Diesel told Valene that while he liked Wyatt, no exception to the rules would be made if they married. He left it to her to determine what to do next. But that was the problem. Valene didn’t know what to do.
Given the extent of Wyatt’s family in Arkansas, it would be a very difficult choice for him to leave. Even if he were willing to move off-world, he’d likely balk at the prospect of leaving them to mourn his mysterious disappearance forever.
Wyatt was second eldest of five children and the only boy. She didn’t want to move away from her family, either, but at least they’d know where she was and could visit her on occasion.
She and Wyatt both understood big, loud families. It was one of the many things they had in common. Her favorite thing they had in common was kissing. She wanted to kiss him now. The visual of ramming Daphne Charlene out of the way so Valene could kiss his perfect mouth circled in her mind once more.
The only workaround she’d thought of was moving in with him and living in what some humans called sin. What could anyone on Alpha-Prime do if she didn’t officially marry her human? She didn’t know, and until she understood the potential fallout of such a bold, unconventional move, she didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize any possible future with Wyatt.
Daphne Charlene finally released Wyatt. He moved away with a distracted pat on her shoulder, and walked straight to Valene.
“Would you care to explain what happened here?”
“Nope.”
Wyatt’s mouth quirked into a quick smile and then it went away. He put a hand on his gun, leaned in close and whispered in her ear, “You have a piece of chili bean on your upper lip and I’d really like to kiss it off. What do you say?”
Chapter Two
Wyatt Campbell likely should not have said what he had to Valene Grey, even though he meant every word. The woman made him crazy in all the best ways, but she was also gun-shy about their relationship and he hadn’t been able to figure out why.
“Better not,” Valene said in a rush, color coming into her lovely cheeks as she wiped her mouth and mostly brushed away the errant lucky chili bean off her beautiful face. He would have rather kissed it off, but wasn’t supposed to acknowledge their feelings in public.
She moved half a step away, perhaps to stay out of range of the kiss he knew they both wanted. He understood. He didn’t doubt her love for him, even though he knew she often held herself back. It was as if she feared if she let herself go, she wouldn’t be able to retreat to her neutral corner.
Valene did have six older brothers. Wyatt knew them all and they seemed to like him well enough. He’d even spoken to her eldest brother about dating her. When pressed, Diesel told him he didn’t have a problem with Wyatt dating his little sister, though he’d have to speak to their father if things got serious. Wyatt understood that, and was ready and willing.
He and Valene were completely serious as far as Wyatt was concerned. The elder Greys were tough ones to pin down, though. First, they’d been rambling around on an RV road trip across the country, return date unknown. Zebulon and Xenia Grey returned briefly to attend the wedding of Valene’s brother, Axel, then skedaddled faster than a rocket-propelled rabbit the day after the nuptials.
Wyatt had attended, too, but hadn’t been able to sit with Valene, as she was one of the wedding coordinators or something. She sought him out at the extravagant reception for a private dance in the woods, just the two of them, within earshot of the band playing some eighties love song. He didn’t care what they played. He enjoyed dancing with the love of his life—correction, thesuper-secretlove of his life.
They’d kissed. And kissed. And kissed. Valene pushed him against a tree and kissed him until he wasn’t certain he could let her go.
The shout wrenched her out of their passionate and involved embrace.
“Valvoline Ethyl Grey! Where are you?” The female voice called out twice more before Valene broke away, put shaky fingers to her lips and stared at him with wide blue eyes.
“Please don’t go, Vee,” he’d whispered and reached for her. She shook her head and said softly, “I have to go, Wyatt. I’m so sorry.” She scurried away as if fearful of being seen with him.
Story of their relationship. Passionate, crazy, incredible kisses followed by stark and lengthy distances. Valene dictated their together time. Always had and likely always would.
He wanted to put his foot down. He wanted to shout how much he loved her from every rooftop in the nearest three towns. He divided most of his time between Skeeter Bite, Old Coot and Alienn, Arkansas. If he had his way, he would have already put a ring on her finger and married her. They could even have a baby on the way by now, if only she would settle down and let him in.
An elusive something, one he couldn’t quite put his finger on, was in the way of their permanent happiness. One day he’d figure out what it was, fix it and move on to enjoy the life with Valene he’d only dreamed of thus far. Until then, he waited with growing exasperation for the love of his life to stop running and let him catch her for good.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to make Valene Grey happy. Which he’d told her, repeatedly. She would get a wistful look in her eye and mumble something along the lines of, “I wish that could be true.”
Recently, he’d gone to his father, the town’s former sheriff, for advice. Before he could say anything about the trouble he was having nailing down a permanent relationship with Valene, his father asked if he was dating anyone special. At first, Wyatt was relieved to have the opening. Clearly his parents had noticed something was off with their son and his mother had delegated his father to suss out whatever it was. His father wondered out loud if his only son ever planned to settle down. Wyatt said there might be someone he was interested in, but he hadn’t taken it to the next level yet for a variety of reasons. All of them had to do with Valene and her skittishness. He’d promised Valene he’d be discreet about their relationship, even with his family, so he couldn’t bring himself to name her to his father outright.
Wyatt figured his father knew about Valene anyway, and was fishing for confirmation. He hoped maybe the ex-sheriff, who was on good terms with Valene’s parents, might speak up to them on Wyatt’s behalf. But he’d been wrong.
Shortly after their man-to-man talk, his parents invited Daphne Charlene Dumont to their house for a family dinner and seated her next to Wyatt. The father-son conversation came immediately to Wyatt’s mind. Either his father hadn’t known about Valene or his parents wanted to dissuade Wyatt from pursuing her by setting him up with a local woman they already approved of.
Wyatt endured a very long dinner with Daphne Charlene and his family, where it was obvious why she was there and everyone, including three out of his four sisters in attendance, gushed over what a great couple they made. It was all Wyatt could do not to roll his eyes at the setup.
Daphne Charlene was an attractive girl. One of the most unappealing things about her was she seemed very aware of that fact. But since Wyatt was generally a positive kind of guy, he allowed she might have many fine qualities that some other man might appreciate. She was accomplished in her career, owning and operating Skeeter Bite’s newest and most popular restaurant, Critters Café. That interesting name always made him think of roadkill, but he’d never be so rude as to say that out loud and no one else seemed to feel that way.
