Page 153

I broke the kiss, pressing my forehead to his. “I love you. You know that?”

His lips trembled slightly as he smiled. “I don’t know how I got so lucky.”

“That’s what I say to myself every day,” I murmured.

He leaned in for another kiss, and I sank into it, my thoughts drifting away.

CHAPTER 33

JOEY

I floated through the next three weeks, sure that I was dreaming. Kit loved me. He’d taken me on a series of dates to prove it, but I didn’t need to be wined and dined.

It was days like today that assured me of his feelings.

We sat on a bench at a little playground in Clover Leaf Trailer Park, watching a redheaded hellion named Ruby climb up the plastic slide—and I do mean climbing the slide, rather than the ladder. She was going after it like she was on a quest to slay the dragon. She slid a few feet, climbed forward, and slid back again.

She never gave up, continuing to climb. There was a metaphor for life right there. I’d had setbacks, big ones, but I kept going. The guy beside me kept going. Dakota, who’d had the biggest setback of all, kept going. And if she could find her happiness, then I really had no excuse, did I?

I leaned in against Kit, who was sacrificing his day off to babysit a two-year-old with me. “You didn’t have to come today.”

“I’d never miss a chance to spend time with you,” he said. “Besides, Ruby is adorable. Who’d want to miss out on that?”

I smiled. “She’s the sweetest.”

“I don’t get why she keeps calling you Park, though.”

I broke into a laugh. “Well, look around. This is where I take her.”

“Wait, you’re saying she calls you Park because you take her to the park?”

He was laughing now. I shrugged, grinning. “Hey, she likes me best, so I’ll take whatever nickname she wants to give. It’s better than Joyride.”

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to snatch them back.

“Definitely better,” Kit said, his smile sagging.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up. I told the guys to stop using that name⁠—”

“It’s okay, Joey.” He put his hand on my knee, squeezing gently. “I know you didn’t choose that name for yourself. I even understand why you let people use it. That’s why I hate it. Because you used that name to punish yourself, and that reminds me that you used me to punish you⁠—”

“No,” I said quickly. “No, Kit. You never punished me. Not really. Maybe the illusion of that gave us permission to have what we wanted, but…it was never real.”

His pretty blue-green eyes searched my face, looking for understanding. “You mean that? I regret so much how we started.”

“Don’t regret it. Please. I don’t.”

“How can you not?”

“Because it brought us here. Because you love me. Because having you, even when I thought you hated me, was still the best part of my day.”

His hand clenched tight on my leg. “Damn, I wish I could kiss you.”

“Save it for later,” I murmured, glancing sidelong to check on Ruby. What do you know? She’d made it to the top of the slide.

Now that she was there, she turned and slid down by choice. Ruby ran the few feet to the bench where we sat and grabbed her sippy cup, which sat on the bench next to me.

She lifted it, gulping noisily, then lowered it with a frown. She tipped it up and lowered it again, then tried to peek through the sippy hole. “It all gone.”