AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shook his head. “This is your home, too. I’m hoping that the next time you come back, it’s to be with me. Up there.” He notched his chin up toward his bedroom.
“I’ve heard you have the best view,” she teased, because he’d boasted about it.
“I thought you two were—” Natalie cut that short, leaving off the sleeping-together part, thank god.
Cody didn’t even look at her. “My room has a coastal vibe. Light woods, soft blues and greens for color.” He glanced down at Summer. “I really loved your room at the condo. It felt so tranquil. Like my place, but a little different. I guess that was the feminine touches you added to your space. I’d like that here. We should go out and get some plants. They made your condo feellike you’d brought the outside in. I bet we can make the room feel like that.”
Summer grinned. “I’d love to do that with you.”
Cody took Summer’s hand. “I need to get to work. Walk with me back to the house.”
He and Summer walked ahead, Natalie and Haley following along, though they hung back a bit, giving Cody a chance to speak to Summer in relative privacy. “About you going back to Texas...”
Summer glanced up at him. “I have a life there. People are counting on me.”
“Your grandfather.”
“Yes. And others at the company. I’m good at my job. While work has worn on me lately because it’s all I really have, I do enjoy it. I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in working beside my grandfather. I’m sure you feel the same way about working with Nate and carrying on your father’s legacy.”
Cody sighed. He couldn’t argue with that at all. But he wondered how they were going to sustain a relationship in the long run without making some changes.
Summer squeezed his hand. “We will find a way. I’ve been focused on building relationships here, not on what comes next. We’ll come up with a plan together.”
They didn’t have the time right now to discuss it further. “I know this is new for us. I just don’t want to see it end when the six weeks is up and you leave.”
Summer nodded her agreement, but didn’t add anything more to the conversation. That worried him.
“I’m looking forward to the charity event tonight.” Her sweet smile told him she meant it.
They crossed the backyard and entered the house through the living room entrance on his side of the house. “I am, too. I’ll be home to change and pick you up around six.”
“I’ll be ready.” She turned into him and put her hands on his chest. Her gaze filled with understanding and concern. “About what we talked about earlier...”
He’d like to take her up to his room right now and show her how much he wanted her to stay, even though he knew that wasn’t as easy as it sounded. He’d have to figure out a way to arrange his schedule so he could be with her.
He really wanted them to have the kind of relationship that lasted.
He wanted what his parents hadn’t been able to pull off, but Nate and Miranda had managed to do by working together and putting their relationship first.
Yes, he and Summer both loved their work, but the job wasn’t enough to make them happy. They could get that by being together and sharing a life.
“Summer, there is no question I want you. I feel how much you want me.” He pulled her snug against him, and she slipped her hands around his sides and up his back.
“I do.” She bit the corner of her lip, then sighed. “I think we’ve both been cautious and taking this slow because of our bad experiences. You’ve told me that the encounters you’ve had recently were nothing more than fun. And I get that. But it also tells me that you haven’t asked for more between us until now because it means something to you.”
She held his gaze. “I want to let go and not be afraid.”
“I’m right there with you.” Cody crushed Summer against him and took her mouth in a searing kiss as he backed her into the glass window that overlooked the garden and pool, and he lost himself in her.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Haley stopped short when she and Natalie found Cody and Summer kissing. They were so lost in each other, they didn’t notice the two sisters standing twenty feet away. Haley was happy that they were together.
Natalie’s perpetual frown said she wasn’t.
“Why are you so mad at Summer all the time?” Haley asked her.
“Don’t you see what’s happening?”
