Page 48 of Come A Little Closer

At the same time, he also made me feel safer and more protected than I ever had, but not in a way that made me feel stifled or trapped. It was more he gave me the confidence to fly, safe in the knowledge that he’d be waiting when I got back.

I’d honestly never known it could be so good to be in a relationship. To me, relationships had always been about control—and not in the fun or sexy way. All I’d ever seen growing up was my dad’s control over my mother, her control over me, and eventually, Carter’s control over us all.

Niall was all about control too, but he didn’t wield it like a weapon. He didn’t use his considerable power for bad. If anything, he’d already taught me that, like with anything in life, balance was key.

I found it insanely sexy to know that a guy who looked like a male model and held the amount of power he did could have such a good heart. He’d been nothing but patient and kind with me, reassuring me every step of the way and yet never doing it by patronizing me or making me feel condescended to.

It was starting to feel like we were two halves of the same whole, and I couldn’t get enough. It was hard to believe it’d only been a week since I’d felt so very insecure about being with him.

What a difference a day can make, indeed.

By the time I’d left his place on Sunday evening, I’d felt like a new person and there had been no doubt in my mind that I’d done the right thing telling him the truth.

A knock at my door pulled me out of my thoughts and I smiled, leaving the kitchen to meet Sayra for our walkthrough of the main house. She grinned when she saw me. “Someone looks like she’s had a good day.”

I chuckled. “It’s been a good week. Everything is finally coming together for Halloween and I’m getting so excited, I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep until it’s here.”

“Oh, right. That’s why you won’t be sleeping,” she teased, linking her arm through mine. We strode over to the Carmichael house together. “How was the party at Niall’s last weekend?”

“It was good,” I said, downplaying it a little. “Everyone was really impressed with the mini haunted house, so I better hope this place lives up to their expectations now that I’ve set the bar high.”

“To be fair, Niall’s neighbors won’t be the ones sleeping at the plantation, so I don’t think we should have any trouble,” she said. “At worst, they walk through the haunted house here and tell each other that the one at Niall’s house was better, but at that point, they’ve already paid to walk through this one and the other tourists didn’t see that one, so we can’t lose.”

I laughed. “That’s one way of looking at it. How was your week?”

“Not as good as yours, apparently.” She grinned when she glanced at me. “You can tell me all about it later, though. I brought a bottle of wine for us to crack open, but for now, I guess you better tell me what I need to know for work.”

“Right,” I said, instantly switching gears. “The first floor of the old Carmichael place is going to be the haunted house. Upstairs, I’ve decorated the guest bedrooms, so those are almost ready for the exclusive guests to stay the night.”

“Alright,” she said. “The tours are sure going to be interesting this weekend. I wonder if we should talk to Niall about possibly shutting them down for the week.”

“Nah, it should be okay,” I said. “The festival only starts on Friday. On Saturday, we’ll have the haunted house and a large luncheon, and then Saturday night, we’ve got the huge party with food trucks, a beer and wine garden, and a concert with local bands. Normal tours will be out of the question next weekend because of all that. I don’t think we should shut them down this week as well.”

Sayra nodded slowly. “Whatever you say, boss lady.”

I laughed. “Hardly.”

She arched an eyebrow at me. “An email came through saying to defer to you about everything festival related. That makes you the boss of the festival.”

My heart skipped a beat or five as her words sank in. “I guess it does. How awesome is that?”

“Congratulations,” she said softly, squeezing my arm. “You’ve worked your butt off on this and Niall has noticed. That’s a good thing, Tallulah.”

I smiled, taking a moment to turn and look out at the grounds when we reached the porch of the main house. Next weekend, thousands of people would be descending on the property and I was so damn excited to show off what I’d done.

I had achieved a lot, both here and at Niall’s other properties, and no one could ever take that away from me. It was a feather in my cap, and I was further validated when I even got a few yelps from Sayra as I walked her through.

“This is amazing,” she squealed as I showed her around. “It doesn’t even feel like the same house, and I’ve been working here two days a week for years.”

I did a little victory dance, tucking my elbows into my waist and putting my thumbs up as I sashayed from side to side. “Yay! I’m so glad you feel that way. I’ve been so worried about what people who had been to all the other festivals would think.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about.” She laughed as she waited for me to stop dancing. Then she grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s go get that wine. It’s too damn creepy in here.”

Chalking it up as a win, I walked back to the guest house with her, popping in to grab us each a glass while she opened the wine. We settled on my porch, watching dark clouds roll in as the trees around the plantation started swaying slightly in the breeze.

“So.” She sipped her wine and tucked her legs underneath her on the big old rocking chair, her body angled so she was facing me. “Tell me about the party. Was it a date?”

“I still don’t think it was meant to be one,” I said honestly. “It did kind of end up feeling like a date, though.”