Brady’s eyebrows are drawn in confusion. “After Lonesome? I thought…” He pauses, running the pad of his thumb across his lower lip. “Maybe I read us wrong, Addison. If I did, I’m sorry.” He pushes back from the island where he’s been leaning.
I stick out a hand as he turns to go. “Brady, what did you think?”
Brady looks at me, his hesitance plain on his face. He’s just come from a terrible rejection. Telling me how he feels now must be terrifying.
So, I put on my big girl panties and walk closer to him. I don’t feel brave, but I can damn sure act like it.
“You already know I like you, Brady. But what you don’t know is how much I’d like you to stay in Lonesome. I know we’re not meeting in a typical, easy way. We’re both coming into this with some baggage. But, if you’re willing to push through the fear and give this a shot, then I am too.”
Brady’s eyes roll back and he looks upward. “Thank you,” he says to the ceiling.
I laugh, closing the space between us and molding my body to his. He kisses the space beneath my ear and murmurs, “I talked to your grandma this morning and extended my stay through the summer.”
I pull back and glare at him. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
His grin is playful and fiendish. It makes my toes curl, because I’ve seen it before, and good things usually follow it. “I wanted to hear how you feel about me.”
“Oh yeah?” My eyebrows lift in defiance. I can’t pull it off completely because a smile tugs at my lips. “Do you want to hear how I feel about you at this exact second?”
“Nope. Come on.”
Brady grabs my hand and leads me out of the kitchen. He stops when we get to the living room, craning his neck as he searches for somebody who might spot us. Namely, my grandma.
“Let’s go to your cabin,” I whisper-hiss against his back.
He shakes his head. “No time. I won’t make it. I’ll end up taking you on the lawn and then we’ll get arrested.”
I laugh into his back until I have to gulp in air, and when I do, his manly, clean scent fills my nose. It’s so overwhelming it makes me want to rip off my clothes and risk being walked in on. Now I understand what he means about not making it all the way to his cabin.
When he’s decided we’re in the clear, he leads me through the living room and to the stairs. He takes them two at a time and I have to speed up my climb to keep up with him. He pauses at the top and looks back at me, making me realize he doesn’t know which room is mine.
I dart around him and to the third door on the left, pulling him inside and locking the door behind us. Brady is all over me the second the lock clicks into place.
There goes my shirt.
My shorts are pooled at my ankles.
He’s wasting no time today. That’s okay with me, because last night he acted like time was the very last thing on his mind. I don’t think I could take it if he did that again so soon.
Brady drops to his knees, dragging a trail of kisses up the inside of my thigh. “I don’t know what you’ve done to me, Addison, but I don’t want it to stop.” His words invade my heart, and yet I also feel them on my body, their heat searing the delicate skin at the apex of my thighs where his mouth hovers.
“Brady,” I groan, quickly slamming a hand to my mouth to cover the sound. I’m too late, though, and the hand covering my mouth is there for no reason.
Except, it’s not.
Brady gives me every reason to keep my hand in place.
Twice.
* * *
After the dayin my bedroom, whatever walls we’d constructed to keep what was happening between us at bay crumbled as if they were made of sand. Wherever one of us was, the other was sure to be nearby. Brady helped me with the never-ending laundry, though I’d had to show him the proper way to fold a towel. I didn’t ask, but assumed he learned towel-folding from the same person who taught him to cook: nobody.
And even though I didn’t want it to, even though I willed it away with all my strength, the day came anyway. My fervent whispered prayers didn’t slow its approach.
June 29th.
My would-have-been wedding day. I’ve beenwouldhavebeen’ingall day long.
