CHAPTER NINE #2
“You know what ,” Knox teases. “You and I are going to have another little talk later. We’re going to establish some things.” He turns the key in the ignition.
“Oh,” Sloan says, mouth clearly full of ice cream. “Have you not had the boyfriend girlfriend talk yet?”
“Sloan!”
“What? I learn this stuff watching your tv shows with you. You can’t be mad at me,” she reasons.
“Eat your ice cream,” I huff, desperately wishing I could make this whole conversation just rewind and delete.
“You gonna order me to stuff something in my face if I keep talking too?” he muses, starting to back out of the parking spot. I notice he never finished his ice cream; it’s just sitting here in the center console with the lid back on it.
“I could drive, you know. If you wanted to keep stuffing your face.” Not that I’m suggesting I want him to shut up. But I wouldn’t mind a change in topic either. “Plus, I know where the marina is, and you don’t.”
“I’m good on ice cream,” he assures me. “Just point me where I need to go.”
“I can do that.” I smile. Because for some reason, I have to do that every time I look at the man now.
We’re not far from the marina so I’m not surprised to see we’re pulling in right behind my brother when we arrive.
“That was fast,” Devin observes, getting out of his SUV to greet us. He keeps his boat here year-round unless he’s going to a fishing competition somewhere.
“We were just up the road,” I explain, the first to get out and meet him. I damn near jumped out while the truck was still moving to make it happen too.
“We needed ice cream,” Sloan explains, getting out after me, still eating from her pint, chocolate fudge on the tip of her nose she seems as of yet unaware of.
“Indeed, we did.” Knox walks around the back of the truck to join us, hand stretched out toward my brother. “Knox, nice to meet you.”
“Devin. And it’s kind of surprising to meet you.” My brother grins.
Knox looks like he’s not sure how to respond. I think he’s under the impression my brother has recognized him.
“It’s surprising because I never show up with anyone other than Sloan,” I fill him in on the real reason before he can attempt to guess.
My brother tips his head slightly toward his shoulder. “Or Arizona.”
“True. Though less now that she lives out of state again.” Speaking of, I just felt my phone vibrate.
Given how long it took me to respond to her last text, I’m sure she’s written back with all sorts of inappropriate scenarios she thinks may have been keeping me too occupied to check my phone. Which I’m not going to do now either.
“Where are Krissy and Owen?” Sloan asks, checking her uncle’s backseat for her cousins and apparently coming up empty.
“They rode with Aunt Sila to go pick up Jess and Brianna,” he tells her. “Should be here any minute.” Then he hooks his arm around her and adds, “I just bought two new rods. Wanna pick one to use later?”
She nods, mouth too full and sticky to answer, but her eyes display her enthusiasm plenty.
Knox and I watch as they walk around to the other side of the SUV before I whisper, “My brother only listens to country. I’m not sure he’s ever even heard of you, and he definitely doesn’t know what you look like.”
A pleased expression moves onto his handsome face. “That works.”
“As for Jess and Brianna.” I make a face. Sila and I get along well enough, but her friends are just a wee bit over the top for my little introverted ass. “They may take one glance at you and whip out their boobs for you to sign.”
He laughs.
I don’t. “I’m being totally serious.”
He places both hands on my hips and moves me closer. Then he takes a quick peek toward where my brother and daughter disappeared behind the SUV before he leans in to kiss me. “Should we have that boyfriend girlfriend talk before it happens?” he murmurs, his lips still lingering on mine.
“You don’t feel like that should be a conversation we have somewhere other than a parking lot and with more than thirty seconds of privacy available to us?” I’m not murmuring. I’m more like sternly whispering.
“Nope.” His hands move from my hips until he’s got both arms wrapped around me tightly. “I think we should make it official. Thoughts?”
“Really?” Even he ought to know already that I have, like, a million of those.
“Just a yes or no will work here. It’s a pretty straightforward talk, Kenley,” he rumbles softly, face still so close to mine, he repeatedly brushes his lips over my mouth, teasing me, as if that will sway me to say yes.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“Fine, let’s do the boyfriend girlfriend thing, I guess.”
It’s enough of a yes for him to finally kiss me again. Not that I was motivated by the prospect of his kiss. Not at all.
“See?” he says, slowly pulling away again, grinning in that sexy way he seems to do all the goddamn time. “Thirty seconds of privacy was plenty.”
“Are you going to treat all of our big conversations as a get in and get out sort of a situation?” I ask, curling into his side while his arm drapes loosely over my shoulder and we start our walk around the SUV to join my brother and Sloan again.
“Probably.” I’m not sure he even sees the issue here.
“Seriously?”
“Yes,” he confirms. Seriously. “Why waste both our time on a conversation we both know the contents of and you’re just going to pretend you forgot ever having in the first place?”
“ What are you talking about?”
“You know,” he says. But I clearly don’t know.
“That thing you do, where we agree to something, and then later I act like we agreed to it, and you act all surprised in return.” He smacks a kiss on the side of my head.
“I have a feeling it’s more a matter of not believing than forgetting, but either way, I’m learning a combo of direct statements and correlating actions is the most effective means of communication here. At least for now.”
I swallow down the sudden urge to cry. Two years it’s been, and no matter how much I think I’ve healed or how much work I’ve done to clean up the aftermath inside my head, every so often, I’m still blindsided by old wounds I’ve yet to tend to.
“I’ll try to be better about that,” I force out as calmly as I can. “That’s really not very fair to you.”
“It wouldn’t be fair to me if you tried to suppress a need for something, especially if it’s something you need from me , and something I can easily, happily give,” he says, lowering his voice as we round the corner.
“It’s not a matter of doing better, Kenley.
I want you to feel better. Secure. I want you know that when I say something, you can depend on it to be true.
And consistent.” He turns, dipping his head down to look me in the eyes. “Got it?”
I nod. “Got it.”
He smiles. “Good.” Then he turns up and out toward Sloan. “Let’s see this rod you chose.”