Page 44 of From Grumpy to Forever
It wasn’t something we’d discussed again. Even if neither of us remembered it well, it was still the truth.
“I always felt like there was something between us back then, but it wasn’t until I ran into Reid at the hardware store when I first arrived that the little spark that had been lit all those years ago really lit into a fire, isn’t that right?”
I looked down into her eyes, which once again sparkled with life. If it was a little storytelling that had brought that spark back, I was more than happy to play along.
“That’s right, sweetheart.” I held her gaze for a moment before reluctantly looking at her cousin. “The moment I heard her voice in the hardware store, my heart knew exactly what it wanted. What it had wanted since we were too young to understand what it was.”
Okay, I was playing it up a little. But what the hell.
“It was like love at first sight, wasn’t it, sweetheart?”
Avery shook her head with a little grin. “Absolutely. Only it wasn’t first sight.”
“Right.” Jacob drew out the word with an eye roll. “Because you two had some sort of romance when you were children?” Disbelief dripped from his words, but I was not to be deterred.
“Obviously, we were too young and stupid to know what those feelings meant back then.” I spoke directly to Avery. “But the moment our eyes locked, I felt it. And when I gave you that boost through the window when you couldn’t get in the front door…well, that was it for me.”
Her lips quirked up into the beginning of a smile. She was enjoying this, and she wasn’t the only one.
“When did you know I was the one for you, sweetheart?”
She shocked me, by not even thinking about it. “Easy.” She looked me straight in the eye. “When I saw you in the ice cream store with your niece. You were laughing and your eyes crinkled up in the corners at whatever she was telling you. I could see how much you loved her and…well…” She shrugged, but didn’t look away as she added, “I fell head over heels and in that moment, I knew you were the man for me. Forever.”
Fuck.
Me.
This wasn’t real. I knew it wasn’t. We were putting on a show. We were making it believable.
But Avery just blew right past pretend and straight into very, very real.
There was only one reaction to that. Audience or not, I held my wife’s cheeks in my hands, tipped my head down to meet hers, and gave her a very real kiss.
Chapter Twenty-One
Avery
It had been a long day. A very long day. The wedding and being on the dance floor in Reid’s arms felt like it had happened a lifetime ago. All I wanted to do was crawl under the covers, put my head on the pillow, and sleep away the stress currently creeping up my spine.
I knew Jacob was going to be a problem. Maybe it was naive of me, but I didn’t really expect him to come to Trickle Creek and challenge me in person. My cousin was more of a hide-behind-a-lawyer type.
Having him here was definitely going to complicate things. Not the least of which were my feelings for Reid, which were growing and changing and…well, becoming more and more complicated all the time.
I spun, a pillow in my hand when the bedroom door clicked open and he appeared. “I made sure to lock the door.”
“You did? But I thought you said no one locked their doors in Trickle Creek?”
“They don’t.” He leaned against the closed door. “But you do. So I locked it for you.”
My heart did a weird flippy thing, and my feelings twisted up into the next level of complicated.
“Thank you.”
He shrugged and for the first time, I noticed he had leaves in his hair, and his dress shirt was dirty and untucked. And were those scratches on his arms?
“What on earth happened while you were locking up?”
Reid shook his head and held out a duffel bag. “I threw it out the window earlier and it landed in rosebushes.”
