Page 39 of Starting Over with You (Beer League Belles #2)

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SIX

Kenni

“I don’t want to go to work.”

Dean’s mouth is hot and wet against my jaw as he lifts my hands, threading our fingers before locking them above my head.

He has me pinned against his door, his body pressing firmly into mine, his arousal hard against my belly.

He feels so damn good, especially when his voice is all on edge and rough against my lips. “I want to stay right here with you.”

I smile against his lips. “But I’m going out.”

His lips quirk. “Not if I keep you in my bed.”

I giggle as he trails his mouth along my neck.

His mustache tickles my skin, while his beard scrapes and sends tingles throughout my body.

It’s been a week since the fire station, and Dean is more than I ever could have imagined.

He’s patient, didn’t say a word when we had dinner as a big family that had the potential to bring Jerry Springer out of the grave.

He sat beside Skyye, but his eyes were on me.

I know he thought I would bring it up, tell Missy, but I couldn’t.

I tried to hide in my room when we got home, but once Skyye went to bed, Dean pulled me down my bed by my ankles to carry me to his room.

Where he devoured me whole then said he would wait forever for me.

But then, he reminded me that I only had a week left.

He drives me crazy.

Every day, he makes me happier than the day before.

He doesn’t miss a cup of coffee with me in the morning.

We play cribbage when Skyye goes to bed.

We talk about our days, and he makes me laugh.

It’s so different from how it was with Stratford.

There, I felt like the hired help to raise my boys, but this thing with Dean feels like a true partnership.

It’s absolutely terrifying.

And so unexpected.

Yet, I’m running forward for him.

Dean is just so much fun, and him being a dad should be downright illegal.

He loves Skyye so much, he supports her like no other, and watching them “train” for “Minute to Win It” is probably my favorite thing to do.

When I’m not laughing, I’m swooning for this man who has been so important to me since we were kids.

He was right there, even when I was miles away.

He was in my life, and I never saw him coming.

He wasn’t part of the plan. My GPS wasn’t set on him, no signs pointing right to him.

He just appeared.

Like a sudden sunbeam through the heavy fog over the mountains.

Quiet, unassuming, but so damn sure of me.

Impossible to ignore.

The laughter between the three of us feels like home, and I miss my boys.

I want them here. I want them to experience this kind of true contentment.

To the point that I don’t care that Stratford is fighting my lawyer left and right.

Okay—that bastard does get to me, but Dean does what he can to distract me from it.

Dean slides his tongue into the divot in my chin, and I giggle loudly. I feel my cheeks heat, but he just drinks me in. He grins against my skin as he whispers, “I love the noises you make.”

I stroke my fingers along the curls at his neck. “They’re yours.”

Oh God, how they belong to him because he is the only man to make them come from me so easily.

His wanton gaze meets mine, heat and all things possessive swirling in the blues and greens of his eyes. Not in a Nyle possessive way, but in a really hot Dean way. My phone sounds, and his eyes narrow. “I’m going to throw that damn thing away.”

I snort as I pull it out, glancing at the rage-text from my bestie. “It’s Sadie. I was supposed to be at the house twenty minutes ago. Skyye is probably wondering what I’m doing.”

“We should just tell her I’m ravishing you,” he mutters between nibbling on my bottom lip.

I smack his bicep. “We cannot tell your daughter you’re ravishing me.”

He sucks on my jaw, making my eyes fall closed. “Why not? It’s what I’m doing.”

“Dean,” I whine, and he smiles against my jaw as he slides his tongue to my earlobe. But then there is a knock at the door.

“Dad? Do you know where Kenni is?”

He waggles his brows, and I’m shooting daggers at him. He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, sweetheart. She’ll be out in a minute. She needed to use my razor.”

I roll my eyes.

“I have one,” she calls out. “I’ll make sure to tell her.”

“That’s my girl. Thanks.”

“So, why are you in there?”

I arch a brow, but he just grins, cool as a cucumber. “Getting ready for work.”

“Oh yeah, okay.”

“She’ll be out soon. Oh hey, Skyye is looking for you.”

I glare. “Coming!” I squeak, not sounding like a cool cucumber at all. He covers his mouth to hold in his laughter, and I smack him again.

“Okaayyyy,” Skyye calls out, and I know she knows. She has to. Damn it. I go to open the door, but he presses me into it again, his hands cupping my face. I lean into his touch, lost in his heated gaze as he requests, “Be good?”

“Nope.”

“Try?”

“Can’t.”

He shakes his head. “Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

Dean draws a deep breath in through his nose, and his eyes tell me he wants to say more. I think I know what it is, but he can’t.

Because I might say it back, and I’m still married.

His mouth slides over mine for a searing kiss before I wink and move out of the room. I look over my shoulder to find him watching me, and I beam back at him. “I’ll miss you,” I whisper, and I love that it surprises him.

Dean’s eyes widen, his lips curving into a full grin, and that swoony feeling fills me from top to bottom as he rubs his chest where his heart is. “Miss you more, darlin’.”

I do a little shimmy, and I know I can’t hide this man anymore.

I have to tell Missy.

I meet a very suspicious Skyye on the porch, and I try to distract her with my sunny personality.

When I bring up Taylor Swift and how proud we are that she got the rights back to all her music, I know I’ve fully distracted her.

Within seconds, she’s bringing up stats and even her theories of when and if we’ll get Reputation TV.

We’re still rambling when we get to my dad’s house.

Matt, Nyle, and the kids are going to have movie night with Dad while we go to ladies’ night at the Pine.

Apparently, Dad invited Dean, but of course, it’s on a night that he had to work.

I think he planned that since he has never been a fan of Dean.

That’s another person I’m dreading facing when what Dean and I are building together comes to light .

I will, but I’m not excited.

He’ll, more than likely, be dramatic as all hell.

My dad, not Dean.

After greeting my nieces and nephew, I love on my dad, but then he’s fussing with the potato salad Maggie brought. She isn’t here, but he made it a point to say she was the one to make it. I have to restrain myself from gagging.

But from the grin on my daddy’s face, I can’t be anything but happy for the old dog.

I’m standing on the back porch, impressed by the setup Dad has created for everyone. He put up a huge white sheet and a projector to play movies. He smoked a pork butt, and he has all the makings for sandwiches.

I almost want to stay in.

“We’re still good for tomorrow, right?”

I keep myself from rolling my eyes at Nyle’s request. He hired me to help him expand his market and make more money. I’ve been working my ass off on a plan, but really, he just has to do better. I can only give him tools to broaden his reach, but he has to work daily. Not smother my sister.

“Yeah,” I say, crossing my ankles and leaning on my hip. I’m wearing a pair of Wranglers and a lace top that my boobs are about to fall out of. I’m surprised Dean let me go with just beard burn. “I have that meeting with a new business at one, then you’re my two.”

He nods eagerly. “Missy said you thought they were weird.”

“Yeah, they don’t have any presence here, or in any town this small, but they want me to give them a plan. I don’t know. I’ve done it, but I wish I had something to work off. It’s my first time being a part of a franchise like this.”

“I bet you’re kicking ass, though,” he says, and the condescending tone he usually possesses isn’t in his voice. It’s almost like he believes what he’s saying.

I eye him. “You like me now that I’m out of the house?”

He laughs, running his fingers through his hair before he cups the back of his neck. “It isn’t that I don’t like you, Kenni. It’s that I know how much Sadie hates me, and I worry you’ll feel the same.”

I smile. “I will like you as long as you treat my sister well.”

“Done,” he says with so much conviction in his voice my heart swells. “I love her, Kenni.”

“I know, Nyle.”

We share a small smile, and he mutters, “I’m meeting you at Dean’s?”

“Yup.” He gives me a curt nod, and I force a smile. I don’t want to hate the guy. I think he’s just insecure, and maybe he’ll grow out of it. Missy loves him, and all I can really ask for is that she’s loved the way she deserves.

He seems caught off guard by my smile, offering a timid one in return just as Sadie hooks her arm through mine, completely ignoring him as always. She rode over with Matt since I was running late.

“Let’s go,” she says. “Missy’s in the car.”

I call out a goodbye to everyone before we head to the car, where Missy is, in fact, waiting.

My sister flashes me a wide, full-of-trouble grin that reminds me of the way she looked at me before we’d get into something that Dean had to save us from, and my heart clenches in my chest.

I hope she never stops looking at me like that.

Especially when I tell her that when Dean comes to save us from whatever the hell we’re going to get up to, he’ll mainly be coming for me.