Page 30 of From Grumpy to Forever
Her hands curled into mine. I tilted my head, deepening the kiss without thinking. A move that was reciprocated, when the slightest moan slipped from her lips.
I forgot Grayson. I forgot the judge and his assistant who was acting as a witness. I forgot that this wasn’t real.
I forgot everything except the woman in my arms.
My wife.
It was my brother who cleared his throat, causing Avery to take a step back. Her chest fell in quick, shallow breaths. Her lips slightly parted, and her bright-blue eyes blazed with something I couldn’t quite name, but it sure as hell wasn’t indifference.
“That was…something,” Grayson said with a low whistle. “Maybe you’re not as crazy as I thought.”
I turned to glare at him, but the heat in my face wasn’t annoyance—it was from the way Avery was still looking at me. Like I just turned her entire world upside down.
Fuck.
She wasn’t the only one.
Chapter Fifteen
Avery
The truck rumbled to a stop in the driveway, and for a moment, neither of us moved. With my peonies still clutched in my hands, I stared out the window at the inn and its weathered, peeling paint and sagging porch. My gaze landed on my broken swing, still in a heap where I’d left it.
There was so much work still to do.
Not that there was any more work than there had been that morning, but now, somehow it felt different. The weight of everything that still needed to be done, combined with what had just happened, weighed heavy.
This was home now—for both of us.
I turned to Reid, but he was already climbing out of the truck, his jaw tight as he grabbed the duffel bag he’d brought with him. He hadn’t said much since the kiss.
The. Kiss.
Of course, there was going to be a kiss. It was a wedding, after all. It was kind of required. But…damn. I had not expected that.
My stomach twisted at the memory of his hand cupping my cheek with a tenderness I didn’t know he was capable of.
Fake, I reminded myself. Not for the first time since it happened.
Still, the memory of his lips, warm and firm on mine, lingered in the back of my mind.
I followed him to the porch and dug through my tiny purse to find the new keys I’d made.
“You lock it?”
“Of course, I lock it.”
He chuckled and shook his head a little. “It’s Trickle Creek, Avery. I don’t know what you think will happen. But nothing will. Nobody locks their doors around here.”
“Just a habit, I guess.” I slipped the key in the door easily, unlike the first time Reid and I met, and turned the door handle. “Welcome home…I guess.”
He didn’t reply. Reid only stood there, looming over me with an unreadable brooding expression on his face that made it completely impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“Am I supposed to carry you over the threshold or something?”
I couldn’t help it; a laugh slipped out. “Are you serious?”
He grunted in response. Despite the shrug, I could see that he was, in fact, serious.
