Page 57 of When The Noise Stops

Her eyes opened.

"Don't what?"

"Don't say whatever you're about to say."

Her smile came slowly.

"I was just gonna say you kiss well. Really well. I don't know what's wetter—this water or me."

I laughed.

Then my jeans rang.

On the bank. The phone. Loud in the quiet.

It stopped. Then rang again.

Once. Again.

"Grizz!"

Tiny's voice cut through the trees. Running. Footsteps pounding against the dirt.

I turned toward the shore.

"Grizz, the shop is on fire! The whole strip!"

My heart dropped. Lila's legs tightened around my waist. Her eyes went wide in the moonlight.

I didn't move.

Couldn't.

The phone kept ringing.

Chapter 23

Ronny was back home. A week had passed since I'd seen Grizz.

He left the duplex before I woke and came back after I had already turned off the lights. Tiny said he was fine. Hawk said the same thing, and Sully told me to give him space, as if space was easy after we'd kissed; it had been hard as hell before. But I didn't bother him. I went to work. I came home.

It was after 9 when the rain started. It had been a long day. I was standing at my kitchen window when I saw him on the back steps, no jacket, shirt soaked through, sitting with his forearms on his knees and his head down. He looked like a man who had run out of rooms to go to.

I opened the door and stepped into the rain. The water was cold immediately. He didn't look up until I was close enough that he had to.

"Grizz."

He spoke without lifting his voice.

"The mortgage is going to take the insurance payout. I get four grand a month. I can't afford to rebuild."

I started to answer him.

He gripped my wrist, pulled me down, and kissed me instead.

It was not the kiss from the lake. His hands came around my waist; he pulled me into his lap. I went because I wanted to. The rain ran off his jaw into the kiss. He made a sound against my lips that did not belong to a man who was fine.

I knew this kind of wanting.