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Laura knew she needed to nip this in the bud before her sister went and told her entire family about the one man that Laura did not want to be answering questions about. "Nothing’s going on. He just got out of the Navy. He’s only here for the summer and is leaving in a few weeks."
Luci flanked Laura on her other side, making her the meat in a sister sandwich. "Rico was supposed to move to San Francisco for school a week before we met; plans change."
This was why Laura didn’t want her family to meet Knox. Because they thought everyone’s stories ended like theirs in happily ever afters. "He doesn’t want kids or to get married."
"People change their minds," Luci countered.
"He’s a man; he doesn't get what he wants," Lori stated.
Laura rolled her eyes.
"I’m serious." Her older sister doubled down. "He might not want those things. Or, he might just never have met a woman he wanted those things with because he hadn’t met you yet."
Laura had never seen this eternal optimism in her sister before. It was annoying that she chose to display it in this instance.
19
"So, what do you think?"Kennedy Dawes asked as she stood in the kitchen of the third property she had shown Knox that day.
They were standing in a residential house that was a three bed, two bath, and fourteen hundred square feet. Unlike the other two fixer-uppers he’d seen that needed extensive work, this house was mainly cosmetic.
The roof, AC, and water heater had all been upgraded in the past five years. The footprint was good. It didn’t need any structural work; no walls had to be taken out. No plumbing or electrical needed to be moved. The upgrades needed were new flooring throughout. Remove the popcorn ceiling and paint the walls. Fresh tile in the kitchen and bathrooms, new cabinets, vanities, and appliances. It would be a quick reno and he could flip it for a profit or renovate it and keep it as a short- or long-term rental. The numbers made sense both ways.
Knox considered short-listing it, but due to low inventory, this was a seller’s market, and he figured he might as well jump on it.
"I’ll make an all-cash offer, ten k over asking."
Kennedy smiled. "Great. I have the paperwork in my car, or you can meet me at my office."
Knox checked the time. There were fifteen minutes before Laura closed for the day. This weekend had been torture. It had been four days since he’d made love to her, and he was jonesing like an addict for another hit.
On Saturday, he’d been so fucking happy when he’d run into her at the festival. He’d wanted to hang out after his brother’s proposal, but she was with her sisters, whom he met briefly before she left. He was happy that he’d met them and that she’d met his nieces, both of whom gave him the third degree about how he knew her cat’s name. He explained that he’d rescued Sofia from a tree his second night in town. He was pretty sure both Ivy and Iris knew that something was going on between him and Laura, but thankfully, celebrating Ford’s proposal had taken up most of their time and energy.
The twins shot a YouTube video with their dad and Chrissy as a follow-up to their Date My Dad series and titled it Marry My Dad. Ford had been miserable the entire time, so of course, Knox had enjoyed every second of it.
That had taken up most of his Sunday, and Knox thought he’d be able to see Laura when she got back into town from Destiny Springs. But at six-thirty, she texted him and told him that she was too tired for him to come over and was going to bed.
Her message had stung for several reasons, one of which was that she obviously wasn’t missing him as much as he was missing her. And two—no, there was no two—that was why it had stung.
He knew that he should wait a few more hours until the sun went down and then sneak over to her house, but each minute he wasn’t with her felt like an eternity. And he didn’t want to take the chance of her calling and canceling again. She’d made the rule that there was no hooking up in the Snack Shack, but some rules were meant to be broken.
"Knox?" Kennedy prompted, waiting for a response.
"Let’s do the paperwork here."
"Great!" she smiled. "I’ll be right back."
As soon as Kennedy left the house, Knox’s phone rang. His stomach dropped. Was Laura canceling on him? He’d never been insecure about a relationship before. Probably because he’d never been truly invested in one. And he sure as hell hadn’t ever been a dirty secret before.
It was unnerving to be sleeping with someone who didn’t want to be seen with you. Laura was clearly not as happy about running into Knox at the festival as he’d been about running into her. It was fucking with Knox’s head. At least, that’s what he was telling himself he was anxious about. The alternative meant that he was starting to have real feelings, and that wasn’t exactly what they had signed up for or what he’d ever thought would happen because it never had before.
When he pulled out his phone, he saw that it was his baby brother Sebastian calling on FaceTime. He was close to Seb. Knox kept in touch with his baby brother more than Ford, mainly because Ford wasn’t really a talk-on-the-phone guy and Seb was. The two youngest Savage brothers could talk for hours.
"Hey, man. Where are you?" he asked.
His brother traveled a lot for work. He was a tattoo artist at the top of his game. He did residencies all over the world and frequented conventions where he was asked to judge or be on panels.
"London, and next I’m going to Rome. So, Ford’s really doing this, huh?"
