Page 11 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

On Monday, Suzie felt a lot more alive than she had over the weekend. Convinced she had the flu, even though she believed she was sick at heart with all the stress, she stayed in bed two entire days while Brad graciously took over in the kitchen. Why he would do that after she’d been so difficult to deal with and they had argued so badly, she had no clue. Obviously the man was nuts or something. Or he loved her. Maybe both.

He never gave up. She had to give it to him, he came in here with a plan and be damned if he’d stick to it.

Whether she liked it or not.

The smell of her signature cinnamon coffee blend brought her out of her bedroom and into the kitchen. The way Brad looked standing in her kitchen, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, reading the morning paper over the center island with a cup of coffee to the side, made her want to melt into the floor in a lukewarm puddle. God, what a body. What a man. And what a scene to wake up to. One she wanted to preserve, forever, in her mind. Finding Brad in her kitchen looked a lot like home.

“Morning,”

she squeaked.

Brad’s smile widened when he looked up.

“Hi, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”

“Much better.”

“Good. Coffee?”

“Please.”

He moved to the coffee maker and poured her a cup. She settled onto a bar stool.

“Here you go. A little cream and one spoon of sugar. Just how you like it.”

She smiled.

“Thank you.”

They stayed silent for a few minutes while she sipped her coffee and he continued to read. All this time, everything she’d put him through, and he’d never faltered. Not once. He was so steadfast, so determined to have her in his life. Would he still be once he knew her secret?

“Brad?”

“Hm?”

“Can we go to the lodge sometime this week? Before they tear it down?”

He rose and looked at her.

“If you want. Of course.”

She nodded.

“I do. I want to see the lodge one last time. I’ve not been there in years but I want to take one last walk through. For closure, I guess.”

She’d told herself a million times that this was the right thing to do, so she was trying very hard to hold back the tears. She’d thought it all through while lying in bed the past couple of days. If she got through this, accepting that the lodge would be gone forever, then she could get through the next thing she had to tell him—that she couldn’t give him a baby. Then after that, the chips would lay were they will.

Perhaps if she could give, he could too. Time would tell.

He moved around the bar toward her and took her into his arms.

“I’ll do whatever makes you happy,”

he whispered.

“I want you to be happy.”

Funny, she thought. That was exactly what she wanted, too. For him.

“I want us both to be happy.”

Brad sighed and looked down into her eyes.

“All I need is you, Suzie, and then I’m happy.”

“Really, Brad?”

He nodded.

“Of course.”

“Are you sure? If I was the only thing you could have, would I be enough?”

He paused for a moment, studying her face.

“Honey, I swear. You’re enough.”

He bent to kiss the tip of her nose.

“Are you sure you are feeling better?”

She nodded.

“Yes. I am. Much better.”

“I’m glad.”

He hesitated.

“Suzie, I really hate to do this now, but I need to tell you something. I have to leave for a few days, and I want to make sure you are okay before I do.”

A ripple of panic raced across Suzie’s abdomen? “Leave?”

The word squeaked out of her throat and she didn’t like that sounded so weak.

“For how long?”

“A couple of days. I need to run down to Atlanta. Some things to settle with my grandmother’s estate. With my parents still stationed overseas, and my brother in Italy, I need to take care of it.”

“Well, of course. I’m fine, Brad.”

But inside, she was already a mess. He’d popped into her life from out of nowhere and turned her world upside down. Now, he was leaving for only a few days and she suddenly felt so empty. She couldn’t imagine him not being here.

“You’re sure?”

She looked up into his face and grinned wide.

“I’m sure, Brad. I’ll miss you but I’m sure. You do what you have to do.”

He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

“I’ll be as quick as I can be. I’ll miss you too.”

She nodded against his chest.

“When are you leaving?”

He pulled back and cradled her face in his hands.

“In a couple of hours. I should get down there tonight. I have a meeting with the attorney in the morning.”

Suzie stared at him. “Oh.”

So, he’d known about this for a while. Why was he just now telling her? She separated herself from him and picked up her coffee cup. She had been sick. She supposed he was waiting.

“I’m going to finish this on the deck. I hope you’ll come find me before you leave.”

****

I hope you’ll come find me before you leave.

The further away Brad drove from Harbor Falls and from Suzie, the more uneasy and anxious he grew about the entire situation. Why the hell wouldn’t he come find her before he left? What was going on in that head of hers?

There was something about the rotation of the Harley’s tires on the pavement that pulled his brain into a cycle of doubt as he played over the various scenarios of the past few days. He’d left her with a quick kiss on the deck and she had barely hugged him. Oh, she was pleasant and smiled but she wasn’t herself. He didn’t think she was mad, it was something else.

Something wasn’t quite right.

She was emotional and that wasn’t like her—at least not the Suzie he’d known eighteen months earlier. She hadn’t felt well lately either, and even though she attributed it to the flu, that didn’t entirely make sense. It wasn’t flu season, although he supposed having flu-like symptoms wasn’t impossible. Perhaps it was a virus of some sort.

But what if it was more—what if she was really sick. Worse than flu symptoms sick. Maybe there was something more serious going on. What wasn’t she telling him?

She had been a bit evasive lately. Hadn’t she?

He recalled the question she’d asked that still niggled. If I was the only thing you could have, would I be enough? The fact that she even had to ask him that worried him. But what she didn’t say worried him even more. How could she question whether she was enough? Doesn’t she realize just how much he loves her? Had he not made himself clear?

Maybe not. Maybe he’d been so damned focused on the lodge and everything that needed to happen to get the project moving, that he’d neglected her. And if that were true, he had to remedy that situation, and soon.

Very soon. The moment he set foot back inside Sweet Hart Inn he needed to set things straight with Suzie. Make sure she knew just how much he loved her, and how much he needed her. And that couldn’t happen fast enough.

Of course, he could call her. They could talk tonight on the phone. But this conversation needed to be had in person.

There were things he needed to say, to make clear. And things he needed to hear from her. He wanted to look her in the eyes and understand how she was feeling and why. Suddenly, he felt there were too many unspoken conversations that needed to happen between them—from both sides of the coin. And of all the times to realize that, why now when he had to go away? Perhaps he had been evasive, as well. What was it that she was avoiding telling him?

He didn’t know.

But as soon as he was back in Harbor Falls he would get to the bottom of it.

At that thought, Brad sped up and hurried to his apartment in Asheville. There, he traded his bike for his car and drove the remaining two hundred miles or so to Atlanta. He let no moss grow under his wheels either.

If he could take care of the remaining details of his grandmother’s estate tomorrow, he could be back in Harbor Falls by the following evening. He had to make that happen.

Suzie worried him. His was concerned about her health was one thing but he was also worried about them as a couple. About their evolving relationship. About what she’d not been telling him, and that she didn’t know that she was enough.

He couldn’t lose her. He just couldn’t.

To hell with the damn lodge. All he cared about was that Suzie was healthy and okay. That they were okay. He had to get back and make sure everything was all right—with her, and with them. And that couldn’t happen soon enough.

The panic that had settled in his gut was not going to go away until he saw her again.

****

On Wednesday, Suzie glanced up from the beignets she was experimenting with—a possible new breakfast option—when a brisk knock came to her back door.

“Great,”

she said through her teeth.

“I am so not in the mood for company.”

She hadn’t been in the mood for people for a couple of days now. Thank goodness there had been no guests. Since Brad left Monday morning, she had pretty much holed herself up in her kitchen working on recipes for the cookbook. She wasn’t even sure she had showered since he’d left.

Maybe if she just didn’t answer the door….

The door latch jiggled, and her cousin Gracie peeked in the back glass, making eye contact.

“Busted.”

Suzie wiped her hands on a towel and headed for the door, pulling on a smile as she crossed the kitchen.

“Gracie! What in the world. I didn’t even hear your car. How are you?”

Her cousin smiled.

“I’m good. I popped in at the bakery this morning and Sydney told me you’d not been feeling well. I thought I’d drop by just to check on you.”

Suzie hugged her.

“Oh, you’re sweet, but you didn’t need to do that. I’m okay.”

She headed back to the beignets.

Gracie glanced about the kitchen.

“I see you are baking. And baking.”

“Hm?”

Suzie measured out another cup of flour.

“Oh, yes. I’ve been baking.”

Settling onto a bar stool at the island, Gracie replied.

“I can definitely see that.”

The tone of her voice made Suzie fix her gaze on her. “Why?”

“My God, Suzie. Look around you.”

She did. Slowly, her gaze spanned the kitchen and shrugged.

“So I’ve been trying new recipes.”

“Yes, you have. I see bread and muffins and a beautiful cake over there complete with fondant and fancy roses, and pies and cookies and are those breakfast quesadillas over there?”

“Yes, made this morning. Try one if you like.”

Suzie put up her hand.

“But you can stop now. I know where this is going.”

“You’re depressed. You always cook when you are depressed.”

Suzie sighed.

“No. I’m not depressed. I’m working through some things. Cooking helps.”

“It’s Brad, isn’t it?”

“It’s a lot of things, Gracie, and I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

Gracie exhaled a slow breath.

“All right. Well, if baking helps, then have at it. Can I take a pie or something off your hands? Or deliver some goodies to the senior citizens center?”

Suzie grinned.

“Please do! Lord knows I can’t eat all of this stuff.”

“All right. I will.”

But Gracie stayed put, drumming her fingers on the island. Suzie waited for whatever was to come next.

“Suzie, are you eating? I know you haven’t been feeling well lately and you look a little puny…”

“Flu. I’ve had the flu or something, but it seems to be getting better. I’m fine.”

“And is Brad okay? I mean, he didn’t get the flu or anything too, did he?”

“Far as I know Brad is fine. He’s in Atlanta.”

“Hm. And you haven’t talked to him?”

“No. Not since he left Monday but that’s okay. I think we both needed a little space.”

Suzie watched Gracie’s fingers drum again over the butcher block. “Hm,”

she repeated.

“Stop analyzing.”

Suzie quit working and pinned her gaze on Gracie.

“Look. I know you are here for a reason. Spill it.”

Her cousin bit her lip and stared at Suzie for a moment, then she reached into her bag and pulled out a small square box wrapped in turquoise paper and tied up with a vibrant pink bow.

Suzie stared at the box and then lifted her gaze back to Gracie. After a quick rinse of her hands and drying them with a towel, she reached for the box.

“What is this?”

“For you.”

“Why?”

“I’m delivering.”

“For whom?”

“You’ll just have to open it up and see, Suzie. That’s how gifts work.”

Suzie rolled her eyes but was a little bit intrigued.

“Well, it is pretty.”

“It is that. The paper is from my newest collection and my most favorite. See the shimmer when you turn it to the light? I love that embossed look it gets when you look at it just so.”

Suzie smiled.

“The box is just too pretty. I don’t want to unwrap it.”

“Oh but you must. The real prize is inside.”

Eyeing her, Suzie said.

“Well, all right, but I’m not tearing the paper and I’m keeping it and the ribbon.”

Gracie nodded and grinned.

“I would do the same! Now quick, you have to look.”

Suzie untied the fabric ribbon and set it aside. Next, she meticulously peeled back several pieces of tape, taking care not to tear the paper. Finally, she unfolded the paper away from the box and laid it on the counter.

“You know turquoise is my favorite color.”

She glanced up at Gracie.

“I do know that. Why do you think I chose that particular color? Now open the darned thing!”

Suzie lifted the lid on the box. Inside, was a small piece white paper folded over. She lifted it up and caught a glimpse of gold underneath nestled in some white cotton. Unfolding the paper, she read the message aloud.

“I miss you and can’t wait to get home. In the meantime, please wear my heart next to yours.”

In the box was a gold, heart-shaped locket. She sucked in a sharp breath and her heart leapt. Suzie looked to Gracie.

“From Brad?”

Gracie nodded.

“Isn’t it romantic?”

Suzie touched the soft gold locket and wanted to cry. What a beautiful note and so very romantic. She missed him like crazy, even if she had thrown herself into baking and tried to tell herself she didn’t. This was a sweet gesture, but.

“But how do you know Brad? I didn’t think you’d met him yet.”

Chuckling, Gracie sat on a bar stool at the island.

“Honey, I met Brad practically the second he hit town. Where do you think he got those chocolates he bought for you on the first day he was here?”

“Chocolates?”

Gracie’s eyes widened.

“Did he not give you the chocolates?”

Slowly, Suzie shook her head.

“No. When did he get them?”

Thinking, Gracie replied.

“It was the day before the town meeting. So that’s been at least three weeks or more ago. Right?”

She waved a hand in the air.

“I lose track of time. I wonder why he didn’t give them to you?”

A thought struck Suzie.

“Unless they weren’t for me.”

That panged her heart a little.

Standing, Gracie said.

“Oh bull hockey. They were definitely for you. Now, where is his room. Let’s go find them.”

“Gracie! We can’t do that.”

Gracie arched a brow.

“Don’t you go in his room to make the bed and dust and things?”

“Well, I…”

“Can you help it where your eyes land? Did you see any chocolate boxes laying around? If not, then let’s go dust.”

So dust they did.

They entered Brad’s room upstairs and Suzie glanced about. Brad didn’t have a lot with him—just what he could stuff in the bag on his bike—so there were not many personal possessions lying around.

Gracie jerked open the top drawer of a chest.

“Here we are—”

She lifted out a heart-shaped box of chocolates.

“It’s a vintage box but the chocolates, I assure you, are fresh. At least they were…. See? He even bought a card.”

She started to tug at the envelope.

“Gracie! Don’t do that!”

“But they are for you, I swear!”

Suzie rushed forward, took the box of chocolates out of her hand, and shoved it back into the drawer.

“It’s none of our business. He’ll give them to me when he’s ready. Now let’s get out of here. I feel like I’m doing something wrong.”

Gracie rolled her eyes.

“Good gracious, Suzie! The man is so in love with you. You’re not doing anything wrong. That is, unless there is something I don’t know…”

“We’re not going there so let’s get out.”

Suzie ushered her from the room, down the stairs, and back into the kitchen. After a few minutes, she added.

“Now, you just sit there and talk while I fry up these beignets. If you stick around a while, you can sample one or take a dozen with you.”

Gracie sat.

“I can’t stay an hour because I have to get back to the shop. But let’s chat a bit.”

Suzie rolled her eyes.

“What now?”

“Brad.”

Suzie poked at her dough and looked up.

“Why? I just told you that subject is closed.”

“No you didn’t. Not really.”

“Well, I’ll tell you now. I don’t want to talk about Brad any longer. Remember? I’m baking and working through things.”

“Are you working through his gift?”

Suzie glanced up.

“What? Why?”

“You’ve not even said a word about that locket, Suzie. Because you refuse to admit that the chocolates are for you and that he probably stuck those in a drawer and forgot about them, or he was saving them for a special occasion. Because you’re making yourself sick over this lodge thing. And because you refuse to admit that you could be happy, if you would just let yourself be happy.”

Suzie let that last statement hang in the air for a moment. Her hands stilled on the dough and stared downward.

“I want to be happy, Gracie.”

“You have never been a Debbie Downer. What’s going on with you?”

“I know. I’ve been such an emotional wreck lately.”

She gave up on the dough and washed and dried her hands, then sat on a bar stool beside Gracie.

“I’ve been trying to use these couple of days while Brad is gone to get my head wrapped around everything but all I can seem to do is mope around because of a) he’s gone, and b) when he comes back I need to tell him something, and c) once I do that might change everything.”

“And bake.”

“Yes, and bake.”

“Which is not a good sign.”

“I know but there are worse things.”

“So you need to tell him about not being able to get pregnant?”

Suzie stood.

“Yeah. That. He wants a family.”

Gracie stood too and hugged her.

“Suzie, that man wants you. He’s gone to lengths to get here and convince you of that. And when he called me yesterday evening to help him pick out something for you and deliver, he was as homesick and heartsick as any man can be. And you barely looked at the locket.”

Suzie’s heart twisted.

“I know. I miss him so much. It’s like I’m almost afraid to let myself feel anything.”

“Then just put the damn locket on and keep him close to your heart—the feels will come later, honey. You’re sort of numb right now. But Suzie, whatever it is with you, make it right. That man is a keeper.”

Gracie reached for the box and lifted out the locket. Stretching the chain, she said.

“Turn around.”

And then she fixed the locked around Suzie’s neck.

When Suzie turned around to face Gracie, she reached for the heart, clasped it in her hand, and felt her tears stinging her eyes.

“Thank you, Gracie.”

“You’re welcome.”

Both of them jumped when the back door opened again, and Brad stepped over the threshold and into the kitchen. At that moment, Suzie couldn’t contain her tears any longer.

“Brad,”

she whispered.

“You’re home.”

He took one look at her tears and crossed the room to sweep her up into his arms.

“My God, I’ve missed you,”

he said.

“I needed to be home, Suzie. Here. With you.”

She inhaled his scent and clutched the heart in her palm tighter. He smelled so good. She whispered back.

“Welcome home, Brad. I love your heart. Thank you.”

“I love you, sweetheart. More every day.”

“And that,”

said Gracie, heading for the back door.

“is my cue to leave.”

Suzie barely realized she was gone as Brad’s mouth descended on hers.