Two in Winter (7 page)

When her head flew back and a gasp spilled out of her, her body convulsing in his arms, he let himself be swept in with her. The electric heat rushing out of him bowled him over with such force, he arched hard against her, heard the slap and felt the vibration when her hand braced against the headboard as he shouted.

He felt locked in that moment, as he stared up at her, watched her breath slowing back to normal. A new normal for him. He didn’t believe in life-altering sex, but the connection he felt with Getty in that moment was undeniable. He eased her back down to the bed and slowly withdrew, taking off the condom and disposing of it before lying back on the bed with her. His hand stroked down her arm and she rolled to face him, pulling him into a drugging kiss.

“You made me very, very happy.” The words came out on a sigh as she pulled back from the kiss to snuggle into his shoulder. He laughed then and it felt new, as if laughter were something he’d never done before, but it sobered quickly.

“Getty, I don’t know where this is going, but I want us to figure it out together, okay?” He frowned, feeling the worry crease his face. “If you decide to go back to the clinic, I understand. I don’t have a right to tell you not to go through with your plans.”

“Eric.” The exasperated look on her face made him nervous.

“I’m giving you that right, Dr. Freyr,” she teased. “Look … I’m not putting a deadline on us. But I like you, a lot. And I have already made some changes to my life that will make it easier for us to spend time getting to know each other—for the first time since college, I actually have time to date someone.” She laughed then. “All because I wanted a baby. So … let’s do this, let’s work on making each other happy and see where it takes us because I like you Eric, and you make me want things I didn’t plan for, and I’m starting to realize maybe that’s okay.”

“It is okay, it is,” he reassured her as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

Chapter 15

Driving over to Eric’s house with the last boxes of her belongings, the ones she’d told the movers she’d take care of herself, she had to admit she was surprised how much things had changed. Spring had brought the flowers up from the ground, and the trees that lined his quiet street had erupted into heavy-scented bloom. The pollen in the air was eye-wateringly heavy, and bees, signs of life, were everywhere. Spring seemed to be especially here, with him.

She and Eric had their share of head-butting arguments. “Every mile is two in winter” seemed doubly true for them, but they had promised never to go to bed angry, and somehow, the icy detachment she had put up between them at the beginning never seemed to come back. They’d fought about moving in together—her house was bigger—and she was ready to put her foot down on the matter when he explained what it meant to him to be close to Erica and Nossie.

“It’s the one thing we planned on as kids that worked out,” he’d said. After that, she’d agreed his place would work out fine. And it would, she realized as she looked at Erica’s house right next door, a sister, a friend, a neighbor and a niece.

He hadn’t been thrilled about all the travel she was doing as she negotiated a private label deal with a huge retailer for Anna’s designs, but he never failed to pick her up at the airport with a smile and a grumble about how much he’d missed her. They’d barely have time to get home before the clothes started coming off—sometimes they didn’t make it home.

But now the negotiations had been finalized and Anna was going to have a lot more security from here on out. Knowing that made it a little easier for Getty to give up control of sales to the new manager, who was as much of a workaholic as Getty had been. Anna had hired some other designers to work under her and business was better than ever. Sometimes, deviating from the plan was surprisingly fruitful.

She pulled the BMW into his driveway as Eric came bounding out of the house, his broad smile reaching all the way to those still-stunning blue eyes.

“Hi.” She giggled as he opened her door and tugged her into his arms.

“This is it. You’re here.” He grinned, kissing her fiercely. As the kiss turned into something lush and wet, she pulled back.

“Victory is thine, Doctor Freyr,” she whispered.

“Skip and Stacey are here.” He rolled his eyes toward the house. “And Noss and Erica. I know you were hoping it could just be the two of us today, but they really wanted to throw you a party. Anna’ll probably be showing up in the next few minutes.”

“I don’t mind. As long as there’s dancing.” She grinned, pulling him close to give him another quick kiss.

“I love you,” he said as he pulled back.

“I love you too.”

Sometimes, it was nice to have a plan B.

The End

About the Author:

Vanessa was born in New England, but moved to the South as a teenager. She reads voraciously, writes obsessively, and takes thousands of photos of the people she loves.

She lives in Northwest Georgia with her husband, twin boy-children, and a pack of dogs.