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I didn’t know whether she believed it, but she nodded. “How was your week? Any word from the show?”
I couldn’t help grinning as I sat up straighter. “Apparently they sent someone out undercover earlier this week. We just got news this evening. They loved our food. We made the cut to the next round.”
“Cash! You buried the lead! Congratulations.” She grabbed my head and kissed me enthusiastically.
“Thanks, gorgeous. It feels good. The only downside is that the Cove made it too.”
“In the Marks Resort?”
“Right.”
“You don’t think you could both get on the show?”
“They never do two restaurants from the same town.”
There were a million small towns in America, andSmall Town Smorgasbordalways liked to mix it up. They’d been to every state, and had only gone back to a handful so far. I’d seen every episode.
“So what’s the next step?” Ava asked.
“They’re still traveling around, adding to the list of restaurants who made the cut. Sometime next month, they’ll start contacting the winners to set up filming.”
“So there’s nothing to do but wait.”
“Right.”
“This is going to turn out right, Cash. I can feel it.” She squeezed my forearm as she leaned into me from the side.
“For both of us.” I kissed her temple, feeling more optimistic than I had in ages. “We both seem to be on the exact track we’re meant to be on.”
“We are,” she agreed. “I believe that.”
Her fingers trailed along my bare thigh, distracting me. I wound my arm around her again and pulled her close, trying not to act like a complete insatiable horndog even though that’s what she made me. I entwined those fingers with my other hand as we both looked out over the quiet, dark lake. As always, it was peaceful on this side, and this was my favorite time to appreciate it, when there weren’t screaming, laughing people ruining the beauty of it.
“Cash?” Ava said a couple minutes later.
“Yeah?”
“I wish it didn’t mean we’d end up thousands of miles apart.”
“I know.” Fuck did I know. I kissed the side of her head again, noting her hair was starting to dry and that our bodies were mostly dry too. We could either get our clothes on and go back and shower or I could take her into the lake and mess her up again. I was open to either. And yet I sat there without moving, appreciating the hell out of this time with her.
“Can I be honest with you?” she asked.
“Always.”
She hesitated. “When I go back to California for good, it’s going to take a bit to get over you again.”
“Same,” I said, closing my eyes and breathing in the faint scent of her hair mixed with the smell of the lake.
Ava let out a sigh. “I don’t know how to handle that.”
“You’ll be so busy being a head writer you’ll barely remember me,” I said lightly at the same time I hoped like hell that wasn’t true. I didn’t want her to hurt, but I didn’t want her to forget about me.
Because it was becoming more and more obvious that I was going to have to fight like hell to be able to forget about her.
I shut down those thoughts again because they didn’t do any good. I wanted Ava to have what she dreamed of. Period.
“Want to put our clothes on so we can go back to the cottage and get naked again?” I asked, grinning, my dick full-on hard as I brushed my fingers over her breast.
