CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Deacon
I smell the food before I see Cash. He walks in with a big brown bag and sets it on the kitchen counter where I’m installing toe boards around the base cabinets.
“Brought you pasta and garlic bread. You gonna be here all night?”
“For a few more hours at least. How pissed was Seb about me being gone all afternoon?” Luckily, I managed to avoid facing my brother. He ran out to look at a property Ryland found for Mom and Dad.
“His face turned purple. When you didn’t answer his texts, he got scary quiet. I’d check your sheets tonight before you get in bed.”
“Great.”
“How’d it go with Amelia? Was it worth it?”
“We nearly got caught by her mom. But I met her daughter, so that secret’s out of the bag.”
Cash takes a seat on the floor and shoves the bag of food at me. “Eat. You haven’t told Amelia you know she’s DogPerson?”
“If I tell her, she’s going to dump both me and HandsyGuy. I need more time to show her why I’m perfect for her.”
“Or maybe you’re not.”
Cash holds up his hands when I glare at him. “I’m just saying. The right woman shouldn’t have to be convinced, Deke. And she’s made it very clear she doesn’t want a relationship. Find someone else.”
“I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I’m not going to be able to just find someone else.”
“Maybe it’s not her. Maybe it’s just that you’re in a place in your life where you’re ready to get serious with someone.” He crosses his arms over his chest like he’s preparing for battle. “Either way, if she tells you she doesn’t want more, you can’t push. Don’t be that guy.”
“I’m not going to be a creepy asshole,” I say. “But the last time we were together, I was getting vibes from her that maybe she’s more into me than she’s letting herself accept.”
He points at me. “See. That right there is creepy stalker talk. We are bigger than our primal urges. Shut it down and move on.”
I dig into my pasta and eat quickly because I don’t have an answer for him. He’s not wrong. I can only draw this out so long before I’m either the guy who can’t accept what a woman is telling him or I’m the guy who’s putting off inevitable heartbreak because I’m a coward.
While I eat, Cash tells me about the properties he and Ryland looked at today. There’s one they thought was promising, but Sebastian nixed it for some inexplicable Sebastian reason that’s mostly gut instinct, though he’ll never admit it.
Cash leaves as soon as I’m done eating, and I get back to work. As I’m loading up my truck around eleven, my phone dings.
At this hour, I expect a message from DogPerson, but it’s a text from Amelia. She thanks me for the cat gym I installed in Harper’s room and for ‘not making things weird.’
I’m not sure if she means with her or with her mother and Harper, but I take the compliment with a smile. This is progress.
I don’t text her back until I’m home, because I want to give our conversation my full attention. Just as I’m about to walk into my room, my phone rings with a call from her.
I turn on my heel and head back downstairs and out to the front porch so I don’t wake up Cash.
“Hey,” I say, putting my phone to my ear as I hurry down the stairs. “I was just about to text you back.”
“Oh,” she says, her voice breathy. “I thought you might be pissed at me. You’d have a right to be. I didn’t handle things very well.”
“I’m not pissed, Amelia. I completely understand why it’d be weird for you to have me meet your daughter like that.”
“Especially when you didn’t even know I have a daughter before today.”
Shit. Right. HandsyGuy knew about Harper, not me. “I didn’t text you back because I was driving home.” And because I don’t want her to think I was out on a date, I add, “from work.”
“Oh, no. You had to work late because of me and that cat gym you put in for Harper.”
“Which was my idea,” I say. “Seriously, no big deal.”
“You’re being way too nice. You’re too good for me.”
“Not by a mile, baby. How was your day?”
I stay out on that porch and we talk until she falls asleep. I stay up, sitting in the dark, too amped up to sleep.
For the first time, I fully believe I’ve got a real shot with Amelia.