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Carter stopped by Leah’s window which she’d rolled down. Something about knowing she was about to see the tattoo Dakota had been hiding had her all hot.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Carter whispered as Dena talked to Dakota through the driver’s side window.
“No,” Leah said. “But I’m done not doing anything. It’s time.”
“With him?” Carter’s mouth formed a stern line.
Leah rested her hand on Carter’s forearm leaning on the door. “He’s the first person who’s made me want to try.”
Carter gave her a short nod. “I… I can respect that.”
“Especially because you seem to be having a nice time tonight as well.”
The left side of his mouth rose in a slight smile. One might have called it adevilishsmile, and Leah preferred it over the ragged expression he’d had on Sunday afternoon.
“The night is going better than I expected. I’ve dated a few chicks in the city, but I’ve never gotten to the place where it felt right to tell them the Chase story. With Dena, not only did it feel right to tell her, now it’s out there and I don’t have to obsess over if and when to give her the history. It’s as if it’s out of the way now.”
“Yeah.” She knew exactly what he meant. “And now we can all get to the good stuff.”
He wiggled his eyebrows then said, “Be safe, Leah. I’ll see you back at the cottage.” He made a move to push off the truck but then stopped. “Thanks. For making me come out tonight. I know I gave you a hard time about my periodic table T-shirt and about not feeling up to a date, but it’s turning out all right.” Carter pressed a kiss to his fingers then tapped her on the nose.
Dena met him on the passenger side of the truck and coiled her arms around one of his. “I think we need hot cocoa,” she said to Carter. “Pumpkin spice.”
“Oh, no,” Carter said. “You’re one ofthosepeople.”
“What? You don’t like pumpkin spice?” She looked to Leah. “You introduced me to someone who doesn’t like pumpkin spice? How could you?”
“This could be trouble,” Dakota said.
“I don’tnotlike it,” Carter said. “I just don’t think everything on the planet should be pumpkin spiced.”
“Oh, boy,” Dakota mumbled.
“You take that back, geek.” Dena poked Carter in the chest hard enough that he brought a hand up to rub at the spot. “Clearly, I’m going to have keep your mouth entertained if you’re going to say shit like that.”
Carter gave Leah ayippeelook. “Clearly.”
Dena waved to Leah and Dakota as she dragged Carter to her front door where a cone of porch light illuminated them.
“Can this be the part where you tell me that Carter is a great guy and I don’t need to worry about him with my sister?” Dakota asked as he started the engine.
“Sure, as long as you’re willing to tell me Dena won’t beat him up too badly about the pumpkin spice bit.”
“Umm… she probably won’t make him bleed or anything, but…” He shook his head. “Dena and Jacy would pumpkin spice oxygen if they could.”
“Not such a bad idea.”
“You know what else isn’t a bad idea?” Dakota pulled a little lever on the console between them and raised it up out of the way.
“Hey!” Leah gaped at the seating space right next to him. “I could have been sitting there all this time?”
Dakota shook his head. “If you sat there any sooner, I would have been forced to get rid of Dena and Carter way, waaay sooner.” He patted the seat now. “Get over here.”
Leah didn’t waste any time scooching over to be near him. She absolutely loved the way her thigh pressed against the line of his. When he put his arm around her, tucking her in closer, she decided riding in his truck exactly like this was mandatory from this point forward.
“Tell me you live close by.” Need laced each word, surprising her with its level of intensity.
“Two streets over.”
