Chapter Nine #4
He pulled the meat and cheese trays from the fridge and handed them to her.
“Let’s get something to eat so we can ride.
I’ve never been good at being cooped up.
” He leaned into her and brushed another kiss across her temple.
“If we stick around here, I’m going to take you outside to the picnic table and have my own little feast. Since you need a break, taking a ride to Caspar seems the best solution. ”
“The picnic table? Outside?” Lyric’s perfectly pitched voice hit a higher note as if she couldn’t conceive of such a thing.
Keys had the unexpected urge to laugh when it was completely foreign to him.
His little innocent was in for many shocking revelations he was more than happy to teach her.
Rather than inform her of all the possibilities, he began building them sandwiches while she stared out the window at the picnic table.
“Why not outside? Wind on your body cooling you. Me keeping you hot. It works. Get the chips out of the cupboard. I think they brought several different kinds. I like spicy.” He grinned at her again, implying all kinds of things just to see her blush, which she did, beautifully. “So barbecue for me.”
“I never know if you’re teasing me or casually giving me one of your endless lessons,” she said as she reached up to try to access the chips on the second shelf. It wasn’t happening, and that made him smile as well.
She glared at him over her shoulder and made a move to climb onto the counter so she could reach the chips. Keys caught her around her waist and set her firmly back on the floor. “Are you deliberately trying to take ten years off my fuckin’ life?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You said to get the chips. I was getting the chips. I climb up on counters anytime I want something on the second shelf. What do you expect?”
“I keep forgetting how short you are. No more climbing on counters. If you fall and hit your head, you could die, Lyric. It isn’t a joke. I should have you wearing a helmet in the house.”
She rolled her eyes again. “I talked to the doctor myself, and he said I was fine. No helmet is necessary. I can resume all activities.”
“I don’t give a damn what Steele says,” Keys declared.
He walked her to a chair and pressed on her shoulder until she dropped into it.
“Nearly lost you, Wildfire. In that helicopter I held you all the way to Caspar and you didn’t open your eyes.
Not once. No matter how many times I told you to open your eyes, you just lay in my arms, barely taking a breath. ”
His tone was accusatory. As if she’d done it on purpose. He never wanted to relive those moments. Not ever.
“How long are you going to be angry with me over something I couldn’t help, Keys?”
He wanted to shake her. Of course she could have prevented what happened. “Maybe if you’d stayed in your locked salon and called the cops, you wouldn’t have sustained a head injury.”
She nodded slowly. “That might be true, but I think, knowing what your prisoner told you, that once they had you on the ground, they would have broken down the door to my salon, and I would have had more than a head injury. They made their intentions very clear.”
He couldn’t argue with that, so he retrieved the chips and put them directly on the table beside the sandwiches.
“Scared me, babe. Not a good thing. I guess you’re just going to have to put up with me getting upset every now and then until I’m over seeing you pale as a ghost with fluid draining out of your brain. Will you cut me a little slack?”
“I always do,” she said and took a bite of her sandwich.
Her eyes. He could fall into her eyes and just live there. Instead of acting like a pussy-whipped idiot, he gestured toward the yard.
“Noticed you like what you see. Any ideas to make it ours?”
She flashed a genuine smile, the one that she reserved just for him. The one that rocked his world. “I always have ideas. You should know that.”
“Knock me out,” he invited.
“I love plants, Keys. If we’re really going to live here for a time, I could design a backyard with all kinds of flowering shrubs to bring in butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
You like to make furniture. We could use a really nice picnic table and a bench for the far side of the garden, not the ones out there now.
They aren’t unique enough. We need unique.
I’m not big on a lawn, but we could use pavers or find something you like to build a patio.
Maybe a fire pit. I’ve always wanted a fire pit. ”
The eagerness in her voice shocked him. She liked the idea of designing a garden for their backyard. Just the fact that she would commit to it without further persuasion sent relief coursing through him.
“I can do unique,” he agreed. “You’ll like the greenhouse. It’s large and the beds are raised so we won’t have to break our backs while we’re working out there. I think there’s fruit trees as well, a small section behind a fence.”
“You think? Didn’t you look at this place before you bought it?” She was definitely laughing at him.
“I paid attention to the acoustics. Every room. That mattered to me. That and the workshops on the property. Needed to know they were set up right.” He looked around the kitchen. “I probably should have tried to see the house the way you would see it.”
“If you did, Keys, you’d know I love it. For someone like me, it’s perfection.”