Chapter Twenty-two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
They returned from Tahoe in the early evening, exiting the highway as they drew near the outskirts of Sisters. Owen glanced at Keeley. She’d been dozing for the past half hour. Bringing her to visit Zoey and her family, sharing a picnic lunch, driving up to his home with her beside him—it felt perfect. She was perfect for him, and he’d like to think he could be perfect for her. But he knew better, he knew he’d eventually screw up and hurt her.
He parked in front of his garage and Keeley sat up. He laid a hand on her arm to stop her from opening her door.
“ Stay here. I want you inside the car, doors locked, while I take a look around.” She gasped when he reached into the glove box and drew out a gun. He paused with his hand on the door release. “It’s only a precaution.”
“ Be careful.”
His gaze searched hers, and he said, “I’m always careful.”
He exited the vehicle and moved around his house in the dusky twilight, motion-activated security lights coming on. He completed the circuit and unlocked the back door. He searched quickly, but thoroughly. He returned to the Bronco, tapping on the passenger window.
Keeley opened the door.
“ We’re clear.”
She grabbed the bag from their picnic and followed him into the house .
She washed the thermos and a few knives they’d used that morning, setting them on the drainer. She was unusually quiet.
“ I have a frozen pizza for dinner.” Her hands stilled, and Owen continued to speak. “I can put that in the oven or go into town for some takeout if you prefer.”
Not looking at him, she dried her hands. “I’m not really hungry. I think I’ll turn in.”
And just like that, the kitchen was empty.
Dark, cold, and empty.
Like it would be when she went back to her place.
Realization washed over him. She was wrong. The kitchen wasn’t the heart of the home, she was the heart of the home. Of his home.
God he was an idiot. An absolute fucking idiot. She’d told him she’d loved him and he’d let it go like it didn’t matter. Like she didn’t matter.
He pressed his fingers into his eyes.
She loved him. Even knowing how he’d screwed up his marriage, she still loved him. She loved him and was willing to take a chance on him. And he’d been too damned scared to admit he loved her back.
And when she told him she wasn’t hungry, she’d looked sad. He felt it like a gut punch.
He had made her sad.
He needed to make it right.
He crossed to the hallway, flipping on lights as he went because he didn’t like the darkness closing in. He rapped lightly on the bedroom door. No response, so he cracked open the door and heard the shower running.
She liked long showers. He’d noted that already.
With a plan forming, he pulled out his phone and called Mario, his chef at Easy Money. He texted Keeley that he’d be back in forty minutes, made sure all doors were locked, and hauled ass to the Bronco .
Pulling into his parking space at Easy Money, he knew his priorities had made a giant shift. For the past three years, making his place a success had been his number one goal. Suddenly, being the man Keeley deserved had become his top priority.
He took the stairs to his apartment two at a time. In the kitchen, he searched shelves and drawers, gathering what he needed and throwing everything in a reusable grocery bag.
Down the stairs again, he pushed through the bar’s back door and walked into the kitchen as Jen was placing containers in a box. She spotted Owen and grinned.
“ Got you covered, boss. Everything you need is here.” She held up a bottle and waved it. “Pinot Grigio will pair with the chicken and mushrooms. It’s already chilled.”
“ Thank you for doing this, Jen.” He lifted a chin to Mario, who nodded in acknowledgment. He grabbed the box and Jen held open the door for him. “Any problems tonight?
“ We’re fine. Go show your girl a good time.”
“ That’s the plan. Thanks again.”
He was closing the back hatch of the Bronco when a sheriff’s department SUV pulled into the parking lot. Sawyer lowered the window. “You have something for me?”
Owen pulled out the baggie with the flash drive from his pocket.
Sawyer held it up to examine. “Glad you found it.” He shot a narrow-eyed look at Owen. “I also heard you fucked up with Keeley.”
“ How do you—” Owen broke off, shaking his head. “Never mind. Yeah, I fucked up. I’m fixing it though. I hope.”
“ See that you do. She’s one of us.”
He made it back to the house in the allotted forty minutes. Barely. The shower was no longer running, but he took a few minutes to set the stage before going to find her.
Nerves jumped when he tapped on her door.
“ Come in. ”
She sat in bed propped against a mound of pillows in the warm glow cast by the lamp on the nightstand. The book in her hand looked thick enough to stop a bullet. She wore loose pants and a zippered sweater. “You got something on your feet?”
She lifted a brow. “I’m wearing socks.”
“ Good. You might want those fuzzy boots of yours.”
“ While I’m in bed reading a book?”
“ No, while you’re having dinner with me on the porch.” He stepped into the room.
“ I told you I’m not hungry.”
“ Maybe you’re not hungry. More likely, you’re pissed at me. You have a right to be. I messed up. Bad.”
Carefully, she placed a bookmark in the big-ass book and set it next to the lamp. “You have the right to feel what you feel, Owen. You can’t change your feelings because they don’t match mine. We’re good.
“ I called Delaney and I’m going to her place tomorrow morning. I’ll be out of your hair. I’ll stay with her until whatever danger I might be in is resolved.”
He sat next to her on the bed. “I don’t want you out of my hair.” Gaze steady, he reached for her hand. “I was an idiot and I hurt you. Let me fix this, princess.”
She shook her head, drawing her hand away. “You want to be friends. I want that too, but I need time away from you to get past these other feelings.” She drew in a wobbly breath. “I can go to Delaney’s tonight, if that’s better.”
“ Hell no. I can’t fix it if you’re not here.” He spotted the fuzzy boots under the edge of the bed and bent to retrieve them. “Put these on and come outside. Everything’s ready. The only thing that’s missing is you.”
He felt his future balanced on a razor’s edge. If she pulled back, it might kill him.
“ Trust me, princess. ”
He held his breath when she hesitated, but then she nodded. “Okay, Owen.” His breath released with a whoosh.
Fuzzy boots on, he pulled her to her feet. He’d left the lights off this time for impact. They crossed to the front room where strings of lights on the porch glowed warmly through the large picture window.
He led her outside.
Her soft sigh as she took in the scene told him he’d hit the mark. He’d grabbed a tablecloth from his apartment, which disguised the raw plywood of his makeshift table.
He’d set it with white plates from Easy Money, along with a vase with spring flowers Jen had snagged from a table in the restaurant.
Wineglasses reflected candlelight from stubby candles, and he’d chosen a mellow blues playlist to stream through his speaker.
“ When did you do all this?” she asked. “It’s beautiful.”
“ The string lights have been here, but I haven’t used them much. Everything else I arranged this evening.” He held out a chair. “Have a seat.”
He used the corkscrew to uncork the wine.
“ Can I help?”
“ I got it.” He handed her a wineglass. “Drink your wine and relax. Dinner is being kept warm in the oven. I’ll bring it right out.”
He needed to give Mario and Jen raises.
He opened the foil containers and plated golden pan-fried chicken with spiral pasta topped with mushroom sauce.
Adding roasted asparagus and soft dinner rolls, he carried the plates to the porch.
He took a seat and raised his wineglass. “To the future.”
Her expression turned wary, but she raised her glass, tapping it to his. “To the future, whatever it may bring.” Keeley took a bite of pasta drenched in sauce. “Oh, this is so good.”
“ It’s my favorite on our menu. You haven’t tried it?”
She shook her head. “You don’t charge staff for meals, and I didn’t want to cut into your profit by eating the fancy food. ”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You can eat anything you want. In fact, I rely on staff to give me feedback on the menu.”
She shrugged. “I’m glad I haven’t because then this wouldn’t be such a wonderful indulgence.”
He sampled his own dinner and agreed. It was damn good. They ate as the music flowed around them. The view from the porch brought the twinkling lights from Sisters into bright relief, and overhead, stars were strewn across the heavens.
“ Did you give Sawyer the flash drive?”
“ Yeah, he met me in the parking lot. He’s really protective of you.”
She paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “What’d he say?”
“ That I fucked up.”
“ Oh good heavens. Delaney and I talked. She must’ve told Cam who then told Sawyer.”
“ Sounds about right.”
“ Yeah, but Sawyer’s your friend. I don’t want to get between you. I wish he and Walker wouldn’t treat me like I’m sixteen and in need of big brothers.”
“ I can deal with them. And Sawyer’s right, I did fuck up.”
She shook her head and the honey streaks in her hair gleamed in the candlelight.
“ It’s fine, Owen. I appreciate the effort you made tonight to set things right between us.” She bit the end of an asparagus spear and chewed thoughtfully. “It’s still better for me to stay with Delaney and Walker. I’ll go in the morning.”
He set down his wineglass. This was it. There was no going back.
“ Don’t go. I love you, Keeley. I want you to stay.”
Her fork clattered onto her plate and her eyes grew wide. “You can’t say that. You can’t say that if we can’t be together. It hurts too much.”
“ You’ve got me, Keeley. I don’t want to fight it anymore.” He gazed into her beautiful hazel eyes and saw his future .
“ Everything I am is yours. Protecting myself from pain no longer works because it’s painful to be apart from you.” He took her hand, turning it over in his, brushing his thumb across her palm. “Do you remember the first time we met?”
She nodded. “It was at Easy Money. Delaney and I’d come in for a girls’ night and you were behind the bar.”
“ You walked in, and I felt like I’d been hit by a bolt of sunlight. You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and you were so damn sweet.”
“ Oh please. Anytime we interacted, you seemed irritated.”
He gave her a long look that had the color rising in her cheeks. “That was it, Keeley, that moment. From then on, I was always waiting for the next time I’d see you.”
“ That first time we were there to check you out.”
“ Yeah?”
She rolled her eyes at his grin. “Yeah. It was a little after you’d bought the place. You’d closed it for a couple weeks and there was a buzz around town about the new owner. Rumor was he was hot, and Delaney wanted to check you out.”
“ Delaney? Not you?”
“ This was before Walker came back and she was trying to move past him emotionally. That plan never worked. But a hot young business owner in town? That’s big news.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit. I thought it was strange so many women came in during the first couple months.”
She giggled at his discomfort. “Yep, they were checking you out. I’ll admit to doing my own checking,” she said primly. “But then you acted nice to everyone else, but were so judge-y with me. That first night you said we were drinking girly drinks.”
“ You were drinking girly drinks.”
“ It was a strawberry margarita. That’s not a girly drink.”
“ It’s girly if the fruit is used to disguise the alcohol taste.”
“ No. It means I like strawberries, and that’s a sexist attitude. And if that wasn’t enough, you carded me. ”
“ I got your name, didn’t I? And learned you’re four years younger than me.”
“ I thought you didn’t like me.”
“ I liked you. I more than liked you.”
“ Seriously? You acted like I was underage, and then said it was probably a fake ID.”
“ Okay, they were stupid ploys to get you to talk to me.”
“ You could have tried being nice.”
“ I’m not known for nice.”
He weaved his fingers through hers and pulled her to her feet.
She swayed toward him. “Every time I’ve come in for the past what, two years? You’ve been grumpy.”
He pulled her closer and they swayed to the music. He dipped his head. “I was already in deep with you. It frustrated the hell out of me. I told myself I wasn’t good for you, but that didn’t stop me loving you.”
She stared at him, her big eyes shadowy.
“ Am I too late, princess?”
“ Princesses are snooty and snobby.”
“ Not my princess.” His lips drifted along her temple.
She arched her neck, and he took the invitation and nibbled the curve of warm skin. “My princess is beautiful on the inside. She’s beautiful on the outside.” His lips moved along her jaw and her breath caught. “My princess is good and sweet, and kind.”
He nudged her chin up, searching her eyes, and repeated his question. “Am I too late? Can you still love me?”
She draped her arms around his neck. “I love you, Owen. I will never stop loving you.”
He felt everything inside him align, and damn if that didn’t feel exactly right.
“ Good. That’s good.” He closed his eyes and let the warmth of love seep into his soul .
He felt like he was getting a second chance at life. He’d had to get out of his own way to embrace the future that was waiting right in front of him.
Opening his eyes again, he said, “I told you I was a risk, that I’m likely to destroy everything. You didn’t heed the warning. Now I’m yours and you’re mine. It’s us together, princess.”
He brought her hands to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles.
“ You won’t destroy everything, Owen. We’ll build something together.”
He spun her around, ending their dance with a kiss full of promise. “Come with me. Let me take you to bed.”
“ Yes.” She glanced at the remnants of their meal. “We need to clear the table first.”
“ I’ll take care of it later.”
She was already shaking her head. “You’ve lived here long enough to know the raccoons will help themselves if we leave this out.”
As bad as he wanted her, they cleaned up.
Not that he didn’t pull her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck while she was rinsing dishes at the kitchen sink.
Or that she didn’t rub her ass against the bulge in his jeans when he stood behind her to reach into a cupboard.
By the time he backed her up to the edge of his bed his need for her was straining his grasp on sanity.
He’d never experienced this level of need scrambled together with feelings of love so intense that all he could see was her.
Her fingers went to his belt, and while his libido said yes and demanded he rut like a feral animal, his heart demanded something more.
Grappling for control, he nudged her back on the bed, took her hands in one of his.
“ Slow down, princess. I want this to last. ”
His free hand dipped under the hem of her sweater, and he groaned when he traced bare skin across her rib cage and over a rounded breast to its peak. “No bra.”
She tugged her hand free to pull down the front zipper on her sweater and he nudged the material aside. He dipped his nose to nuzzle her breast.
“ No panties, either,” she whispered.
He groaned. She worked his shirt up to his shoulders. “That doesn’t help me go slow. If I’d known you were bare I’d never have made it through dinner.”
He pulled his shirt over his head, then tugged off her sweater.
Her breasts were gloriously free before him, and he felt like the luckiest man on earth.
Her fingers returned to his belt, working the buckle loose. “Slow next time.” She levered herself up to use her teeth to scrape along his neck. “Fast this time.”
Her words broke the dam and he was flooded with a frenzy of need, matched only by her own. He fumbled for his wallet but managed to roll on protection.
Then he was there, poised at her entrance.
Gazes locked together, he plunged. She surged to meet him, wrapping her legs around his hips.
It was a wild ride. He held on to the tattered edges of control to make sure she was there with him.
It felt like they were touching everywhere and wasn’t sure where his body stopped and hers began.
They moved together, climbing high and higher, reaching for the summit. Her body tightened around him, and she let out a keening cry met by one of his own, and holding her close, he felt like they were flying to the edge of the universe.
After, they lay together like survivors of a natural disaster. “I think I’ve gone blind,” he murmured the words into her neck. He knew he was heavy but couldn’t find the strength to move .
She gripped handfuls of his hair and pulled his head back. “Try opening your eyes.”
He blinked. “Oh, that’s better.”
She grinned and he grinned right back. “Have I told you I love you?”
“ Yeah,” he murmured. “But you keep right on saying it. It’s all I want to hear.”
***
Later they sat cross-legged on the bed, Owen in sweatpants and no shirt, Keeley in an unbuttoned flannel shirt of Owen’s and no pants. On her knee, she was balancing a plate with a generous slice of cheesecake.
She fed Owen a bite, then took one herself.
She chewed slowly, eyes closed, making a mmm sound. “Oh my god, lemon meringue cheesecake. This is the best cheesecake ever.” Her eyes were glazed over when they opened again. “You get your desserts from Three Sisters Bakery, so why have I never had this before? Rico’s been holding out on me.” She pointed her fork at him. “ You’ve been holding out on me.”
“ I approached Rico about developing a cheesecake that he’d bake exclusively for Easy Money. We’re in the sampling stage. He sent a chocolate option a couple days ago that was pretty good. He says Key lime is next.”
“ Why haven’t I been in on this? I could be your official taste tester. Right now, my vote is for the lemon meringue. It would be a crime against humanity if this cheesecake isn’t offered to the public.”
“ You haven’t tried the others.” He accepted another bite. She was right. It was damn good.
“ Nothing could top lemon meringue cheesecake.” Keeley fed them both until she laid a hand on her stomach. “I can’t eat another bite.” She settled back against the pillows, eyes closed. “I’m in a cheesecake coma.”
Since his flannel shirt she was wearing had gaped open, and because there was a blob of lemon cheesecake topping still on the plate, he swiped it up with his finger and rubbed it over the pink tip of her breast.
“ What are you—” She broke off when he swirled his tongue over the nipple before pulling it in his mouth and sucking deep. “Oh, good lord in heaven. Owen. You make me feel so much.”
He released her and set the plate and fork safely aside.
“ That’s only fair, princess, because it’s the same for me.” He let his hand drift over her belly, softly stroking, then lower still. “This time it’s slow, remember?”
She sighed and opened for him. “I remember. Love me, Owen.”
“ Always.”