Drea tilted her head to one side.
“Please?”Cujo pleaded.
“I’ll share my new sandwich with you,” Amaya offered.Cujo hugged her tighter.
“Was it strawberry?”Drea asked.
“Yes, it was,” Zephyr said, clapping her hands.
“In that case…” Drea looked at him.
It wasn’t really the right place to study her.The girls wriggled in his arms, and the four of them blocked the boardwalk.But he took the moment anyway.Drea was the kind of beautiful you wanted to paint but could never capture.He felt the way she looked at him all the way down to his sneakers.
“Can we get a Popsicle, Uncle Jo-Jo?”
Cujo tore his gaze away from Drea.“Of course.Let’s go.”
A quick stop at an ice-cream truck and the girls were happy to meander ahead of them.
“What part of the conversation did you hear last night?”Cujo watched Drea lick around the edge of her ice cream as he found himself incredibly jealous of the sugar cone.
“It doesn’t matter, Cujo.I get it.You don’t particularly like me, but—”
“Not true, Shortcake.”He threaded his fingers through his messy hair.“You see this?You didn’t like it shaved.So I grew it.”There went his manhood.Fucking pussy.Being bald was a reminder of what he’d lived through.Proof he’d survived.But a few words from Drea and he was all about growing it again.
“Really?”Her hazel eyes brimmed with curiosity.
“Yeah, really.First night we met at the pool hall.Told me I looked like a bully,” he said and rolled his eyes in disgust at himself.“You told me you didn’t like it.That bothered me.So you’re wrong—I like you.Want to know what I was saying to Connor before you showed up?”
She nodded, chewing on her bottom lip.
“Discussing what a contradiction you are.How I admire you, but think you may well be the death of me.”
Drea laughed.“Wow.Don’t overdo the compliments, Cujo.”She tried to block a yawn with her hand.
“Keeping you awake?”
“Exhausted is my perpetual state.I’m used to it.”
Amaya and Zephyr plopped their butts down on the sand just off the boardwalk.He led Drea to a nearby bench.
“I’m not a relationship kind of guy, Shortcake.”He leaned forward, watching the waves for a moment before checking if the girls were okay.“I wish I was,” he said, “but I made a decision a long time ago that I wasn’t ever going to settle down.”
“How’d we go from planning an engagement party together to settling down?That’s quite the presumptuous leap on your part.”
He traced her collarbone, the skin smooth beneath his fingertips, and then slipped his hand around her neck.Fuck.Her lips were parted in surprise, and he was sorely tempted to press his lips to them.
“Maybe.But it goes like this.We’d date.We’d laugh.We’d fight.We’d have fucking off-the-charts make-up sex.”
Drea shivered as he intended.Short, shallow breaths made her chest heave, causing his cock to harden.
“What makes you think it would be off the charts?”Her voice was barely a whisper.
He leaned toward her, his lips a fraction from her ear.It took every ounce of self-control not to taste her skin.“When it feels this good without even touching, how could it not be?”
“And that’s not a good thing I take it?”she asked breathlessly.
“No, I’m pretty sure it’s not.”Cujo moved his hand from her wrist and laced his fingers with hers.“Can I ask what the deal is with your mom?”
