“I’ll try. But only because you saidplease.” A lightness is back in her voice, and I let myself lean back in the lawn chair as Navy flops to the ground, her little chest heaving as she stares up at the sky. Chip sniffs her face and then collapses on the ground beside her.
“I’ll be at the garage tonight.”
“Is this a brush-off, Talon?”
“No, I just have to be an uncle and a pig dad right now.”
Pulling my phone from my ear, I take a picture of my charges and hit send.
“I’ve heard about the pig, seen you with it with my own two eyes, and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.”
“If you’re a good girl, maybe I’ll tell you the story one day.”
“Oh, the things to look forward to,” she teases and my lips twitch.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
“Mm-hmm, and Talon?”
“Yeah?”
“Buy condoms.”
18
CORA
“Ijust want to make sure I understand correctly,” Aspen says as we hustle around the inside of our truck, inventorying ingredients and organizing everything for the lunch rush. The truck was an easy fix, but Talon simply taking care of it has more than just my heart warming. My panties are soaked, and while hearing his gruff voice on the phone was a factor, it has more to do with the way he still wanted to take care of me after I’d left last night.
He didn’t have to do it, but it saved me an entire day of work, and our food won’t go bad.
“I already told you what happened,” I groan as Aspen turns to face me.
“Didyourbest friend leave you stranded on the side of the road and not answer her phone?”
“I already apologized,” I say earnestly. “And yes, I left and came straight back after I got all your messages.”
“And then?” she goads, not bothering to hide her smirk.
“And then we had wild, bang me against the wall sex where he gave me not one buttwoorgasms and ripped my panties from my body—not in that order.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I freaked out when he wanted to see my boobs immediately after orgasm number one.”
Her expression softens, and I groan as I lean a hip against the cooler.
“Are you gonna talk to him?”
“Yes,” I concede, nibbling my bottom lip. “I have to give him something, but I’m just not ready to lay it all out on the line. It’syearsof trauma and history that he may or may not even remember, and if he doesn’t?—”
“If he doesn’t then I think he’ll still be really sorry he hurt you even if it was a long time ago.”
“It’s taken me so long to get here,” I whisper, the words barely out before Aspen has me wrapped in a tight embrace.
“You’ve worked really hard, Cora, and it’s okay that you like him—great, even—so I think,” she says, pulling back, “it’s worth the conversation. Tell him what you like, what you don’t like, and how you want to be touched.” She gives me a saucy wink. “A man like that is gonna want to know how to pleasure his woman.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not his woman,” I hiss, reaching around her to grab the tomatoes from the bench.
