Page 28 of Lucky Haven

He grins. “I don’t think I do.”

“Your reputation with women.”

“You kissed me, Haven. You went to fucking Bar None! You want people to think you’ve changed, right?”

That pulls me up short. “Yes.”

“Then let people think whatever they want. It’s a good way to filter out who’s real and who’s a judgmental jerk. Like whatever you think about me…that doesn’t change the fact that you like me, right?”

“Of course it doesn’t! I don’t care who you sleep with,” I say hotly.

Except now my belly pulls tight. After kissing him, after feeling what it’s like for him to hold my face and part my lips and lick me, I do care, more than I should.

I really hate the thought of Cash Kincaid kissing other people, even though he does it all the time. A different girl every day of the week, that’s what people say.

A funny expression flits across his face. “See? That’s what makes us such good friends. You don’t judge me, and I’m available for all your impromptu kissing needs.”

“Well, hopefully there aren’t many of those.”

“You think a creepy asshole who’s been waiting to marry you since you were sixteen years old is going to be chased off by a single kiss? We didn’t even make it nasty.”

My mouth falls open.

Cash shrugs off the casual crudeness.

But I know better than that. I see what he’s doing. He’s hurt that I used him, so he’s putting up a wall.

I’ve always known Cash Kincaid to be uncommonly kind. Most other people don’t see that, because of what he looks like. Even before the tattoos, he was big and muscled and needing to shave before the other guys in our class.

And he comes from a family of boys, each one bigger than the last. His younger brother, Dax, is a champion bull rider, an absolute mountain of a man. And his older brothers…

Well, the reputation of his family didn’t help Cash’s case when he was charged with aggravated assault. When they moved to Dragonfly Creek, his oldest brother, Ridge, was always getting into fights. He never fit in, and some of the worst people at our school made his high school years a nightmare.

But the Matthews boys, as they were known back then, never backed down from a fight. They met the nightmare in the parking lot, over and over again.

And then Ridge left as soon as he could and joined the army. Zane, the second oldest, followed when he graduated. So of course Cash did the same thing. It was inevitable.

But he still had friends here, and he would come back to party on weekends and holidays. Cash makes friends everywhere he goes. He’s got a charm to him, and he’s working it on me right now. He uses it to gain information, because information is power, and there’s nothing Cash likes less than feeling powerless.

It’s why he would come to bible study even though I don’t think he believes in much beyond his family.

My heart squeezes as I think about his brothers. They’ve been through a lot.

Because as Cash discovered too late, he had enemies here as well.

And yet the Kincaid brothers came home when Cash got out of jail…bought a ranch outside of town together and said, fuck you all, we’re landowners now.

I was halfway through my university degree and deeply lonely when I heard they’d bought a ranch and named it Kincaid’s Refuge.

That was the day I decided that I, too, would return to Dragonfly Creek in the future. I wouldn’t be kept from my hometown, either.

It hasn’t been easy, though.

And I really regret making Cash feel used, though. I don’t like the way he retreated behind that crude, brittle shell.

“I’m grateful for your friendship,” I say softly. “In every form it takes. Including kissing me. I’m very grateful that you did that.”

“Both times?” His gaze turns intense as he stares at me.