SunnyWithAChanceofTrueLove (7 page)

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Ross said with a laugh. “Especially not
that
sorry. I’m just ready to move on, that’s all. And I’d like to introduce you to Elodie, my girlfriend. She just moved back to Lonesome Point.”

Mia’s eyebrows shot up and her confused blink returned as she glanced over to where Elodie stood beside him. But she recovered quickly and a polite smile curved her lips. “Welcome Elodie. Now why does your name sound so familiar?”

“I went to Lonesome Point Elementary kindergarten through sixth grade,” Elodie said, smiling up at the taller woman. “But I was super quiet. I’m not surprised you don’t remember me.”

“Well, I’m still sorry for it,” Mia said. “We’ll just have to get to know each other better now that you’re back.”

A moment later, Tulsi appeared at Mia’s side, dabbing at her tear-streaked face. “Hey, Mia, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but can you come help me get the cake out of the fridge in back? Reece and Grayson have to leave to catch their flight in half an hour, so we need to cut the cake first.”

“Got it,” Mia said, turning back to Ross as she followed Tulsi. “Catch up with me later, Ross. I want to chat some more, okay?”

“Okay,” Ross agreed, but something in his gut told him he would be better off avoiding that chat. Mia had a lot of strong opinions and she wasn’t very good at hiding them. Ross might not be the best at deciphering nonverbal cues, but he could tell when Mia had a bee in her bonnet and he had a pretty good idea the current bee had something to do with Elodie.

After the cake and ice cream were eaten, the bouquet and garter thrown, and the bride and groom sent on their way, Ross did his best to stay on the opposite side of the party from Mia and her husband, Sawyer. It wasn’t that hard. The party started off small but grew by the hour as lunchtime came and went and more well-wishers descended to join the festivities. By one o’clock, Ross had dropped his guard and wasn’t thinking beyond the next slow dance with Elodie, but he should have known better. Once she had her mind set on something, Mia was like a lion after a wounded buffalo—relentless and determined to pounce as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

Mere seconds after Elodie left to get in line for the ladies’ room, Mia appeared at his side, hands propped on her hips and a stern expression on her face.

“Okay, spill it,” Mia said. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?” Ross asked, playing dumb. “Just enjoying the party. Kind of weird that the bride and groom aren’t here, but I’ll take a party any way I can get it.”

“You know what I mean,” Mia said, eyes narrowing. “You and Meg just broke up a few days ago, and you were devastated. I saw your face when she broke up with you. You were a wreck. And now, you’ve suddenly got a brand new girlfriend?”

Ross sighed, silently cursing himself for not escorting Elodie to the bathroom. “It’s not like that, Mia. Elodie and I were close back in school. It’s not a new thing. It’s more like we just…picked up where we left off.”

“Picked up where you left off.” Mia’s auburn brows drew closer together. “From when you were
twelve
? You realize how that sounds, right?”

“Well, when you say it like that it sounds crazy,” Ross said, setting his half empty soda on the table behind him. “But it’s not. Elodie and I ran into each other at the Armadillo Day thing and we just clicked, the way we did when we were kids. I know we’re moving fast, but things are so good I don’t see any reason to slow down.” He paused but couldn’t seem to keep the rest of his words inside him. He wanted to tell someone how he felt, even if it was someone who thought he was off his rocker. “I really like her, Mia, more than any girl I’ve ever dated. She’s…amazing.”

“Sweetie, that’s great,” Mia said, her tone insisting it was the opposite and that Ross was a candidate for the loony bin. “But it’s only been two days, and you were so upset about Meg. Do you think maybe this is a rebound thing? You know, projecting the feelings you had for Meg onto this new girl, when she really hasn’t done anything to deserve those feelings?” Mia lifted her palms defensively into the air. “Not that Elodie isn’t probably a perfectly wonderful person, but you know what I mean?”

“Yes, Mia.” Ross fought the anger rising inside of him, the way he always did. Because Ross Dyer didn’t let people see him angry or hurt or even too happy. He didn’t let people see much because it was the only way to make sure they never knew how much power they had over him and his stupid, soft heart. “I understand what you’re saying. Despite what you obviously think, I’m not a complete dimwit.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “Ross, honey, I’m not saying you’re a dimwit! Rebounding isn’t anything to be ashamed of, it’s just—”

“And I wouldn’t be ashamed, if that was what was happening,” Ross said. “But I know what I felt for Meg and I know what I feel for Elodie and they aren’t even in the same league.”

“Okay, forget I said anything,” Mia said, her eyes darting to something over his shoulder, but Ross was on a roll now and she wasn’t going to shut him up that easily. “You should probably—”

“Meg was a saltine cracker,” he said, spitting out the first thing that came to mind. “Elodie is an apricot scone with a dozen different, perfect, unexpected spices. Meg was an uncooked hot dog,” he continued, warming to his comparisons. “Elodie is a bone broth simmered for a hundred hours until it tastes like heaven. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

“I get it,” Mia said, eyes meeting his in silent apology. “You love her.”

Ross’s breath rushed out and his anger melted away because just thinking about what he felt for Elodie made it impossible to stay angry. “Yeah. I haven’t told her yet, so don’t say anything, but…yeah. I do.”

“Well, I’m glad you’ve found someone so special,” Mia said, her eyes shifting back over his shoulder again. “But you should probably go rescue her before Spencer makes her rethink her decision to move back to town. He used to pick on her in school, right? Am I remembering that correctly?”

Ross turned, a frown pulling at his face even before he saw Ross Spencer and one of his bigger, dumber friends from the firehouse blocking Elodie’s path across the crowded bar. The Blue Saloon had only opened up for regular customers an hour ago, and Spencer and his buddy couldn’t have been here more than a few minutes. But from the looks on their flushed faces and the way they were crowded into Elodie’s personal space, they must have started drinking somewhere else and decided to move the party to the saloon.

Where they clearly were looking to score. Spencer was leering down at Elodie with his lady-killer smile on his pretty-boy face. A grin that most women were too stupid to see thinly concealed the heart of a snake.

But Ross knew Elodie would see past the smirk to the creep inside. Now, he just had to get her away from Spencer before the asshole did anything to hurt or embarrass her. Spencer had always treated the women he dated poorly and the women smart enough to turn him down with flat-out contempt. Back in high school, he and his friends had written “fat lesbian whore” on a girl’s car in spray paint after she’d told Spencer she wasn’t interested in meeting him behind the bleachers after school. He’d done things like that and worse to several women Ross knew, but Spencer wasn’t going to add Elodie’s name to the list of people he’d bullied.

No one was going to treat Elodie badly, not while Ross had a breath left in his body.

CHAPTER SIX

Elodie

Elodie’s heart raced and her stomach threatened a second showing of the portobello mushroom sliders she’d had for lunch.

He didn’t know who she was. Even when she gave him her full name and waited for the light of recognition to flicker on in his lavender eyes, the windows stayed dark. He simply complimented her on her dress and continued on with his story, a hero’s tale about a fire he and his friend had put out last night.

Ross Spencer had helped make going to school an exercise in torture for the first twelve years of her life, but he didn’t even remember her name. And now, he was hitting on her.

It would be funny if the sight of him didn’t make her physically ill.

But when she looked into his perfectly proportioned face, with the flashing white teeth, exotic eyes, and cheekbones that would make a supermodel envious, she didn’t see an attractive man; she saw a monster who used his beauty as a weapon in his arsenal. The broad shoulders and powerful chest that strained the seams of his Lonesome Point Fire Department tee shirt didn’t impress her; they terrified her.

He was easily twice her size. She’d taken self-defense classes at the YMCA in high school—accompanying her friend, Jill, for moral support after a bunch of redneck jerks took objection to Jill kissing her girlfriend in public and beat her within an inch of her life—but Elodie wasn’t equipped to take on a man Spencer’s size.

And you won’t have to. Just tell him you’re not interested in a beer and walk away. You’re adults now. You aren’t in sixth grade anymore.

But as she watched Spencer toss his dark blond hair from his forehead with a cocky jerk of his chin she’d seen a hundred times before, a part of her
was
still in sixth grade. Still scared and small and too tongue-tied and weak to fight back. She didn’t want to let him affect her this way, but when she looked into Spencer’s face, she heard all the ugly names he’d called her echoing in her head, remembered the way he’d been the first to notice that she wore the same stained jeans to school every day, and felt that old black hole of pain open in her chest and threaten to suck every ray of sunshine from her world.

When she was a child, she’d walked on eggshells to keep from making her mom and dad angry at home and gone to school with barely enough energy to get through the day. She hadn’t had the strength to stand up to Spencer and his friends. She’d barely had the strength to survive. Without her afternoons with Ross to look forward to, she wasn’t sure she would have made it through alive. He was the light in her long days of darkness.

And now he was crossing the room, his eyes glittering with determination, the way they had that afternoon years ago, when he’d shown her he thought she was worth fighting for.

But she wasn’t about to let him fight for her again. She was going to fight for herself, and make sure her sweet man stayed safe. She wouldn’t let anyone put Ross in danger, especially not herself.

“I’m sorry,” she said, cutting Spencer off in the middle of his story. “But I have to go. My boyfriend is ready to leave.”

Spencer’s smile hardened, but he didn’t move to let her pass by on the left and his friend blocked her way through the crowd on her right. “Why don’t you ask your boyfriend to join us?” he asked. “We can all have a few beers and you can decide who you’d rather go home with—him or me.”

Elodie cringed. The thought of going home with Spencer was so repugnant she had to fight the urge to gag.

Before she recovered the ability to speak, Ross was tapping the other man on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” Ross said, his voice vibrating with anger, no matter how polite his words. “Would you mind letting the lady through? I’d like to dance with my date before we have to leave.”

Spencer turned, meeting Ross’s eyes with an ugly smirk. The men were both a little over six feet, but where Ross was leanly muscled, evenly proportioned, and all around perfect, Spencer looked like a balloon that had been filled near the bursting point. His muscles were too big to be attractive and she knew enough about the man to guess he maintained his massive size in order to intimidate other people, not because his work involved carrying victims out of burning buildings.

“Hey there, Ugly Ross,” Spencer said. “This pretty little thing is with you? How’d you manage that, son? Lace her food before you served her lunch at the Roadkill Café?”

His words were met with laughter from his friend, but Ross simply smiled. “I’m not open for lunch, Spencer. If you’d learned to read, you’d know that. But I’m sorry if you came by and couldn’t figure out why the doors were locked.”

Spencer laughed, an ugly chuckle that was horribly familiar from the days when he and his friends would take turns seeing who could describe her “Stinky Elodie” stench in the most disgusting way. She’d spent so many lunches with her eyes glued to her food, too upset to eat, no matter how hungry she was, because of those monsters.

Suddenly, standing here in front of him, watching him prove he was still the same nasty bottom feeder, was too much to take.

“I’m ready to go,” Elodie said, meeting Ross’s eyes in a silent plea. “I need to rest before work tonight. Can we go?”

“Of course.” Ross stepped toward her with his hand held out, only for Spencer to check him with his broad shoulder, knocking him back before their fingers could touch.

“So how’s business at the Roadkill Café?” Spencer asked, turning his back on Elodie as he faced Ross.

She fought the urge to punch him in the kidneys and make a run for it. She just had to hold it together a few more minutes and she and Ross would be out of here and they could make sure to avoid Spencer in the future. That should be a heck of a lot easier to do now that they weren’t forced into the same classroom every day.

“Like you give a shit,” Ross said, brow furrowing as he met the other man’s eyes. “Now, get out of my way. Because if you touch me again, we’re going to have a problem.”