Page 7 of Make Me Love You

Silence fell. She reached for the door handle. It was time to make her escape.

“We need to talk about this,” he said.

She shook her head. “No, we don’t. There’s nothing more to say. Truly.”

He made a frustrated noise. “I think there’s a lot more to say, actually. Look, I’m not any happier about this than you are. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is. I don’t need to take on the role of deputy mayor, not even for two months. But I don’t see as there’s a choice, or at least not one my conscience can live with. The Whittakers have served Hart’s Ridge for long enough. It’s time we did something for them, even if it’s just letting them go.”

Panic churned her gut. There had to be a way out of this. She couldn’t see Eli every day. She just couldn’t. A chill ran through her and she rubbed at her arms for warmth. “So what are you saying? We have to work together?”

“I’m saying—” He looked at her and frowned. “For Chrissake. You’re freezing to death.” He cranked the heat even higher and reached behind the seat, pulled out the blanket, and tossed it to her. “I’m saying we don’t have to be in a room together to work together. Cell phones? Email? Texting? We have the technology to never see anyone face-to-face again, if that’s what we wanted.”

“I guess we could try,” she said slowly. She huddled under the blanket. It did smell good. Like him. Like spicy cologne and cinnamon from the gum he chewed.

“Yeah, we could try. We should try. And, listen, if we can’t make it work, then we’re an embarrassment to our generation and I’ll find someone to replace me, even if I have to play dirty to do it. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said softly. She couldn’t believe she was agreeing to this. But what he said made sense. Her feelings didn’t matter here. What mattered was helping the Whittakers, and helping Hart’s Ridge. Or at least keeping the lights on until someone better suited took over.

“So we agree? We’re on the same page?”

“Yes.”

Thunder rumbled, so close she could feel it in her teeth. She jumped in surprise. “That’s not ominous at all,” she muttered sarcastically. “Just what we need. In case you haven’t noticed, my luck has, historically speaking, completely sucked.”

He turned away, obscuring his face in the shadows. “I noticed.”

“But maybe that will work in our favor.”

“How so?”

She shrugged. “What I’m saying is that I expect this all to go sideways sooner or later, but I’m used to that. I don’t really know what to do with myself when things are going right. So maybe bad luck...maybe bad luck is exactly what we need.”

He offered a small grin. “I can work with that. My luck hasn’t been the best, either.”

“So...I won’t see you tomorrow, but you can text me, and I won’t ignore you. You need my number?”

“Has it changed?”

“Nope.”

“Then I don’t need it.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. Nobody memorized phone numbers anymore. Was she still saved in his contact list? She had deleted him, but she hadn’t blocked him. She’d known then that she wouldn’t need to. Eli was a man who took a woman at her word. If a woman said don’t call, he wasn’t going to call.

She pushed off the blanket, opened the car door, and darted out into the rain. Something made her pause and turn back. He was watching her, making sure she got in safely. That was Eli, down to the bone. Always making sure she was safe, even if safety came with a broken heart and a dad in prison.

A mess of emotions rioted inside her. Love, loss, heartbreak, hope, rage. Rage. She focused on it, let it grow and crystalize until it drove out everything else. Rage was easier to deal with than all the other emotions. She knew what to do with it.

“I’ll never forgive you, Eli Carter!” she shouted.

It turned out there was something left to say, after all—if only because she was in danger of forgetting it herself.

***

Eli let out a slow breath as he watched Emma disappear inside the Airstream and slam the door shut. For a moment he was too stunned to move, much less drive.

The image of her standing there in the rain, her white shirt entirely see-through and clinging to her breasts and pale lilac bra, was seared into his brain. She had looked so wild, so touchable, so Emma. And then she had hurled those words like a grenade.

I’ll never forgive you, Eli Carter.

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