“Ahh, that’s why it’s familiar.” She took another sip, then looked back to the woods. “Thanks, Nate. This is amazing.”
I wrapped my free arm around her, thrilled when she snuggled into me. “Anytime, Elle.”
She gave me a side look. “So you’re not regretting offering up your guest room yet?”
“Hell no.” I took another drink and debated how to wade into this conversation. My dad would say straight on is the only way to go, so that’s what I did. “So yesterday was a bit rough for you.”
She let out a shaky laugh. “Yep, you could say that.”
“Any word on the job or the busted-pipe front?”
She slid her phone out like it was going to give her an update. “Not much, I guess. I had texts from my boss saying they’ll talk to me in a few days after they finish their internal audit. Ivy said they’d gotten to the pipes before much damage was done. Nothing was ruined for me or the yoga studio beyond some walls, so that’s the best scenario that could have happened there. They’re waiting on some plumbing parts, and I should be able to go back at the end of the week.”
She glanced to me. “Can you handle a roommate for three more days?”
I bit back the retort that she could stay indefinitely. My house already felt more like a home with her there than it had since I’d moved back. She felt like my missing piece. My heart told me to dive in. My mind said to give her a solid foundation, especially when her world was in a bit of disarray. Instead, I replied, “Of course.”
I stacked our now-empty cups together and put them in the corner of the bench seat. We sat in silence as the sleigh bumped over the ground. Blake was murmuring to the horses as he steered us toward the mansion in the park. Home of the original owner of the property in the early 1900s, it was now a conference center and housed the offices for the park and a café.
We turned the corner, and there it was up on the hill, a pond below, all blanketed in the morning snowfall.
“God, that’s gorgeous,” Elle breathed out.
I looked at her, her nose rosy from the cold, eyes alight with emotion. It sure was. She was. And I couldn’t hold back. “I need to kiss you, Elle.”
Her face tipped up to meet mine. “No one is holding you back, Nate.”
Scooting closer to her on the bench, I framed her face with my hands and pressed a kiss to her lips. They opened on a breath, and my tongue slid in, finding hers, and beginning that dance. I felt, as I had the first time I kissed Elle yesterday, that I was where I was supposed to be.
That with her, I’d found home.
Her head tilted to the side a touch, allowing me to deepen the kiss. Her arms slid around my waist, and I pulled her as close as we could be, sitting side by side.
I’d kissed many women in my twenty-seven years. Kissing Elle was different. In every possible way.
We pulled back at the same time, and I searched her face, trying to decode where she was at in this freefall of a relationship we found ourselves in.
“I love kissing you,” she said, breathless.
I laughed. I loved that she wasn’t holding back. “I love kissing you too.”
“Just saying, I’m still here,” Blake called from his spot, humor lacing his words.
“Thanks, Blake,” I shook my head with a grin at Elle.
“We’re turning here,” Blake said as the horses made a wide arch. “Back to the shed in about ten.”
Elle and I settled back into the seat, blanket up, my arm around her. As we returned to that comfortable feeling between us, I returned to our conversation from the morning. Really, it was a continuation of the conversation we’d been having in pieces since she shared her dream with me so many weeks ago.
“How goes your story?” I asked, pressing a kiss to her temple in the hopes that it would keep her relaxed. Instead, I felt her body tighten.
“Easy, Elle. I’m not here to make you do anything you don’t want to do. I just want to understand.”
I felt her take a breath, working to let go. “It’s not easy, Nate. I don’t think you understand how scary it is.”
I worked to hold back a laugh because I knew she wouldn’t take it the way it was intended. “Elle, you know I moved down here only five months ago, right?”
Her uncertainty of where I was going with this was clear from her voice. “Yes?”
