Chapter 14 The Kissing Tree #2
Phoenix joked about a lot of things. His fear of mice wasn’t one of them. Mice. Rats. Gerbils. Anything with a furry body and un-furry tail freaked him the fuck out—except, for some reason, Do-Re-Mi. He blamed Naiomi and a prank she’d played on him with her second-grade class pet.
With a shared goal in mind, he and Addie worked efficiently, keeping one ear open to ensure Max didn’t murder Gavin on the other side of the barn.
It wasn’t long before they’d cleared out about 90 percent of the tack room, leaving behind an antique desk that had somehow remained standing despite the amount of shit that had been stacked on it.
“This desk is gorgeous.” Addie stared at it in awe as she ran a hand over the deeply pockmarked surface. “Can you imagine all the things and experiences this desk has seen?”
“Definitely can.” He grimaced, trying to see the beauty in it that she did, but failing. “Probably saw a lot of mice taking a dump in those drawers, too.”
Addie chuckled at his look of disgust. “You don’t like antiques?”
“Antiques—to me—are just germ-ridden old things.”
Addie rolled her eyes. “Spoken like someone whose apartment is sparse and industrial.”
“I think you mean easy to clean.”
“I said what I meant.” She headed to one end of the desk. “All right. Let’s go ahead and take this out to Xavier and Bailey, and then we can see how the others are faring.”
As it turned out, everyone had fared pretty well, and by the time lunch rolled around, all that needed emptying was the loft. They worked up a modified bucket system to move everything down and then it was time for the fun part.
Making the place sparkle.
Phoenix couldn’t help but smile as he snuck yet another glance at Addie as she finished sweeping up the far back corner. She smiled wistfully, her gaze occasionally glancing around at everything they’d accomplished.
And they’d accomplished a hell of a lot, the barn nearly unrecognizable.
So mesmerized by the soft, gorgeous, upward tilt of Addie’s lush lips, Phoenix didn’t see the incoming projectile until it scurried over the top of his boot. He glanced down and froze, his heart leaping into his throat.
The barn mouse stared at him with beady, judgmental eyes, its faint squeak sounding like a lion’s roar before it scrambled up his jeans.
“Fuck!” Phoenix squealed and kicked air before leaping into an empty wheelbarrow and riding it like a damn surfboard. “Not today, you furry little Satan!”
“What are you doing?” Leaning on her broom, Addie watched him as if he’d sprouted a Hydra head.
“There was a…” He glanced around the room and didn’t see the little fucker anywhere. “It was here a second ago.”
“Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure you scared it away.” Addie’s lips twitched as she tried—and failed—to withhold a laugh. “Either that, or it’s biding its time and waiting for you to come back down to earth before it makes a calculated move.”
“Fuck.” Phoenix gulped. “Do you really think it’s lying in wait?”
Addie burst into laughter, and he didn’t even care that it was at his expense. “No, Phoenix, I don’t think it’s waiting in the wings staging its attack. It was probably more scared of you than you were of it.”
He snorted. “Yeah, pretty sure you got it reversed, love.”
Addie, still smiling, approached his elevated wheelbarrow position with an extended hand.
“I, Adalyn Love Whitlock, promise not to let the big scary mouse hurt you. Also, I’m fairly certain the wheelbarrow you’re standing in once held horse poop, and it’s so rusted, the bottom will probably fall out in about five more seconds.
Unless you want to add a tetanus shot to today’s agenda, you may want to climb down. ”
“Hey, did I hear Phoen—” East’s words were cut off a moment before he and the others stepped into the barn. The gargoyle smirked. “Let me guess … mouse?”
“It wasn’t just a mouse,” Phoenix defended himself and jumped down. “The thing was fucking massive. It could’ve worn a fucking saddle it was that big. The city monsters have nothing on that country fucker.”
East rolled his eyes. “If you’re done scaring the local wildlife, Emilio said that dinner is ready to be devoured, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I am fucking hungry as hell.”
They all headed up to the main house, Phoenix and Addie bringing up the rear. Her gaze kept sliding toward her sister.
“What do you think is going on there?” Phoenix watched his friend and Maxi closely.
They snuck glances at each other, but where the other daughter of Aphrodite looked murderous, Gavin looked confused.
Maybe even somber. Phoenix couldn’t remember a somber day in his friend’s life.
Nothing fazed the Stone Talons’s lead singer, everything rolling off his back as if he were a seal shifter instead of a griffon.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Addie admitted sheepishly. “I’ve never seen Maxi act so openly hostile to anyone before. That’s always been my forte.”
To the left of the back porch, one of Emilio’s ATVs sat parked and gave Phoenix an idea. “How hungry are you right now?”
“Moderately,” she answered carefully. “Why?”
“Think you can hold out for forty-fiveish minutes?”
“Maybe?”
“Wait here.” Phoenix jogged into the house and grabbed the ATV keys before warning the others that there better be food left when they got back.
He walked back to Addie and caught her looking out into the fields, a small smile playing on her lips.
“You ready for a ride? I want to show you something.”
“And that something would be…?”
He chuckled. “You really hate surprises, don’t you? Fine. I thought we’d run out to the kissing tree Nai mentioned in her wedding journal and we can see if it’s as magical a spot as she claims.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Excitement sparkled in Addie’s eyes as she snatched the ATV keys from his hands. “But this time, I’m driving.”
He paused by the vehicle as she climbed up and inched forward. “Do you know how to drive one of these things?”
“How hard can it be?” With a menacing grin that instantly stirred his cock to life, she patted the seat behind her. “Now it’s your turn to hold on tight, and don’t forget to scootch in nice and close. We wouldn’t want you to fall into any cow patties.”
“You mean horse patties?” Phoenix chuckled as she used his words against him.
In a role reversal, he climbed behind her onto the ATV and immediately inched forward until his chest brushed her back. One arm banded snugly around her waist, and he settled the other hand low on her hip.
“Ready whenever you are.” His lips skimmed her ear, and hell if she didn’t shiver in his arms, making him want to do it all over again. “Head left and keep going until our only options are to stop or swim in the creek.”
She turned the ignition, and they jetted forward, the ATV’s headlight growing brighter the more the sun sank into the horizon. Ten minutes later, the massive willow loomed in front of them, a natural monument in an open field of green.
“Oh, wow.” Mouth agape, Addie’s gaze slid over the nearby bubbling creek before tracking the movements of a gentle swarm of fireflies as they made themselves known.
Phoenix jumped from the ATV and helped her off.
Her knees buckled and he quickly braced his hands on her waist, holding her upright. “You good?”
A pretty pink blush rose high on her cheeks. “Sea legs.”
“Here to catch you whenever you need, love.”
She rolled her eyes, but smiled.
He counted that as a win as he regretfully moved aside to let her take in the kissing tree and its surroundings. “What do you think?”
She tilted her face toward the clear, starry night sky before closing her eyes with a small sigh and letting the moonbeams soak into her skin. “No wonder Naiomi called this place magical. I feel it in everything.”
Addie stole the breath from Phoenix’s lungs and he wasn’t sure if he wanted her to give it back. He’d always thought this spot enchanted, too, but it paled in comparison to the magic emanating from the woman standing in front of him. She inspired feelings he’d never felt before.
Things he couldn’t decipher, and the more he tried, the more impossible it seemed. It had physically pained him when she’d explained her views on love, and even though she did make a few valid points, he’d made a promise to himself.
To prove to Adalyn Whitlock that she was wrong.
If anyone deserved to possess someone’s whole mind, body, and soul, it was her. He didn’t know if he was the right man for the job, but he damn sure wished he could be.
“This is the place,” Addie announced in a soft whisper, her eyes opening and immediately landing on him.
“We’ll ask Emilio about logistics for transporting guests out here for a sunset ceremony.
Hopefully, if we time things right and luck is on our side, when East and Nai exchange vows, the fireflies will come out to play and it’ll be—”
“Beautiful,” Phoenix finished.
“Exactly.” She beamed excitedly, emitting a quiet giggle. “So we’re in agreement. This is the place?”
“No. I mean, yes. I mean…” Phoenix mentally smacked the back of his head in the hopes it got his mouth and brain working in tandem again. “Yes, you’re right. This is definitely where they should have the ceremony, and it is beautiful.”
With an agreeing nod, she glanced toward the slowly trickling creek.
Phoenix took a deep breath and took the plunge. “But the beautiful I was talking about just then was actually you.”
Her head whipped toward him, gaze scanning every inch of his face as if judging the sincerity of his words.
She’d find nothing but truth. The woman was so damn beautiful it sometimes hurt to look at her directly, almost as if she exuded a goddess’s golden glow. If that was even a thing.
“You know people don’t say stuff like that, right? At least not without it being a pickup line and expecting something in return.” Addie shifted awkwardly on her feet and trapped—and nibbled—the bottom corner of her lip between her teeth.