Page 55 of On the Fly
She let out a startled gasp when he leaned down ever so slightly, one arm behind her back, the other under her knees, and swung her up into his arms. She threw her hands around his neck for balance.
“What are you planning to do with me?” she teased.
“Well, Ms. Chadwick, I do believe you’ve got a bed somewhere in this structure. I plan to find it and have my way with you. Any objections?” He kissed her on the forehead, and she giggled at his ridiculousness and almost swooned at being held in his strong arms.
“No objection here.”
Ander walked through the kitchen to the stairs in the front hallway. “Upstairs?”
Emma nodded. She’d never had a better welcome-home present in her life than Ander asleep on her front steps. To think she’d almost lost him. She tightened her arms around his neck as he ascended the stairs. She didn’t know what the future held for them, but she was happier than a duck in a spring pond that she’d get to find out.
Epilogue
Three months later
Ander stood by the big U-Haul rental truck, listening to the gasoline gurgling down into the gas tank. What a crazy world he had stumbled into. What had happened to his life?
Since his gaze was fixed on the front doors of the truck stop, he saw Emma walking through the sliding glass doors in her pretty summer dress with her hands full of shopping bags filled with many treasures—her words not his.
Three months had passed since he’d held his heart in his hands, ready to do whatever it took to win Emma back. Their healing hadn’t stopped after that one night. He’d committed to showing her he’d changed. He certainly was not the same man he’d been four months ago, and he was still adjusting.
The commitment he gave to her that day had no bounds. He wanted Emma happy. Her happiness made him happy, and he’d watched her blossom as the relationship grew.
“Look what I got us,” she said, walking straight to him, her pretty face tilting up indicating the kiss she wanted to give.
Her magic touch always delighted him, and he bent to meet her puckered lips. He stayed there in her personal space, enjoying her beaming smile and kissed her again.
“We scored a bag of Beaver Nuggets. Cara swears by these things.” She showed him something that resembled a bag of caramel popcorn.
Her delight was infectious as she pulled out a praline and a pastry for them to share, then grew more animated when she revealed a T-shirt with a cartoon beaver emblem screen-printed on the front.
“And I got this for you.”
“I’m not wearing that,” Ander said emphatically, drawing his line in the sand.
“I thought that would be your answer so I decided to see if Erik would. You two have got to learn to lighten up. For all his easy-going reasonableness, he struggles mightily be a normal person, just like you,” she said, stuffing the shirt back inside the bag.
The gas pump clicked off. Ander went through the motions of finalizing the payment and replacing the nozzle and gas cap. He hoisted himself inside the cab as he said, “Lucky would probably be your best bet to wear that thing.”
“So much scorn for that cute little beaver!” she said, defending the cartoon graphic. He started the engine and gave a well placedpfftwhich she completely ignored. “We have five hours and forty-five minutes until we reach Amarillo, that’ll place us there about seven o’clock tonight. Does that sound okay? And you don’t need to remind me how many airplanes you own in the sky right now that could have gotten us back to California yesterday.”
Fortunately, his cell phone rang before he reiterated the truth of those words. As Ander pulled the rental truck onto the highway, he answered his phone blindly, breaking another of his longstanding rules—caller ID was the best invention of the twentieth century.
“What?” He might have a soft spot for Emma, but that didn’t mean anyone else deserved a reprieve from his previous unyielding nature. Ander grinned at that thought. Maybe he hadn’t changed so much. He glanced over to Emma in the passenger seat. Just looking at her made his insides melt.
“Where are you? Where’s my new social media director? She’s got a big job that I’m having to field questions for because you aren’t here yet.” Erik should have gone into creative writing with all the various ways he’d found to complain about that same issue since Emma had agreed to take the corporate position.
“Erik wants to know again why we’re driving all the way across country in this U-Haul instead of having the company relocate us like normal professionals? I should have knocked you out and put you on a plane.” At Emma’s affronted look, Ander added, “Those were all his words, not mine.”
“That’s not at all what I said,” Erik grumbled.
Emma pursed her lips. “Yeah, he didn’t say that at all. Besides, we saved the company thousands of dollars doing it this way.”
Ander cast a look Emma’s direction. She gave him a bright smile and a wink before putting her headphones in her ears, drowning him out to watch whatever Netflix special she’d planned for the trip.
“You two have your private talk. I can’t hear.” She waved a hand for him to continue. He loved seeing her so relaxed with him.
“You can hear me,” Ander countered.
