AllFreeNovel
Share Us
These were the kinds of memories I didn’t want to share, but it was inevitable that they’d resurface. We had a ton of history together. “I saw you with Dan in the back barrel room.”
Her eyes widened. “You...what?”
“I’d gone down there for something, don’t even remember what, and saw you kissing him in the back barrel room.”
Dan had been Thayle’s boyfriend at the time. A local yokel farmer’s son. Nice guy. Or had been, until that day.
“He asked for a tour, so I gave him one,” Thayle said.
“And a little lagniappe on top of it.”
Her eyes rolled up and stayed there.
“What? It’s true.”
“Now who’s jealous?”
That was an easy one. “Me. I was so fucking pissed. Probably because there was nothing really wrong with him. Nice guy. Nice family. Good-looking. I thought for sure you two would last.”
“I thought we might too,” she volunteered, “but there was just something missing.”
“Such as?”
Thayle looked me in the eye. “He wasn’t you.”
I wanted to stand up and pull her into my arms. I wanted to pull out a ring and ask the woman to marry me this very moment. When she said things like that, when I realized Thayle truly had spent years wishing we were together...
“I love you, Thayle.”
I hadn’t meant to blurt that out. Not so soon. And certainly not here, in the middle of a restaurant filled with people. I could have waited for a more romantic time, but it was true. And I wanted her to know it. To know a woman like Ava meant less than nothing to me. There was only one woman I had eyes for, and she was sitting across this table staring at me wide-eyed.
“I love you too.”
Fuck it. I stood up, walked over to Thayle, and pulled her up from her chair. She didn’t protest when I led her through the front room, past the hostess stand, and out into the night.
“My purse—”
“Will be there when we get back.”
Down the stairs, around to the side of the building, I did what I’d wanted to do all night. Pressing her against the wall of the building, I kissed her. Hard. Claimed her as my own.
Damn right I loved her, and no stupid ex-girlfriend or disagreements about waiting to tell my family—Thayle’s brilliant idea, which was not happening—or anything else was going to get between us.
As my hand moved up to her breast and squeezed, our tongues tangled in a promise of what was to come that night. There were no walls between us now that the words had been said. I meant them and wanted to hear her say it again.
I broke away. “I love you,” I repeated. “I love you so fucking much, Thayle Burke.”
“I love you more.” She threw her arms around me and squeezed as I picked her up and spun her around in a full circle. She squealed, but I didn’t put her down immediately. It felt too good to hold her in my arms. To know she was mine.
To know there was nothing that could come between us.
TWENTY-FOUR
thayle
Neo jumpedout of the truck to pump gas, looking back at me and winking before shutting the door. In a million years I could not have imagined the turn of events this past week. I should be on cloud nine, and was. Except...
I couldn’t really blame Ava completely, but she hadn’t helped. She was the exact kind of woman who was perfect for Neo. For the Grados. Ivy League trained, she offered a hell of a lot more than someone with a high school education whose previous experience before working at the estate included waitressing and a stint as a bank teller. She was smart, beautiful, and yes, as Neo had pointed out, more than a little fake too. And he had broken up with her, so I had to give credit where credit was due.
