Page 121 of Not Part of the Plan
“Uh. Fine. Yeah.”
“I’m sorry for springing this on you. You have no idea how sorry,” he said under his breath. “But it was something that needed to be said. Something that needed to be put on the table.”
“You think we should get married?”
“Emma, you’re an amazing woman, and any man would be lucky to have you.”
“What about your job? You’re a partner with the firm.”
“I could start my own practice. People in Blue Moon pay taxes, right?”
“Probably some of them, but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in that basket.”
“Well, that’s something I could figure out. I’d move here, and you could stay with your family and keep your job. We could live here if you want.” He glanced around the cottage’s living space and drained the rest of the glass.
“What brought this on?” Emma asked, still feeling as if she’d been blindsided by a steamroller.
“Like I said, it was something that needed to be put on the table.” He put his empty glass on the coffee table and rose. “Okay, so I’m going to go.”
Emma stared up at him. “You just proposed, and you’re going to leave now?”
“You like to think things over. I wouldn’t expect you to just jump into something. It’s a lot to consider.”
Mouth still agape, Emma nodded. She walked him to the door and considered the possibility that she was asleep and dreaming all this. It seemed more likely than her ex-boyfriend flying across the country to propose a year after their break up.
He turned in the doorway. “You have my number if you want to talk.”
She nodded, mutely.
He scratched at the back of his neck. “Okay, well. It was good to see you, Emma. You look great.”
“Thanks, Mason. You too…”
And then he was disappearing across the lawn.
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Emma woke Sunday morning on her couch after a fitful night of mental debates. She’d nearly worn a trench in her bedroom rug from pacing and trying to understand all that had transpired in the past twenty-four hours.
Nikolai had told her he loved her. She panicked and ended their relationship because she didn’t see how they could make it work. Mason showed up out of the blue and proposed. Oh, and everyone she cared about told her she was a scaredy cat who ran when things got complicated.
That about summed it up.
She’d mapped it out from every angle, weighed the pros and cons, and finally come to the realization that she had only one option. She had to grovel.
Niko was right. She’d lived her entire life trying to protect herself from the pain of abandonment, and in doing so, she had been the one to walk away again and again.The walking stops here, she vowed. Today she would run.
She’d run to Niko’s arms and beg for forgiveness.
And after she groveled and begged and threw herself on Niko’s mercy, then she would find Mason, thank him for his kind offer, and turn him down. She’d known the moment she’d seen him on her porch that it was Nikolai Vulkov that she loved. There had been a time in her life when “safe” felt happy. But that time had passed, and she wanted more, so much more.
The June sun was warm on her face as it shown through her windshield. She pulled into the farm’s driveway, praying that he hadn’t packed up and left town last night. But a quick scan of the garage and barn showed the place was deserted. Niko’s bike was missing, too.
Shit.Well, if she had to drive to New York to say her piece, she would.
Emma smacked herself in the forehead. Sunday. Farmers market day. “Please be there,” she whispered as she turned around and sped out of the driveway, a cloud of dust kicking up behind her.
She kept chanting the whole way into town, not letting up until she parked on a side street and jumped out of the car. It was then that she realized she was still wearing blue plaid pajama pants. But that couldn’t be helped now, and she wasn’t turning around to go home and change.
