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“You were conceived there, weren’t you?” Laney wears a sneaking smile.
I shudder at the thought of my dad seducing my mother who was working behind the bar all those years ago. “Don’t remind me.”
She giggles, going red as a beet. “Sorry.”
“I just mean…Dad and I are good now. After the accident. And Sonia. And it just makes sense. No use wasting my time with other shit.” An unexpected bitterness in the back of my throat is coming out in my words.
Laney’s shoulders raise. She felt it, didn’t she? Tasted it in the air. “Sure. You just need to take it easy.”
I lean forward just a bit to gauge her reaction.
Laney doesn’t recoil.
I make it all the way to her cheek, let my lips graze her skin.
She locks up, darts away, clapping a hand over the place my lips touched.
Laney laughs and gets to her feet. “You’re sweet, Nate.”
I don’t want to be sweet. I want to be hers.
I follow suit, getting to my feet, not bothering to look her way. “I’m tired today. I’m going to take a nap.”
“Nate…” But doesn’t follow. Once I’m in the confines of my bedroom, I bury myself in my sheets and try and forget.
You need to take it easy.
Well, it will only get easy when Laney is gone from my life. Because I can’t do this anymore. Can’t pretend my heart hasn’t expanded to include her. It won’t be until my mind is on other things, and Laney Briggs is long gone from my life, that my heart will heal.
I know I can only take one step away from her at a time.
But every time I take a step away, something in me takes a step closer.
What if I can’t ever let her go?
I’m doomed.
27
LANEY
“Can I talk to you?”
I didn’t expect sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night for a bowl of ice cream would be interrupted by a visit from Edwin Lyons. But here I am, scooper in a jug of vanilla ice cream, in my pajamas, staring down the kitchen island at my employer. “Uh, yes?”
Edwin looks down at my half-filled bowl of ice cream and then back at me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s just ice cream.” I fling a final scoop into my bowl—although, I probably would have gone for another one if I didn’t have eyes on me all of a sudden. “What’s going on?” I return the carton of ice cream to the freezer.
Edwin leans on the island, his hand splayed out flat against the countertop. “Nate told me he wants a job at the club.”
“You sound uneasy about that.” Which is strange, considering how much trouble the club has caused Nate and his father over the years.
He licks his lips. “Yeah, well, I can’t say it was unexpected, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.”
“Well, he’s doing well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s fed up with hanging out at home with me.” It’s a feeble attempt at humor.
It doesn’t land, as evidenced by Edwin’s puckered forehead.
