The Closer You Get (35 page)

Whinny, Ginger, and Dana waved her off, and she disappeared back the way she’d come.

“Why’s she leaving if the party’s about to start?” Rye asked.

“So she can make her grand entrance,” Chad muttered. “Check the kitchen for Cora. I got this.”

“Thanks,” Rye said and hurried out the door. He took a wrong turn down the hall and ended up in the den he and Cora had stolen whiskey from. He retraced his steps, took a different turn, and stopped in the doorway of the kitchen. Cora had her back to him. She was wearing a sleeveless, navy blue, knee-length dress and matching heels. Her hair was down and bounced around her shoulders as she spoke. She was addressing the servers, giving them instructions.
 

So Rye waited. He kept having to remind himself to breathe.

“So circulate with appetizers until Noreen is announced,” Cora said. “After that, you won’t be needed again until after tea is over and everyone moves outside to the garden. Got it?”

The four servers muttered their understanding.

“Great. And thank you all.” Cora turned, a polite smile still on her face. It vanished as her eyes widened at the sight of him. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

He shuffled his feet. “Um, your mom invited me. I drove up after church to see if I could take you to lunch. I’d forgotten today was the big party.”

“Yeah. I didn’t go to church.”

He almost smiled. “I noticed. Do you have a moment?”

She glanced around at the busy kitchen. “Let’s go in the den.” She walked past him and into the hallway. He followed her, holding his breath the whole way.

In the den, she perched herself on one end of the sofa. So he sat next to her, angled toward her. “You look so beautiful today, Cora.”
 

She blushed and smiled. “I feel like shit. Glad it doesn’t show.”

He swallowed and glanced at her hands folded in her lap. He reached out and put his hand over hers before looking into her eyes. “I wanna stay.”

She licked her lips and blinked. “In Fidelity?”

“Yes.”

“At the company?”

“Yes.”

For a moment, he thought she might reject him. Her eyes widened, and the color rose in her cheeks. “With me?” she asked.

“God, yes.”

She bit her bottom lip.
 

Rye scooted closer and brushed the knuckles of his free hand along her cheek. “You were right. I was selfish. And cowardly. I’ve been running away for a long time. I can’t bear the thought of running away from you. I love you so much, Cora. Please, please say you’ll forgive me?”

She sucked in a shaky breath. “Of course I forgive you.”

“It’s important that you know just how miserable I’ve been these past few days. The prospect of going on without you in my life was just…fucking depressing. I don’t know what it is that happens when two people fall in love that changes your whole life, but suddenly, every future I tried to imagine without you looked bleak and miserable. All of my joy and ambition is wrapped up in you, Cora. So I have to ask you two questions.”

Her eyes sparkled with tears. “Okay,” she squeaked.

“First, Mrs. McKay, can I have my job back?”

She laughed and nodded. “Of course. We don’t have an abundance of structural engineers in Fidelity, after all.”

He grinned and kissed her cheek before sobering for his second question. “Okay,” he said. “My next question is…will you take me back, Cora? I won’t run again. I don’t want to. Not ever. What you and I have can last forever, and I swear to God I’ll stick with it. With you. So will you? Take me back?”

A sob escaped her lips as she nodded again. She couldn’t seem to say anything, so Rye accepted the nods and wrapped his arms around her. When he felt her arms go around his waist, he knew everything was going to be okay. “I love you, Cora. So much.”

“I love you, too. Thank you for coming back.”

He squeezed her against him and kissed the top of her head, inhaling her scent and settling into the knowledge that he’d at last found home.
 

The following Friday, Cora met Adam for a beer at Darcy’s. He’d been down after trying and failing to win Cash back, but he’d been handling it well. When she arrived, she found him at a table with Franny and Lyssa. She signaled Roux for a beer before joining her friends.

“Wow, you look so tired,” Franny said with a giggle.

Cora blushed.

“Seriously,” Adam said, “you’re pale, dark circles under your eyes. Not sleeping much, huh?”

“Shut. Up,” she said, fearing her face might go up in flames.

It was true enough that she was exhausted. She’d probably lost weight, too, from forgetting to eat. But Rye had kept her busy in all her off-work hours, and she had no complaints.
 

“So when are you moving in together?” Franny asked.

“What?”

“Oh, come on. You have to be talking about it.”

“Isn’t it…too soon?”

“There’s no rules, Cora. It just depends on the relationship. You two are obviously in this for the long haul. What’s to keep you from moving in together or getting engaged?”

“Engaged? I don’t think Rye’s the kind of guy to move into a commitment that fast.”

Franny arched a brow. Adam shook his head in sad disbelief. Surely she wasn’t that out of touch. She’d simply assumed she and Rye would keep doing what they were doing for a long time.
 

A local band was setting up on the other side of the bar. They started their set with a slower tempo song. Adam stood up. “You wanna dance, Cora?”

There were already a few couples on the floor, so she smiled and took his hand. They danced slowly, and Cora took the opportunity to ask, “How are you doing?”

He shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Sad. But I guess I’ll be sad for a while.”

“Have you talked to him any this week?”

“Nah. We both said what we needed to say. Sure miss him, though.”

Cora leaned into him, resting her cheek on his shoulder.
 

“I want you to know how happy I am for you,” he said.

Cora closed her eyes and smiled. Rye had told her about Adam’s apology. She was proud of her friend and so grateful that he’d come to his senses. “He’s really good for me.”

“I know. Everyone could see it but me.”

“It’s enough that you see it now. I wish you’d gotten your happy ending, though.”

Adam kissed the top of her head.

“Mind if I cut in?”

Cora turned to find Rye smiling at her. She separated from Adam and turned toward her lover. But he surprised her by taking Adam’s hand and pulling him into dancing position. “Order me a beer, will ya boss?” he asked with a wink, before dancing Adam into the middle of the floor.
 

She backed up a few steps, her mouth hanging open. Then she laughed and turned to shrug at Franny and Lyssa, who were laughing and gaping respectively. She intended to join them, but when she saw Cash sitting at the bar frowning in the direction of his brother and ex-boyfriend, she moved to his side and sat next to him. Roux slid a beer across the counter to her.

“You jealous?” she asked Cash.

“Not exactly,” Cash muttered before downing half his glass of beer.

“Go cut in. Adam would be thrilled to dance with you.”

Cash finally met her eyes. “You know, I decided two weeks ago I wasn’t leaving Fidelity. I’d decided this was home. I think I underestimated how much a part of that home feeling was due to Adam.”

Cora considered herself to be quite good at staying out of other people’s business, but she just couldn’t contain herself this time. She grabbed Cash’s arm and said, “He loves you so much.”

Cash laughed and looked away.

“I’m serious. He would be so great for you, I just know it. Adam’s small town, in just about every way, and you guys shook him up a little. But he’s past that now, I mean look at him.” She turned and gestured to the dance floor where Rye and Adam were dancing and laughing about something.
 

Cash chuckled. “They look like they’ve been best friends forever.”

Cora turned back to Cash and gave him a pleading look.

He tapped her on the nose. “Your puppy dog eyes are cute.”

She blushed and took a drink of her beer.
 

“You think you have all these legit reasons,” Cash muttered. “You think you’ve got yourself figured out. And I do, really. I know I’m not cut out for a committed, domestic type relationship, but…”

“The heart wants what it wants.”

Cash snorted. “Yeah, I guess that’s right.” He chugged the rest of his beer and slammed the empty mug on the counter. “Well, I’m gonna go get my man back.”
 

“Good luck,” Cora said.

He kissed her on the cheek before sauntering off toward the dance floor. Rye pretended to fight over him cutting in, but eventually slapped his brother on the back and left the dance floor grinning. Cora watched for a moment as Cash and Adam came together. They weren’t dancing, just leaning in close and talking. Finally, Adam’s smile lit up, and he threw his arms around Cash.

Cora turned away, then, knowing everything was going to work out.
 

“Know what I wanna do?”

She turned to find Rye lounging against the bar where Cash had been a moment ago. “What’s that?”

“I want to take you down to the river, strip naked, and have sex in the water. What do you say?”

She blushed in spite of herself, still not used to being spoken to in such a direct and vulgar manner. “I say…can we wait until after dark? Because people canoe down that river and—”

“No. Uh-uh. Can’t wait. Gotta go now. Come on, boss.”

So she wound up bouncing in the seat of his truck as he drove them down a dirt road toward a little-known landing. He parked in a spot between two trees and they walked down a trail that led to a small sandbar.
 

Rye started peeling out of his shirt.

“Shh,” Cora said. “I hear people.” She listened, hearing the echoes of voices off the cliffs along the river.

“They could be ages away,” Rye said. “Take off your clothes, Cora.”

She supposed they had a while before those voices made it down the river. It was always hard to distinguish distance the way sounds bounced. Besides, they might not even be coming down the river. They might be playing on a sandbar like she and Rye were doing.

“Hey,” Rye said, already down to his boxers. He gave her an accusatory look, his hands held out to his sides. “What the hell? Get. Naked.”

She grinned and kicked off her shoes. As she peeled her shirt and jeans off, the sun finally dipped behind the hills, the light dimming. She looked up and smiled at Rye, completely naked and tip-toeing into the ice cold water. “It’s better if you just dive in,” she said.

He waded out to waist deep and did just that. Cora slipped off her bra and panties before following him in. He resurfaced with a gasp and a whoop that echoed through the hills. “Fuck, that’s cold!”

She giggled through already chattering teeth.

“Cold looks good on you, babe.”

“Sh-sh-shut up.” She dove in, absorbing the shock of the cold, an experience she’d had every summer her entire life. She swam against the powerful current. When she resurfaced, Rye brought her into his arms. Their slick bodies pressed together as he kissed her deeply. The water was waist deep on him. When she wrapped her legs around his waist, the water barely reached her lower back.

He slid into her slowly but forcefully. They broke their kiss and stared into each other’s eyes as he continued a steady, thrusting motion. “Ain’t gonna get any better than this, eh boss?”

“No, Rye. This is heaven.”

The muscles in his face grew tense, a sign he was about to lose control. “I don’t want to go home alone tonight.”

“Don’t then,” she gasped, her own pleasure heightening to the point she could barely speak. “Come home with me?”

“What about tomorrow night?”

“Then, too.”

“And the night after that?”

She clutched his shoulders, ground herself against him, and came with a sharp cry.
 

He hugged her to him, buried his face in her neck, and started pounding into her. A moment later he was groaning and pulsing inside of her.

The water didn’t feel cold, then, with their bodies hot and pressed together. But when she stood and parted from him, the chill began to creep back in.
 

Rye laughed and cupped her jaw. “Your teeth are chattering. God, you’re cute.”

She splashed him before heading back to shore. “We should have thought this through and brought towels.”

He was right behind her. “Here, use my shirt.”

“That’s gallant. Thank you, Rye.”

“You’re welcome, my lady,” he said with a bow.

They dried and dressed as best they could before linking hands to walk back to the truck. It was nearly dark, now, and Cora could barely see. When they got back into the truck, instead of turning on the engine, Rye gave the key a quarter turn and put the radio on.

Cora smiled and settled back into her seat.
 

So they would sit for a while. That was fine with her.
 

Rye’s hand came over hers. She turned her palm up and then linked fingers. “And the next night?” Rye asked.

It took her a second to remember what he was asking. “Of course. You know you can stay with me anytime you want.”

He turned to her, his blue eyes so intense they burned the chill right out of her body. “What if I want to stay with you every night?” he asked.

Her friends were right. He was a lot farther along than she’d imagined. She gave herself a moment to see if she was afraid. She wasn’t. She was happy. “Every night forever if you want,” she said, barely louder than a whisper.

He took her mouth with his. She was already getting used to it. To belonging to someone. When he kissed her, it was always a hundred percent. Always as much of a soul connection as a body one.
 

He tangled his hands in her hair and made out with her until the windows were steamed, and long after.
 

They hadn’t ever made out for so long without having sex. An hour passed. Two. Cora wasn’t paying attention to the time. Her body was covered in a sheen of sweat and Rye’s kisses. Her breasts ached from his handling them. She ached between her thighs from need.