Page 145 of Love Felt Like This

“Go,” Beverly whispers, as if reading my mind. “I’m fine.”

I frown. “You’re sure?”

“Of course.”

I clear my throat and call out, “Hang tight! Be there soon.”

Beverly places a featherlight kiss against my beard. A hook snags against my gut, coaxing me closer to her.

“You’re a good dad,” she whispers.

“Beverly…”

“Let’s…um…” Beverly starts to say. “I was thinking that…”

“Yes?”

Beverly’s uneasy breaths stop, and her lips crook into a smile. Then she laughs like bubbling champagne, like the popping of suds in a warm bath after a long day. I grin back, palming her soft hair.

“I don’t know what to say,” she confesses.

“You don’t have to say anything.”

“I should go.”

“No, stay.”

She laughs again. I’m glad she’s finding humor in my torment.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she says. “And we’ll…” Her words fade as I stroke my thumb over her cheek and dip my palms down her neck to trace my fingertips over her collarbone. I can’t help myself; I place a kiss right in the divot.

“Tomorrow?” I murmur against her skin, brushing my beard across her shoulder.

“Right. I was saying…tomorrow we’ll…figure this out.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Yes?”

“Right.”

We’re just mumbling nothings back and forth, too distracted by our hands ghosting over each other, tracing palms over arms and fingers across jaws. Lips across freckled skin.

“Daddy?” Ava calls.

“Coming!”

Beverly bites her bottom lip with that mischievous grin of hers that feels so rare and so perfect. I lean forward to kiss it off her mouth, but she turns her head before I can.

“I gotta go,” she says.

I bury my head in her neck. She laughs at me again.

I have no clue what any of this means. I wish I did.

Finally, I walk Beverly to the front door. I watch as she trudges through the falling snow back to the main house. Snowflakes cling to her furry purple coat. Her boots leave little imprints in the snow. In that moment, I realize I don’t care what tomorrow brings or what this means. As long as she’s there in the morning, that’s all that matters.

Chapter Twenty-Eight