Investment in Love (Contemporary Romance) (10 page)

***

In the morning, Calvin woke up when Ellie slid out of his arms and tiptoed into the bathroom. He smiled appreciatively at her mussed hair and attempt at being courteous, and then caught sight of the leather notebook that she had sat on the bedside table.

That was right—Ellie had wanted him to read something the night before. He stretched and grabbed the notebook, flipping it open to the marked entry.

He read the kind, loving words, and then read them again, feeling the slight indents in the paper with his fingers, trying to feel the connection to a woman he’d never known.  A shadow reappeared in the doorway, and he looked up to see Ellie.

“Thank you for making sure I read this,” he said seriously, smiling a little bit at her sleep-puffed eyes.

“Oh, sure,” she answered, fidgeting at the edge of his shirt, which she’d thrown on. The light blue fabric set off her tanned legs perfectly. “I wasn’t sure you were going to remember me telling you that. Or anything else we might have talked about last night…”

Calvin grinned, suddenly understanding why she seemed so awkward. “Oh yes,” he said. “I remember it all quite clearly.”

“Oh,” said Ellie, looking shy.

“I meant what I said,” he said slowly, watching her carefully to see if her reaction was positive or negative. She turned a brighter shade of red, but he thought he saw a smile curve the edges of her lips as she looked down at her feet.

“Oh,” she said again.

“No pressure, though,” he added. “I know it’s early days.” She smiled quite happily at him and he tried not to over-evaluate it. “So what did I miss out on during my nap last night? Did you solve our mystery?”

“Oh! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot.” Ellie nearly bounced over to him. “I know where she got the house! It’s pretty dramatic, actually.”

“Well, enlighten me while I make you breakfast then,” he said cheerfully.

In the kitchen, Calvin sizzled a quick scramble of eggs and peppers while Ellie explained how he’d come to own the house they stood in. He listened in astonishment to the whole story: house from Loretta’s lover, who he suddenly realized was his grandfather, and guilt payments from the same man instead of visits. On the bright side, Loretta—who he couldn’t quite decide whether to call Grandma or Great-Aunt—had apparently become somewhat of an investment maven with tips from Edward. It was maybe the only bright point in a lonely life, but Calvin was overjoyed to hear that his gift with money management might be a hereditary link to his grandmother.

Everything with Ellie just seemed to come so naturally. After she finished explaining everything that the diaries had contained, they ate their breakfast together while holding hands across the table. They cleaned up the dishes together like they’d been doing it for years, and with no hidden tension between them, the day’s work on the house flew by.

Before he knew it, two weeks had passed with her at his house almost every night—except for two, which he’d spent with Ellie in her own cute little house. During the day, they had to reluctantly separate so Ellie could go to the shop and he could put the finishing touches on the house, but each evening found them back in one another’s arms. The craziest thing was that even with all that, Calvin couldn’t get enough of Ellie—her sweet smile, her cheerful laugh, the tenderness and sensitivity that she brought to his life. Sure, she hadn’t said that she loved him back, but Calvin was hopeful that it would come in time.

It was a wonderful contrast to when he had first come to Carterville. Instead of spending all day worrying about will provisions and where Loretta Meyer had gotten her money, Calvin was really
living.
In fact, other than continuing to slowly read the diaries, he hadn’t even thought about the other things, like the will deadline or when he needed to return to work.

One afternoon, his cellphone rang with a call from Walter Greenfeld’s office, but Calvin didn’t even have to think before he rejected it. He had no regrets with choosing Ellie over the inheritance. She made him happier than money ever could, and he wasn’t going to lie to her and rush her into marriage just so he could get money.

But there was just one problem, which made him sigh when he remembered it. As much as he wanted to stay here in their little bubble of happiness, he had to go back to New York. He had to quit his job, find a sublease for his apartment, and work out a way to move across the country without going bankrupt.

It wasn’t going to be easy, and it was going to take time. Weeks, or maybe even months. Later that day, he tried to explain exactly why it bothered him as he and Ellie looked at dishwashers in her store.

“I feel like I’ve barely begun to have something real and stable and wonderful in my life—my relationship with you—and now I’ll be losing it again. I’m afraid it will be like things never happened. I know it won’t be forever, but I don’t want to revert to that guy who was so rude to you when we first met.”

Ellie kissed his cheek soothingly. “Calvin, honey, of course you won’t revert. I really know you, in here,” she said, putting her hand over his heart. “You’re a good person, and I know we’re meant to be.”

“Meant to be?” Calvin’s voice grew soft with wonder. Though Ellie never protested or pulled away when he told her he loved her, neither had she returned the sentiment, and somewhere deep inside he longed for the affirmation.

“Yes, meant to be,” she said with a grin lighting up her heart-shaped face. Her brown eyes twinkled up at him in a charming way, and he kissed her for a moment. “What did you think true love meant?” Ellie asked once her lips were free.

“Are you saying that—” He found he couldn’t complete the question.

“Yes,” said Ellie happily. “Yes. I’m saying that I love you. I’m sorry that it’s taken so long for me to say it, but oh, do I mean it. I guess I was just afraid you would change your mind about caring for me.”

“Never,” he said simply. He felt lightheaded with the revelation. “Never. In fact…”

“What?”

“Ellie, we need to go back to the house.”

“Why?” She blinked up at him in obvious confusion. “We haven’t chosen a dishwasher yet.”

“It can wait,” Calvin said. “This is urgent.”

***

As he drove her back up to the now-familiar mansion, Ellie tried to figure out what Calvin was up to. He seemed to be incredibly fired up about something, anxiously tapping at the steering wheel as he drove, and she smiled fondly at this little quirk.

When they stepped inside, she grinned happily at the evidence of all the hard work they’d been doing—the freshly painted walls and carefully coordinated furniture looked lovely against the fluffy green carpets. “Calvin,
what
are we doing?” she laughed. “We were just here an hour ago.”

“Stay right here,” he said mysteriously, and jogged up the stairs.

Ellie waited impatiently, listening to the sounds of the man she loved thumping up the stairs and down the hall. A happy flush ran over her cheeks when she remembered his look of stupefied joy back in the shop. She’d been wanting to tell him that she loved him for days, and it felt wonderful to finally have their shared emotion out in the open.
But what was he up to?
She bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for him to return.

At last, Calvin jogged back down the stairs. He looked shy, which was odd. Ellie smiled happily at the sight of his handsome face. “Well?” she asked. “Are you willing to let me in on the big secret then?”

He took one knee in front of her, and all thoughts of joking suddenly fled her stupefied mind.

“Elizabeth Parker,” he said carefully, looking nervous. “I was going to save this for my last day, but, well…” He grinned sheepishly. “The time just seemed right, I guess. You have made me a happier, kinder, overall better person. You’ve changed my life in so many wonderful ways, and I can’t even imagine living without you. I don’t want us to be like Loretta and Edward. I want you to know I will be coming back to you. We don’t need to rush into anything, because I know I’m moving awfully fast. But I wanted to have this promise between us when I go.” His blue eyes shone seriously up at her, and he took one of her limp hands into his own.

“Ellie,” he asked carefully, “will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she blurted.

“I only have this ring,” Calvin was saying as he opened his hand to reveal a small opal ring, “but I saw that you liked it back when we were packing, and I saved it for you. We could always—” He stopped blabbering, an open-mouthed smile spreading across his face. “Yes? Did you say yes?”

“Yes!” said Ellie again. “Yes, yes, yes!” Instead of waiting for Calvin to get up, she threw herself down to his height and knocked him to the floor. “Oh, Calvin,” she said as she kissed all over his face, “how could you think I’d say anything but yes?”

“I don’t know,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing tight. “Ellie, I love you. I love you so much. I think I’ve loved you since the day you told me off.”

“I think I’ve loved you from the moment you walked into my store looking so handsome,” she confessed. “And I love the ring! It’s perfect as is.” Belatedly, Calvin slipped it onto her ring finger and they both started laughing. “Well, almost perfect,” she amended. “Once we get it sized down a lot.”

Ellie kissed him again quite thoroughly. “We could probably do that later, though.”

“Mhm?”

“Mhm. For now you should probably just carry me off to bed.”

Calvin complied remarkably quickly.

Ellie felt like she was walking on a cloud as the days flew by. She told Ann first, who grilled her with about a million questions on whether or not Calvin was suitable before finally giving her begrudging approval, and then she told her mother, who nearly fainted from excitement.

“Oh, Ellie, honey!” the older woman had cried out, fanning herself. “I had almost given up on grandbabies. Oh, I wish your daddy could be here to see this.”

The two women shared a teary embrace, and finally her mom pulled back with a faux serious tone. “But, young lady, if I don’t meet him immediately, there will be trouble.”

Ellie had laughed but complied, and even that had gone brilliantly. Calvin had just about charmed her mother’s socks off, and as Ellie watched her laughing more than she had since her husband’s death, she fell in love with Calvin even more.

But for all the highs, there were also lows. She didn’t spend every moment with her new fiancé, and sometimes when she was working alone in the shop, a dark gloomy mood would hit her.

One evening, as she was sitting in her office balancing the budget, those thoughts just wouldn’t go away.

“Ellie, focus,” she whispered to herself, resting her head in her hands. The cold metal of her ring, now appropriately sized, caught her attention and she smiled down at it for a moment.

But the smile faded quickly. She picked up her phone and dialed Calvin’s number, but closed it before hitting the call button. He was off in Portland, picking out a few antique art pieces for the house. She didn’t want to make him sad by sharing her worries, especially when she’d chosen to stay behind. Next, Ellie dialed Ann’s number. She let this one ring through, but it only reached a voicemail message.

With a sigh, she ended the call.
I’m not going to get any work done if I can’t quit moping around,
she thought.

A spark of inspiration struck, and Ellie reached for a notepad. Calvin was always making lists when he had a problem, so maybe doing that would help her.

Things That are Upsetting Ellie
, she titled it.

-
         
Calvin leaving.

-
         
Calvin meeting other women in New York.

-
         
Calvin forgetting me.

-
         
Me dying alone and forgotten like Loretta Meyer.

With a loud sigh, Ellie crumpled up the list and threw it across the room. “What a depressing list,” she grumbled aloud. “Calvin would never leave you.”
Except that he had to, and it could take months for him to come back. He could be gone longer than they had even been together.

Finally, Ellie gave up on the bills entirely and went home to her house. She had still slowly been reading through the last of Loretta’s diaries, glad to glean any understanding of Calvin’s family. The story of the woman’s life was incredibly fascinating—Ellie had a half-baked idea to turn the diaries into a published book somehow.

She sat down with a diary, meaning to forget her worries, but a few pages in something caught her eye. “
I wonder what sort of man Calvin has grown into. My grandson, though the word seems odd to write, when I have never really had a child or a husband. With Maude and my sweet Ann both gone, I have no way of knowing what kind of life he lives. I wish I could teach him what I learned from you, my love—that young men are often so much in a hurry to do the right and responsible thing that they break the hearts of the women who love them. If I were in his life, I should teach him that even a girl of meager birth and background from a place as small as Carterville could be worth his time. I would show him that perhaps it is better to follow your heart in marriage instead of waiting for the right time.”

Ellie thought about things for a moment, staring at the wise words of her fiancé’s grandmother. Surely this must be a reflection of what Calvin had said Loretta’s last wishes were—that he give the girls of Carterville a chance. She smiled to herself. It was certainly lucky for her that he had listened. But still, one line jumped out at her in particular.

A resolution formed in her mind. Calvin was going to return from Portland tomorrow morning, and leave for New York in three days. There was very little time left. So in the morning, she was going to take matters into her own hands.

Decisively, Ellie stood up and went to her closet. She needed to pick an outfit for her wedding.