Page 12 of Let Me Be the One
Seeing inside Reggie’s house should have been enough to send her home. Instead, she’d gleefully soldiered on, determination in every curvy line of her body—a body he’d imagined naked many times over the years.
A body that he still badly wanted to explore.
He drew a slow breath, knowing it wouldn’t help, and headed into the kitchen. The shower had refreshed him, but he remained hot around his neck.
Addie immediately put a plate of meat loaf, potatoes, and an ear of corn on the table. “Here you go, honey. All warmed up.”
“Thanks, but I could have gotten it.” She didn’t need to wait on him. Far as he was concerned, Addie already did far too much—for him, for Kam, and now she’d be helping with neighbors.
“Ha! So you could skip giving me all the juicy details?” She pulled out a chair across from him. “Not on your life. You can eat, but also talk.”
With a shrug, he dug into the food, then had to groan in pleasure. “No one cooks like you, Addie.”
“You know I love it.”
Kam, every bit as nosy as Addie, came in and sat beside her. “Let’s give him two minutes to eat. He looks starved.”
That was something Addie always used to say.“Honey, you look starved. Here, let me get you something to eat.”In the beginning, when he wasn’t too responsive to acts of affection, that had been her way to show she cared.
To a hungry boy, it was a great start.
For years now, Addie had been keeping both him and Kam well fed. Neither of them would ever take her for granted. She was their living, breathing angel, the woman who had delivered them from hell and showed them what life could and should be.
Kam nudged Addie. “He’s reminiscing.”
“About food,” Tanner said.
“And the woman.” Folding his arms on the table and grinning, Kam asked, “She’s the one, isn’t she?”
Tanner went still. Damn, figured Kam would remember.
Addie sat forward. “Wait, the girl from high school? The one who broke your heart?”
“Iknewher in high school, yes, but she never knew me.” Still didn’t, in fact. “And my heart was never involved. To her, I’m a stranger.”
“Impossible.” Addie asked Kam, “Isn’t he a handsome young man?”
“Oh, definitely,” Kam said, playing along.
“And isn’t he tall and well-built?”
Tanner felt his ears getting hot. “Addie, that’s enough.”
“He’s downright dreamy,” Kam said, more than happy to keep her going. “No woman could resist him.”
“She has no idea we went to school together, which isn’t a surprise. It was a long time ago and she was a grade below me.” Seeing her still hit him like a gut punch. He remembered everything. The cute little skirts she’d worn. Who she’d dated and for how long. The way the princess had smiled at everyone, all the time, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
Except she’d never smiled at him. She’d never even noticed him.
Tanner shook that off. “More than anything, she was a pain in the ass today. She and her cousin came through the woods like a couple of drunk rhinos.” It was mostly true for Glory, but even while he’d held the screaming chain saw, Callie had managed to look composed and polite. It was uncanny how she did that. Must be nice to have such a protected life that nothing ever took away your peace of mind.
Addie frowned. “They came out of the woods together?”
“Yeah.”
“So why wasn’t her cousin still with Callie when we met her?”
Hiding any sign of guilt, Tanner shrugged. “The chain saw spooked her and she ran off.”
