“Ah, yes. Lexington’s.” Ellis taps his fingers on his cup, a small smile playing around his lips. “Simon, the head chef, is a buddyof Ot’s from college. He convinced him to back the restaurant.”
“That sounds like an expensive friendship.”
“You’d think so, but Ot tripled his investment in five years.” Ellis gives a soft chuckle. “There’s a catch, though. Simon got his dream restaurant on the proviso that Lexington’s would expand into a second location when we found you.”
I’ve been studying the streaks of pink and gold creeping across the sky, but now I jerk in surprise, splattering coffee on the step. “What? Found me? Why?”
“Ot’s a practical guy, and he always plans for the future. In this case, it means Knotty Falls is about to get its first Michelan-star restaurant.”
I shake the coffee off my hand as I gape at him. “You can’t be serious.”
“Ot doesn’t joke about food. Or the things he’s invested in.”
He pauses a moment for this to sink in, then pushes off the porch to sit a couple of steps below me, his long legs stretched out, and his face turned up to mine. “Maybe you don’t want to hear this, but things were tough when we lost you. Not just the heartache, which was bad, but it was like our senses were switched off. The things we loved to eat tasted bland, and even subtle scents were irritating as hell. I saw a therapist about it, and she said it was sensory shock.”
I frown at him, but I can feel my skin prickling on the back of my neck. “Sensory shock? That’s a thing?”
“Mmm.” His eyes are so dark, they look almost black as they meet mine. “She said that when we exchanged scents with you, it became part of our identity. Your scent blended with ours, and even though we didn’t bond in an official way, losing you shut down parts of us that took a long time to fix.”
My hand shakes as I set my cup aside and wrap my arms around the burn in my stomach. As shocked as I am by his words, my own experience was painfully similar. Not just themeltdown on the return flight, but in those first few months after LA, I felt like a hollowed-out shell. As if I didn’t belong in my skin anymore. Rosie told me it was probably heightened by my pregnancy hormones, but if I hadn’t been forced to take care of myself for Leo’s sake, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to pull myself out of my misery.
Still, that was a long time ago. We all got past it eventually, and I made a promise to myself that I’d never feel that vulnerable again.
“Ellis, I’m sorry you went through that, but it’s not like it was easy for me, either. Up until a couple of days ago, I thought you wanted nothing to do with me or Leo.”
His face darkens, and I glimpse the kind of bone-deep hurt I used to see in my own mirror. “I’ll never forgive Crest for that. My uncle was a first-class asshole, but he always said he had my interests at heart. How could he possibly think keeping us apart was good for me?”
He looks so bewildered by the betrayal, it eases some of my own hurt feelings. I know it will take a long time to work through our past, but I figure we have to start somewhere. And while I can’t give him back the lost years, Leo’s company is an antidote for a lot of life’s challenges. “Well, we’re here now. And I grabbed one of my photo albums before we left last night. If you want, we can look through it together, and I can catch you up on some of those milestone years.”
“I’d love that.” He’s glowing with anticipation, but then his smile slips. “I need to apologize for running out on you at the coffee shop yesterday. I have this weekly call with my mom, and in all the excitement, it slipped my mind.” He grimaces and rubs the back of his neck. “That’s the thing, though. She has Alzheimer's, and it’s pretty advanced. I try to stick to the routine of our calls, even though it’s not like she’s sitting around waitingfor me. Her nurses always have her ready, though, and they tell me she seems happier after we’ve spoken…”
His voice trails off and there’s suddenly more of that bone-deep hurt that I doubt many people get to see. I try to imagine a world where Rosie doesn’t recognize me, and my heart throbs in sympathy. “I’m really sorry, Ellis. That must be so hard for you both.”
“Yeah, it is.” He leans forward and props his chin on his knees, his face somber as he studies his bare feet. “It’s been progressing for a long time, but it still shocks me when she looks right through me. Did you know she was an actress?” He peeks up at me, and I nod. “TV mostly, but she didn’t really enjoy the life. She grew up on a ranch, and she found the shallowness of LA hard to stomach. She used to say that Hollywood pays a million dollars for a smile, but a penny for your soul. But she came with me to the Oscars the first time I was nominated, and she told me it was the proudest moment of her life.”
I blink, both at this window to his life and the reminder that I’m sitting here with a Hollywood legend. But he doesn’t seem like a movie star right now as he quietly mourns the loss of a beloved parent. “She sounds like a great mom, Ellis. And maybe you shouldn’t listen to someone who never knew her birth parents, but I don’t think that memories like that can ever be taken away from you. No matter what happens, you’ll always know she believes in you.”
His mood brightens a little, and he lifts his chin to smile at me. “Yeah, I suppose she does. And it’s obvious that Leo hit the jackpot with you.” His admiration is so blatant, I can’t help rolling my eyes, and he gives a soft chuckle. “What? You don’t agree? I mean, my excellent genetics can only take so much of the credit here.”
He’s giving me a movie star smile now, and I groan. “I didn’t realize your head was as big as Della’s damn balloon.”
“And filled with about as much hot air, probably.”
We laugh and lapse into an easy silence for a while, but when his gaze dips to my throat, he makes a soft humming sound. “Logan’s mark looks good on you, by the way.”
It’s not like this moment didn’t occur to me. I assumed it might be a little awkward unveiling my new status to the other guys in the house, but I’m not prepared for the heat that burns in my cheeks. “You must think it’s weird… After all the years of living next door to each other, we chose last night to bond.”
He shrugs, but I can smell his scent thickening, the caramel taking on a spicy edge that teases my senses. “I’m honored, actually. I get the feeling you don’t let your guard down easily, and I’m glad you felt safe enough under our roof to share something like that.”
I clear my throat, pretty sure it wasn’t just a sense of safety that had me climbing Logan like a money tree in its prime. “We’d just waited so long… And I wanted Logan to know that my feelings for him were as strong as ever.”
“He’s a lucky guy.”
“Lucky doesn’t begin to cover it,” Logan says in a sleepy growl, and I’m about to scramble to my feet when he slides onto the step behind me. As he scoots forward, his long, jean-clad legs surround me, the heat of his naked chest like a sun-warmed blanket against my back. But it’s his breath on his mating bite that sends a shudder through me. “Good morning, mate. You smell particularly delicious today.”
“Is it the coffee breath or the strawberry cake I snuck from the fridge?”
“Neither,” he hums, nuzzling the side of my neck. “It’s just you.” I smile, because if sweet Logan is out in force this morning, I’m here for it. Although, there’s a protective edge to his voice as he smooths his thumb over his bite and asks, “Are you feeling okay? Not too sore?”
