Page 65 of Make Me Love You

“So did you. I’m aware that I didn’t pull this off entirely on my own, and I have you, the Whittakers, and dozens of Hart’s Ridge businesses to thank for it.” She touched the shiny blue ribbon pinned to his shirt. “And you won the pie contest. Of course you did. Did you save me a slice?” she asked hopefully.

Eli grinned. “I did better than that. I saved you a whole damn pie.” He moved in closer, catching her by the wrists so he could loop her arms around his neck. “But you have to come home with me to get it.”

Her expression turned crestfallen. “I can’t. I have to make sure my guests at the bed and breakfast have everything they need. How about you come home with me, and tomorrow we have pie?”

Tomorrow. The word sat like a lead brick in his stomach. He didn’t want to think about tomorrow.

From inside the barn came a long glide of a bow over strings, signaling that the band was ready to play again. Jane Freeman, the lead singer for the Lady Killers, spoke into the microphone. “It’s almost dark enough for fireworks, but I think we have time for one last dance. What do you think?” The statement was answered with stomps and whistles of agreement. “All right. Let’s make it a slow one.”

Without thinking, Eli grabbed Emma’s hand and pulled her through the doorway and onto the sawdust dance floor. She gave a stunned laugh as he used their linked hands to spin her into his arms.

“Damn, Eli. You have moves.” One hand settled on his shoulder, the other stayed clasped in his. “What happened to the awkward shuffle from homecoming? I was counting on a repeat performance.”

He laughed. “I can do that, if you really want.”

“No.” Her grip tightened, and he laughed again.

He had fantasized about this exact moment. Emma in a pair of jeans that showed off her heart-shaped ass, dancing in his arms right there in front of everybody. Now it was actually happening and he didn’t know what to do with that. He liked the way she felt in his arms, relaxed and easy, like it was the most natural thing in the world to dance together. He liked the way she looked at him, like she liked what she saw. Like she wanted to look at him. The moment wasn’t even over yet, and he was already feeling nostalgic for it.

“I’m going to miss this,” he said.

She looked at him in confusion. “You’re going to miss what? Dancing?”

“I don’t know. Working together. Making something big happen. All of it.” Especially her.

“I’ll tell you what. Next year, when I’m mayor, if you want to volunteer to help run this thing, I won’t say no. In fact, what if...what if we just kept doing this? The mayor gets to choose their deputy. Why can’t I choose you? The loophole that lets you be acting mayor when you can’t be mayor—that means you wouldn’t have to quit being an officer. Couldn’t we do that?”

For a moment he let himself imagine it. Working together during the day—with a healthy amount of time apart to keep their sanity intact. Sleeping together at night. It seemed so logical the way Emma said it. But it was a fantasy, that’s all it was. Emma had a way of making fantasies seem doable and then actually doing them, but not this time. Reality would win, and the reality of their particular situation was that it was a fucking mess.

“This only works because we have an expiration date. We could mostly ignore our past so long as we didn’t have to face a future. I don’t want to go into work every day wondering if this is the day you’re going to remember you hate me.”

She stumbled slightly, and he slowed enough to allow her to regain the rhythm. But she stood there like a tree, staring up at him with gray eyes he knew better than his own.

“Eli—”

“Not tonight.”

Tomorrow. The end was coming and he couldn’t do anything about that. But by God, he was going to have his last night with her.

“Let’s go,” he said, heading for the exit, tugging her along with him.

“Before the fireworks?”

“Oh, there will be fireworks, honey. On that, you can trust me.”

She huffed a laugh. “I can’t argue with that.”

“Did you drive here?”

“Yeah. I brought the Airstream with Cesar. We made a killing on burritos today. But he has the key to the Tacoma, and he’s already planning on driving it back tonight. I told him I would be finding my own way home.”

“Presumptuous of you.” But he liked that. They were on the same page. Tonight was for them, no one else.

He helped her into his truck, even though she didn’t need the assistance. He just wanted to keep his hands on her as long as possible. It felt like a thousand heartbeats until he got from her door to his, slid into his seat, and put his hand on her thigh. She smiled at him in the darkness right as the first firework lit up the sky.

There was no question in his mind which one he would rather look at.

And right now he was going to revel in her smile, the one he had somehow earned with a simple touch. He wasn’t going to think about tomorrow, when she would no longer smile at him and he could no longer touch her. Those things were as inevitable as the sun rising over Hart Mountain, but that didn’t mean he had to dwell on them. Tonight was enough. It had to be.

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