Page 26 of Heartbeat Harmony (Hearts in Hawthorne #2)

Chapter

Fourteen

A utumn slung her purse over her shoulder and left her office, satisfied with how her workday had gone.

And very curious about what tonight would bring.

When Eli told her that he had never kissed a woman before her, she had to admit she was more than surprised.

Actually, she had hidden her shock. He was an adult in his mid-thirties.

The fact that he hadn’t kissed a woman, much less that he was a virgin, was mindboggling in this day and age.

Yet she found it incredibly sweet. She would never truly understand how out of step he had been his entire life.

Simply growing up in foster care made his background far different from hers.

Where Autumn had two loving parents and two siblings who would defend her and adored her, Eli had no one.

The fact that his intellect was vastly superior to everyone around him also made him an anomaly.

As he skipped grades and went deeper into his academic career, he would have been considered everything from peculiar to abnormal to plain weird.

While Autumn had not been as popular in school as Summer, who could make friends with a wall, she’d had her fair share of good friends.

They had bonded over activities, from playing in the band to working on the newspaper and yearbook staffs.

She had shared experiences with these friends, as well as her twin, and those friendships had been a part of the fabric of her life.

Eli had none of that. No home support. No friends.

She knew he must have been respected at work since he’d led and managed a large ER in Houston for several years, but being the boss would have set him apart from the other doctors and nurses.

Her heart ached, knowing he had never truly been close to anyone.

Until now.

From the moment they’d met, Autumn had sensed a kinship with Eli.

She was grateful that he had hired her to work at Triple H, but she was eager to explore what there was to know about him beyond the intellectual professional he was at work.

He did have one hobby. Running. And she loathed running.

Walking was a different story. She could walk all day and enjoyed being out in nature.

She hadn’t really minded walking to work and giving Flint the use of the car, except for days when it rained.

Would Eli be interested in any of her hobbies?

She hadn’t pursued any of them since she’d become a nurse because she had no time working so many shifts and trying to maintain the apartment, with cooking and freezing meals and doing laundry in a Laundromat.

She enjoyed watching old black and white films, especially film noir.

She used to garden. Maybe he would want to do some of that with her in the local community gardens.

She enjoyed reading, especially Jane Austen, an author Summer had gotten Autumn hooked on years ago.

Though she’d never played any sports, she liked watching football and basketball.

Maybe Eli would want to go to a game with her or at least watch a few on TV.

So many possibilities lay ahead. She wanted to explore everything with him.

And she definitely wanted to explore his body.

When she’d placed her palm against his chest, it had been as if she pressed it against a hard surface.

Eli was lean, and she figured under his clothes, he had some nice muscles from the running.

She didn’t want to rush anything between them, especially something physically.

No matter what Summer said, Autumn was just coming off a divorce.

She didn’t want to leap into bed with just anybody.

Then again, Eli wasn’t just anybody. He was someone very special.

She reached her car and glanced to his assigned parking place.

The rest of the staff parked wherever, but a slot was designated for the medical director of Triple H.

It was empty now, so he had beat her out the door.

Autumn drove straight to his house and parked at the curb.

She took a moment to run a brush through her hair.

Her makeup was intact. She found the small atomizer she carried in her purse and spritzed one wrist, rubbing the other one against it.

Her racing heart told her how excited she was to spend more time with Eli.

Had she ever been this excited with Flint?

It had been so long ago, it was hard to recall.

She didn’t want to compare the two men, but she couldn’t help but do so.

Flint was slightly taller and had a megawatt smile, which he had always used to his advantage.

Eli rarely smiled, but when he did, his entire face lit up.

Flint was self-centered, the kind of doctor who thought he was better than everyone around him.

On the other hand, Eli showed more confidence but was also willing to listen and be more flexible.

Autumn told herself not to waste any more time thinking of her ex-husband. She was sure he hadn’t given her a single thought since they had divorced. She didn’t care what he was up to or what woman he was with. She would focus on her new job and her budding romance with Eli.

He pulled up less than five minutes later. Just seeing him get out of the car had her grinning like a fool. She joined him on the front porch.

“Smells good,” she told him.

“You can smell that?” he asked, slipping the key into the lock.

“I have an excellent sense of smell,” she informed him.

“I should have been a perfumist. I saw a documentary about creating perfumes years ago. The people who create fragrances are called perfumists, but in the industry, they’re referred to as a nose because of their keen sense of smell and how they can not only distinguish various smells but how they can create moods when they invent perfumes. It’s innate.”

She followed him into the kitchen, and he set the brown sack on the counter. He placed his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m glad you went into nursing. We never would have met otherwise. I don’t wear cologne. I’ve never dated a woman, and so I’ve never perused perfumes.”

Autumn liked the feel of his large hands and wished she could shed her jacket and blouse so that his fingers rested on bare skin. She told herself to show patience.

“My sense of smell can be a curse,” she told him.

“I can’t stand to be near anyone who goes too heavy on the fragrance they’re wearing.

I once told a teacher that I needed another assigned seat because the girl next to me wore such a heavy musk perfume that I couldn’t breathe sitting next to her. I couldn’t even think to take notes.”

“Did she oblige?” Eli asked, his hands sliding slowly down her arms, bringing a delightful shiver where they went.

“She did. She told me that she had stopped dating a guy in high school because he wouldn’t lay off spraying cologne at his locker between classes.”

By now, his fingers had entwined with hers. “Good that she was sympathetic.” He leaned in and kissed her softly. “You smell good to me. You always do. It’s not too heavy a scent. As Goldilocks would say, it’s just right.” He paused. “ You’re just right.”

Eli kissed her again, his lips pressed against hers, his fingers tightening about hers. He broke the kiss.

“Let’s eat while it’s hot. Then see what we feel like doing.”

Anticipation flittered through her.

Autumn unloaded the sack as Eli took Atticus out to pee. She noted paper plates and eating utensils had been included. She opened a smaller bag and said, “Oh, good. Rolls and cornbread. I love both,” as man and dog returned.

Eli gave Atticus a scoop of food and some fresh water and said, “I’m glad I requested each.

I usually just go with cornbread. It’s not something I ever ate growing up.

The cafeteria at med school made it once a week.

They also served chili that day. When I think of chili, I automatically add cornbread to that mental image. ”

“You like chili?” she asked, opening the Styrofoam containers and seeing the two different entrees. “You have a preference?”

“Take what you want,” he told her.

“We’ll split,” she said. “I love variety and tasting different things.”

They sat at his new kitchen table, Atticus sitting atop her feet.

“Back to your question, I do like chili. My question is simple and might just be a relationship breaker.” He studied her a moment. “Beans or no beans in it?”

“Definitely a no to the beans,” she replied. “But I’ve heard that’s mainly a Texas thing. What else do you like to eat?”

She found out he leaned toward Mexican and Italian food and thought the best dish in the world was a heated slice of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream accompanying it.

“I rarely ate desserts growing up. Again, the foster kid thing. As I told you before, most of the people who took me in also had four or five others fostering with them. Desserts were a luxury. When I got to college and found I could get dessert with every meal, I went a little overboard.”

“That’s where your running came in handy, I’ll bet.”

“I’ve always enjoyed running. I ran cross country in high school.

The sport appealed to me because I was on my own.

I was my full height of six feet by the time I turned eleven.

Cross country athletes were cool. They didn’t mess with me.

No hazing like you see in other sports. We just all ran together.

No talking. I stayed in my head and balanced chemical equations.

Outlined essays. Thought about the kind of doctor I wanted to be. ”

“You knew that you wanted to be a doctor?”