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“Or what?” I snapped.
“Or I’ll help you make your peace with it.” He leaned across the truck and settled his lips on mine.
I ripped my mouth from his. “You can’t just—”
His hands grasped the back of my head, and he kissed me again.
Deep. With tongue.
So I stopped thinking—and collapsed against him, soft and needy.
He chuckled as he dragged his lips to my temple. “You already talk like you’re one of us, Doc. I like that. I like that a lot.”
Was it true? Why did I feel such loyalty to a group of people I’d just met?
I knew who I was when I’d come to Dallas. But after meeting Boxer and the Blue Angels, I wasn’t sure I knew who I was at all.
He skimmed a thumb across the apple of my cheek. “Hey, Doc. You don’t have to worry about a thing. Okay?”
“I’m not good at living in the moment, Boxer.”
He grinned. “I’ll help you.”
Chapter 24
It wasearly evening when I rolled up to the Queen Anne Victorian house and parked behind a black SUV. Motorcycles and cars already littered the brick driveway.
I was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a gray turtleneck sweater, my blonde hair in a loose braid down my back. I rang the doorbell. After a few moments and no one answered, I rang it again. Still no answer. I turned the knob on the heavy wooden door with a stained-glass window. It was unlocked, and I walked inside.
If Joni hadn’t warned me about the fixer upper status, I would’ve been horrified. They had their work cut out for them.
I opened the sliding door and went out onto the back patio. Though it was still sunny, there was a nip to the air. Heating lamps had been placed all around the stone terrace.
An old gray u-shaped couch graced the edge of the patio with a matching wicker table that was covered in cups. The Old Ladies were sitting and talking, while a few children played cornhole on the lawn. The Blue Angels were nowhere to be found.
“Linden!” Joni greeted, hopping off the couch and coming toward me. She looked me up and down. “You weren’t wearing that this morning. Did you go shopping? I know you didn’t drive all the way back to Dallas just to change clothes.”
“Good God, no,” I said with a laugh. “I always have spare clothes in the back of my car. You never know when you’re going to need them.”
She smiled. “Can I get you a drink?”
“That sounds good.” I handed her the orchid I’d picked up at a plant nursery in town.
“Thank you! I’ll plant it this spring in the new garden—if it survives until then. I have a brown thumb, but I’m determined to get better. This is the perfect gift!”
“I’m glad you like it,” I said, feeling my insides warm.
“Let’s get you a drink.” She headed to the makeshift bar, which was a few feet away from a gas grill. “Red wine, white, something stronger?”
“Oh, red, please.”
She lifted a bottle of red and uncorked it, then poured me a serving in a plastic wine glass. “Have you been at Boxer’s this whole time?”
I shook my head. “I left when he headed out for church. I wanted to buy you a plant and now here I am. This commuting for a relationship is kind of a pain in the butt.”
“You could move here.”
“It’s a little too early to be talking about that,” I protested.
