She grinned at him then, and Adam’s muscles started to melt.
“I can’t promise you that there won’t be other emergencies that come up that force me to pay attention to them instead of you,” he said. “But I want you to know that every moment yesterday where I was letting you down was pure torture for me. I wanted to be here. I wanted to be with you.”
She nodded. “Are you going back to Jackson today?”
He shook his head. “We found the equipment, and they have most of their stuff moved now.”
He reached for her hand, noting that she wore the diamond bracelet he’d gotten her for Christmas. He smiled at it and then raised his head enough to see her past the brim of his cowboy hat. “I’m hoping you’re up for an apartment tour, and then a drive to get some brisket, and then we have one more thing to move, so I’m afraid moving day isn’t over.”
“No?” she asked. “That’s awful news, because yesterday was a pretty bad day.”
He noticed the teasing glint in her eye and the playfulness in her voice. “Moving days are the worst,” he said. “And I’m really sorry that I made it terrible.”
“You’ve apologized enough,” Joey said as she lifted her chin and shook her hair over her shoulders. “So you want a tour, and then you want brisket, and then you want to continue the torture and moving day—and this is all supposed to be a good thing?”
“Well, the tour is an amazing thing,” he said. “And you love brisket, and I’ll do all the heavy lifting, so that the bean bag gets put exactly where you want it.”
He smiled at her, all of his hopes and dreams sitting a few feet away in his passenger seat. “So what do you think?” he asked. “Can I kiss you and do we have a plan for the rest of the day?”
CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE
Joey leaned over and pressed her lips to Adam’s, feeling his smile against her mouth. His hand came up to cup her cheek, and warmth spread through her at his gentle touch.
“I love you,” he murmured.
“Mm.” Joey kissed him again. “I love you too.” When she pulled back, his eyes shone with happiness and his smile kicked up in the corners.
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah.” Joey ducked her head, but she wasn’t embarrassed about how she felt. She looked up. “That’s so.”
“Well, that’s great news,” Adam said. He chuckled and added, “I’ll come get your car once we have you fed and reading in your bean bag.”
“There is no way I’m letting you drive my car,” Joey said, her resistance to that sitting heavy in her gut.
“Why not?” he asked as he exited the parking lot. “It’s a sedan, baby doll. I’ve driven one before.”
She looked over to him and caught the jumping in Adam’s jaw. “Okay,” she said, letting go of this idea that she could hide any part of herself from him. “I warned her already that I was going to look for a new car this year.”
He swung his attention to her. “Oh, yeah? How’d she take it?”
“She started right up.” Joey grinned at him and reached for his hand. “I want the raspberry barbecue sauce. Can you get some of that?”
“Of course I can,” Adam said, because Adam could do anything. He navigated them to the little roadside barbecue stand on the Northern Highway, and Joey once again waited in the car while he braved the winter wind to get their food.
The scent of roasted, smoked meat and tangy, sweet barbecue sauce filled the car upon his return, and Joey took the plastic bag from him so he could get back in. Her stomach growled, and Adam returned to his house.
“Stay here; I’ll go grab the bean bag, and we’ll head back to your place.” He looked over to her, questions in his eyes. “Okay?”
“You don’t want to eat?”
“At your place, I do.” He flashed her a smile. “Unless you’re starving, then we can eat here.”
He didn’t seem to want that, so Joey simply nodded. He did too, and Joey swallowed as he ducked out of the car and hurried into the house. She reached into the bag and pulled out one of the biscuits. She pinched off acorner of it and ate it, almost in disbelief that she sat in Adam’s car when only a couple of hours ago, she’d been staring into an empty corner and wondering when she’d see him again.
The back of the SUV opened, and Joey twisted to see Adam shoving her fluffy pink bean bag in. “I gotta get the seats,” he said, and he moved to do that, lowering them and then sliding the bean bag all the way to the backs of the front seats.
