“I’m pretty sure Aunt Josie gets on her knees and thanks God every day that Ava showed and made Luke work to win her, like he needed to do, then she let him win her, and then she gave him the life he deserved. A wife he can’t walk all over because he is all he is and there aren’t a lot of women who could stand up to that, love in abundance, and two beautiful girls to hold dear, dote on and protect.”
“Okay,” I said, not sure why he was telling me this, though I liked hearing it, and I had a feeling I was really going to like Luke (and Ava).
“So I get having a shitty dad can do a number on you.”
Ah.
“I’m good,” I assured.
“He pay up when you needed toilet paper?”
He did not.
“We survived,” I hedged.
“Right,” he bit off, all of a sudden verbally irritable. “So you’re good swearing off men because the first one in your life, the one you should be able to depend on straight to your bones until the day he dies, fucked you over, fucked your mom over, and that was the launching pad for you to find men who would prove your theory true that all of us are trash and you’re good to live your life depending on no one but you.”
It felt like someone punched the breath out of me.
Hello? Logic called. Psychology minor? Girl, you cannot blame me for you walking face first into that one.
Okay, seriously, he’s hot and perceptive and clever and protective and real and a great kisser. We…have…hit…the…MOTHERLODE! Dreamer crowed.
“Willow?” Gabe called.
“I’m done talking,” I snapped.
“I bet,” he muttered, and there was some humor in that mutter, but also some impatience.
Good.
He could stew in conflicting emotions for a change.
We rode the rest of the way in silence, and he got out when I got out.
“I can make the delivery myself,” I told him.
“You’re not walking there and back three times. You’re walking once, getting paid, and I’m walking twice, then we’re getting dinner.”
I mean…
The man made being awesome and annoying an art.
Naturally, I focused on the annoying.
“You’re very bossy,” I remarked tartly.
And that was when it happened.
And it happened so fast, I had no hope of evading it.
What happened was, he whisked the box of cupcakes out of my hands and put them on the roof of the Jeep before he got in my space, caught me with both hands cupping my head, and he put his face half an inch from mine.
My breath went on vacation at having him so close and decided it might never come back when I read the look in his eyes.
“Cupcake, you are not getting this, so I’ll spell it out,” he said in a steely rumble. “I am in this to win this. If you were honest with yourself for a single fuckin’ second, you’d know it. You’d know why I am. You’d know why you should let me in. You’d learn why you should give me a shot. And you’d learn why it wouldn’t only be me winning if you did, it would also be you.”
“Full of yourself much?” I pushed out, because…
