“You’ve got it,” he said. “So do you know about the tupelo tree fruit and honey?”
“No. I didn’t read about tupelo trees.”
“Well, the Ogeechee tupelos have a fruit we call ‘Ogeechee limes.’ They’re used in drinks and sauces. But what they’re really known for is the honey. Gets a really high price. Kind of a vanilla flavor. Beekeepers bring their hives down here by boat and float the hives along the water when the trees are blooming in April and May.”
“Wow.” Paige was looking out at the trees again and seemed genuinely fascinated.
“I’ll get you some so you can try it.”
“I’d love that.” She gave him a sweet smile.
The kind of smile that made him want to declare that she could have anything she wanted from him for the rest of his days.
He was so screwed here. This woman was going to meet his family and go running.
“We can come down and check out the bees in April, too,” he suggested.
Was he pushing his luck asking her to still be here in April? Maybe. Giving her a reason to stick around? Hopefully.
She slid him a look that said it was maybe more pushing his luck. But she nodded. “Maybe.”
Well, that wasn’t back the fuck off, buddy.
“What else do you want to know about the bayou?” he asked.
“I think I want to know what you wanted to get me alone for.”
He looked at her. That was a question with many answers. The simplest was that he just wanted to be with her. Talk to her, hear her voice, see her face, make her laugh. They’d been apart for a week, and he’d missed her. It had been six months between the first time they met and the second. He’d thought of her constantly, texted her, acknowledged that she was the reason he had no interest in any other women.
But this time… since he’d left Iowa, he’d been nearly aching for her. The texts had still been sweet and fun, but they’d wound him tighter every time one came in. He’d actually talked himself out of getting in his truck and heading back to Appleby twice.
Now she was here. She’d come here, to him, of her volition. And now he was wound tight in a new way.
Having her here, in his world, in his life, was going to make it so much harder when she left.
If she left.
No. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t think about it like that. He needed to just enjoy the time she was here.
He reached for her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “I’ve missed you,” he said honestly. “I wanted a chance to find out if you’re okay. What you’re thinking. What I can do.”
She studied their hands, then lifted her eyes to his. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That you want to know what you can do for me. How you can make it all better. Without even knowing what ‘it’ is or what it would take to make it better.”
He thought about that. Then lifted a shoulder. “Yeah.”
She took a deep breath. “Maybe I should spend the night and then head out.”
“Back to Iowa?” His frown was deep and immediate.
“No. Just… maybe I should just road trip. See some sights. I wanted to get away and have alone time. Maybe that’s the way to do it. Now that I’m packed up and on the road.”
She’d told him last week that she’d been planning a Year of Aloneness—her actual term for it. She felt stifled by her family and frustrated with their expectations and she wanted a chance to do her own thing out from under their watchful eyes. Her plan was pretty specific. She’d been saving up money to go to Colorado Springs. She planned to teach yoga and just live alone, enjoying her space, and the chance to make her own choices without explanation or judgment. For a year. She didn’t intend to leave home for good, but she needed a break.
That story had been what prompted him to invite her to Louisiana.
And here she was.
Of course, she’d told him about her Year of Aloneness when he’d told her he was thinking about moving to Iowa to be closer to her to see what could come of this connection they had.
She had pushed back on that immediately. Hard.
He was okay with it, to an extent. She was young. Only twenty-two. She’d been proposed to four… make that now five… times. Her mother wanted nothing more than for her to settle down. Her mom and her older sister and who knew how many other relatives thought her collecting cats instead of having babies was a red flag. They thought her owning a yoga studio instead of doing something “normal” like teaching or running a bakery the way her older sisters did was weird.
Paige just wanted to be left alone.
He did not want to leave her alone.
Which meant that he needed to cool it.
“You can’t drag those poor cats out on a never-ending road trip,” he said, brushing his thumb over the back of her knuckles.
She nodded. “Could I leave them with you?”
He met her eyes. “Leave them here while you travel?”
“Yeah.”
He pulled in a breath. If that was what she needed, then yeah, he’d keep her cats. “Yes.”
Several seconds passed as they just looked at one another. “Thank you,” she said.
“For cat-sitting?” He shrugged. “I’ve alligator-sat before. Cats move around more, but they won’t take off my hand when I feed them, so I’ll probably be okay.”
Her eyes rounded. “You’ve alligator-sat?”
“Sure.”
She shook her head. “Okay. Well, actually, I meant thank you for just agreeing. For being… a friend.”
He squeezed her hand. “That’s what you need then? A friend?”
“And a roommate.”
“You can stay as long as you want to.”
She turned on the tailgate to face him. “And the orgasms we talked about.”
His body heated. He reached to cup the back of her head and pulled her in, resting her forehead on his. “Can fucking do.”
“Does it have to be in your bedroom?” she asked, her breath hot on his lips.
“We’ll have to kick Griffin out of the living room some nights.”
“I mean…” She was suddenly climbing into his lap on the tailgate. “What about here?”
His hands settled on her hips. She felt so good. Smelled so good. She was gorgeous, and he remembered everything about how she tasted and felt and sounded when they were naked together.
“Whatever you want, darlin’.”
She shivered lightly and smiled down at him. “I’ve been thinking about you non-stop. But my vibrator is a very poor substitute.”
He gripped her hips harder. The image of her spread out on her bed in that little apartment in Iowa, naked, using her vibrator while thinking of him, was crystal clear in his mind.
“Did you bring your vibrator to Louisiana with you?”
“I did.”
“I’m going to need a replay of some of that.”
She gave him a sexy smile. “I think that can be arranged.”
“But if you need a good bayou fucking, I can take care of that right now.”
Her pupils dilated, and her breath caught. “I do. I do need that.”
He skimmed his hand down her side and slipped under the bottom of her t-shirt. His hand slid up to cup one breast, teasing the nipple with his thumb.