The half-smile forming on my mouth is probably more smug than it should be, but I love that I have an effect on her. She’s always had one on me. Her attention pins on my lips, firing up my nerve endings one by one.
“Strawberries or watermelon?” It shouldn’t be a seductive question, but my voice is low and gruff enough to make it one.
“I like both.”
“Which do you want?”
“Whichever one there’s more of.”
Slowly, I lean in until my mouth hovers inches from her face, my gaze locked on hers. She sucks in a breath but doesn’t move.
“What do you want, firefly?”
What I told her last week holds true—I’ll give her anything. All she has to do is name it. My thoughts have strayed far beyond dessert choices, but she deserves to have what she wants, even in something as simple as this.Mywants should probably not bespinning through my head quite so vividly in my parents’ living room.
Her lashes flutter like butterfly wings. “I want…” She swallows again, her hand flexing in mine. “Strawberries.”
“Good choice.” I dip down to brush my lips against hers. The softest kiss. Barely a peck.
Jovie still whoops from the other room.
Right. Parents’ house. Family. An audience I really shouldn’t risk losing myself in front of.
I pull back, flashing Rose a smirk. “Come on.” I lead her into the dining room, my hand at the small of her back. I have some restraint, but I’m not ready to stop touching her.
Jovie giggles as Rose takes the seat beside her again. Avoiding the assortment of satisfied grins aimed at me throughout the dining room and kitchen, I snag a bowl of each kind of fruit drizzled with honey and hightail it back to the table.
Lucy groans over her dessert bowl. “This honey is amazing.”
“It will be so good with fall flavors like apple and cinnamon,” Rose says.
“Mmm, honey over roasted apples.” Lucy appears to already be in raptures over it.
“Like the ones we have at the cabin,” Jovie says. “When we roast them in the fire.”
“Hey, yeah.” Lucy aims her fork at me. “Did you invite Rose to the cabin?”
Jovie whips her head around at lightning speed. “You have to bring her to the cabin.”
“Our family has a place in Bigleaf Canyon,” Lucy explains to Rose. “It’s not fancy, but it’s fun to get away for a night or two. We’re all going in a few weeks. You should come.”
Mom and Dad echo the invitation, ready to lay out the red carpet for Rose at our family’s cabin in the foothills of Mackenzie Peak.
“Oh, that sounds—” She turns to me, searching for the right response.
My impulse is to slam the door on their idea. I’ve never brought a woman to dinner before, let alone the cabin. Rose is already tangled up in my family after one meal together. Bringing her into the mountains with us can only weave her more tightly into their lives.
Not that I’m thinking much about them. It’s my life I’m worried about. I’m not ready to have her so deeply embedded in my space that I won’t be able to let her go when fall rolls around. If there’s even a chance left of avoiding utter devastation, I should try.
But the stronger impulse, the one I knew would win out the moment Rose turned her big blue eyes on me, is to say yes. Hold her as close as I can, for as long as I can. Fall head-first into waters I already know are littered with boulders and hope for the best.
Might as well accept right here and now that I’m not getting out of this thing between us without scars.
“That sounds like family time,” she says brightly when my silence drags on too long. Everyone’s caught my hesitation. Even Graham’s giving me a dirty look.
“Oh, but you—” Jovie starts in, but Luke sets a gentle hand on her arm, hushing her.
Because it’s not her job to convince Rose to join us. It’s mine.
