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“You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned as it all hit me like a ton of bricks. “Oh my God,” I added with a laugh, then admitted, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat here again.”
“Come on,” he said as he patted my thigh. “Let’s share the Double D Delight. That way we can lick those double beauties together.”
Lincoln’s laugh followed him out of the car. He came around to open my door, but I was already halfway out of my seat because something important had occurred to me as I’d watched the gorgeous man continue to laugh his ass off as he walked around the front of the vehicle.
I shoved the door hard enough to get his attention, but he caught it before it could hit anything vital. “If you tell anyone about this, I’ll… I’ll…”
Shit. I had nothing to go with. Lincoln was still grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“I’ll help Walter play one of his tricks on you!” I said triumphantly.
The man didn’t even bat an eye. In fact, he crossed his arms on top of the car door and softly said, “Promise?”
I could only stare at him.
“Didn’t anyone tell you the best part of all those little pranks Walter and now even Riley play on me?” Lincoln asked, his voice going low. It slid over me like a caress.
The butterflies that usually flitted around in my belly seemed to have moved up into my throat because I couldn’t come up with a single response. Hell, I couldn’t take my eyes off the gorgeous man.
“I always get even, Theo,” Lincoln said softly, his dark eyes dancing with desire. “And I can think of at least a dozen ways that I would love to get even with you, sweetheart,” he finished, his voice all husky, before taking my hand and pulling me around the door so he could close it.
From that point on, I could honestly say I had no idea how the Double D Delight Lincoln ordered even tasted because my brain could only come up with two words as images of Lincoln’s various potential revenges ran on a loop in my head.
Yes, please.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
LINCOLN
It had been less than two days since Theo and I had come to our friends withnobenefits agreement and while my dick was suffering the repercussions, I didn’t have even one regret about the arrangement. I’d seen more of the real Theo in the last two days than I had in the two weeks since he’d arrived in Pelican Bay.
When it was just the two of us, he always had a smile for me or touched me in some intimate but not sexual way. Like the other day, we’d been walking past each other on the stairs and he’d smiled and softly greeted me. The stairwell was narrow, so we’d been forced to be chest to chest for a moment to pass one another, and some invisible force had stopped us at the same time. There’d been no denying the underlying sexual tension between us, and I’d been hard-pressed not to act on it, but Theo had managed to break that tension by reaching up to gently push a stray curl behind my ear.
“You missed one,” he’d said with a smile as he’d glanced at the hair tie holding back my hair.
It had taken every ounce of willpower I’d had not to press him back against the wall and seal my mouth over his. But like Theo, I’d managed to keep the times I touched him brief and nonsexual in nature.
This morning, when we’d intentionally awoken before the rest of the household so we could walk to the stream, I’d desperately wanted to take his hand in mine even if it would have made it harder to weave through the trees. Upon reaching the stream, we’d sat close enough that our bodies were touching but I’d somehow managed to hold up my end of the conversation. We hadn’t talked about anything in particular.
In fact, all we were doing at the moment was watching the sun come up. As the rays of light filtered through the trees, Theo’s pinky brushed up against mine and it seemed like the most natural thing to just twine our fingers together.
It wasn’t until Theo gave my hand a particularly hard squeeze that I noticed the black dog that we’d officially christened Nacho was lying next to Theo. When he slowly used his free hand to pet the dog’s head, it did nothing more than put its muzzle on Theo’s thigh. There was no way the dog could have missed my presence, so when Theo and I exchanged a look, I could see both the huge smile on his face and his eyes watering.
Neither of us said a word as Theo carefully used his free hand to grab the bag of scraps, including the tortilla chips, we’d brought with us and opened it; not an easy feat with one hand since I hadn’t released his other. I was afraid that if I even breathed too hard, the dog would be gone just like that.
Theo fed Nacho each piece of food by hand and despite the dog’s skinny body, the animal gently took it from his fingers. After the food was gone, Nacho licked Theo’s fingers and then dropped his head onto Theo’s lap. I felt like I was on top of the world.
No, it wasn’t even that.
I felt like I was exactly where I belonged.
I felt like I had in those brief moments of joy as Rabbit and I had talked about old memories in that cabin in the days before he’d died.
My chest tightened at the memory of my brother, but I didn’t try to push it down like I always had in the past.
I hadn’t ever really bought in to any one specific religion, and while I’d been glad that Rabbit believed he’d always be with me when I needed him, I hadn’t been able to think that way. My mind tended to be too black and white for that. But something about that moment—the sun’s rays washing over us through the trees, Theo’s fingers wrapped around mine, the quiet of the forest around us, and the presence of a dog who’d seemingly been waiting for the same man I had—seemed like so much more than chance or coincidence. It just seemed too simplistic to say that circumstances had brought not only me but the dog as well to this one man, in this one place.
Not these woods specifically.
