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But now it was morning. The dream was over, and Evie would be awake any minute.
Instantly, Nora-Jean was out of bed. “Lawson, you need to wake up,” she insisted as she headed for her dresser. She pulled out the first t-shirt she could find and tugged it on over her head. As soon as her arms were through the correct openings, she reached for a pair of panties and jumped into them as she hurried back to bed. One knee on the mattress, she reached for Lawson and gave him a shake. The man himself was a contrast against her pale green sheets. He was rough and rugged with his dark, overgrown hair and stubble covered face. Against the softness of her bed dressings, his body was smooth, lean, and warm—the ink that covered one of his shoulders and part of his bicep a beautifully harsh reminder of the lives they’d lived apart, and the war that split them in two.
But she didn’t have time to think of all that now. Neither could she think about what it meant that he was in her bed—she just needed himoutof it.
“Lawson, wake up.”
He freed a deep grunt and then squinted open his eyes. A lazy smile pulled at the corner of his mouth as he reached for her. “Mornin’,” he grumbled.
Even in her panicked state, Nora-Jean couldn’t deny how sexy he was in that moment. Nevertheless, she didn’t have the luxury of time to think about herself.
“You have to get up. You have to go,” she insisted, extracting herself from his reach.
He frowned, propping himself up on his elbows as she raced around the bed, tossing his clothes at him. “What?” he muttered lamely.
“You need to get dressed. You have to go. Evie will be up any minute.”
“Okay. So?” he asked, still not moving.
Nora glared at him, irritated by his confusion. “What do you meanso?She’s never woken up to find a man in her home.Never. You need to go.”
This time, Lawson sat up, but he still didn’t reach for a single item of clothing. “Nora, baby, I’m not a stranger, and this won’t be the last time I’ll be wakin’ up in her home.”
Sinking her fingers into her hair, Nora shook her head and sighed in frustration. She didn’t know exactly what he was implying, but such a conversation would have to wait. “Look, whatever this is, I can’t explain it over breakfast. I don’t want to confuse her. Please—please, will you just get dressed and go?”
He hesitated for a moment longer, then nodded his reply. Nora sighed in relief as he finally got out of bed and started to don his clothing. He spoke not another word as she continued to race around the room in an effort to tidy up, and somehow that made Nora feel better and worse at the same time. Too frantic to dwell on her feelings, she glanced at the clock and saw it was nearly a quarter after six. If she was going to get a shower before Evie woke, she’d have to skip her first cup of coffee.
Soon as Lawson was finished pulling on his second boot, Nora hurried toward him. Snatching his leather jacket from the foot of the bed, she held it out to him in another silent plea. Again, he hesitated, and the nerves in her belly constricted. Then, rather than reach for the jacket, he reached for her. Against her will, her nerves loosened, and an old familiar warmth flooded her insides at the feel of his hand slipping around her waist. Lawson still didn’t say a word, butthe conversation they had as they stared at one another didn’t require words.
Truth of the matter was, the night before had been the beginning of something. It could have been the beginning of the end; the catalyst to the closure they’d never had. Or it could have been the beginning of the rest of their lives. There was no in-between. For Lawson and Nora, they were always all or nothing. Where they stood then was on the edge of a precipice. Whether or not they intended to jump couldn’t be answered in that moment.
They weren’t kids anymore. Moreover, Nora-Jean was a mother with a child shehadto put first. Much as she wanted Lawson, and she wouldn’t deny she’d never stopped, Evie was her whole heart. She didn’t know how Lawson fit into their lives, and so he had to go.
As if he could see the truth in her eyes, Lawson reached for his jacket, pressed a kiss against Nora’s temple, then started for the door—his hand trailing across her middle as he went.
He shut the driver’s side door of his truck, letting his head fall back against the seat as he stared out the windshield at the building he’d just left. When he arrived the night before, he didn’t know he’d end up staying. After what happened, he thought their morning would go a bit differently than it had. As the haze of sleep and disappointment began to wane, he admitted to himself that one night between the gorgeous legs of the prettiest woman he’d ever known wasn’t a cure-all, no matter how great the sex had been.
He wasn’t stupid, and his memory—as far as Nora-Jean was concerned—wasn’t short. Much as he disliked how adamant she had been about getting him out the door, he knew why. She was putting her daughter first. She was being a mother—the kind of mother she always promised she would be.
Damn, if that didn’t make him want her more.
Reality stung. He’d missed all the things he planned on seeing himself. Watching her become a mother. Standing by her side as they built a life together. That morning, he didn’t fit into her routine with Evelyn like a father should—but he knew then, even more than he’d known the night before—it was time to change all that.
Lawson grabbed his keys from out of his lap, leaned forward, and started his truck. As he shifted into drive, he took one last look at the building with one thought on his mind. He’d be back. Soon.
He checked the time as he began to make his way home. It was early. Even after he showered and dressed for the day, he knew it would be too early to drop in on Justice given the schedule she kept. The tattoo parlor where she worked didn’t operate on banking hours. Most nights she hung around the shop until ten, and she always did need a few hours to unwind before she found sleep. Even if she hadn’t been on the clock the previous night, it was unlikely she even attempted sleep before one a.m. No doubt, he’d be her wake-up call—but it couldn’t be helped.
She was his best friend; had been since he was ten years old, and he realized his baby sister wasn’t a nuisance so much as she was an ideal partner in crime. Even though she was two years his junior, she was always welcome to hang around, which is how they’d ended up in the same friend group since high school. Though they came from the same Steele bloodline, their relation to each other wasn’t the only reason why their friendship went both ways. They’d taught each other how to trust, forging a bond that could never be broken.
It took Lawson less than ten minutes to get to his apartment. He was in and out of the shower, dressed, and headed back out the door in less than twenty. The cool morning air felt colder against his scalp, his hair still damp as he made his way back to the truck. Knowing it was in his best interests, rather than head straight to her place, he drove to the Town Square to make a quick pit-stop.
Seven in the morning might have been early for his sister, but Rock-N-Joe was open for business and was already drawing a small crowd. On his way inside, Lawson held the door open for a couple patrons on their way out, orders in hand. He nodded a silent good morning and stepped inside, joining the short line at the counter. A kid who must have been nineteen or twenty years old was manning the register while Billie—the coffee shop’s co-owner—was manning the bar. If there was anyone in the world who knew Justice as well as Lawson, it was Billie.
She spotted him as he was stepping up to take his turn at the front of the line. Before he could start his order, she swept a loose strand of her blonde hair out of her face with the back of her hand and smiled his way—her smile wide enough to make her shallow dimple appear. While Lawson had only ever had eyes for one woman in town, no one could deny Billie was a looker, especially when she smiled.
“Well, hey, you,” she greeted familiarly.
“Mornin’,” he replied with a dip of his chin.
