Page 112 of Good For Me

“Chris is picking me up.” Her eyes light up. “And speaking of hot sex, I got us these new edible body oils—”

I slap my hands over my ears. “Donotfinish that sentence.”

“You ladies okay?” River asks, approaching the counter with that sexy River smirk on his face while his gaze darts between us.

“Peachy,” Brie says, her tone far from friendly. If River notices, he doesn’t say anything, turning his attention to me.

“You ready?”

“God, yes,” I say, shuddering. “She’s trying to talk to me about sex with my cousin.”

“Oh, God,” he says, sounding horrified.

“Right?”

Jas scoffs. “You’re both total prudes.”

There’s a flash in River’s eye that makes my insides go all squirmy—a flash that very clearly tells me his plans for us tonight are far from prudish.

He proves my suspicion right the second we walk out the door. He presses me against the brick building and kisses me until I’m dizzy. “Missed you,” he murmurs against my lips.

“I missed you too,” I tell him honestly. Shit, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him all night.

He grins, running a fingertip along my cheekbone. “Let’s get out of here.”

“So you said it went well with Fox and your cousins,” I say once we’re in his Jeep. “What about Violet and Ash?”

“Violet is off the wall excited.” Even in the dim interior of the Jeep I can see the affectionate tilt of his smile when he talks about his little sister. “Ash might take a little longer.”

My stomach tightens unpleasantly. “What did he say?”

“Not much.” River shrugs. “Ash takes time to process things. Change can be a little tough for him.” His phone chimes with a text in the cupholder between us and his fingers clench tight against the steering wheel. “He’ll come around though,” River continues, ignoring the phone. “Hell, I bet he’ll end up thrilled. The Littles won’t be the littlest ones anymore.”

His phone chimes again as we pull up to a red light, but he doesn’t reach for it. Another chime.

“You don’t want to check that?”

He lets out a slow breath. “Not really.” He looks over to give me a tight smile. “My parents were going to tell my aunts and uncles tonight. And I’m sure the news has gotten to all the younger kids by now, too.”

“You think they’re going to react badly?”

His jaw clenches but the light changes so he turns his attention back to the road. It’s a moment before he speaks. “Honestly? I have no idea how they’ll react. So far everyone has been way cooler than I expected. But I just don’t really want to deal with it right now, you know? I don’t want to think about them all talking about me.” I’m surprised when he reaches across the center console and takes my hand. “I’ve been missing you all fucking night, to be perfectly honest, and I just want to enjoy the fact that you’re coming home with me.”

Oh, I’m in so much trouble with this man. Those words fill me up with a giddy happiness that I must be too old to be feeling.

Don’t get carried away, I remind myself.You’re supposed to talk to him.

“Do you have to work this weekend?” I blurt out, then close my eyes. Real smooth, Jas.

“No.” I wait for him to go on, to tell me that he quit. To explain. But he doesn’t say anything.

“Do you have to work at the diner this weekend?” he asks after a moment. “I was thinking we could go out and do something. My family has a place right on the water up in Santa Barbara. Want to get out of town? We could swim, maybe take the surfboards out.” He squeezes my hand. “And we’d have the whole place to ourselves. Total privacy.”

There’s a part of me that wants to agree immediately. A weekend away with River, one where we’re not actively trying to keep our hands off each other like we were in Tennessee, sounds amazing.

But there’s another part of me that feels a rush of disappointed anger at his words. Because of course River wants to spend the weekend surfing and having sex. He just quit his job—again—so why wouldn’t he want to fill up his newly empty calendar doing all the same shit he always does?

“Hey,” he says when I don’t respond right away. “You okay?”