Chapter 21
ALEX
DrunkenPoet: I get the feeling you’re bossy in bed.
IndexEcho: I get the feeling you’re going to find out.
_____________________
As I stared down at Kincaid’s text for the hundredth time, I still couldn’t believe it.
A date. A real date.
He’d told me he was still hung up on an ex, some guy who’d ghosted him. So what the hell had caused him to change his mind?
Clearly, it wasn’t the sex. I was a green newbie, awkward and fumbling. Gagging wasn’t as sexy as porn made it seem, and I was a grade A gagger during oral sex.
Then there was the fact that I’d ejaculated the moment Judd put his fingers inside me. Again, green newbie shit. All I had to do was think about the fact he was fingering my ass and thar she blows. Gone.
I made my way out to the front of the restaurant to help our bartender catch up on drink orders. The night of the final farmer’s market tended to bring a lot of visitors to Legacy, which meant Timber was busier than normal.
Unfortunately, people were asking for the Slingshot Flame, and I had to tell them it was temporarily off the menu. I made a mental note to bring it up to Kincaid. The least he could do was give me an update on the timeline for getting the permit back.
After I helped complete the drink orders, I moved back toward the kitchen to check the men’s room in case it needed attention. In the back hallway, I saw Karim coming out of the men’s room, smiling down at his phone screen. When he noticed me, he jumped.
“Sorry, boss. Had to take a leak.”
“Since when do you need to explain a bathroom break?” I asked in surprise.
He shook his head and smiled. “I might have taken an extra minute to send some personal texts on Timber time. That’s my guilt talking.”
I rolled my eyes and thumbed over my shoulder toward the kitchen. “Christ. We’re all human. Get back in there.”
He shoved his phone into his back pocket and whistled his way to the kitchen.
Karim was acting like I felt these days. And I felt giddy with a new love interest. Was it possible he and Kinsey Pope—
“Your sister is looking for you,” one of my servers said as she hustled past with a large pizza and a stack of plates.
I moved back out to the restaurant and looked around. There was no sign of Ella, so I pulled out my phone to text her. There was a wall of notifications from my other sister, and they all sounded a little like this.
Mattie
Wedding postponed. Dress is fucked.
There were also texts from my dads.
Papa
Mattie’s dress doesn’t fit. It’s fine. It’s not like hundreds of people will be looking at the bride or anything.
Dad
If you get any messages about the wedding dress, ignore them. Your father is a drama queen.
I moved out back into the crisp night and called Mattie.
“My life is over. I might as well go to the thrift store and grab any old white dress.”
“Hey to you, too. I hear you’re having a crisis, even though half your friends are literally seamstresses and tailors.”
She moaned pathetically. “You shouldn’t have to work on the bride’s dress when you’re a guest.”
“They’re not a guest for two more weeks. Ask Lisette to do you a favor. Doesn’t she owe you one from that time you hooked her up with pointe shoes?”
“It’s my job to hook her up with pointe shoes.”
I wrapped my free arm around myself and rubbed my hand up and down my other arm.
It was freezing out here. “You know what I mean. You got the specialty ones from… wherever. She basically thinks you’re Jesus now.
If you don’t want to ask her to do the work, ask her for a recommendation, and we both know she’ll beg to be the one to help you herself. ”
After talking her off the cliff, I ended the call and texted my dads.
Crisis averted. I talked her into asking Lisette for help.
Papa
Oh right. She’s friends with people who sew.
Dad
Don’t act like this is the first you’re hearing this. I’ve been saying it all night. She’s the *wardrobe* coordinator. Jesus fuck, Blue.
See you next week. Love you.
Papa
My baby’s coming home!
Dad
Can’t wait to see you.
As I slid the phone in my pocket and turned to go back inside, a red light swept across the back of the building. I spun around immediately… and found the fire chief was using his lights to flirt with me.
He pulled into the lot and rolled down the window. “It’s too cold out here for you to be standing around soliciting people,” he teased.
I put my hand on my hip and canted it out, striking a sultry pose in my black twill pants and Timber fleece. “I’m too expensive for you, boy.”
He looked around to make sure the lot was empty before crooking his finger at me. I approached his open window and leaned in, enjoying the waft of Judd-scented heat.
“Come home with me,” he said in a sultry rumble.
“How much you got, sailor?”
He moved his hand down between his legs and rubbed himself suggestively. “Just enough to make you let out that little sound that drives me up a wall.”
I thought back to the restaurant and mentally checked in with the status of everyone’s roles before I stepped out to make the call. The orders had died down, and my assistant manager already knew she was handling closing tonight.
Judd put his warm hand on mine where it clutched the rim of his door. “Get in the car, Marian,” he said softly. “Please.”
I moved around the truck quickly and got in. “What the chief wants, the chief gets,” I said, reaching for my seat belt.
On the way to his house, I texted everyone I needed to at Timber, ignored a text from Ella asking me why I was suddenly Mattie’s favorite sibling, and allowed the heat vents to thaw me out.
“Will you tell me about Tavo?” Kincaid finally asked.
The question was gentle. I didn’t feel like he was prying for any nefarious reason, and after what he’d overheard at the farmer’s market, he’d probably figured most of it out already.
But I still owed it to Tavo to protect his identity.
“How come you never believed me when I said the two of us were together?”
He reached over and took my hand. “Baby, you’re about as good a liar as Pinocchio. Besides, poor Tavo’s eyes about popped out of his head when you claimed him.”
The endearment hit me right in the chest. This moment was everything I’d always wanted. Normal. Steady. Almost domestic.
“He’s hiding from a possessive lover. A married, possessive lover who doesn’t like the word no and has the power to make Tavo’s life difficult.”
“A judge.” He nodded like he was remembering what the guy at the farmer’s market said. “In San Francisco.”
“Yeah. So you can imagine the kind of resources the man has. If Tavo’s name turns up on any tax form or banking transaction—”
“Or fire investigation report,” he muttered, finally understanding.
“Yeah,” I sighed. “The judge might find him.”
Judd parked the truck in his driveway and turned off the ignition. “What’s the plan, though? Because he’s been in Legacy for months.”
“I have an uncle in the security business,” I explained.
“He’s trying to dig up dirt on the judge or find someone else he’s done this to.
Otherwise, the plan is to wait him out. Uncle Joel says there are still people asking around about Tavo, which means the judge has definitely not given up yet.
But eventually, he’s going to have to move on.
Hopefully, Joel will get evidence of a new love interest, and Tavo will be off the hook.
I don’t think he’ll go back to San Francisco at this point, but he could at least get a real job.
Right now, he’s too afraid of pinging something in a government database. ”
We hopped out of the truck and made our way into his house. I loved his place. It was homey and snug, unlike my drafty rabbit warren above Timber.
“Come in. I made cookies,” Judd said, shocking the hell out of me.
“You? You made cookies?”
His eyebrows dipped together. “Why do you sound so shocked? Yes, I made cookies. Sugar cookies, actually.”
“I would have been less surprised if you’d said you changed the oil on your truck.”
“My truck doesn’t need an oil change for another three thousand miles,” he said, still obviously confused. “Why would I change the oil on my truck when it doesn’t need it?”
“You know how to change the oil on your truck?”
He let out a breath. “Is this like the Costco run thing? Is making cookies a euphemism? Or changing the oil?”
I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist, leaning in for a kiss. Judd immediately stopped talking and kissed me as if it had been months since we’d last seen each other instead of hours.
When I finally pulled away to catch my breath, he was smiling. “I’d like to feed you my cookies.”
“Now you’re the one making it dirty,” I said with a laugh.
We teased and flirted as he pulled out the cookies, still warm from the oven. “What were you doing out in your truck if you just made these tonight?” I asked. When he’d pulled into the Timber lot, I’d assumed he’d been on a call or running errands.
“It was nine thirty, and you still weren’t here. I came looking for you.”
My stomach flipped. “Really?”
He nodded. “I missed you. And I wanted to see you in person so I could make it official. I’d like to take you out on a date. A real one.”
I stared at him. Judd Kincaid was seriously asking me out? And calling it a real date?
“I would invite you to my sister’s wedding in Napa the weekend after next, but I would imagine a Marian family wedding weekend as a first date would kill any chance at a second date.”
He laughed as he propped himself on the edge of the kitchen counter. “I think you’re right. Baby steps. I was thinking maybe we could head up to Billings and check out the deals at a big-box store I know.”
I moved between his legs and put my hands on his chest. “You could always take me to the Palomino. Make all those other boys jealous.”
He leaned in and kissed me. “They’d be jealous, alright. I’d be there with the most beautiful man in Montana on my arm.”
All of this was a dream. One I didn’t want to wake from.