“Just okay?” I ask, loving the way he’s leaning into my touch the longer we stand here.
“More than. But right now, I’m waiting for you to kiss me.”
Chuckling, I tilt my face up to meet his, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth, light and teasing before capturing his lips in a searing one.
Deacon groans and it’s everything I need in this moment.
Desire.
Surrender.
Hope.
The latter might be wishful thinking, but as I wrap my arms around his neck and his arms band around my waist, I have to wonder if this was always where I was meant to be.
22
TANNER
“Are you sure this is all right?” Otto asks for the third time as he shifts from one foot to the other in my kitchen.
“Why are you stalling?” I ask, narrowing my eyes, because he knows I love having Rosie here with Briggs. Luna Mae is still attached to Fallon, but I have no doubt that little one will make herself at home here too when she’s ready.
Otto never gave me the chance to be weird about him and Fallon having kids. They offered me a huge piece of their hearts and family by including me, and it’s one of the best things that could have happened. And now, I get to have Briggs and their oldest, Rosie, whenever I can.
She’s a cute little thing with big eyes and a mess of hair that she lets me brush if I bribe her with a snack after bathtime. I love her like she’s my own and have since the day she was born.
“What? I’m not stalling.” He feigns innocence and I roll my eyes. “Fine, I just want to know how your date was. I’m a little hurt you didn’t tell me.”
He tries to laugh it off but I can see the truth in his eyes.
Heishurt and that makes me feel like an ass because Otto has been nothing but amazing to me. Even that first day when he wanted to fight, we worked it out pretty quick.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, hoping he can hear the sincerity in my voice. “It’s new and a little scary if I’m being honest.”
“How come?”
I open my mouth and then close it as I try to decide how honest I want to be. Fallon had gotten upset when we had this conversation in my kitchen, and while I don’t want a repeat of that, I feel like I owe it to Otto to tell him the truth.
“Seeing you with Fallon, even in the beginning, made me realize how much she and Ididn’tfit. I thought I already worked through all that, but admitting that IlikeDeacon has brought on a new wave of guilt.”
“Dude.”
“I know,” I relent, holding my hands up in surrender. “Deep down I know. She’s happy and you’re happy and this was all for the best, but it’s an emotional marathon.”
“We wantyouto be happy. I know it weighs on her and I love you like a brother. You deserve all the good things too.”
“I’m trying.”
“Is he good to you?”
“Yeah, he’s more patient than anyone has the right to be which has come in handy because I don’t think I would have stuck around this long if I was him.”
“Don’t do that,” Otto says, his tone subdued and lacking all of his normal joviality. He’s a goofball ninety percent of the time, but this ten percent never fails to stop me in my tracks. It’s unlike him, so I’m inclined to give him my full attention.
“I’m serious. He took me out the other night—I wanted to go—and then it spiraled. It was too much and that sucks because he deserves to go out, and frankly, so do I.”
“What happened?”
