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Evie’s face grew serious. “Of course, girl. We’re not trying to mess this up for you, and if you’re really uncomfortable, then we won’t bug you.”
Grace looked at her as if to say “Speak for yourself,” but she nodded too.
“Last night.” It was an effort to even speak without flushing like an idiot. “Let me start over. Kate, you weren’t here for this, but you guys remember when Cori told us why Joel broke up with her and what she was curious about?”
“Bet your ass I do,” Evie said. “Is that what happened?”
“Not in the same way, but last night, he took complete control, and I let him.”
They stared at me. Finally, Kate said, “And?”
“And it was fucking incredible.” I blew out a breath. “It’s nothing like I thought it would be or what I thought I wanted, but it’s what he loves, and I have literally no arguments. Seriously, it brought out something I never imagined.”
“Damn,” Grace said. “Honestly, I can see it. Dark, brooding, stoic. Totally makes sense.”
“Dark and brooding?” I laughed. “Hardly.”
They all shared a look.
“What?”
Evie smiled into her coffee. “You know the only person Jude smiles at is you, right?”
“That’s not true. He smiles at other people. At jokes and stuff.”
“Yeah,” Grace said. “At jokes. But you’re the only person he spontaneously smiles at. So maybe you see a different side of him, but to us, he’s a bit dark and broody. Hot, but dark and broody.” She pinned me with a stare. “Don’t tell Harlan I said Jude was hot.”
Kate snorted. “If any of these guys has an issue with that, they all need to line up at a mirror. Noah is everything I want, but I can appreciate Resting Warrior is a beacon for seriously hot men.”
We all collapsed into laughter. She wasn’t wrong.
“Am I interrupting?” The man of the hour stood in the doorway to the kitchen. I’d given him a spare key this morning after he finally let me out of bed, though I was a boneless mess and it had taken me time to be able to stand.
“Not at all.” I crossed to him, and when he pulled me in to kiss me, I had no thoughts in my head about being watched or worried about what anyone might think. That was gone, and I didn’t want it to ever come back. “Thanks for coming.”
“Find anything?”
Jude had had a couple of things to do at the ranch, but he had promised to come and be a second eye in case anything was wrong. So far, though, nothing. “No. Unfortunately.”
“Let’s poke around some more, then.”
We put our coffee away, and the girls kept their word, not saying anything about what I’d revealed, and Jude gave no indication he’d overheard anything. He wouldn’t care. If there was one thing I knew about Jude, especially now, it was that he was confident.
Wanting what he did in bed wasn’t an embarrassment for him. If anything, his hesitation about sharing it was more about my reaction than his.
The oven looked fine. None of the connections was damaged. There were no contaminants in the vents—nothing which could have made fifty pies go rancid. Jude got on a ladder and checked all the vents as best he could, but we would still have to wait for the all clear from the specialist.
Tasting the ingredients went just fine, too, but I was still nervous. “I think I’m just going to ditch everything that’s open. It’s not worth the anxiety I’ll have using it.”
“Are you sure?” Evelyn looked worried. “That’s a lot of inventory.”
It was. “If we don’t have customers, we won’t have any inventory anyway. Better safe than sorry. If you can work on it and make me a list of everything to reorder, I need to start calling people to let them know what we’re doing and how we’re starting from scratch. Hopefully it will rekindle some confidence.”
“I’m sure it will.” Jude wrapped himself around me from behind. “If you’re okay, I’ll head out, but I’ll be back to pick you up.”
All eyes were on my face as I turned pink. But they didn’t know the flush went all the way down to my toes. “Sounds good.”
His lips brushed my ear, and his words were low enough no one else could hear. “I have time to go get my handcuffs, sweetheart. Keep that in mind for later.”
