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“No…”
Mikaly leaned over me. “Yes.”
Then his lips brushed over mine, and suddenly, I didn’t feel quite as cold.
Seven
Mikaly
I was kissing Pete. Her lips were soft yet firm beneath mine, showing me she was all into this action, while she reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck. We sighed together, the pleasured sound filling the air around us.
Our foreheads rested together as we each absorbed the moment, both knowing kissing was as far as this would go. For various reasons. For now.
“I didn’t envision kissing you when we came up here,” she murmured. “Okay, that’s not exactly true. Ienvisionedit. I just didn’t think it would happen.”
A chuckle escaped me, and I brushed my mouth over hers again. “I thought about it a lot, too. That and us getting to know each other. Now you know that I owe you some of my nonna’s cooking.”
I didn’t mention my old job and what had happened with Angelina. If I had my way, I would never mention her or that incident again.
Pete’s gloved thumbs brushed over my cheeks while she looked up at me. “Yeah. You do. I…” She frowned. “I left my old job with my dad because of my ex. He’s the son of one of my dad’s friends. He couldn’t handle me being…me. And then he turned into a total jerk, calling all parts of me being a woman into question.”
“Sounds like a Grade-A dick to me; a sore loser at that.”
“Yeah,” she agreed with a humorless huff of laughter. “You could say that. My dad wasn’t happy when I left Oregon to come here. He didn’t understand it. I couldn’t tell him what was going on with Brad and mess up his friendship.”
I disagreed with that, but kept it to myself for now. I had sisters, and I knew how I’d feel if they were harassed. If my daughter was having issues with some guy, I’d want to know. Even if that guy was the son of one of my friends. Heck, I’d want to tell my buddy to kick his kid’s rear into a better place and to stop messing with my girl.
“I’m sorry that happened. Just so you know, I’m not like that—”
“I know,” she interrupted. “I could tell that as soon as you accepted I was ‘Pete’ and didn’t scoff at me being the lodge’s outdoorsman.”
“Did I tell you I have four sisters? I’m the youngest of the five of us. They would put me in my place if I ever implied they couldn’t do something orshouldn’tdo something because it’s a ‘man’ thing.”
Unable to help myself, I kissed her again. I liked this, us cuddled together so close to each other, talking, our mouths inches apart, stealing kisses.
“So there are five of you?”
“Seven now. My parents fostered then adopted my two younger brothers. We keep telling them they should adopt two more boys to help the numbers—give us guys the advantage in something—but they say seven is enough kids. I bet you, they will adopt the one they’re fostering now. Four boys. Four girls. Practically a Brady Bunch—except I’m blood related to my sisters and my parents have been together since high school.”
Pete smiled. “That explains a lot. You got a little tense when we were talking about the boys yesterday.”
“My brothers have been through a lot. Treated as ‘less than’, if you know what I mean. They just got the short end of the stick, you know.”
“I do.” She pulled her lip between her teeth, and I dipped forward to tug it free with mine, taking her mouth again for a deeper kiss that lasted longer than a few featherlight touches. I groaned when she parted her lips and allowed me access to explore a little more intimately.
“Flower,” I breathed. “Tell me this is real.”
“It’s real.”
Turning on my side, I pulled her to cuddle into me. Our blankets wrapped around us, and I wondered if we’d zip together our sleeping bags later. She notched her head beneath my chin, both of us forgetting we’d been about to eat when I’d kissed her.
“I’ll probably adopt,” she murmured.
“Yeah?”
“Not a baby, though. Maybe an older child—more than one, in the end—who can come with me when I do expeditions. Ones who are safe to go on them. Although, barring this outing and getting caught in a storm, nearly everything I do is family friendly. Elvin doesn’t want anyone risked, and neither do I. The Sander’s Lodge is about adventure but not high adventure like climbing Everest or free soloing.”
“You don’t want to have a baby?” I asked, surprised. Every time she talked about the boys who came here from the group home, you could tell how much she cared about kids.
