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I pulled in a breath and hoped my voice didn’t crack.
“Thanks for last night.”
His arms squeezed.
I kept my eyes steady on the view of the lake.
“And the night before,” I went on.
He kissed the side of my head.
Damn. This was harder than it should’ve been.
Two nights and I barely knew the man, yet it felt like my heart was being torn out of my chest.
Wilson whirled me around to face him. Those blue eyes of his were intense as they roamed my face. He brushed my hair away from my face, settling his hand on the side of my neck.
“You’re so fucking pretty, princess.”
Oh, yeah, this was painful.
Made more so when Wilson lowered his head and brushed his mouth over mine.
Forgetting this was goodbye, my lips parted.
Wilson’s tongue spiked in but he kept the kiss slow—gentle. It was nothing like the fevered ownership of the first night. Or the deep, controlled possession of last night.
No, this kiss was something else entirely.
A sweet, tender goodbye.
All too soon Wilson broke our kiss.
And that was it.
Our goodbye.
Damn, my heart hurt.
SEVEN
One would think after two late nights full of energetic sex, sleep would’ve come easy. That was not the case.
Yesterday, Wilson had dropped me off in front of the resort with a sweet kiss to my temple. He hadn’t walked me to my room. That wasn’t a slight, it was the smart thing to do. It was also kind. I had zero willpower when it came to Wilson McCray. I would’ve embarrassed myself and invited him in only to prolong the inevitable.
Then I’d chickened out and waited for my grandmother’s call wondering where I was, telling me I’d missed Wilson before I’d headed to her house.
We’d spent the whole day in her apartment catching up until she demanded we go to her favorite restaurant, Nadine’s. For a small city the traffic was horrendous up to a town called Rathdrum, but the food was worth the drive. Who would’ve thought a tiny little restaurant in North Idaho would have the best Mexican food I’d ever tasted?
The place had been packed but the moment the hostess saw my grandmother she smiled and led us straight to a table. I was happy my grandmother had this. My grandfather had been gone a long time. My mother longer. My uncle still lived in New York, his children scattered. I knew my cousins called and visited when they could, but like me, life had turned busy and they hadn’t been to Idaho for far too long. Letty and her friends had become my grandmother’s surrogate family. That both warmed my heart and made the guilt I was already feeling coil in my stomach.
I needed to do better.
And this morning after a fitful night’s sleep missing Wilson wondering where he was and what he was doing, hoping he hadn’t found my replacement too quickly, I was determined to soak in all the time I had left with my gram. My flight left at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow, I had to get back to work, but come hell or high water I was making it my mission to come back for a visit every few months.
Helene Simpson liked to pretend she was seventy but she was in her nineties. One day I wouldn’t have her.
Good Lord, the thought of that killed.
