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I grinned and leaned against the doorframe. “Mornin' to you too.”
Her cheeks flushed, and goddamn if it wasn’t the sexiest thing about her right then. “Brody,” she tried to warn, but her voice was breathy. “What are you doin'?”
“Taking you on an adventure.” I sounded like a little boy who was about to ride his bike through the woods for the first time. “Get dressed, and let’s go.”
“Go where?” she asked, a small smile on her lips.
I pushed up off the doorframe, pressed the tip of my pointer finger to the end of her nose, and said, “It’s a surprise.”
She worried her bottom lip and stepped back. “What should I wear?”
“Anything you’re comfortable in.” I wanted to tell her that she could wear nothing at all, but being out in public like that wouldn’t go down well. Plus, I didn’t want anyone else seeing parts of her only I got to touch.
My chest heaved on a breath, and I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “I’m gonna wait in the car. Be quick—it’s gonna take us a couple of hours to get there.”
She yawned and nodded, but I needed to get out of here. The allure to step inside her room and touch every inch of her exposed skin was becoming stronger the longer I stood there. I walked away, trying to be as quiet as I was when I came up here, and made it back to my car without disturbing Hut.
Fifteen minutes later, Lola came running out of her house, a grin spread on her face as she yanked the passenger door open and dived inside. “Let’s go!”
She didn’t have to tell me twice.
I turned the engine on and pulled out onto the road.
I hadn’t planned to take her to this place. I hadn’t planned to do any of this. I’d woken up an hour ago and craved to have time just the two of us. Things were getting more muddled as time went on, and I needed something that we could both remember. I needed her to have a piece of me that no one else did. Something she could remember and know without a doubt I felt things for her—things a man like me shouldn’t feel about a woman like her.
“You ever going to tell me where we’re going?” she asked, her excitement a living thing next to me.
“It’s…” I cleared my throat and gripped the steering wheel, taking the turn for the highway. “It’s somewhere I’ve never taken anyone else.”
“Really?”
The awe in her voice had my chest puffing out and my hands loosening. “Really.” I glanced at her briefly and sent her a wink. “There’s so much shit going down with Hut and…yeah…” I trailed off. That could have been my chance. I could have told her who I was and what I wanted to do, but the thought of seeing devastation on her face wasn’t worth it. I couldn’t hurt her, not like that. My head told me to do my job and turn her against Hut, but my heart and soul told me nothing mattered but the way I felt when she was around.
“Tell me about it,” she groaned, pulling her legs up on the seat. “I have so much stress at the moment. If it’s not Hut, then it’s college or working doubles at the diner. You’re the…” She hesitated, and my hand automatically reached out, encompassing hers. “You’re the only good thing I have right now. It feels…right when I’m with you.”
I nodded, knowing what she meant even if neither of us could explain it properly. I craved to tell her I felt the same, but opening up to her wasn’t easy, not when I was falling. I was drifting farther and farther away from the man who I’d tried to become. I was free-falling, nothing able to stop the descent.
The soft thrum of the radio filled the silence, but it was a silence that was natural, something that always happened with Lo
la. Neither of us needed to fill the space with endless chatter. We were happy just…being. Being in each other’s company, being near each other, touching each other.
I leaned back in the seat, getting comfortable, and heading to the one place I swore I would never take anyone. Yet, I was here, heading toward it.
But not for a second did I doubt it.
The two-hour drive went by quickly, and then we were pulling up into the sleepy little town that some of my best memories were made at. I drove up the gravel driveway, the overgrown trees not letting much morning light through the branches, and finally pulled up outside a house I hadn’t been to in over twenty years. The breath whooshed out of my body, and my hands started to shake.
“Oh my god,” Lola gasped and jumped out of the car, her wide eyes taking everything in. She could see the one-story home with white siding and teal trim without remembering helping to paint it. She could look at the wraparound porch that needed a clean without seeing my pop sitting in his chair, reading the morning paper with a smile on his face because my gran was sitting next to him.
“It’s beautiful.”
I pushed out of the car, ambled over to her, and wrapped my arms around her from behind. “This is—was—my grandparents’ house.” A lump was forming in my throat, one that wouldn’t go away anytime soon. I hadn’t been back here since my pop passed away only three months after my gran. Some people said that he died of old age, but I knew he couldn’t survive without my gran. He’d died of a broken heart because she was his everything.
I had no doubt that if they were still around, I wouldn’t be where I was today. But everything happened for a reason, and it had all led me to this moment: my arms wrapped around Lola.
“Was?” she asked, turning in my hold and staring up at me.
“Yeah.” I stared down at her, a sad smile pulling at my lips. “I haven’t been back here since I was fifteen.”
