?”

Logan frowned. “We’re dating, Mason. She just can’t handle being out and around a bunch of people right now. It’s too soon. A simple little thing reminds of her parents, and she loses it. I’m not going to put her in the position of possibly having a breakdown in public.” They had even spent the Fourth of July at his house watching fireworks on television.

“What about a small get-together at my place?” Mason asked.

He thought for a moment. “Not one of your wild parties?”

“Nope. Just Coop, Colton, and me with our ladies. Bo and Liz already had other plans.” Those were the four Slammers who worked for Logan, and they always had a good time when they got together.

“When?”

Mason smiled victoriously. “Saturday evening at six. We’re doing pizza, and you’d better bring your pennies.” So, they were planning on poker.

“No promises, but I’ll see if Em feels up to giving it a try.” If he were honest with himself, it would be nice to get out and interact with other people. Emily’s feelings and needs came first, though.

“Good.” Mason stood up. “If there’s nothing I can do, I’m outta here.”

Logan waved him off. “Leave. You’ve put in a twelve-hour day as it is.”

His friend hesitated and gave him a concerned look. “Logan, I hope I’m not out of line here, but I have to tell you something.”

“What’s that?” He hoped his employees weren’t complaining about the long hours. They had to get this house finished.

“This is your friend speaking, okay?” Logan nodded, feeling wary. “Please don’t get so caught up in making sure Emily’s okay, that you forget to make sure you’re okay.” He paused for a moment and then went on. “You’ve been working what? Fifteen-sixteen hour days? And you said it yourself—when you’re not here, you’re with her. Just…I think you need a little down time.”

“She needs me, Mason.” Logan looked steadily at his friend. “I want to be there for her.”

Mason held up his hands. “I’m just sayin’ Logan. You won’t be able to help her if you get yourself worn out.” He started to leave. “Think about it,” he tossed over his shoulder as he walked out the door.

The blueprints Logan had been working on became a jumbled collection of lines when he returned his gaze to them. As hard as he tried to focus, they just wouldn’t make sense. He hadn’t said anything to Mason, but they hadn’t been making sense to him when Mason first walked in. Logan was tired—to the bone. But Emily needed him, and he needed her.

Making a decision, he grabbed a heavy straightedge and placed it across the blueprints. He made short order of shutting things down and locking up the trailer. About thirty minutes later, he pulled up in front of Emily’s house.

“Did I forget we had plans?” she asked when she opened the door.

Logan looked at the woman he loved, standing there in a pair of faded denim shorts and baggy t-shirt—no shoes. She was gorgeous.

“Emily, I need to sleep with you.” He walked past her into the house.

She closed the door and followed him into the living room. “I don’t understand, Logan. I thought we were waiting. You want to be sure of how I feel…” Not that she was complaining, but what had suddenly brought this on?

“No, Em, you don’t understand.” It was then that she realized just how exhausted he looked. “I think about you all the time. I’ve been putting in these long days of work, and I’m only getting half of what I should get done finished. At night, when I’m in bed, I…I miss you. I need to sleep, Emily. Can I just sleep with you tonight? Just one good night’s sleep?”

It had taken her days to get used to not sleeping in his arms, but looking at his bloodshot eyes and thinking of how much he meant to her, she could no more deny him than she could stop breathing.

“Do you want something to eat first?” She had already eaten dinner, but he looked like he had driven straight there from work.

“No. I just want to hold you and sleep,” he answered honestly.

It wasn’t even nine o’clock, but Emily didn’t care. “Come on, then.” She shut off the lights as she led him to the bedroom. She stood as he wordlessly stripped to his boxers and T-shirt and crawled between the sheets of her queen-size bed. Pulling off her own shorts, she lay down and found her way to the familiar place in his arms. He was softly snoring before she had barely gotten situated.

Lying there, snuggled tightly in his arms, she felt like her world had righted itself on its axis. She turned her head and softly kissed his cheek before she let herself drift with his rhythmic breathing.

“Are you sure I’m dressed okay?” Emily looked skeptically at her blue and white striped T-shirt, stone-washed jeans, and tennis shoes.

“It’s not a formal party, Em,” Logan reassured her, pulling her in for a quick hug. He was wearing a green t-shirt with his faded carpenter jeans and high-tops. “Did you get some pennies?”

“Ten rolls. Is that enough?” She turned and frowned at him when he laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“You must either plan on betting big or losing a lot.”

“We’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably lose the shirt off my back.” She was going to have a lot of fun at this party.

Logan pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. “No clothing of any kind off of you tonight, Emily. This isn’t strip poker.” He hoped his friends took it easy on her.

“What’s strip poker?” she asked innocently.

He waited while she picked up her purse and led the way out of her house. “I’d explain it, but I’d just as soon show you someday—in private.”

Once they were in his car and on their way, Emily wanted to play their game. It had been awhile. “I think it’s my turn for a question.”

“I think it’s mine, but I’ll let you have this one.”

“What are your best and worst memories from high school?” She had always wondered how his mind worked back then.

“Sneaky, Em. You have to stop combining questions. It’s cheating.”

“Answer, please.”

“It’s easy, really. My best memory is probably one of your worst, but it’s the day I put the frog down the back of your shirt. For a few seconds before you started screaming and jumping around, you looked at me—really looked at me. I didn’t think you’d ever really seen me before.” His best memory involved her?

“I hated that frog,” she informed him, “and you’re right. I did see you—I believe it’s called glaring.” She shook her head and smiled.

“My worst memory is the day I saw your keys disappear down that toilet. I never meant to actually flush them, you know. Joe had just cleaned the bathroom, so the water was clean. I just planned on grossing you out. I hated that your dad had to take off work and bring you your extra key.”

She thought of the man who raised her. “Dad would have killed you, you know.”

“That’s my question.” He glanced at her. “Why didn’t you tell him what I did?”

She considered her answer carefully, not wanting to insult him. He had gotten defensive at the campground when he talked about where and how he’d grown up. “I guess because I didn’t want to see you get in trouble. I saw you get in trouble for a lot of stuff you didn’t do.”

“You did?” He hadn’t thought anybody ever believed him.

It was her turn to feel guilty. “I know you didn’t break the trophy case. And it wasn’t you who stuffed the drains with toilet paper.” She remembered when he’d nearly been expelled. “I saw Vern spray paint the graffiti on the buses.”

He was struck dumb. There had been a witness who could have exonerated him. And not just any witness—Emily Scott! He wouldn’t have always had to have been the person taking the blame for everything. Then he thought of all the things he had done to her.

“I guess you got even with me, huh?”

“Logan, I’m sorry. It seems so childish and…insignificant now. I mean, I should have come forward, but I made excuses to myself for why I didn’t. Please, can we forgive each other and forget our school problems? We can’t go back and change anything, but we can go forward—together.”

He would do anything humanly possible for her. “What school problems?” He gave her a crooked grin. “Your turn.”

“Don’t say I’m cheating; this is a fair combination. What are your favorite color, book, movie, hobby, and place?” She waited for him to refuse to reply on the grounds of it being a combination question.

“My favorite color is hazel—the same shade as your eyes when you’re all worked up about something. I have read
The Lord of the Rings
so many times I know parts of it by heart. It’s old, and you probably haven’t seen it, but I can’t watch
Ghostbusters
without laughing. Fast-pitch softball is my favorite hobby, and my favorite place is wherever you are.” He hadn’t even hesitated. “Now, you answer the same question.”

“Okay.” She had to try and remember how she’d asked it. “My favorite color is the reddish orange of the sky just as the sun sets. My favorite book is
The Notebook
, and I’m the same way about a movie called
Steel Magnolias
as you are about
Ghostbusters
, only I laugh
and
cry every time I watch it. My favorite hobbies—I can’t separate them—are camping and walking those trails at Boone’s.” She caught his gaze as he glanced at her. “Will it be cliché if I say my favorite place is wherever you are?”

“Maybe,” he chuckled.

“Okay.” She grinned. “My next favorite place is your house. It’s my dream house, Logan.”

He felt his heart soar. Everything about his house had come from his imagination and was built to suit himself. And she thought it was perfect.

“We’re here,” he announced, as he pulled into a long driveway behind a few other vehicles. “Looks like we’re the last ones to arrive.”

“Before we get out, I want to tell you one thing, Logan.”

He paused, his hand on the door latch, and turned to face her.

“It’s been one month, and I still love you.” She leaned toward him, and he couldn’t resist kissing her. “Just five more to go,” she softly breathed when they parted.

He got out of the car and went around to open her door. “I hope you still feel the same way, Emily. I’m counting on it.” She seemed to be having trouble handling her purse, and he remembered all the pennies she’d brought. “At least you shouldn’t go broke too soon.”

A grinning Mason opened the door. “Hi, Logan.” He gave Emily a brief hug. “Come over here and let me introduce you to the ladies.” He led Emily into the dining room, where two couples and a single woman sat at folding tables. “This is my date, Lanie.” The pretty blonde gave a little wave. “You know Coop.” Coop nodded at her and grinned. “The lady that’s way too pretty to be with his ugly mug is his fianceé, Marie.” Her head full of dark curls bounced as she giggled in response to Mason’s words. She reminded Emily of Abby, except for her coloring.

“You can’t listen to him, Emily,” Marie told her. “Mason Wright is the biggest flirt to walk the face of the earth.”

Emily cocked an eyebrow and looked at her host, then back at Marie. “Already been there, way too early one morning.” It seemed a lifetime ago when he and Logan had been on her doorstep…at her mom and dad’s…She wasn’t going to think about her parents tonight. Except for a few things her dad had taught her.

“Colton is sitting at the other table.” Mason ignored both of the women’s remarks about his flirting habits. He was probably used to hearing it. “The hot chick with the red hair is his wife, Joni.”

“This hot chick is going to kick some serious butt tonight, Mason.” Emily already liked Joni. “I’m glad you’re here, Emily. Logan’s usually odd man out, or else he and Mason are a couple.” She snickered.

“We’ll start out with you two at that table with Colton and Joni,” Mason informed them.

“We’ll switch around later,” Logan told Emily as he held her chair.

The four of them were facing each other, with Colton shuffling the cards. “Since Emily’s our freshman, she can deal first.” He grinned across the table at Logan and handed her the cards.

Emily unzipped her purse and took out a couple of rolls of pennies, then busted one of them open. “How much do I have to put in the middle of the table?” she asked.

Logan smiled indulgently. “We just play penny ante, so start with one.” He looked around the room, searching for a pen and paper. “Do you want me to write a list of winning hands and their standing for you?”

She shook her head as she shuffled the cards. “I think we’ll just start with five card stud, no peek, and deuces wild.”

If she’d have had a camera, she’d have taken a picture of both men’s faces. Instead, she looked across the table at Joni, who was grinning conspiratorially at her, and winked.

Several hands later, Emily’s little pile of pennies had grown while her tablemates’ had shrunk.

“Why didn’t you tell me you could play poker?” Logan asked as Joni dealt the cards for five card draw.

“You didn’t ask,” she told him. “You just assumed I didn’t know how.”

“I feel violated,” Colton informed her.

Giggling, she patted his hand. “It’ll be okay. If you run out of pennies, I can cash some out some bills for you. I have plenty of extras with me.”

Logan remembered her ten rolls of pennies and looked at her winnings. He had been hustled. “I’m dating a card shark in a beautiful woman’s body,” he dryly observed. “Where’d you learn to play like that, Em?”

Emily’s smile faltered just a fraction before it was back in full force. “There’s not much to do in a motor home on rainy days. Mom had to keep us heavily stocked with toothpicks so Dad and I could play. If you think I’m good, you should have seen him.”

Logan held his breath. Was she going to lose it? She had mentioned her parents. Emily saw him looking at her.

“You’d better not be trying to look at my cards. Cheaters should be banned from the tables.”

He smiled at her. “I’ll try and control myself. I’m just getting pretty desperate over here.” At the rate they were going, he’d be down to pocket lint by the time they changed tables.

She saw his expression and chuckled. “I’ll give you change for a dollar, too, Logan. Don’t worry.”

Two hours later, when the pizzas were delivered, Emily had cleaned out all four men once and given them each two rolls of pennies for quarters. They laughingly called her “Moneybags.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun.

“So, Colton told me you’re a nurse,” Joni said as she joined her at the table.

Emily finished eating the bite of pepperoni pizza in her mouth. “I’m the head nurse for the day shift in the emergency room of Ransom Hospital, but I’m off for two more weeks.” She had decided to honor her parents’ wishes and do her best to relax for the remainder of her leave. It felt like she was honoring their final wish for her. “What do you do?”

“I manage Rivets,” Joni answered in a matter-of-fact manner.

Emily sat forward. “That is my absolutely most favorite store in the world to shop at. I have bought every single dress and good outfit I own there.” That was where Logan and Abby had taken her to shop for the funeral.

“We’ve probably seen each other before,” Joni commented.

“You must really be into their clothes if you could miss my lady,” Colton told her as he sat beside Joni, three huge slices of pizza piled on his plate.

Joni, between bites of food, leaned over and kissed him. “You’re just saying that now because you think I’ll let you have your way with me later.”

He gave her a quick kiss in return. “Maybe I’ll let
you
have your way with me.”

Emily was laughing softly at their banter when Logan walked into the room. He had never seen anything more beautiful than the woman he was looking at right now. She’d left her hair down and it hung in long brown waves, some of it covering her shoulders and cascading down her chest. Her eyes looked nearly green while they twinkled with her smile. She looked happy and content. Just then her gaze came up and met his.

“Are you going to stand there all day, or sit down and eat your pizza, so I can get back to becoming a wealthy woman?”

He walked over and sat down. “Hey, I’m not about to stand in the way of you becoming rich. Then I can quit my job and become a kept man.”

Their shared laughter died down as they looked into each other’s eyes. What she saw took her breath away. Logan Taylor really loved her. And he was waiting until he was sure she really loved him.

Logan could see the love and desire in Emily’s eyes. She still
needed
him too much, though. He wanted her to be sure she wasn’t mistaking that need for love. He was still hoping like crazy she wasn’t—that she really and truly loved him as much as he loved her.

She leaned over and softly kissed his lips. “Do you need to cash in any more quarters before the next game?” she teased.

“Nope. I’ll just sit back and enjoy the scenery if I go bust this time.”

“Poor thing. I’ll buy dinner for us tomorrow evening,” she offered.

He wasn’t sure if she was just kidding. “You want to go out for dinner?”

She looked at him solemnly. “I want to go to Butlers.”

“Then we’ll go.” He couldn’t wait.