Chapter Eleven

Getting out of his rusty pickup, Ernst shut the door, his attention transfixed. Though Kacy’s house was a nice little rambler, it was her car that made him want a closer look.

“Come on in,” Kacy called from the garage as she got out of her vehicle.

“That is a beautiful car you have there,” he said running his hands over the light metallic gray car. On the gas tank cover was a small red-orange phoenix painted in intricate detail. She had a 1968 Camaro Z28.

She grinned. “I love this car.”

“Makes sense.” Ernst followed her inside the house, watching as she pushed the button to close the garage. “You have a really nice home.”

“Well, it’s not much, but it’s mine.” Kacy said. “Make yourself at home; I’ll be right back.”

Ernst looked around. Along one wall he saw a huge fish tank full of tropical fish and plants. “Jesus,” he muttered as he walked closer.

“Those are my pets. I don’t have time to take care of a dog or cat, and fish relax me.”

“Wow. That is impressive.” He looked down at the woman who appeared beside him. She’d put her hair in a ponytail. “Why did you put your hair up?” Ernst wondered as he touched a few strands that had escaped confinement.

He would’ve had to be blind, deaf, and dumb to miss the look of fear that crossed her face. “Hey,” he said, moving his head to catch her gaze. “I was just wondering, I like it both ways.” Slowly, he noticed the tension leave her body.

“I like it off my neck,” she admitted. “Let me give you a tour, for what it’s worth.”

“It will be worth it,” he assured her. “Lead on.”

“Living room,” she teased as her hands presented the area where they stood.

“I think I got that,” he whispered in her ear as he pinched her butt.

“This is the kitchen/dining room.” Kacy showed him a room that was pretty bare. The only appliance he saw was her coffee maker on a counter. Nothing was on the table except for one placemat and the salt and pepper shakers that were shaped like seahorses. “I don’t cook.”

“Nice to know there is something you don’t do,” Ernst joked.

Shaking her head, she led him back through the living room and down the hall. “Bathroom.” She pointed. “Laundry room.” Kacy gestured to a closed door.

Ernst stuck his head in each of them. Her bathroom was done in a dark emerald green color. The laundry room had pictures of the ocean hanging on the wall that was painted a pale blue.

“My office is in here.” She opened the door and let him look inside.

A low whistle left him. The room was full of books on electricity and poetry. A large table was along one wall and it was covered in rolled up blueprints. On that same wall was a picture of a killer whale breaching in the sunset.

“Down here is my guest room,” Kacy said as he pulled the door shut behind him and followed her into the next room.

It was a smaller room painted pale purple with a futon along a wall. Pictures of coastlines were all over. Dark purple pillows and blankets accented the room. A large, overstuffed chair was in the corner with a plush gray walrus sitting on it.

It was simple, yet there was a very comfortable feel to it. He liked it. “Very nice,” he said as they left the room.

She pointed to the end of the hall. “My bedroom is down there.”

“I don’t get to see that one?” Ernst asked.

“It’s not clean,” she tried.

“I don’t care.”

She hesitated a second more. “Okay,” she caved and led the way to the door, unaware of the possessive gaze that ran over her body.

She opened the door and stepped inside her room. Ernst brushed past her and gazed around the space that defined the woman of his dreams. The furniture looked like Ikea and it fit her. Simple and strong. The walls were covered in a mural of the ocean and coastline and the carpet reminded him of sand.

Her bed was a full size and he knew they would fit perfectly on it together. The bedspread was the color of the Caribbean, and on it were pillows of starfish, other ocean creatures, and shells.

“Like ocean life, don’t you?” Ernst asked as he picked up a seahorse-shaped pillow from her bed.

“I do,” Kacy said, blushing. The phone rang and she said, “I’ll be right back.” she headed up the hall.

Left alone in her room, Ernst picked up another pillow from the top of the bed. He brought it close to his nose and inhaled her scent. A sheet of paper caught his eye and he leaned down to see what it was.

A grin crossed his face as he looked at the picture of them from Hawaii. “I’m figuring you out, my schätzchen. You are as attracted to me as I am to you. This picture proves it. I just have to find a way to gain your trust,” he whispered to the room as he put the pillow back, not wanting her to know he had seen it.

When she walked back in the room, he was looking at a pillow trying to figure out what it was. “It’s a porcupine fish,” Kacy said. “Pull on his tail.”

Ernst did and laughed as the quills stood out straight. “That is cute.” He put it back on the chair. “You have a lovely home.”

“Thank you,” she said.

They moved to the back porch overlooking her backyard and sipped on iced tea. Ernst snuck a look at the woman sitting next to him in a lounge. She was watching him. “So now you know where I live, Mr. Zimmermann. Is that better?”

“Don’t call me that. Call me Ernst. I want your phone number as well.”

“Why are you so persistent?”

Setting down his iced tea, he swung his legs over the edge of the lounge he was on and rested his arms on his thighs. Putting his eyes on her he said, “I told you in Hawaii I want more from you than a one-night stand. I will go away and never bother you again if you can honestly tell me that you don’t feel anything for me.”

Kacy stared at him. “I can’t say that, not honestly.”

“Kacy, I don’t know what has happened to you in your past to make you this mistrustful. But honey, I’m not going anywhere. There is something way deeper than either one of us can comprehend going on between us. You are in my thoughts all the time—the feel of your lips on mine, how you taste, how you feel in my arms.”

Ernst leaned closer and took her hand in one of his. “I want to get to know you, inside and out. Yes, I want desperately to make love to you, but I want so much more than that.” His lips brushed the inside of her wrist. “I want to have a relationship with you. I want to take you to functions that the Team goes to. I want to show you off to the world as my girlfriend.” As my wife.

“Why me?” Her eyes were direct as she asked her question.

“Why not you?” He took the glass of tea from her and pulled her toward him so they were facing each other.

“Considering the woman you were with that night you asked me out, I don’t think I am exactly your type,” Kacy told him.

“Until I met you I didn’t know what my type was. I can’t explain what it is about you, but I will try.” He waited for her nod before continuing. “That first day that I ran into you, I felt something then. I couldn’t get you out of my head for the rest of the day. I hadn’t wanted you to be scared of me.”

His fingers moved lightly over the backs of her hands. “When I saw you with Brett, I got jealous, especially when I saw you smile when all I did was make you fearful. I wanted then to carry you off to a place where no one would bother us.” Ernst got off his lounge and knelt between her legs. “There is something inside you, Kacy.”

He tipped her chin to meet his gaze. “Something that for some reason you try to keep hidden. A fire that burns within you. I saw it that day we spent together in Hawaii. You have a passion for life that calls to me in a way I never knew existed. I am complete when I am with you, and I know that we don’t know each other very well yet. I have told myself that as well. But like someone told me, there are times our hearts and souls know before our brains can comprehend.

“I know what true love and compatibility look like. I’ve seen them with the men I work with. They don’t know color and they don’t know society’s dictates. And as sure as I am kneeling between your gorgeous legs on your porch, I know you are the other half of my soul. But I am no dummy, and I know you don’t trust, so I am willing to take it slow.”

Kacy was speechless. “How is that a man like you is still single?” Her eyes were soft as they looked upon his handsome features.

“Because I was waiting for you.”