Page 50 of Will Bark for Pizza (Bluebell Springs #1)

THIRTY-NINE

BECKETT

“Is that everything?” Lila asked, looking around the empty apartment. Aside from a couple of garbage bags of trash and a few odds and ends that would also end up in the dumpster, Kira’s Omaha apartment was fully packed up and loaded in a U-Haul.

It was official.

She was moving to Bluebell Springs.

I’d see her every day.

Fuck. I’d see her every day.

“That’s it,” Kira said, her gaze scanning the open-concept space and landing on a small, sealed box she labeled as trash, on the kitchen counter. With the way she kept glancing at it, I had to wonder what was inside.

Lila let out a long yawn.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Kira said to her friend, hugging her for several beats. Pathetic to say I was a little jealous. Not of Lila. But of the hug.

Since Kira tackled me during the spider incident a week ago—I didn’t have the heart to tell her I hadn’t located Charlie yet—we were careful to avoid most physical contact.

Definitely the kind of physical contact that had our bodies pressed together.

It was for the best, considering the electric current that crackled between us even from across the room.

We didn’t have to speak it into existence.

We both knew it was there. But dammit, I missed the way her curvy body fit so perfectly against mine.

“I’m going to miss our coffee dates,” Lila admitted. “But I’m so excited for your next chapter.”

“Me too,” Kira agreed, her eyes shiny.

“Don’t you dare cry,” Lila playfully scolded. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, when your books show up.”

“I hope you know, the book club officially nominated you as our author event coordinator.”

“Just the book club?” she teased.

“Oh, me too.”

“I’ll be back and forth as much as I can.”

“I’m starving,” Luke announced as he, Connor, and Aspen reappeared in the hallway outside Kira’s open doorway.

“I know just the place,” Lila said.

“Why don’t you guys go ahead?” Kira said. “I’ll get the last of the trash, and meet you at Maximino’s.”

“You sure?” Aspen asked, fighting a yawn.

“I’ll stay and help,” I offered.

Luke flashed me a look, but it was short-lived due to his hangriness. “Let’s go,” he said, about-facing toward the elevator.

“You don’t have to stay,” Kira said quietly .

“I know.” I locked eyes with her, assessing whether she wanted to be alone or if she wanted me to stay.

I didn’t want to encroach on her space, but the idea of leaving her by herself when The Asswipe could show up unannounced didn’t sit well with me.

She assured all of us the odds were low, but that also meant they weren’t zero.

“I’m going to do one last walk-through,” Kira said as the others piled onto the elevator.

I nodded, grabbing a couple of trash bags and taking the stairs. I waved the others off as they filed into Lila’s car, and went back inside for another load.

When I returned to the apartment, I found Kira standing in front of the same small box on the kitchen counter, visibly shaking.

“Is there a bomb in there or something?” I teased, hoping to calm the tension pouring off her in waves.

“Not quite,” she said, sniffling through a forced smile, drawing my attention to the redness in her eyes. Hell, had she been crying?

“Hey, if you don’t want to move, we can unload that truck right now?—”

Kira sputtered a laugh through the tears. “It’s not that.” She wiped beneath her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s . . . hard to explain.”

I leaned against an adjacent counter, giving her space but staying close. “You want to try?”

She took a deep breath and released it slowly. “A couple of weeks after I broke up with Travis, he showed up bearing gifts for my thirty-second birthday.”

I made a mental note to learn her birthday the first chance I got. But for now, I just listened.

“I asked him not to contact me. After everything I went through with him, I thought it was the least he could do for me. But, of course, he didn’t like that.

He tried everything to get me to take him back.

When I ignored the influx of phone calls, voicemails, and texts, he decided to show up at my apartment with presents.

I didn’t let him in, but he left them outside my door when I refused to answer. ”

“I’m guessing he didn’t come over much?”

Kira let out a ha! “He was always too good to spend time in my apartment, since he had a perfectly good house. It was his way of punishing me for not moving in with him. God, I’m so fucking thankful I never caved on that.”

The urge to reach for her, to pull her gently into my arms and hold her, overwhelmed my senses. I gripped the granite counter behind me, hoping it was enough to root me in place as she continued.

“He went out of his way for my birthday. Bought me all these gifts that were so specifically me. I know that sounds sweet, but after the couple of birthdays before this one . . .” She shook her head.

“Let’s just say, his idea of giving someone a present was to make them feel guilty for wanting one at all, and eventually taking them to a store and telling them to pick their own.

And then acting like he did you the greatest kindness ever. ”

“Geez.” I had a whole helluva lot more to say on the matter, but I kept my thoughts to myself so Kira could finish.

“It was infuriating getting this stupid box of presents. It proved he was paying attention the whole time, but never wanted to put in the effort until it might benefit him. But it was too late to matter. I donated all the gifts to a shelter. But he also wrote me a letter.” She opened the box and pulled out a single envelope with a folded-up sheet of yellow legal pad.

“The only reason I’ve held on to it is because I wanted to burn it.

But they kind of frown upon setting fires inside apartments. ”

“I imagine they do.”

“I’m not taking it back to Colorado with me,” she said, dropping it into the box and closing the flaps. “I don’t want that negativity following me. I guess the dumpster is as good a place as any for it.”

“No,” I said, pushing off the counter.

“No?”

“You want to burn it, we’re going to burn it.”

“But how?”

“You leave that to me.” I grabbed another load of trash.

Together, we emptied the apartment of the remaining garbage in two trips. Lila had promised to send in cleaners tomorrow, so Kira propped the small box beneath her arm as she locked the door for the last time.

We rode the elevator down in charged silence.

I wanted to hold her hand, to touch her lower back, to put my arm around her and tug her against me.

But since I couldn’t do any of those things without setting off a chain reaction neither of us might be strong enough to fight, I did the next best thing.

I drove us to a spot just past the edge of town and pulled over on the side of a gravel road surrounded by cornfields.

“I don’t understand,” Kira said.

I reached across her lap for the glove box and retrieved a lighter. Did I mean to graze her thigh when I did? Fuck, I couldn’t pretend it was an accident. I was desperate to touch her, even if for a single seemingly innocent moment. “C’mon,” I said, pushing my door open and hopping out.

The small burn barrel I’d forgotten to remove from my truck bed was buried beneath the totes we’d stacked there, but I managed to dig it out.

I intended to leave it at the Kniffen Street house to make more room for Kira’s things, but I stayed late to hang curtains at the bookstore last night and forgot until we were fifty miles down the road.

Connie would insist there were no such things as coincidences.

I set the barrel up in front of the truck, firmly in gravel. It was oversized for just a letter, but it would do the trick.

“Here,” I said, holding out the lighter to her.

She took it from me, her fingers grazing mine. The embers sparked to life. The simple touch a warning that if we started this fire, it would be next to impossible to extinguish.

“It was a weird fucking letter,” Kira mumbled, pulling it from the envelope. She thumbed the lighter and held the flame to the corner of the yellow paper. It caught quickly, licking across the page until it was nearly engulfed in flames. She dropped it into the barrel. “And now it’ll be ash.”

We stood in silence as the letter and its envelope dissolved into dust. Her stoic expression morphed into relief, and a single tear rolled down the side of her cheek.

I waited until the flames extinguished, and poured water into the bottom of the barrel to be certain the fire was out. Kira leaned against the side of the truck, looking up at the star-filled sky in what I could only describe as relief as I cleaned out the barrel and stowed it.

In silence, I joined her, leaning my back against the truck.

But before I could look up at the stars and compare them to the Colorado night sky, Kira flung herself at me.

One moment we were beside one another. The next, her body perfectly molded with mine.

She reached for the back of my head with both hands and yanked me down for a kiss I had no power or desire to fight.

Our lips moved together as one, as though they had a thousand kisses to learn this rhythm. I traced my tongue against the seam of her lips until she opened for me, allowing our tongues to dance.

Fingernails pressed against the back of my neck, her breasts pushed against my chest, and those fucking perfect hips arched right into me. If she doubted my attraction to her before, there was no hiding it now. Blood rushed south, making me hard as a fucking rock in two heartbeats.

I slid my hands down her back, over her hips, and onto her firm ass.

“Fuck, Kira,” I groaned between frenzied kisses, lifting her until she wrapped her legs around my waist. I spun us, placing her back against the truck, and continued tasting those delicious lips.

Hands roamed greedily as our kiss deepened.

A hunger I’d never experienced stirred to life inside me.

It wasn’t the impulsivity I’d experienced with women in the past. It was more profound, and it roused something primal within me.

I didn’t understand what the fuck was happening here.

But one thing was clear: Kira Mason was my kryptonite.

She rocked her hips against my length, and I damn near went blind.

I slid my hand inside her shirt, just above the hip. The skin-on-skin contact sent a lightning storm of sensation throughout my body. I raked my fingers slowly toward her breast, desperate for the feel of those perfect globes in my hands but not willing to rush this.

As my fingertips grazed lace, a shrill ring cut through the air.

“No,” Kira groaned, dropping her forehead against my chest before she slowly slid down my body. She reached through the open passenger side window for her phone. Aspen’s name appeared on the screen.

We were taking too long, and everyone knew.

Well, fuck.

“Hey,” Kira said, answering on speaker. “We’re heading there right now.”

“Did you take the scenic route?” Aspen teased.

A blush surged up Kira’s neck, and dammit, it made me feel smug.

“Had to fix a loose cupboard door,” I said.

“That’s a new one,” Aspen said, as though seeing right through the bullshit lie. But somehow, I suspected she’d keep our secret. In fact, she might just be the ally I needed when it came to that bookstore apartment. I made a mental note to chat with her about it later.

We gave Aspen our orders and Kira hung up the phone.

“Sorry,” she said to me .

“For what?”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you. Again .”

“Maybe I like it when you kiss me.”

“Beckett,” she said, pleading in her tone as she rested a hand on my chest as though it were the most natural thing to do. I wasn’t even sure she was aware she did it until she looked at her hand and pulled it away. “You know why we can’t.”

“I know.” It didn’t stop me from staring at her lips like I was a starving man sizing up his first meal in days.

“Just friends,” she said, though conviction was missing from her tone.

“Friends,” I half-heartedly agreed.

“Friends. No benefits.”

I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, purposely dragging my fingertips along her jaw.

“That’s too bad,” I said, my gaze zeroing in on her mouth. I took a big step back before I gave in and kissed her again. “Because I’m really enjoying these benefits. I think you are, too.”