Page 38 of Donut Disaster
The night endsand we make the long trek home. Noah is still dropping off Cormack, so I coerce Everett to come over. No use in wasting that suit, that body, that bedroom look in his eyes.
We say a quick hello to Pancake and Waffles as I shut the door behind us.
“Come here, big boy.” I pull Everett in by the tie, and his lips curl with devilish intent.
His lids lower a notch. “Just one kiss.”
“Just one? Then right to the good part after that?” I’m embarrassingly hopeful.
He closes his eyes a moment. “No good part, Lemon.”
“What?” I practically bark in his face. “What do you mean, no good part?” I tuck my fingers in the lip of his pants, and he picks up my hand right out of there and lands a kiss to the back of it.
“Lemon.” His lips pull into a line. “You know how I feel about you. But if we hit the mattress, Noah won’t stand a chance.”
Any trace of a smile glides right off my face. “You’re right. And by the way, I hate it when you’re right.”
Everett pecks a kiss to my lips before pulling back, his lids dangerously heavy as if he were on the cusp of changing his mind.
“I hate it when I’m right, too.” His thumb glides softly over my cheek. “But I’m not opposed to doing other things.”
“Other things.” I nod hypnotically, never breaking our gaze. “Like what?”
“Like this.”
Everett blesses me with a deep well of a kiss that makes me heady, dizzy, and forgetting who I am, who we once were. He pours his soul into this kiss as if his life depended on it, as if we depend on it.
And I certainly wonder if we do.
Chapter 12
“He cut you off?” Keelie gasps in horror.
“I know it’s weird. This is Everett we’re talking about.”
Meg grunts, “Tell him to give it to you or else.”
Lainey swats her. “You don’t speak to a man that way. You don’t speak to anyone that way.”
Mom is hosting a welcome home dinner for Lainey and Forest tonight at the B&B, and all of the usual suspects have arrived, my sisters and their plus ones, Keelie and the whole Turner clan, Carlotta and Mayor Nash, Finn and Britney, Cormack for no reason whatsoever, and much to my relief, both Kelleth and Aspen have shown up for the seafood buffet my mother thought would be the perfect menu to send off summer.
“Nobody is speaking that way to Everett.” I give Meg a stern look. “He’s trying to do the right thing.”
Meg huffs, “Well, bless his heart.” She rocks her hips while doing her best to sound like a country girl. “I hope his man parts fall off in the meantime. Cutting off my sister…” She stalks off toward Hook, and it looks as if she’s about to make him and his man parts pay for Everett’s discretion.
Lainey shakes her head. “Don’t mind her. So how are you feeling? Have you kissed Noah yet?” She wrinkles her nose with a silly smile on her face. “I bet it will be amazing after all these months.”
“No, I’m not kissing Noah. I just kissed Everett last night. Everett is the only one I’ve kissed for the last six months—on purpose, that is.”
Keelie giggles like a schoolgirl. “It’s okay, Lottie. I think Everett is giving you a hall pass.”
“A hall what?Eww. He certainly is not. This is more like a cerebral hall pass. He wants me to explore my heart, not Noah’s body.”
A hard moan comes from behind as a familiar cologne permeates the vicinity. “I vote for body.” Noah lands a soft kiss to my cheek.
Keelie taps her fingers over her lips. “Looks like there’s gonna be some kissing!” she trills as she takes off for the buffet. It looks as if Bear just walked in, and I watch as she gives him an exaggerated smooch while pointing down at their lips for my benefit.
“Ignore her,” I say.