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Lifting a hand to my chest, I tried to hide the sob that wanted to escape. He’d noticed that? I thought no one had.

And he was right. I couldn’t explain why at the time, but last summer, I’d finally let Tommy go. For good.

I still remembered the night it happened. I’d sat outside, in my back yard on the twins’ old broken-down swing set alone in the dark, dangling my bare feet over my overgrown grass and releasing all the complicated love I’d had for Thomas George back into the universe. There was a time I never could’ve imagined doing it, but for some reason, that night, the night a bright shooting star zipped across the midnight sky, dreams felt possible again.

And then a meteor came crashing down on me. My business took a nosedive, and it was my own fault. I’d been so scared to move for so long that I guess life just went on without me.

But Rye had seen everything I’d tried to hide from my family and friends. He’d respected boundaries I hadn’t even known I’d put up, and now, here he was, doing this amazing thing for me and politely asking me to take those boundaries down to help him.

And to help myself. I needed to remember that I was the one truly benefiting from his kindness and this whacked-out idea of his. I couldn’t even describe how relieved having the IRS weight lifted off my back made me feel.

When I reached for his hand and pulled him closer, the surprise on his face was adorable, and I realized then how handsome he really was.

Yeah, sure, his ass was a thing of horny dreams the world over, but now I knew it was the kind look in his eyes that made him beautiful, the optimistic view he had of the world, and the teasing smile I thought I might commit a crime to see again.

Pushing up on my tiptoes, I kissed him. I closed my eyes and let myselfreallykiss him, and he wrapped his well-worked hands around my ribcage and squeezed.

I pressed my whole body against his and felt justhowmuch he wanted me, and in that moment, dreams felt real once again.

Everything felt real, like I’d just woken up from a long nap I hadn’t even known I needed and found myself in the middle of the most vibrant story. Definitely the sexiest.

Against my lips, he said, “I have wanted you for so long,” and he deepened the kiss, tilting his head and seeking entrance inside me with his tongue. I opened for him, and he moaned into my mouth.

I breathed, “Rye.”

“Mm?” One of his hands worked its way up my spine and the other headed in the opposite direction.

So much for “Oh yeah, I totally know this is about us helpin’ each other.”

“You have to stop this,” I said, clutching at his shoulders with greedy hands, pulling him even closer. “I can’t. It’s been so long, and you feel like heaven.”

That just made him kiss me harder.

Crushing his lips against mine, his tongue did wicked things to my mouth. He had me imagining that tongue in other places again, and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. Like, not a sexy breathlessness, but a panting, messy, “Shit, I’m about to hyperventilate” kind of breathless.

“Aubrey? What’s wrong?”

It amazed me how quickly such a simple act had turned into aburningneed.

My hands had been snaking beneath his T-shirt—sweet Jesus, his body was hard and hot—but now I dropped them and stepped away. I bent at the waist, trying to force oxygen to my brain so I could figure out what the hell I’d just done.

“I-I’m sorry.”

“You okay?” he asked as I struggled to catch my breath, and he tried to pull me back into his arms. “Was that not?—”

“No,” I said, holding my hand up between us to stop him. “It’s my fault. I started it.”

He dropped his arms. “Ain’t nobody’s fault. It’s what you needed. It’s definitely what I needed.”

“No. You don’t get it. I don’tneeda man.” I shook my head and finally stood up straight. “Yeah, there are things you can give me that some might argue I lack.” I rolled my eyes when Roxi’s and Juneau’s faces popped into my head. “But I’ve spent too much of my life givin’ all the good things I had inside me to someone who didn’t appreciate them. I can’t do that again. I won’t.”

Disregarding the space I’d put between us, he stepped forward and gripped my hips, and my fingers dug into his shoulders again as I squeaked my surprise and he lifted me onto a fleece blanket spread across his open tailgate.

He plopped me down and lowered his face to mine so we were eye to eye. He was so big, he took up all the air around us. I couldn’t even see the road behind him.

“You listen here, woman. I watched you do that. I saw how he wore you down and treated you like he owned you instead of loved you.” He moved between my legs, widening them until they were practically wrapped around him. “I grieved for you then because Iknewwhat that meant for you, even when I was ateenager. I’ve waited all these years just to see the spark back in your eyes. Now it’s there again?

“You best believe I’m gonna be front row for that.”