My Appalachian Alpha

8

Emma
The tour of the house blew me away. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. There is an observatory and a medical wing. Who has that? I try to imagine what it would be like living here. It pointless to wonder though, even with a doctors income, I could never even hope to reach that level of wealth. I wonder what Eli does for work. There are a lot of things I wonder about him. If I thought the tension was high the night we met, I was wrong. There were moments on the tour that I swear he wanted to kiss me. I would have let him too. I don't know what's happening with me or what has possessed me the last 24 hours. I've never let a man get to me like this. And now I look at him and I feel the air around me shift, get heavier, as I'm drawn to him.

I follow him to my Jeep and he climbs into the driver seat. The sun is mostly set now and although I feel awful for letting him drive me to the main road, I also know I have no choice. It was only because of Avery that I made it here at all. I'd never make it back by myself.

"I'm sorry you have to do this."

"It's nothing, Emma. Really." Eli smiles at me and my stomach flips. Damn him and his gorgeous ocean eyes and his perfect smile and his rugged five o clock shadow. What the hell is wrong with me? I swallow hard and then look out the window, my cheeks ablaze.

"Are you happy you moved here?" Eli asks and I'm thankful for the redirection.

"I'm not happy about why, but I can't deny that I've fallen in love with this land. The wildness of it. Though even in the wildness, it feels like home. That probably doesn't make sense," I ramble.

"Actually it does. This land, there's magic here," Eli says as he watches me carefully.

"A lot of local people seem to believe in magic."

"And you don't?"

"I don't know if I believe in magic per se, but I have began to believe in something. Sometimes I have a patient who is for all intents and purposes, dead. But yet they live. I have seen things these last six months that defy science, defy all logic. But then I think about my mother and how there was nothing to save her. There was no magic then. So I don't know what to believe or how any of it works," I ramble again. I realize that I'm just over here spilling my soul to this gorgeous man-god and my cheeks flush again. Why does he make me feel this way!?"I'm sorry. I'm not normally the spill my soul type."

"How did your mother die?" Eli asks gently.

"Car accident. I wasn't there. It was right before graduation."

"I'm so sorry Emma." I can hear the sincerity in his voice. Why is he so perfect?

"She would have liked you." The second the words leave my mouth, I regret them. The urge to fling myself out of my Jeep in hopes that the wolves find me and devour me, is strong. I'm so embarrassed I don't even know how to come back from that.

"Well, if she was anything like you, I'd have liked her too," Eli says with another gorgeous smile. He's focused on the path ahead and I take that moment to just look at him and admire every detail. Emma! Reign in the crazy a bit!

He looks at me with an eyebrow raised and smirks and the urge to offer myself to the wolves is back. He looks ahead once more and I shift my gaze forward as well. Wait, did he just say he liked me?

After what feels like hours, we've made it to the main road. Eli gets out and walks around and opens the door for me.

"Oh my gosh, I just realized that you have no way to get back," I say as even more self loathing settles in.

"It's no big deal. I'll run home."

"That's too far to run. I'm so sorry. Maybe we can call someone to come pick you—"

"Emma, I run every night. The path seems long because you have to drive so slow but it's really not. Look, I wore my running shoes," Eli says with yet another smile. He lifts his foot up, showing off the fact he did indeed wear appropriate footwear. Why hadn't I noticed that he changed shoes? Right, because I was too busy ogling him.

"I'm sorry, again. For everything." For some reason I feel the need to apologize for...well...everything.

Eli closes the gap between us and I feel like the heat between us is going to melt me alive. He walks up slowly and places his hand on my shoulder and I feel the same sparks that I felt when we shook hands last night. I look at his hand on my shoulder trying to find some scientific reason for them but it's just his hand, touching me.

I look back up into his eyes and there is endless warmth there. Maybe I'm crazy to be feeling things this quickly after meeting someone but if I was really crazy, would I care? So then if I'm not crazy, what does that mean?

"Please don't apologize. Thank you for coming out here today." Eli let's go of my shoulder and I instantly miss his touch. Somehow we make it around to the drivers side door although I'm pretty sure I'm having an out of body experience at this point. Eli raises his hand to give me a boost into my Jeep and I take it.

"Do you feel that too?" I get the courage to ask. Surely he feels the physical sparks as we touch. Maybe he was struck by lightening at some point and has residual electricity? Wait, no, that's not possible. Maybe the clothes he wears has a lot of static? Maybe that's it. Maybe it's just that he needs some fabric softener and dryer balls. That's gotta be it.

"Feel what?" Eli asks me suspiciously.

"Nothing. I just...never mind. Thank you so much for today. You and your family were so welcoming and I had a really nice time."

I jump into my Jeep and look around a bit nervously wondering how we are suppose to end this. It's not a date but it feels like a date. Did it feel like a date to him too?

"Goodnight Emma," Eli smiles. He backs away from the Jeep and lifts a hand to wave. I wave back and pull onto the road. I look in the mirror and see him turn and start jogging back.

What has this man done to me?