“Darlin’, I’ve been cleaning up animal shi—”
I smack a hand to his mouth and lean in, hissing, “If you ever hope to see me naked someday, don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
His brows go high and he chuckles, pressing a kiss to my palm. That single kiss is equivalent to dynamite directly to my system.
“Naked’s ‘bout to come a hell of a lot sooner than someday,” he mutters, pushing to stand.
I notice him wince and rub his thigh, but before I can ask him what’s wrong, he steps behind me and the rush of loud water fills the bathroom. My head snaps to the side and I gape, fingers clenching the toilet lid.
I’d been in a desperate rush when I ran in here, and all the time I spent helping plan the housewarming party kept me in Aurora’s room. Much as I wanted to snoop, I couldn't do it with his family around.
“You got it,” I breathe, jealousy and excitement thrumming through my sluggish veins. “You got the dream tub for the dream window with the dream view.”
He grabs a glass canister from the ledge beneath the giant arched window and pours something into the massive tub that’s quickly filling with water. Steam clouds the window, but moonlight still pours in around us, along with the intoxicating scent of flowers.
Kade gives me a strange, but soft look and nods, palming the back of his neck.
“Yeah, well, a pretty girl once told me this window deserves the best tub a bucket-bathing hillbilly like me could get and…” Hesmiles, brushing my hair back. “I’m finding it’s impossible to tell that girl no.”
My heart races, brain rewriting itself before I can stop it.
“I’ll drop towels, water, and your pills by the door. Tub’s loud enough to block out any…soundsthat may arise before I leave.”
“Leave?”
My insides are confused.
I want him to stay as much as I want to have my vagina waxed—which is none and never—but the idea of him leaving… It makes me sicker than the ice cream.
He hikes a thumb over his shoulder. “Gonna run to my mom’s real quick. I’ll be back in…”
His cocked brow tells me to fill in the blanks, and I blush even harder. “Can I text you when I’m in the tub?’
Kade chuckles and nods. “Phone’s on the charger. I’ll leave it with everything else.”
Before he can walk away, words escape me, loud and filled with way too damn much longing, and hope.
“I hate being alone, so…” I swallow thickly, and murmur, “thank you for staying even though you don’t have to.”
“Nowhere else I’d rather be, darlin’.”
Chapter Twenty Eight
Poison 101
“Ma!” I whisper-hiss, heart hammering, body begging me to go back home.
Home—where I left the girl I’m pretty sure I’m halfway in love with, violently heaving into my new toilet. Least that’s what she was doing when I silently dropped off her supplies outside the bathroom door, pretending I couldn’t hear a damn thing.
“Wake up!” My hand grips her slim shoulder a little tighter, and I shake her softly, but hard enough to get her attention. “Ma, I need you!”
“Kade?” she mumbles, rolling onto her back blinking slowly. “Son, that you?”
Crossing my arms, I scoff. “Who else would it be?”
“I have five children. Could have been any one of you—or maybe Wilder.” She clicks her tongue. “That boy has nightmares.”
My stomach flips, eyes flying to the spare bedrooms down the hall. Griff texted me hours ago that he got everyone back to my mom’s safely. Emmy’s sister picked her, Loretta, and Shay up, but Griff took care of Wild and my sisters.
