Page 63 of Between Never and Forever

He nodded. “I know. She was dead set on it. She holding on to that? Is that why you don’t talk?”

He was still prying, but I couldn’t make myself discuss it now. “Something like that.”

He tsked at my lack of opening up, but we weren’t friends. We didn’t just share intimate details of our life like we once had. “Come eat.” He pointed to the stool again, and when I didn’t move, he murmured, “What’s wrong, Kee?”

“Why did you make my favorite breakfast, Dex?” How could I not point out the obvious?

“It’s a meal.” He rolled his eyes. “We need to talk.”

“Ah.” My heart settled its rapid speed at his declaration. The good always came before the bad. I was used to that with my father, with my record label, with my life. “That makes sense, then. You’re going to tell me something horrible.”

“I’m going to tell you a few things.” He took a deep breath. “First, our press release is today.”

My whole body coiled up at the idea. “Olive keeps reminding me, but I keep brushing it off. I’ll go where we need to and—”

“You look like you want to vomit, Kee.”

“Well, what can I say? It’s going to be fun going to some extravagant restaurant and faking that I am so excited when you get down on one knee?”

“Where do you want to go if not some extravagant restaurant?” He turned to look at me, he in a perfectly pressed expensive suit and me in a ratty sweatshirt.

“Didn’t Mitchell—”

“It’s not his choice.”

“They’ll want a proposal of a lifetime and—”

“What doyouwant?” Dex cut me off again, placing his hands on the granite counter and staring at me. “You never actually told me.”

“I don’t need an audience. I never wanted one. There’s a reason I prefer to write songs, rather than just sing them. If I could just…” How could someone be blessed with a gift but not want it? Was I so selfish to not want to sing anymore? To not want the fame that came with it?

“Say what you’re thinking, heartbreaker,” Dex prompted with the nickname he used on and off with me.

I didn’t know why it struck such a cord with me sometimes. I wanted to hear it but hated to at the same time. “You use that nickname like a term of endearment when back in the lilac garden…”

“You broke my heart?” He smiled softly like he was willing to offer information this morning. “It is a term of endearment now, I guess. You’re the only woman who’s be able to do it. If anything, it’s a compliment now, not a slight. I’m giving you credit for that.”

“I’m not sure I want the credit, Dex.” I sighed but somehow it softened my heart to the idea of the name. Being the only woman who’d impacted his life in that way meantsomething. I gave him information back. “Anyway, I’m not sure I want a lot of things, if I’m being honest. I want to live without every single step I take being scrutinized. I used to literally run through the woods with you, Dex, and not care about anything except if the lilacs were in bloom. Don’t you want that again?”

“We’re adults now,” he murmured.

“I know. Sometimes adulting sucks though.”

He nodded again and again as he searched my eyes. “Okay.”

He shrugged, got up, and disappeared from the room. I frowned at his retreating figure and waited to see if he’d come back because I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. He reappeared with my engagement ring box and held it out to me. “Put it on.”

I frowned at him but was willing to listen in order to see where he was going with this. I wiggled it down over my knuckle until it was snug on my ring finger and glinting in the sunlight. While I did, he unbuttoned his cufflinks, rolled them up, stepped behind me, tipped my chin up to have me meet his eyes. He rubbed his thumb back and forth over my skin there. Then he murmured, “You look pretty with my ring on your finger,” before he bent down to kiss me.

He started slow, his tongue swiping softly over my lips and then when I opened for him, his hand drifted down my neck to hold me there. He tasted of coffee and memories and dreams. He tasted so good I moaned into his mouth and his hand slid farther down over my thin sweatshirt to knead at my breast.

My nipples instantly reacted and he groaned, “So fucking tempting in the morning, Kee. You’re killing me.”

He sighed and pulled back to then drape his arm around my neck.

I was still looking up at him as I gripped his forearm, and murmured, “What are you doing?”

“Do you still trust me after all these years, heartbreaker?” He shook his head and brushed his lips across my ear, while his other hand grazed the soft skin of my thigh. “You must to let me be the first to touch you.”