Those names scrawling across the walls in hot red slashes of paint, they were fury, plain and simple. But Ellie was the kindest, sweetest person James had ever met. A woman who went out of her way to help people. A woman who put her head down and did what was needed. A woman who persevered…
…a woman who had inched her way through his defenses and made him remember what it meant to care about someone. Made him want to care about someone. And not just any someone. Her specifically. He couldn’t imagine that anyone who knew her wouldn’t end up having feelings for her. Hell, even that cook of hers had gotten wrapped up in her. So much so that he had walked out on his job when he discovered Ellie was dating James.
His mouth fell open and all the blood in his body slowed to a stop and then raced through his veins to make up for lost time. “Ellie,” he said, interrupting the conversation she was having with one of his brothers. “That cook. The crazy one who left you in a lurch.”
Her lips parted. Nostrils flared. “Ben.” The name whispered past her lips as fear danced in her eyes.
“You don’t think...?”
“I don’t know...”
“But could he...?”
“I guess so....” Ellie rested the tumbler of scotch on her knee. “What do I do?”
Ian watched the conversation as if it were a tennis match, his head ping-ponging back and forth between the two of them. “Would one of you finish a sentence?”
Ellie and James explained who Ben was and how he’d quit so suddenly. Ian nodded as he listened and shrugged when they finished. “Sounds totally plausible.”
There was another flurry of discussion and Ellie called the police and filled them in while the Moores stood watch over her. Warmth flooded James’ heart as he watched her face soften when she noticed their worry.
There was no medicine like family, that was for damn sure. And there was something extra sweet about watching that medicine go to work on Ellie. By the time his mom called them in to eat, she almost seemed like herself again.
James watched her compliment his mother on the meal. Laugh at Ian’s jokes. Ask his dad about the scotch in her glass that magically refilled every time she set it down. She spoke to Juliet like they were old friends and asked Harrison about his restaurant. She even managed to make Lilah smile, and no one managed to make Lilah smile.
It was like Ellie belonged there.
Like she was a missing part of the family.
Like she had always been around.
Her demeanor was easy and natural. Sweet and caring. It made him question what would happen after Ian’s wedding—when the fake relationship was supposed to come to an end.
Would he be willing to let her go? Could he really imagine his life without her?
And more importantly, if he asked her to stay, would she?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ellie
There were very few people in life that Ellie couldn’t get along with and wasn’t interested in getting to know. Ben was one of those people. Something in her gut told her he was the one who ruined her café.
She’d drawn hard lines with him from the beginning, and that wasn’t like her. At all.
Had that been some kind of intuition of who he was?
Her subconscious sensing danger and trying to keep her safe?
Calling the police and giving them his name felt good, but sitting down to a family meal with the Moores felt even better. It brought her back, way back, to one of her favorite memories. One so old it was missing detail in some places, yet was sensory overload in others. Worn and exaggerated by time. Before her father died and her mother lost her mind, they made time to sit down to family dinner every night.
Her favorite memory was the three of them laughing over some joke Ellie had long forgotten. She could still feel the rough skin of her father’s palm, the coarse bit of hair that grew on his knuckles, as he took her hand in his. The scent of pasta and garlic and tomato sauce overwhelmed her. The light had been long and slanted, coming in warm and bright through the open window to illuminate the smile on her mother’s face. Their laughter echoed through time, distorted, hanging in the sunlight, dancing like dust motes.
Ellie couldn’t remember if that was the last dinner they’d had together or the best dinner they’d had together. Time had blurred those particular details. But the memory haunted her through years of eating alone. Or worse, eating under the barking orders of militant foster dads and their condescending wives.
Flash forward to the Moores laughing and teasing each other, rallying around her on a genuinely awful day, and she felt like she had found that memory of her family again. Like finally, after all those years, she was experiencing it again, and it made her feel warm.
Of course, maybe that was the scotch.
Somehow, no matter how much she drank, the glass always seemed full.
Diane gathered plates from the table and Ellie stood. “Here,” she said, clutching the arms of her chair as the world spun. “Let me help.”
“Oh no.” Diane gave her a stern look. “You sit. Relax. Let me take care of you. Lord knows you’ve had your hands full with my son.”
“Hey!” said James as his mother left the room. “I resemble that remark.”
Diane returned, carrying a plate of brownies and a carafe of coffee. “If I hadn’t seen you turn down a drink with my very eyes I wouldn’t have believed it possible after the way you’ve been living lately.”
James smiled at Ellie and took her hand. “I made this woman a promise and I’ll be damned if I let her down. She deserves better.”
Frank nodded and reached out to give Ellie’s other hand a squeeze, his rough palm scraping her knuckles and sending a surge of bittersweet emotion that took away her ability to speak. “I’d say that James
