“I love it,” Naomi said, tracing her finger over it.
“I also got matching tattoos with all my foster siblings.”I twisted my arm around to show her, but I could tell she didn’t know what they were, and I chuckled.“They’re willow branches.Six in total, to resemble six of us.Because willows bend but don’t break.It wasn’t my idea; I just went along with it.”She smirked.“And the purple ribbon around them is Dawn and how she kept us all together as a family.”
“That’s really sweet.”Her phone vibrated and pinged in her pants.Then again.And again.
“Shit,” she muttered, sitting up carefully, so she didn’t bang her head on the ceiling.“That’s probably my cousins telling me my hour is up and the kids are asking where we went.”She grabbed her pants from the foot of the bed and fished out her phone.“Yep.”With a look of remorse on her rosy face, she sighed.“Sex bubble has been officially popped.”
“It was a wonderful sex bubble while it lasted.”
She collapsed back onto the bed beside me.“It really was.”
I kissed her bare, freckled shoulder one more time before sitting up and going on the hunt for my clothes.
“I think your jeans are downstairs,” she said, having already put her bra, underwear, and shirt back on.She shimmied into her overalls, but only buckled one strap before heading downstairs.“Here they are.”She tossed them up to me, and I dressed in record time.
Coming down the stairs, I found her spraying something floral and lovely around the small living room and kitchen space.
“Last thing I need is for the kids to come home and say it smells weird in here.”
I smirked and nodded.
“Here, give me those,” she said, gesturing to the tissue wads in my hand.She grabbed a piece of paper towel from the kitchen and rolled the tissues and condoms up in it, then buried it in the bottom of her kitchen garbage can beneath the sink.“Water?”
“Uh, sure.”
She poured us each a glass, and we stood there in her little kitchen with the herbs growing in mason jars along the windowsill, silently chugging our water.
I glanced at her just before I finished mine.
She smiled and set her glass on the counter.“I’ll talk to my cousins and see if we can come up with a place or plan where we can meet and, um … do that again.”
Phew.
I was worried a wave of sudden tension and awkwardness had rushed between us.
I swooped in and held her by the hips, pressing her against the kitchen counter.“While I’m not opposed to the back of the truck, I think you deserve a room with four walls.”
Her mouth lifted on one side.“I like the back of the truck.I think it’s hot and kind of forbidden.While the sneaking around part will get old, for now, I like it.It’s adding some excitement to things.Because truth be told, I’m pretty boring.”
“You’re anything but boring.”
“Oh … just you wait and see.I’m very boring.”
I pressed my lips to hers in a chaste kiss.“I highly doubt that.”
She reached for my hand and led me to the door.“Come on.Before my offspring send a search party.”
Laughter and music from the tasting room pulled us back in the direction of the main building.But my mind was still on the little house in the woods, and that cozy loft upstairs.
I paused our walk right before we reached the door and turned her to face me.I could see out of the corner of my eye people inside glancing our way through the big windows.“Tonight was okay for you?”I asked her, keeping my voice low.
Her eyes lit up, even though I couldn’t see the green in the dark.“It was more than okay.”
I let my gaze drift to the ground.“I’m sorry I … reached my destination prematurely.”
Mimicking what I’d done to her earlier, she brought her finger beneath my chin and encouraged me to lift my eyes back to her face.“I’m choosing to take it as a compliment.And there’s no way you’ll be able to convince me otherwise.Don’t sweat it.I definitelygot mineand have no complaints.”
Lifting up onto her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to mine softly.
