Page 45 of Let’s Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About

The kiss felt spun of the most primordial elements, sexier than sex.

He felt her presence everywhere inside him.

Less timid than she’d ever been, even when she brazenly fucked herself in front of him.

This was more intimate, the way she touched his neck, the gentle suck of his lower lip into her mouth.

He let his hands roam, a thumb grazing over her nipple, the back of a knuckle along the side of her neck.

She broke the kiss and touched her forehead to his, their eyes locked.

That usually focused gaze of hers was softened, her pupils calm black pools.

The shared air between them was electric, portentous.

Sadie pulled back. “I suspect I know the answer to this question, but how long could I stay here?”

Forever. “As long as you need” was his less dramatic reply.

“My father isn’t coming back. He’s selling the farm to my uncle Bud.

Grace is about to be a single mother and she’s had a falling-out with our mother.

So I’m going to stay. While my uncle Bud is perfectly nice, I don’t want to stay at the farm.

I don’t want to live with Grace either, so I’m going to find myself another place soon. ”

This is your place.

He hadn’t built the extra unit for any particular reason.

When he first moved from California, he’d envisioned his friends would enjoy a bucolic getaway.

Time spent with an old friend, doing honest labor, fresh air, all of that.

Turns out people think of Indiana and vacation in the same sentence about as often as they pair relaxation and thumbscrews .

It was why he hadn’t bothered to install a bathroom yet.

Maybe it had been fate that he’d created this little space that gave Sadie the solitude she needed while also pushing them together in the way he craved.

Josh had to stop himself from daydreaming about Sadie long enough to consider the rest of her words. “Wait, Stu is staying in Florida?”

“He’s got a girlfriend down there who has him eating hard-boiled eggs.”

Josh gasped. “The devil’s own testicles?”

“I knew you would know.”

“I brought them to the market once because I hadn’t had the time to eat a proper meal that whole day and I never heard the end of it.”

Sadie smiled. “‘Don’t yuck on someone else’s yum’ is not a statement Stu Fox has ever put any stock in.”

“Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Her name’s Priscilla. He found her in the personal ads in a boat magazine. She’s really into healing.”

He clapped his hands. “I knew it! He was jabbering on about wooden boats, and it rang a bell. I found the magazines in the garage with the personals dog-eared.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t want to make any assumptions. I figured Stu would tell you or me when he was good and ready.”

“My dad still likes his secrets, but he really does seem like he’s changed. Maybe humans are capable of change, after all. Maybe I’m capable of being in a relationship and not entirely fucking it up by being me.”

The amount of hope and despair balanced in that statement broke Josh’s heart. He stepped toward her, and she slipped her arms into the space between his arms and his torso. He clasped her tight, one hand on her back, the other threaded into her hair to cradle her head.

“If anyone here is going to fuck this up, it’s going to be me,” he said quietly.

She pulled back. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse before.”

“Must be your bad influence.”

“Hmm, now that I’ve seen you’re capable, I’m going to need you to bring that energy to the bedroom. Assuming you haven’t written me off because I told you that I loved you but was still moving away.”

“You talk a big game, Fox. That you’re so prickly and impossible.

And prone to fucking things up. But what have you actually done?

You poke around in my pumpkin patch. You make me pancakes.

You teach me about art. You think you’re some feral beast but in fact you’re a sweet house cat who likes being petted. ”

Sadie tilted her head to nip at Josh’s neck with gentle, tantalizing bites. “I might be realizing that myself.”

“Good. Because I want to keep loving you.”

“I want to keep being loved. But I don’t want to move into the A-frame with you. I want to stay here in the garage,” she said.

“So you’re more of a barn cat than a house cat. That’s fine.”

“And you can’t ask me to go somewhere I can’t wear black.”

Josh smiled into Sadie’s hair. “This is Indiana. If you’re complying with shirt and shoes regulations, you’re good.”

She held Josh at arm’s length. “But you’re too nice to me. You have to promise you’ll tell me what you want.”

Josh had almost everything he wanted. He had a vision of a more streamlined version of Josh’s Squashes. He had the sun and the soil and the rain, as much as anyone could have such things. He had his love right here in his arms.

The ideas bubbled up. His tongue was already loosened by his use of the word fuck , still so foreign thanks to spending his whole life policing every word he uttered.

The words didn’t have to have vitriol behind them if he didn’t use them that way.

They could, almost inconceivably, miraculously, have love behind them instead.

“I want to fuck you,” he said.