Page 99 of Not How I Saw That Going

“I wasn’t judging. I thought it was kind of adorable.” She bites her bottom lip and everything in me wants to do the same. Her lip, not mine.

I straighten to my full not-adorable height, “Did you just call me adorable?”

“I did.” She grins and leans up on her toes, pressing a featherlight kiss to my cheek.

Her light touch takes my breath away. “Okay.” My voice comes out more like a croak. If that’s what being adorable gets me, I’ll try to be so more often.

She laughs, then grabs Crew, leading him back to my truck. I turn out of the parking lot. We didn’t talk much after our kiss the other night, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about it. What it meant, what it changed. But until I have that discussion with her, out loud, I can’t assume she’s on the same page. I need to talk to her.

But I can’t get Caleb out of my head, which is the last place I want him. He talks way too much.

Am I ready to share my heart with someone else?

“And then there are going to be apples on caramel!” Crew says, loud enough to bring me back to reality.

I shake my head. I must have heard him wrong.

“You mean caramel apples?”

“Nooo,” Crew drawls.

“He gets things backward sometimes and cannot be convinced he’s wrong,” Lyndi says softly enough Crew can’t hear.

Huh. Seems I’ve gotten things wrong a few times but convinced myself I’m right too. I still haven’t given my dad an answer. The stubborn side of me wants to reject his proposal, just like I have every time he’s offered me the business. But there’s more to this project, and I want todomore.

“What’s that look?” Lyndi asks. “What’s going through that cute head of yours?”

I frown at her. “Cute and adorable? Are you trying to kill my masculinity?”

She grins. “I’ve been trying to do a lot of things since I met you, Ward Preston, but I couldn’t do that if I tried.”

Forget Caleb. With the way my heart is trying to jump out of my chest, I think it already belongs to her.

“So what’s up?”

I turn my attention back to the road. “I went down to my family’s business the other day and my dad, he has this amazing idea for supporting the homeless. He asked me to help with the project.”

She purses her lips. “What do you want to do?”

That is the question.

“I don’t know. I’ve avoided everything about that place for years because I thought my parents were only in it for the money. Now I see that they aren’t.”

She’s silent for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”

I glance in the rearview mirror before switching lanes. “Shoot.”

“Do you like being a fireman?”

The question throws me. I drift over the middle lane and yank us back to the right side of the road before I cause a wreck. “Of course.” Why would I be doing it if I didn’t?

She plays with the hem of her dress. “You said, after the war, that felt like the next step for you, that you needed to atone for your sins. I worry that you’re never going to forgive yourself.”

Forgivemyself?What is she talking about? I was never doing this for myself. Everything I do, have done, is for my teammates.

“The rides! The rides!” Crew shouts from the backseat as the carnival comes into view. I pull a smile back onto my face, or a hint of one, and get in the line to park.

After we pay for tickets, it’s full-on mayhem trying to keep track of Crew in the insane Phoenix crowds. Twenty minutes later I’m sweating more than I did during my last workout.