My breath hitches. I’m not a greedy woman, but money solves a lot of damn problems. “What if I don’t let you?”
“I can be very persuasive.” He claims my mouth in a soft kiss that sizzles right down my spine.
“Is that what the beer will do for me?” a woman asks from the crowd.
A scatter of applause surrounds us. My smile breaks the kiss, and I bury my face in his neck. He holds me firmly against him.
“I want to go to bed with you every night, Meredith. I want to wake up to you and a cat or four. I want to live in the house I grew up in. I want you to create all the recipes you want for Jules Creek.”
I slap my hands on his shoulders and pull away as far as he’ll let me, which is only another inch. “But I told Duncan I’d work for him.”
Sawyer jogs up to the stand wearing her normal vet shirt and jeans. “Oh my god. I miss one fair weekend, and you get accosted?”
I grin, but then my smile falters. I curl my fingers into Calder’s soft shirt. This day is a ride I need to hang on for. “Plans might be changing, Sawyer.”
She lifts her arms in a “what can you do?” shrug. “Then I’m going to have call you McBrewer or something.” Her expression turns wistful. “I just want you happy, Mer, and if a Cross is what does it, then I’m not going to complain.”
I blink up at Calder and get both lost and anchored in his warm gaze. “I love you too, Calder.”
His smile lights up all the corners of the tent, and my pulse climbs. He strokes a knuckle down my cheek. “Everyone will be taken care of, I promise,” he says as if he plucked out one of my worries. “If you still want to forge ahead, that’s what we’ll do. If you want to move and work with that Sterling…” He works his jaw like he’s chewing a broken bottle. “That’s what we’ll do. Want to build your own brewery and call it Rosy Cheeks Pub, I’m there.”
I don’t look at anyone. Sawyer’s taken over doling out samples. This decision is for me. Calder made a promise, and I believe him.
“I want to live in that house and wake up to you every morning. I want to keep the chickens and the cattle, and I don’t ever want to leave or worry about leaving again. And I want to build on what your mama started.”
He feathers a stray curl through his fingers. “She’d want that too. The guys will back whatever we decide. They agreed to pitch in to pay off loans if that’d get me off their doorstep. Landry was willing to pay more to get me to leave him alone. I don’t know if they’ll ever come home, but it’s enough for now. They’re adults, and they make their own decisions. I’m ready to start a life with you.”
“I want that so much.” Delirious laughter bubbles out of me. “You’re unbelievable.”
His eyes darken, and he bows his head before he stops. “Hey, Sawyer, mind taking over for a bit? I need to sneak Meredith away to talk.”
Bea pushes her walker behind the tent. “She’s on call, but don’t worry. I’ve got it covered. You kids gotalk.”
FIFTY-ONE
CALDER
The brewery seemed safer. If I get Meredith in bed, we might never leave.
I sprint up the stairs with her in my arms, her legs locked around my waist. I spin around the railing and head straight for the office. There’s too much traffic in town to fuck her against the door. No one can peek through the second-story windows.
I bypass the boxes by the door and plant her ass on the desk. “I need you naked now.”
“Yes.” She rips her shirt off over her head then tugs at mine. I’m like a deer caught in headlights, my gaze frozen on the way the globes of her breasts arch over her bra. I cup a hand over each tit, loving the soft scrape of her nipples against me.
“Do you know how miserable I was going to an empty bed every night?” I bend to nibble along her neck.
A shiver racks her body, and she wraps her legs around me. She lolls her head back. “I hated it too.”
I unhook her bra and let it fall. “I missed these. I’m going to bury myself in you and not come up for air.”
“Yes,” she whispers.
I detest stepping away, but I do it to take off her pants, so there’s definitely a reward. She toes off her shoes, and I undo theclasp of her jeans. She finishes tugging my shirt over my head. We’re a tangle of arms, but her relieved sigh when I’m bare-chested is everything I want to hear. She missed me.
I yank her pants down. She grips the edge of the desk and lifts her hips. In anticipation, I pull too hard, and the desk lifts from her hold and thunks to the ground. She giggles but doesn’t hesitate to unzip my fly and shove my pants down.
“Good enough.” I grab each leg and spread her wide. “So fucking pink and wet and perfect.”
