That had only happened with one other man.
Too unsettled to stay still any longer, she left Tyler with his book and cleaned up the bright paper wrappings and ribbons from the carpet.
She had no idea how to repair the damage done to their relationship. He was her mentor. He’d become her confidant. His voice had been one of experience and his advice had been invaluable where other situations were concerned. She just didn’t know how to ask what she could possibly do to make things right between them when he was part of the problem, even though she’d picked up the phone a dozen times to try. He had no responsibility to her beyond the agreement he’d made with her benefactor, and now even that part of their relationship had been jeopardized.
The two-tone chime of a bell startled her from her painful thoughts. She’d only heard the chime ring twice before: the first morning she’d met Edie, when the woman had stopped by to welcome her to the neighborhood, and two days ago when Talia had brought the twins over to play. Erik had explained that the service bell was used for after-hours deliveries. A few of the locals obviously used it as a doorbell to save themselves from having to walk around back.
Thinking it might be one of the neighbors she and Tyler had delivered Christmas cookies to yesterday, she headed through the store and opened its front door.
No one was there.
Stepping out, the cold breeze tugging at her hair, her glance caught on a small package on the weathered plank boards.
The little gold box was tied with a red bow.
Now conscious of the dark truck in the parking lot, her heart beating a little too fast, she picked it up.
The neat print on the back of the gold tag read “I want you to find it again.”
She knew exactly what it was. It meant the inexplicable feeling of magic she’d told Erik she’d once known every Christmas. The feeling of everything being right in her world. He knew it was the feeling she’d wanted her son to know and something she’d given up hope of ever experiencing again herself.
Yet that sense was what she felt now as she lifted the lid on the box to find a glittery little life preserver on a thin gold cord.
She had the feeling he was only letting her know he’d help her stay afloat with the business. And that was huge. But the way he’d done it had her closing the box and holding it with both hands to her heart.
It was only then that she looked to where Erik unfolded his arms and stepped away from his driver’s side door.
Gravel crunched beneath his hiking boots as he moved past the bits of storm debris still strewn over the wet grass. Dark plaid flannel hung open over a navy Henley shirt, his broad shoulders looking impossibly wide as he climbed the steps and stopped in front of her.
He hadn’t been at all sure what to expect when he’d left the box for her. He’d just wanted her to discover it the way she had the others she’d told him about. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, she’d said, so that sense was part of what he’d wanted to give her, even if only for a moment.
He knew he could have just left it for her. But that would have defeated another part of his purpose. He’d needed to see her reaction to his gift so he’d have some idea of what to do next. It was so unlike him not to have a clear plan, but he felt much as he suspected he would setting sail without a compass or preparation. He wasn’t totally sure how to get where he wanted to go, or if the waters he’d face would be calm, rough or totally unpredictable.
Encouraged by the way she held his gift, he quietly said, “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” she echoed, still clutching the little ornament. Caution merged with disbelief. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in San Diego.”
“I was. I spent Christmas Eve with my family and caught the first flight out this morning. I don’t want to keep you from Tyler. I just wanted you to have that.”
Rory watched him nod toward her clutched hands. She could have hugged him for his gift. The reserve carved in his expression held her right where she stood.
Considering the bated relief she felt at his presence, her “Thank you” seemed terribly inadequate. “Do you want to come in? Tyler loves his—”
Erik was already shaking his head. “There’s one other thing.” More than one, actually, but he wanted them alone right now. “The other day, you said you didn’t want to set yourself up to lose something you don’t even have. You said it would be a mistake for you to count on me. I understand the need to protect yourself,” he insisted. He’d mastered that one in spades himself. “And I get the reasons you don’t want Tyler to start believing I’ll be around for him. But I’m not all those other people who’ve let you down, Rory.
“You seem so certain the only way you can create stability for yourself is to keep anyone who could rock your boat at arm’s length. But you’ve rocked mine, too. You already have me,” he admitted. “I figure the least we owe each other is a little time to reconsider our positions before we totally blow something that could have a lot of potential.”
She looked at him warily, a betraying glint of a smile in her eyes. “You think we have potential?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”
She’d rocked his boat. The thought made relief harder to suppress. His admission that she already had him made it nearly impossible.
She took a step closer. “If I let myself count on you,” she began, already wanting that more than he could possibly know, “what are you offering to reconsider?”
“Are we negotiating?”
“Apparently,” she replied, holding his gift even tighter.
She couldn’t begin to identify what she felt as the tension left his handsome features. Reprieve, for certain. But something that felt suspiciously like hope had risen right behind it. He didn’t want them to close any doors.
Lifting his hand toward her, he curved it to the side of her face.
“In that case,” he said, more relieved than he could have imagined when she tipped her cheek toward his palm, “you should know I’ve already considered how much my hang-ups were getting in the way of possibilities where we were concerned. I’ve spent years thinking I just wanted to be away from here. But once I moved past thinking about what I’d wanted and considered what I might need, I realized that what I needed was another chance with you.
“You made me realize how much I still want a family. And a home here. It’s not just the place,” he assured her. It was how she made it feel. Comfortable. Familiar. As if he belonged there. “It’s you. And Tyler.”
He knew he already had a good life. Until he’d met her, he’d just refused to let it matter that he didn’t have anyone to share it with. He’d work or play late so that he was too tired to care that he had no one to come home to who actually cared that he’d had a great day or a bad one, or whom he could care about in return.
“We’re good together. If we want to make this work between us, we can. I’m in love with you,” he confessed, finally acknowledging what he’d denied to his partner well over a week ago. Pax had somehow known that she was the woman he’d been waiting for, though he hadn’t realized he’d been waiting for her at all. “All I’m asking is if you’re willing to try.”
Rory knew his walls had existed far longer