Not Part of the Plan (Blue Moon, #4)

by Lucy Score

He liked a woman with a mouth on her, one who knew when to swear for emphasis rather than lack of vocabulary.

Phoebe patted his arm in a gesture only mothers have mastered. “My poor boy. Let me get you an iced tea and tell you how ridiculous that statement is.”

“Oh, I can’t wait to see how they orchestrate this,” Phoebe murmured, half to herself. “Sometimes I feel like this entire town is speaking a different language,” Niko muttered. “Oh, honey. You have no idea.”

“Just how are you supposed to resist that?” Phoebe asked Emma quietly. “I have no idea,” Emma murmured.

“Bucket?” “Yeah, Shortcake?” Beckett ruffled her hair. “Can we play makeover?” The collective fear around the table was palpable, and Niko got the feeling this wasn’t the first time a game of makeover had been suggested. “We’ll play next weekend,” Beckett promised. Franklin saved them all. “Why don’t you come help me play poker?” he suggested. They all sighed with relief when Aurora climbed into his lap and started counting his chips.

“Don’t be afraid of pain, or less-than-perfect, daughter of mine. That’s where the real joy comes from. Life gets its color from challenges and adversity. You can’t plan your way to happiness, you know.”

He’d branded her soul, Emma thought as she fought her way through the bleary aftershocks of pleasure. Nikolai Vulkov had just destroyed her for any other man, past or future. She was ruined. And she couldn’t care less.

“So you and Emma, huh?” Carter said conversationally. “Yeah. It’s pretty new,” Niko said, realizing he’d never had this conversation before. How had he made it to thirty without ever telling a friend he was seeing a woman? Carter pumped his fist in the air. “Yes!” “I didn’t realize you were so invested in my love life,” Niko said wryly. “I am when my wife bet Gia two nights of babysitting that you and Emma would hook up.” “That’s what a unit is?” “Two glorious twin-free evenings,” Carter grinned. “Beckett’s gonna freak. This almost makes up for the beard.”

“Future or no future, there’s no point in toning yourself down for any guy. Got it? Say what you want to say. Do what you want to do, regardless. Otherwise you’re just building a house on a shaky foundation. You know?”

“I believe in the kind of feeling that stops you dead in your tracks and changes everything you ever believed. I believe in a love so swift and sure that it knocks the wind right out of you and leaves you lying on your back staring up at the sky wondering what just hit you.” Her lips parted, but no words came out. “I believe in an ever after that isn’t even a choice because you can’t imagine your life without the woman in front of you.” Emma’s breath left her in a rush. His words brought to the surface a need she didn’t know existed.

He closed one image and clicked to open the next one, and his organic oat bar lodged in his throat. It wasn’t a shot he’d taken. It was the one he’d asked Evan to take. Emma was looking up at him and laughing, her hands splayed across his chest as he pulled her into him. But it wasn’t her face that demanded his attention. It was his own. He’d seen that look before, knew it so well that it pulled him back to another time. He hadn’t noticed it. It had crept up on him. But in the picture it was clear that the resemblance to his father was striking as was the expression on his face. Niko was looking at Emma the way his father had looked at his mother in those quiet, private moments when they thought no one else was watching. It was love. The realization hit him harder than a ton of bricks dropped from above. He was leveled. He’d known he had feelings for her, strong ones. He just hadn’t realized until this second what those feelings were. He collapsed back in his chair and stared through the glass to the park where life continued on without any indication that the world had turned upside down.

Emmaline Merill was about to learn an important lesson about pissing off a temperamental artist.

“So you’re saying you’d rather have mortgages and retirement than Paris?” Joey frowned. “Exactly!” Emma pointed a finger in Joey’s face. “See? She gets it. I’m not crazy.” “No, you’re batshit crazy. Don’t try to pull me into your delusion. You can have a mortgage and a retirement with literally anyone with a pulse. Now, Paris? You only get that once in a lifetime, and you just ran away from that. Team Niko,” Joey decided.

Then they all heard it. The whole bar tuned in to the revving of a motorcycle engine. Emma felt the color drain from her cheeks. “Shit.” “Heeeeeee’s baaaaaaaack,” Joey sang. The engine cut out.

“You want to explain why I wake up to an empty bed and then have to rent a fucking car at the train station to get back home, Emmaline?” She blanched. She hadn’t actually expected him to return to Blue Moon and hadn’t felt guilty about taking her car from the station. Joey leaned in. “I’m just going to point out that he just called Blue Moon ‘home,’” she said in a stage whisper. “Shut up, Joey,” Emma said without looking at her friend.

“I have never met a woman that made me want to strangle her like you do,” he growled. And why exactly did that admission get her just the tiniest bit hot? Emma wanted to know. Her body was a god damn traitor. Just Niko’s presence had her blood pumping and a painful throb intensifying in her core.

“You’re scared,” he accused. “And I am, too. I’ve never wanted anyone the way that I want you. It’s like you’re inside me, you’re in my veins. When I see you, everything in me lights up. That means something, Emma. You are the one I’ve been waiting for. You’re the one who makes me look at you the way my father looked at my mother. And I’m sorry you’re not happy about it. I’m sorry that it’s inconvenient for you.”

“Christ!” Jax shoved his hands through his hair. “It’s like arguing with your mother!” Jax and Reva froze as the weight of the words settled over them. Joey pressed a hand to her mouth. “You’re not talking about Sheila,” Reva said, finally. She scuffed the toe of her boot into the sawdust. Jax ran a nervous hand through his hair. “No. I’m not. Shit. I’m sorry. I just got caught up—” But then Reva was hugging him hard. And the way her shoulders shook, Niko bet it was about a decade of stored up emotion that she was releasing. Carefully, as if he was afraid he might scare her or break her, Jax wrapped his arms around the girl.

Family wasn’t just blood and biology it was a commitment. A hard-headed refusal to accept anything but the best for the ones you chose and the ones you were gifted.

“What is wrong with everyone?” she demanded to no one. “Well, I like to think there’s a little something wrong with all of us.” Emma clamped a hand over her racing heart. “Jesus, Phoebe. You just scared eight years off of my life.” Phoebe slid off the picnic table she’d been perched upon. “Imagine my terror when a raving lunatic approaches shouting into the void.” “Touché,” Emma offered a watery smile. Phoebe patted the bench next to her. “Come sit. We don’t have to talk.”

“And that’s love. It can and should be the source of your greatest strength, not your biggest fear.

Eva and Gia shared another look. “If you two don’t stop with the mental telepathy thing and spill, I’m going to add you to the list of people who have really pissed me off today.” Gia interlaced her fingers on the table. “Do you want some well-meaning honesty or only sisterly support right now?” “Why can’t I have both?” Emma demanded. “Because you’re wrong.” Eva picked up her mug and took a nonchalant sip.

“Ugh!” she groaned. “Fine. Okay. I do love him.” She loved him so much it hurt her to breathe. “He snuck up on me with the whole ‘we’re friends’ thing. But that doesn’t mean that love is enough of a foundation for a life together.” “Love is the foundation of everything, dumbass,” Gia snorted in very un-yoga-teacher-like fashion.

“Thanks for not giving up on me,” she said, raising up on her tip toes for another kiss. “Thanks for not making me regret this next thing.” “What next thing?” Emma asked, suddenly nervous again. “Remember how you hate grand gestures that should have been joint decisions in the first place?” “Oh, hell, Niko. What did you do?”

“I can’t believe you’d do this for me. The things I said to you—” “And the things I said to you. Let’s just see if we can handle our disagreements a little more maturely in the future.” “You don’t think they’ll all be that bad, do you?” “Us? No. Of course not,” he said, giving her that devil’s smile and pulling her into his arms. “You’re totally lying right now, aren’t you?” “Maybe.” “Probably.” “It’ll be an adventure,” he predicted. “And not just in the bedroom,” she said with a wink.