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She looks so beautiful, moonlit and glowing, that I can hardly stop myself from telling her I love her. But I made that mistake once—I pushed her too far, too fast. I asked her to marry me when we were just eighteen, too young to know anything of the world. I won’t make the same mistake again.
“Would you ever go back?” The question slips through my lips before I can stop it. It’s not that I want that life, that town…but being here in bed with Georgia makes me think of days long past.
“To Clare?”
I nod.
Her gaze slides away from mine. “I don’t think so, Sebastian. It hasn’t been home for a long time.”
A knot forms in my gut. I wonder if this will be the same thing that pulls us apart again. Technically, Clare isn’t my home anymore—not since I lost everything to my ex-wife. But it’s where I grew up. It’s where I became a man. It’s where I lived my whole life.
Heart’s Cove is nice, but I don’t belong here. Not really. I’m not sure I belong anywhere anymore.
But do I really want to go back to Texas, to that small town, or is that just where I’ve always expected to end up? Maybe I’ve spent so long telling myself Clare is where I belong that I believe it, whether or not it’s true.
Georgia swallows, then reaches over to grab my phone from the floor. She tilts it, looks at the time, and sighs. “I should go. It’s getting late.”
My entire body turns solid. I grit my teeth, still propped above her. “You’re staying here tonight,” I inform her.
“Oh?” Her eyebrow arches. “Says who?”
Heat winds through me, stealing a bit of the tension away. I love it when she pushes back like this, when she shows me her spine. But I can’t let her walk away from me, not after what we just talked about, not when she thinks I’m pining for Clare when really I’m just pining for somewhere that feels like home.
“Says me, Georgia.”
“My sister won’t approve.” Her voice is serious, but her eyes are full of amusement.
“Other people’s opinion has never mattered to you before. Don’t tell me you’ve changed that much.”
Her finger traces the curve of my shoulder, sliding up to run along my jaw. I nip at it and she jerks, pulling away with a surprised laugh.
Time for a new tactic. I nuzzle her neck and close my teeth around her earlobe, letting her feel more of my weight. “Georgia,” I cajole, voice low in her ear. “Stay with me. Let me cook you breakfast tomorrow morning.” I kiss her lips then lift my head to meet her gaze. “I’ve had too much wine to drive you back, anyway.”
She arches a brow. We had two glasses of wine with dinner, and that was a couple of hours ago. It’s a thin excuse, and we both know it. But Georgia must want to wake up next to me as badly as I want to wake up next to her, because she just wraps her arms around my neck and lifts herself up to brush her lips against mine.
“Fine,” she says. “But I want waffles.”
“You expect me to have a waffle maker when I don’t even have a bed frame?”
She kisses me again, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “I expect you to figure it out, cowboy.”
The next thing that comes out of her mouth is a long, throaty moan.
22
GEORGIA
Coffee,waffles, and a self-satisfied grin on Sebastian’s lips greet me first thing in the morning when I stumble into his kitchen wearing nothing but one of his T-shirts. It’s not exactly long enough to cover much, but it covers enough. And if I want to leave a few extra inches of my thighs uncovered because I like the way Sebastian looks at me, well, that’s my business.
Bella is dozing in a patch of sunshine by the back door. When I walk in, she hops up and comes bounding toward me, jumping on her hind legs with two too-big front paws floating in the air, dancing until I scratch her ears. She collapses onto the floor in a pile of puppy delight.
Sebastian smiles at us, then opens the waffle maker and plucks out the steaming, crispy-chewy dough. Once it’s deposited on a plate, he carries it over to the table where syrup and strawberries are waiting beside a steaming mug of coffee.
Instead of sitting down, I wrap my arms around his waist and crash into his chest, inhaling the scent of his skin. His chest hair is deliciously coarse and fuzzy. “I was kidding about the waffles. You didn’t have to go through all that effort.”
I feel his lips curve against my cheek as his arms come around me. “You asked for waffles, you get waffles, baby.”
“Did you go out and buy a waffle maker? Where did you even get one so early?”
