Page 55 of Passion in Bloom

Are you speaking about your parents, too? It was hard not to think what Gavin told me about her past. Her mooching and lowlife parents.

“Small towns can look after their own, but some will abuse that generosity.” She frowned, keeping her attention on my phone as I scrolled for listings in the area.

“It that what you think of Nevaeh?”

She shrugged against me. “I feel like I don’t have the whole picture on her.”

So I told her. I opened up about my niece’s past. How she didn’t have great parents but avoided the system. That she was on her own as far as I knew. That she turned down and ignored every approach I took with giving her chances to be responsible. To get in programs for work, school, and housing.

“I never thought I’d be a parent,” I admitted.

“Really?” She looked at me. “Never? Not even when you were married?”

I shook my head. “Not really. Veronica never seemed to have strong opinions either way. She wasn’t the kind of girl to have baby fever. She didn’t care about planning for a family. If anything, I’d bet she never wanted a baby because it would ruin her body and cut into her ability to party and life up a good life.”

“And then she had a baby anyway...”

“Without me.” I grunted a weak laugh. It was odd that talking or thinking about my ex-wife and how she’d cruelly manipulated me didn’t burn so bad right now. With Heather next to me, I felt...safer to let the emotions seep through me and out. “The way she tried to con me about her pregnancy and affair made me less inclined to have a kid too.”

“I hear you. I can’t blame you.”

I glanced at her. “Do you want kids?”

She shrugged. “Well, I’m not old like you—” She laughed when I tickled her. “I’ve got time to think about it yet, but I’ve always thought I might not want to be a mom.”

“Because of your mom?”

She sobered, looking at me closely. “I’m guessing you’ve heard about the James lowlifes...”

I nodded. “A little. Gavin and Marty told me a little.”

She sat up more, focusing on my phone and the realty listing instead of making eye contact. “Yeah. So...yeah. They weren’t the best role models to make me want to have my own family.”

I felt like a quiet but stubborn but was hanging in the back of her mind about that though. I wasn’t going to push or ask. We were not anywhere near a stage to talk about having families. And like she said, she had time to figure out her life.

“Are they why you wanted to leave town so much?”

She nodded, and I felt like it was Christmas morning. Finally, finally, she was letting her guard down.

“I wanted to get away from their reputations. The criticism based on them. I read a lot when I was young, and that was a fictional escape. It wasn’t too hard to start daydreaming about just escaping. To places with new people, strangers to meet, different things to do and learn.”

“Not a lot of opportunity waiting around here,” I agreed.

“And you don’t mind being here?” she asked.

I slid closer to her, draping my arm around her shoulders. “No. I really like being here.” Right here.

She laughed and didn’t try to get away. Instead, she brushed her butt against my groin as she moved and I could spoon her. I kissed the side of her neck as I held my phone out for both of us to see. She dragged her finger on the screen to scroll, sighing and moving her neck to give me access.

I had to focus. I did need to find a place to stay. But with her willing and warm in my arms, I was easily distracted.

“You keep going back to this listing,” she said, stopping on a medium-sized house near Burton.

“Yeah. It catches my eye.”

“Lots of room.”

“Hmm-mmm.” I kissed her soft skin and let her hold the phone as I moved my hand down her side.

“You would just stay here. Work at the ranch, live in a house like that, and be happy?”

“I think I could be.” Especially if you hang around here. “Don’t knock my simple dreams. I don’t want to escape. I already did. I escaped with a shitty divorce and I’m fine with leaving that in my past.”

She sighed, arching her butt toward me as I slipped my hand under the band of her pajama pants. We’d only had sex earlier, for the first time, but it seemed it was the catalyst to make us ravenous for more. Despite the chaos of the flood and Nevaeh, and even this talk about the past, we were drawn to each other.

“The past should stay in the past,” she agreed softly as she put my phone down and rolled toward me.

I kissed her hard, and she tugged at my shirt.

“But I’m not in any position to plan for my future,” she added.

I shook my head, tugging her shirt off and feasting on the sight of her bare tits, those nipples already pebbling. “Then don’t. Haven’t you ever heard the advice to live in the present?”

She grinned, pulling me toward her so we could do just that.

All night long.