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“I wanted to spoil you.” He leans down, brushing his nose against mine. “So just enjoy it.” The low drawl of his voice nearly has me begging him to kiss me again. Touch me. Anything to put me out of my misery.
Instead, I swallow hard and nod. “Thanks. I’ll just take some sweet tea.”
“You got it.” Then he kisses my forehead and goes to the kitchen.
Jesus. My forehead’s gotten more action in two days than the rest of my body has in a decade.
He texted me every night since I visited the ranch—some sweet and some dirty. Now he’s here, dangling his charm and hotness in my face but not giving in to what we both want.
He’s going to make me fucking beg, isn’t he?
Well, I won’t.Yet.
Not until I’ve told him the truth about Howie and our past.
But goddamn, do I want to break my rules for just one more kiss.
Telling him tonight would ruin everything he’s done for me, so for now, I’ll wait.
We made plans to go to Howie’s grave tomorrow, and I’ll tell him then.
I just hope he forgives me once I do.
ChapterNine
Ayden
I’ve been dreading this day for weeks, but I need to do this.
Say goodbye to Howie Adams, my childhood best friend.
The man who was there for Laney when I wasn’t, who knew my daughter before I did, and one who didn’t deserve to die so young.
Serena said she wants to cook supper with me tonight and that it’d cheer me up once we got back from the cemetery.
It’s the only thing holding me together. After drawing a bath and ordering dessert for Laney last night, I wrote him a letter while I waited for her to get done. I poured my heart into it, knowing I’d struggle to say those words to him today.
“Ya ready?” Laney asks in her bedroom doorway, looking stunning as usual. Her golden blond hair is down, feathered around her shoulders, and her green eyes meet mine.
Once I finish putting on my shoes, I stand and blow out a breath. “Yeah. Let’s go.”
Serena skips down the hallway as Laney takes my hand and squeezes. I know this is hard on her, too. She called me after the funeral and cried. She held it in for the sake of Howie’s family and Serena. But when we spoke on the phone that night, I told her it was safe to release her grief. I hated that I couldn’t be there to hold her as she cried. Howie was a really good friend and helped out a lot with Serena. Losing him caused a big hole in her heart. I feel even worse knowing her support system is gone, and I wasn’t back soon enough to thank him.
During the drive, Serena rambles about when Howie dressed up as a hippo at her last birthday party. She cracks up at the memory of Howie letting her friends hit him with a plastic baseball bat until he gave them candy.
I shoot my gaze to Laney, brow furrowed in awhat the fuckexpression. She bursts out laughing and shrugs.
“He loved kids.”
I know he wasn’t married, but I never asked about kids. “Did he have any?”
She shakes her head.
“Uncle Howie couldn’t get married,” Serena tells me. I hadn’t realized she was listening.
Narrowing my eyes, I turn around to face her in the back seat. “How come?”
“Because we’re in the Bible Belt!”
