Page 65 of Starting Back
I glowered back at her when she gave me a tiny wink.
“And this is my youngest, Emma.”
“Well, it is very nice to meet you, Emma.” Leo stepped closer to us. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“You have?” Emma scrunched up her nose. “Where did you meet him, Mommy? Wait!” She gasped and pointed to the swirl of ink around Leo’s bicep. “He’s got the drawings. He’s your friend from the sleepover!”
I winced at Leo, his smile still easy and gorgeous as he laughed.
“I met your mom while she was on vacation,” he said before I could think of a reply. Emma had dropped it, but now that she’d gotten a reminder, I was going to work on that excuse I couldn’t figure out but dreaded, especially when she slipped in front of her sister.
“Oh. I thought you were coming home with her, so I saved you a bagel. But when you didn’t come, I ate it.”
“I heard.” He chuckled, throwing me a quick glance. “That was very nice of you.”
She shrugged. “Mommy always says that it’s good to share and be nice.”
“Sounds like your mom.”
A shiver ran down my spine at the husky dip in his voice, his eyes still fixed on me. It was ridiculous to be this uncomfortable around Leo now, considering all we’d shared—and all we’d done—during our short time together.
Maybe it had seemed so easy because we always had a time limit. We didn’t know each other long enough to have to worry about anything beyond what we were feeling at the moment.
Those feelings came right back the minute I laid eyes on him again, and I had no clue what to do about them in the here and now.
Kelly Lakes became even smaller when there was someone you were trying to avoid.
“How are you liking Kelly Lakes so far?” Jake asked him, breaking the long silence hovering over our table. “I imagine it’s quite the shift from Florida.”
“I’m originally from a small town, so while it’s a shift, for sure, it’s just something I have to get used to again. But ask me again after the first snowfall. I’m sure I’ll miss Florida more when I have to shovel.”
He laughed, that sexy rumble I remembered too well, and shoved his hands into his pockets. Just like when he’d done that on our movie night, my eyes went to the bulges in his biceps and the ink wrapped around his arm.
I could still taste his skin, sweet and salty under my tongue when I licked all the intricate patterns on his arm and the constellations on his hip.
Getting this flushed and flustered with my family and my daughter watching me was wrong and, when I spotted Peyton’s brown eyes dancing, all too obvious.
I tried to blink it away and grabbed my soda for a long slurp, letting the cool liquid coat my parched throat.
The rest of me was still hot, bothered, and confused as hell.
“Are you working at the hospital this week? They set my hours to Wednesdays for now.”
“No,” I said, not knowing what to do with all the hope in his eyes. “I only do one Saturday per month, rarely more than that.”
“Are you planning to go to the festival next weekend? I’m in charge of decorating the truck.”
“Yes,” Peyton said. “Well, we are.” She pointed back and forth between herself and Jake. “It’s a big deal around here. My friend Claudia comes in from Brooklyn because she thinks it’s such a Hallmark movie thing for a town to have a holiday festival in November. The whole town goes.”
They sure fucking did.
“Will they let us go on the truck this year?” Emma’s head snapped to Leo. “They said no last year.”
“You know why they said no,” I told her. “If you go on, everyone will want to go on, then it will get crazy.”
“Not if you come early,” Leo said, his mouth spreading into the same sly grin as when he offered to pick my drink. “I may know a guy.”
Leo’s wink at Emma both melted my insides and boiled my blood. I’d forgotten how persuasive he could be, and while I knew he had nothing but good intentions, I resented being cornered into saying yes.
