Page 59 of Your Last First Kiss

“Sweetheart?”

She keeps her head bowed but lifts her eyes to mine.

“I grew up surrounded by chaos. I thrive in it. Just give me the chance to prove I can handle yours.”

CHAPTER18

PENNY

“‘Let me prove it,’” I mutter under my breath. Dillon’s words fly around my head like they’re contenders in a fight club.

“‘Just let me prove it.’ Who says that?” I scoff, frustrated all the way to my fingernails.

“Apparently, someone who can get under your skin.” Miller chuckles in the doorway.

I spin from the stove with my oven mitts on both hands. “For crying out loud, Mill. Why are you sneaking up on me?”

He pushes off the doorframe, takes the mitts from my hands, and then hip-checks me out of the way. Leaning forward, he takes the bread out of the oven.

Oh crap. The timer’s beeping.

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you,” he says after he places the pan on a trivet, then presses the button on the stove to turn off the timer. “I told you the timer was going off, but you didn’t hear me.” He turns a devilish expression my way. “You were a little preoccupied. Want to talk about it?”

“No,” I say too quickly.

“You sure?”

“No. Yes?” Dropping my face into my hands, I shake my head. “I don’t know, Mill. I just don’t know.”

He grabs my hands and pulls them away from my face. Then bends at the knees, so I’m forced to look at him. “What don’t you know?”

My brain seizes on memories from ten minutes ago. Right before Gage bounded into the room, breaking the spell Dillon had me under.

I purse my lips into a thin line and peek around his shoulder to make sure the kids aren’t listening.

“Let me guess,” he whispers. “Dillon being here, in your space, giving you bedroom eyes, has your fight or flight kicking in?”

“Bedroom eyes?” I whisper-screech. “Bedroom eyes? Are you kidding me? Do you think Kai noticed?”

Miller’s expression softens. “No, Pen. I don’t. I think Kai’s too busy trying to navigate the teen years to notice, but me? Yeah, I noticed. I also noticed how he looked after Kai all day. How he made sure the ladder was secure before he let Kai climb up to reattach Mrs. Winters’s holiday wreath. I noticed how he kept himself between Kai and the road when we cleared walkways. I noticed a lot, Pen. I don’t think you need to keep your guard so high with him.”

Tears make my eyes hot. Eddy doesn’t even know where his kids are, but Dillon put himself between my son and the road to keep him out of danger.

How messed up is that?

“I know what you’re thinking,” Miller says.

“No, you don’t.”

“Try me,” he goads.

“It’s messed up, Miller. Eddy is messed up.” Taking the sponge from the sink, I scrub at the counter with so much force my fingertips go raw.

“It’s not easy,” he agrees. “But Dillon seems to get it. Have you talked to him about his past? I get the feeling that dealing with Eddy isn’t something that just comes naturally to him.”

I chuck the sponge into the sink and cross my arms around my middle. “He told me his dad had issues with substance abuse and that he had to cut his mother out of his life when she wouldn’t make healthy choices, but I didn’t… I mean, we didn’t…”

“You didn’t dig deeper because you didn’t want to be obligated to share,” he surmises.