SunnyWithAChanceofTrueLove Read Free Page B

“If, by some miracle, the rain has vanished from the forecast, I’ll call Grandpa as soon as we’re done eating.” Tulsi reached out, touching Elodie’s elbow. “It was nice seeing you Elodie.”
    “You too,” Elodie said, glancing up briefly from her notepad. “Have a great rest of your Armadillo Day.”
    “We will.” Tulsi took a step toward the parking area. “You coming, Ross?”
    “I’ll be there in just a second,” he said, turning back to Elodie, who was busy filling a second page in her notebook with tiny, narrow handwriting.
    Tulsi and Clem moved toward the car, and Ross’s heart began to beat faster. The rational part of him knew it was just a dinner invitation, but his crazier half insisted this was a do-or-die moment, one of a very few that would impact the entire course of his life. If Elodie said no, then the part of his heart that had been hers—and remained hers, because he wasn’t the kind of person to forget his first love—would go dark and never light up again.
    But if she said yes…
    “Please say yes,” Ross mumbled, tongue slipping out to dampen his lips as he waited for Elodie to finish her notes.
    “Yes,” she said, looking up at him with a serious expression.
    He smiled. “You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”
    “I don’t care.” She lifted one slim shoulder and let it fall. “Whatever it is, the answer is yes. Ride on my scooter, yes. Kidney, yes. Special place in my heart…always.”
    Ross’s smile faltered, her answer so unexpected it knocked the wind out of him. He met her gaze and watched a hopeful light creep into her eyes. It was the light he remembered from that day he’d wanted to kiss her when they were kids, because a kiss had seemed like the only way to show her all the confusing, wonderful, breath-stealing things she made him feel.
    “Sometimes it just takes one person, you know?” she said softly. “To make the world seem like a better place. You were mine. Gram too, but you were the first.”
    “I’m so glad,” he said, chest tight with unexpected emotion.
    “Me too.” She stuffed her hands into her deep pockets with a laugh. “So what did I say yes to? I hope it’s not a kidney because I’d kind of like to hang on to both of them for a while.”
    “I’d like to make you dinner,” he said, nerves melting away in the honesty of the moment. “Tonight, and any other night you have free this week.”
    Her answering smile was dazzling. “Yes. And yes. But first, I was hoping you might be able to help me with something.”
    “Anything,” he said, knowing he’d give her a kidney, too, if she asked for it, even though they’d only been reacquainted for a few minutes.
    “I was hoping you’d introduce me to your friends at the highway department,” she said. “I need an in, and when I was asking Remi about you, she said you used to work there.”
    “You were asking about me?” Ross took a step closer, wonder and disbelief mixing inside of him, making the moment feel even more dreamlike.
    “I was. And call me crazy, but I think it was destiny that you were waiting here for me this morning.” She paused, biting her lip as a teasing twinkle crept into her eyes. “You were waiting for me, right? Not the armadillo?”
    “Absolutely,” Ross confirmed. “And assuming two can fit on your scooter, I’ll cancel my breakfast plans and we can head over to the highway department right now.”
    She grinned. “Sounds perfect.”
    And it did, Ross thought. He didn’t know if Adolf’s break for the sunrise meant an early end to winter, but he knew that his life was certainly looking a lot sunnier now that Elodie was back in town.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Elodie
     
    In the fourteen years since she’d left Lonesome Point, Elodie had come to terms with the fact that most people thought she was a little crazy. Or a lot crazy—depending on the person and how grossed out they were by dead animals, taxidermy, unconventional career choices, and