Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“He left the country to avoid going to Grandma’s party?”
“Yeah. I think so,” says Nash, meshing his fingers with mine.
I could do with more of being cocooned by the man. Because resting my head on his bicep is surprisingly comfortable. He also smells insanely good. I want to rub my face in his chest and breathe him deep. There’s no helping how I react to him. Damp panties and hard nipples are just a way of life now. He gets to me, and there’s no point denying it. There’s also probably no need, if he’s sneaking into my room to spoon me. As signs go, it’s a positive one.
“Then there’s what I accidentally overheard them talking about one time,” he teases.
“Go on.”
“We were preparing to leave on tour and would be on the road for more than a year. They were in the kitchen, and I just happened to be in the hallway.”
“Were you lurking?”
“Can one lurk in their own house?” he asks.
“Maybe it was closer to skulking.”
“Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Yes.”
He runs his fingers lightly back and forth on my thigh. The man is such a tease. “Charlie said something about the timing not being great. And then Audrey told him she had other plans anyway and wouldn’t be waiting around for him. But she sounded angry and hurt.”
“Are you serious? He upset my grandma?” I ask. “Pistols at dawn it is.”
“I don’t know that dueling is the answer. Also, please don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not a morning person.”
“You may have a point.” I toy with the heavy silver watch around his wrist. Being still isn’t my strong suit. “Explain to me why you’d invite him here, given this information.”
“Are you kidding me?” he asks, incredulous. “There’s no way you didn’t catch their reactions to seeing each other. The expressions on their faces.”
“I saw surprise.”
“And a whole lot of longing. There so much yearning between those two. It’s the sort of thing I used to write songs about.”
“Hmm,” I say, refusing to commit. “It was good listening to you play tonight. But your friend better not hurt my grandma again.”
“I think he’d rather have you drive over his foot in your nice new car than deliberately harm her. Their lives are different now. His commitments have changed.”
I ponder this for a while. “So you invited him here purely to help get them back together. Out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Sort of. Partly. Yes.”
“Nash.”
“To be completely honest, the thought might have crossed my mind,” he says, “that with Audrey distracted, you and I could maybe see what this thing is between us.”
“You mean the kiss?”
“I do indeed.”
“Mm. You’re diabolical.”
“But was I wrong?”
“No,” I say. “I don’t know what to think about any of this. The ethics regarding our fakery are so off. Then there’s the chance I might be ever so slightly rebounding out of a bad relationship.”
“And yet you haven’t kicked me out of your bedroom or told the town my true identity. Which leads me to believe that maybe…just maybe…you like me.”
I tighten my hold on his hand. “Guess I do. And I like having you here. Does that sound needy?”
“No. I feel the same.” He presses a kiss to my shoulder. Swoon. “We can be codependent together.”
“How romantic.”
He shuffles his lower body back from my butt. Because there is definite activity happening in his pelvic region. And it feels sizeable, thank you very much.
“You know there are rumors circulating on the internet about you dying and the government hushing it up,” I say, just making conversation.
“Have you been stalking me online, my delight?”
“I didn’t mean to. It just came up in my feed.”
“It wouldn’t bother me if you were.” He chuckles. “Why the fuck would the government cover it up?”
“Yeah, I didn’t get that part either. But there are definitely more people wondering where you are.”
“They can just keep wondering,” he says. “I’m happy being incognito.”
“You really don’t miss the adulation?”
“Strangers having feelings and opinions about you doesn’t hit the same. I’m relieved and even ecstatic when they connect with the music. But they don’t actually know me and it’s not their love keeping me warm at night.”
“It sort of is though because they pay for you to have the heat on.”
He presses his teeth into my shoulder and says, “You’re a very funny woman. Have I told you that lately?”
The way the butterflies in my belly take flight. Being here with him is big. Huge. Because my emotions about the man aren’t easy. It’s been years since I crushed on anyone. And never this hard. There’s a chance I forgot how brain-addling and all-consuming it can be. How it ties you up in knots and fills you with both joy and worry.
“Junebug, you okay?”
I nod. “You need to sneak out in the morning before Grandma wakes up.”