“I love it. What can I say?”
“How was the tree lighting this year?”
As he turns, he has to let me go, but I press my front against him. “The best year yet.”
“Really?”
I nod and smile up at him. My answer seems to brighten his mood, and I enjoy this side of him. He had been so brooding before. Happy Ford feels lighter.
“We should get you home,” he says, his mouth mere inches from mine.
As much as I want to kiss him again, this wasn’t the right place—not with people watching. “Good plan.”
He opens the pickup door for me, and I take his hand to step inside. As he shuts the door and walk around to his side, he nearly slips, and I can’t help but laugh.
“It’s slick out,” he warn.
“Well, it is winter,” I reply.
“Funny girl.”
His hand crosses the center console, wool-covered fingers sliding between mine. The truck’s heater blasts against my face, but my cheeks burn from something else entirely. My pulse quickens beneath the layers of yarn, our palms pressed together like two snow angels merging into one. I stare at our joined hands, wondering if he can feel my heartbeat through the knitted barrier.
“Do you like living in Pittsburgh?” he asks.
“It’s nice having more areas for backdrops, but I miss being home. I only moved because of Asher.”
“Really?”
I nod as he pulls up to the curb outside my house. “Yeah. It was his idea. I would’ve been happy here, but he needed to network.”
“Didn’t do him a lick of good, did it?”
“You can’t hustle when you’re lazy,” I says. “He liked making money while it lasted, but he hated how much work it took. Thenit tapered off, and he didn’t like being broke anymore. But he never did anything to change it.”
“Did I tell you he did my first website for me?”
I turn in my seat, shaking my head. “No, he never mentioned that.”
“It was terrible.”
I laugh. “I know. He’s still mad I wouldn’t let him build mine. There has to be a certain aesthetic for my job, and he just doesn’t have that.”
“He wouldn’t speak to me for six months after I hired someone else. All he does is edit Wix templates and calls them his own.”
“You noticed that too, huh?”
“Well, if you decide to move back, the town misses you. We’d love to have you home.”
I raise an eyebrow. “The town?”
“Yes, the town. It doesn’t feel like home without you.”
All I can do is shake my head. “Maybe if I’d been home more often, I’d still be engaged. Asher wouldn’t have found a reason to cheat on me.”
“Asher would have done it anyway. You were thriving in your career and earning more than he ever did. You didn’t rely on him. Kenzie does, though. For what reason, I can’t quite grasp, but that’s what a guy like Asher craves. Feeling superior.”
“Well, it’s hard to believe he can feel that way with Kenzie. She always wants to be on top.” I wince and laugh at my words. “Which takes on a whole new meaning now.”
