His Reason to Stay by Jennifer Hoopes

Author:Jennifer Hoopes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Two-Hour Romance Short Reads; Women's Fiction; Small Town & Rural Fiction; Saga Fiction; Family Life Fiction; Contemporary Women's Fiction; Contemporary American Fiction; jennifer hoopes; his reason to stay; entangled publishing; bliss; series romance; short romance; quick romance; Best friends to lovers romance; Secret Baby romance; One night stand romance; unrequited love; photographer; unexpected pregnancy; popular romance; The Ellis Family Saga; Tennessee; Mountains; Hallmark Movie; Sweet Romance; Clean Romance;
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Bliss)
Published: 2019-11-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Tabby had shared a home with people before. After all, she’d been raised in the big cabin with her father and Lydia and two step-siblings. But one, she’d been a child, and that had been a really big house. And two, Eli hadn’t been the one in her personal space.

When his penchant for blasting bluegrass music reared its ugly head for the third time in an evening, she silently screamed, grabbed her laptop, and escaped out the back door. By the time his eardrums forgave him, and he noticed she was no longer at the table behind him, he might not even have time to discover where she was.

Slipping down the lighted flagstone path toward the pond, she stepped up into the gazebo and settled onto the wicker settee. The back side was open to the water and any visitors that might grace its surface. At this moment, that meant a mallard and her babies all swimming in a row.

She laughed. Lord, will I ever have my ducks in a row like this mamma does?

Tabby pictured trying to go anywhere with double the stuff and doing it on her own. Two children, two car seats, two feedings, two changes of clothes. God, just the mental list to take an imaginary trip had her curling her legs under and wrapping herself up in her arms.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

How many times had she thought this since the accident? Since realizing in the split second after knowing her sister and father were gone that she still had life growing inside her. And in that spilt second of overwhelming grief, the only person she’d wanted was Eli.

Well, she had him. And now all she could think about was when he would go. He had to go.

But there, in her own little escape hatch, with the procession of ducks before her, her mind conjured up another scenario. One where another set of hands loaded a baby up and took care to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. Those hands were strong and steady. They handled everything with a happy-go-lucky shrug and a smile that melted her panties off. They were hands that had held her through tears and cheers over the years. And even one night had held her in passion.

But now?

“Run you out of your own house?”

She glanced over her shoulder to see the owner of the hands swaggering his fine body down to join her. She made room on the settee, and he settled in the opposite corner, their bodies only inches apart on the small piece of furniture.

Another place he invaded and overwhelmed.

“Well, you seemed to want to be alone with your banjo tunes, so I came out here to do work.”

He glanced at the unopened laptop and back to her. “Efficient, I see.”

Tabby shrugged. He didn’t run her company or her life. She needed to keep reminding herself of that. Maybe the constant barrage of her accomplishments would drive home that point to her heart? She was doing fine on her own.

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