The Bride (The Boss 3)

nd.

My mother shot her a look. “Yes, the key is in the same place. I’ll be heading that way shortly.”

“Okay. Bring more leftovers, we’ll have dinner.” I was going to be as relentlessly cheerful as possible about this whole thing.

When we stepped outside, Neil gave me a reassuring smile. “I think that went quite well.”

Awww. The poor guy. “I think you’re being way too optimistic. You have no idea what’s going to happen to you tonight.”

CHAPTER TWO

The wind off the frozen surface of Lake Superior was cutting cold, but since we’d both grown up in extreme low temperatures, Neil and I were brave enough to face it. Someone had plowed the gravel parking lot by the shore and shoveled off the wooden steps to the beach.

“I thought the Great Lakes had magnificent, sandy beaches,” Neil mused aloud as we navigated the slick staircase.

“There’s sand. It’s just under all this snow.”

He put a hand out to steady me. “Careful.”

“Yeah, I might fall and bruise my ass. Oh, wait, it’s already bruised,” I snorted. Knowing the limits of our stamina and accommodations over the holiday season, we’d gone a little crazy with the Dominance/submission fun times in the week before we’d left New York.

It had been entirely warranted. I’d been so keyed up and stressed over my audition with Wake Up! America that, when it had gone perfectly, I’d needed to blow off some steam in a big way. Sometimes, it felt like our lives were never going to slow down and let us catch our breath.

Which was why it was so nice to stand on the shore and smell the clean lake breeze. “I’ve always felt like this lake had a primal energy, you know?”

Neil raised one eyebrow sardonically.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I laughed. “I’m not about to get a tattoo of a dream catcher and start reading tarot cards in the park. But look at it. As a force of nature, you have to be impressed. All the sand here? Washed off the bottom of the lake by the water. If you went in right now—”

“My bollocks would crawl all the way up into my neck, I’d imagine,” he quipped, laughing a little at his own joke as he looked down at his feet. He seemed strangely nervous, considering it was just the two of us.

Then he put his hands in his coat pockets, and I decided it must just be the cold.

I sighed at his juvenile humor. “As I was saying. The bottom of the lake is sandstone. Like an underwater cliff. I’ve waded out pretty far before, and I’ve never found the edge.”

“You were too frightened to find it?” His hand rummaged in his pocket as he stared out at where the gray of the sky melded into the gray of the open water farther out.

“I was.” I kicked the toe of my boot into the snow, mixing it with the sand. “Last year was the year that just kept rubbing up against us and wearing us down. So I think I know how this sand feels.”

“And now?” He was still staring off, as if he didn’t trust himself to look at me. It was like he’d been overcome by delayed stage fright from meeting my family.

“Now, I’m just glad that things are going to be more peaceful,” I said, reaching over to loop my arm through his. “We’ll go to Iceland, we’ll meet your family, then we’ll come back to New York and just…settle in.”

His laugh was strained. “You sound like you’re ready to feather a nest. I suppose we should get more serious on this house hunt?”

“If you want.” I shrugged. “I’m happy enough with everything exactly the way it is.”

“Oh?” He shrugged. “If you wanted to put off buying a house—”

“No, it’s not that.” Well, it was that. At least, some of it. “This is going to sound crazy…but if we’re going to buy a house, that’s settling down. I don’t think I want to spend the rest of my life in Manhattan.”

“Oh?” he said again. His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “When did you arrive at this conclusion?”

“Right now, actually. I haven’t been hiding it or biting my tongue.” I breathed in more clean, fresh air. “I never realized how much I missed the quiet and the open spaces. Do you think you could see yourself living outside of the city?”

“I had planned to. I’d like to retire at Langhurst Court. I thought we’d agreed upon that.” He sounded wary. “I’m always happy to discuss—”

“No, that’s… That actually makes me feel better.” I wouldn’t like being that far from my family and friends full time, but my job had definitely changed. When I’d worked at Porteras, I’d had to live in New York. Living in the city wasn’t cheap, but commuting from out of town would have been prohibitively expensive and needlessly frustrating. Now, I was writing, and if I got the job at Wake Up! America, I would still only be working on segments once a year. I could go anywhere, provided I could make it back to New York for a week here and there, so I could see Holli and Deja.