Page 111 of To Belong Together
She wore the dress from the rehearsal dinner paired with a gray cardigan and flats. Focused on the picture, she tilted her head away from him, lengthening the graceful lines of her neck and jaw. She bit her bottom lip, then exhaled, eyes glossy.
He ran his fingertips across her back. “Looks like he knew how lucky he was to be your date.”
Her lips settled into a gentle smile as she bumped against John and fit her arm around his back. “I should probably stay by Mom. I’m usually a people-person, but all the family stuff the last few days has been exhausting.”
John peered over to where Ellen stood with a small group, apparently engaged in the conversation. “She’s all right for the moment.”
“I suppose. If they need me, I’m easy enough to find.” She ruffled her locks with her free hand. “Tall chick with the blue hair.”
“Don’t say those things like insults.” He tightened his arm around her. “I like how you look.”
Erin cast him an uncertain glance, then refocused on the pictures. She lifted her finger to indicate one of her and her dad by a car in the driveway. In the photo, she was standing on something attached to one of the tires. “He told me I should know how to change a flat because Mom didn’t. I was about ten, but I feltverygrown-up.”
He chuckled as he realized ten-year-old Erin was standing on the wrench. Either the lug nut had been stuck, or Robert had wanted to teach his daughter how to loosen and tighten it with no help. Maybe a little of both.
Erin motioned to another picture and began a new story, but Ellen hurried through the room with a tissue clutched by her mouth.
John rubbed Erin’s arm. When she paused, he tilted his head toward the exit. “Your mom left.”
“Oh.” She produced her phone from a pocket in her skirt and checked the time. “You’ll be all right while I check on her?”
“Of course.” Although from the looks of it, he’d have to disappear himself if he wanted to avoid her cousins.
Sam and Roy stood near the entrance with their father, and the three seemed focused on John.
“The service is starting soon.” Erin took a step after her mom, half turned toward him. “Wait for me, okay? Or sit up front and I’ll join you.”
He nodded, and she hurried out.
John returned his attention to the photos.
“So you’ve got a thing for Erin.” Sam, the cousin with the obnoxious voice stopped next to him. “Who’d have thought?”
John met the condescending question with a tight smile. “Some of us are less threatened by strong women than others.”
The man let out a surprised laugh. “Strong? How about broke?”
Broke? Sam was broke compared to him too, but who was counting?
Sam tipped his head, expression sobering. “I’ve got nothing against Aunt Ellen. She had a lot working against her to put her in that hole, and it had to be hard to get the foreclosure notice with Uncle Rob gone. From a certain angle, it looks generous of Erin to try and raise the money to save Aunt Ellen’s house by selling her own place, but that’s all for show. No way she’s built up enough equity. So, lucky for them you came along and all she had to do to solve their problems was bat her lashes.” He clamped a hot hand on John’s shoulder.
His mind raced to sort details. Erin’s mom was in serious debt? Serious enough that Erin would sell her own house to get her out of it?
Why hadn’t she said anything?
“Since you funded the search and got her a raise, I’m sure you’ll just snap your fingers again, pay for the house.”
The bank was foreclosing on Ellen’s house, and Sam expected John to intervene.
Did Erin?
A pending foreclosure might have inspired her to rekindle their romance so soon after she’d demoted him to friend.
But Sam had also said …
“A raise?”
“Day after she threatened to quit and take Awestruck’s business with her, Dad changed her pay rate.” Sam angled toward the photographs. “Guess it’s real helpful to have sway with celebrities.”
