I exhale shakily as my mom’s voice pipes into the kitchen. “Fear is normal, honey. It’s healthy, even. You just can’t let yourself linger on it. Do you remember when you were fourteen and your dad fell off a ladder?”
It takes me a second, but I nod, even though she can’t see it. “I’d forgotten actually, but yeah, I remember now.”
“That was one of the scariest moments of my life. You know what another was?”
“What?”
“The moment I first held you in my arms. I was terrified something was going to go wrong. You were so little, and there were so many things in the world that could have hurt you. So you know what I did? I hugged you close. Your father, too. You can’t fixate on all the bad. Hold on to the good, Oakley. Let that fill you up instead.”
I lay the bacon into the pan as Lawson’s resting face comes to mind. The strong lines of his body in sleep. The way he asked me to kiss him just yesterday in this kitchen. And how nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like to press my lips to his.
A simple kiss.
And the lighting up of my very being.
I’d never kissed someone I was already undoubtedly and irreversibly in love with. Not until him.
“Why did Dad fall off that ladder?” I ask, my voice hoarse.
My mom chuckles. “Spider crawled on his hand. That man can climb up on the roof like it’s nothing, but one little bug and he’s done for. It’s why I hide the good cookies in the garden.”
“You do not,” I say around a laugh.
“Oh, I sure do. Got an airtight lockbox out there.”
“MyGod. I never knew you had such a villainous side.”
She laughs, the sound light. I can’t help but smile in response.
“Thanks, Mom. For calling. For checking in.”
“Always,” she says simply. “Let it out and then let it go, Oakley. And give Lawson a hug for me, would you?”
“I will,” I promise.
When my mom hangs up, I flip the bacon in the pan. I’m not expecting arms to snake around my middle, but I manage not to jolt too hard when they do.
“You hear that?” I ask Lawson, the man nuzzling against my neck. My eyes slip shut.
“Just the part about hugging me.”
Spinning slowly in Lawson’s arms, I wrap myself around him tight. He lets out a soft breath, the two of us fitting together like those ceramic salt-and-pepper shaker sets in ridiculous designs. My chuckle has Lawson pressing a quick kiss to the side of my cheek.
“All right?” he asks.
I nod against him. “Mhm. Just thinking you’d be pepper.”
Lawson pulls back to look at me. “Oak. Did you hit your head this morning?”
I bark a laugh. “Nope. I’m right as rain. Breakfast is on the way if you don’t mind waiting a few more minutes.”
“I don’t mind,” he says. “Although I have a question for you.”
“Oh boy.”
I peck a kiss against Lawson’s lips with the intent to get back to cooking, but that quick peck becomes another and another, and then Lawson’s hands are slipping into my back pockets, and I’m gone.
He tastes minty, telling me he used my toothpaste this morning. I didn’t realize I have a kink for the man helping himself to my toiletries, but apparently, there’s a lot about Lawson I’m still learning.
