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“I love Daddy!” Cash returned, loud and proud.
I was dangerously close to bursting into tears right there in the middle of the pasta aisle.
For the second time, Laeth smiled in that beautiful blinding way that rocked the ground beneath my feet.
“How do you guys feel about brownies tonight?” I asked, fighting back the butterflies that were so strong I worried they’d lift me right off my feet.
Needless to say, their reaction to brownies was much better than the one I got when I mentioned vegetables.
We swung by the produce section, and I loaded up on fresh vegetables. It wasn’t often—or at all, really—that I missed an aspect of my old life, but as I fished through the different bins of carrots and cucumbers, zucchini and broccoli, looking for the freshest items, I missed the vegetable garden I’d grown with my own two hands.
It wasn’t the right time of year to start one now, but maybe, when the time came, I’d ask Laeth if I could have a small plot in his backyard to start a garden.
With Cash still in his dad’s strong, thick arms, I’d taken over steering the cart, as they walked beside me. We’d headed out of the produce section as something at the corner of my eye caught my attention.
I jerked the cart to a stop and stared through the clear glass doors of the refrigerated section, specifically to the shelves and shelves of coffee creamer.
“Day?” Laeth asked, using the nickname he’d only used a couple times up until now. “Everything okay?”
I blinked in wonder. “There are so many flavors,” I said on a breath.
From the corner of my eye, I saw him look from the refrigerator to me then back to the refrigerator. “You’ve never had coffee creamer before?”
Until that very moment, I hadn’t known so many different selections existed. I got a drink from Hot Java a couple times but was hesitant to spend that much money to make it a regular thing. At the house, Laeth stuck with black, so I’d been using milk and sugar to dress mine up, testing the amounts to find what I liked.
“I’ve had the coffee at Hot Java, but I didn’t know about all of this.” I waved my hand at the case in front of me. “The woman I used to live with, Agnes, didn’t allow coffee in her house, so Inever had it until, well...” I cast my gaze in his direction and noticed the tick in his jaw.
“Until you got the job with me.”
I nodded.
“You know, I’m starting to really fu—” He caught himself, swallowing down the curse that was about to burst past his lips. “Really dislike that woman.”
I smiled enough that I could feel my dimples press in. “I wasn’t too fond of her myself.”
His brows lifted. “I’m guessin’ she was also the reason you never dated?”
I lifted my shoulder in a shrug. I figured he’d eventually work his way back around to that topic, I just didn’t think it would happen in the middle of the grocery store. “No, that rule came down from the elders to all of the Enlightened. Fraternization with the opposite sex before marriage is a sin.”
His eyes went wide. “Wait, but then—how do—that doesn’t make any damn sense. How do you know whether or not you like a person enough to marry them if you aren’t allowed to date them?”
“Courting takes place with both sets of parents in tow, and it isn’t uncommon for two families to work out a deal like—”
“Like the one your piece of shit father worked out.”
I didn’t bother scolding him for his curse. I was too busy trying to swallow the lump that had formed in my throat at the thought of it. Maybe I should have known that had been in the cards for me all along, or at least suspected. But I hadn’t. And every time I thought about it, my stomach revolted. Knowing I’d been so close to losing my freedomcompletelyfor the rest of my life scared me to the point I hated thinking about it.
“Jesus, your people were fu—messed up.”
My back straightened and my head turned slowly in his direction. The chill I felt on my skin had nothing to do with thecold case in front of me. “They aren’t my people,” I said, my voice downright icy. “They never were, and they never will be.”
Laeth’s eyes instantly softened. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Then he did something I never in a million years expected. He latched his free arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side so he could press a kiss to my temple. “I’m sorry, Bambi. You’re right. I won’t say that again. Now get whatever creamer floats your boat. You’ve got some experimenting to do.”
He dropped his arm and moved to the cart to place Cash back in the seat, meanwhile I struggled to tamp down the heat that had spread across my entire body from where his lips had touched me.
I was still struggling to hold it together as we paid for the groceries and headed to the parking lot.
I lifted Cash from the cart and put him in his car seat before moving back to the trunk to help Laeth load the groceries.
