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This time, her heart melted. “I didn’t want to take the chance of ruining things either, but that hasn’t stopped me from dreaming of it.”

“Yeah?” His eyebrow shot up and his voice dropped into a growl.

“Yeah.”

Then their lips crashed together again. His hands trailed up and down her torso, down to her butt, and back up again. She figured if he was going to destroy her ability to stand, it was his job to keep her upright.

She looped her hands around his strong shoulders and focused on learning what she could do with her mouth to make him lose his mind.

She didn’t know how long they kissed, but when Jolie’s phone beeped, it could have been minutes or hours later.

Ford drew back and hugged her again. “Damn. I could do that for days. You taste like paradise, Jolie.”

She reached up and kissed his jaw. “You’re delicious, too.”

He sighed. “You should probably check your phone.”

“I know.”

But that didn’t happen for another few kisses.

Finally, she groaned and pulled out her phone. The last thing she wanted was her brother barging in on them.

But it wasn’t Knox. It was Kimi. The message had her bouncing. “Kimi found us a flock.”

Ford grinned and picked her up to swing her in a circle. “That’s amazing. When do we pick them up?”

And this was the sign of what a good man he was. No pressure to take things further than a kiss. He was happy for her and more than ready to help.

She texted with Kimi for a few minutes and then did a happy dance. “If we’re ready for them, we can pick them up anytime.”

Ford grinned and kissed her lightly. “I like being able to do that. Let’s finish up this coop and go get the quackers.”

Yep, she was falling fast.

Chapter10

Duck!

Ford was falling in love with Vermont. And with the woman bouncing in her seat beside him. She was full of joy at all times, but on their way to get the ducks, joy pretty much glowed from every pore.

Or maybe that was from the kisses they’d shared over the past couple of days.

He was pretty sure he was doing some glowing himself.

As she’d been doing throughout the drive, Jolie turned to grin at him. She reached over and squeezed his arm. If this area of Vermont wasn’t filled with such twisty roads, he’d have been holding her hand like a high school kid on a first date, feeling like the king of the world in his first piece-of-shit car.

This was better than that heady feeling, because this was real. His attraction to Jolie was more than high-school hormones. Sure, she was gorgeous, but she was so much more than that. Smart, fun, hard-working.

He couldn’t believe she’d had some exes who’d cheated on her. While he wanted to hunt them down and kick their asses for hurting her, he was also glad she was free of them so that they were free to pursue this attraction between them.

He swore as a thought about the ducks hit him. “We didn’t build a fence for the area yet.”

Jolie’s wide eyes turned to her. “I forgot about the fence. Kimi did say the birds should stick around on their own if they had food, water, and shelter. I was so excited about the coop, I forgot about the fence.”

Ford grimaced. “We’ll see what the farmer has to say.” Kimi had given them directions to Brandon Kane’s farm, about an hour away from their own place.

Jolie frowned. “If he thinks we need the fence, we’ll have to come back for the ducks another day.”