Текст книги "Sometimes It Lasts"
Автор книги: Abbi Glines
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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 11 страниц)
I watched as he put the last pot into the dishwasher and his shirt pulled up from his waist to flash me the two perfect dimples on his lower back right above his amazing bottom. I’d licked those dimples more than once before taking a bite of his ass. Smiling at the memory, I didn’t realize Cage had glanced back at me.
When I felt his eyes on me, I quickly jerked my gaze off his exposed skin and turned to walk into the living room. “Thank you for cleaning up. You didn’t have to do that,” I said as casually as I could manage.
I took the quilt from the back of the sofa and curled up in it, covering myself up even though my body was heated enough from memories of Cage’s bare butt. I could see Cage step into the room out of the corners of my eyes, but I reached for the television remote and started surfing the channels. I couldn’t look at him. He needed to go to bed.
“Are you brushing me off now or can I watch some television with you?” There was no humor in his voice, so I chanced a peek at him. He wasn’t amused. Good. Maybe he hadn’t seen me studying his ass like I wanted a bite. Because we both knew I was a fan of his backside.
“Sure. Anything in particular you wanna watch?” I asked, forcing a smile before looking back at the television.
Cage moved across the room, and I held my breath, waiting to see where he was going to sit. When he lowered himself to sit inches away from me on the sofa, I continued to hold my breath.
“Give me your feet,” he said, reaching for the quilt covering me from toe to neck. Before I could protest, he had one of my feet pulled onto his lap and he was pulling off my sock.
“What are you doing?” I asked, although I already knew.
“Exactly what it looks like,” he replied. This time his amused grin was on those full lips of his.
“Why?”
Cage began massaging my feet in just the right spot. He knew I loved having my feet rubbed, and he knew exactly where to rub them and how. He’d done this hundreds of times before. My body instantly relaxed under his touch. I couldn’t control it.
“’Cause you’ve been on your feet all day. ’Cause I like touching you. And because you make the most amazing noises while I do it.”
I didn’t lift my gaze from my foot in his hand to look at his face. His eyes were on me. Watching me. I knew that. I could feel him. But I wasn’t going to look at him. This was too much.
“Give me both feet,” he said, reaching for my other leg and pulling me around until both of my feet were in his lap. “Why aren’t you wearing my boxers tonight?”
I gulped. I started to push the quilt down to cover my bare legs and he stopped me. He took it and carefully covered me up. “I like seeing you in my boxers.”
I should go to my room. Cage moved a hand up my calf, which was now under the covers, and began massaging my leg while keeping his eyes on me. Finally I gave in and met his gaze. “I only have one pair. They need to be washed.”
Cage smirked. “I’ll get you some more.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Yeah, I think it is.”
This wasn’t good. “Cage,” I said in a stern voice.
“Eva,” he replied, grinning now.
He was really hard to get mad at when he was all adorable and making my legs feel heavenly. “What are you doing? Why are you doing it?” I asked.
“I think I already answered that question, sweetheart,” he drawled.
I let out a frustrated sigh and tried to convince myself to go to bed. To take my legs off his lap and go to bed. But my body was enjoying his ministrations too much. Damn body was a traitor.
“Just relax, baby. I’m not trying to do anything but help you rest easier tonight. I swear, all I’m gonna touch is your feet and calves.”
I studied him a moment, and his hand moved back down to my feet. He was being sincere. And this felt really good. So I gave in and lay back on the sofa and pulled the cover under my chin. Cage’s hands kept doing exactly what he said they were going to do, and my eyes got heavier with each second that passed.
CAGE
She was asleep. She had been for at least thirty minutes, but I still continued to rub her feet. I wasn’t ready to stop touching her yet. She also made those sexy little pleased sounds in her sleep. I fucking loved those.
Tonight had been a success. My chest felt lighter. She’d let me stay. She’d wanted me to stay. She had needed me, and that was the most amazing feeling in the world. Watching her laugh while she ate dinner had almost made it possible for me to pretend she was mine again. Almost.
I reached for her discarded socks and slipped them back on her feet. As much as I’d rather it be me keeping her warm tonight, I knew she didn’t want that. Without my legs for her to tuck her feet under to keep them warm, she’d have to wear socks. The ache was back. I wanted to be the one warming her cold feet.
She wasn’t there yet. I had to believe she would be one day. Until then I had this. She was allowing me to get close again. That would help me. My only weakness was when she looked at me with desire in her eyes. When I’d caught her staring at my ass with that hungry gaze, I’d been real close to doing something she would have been upset about. I was glad she bolted from the kitchen. I’d needed a second to catch my breath. Eva’s sweet mouth on my ass was a memory that made my knees go weak and my dick go hard.
I shifted slowly so that I didn’t wake her, then I bent down to scoop her up in my arms. She cuddled the blanket and murmured something before tucking her head against my chest. I didn’t let myself think about how much I wanted to crawl into bed with her and keep holding her like this all night.
I climbed the stairs and took her to her room. As I tucked her in, she mumbled a thank-you I knew she wouldn’t remember. Because she was sleeping and I could get away with it, I pressed a kiss to her forehead, her soft cheek, and then her lips. Forcing myself to stop, I stepped back and left the room, closing her door softly behind me.
She would sleep good tonight. I just wasn’t sure I would.
*
The sun wasn’t up yet… but I was. At some point during the night, I’d managed to sleep, but it hadn’t been much. I had checked on Eva several times and even gone down to the kitchen for a glass of milk. Yet, it was the best night I’d had in a really long time.
I gave up trying to sleep and decided to get dressed and go make Eva breakfast for a change. She’d slept hard all night and she would be rested. I wanted to be the one to take care of her that morning. I didn’t want to put my jeans on yet. They were still dirty from yesterday. So I just jerked on my sweats and left off the shirt. If Eva kept getting excited over seeing brief glimpses of my skin, then I’d make it easy for her. Grinning, I headed out the door and down the hall.
The soft groan coming from Eva’s room stopped me in my tracks. I froze and stood there, straining my ears to hear if I’d imagined it or if she’d just made one of her sexy moans she did when we were making love. I knew that sound, and I wasn’t in there with her. She did it again.
Fuck.
She was alone. Was she asleep? Holy hell.
I took a step toward the door and listened as she made another noise. Three sexy moans and I was hard as rock. What was she doing? Was she dreaming? I shouldn’t be listening but, hell… how was I supposed to walk away from that?
Then she said my name. Yeah, I was going in. To hell with leaving her alone and walking off. That shit wasn’t happening now. I opened the door and stepped into her dark room. She immediately stilled.
She was awake. This wasn’t a dream.
“Cage!” she said in a raspy voice, and jerked the covers up over her. But not before I saw her hand down her panties.
My heart was slamming against my chest, and I was pretty damn sure I wasn’t breathing. “Eva,” I replied, taking a step toward her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes locked on mine.
“The question is, sweetheart, what are you doing?”
Even in the dark, I could see her flushed cheeks. I wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed or if that had been from the orgasm she was working on when I walked in.
She didn’t answer me.
“You said my name.” My voice sounded like a growl. I couldn’t help it. I was about to lose control. Struggling was not even close to explaining what I was dealing with at that moment.
“I didn’t know you were awake,” she whispered.
“Well, I am,” I said as I reached her bed. I didn’t say anything more. I grabbed the covers and pulled them back. Her hand was still tucked inside the small lacy panties. I hadn’t really seen her stomach like that yet. But knowing that was my baby inside there made my blood heat up and my desire rage harder. She started to slip her hand out and I grabbed her wrist.
“No. Don’t,” I said, tearing my eyes off the sight of her touching herself to look in her eyes.
She was breathing fast and her tits were barely covered up by the T-shirt she had on. They rose and fell, pressing against the thin fabric, only proving to make me more crazed.
“I wanna watch you touch yourself,” I told her.
The small hitch in her breathing let me know the idea turned her on. Eva always had been naughty. My sweet innocent girl and her naughty side drove me wild. “I’m gonna take these panties off, and you keep doing exactly what you were when I walked in here. But this time, when you say my name, I’m not gonna be in your imagination. I’m gonna be right fucking here.”
I reached for the sides of her pink lacy panties and pulled them down her long legs. She slipped her feet out. She was helping me. Fuck yeah, she was getting into this. I took her panties and held them up to my nose and took a deep breath. I loved her smell. I’d missed it.
“Cage,” she said breathlessly.
I held her panties in my hand and nudged her legs until they were spread completely open on the bed. Eva’s hand wasn’t on her clit any longer. She pulled it up to her stomach.
I leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her hand then picked it up and moved it down to put it back where she’d had it before. “Finish.”
Eva shivered, but she didn’t move.
“What were you thinking about when I heard you? Hmm? Tell me, baby. What was going through that pretty little head of yours when you were making those noises? When you were calling out my name?” I asked, and she bit down on her bottom lip.
Sometimes my naughty girl needed help. This was one of those times. I stood up and moved to bend down over her. Leaning down to her, I pressed a kiss to her earlobe then bit it gently. “Now, what was it you were thinking about? Did I have my head between those long legs of yours? Was I licking your sweet little pussy? ’Cause right fucking now I’d love to be licking your pussy. Slipping my tongue up through your hot wet lips. Mmm, they always taste so good. I wonder if they would taste better now? Your lips are swollen now. I saw them. They’re different. Are they more tender? If I slipped my hand down there and moved my fingers over them, would it feel good?”
Her hand started to move. I looked at her as her eyes fluttered closed and she arched her head back. “I wanna watch you. Are you remembering how good it feels when I slid up inside you? Fuck, baby, it’s all I can think about.” I leaned back as she started moving her hand faster. I had meant to make her hotter so she’d give in and finish, but now I wasn’t so sure I could handle this.
Her fingers slid up and down, and I wanted to reach out and touch her too, but she hadn’t given me permission to do that. I didn’t deserve to get to touch her like that. She had to forgive me.… She had to trust me again. But I was so close to losing my load in my damn sweats, it wasn’t funny.
“Cage,” she cried out, and I had to grab the sheets and hold myself back.
Her back arched and her legs fell completely open. “Oh God, yes, Cage,” she moaned, and I jumped up from the bed like it was on fire. Fuck… I had to get out of here. I was gonna touch her. I was also real damn close to getting off. This was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and Eva had done some sexy shit before. This took it all.
“Yes. Oh, yes,” she cried, and I stormed out of the room.
I didn’t look back. I went directly to the restroom. It only took two swift jerks, and I cried out her name as I came.
Chapter Twenty-Two
EVA
I lay in bed as Cage called out my name. He was coming. I knew that sound. I knew what he sounded like. He’d ran out of here like a man possessed. My body trembled from the aftershocks of my orgasm. Normally the orgasms I gave myself weren’t that strong. But with Cage talking dirty in my ear and watching me, I’d completely lost it. That hadn’t been as good as when Cage gave them to me, but it was the closest thing I’d had in a long time.
I squeezed my legs together and rolled over to look at the door he had left open. He hadn’t touched me. He hadn’t even gotten off in here so I could see. I had heard him, and hearing him shout my name had been wonderful. I loved it.
What was I doing? Last night I’d wondered if we could be friends. Could we be friends when we wanted each other like this? Was that idea even possible? Cage was in my life. We would have a child together. He’d hurt me then deserted me when I needed him most. But my body still wanted him. He was here. He wasn’t leaving me. Could I forgive him? Was that possible? Or… had I already forgiven him?
I heard the shower turn on, and I sat up. I wouldn’t think about this right then. We didn’t have to make any decisions yet. He might change his mind and leave again. This farm life was not what he’d always dreamed of. Staying here with me would be asking him to give up his life.
That wasn’t going to happen. Ever.
*
By the time Cage got out of the shower I was dressed and the biscuits were in the oven. Facing him after what we’d done wasn’t going to be easy, but knowing he’d gotten off too eased my embarrassment. I always woke up horny. I had been doing that for months. I just hadn’t had to worry about Cage walking by my door and hearing me.
“I was gonna make breakfast this morning. It’s why I was up early. I got, uh, sidetracked on my way down here,” Cage said.
I glanced over my shoulder at him and felt myself blush. “Oh” was all I managed to say.
“Yeah, oh,” he replied with a chuckle.
My body relaxed from the sound of his amusement. It wasn’t going to be awkward. It was Cage. The things we had done together should make me immune to any sexual embarrassment with him.
“Can I make the eggs, at least?” he asked, stepping up behind me, close enough that I could smell the soap on his skin, but still not touching me.
“If you want to,” I replied, taking a deep breath so I could enjoy how good he smelled.
He reached for the skillet and set it down on the stove beside me. He wasn’t going to say anything about it. He was going to pretend it didn’t happen. That we hadn’t just… done that.
“I kept your panties. Hope that’s okay,” he said close to my ear before walking over to the fridge to get the eggs.
That was it. We had to talk. “Why?” I asked, turning around to look at him.
“Why? Because they smell like you and I miss that smell. Real bad… and they’re still wet.”
I sucked in a breath and reached for the edge of the counter for support. “Cage, what are we doing? I mean… what is this?”
He studied me a moment then he set the eggs in his hands down on the counter beside me. He walked up to stand so close to me, I had to press my back against the granite countertop behind me.
“I’m doing whatever the hell you will allow me to. That’s what I’m doing. Why? Because I can’t live without you. However you allow me to have you is what I will take.”
I wanted to scream at him that he had had me completely and thrown it away. Didn’t he get that? “You had me Cage. You fucking had me. You wanted something else!”
Tears burned my eyes. I hadn’t said that out loud before. I had thought it, but I hadn’t verbalized it. Not until today. My throat clogged with tears, and Cage rested his hand on my hip. “I made a mistake. The biggest mistake of my life. I let my insecurities keep me from fighting for you. I let myself believe the words you yelled at me over the phone. I didn’t come here and make you listen to me. That was my mistake.”
No. That was only part of it. Did he not see that? I hit him hard against the chest and let out a sob. He didn’t move. “No. No. No! That isn’t it. I wasn’t enough. You needed more. I can’t live with that. Don’t you see? I can’t live knowing you touched someone else. That you wanted someone else. I only ever wanted you! Only you!” Tears were blurring my vision. I didn’t care. I needed to let them free. I needed to say it. For over a week he’d been showing up there to work. He’d been sweet and thoughtful. I had let him. But never once had he told me he was sorry for what he’d done to me. For making me believe I would ever be enough for him.
“The picture of me touching the girls breast. I was looking for my phone. My roommate had taken it and I was stuck at a party I didn’t want to be at. Very few girls had on tops and I wanted the hell out. They wouldn’t go away and take no for an answer. I shoved her back and I was reaching for her shoulder when she moved so that I’d grab something else. The picture of me getting in a car with a girl was the only ride I could get home that night. I had no battery in my phone because, once again, my roommate had taken it. I was miles away from any store and it was late. That was just a ride home. The kiss was set up. I arrived at a team party at a bar. I sat down by myself on the couch to watch television, and she came up and laid one on me. I pushed her off and stormed out of there to call you. You didn’t answer. I went inside to get a beer and play pool and the beer I took had been drugged. Fifteen minutes after I went back in that bar, I don’t remember one fucking thing. Not one. And I never slept with that girl. It was also a setup. She was helping Ace set me up. That photo was taken by Ace. They wanted me to believe I had fucked her. Not once, Eva. Not fucking once have I wanted anyone but you since the moment I walked onto that porch out there and laid eyes on you. It’s been you ever since.”
I stood there, unable to find words. For six months I’d thought he had cheated on me. Betrayed me. For six months I had lived with the pain of not being enough.
“I should have fought for you. I should have fought for us. But I didn’t. I fucking didn’t, and I will never forgive myself for it.” Cage dropped his hand from my waist and stepped back. Then he turned and walked out the door.
My shattered heart slowly began to reform. Each moment that I’d thought he had wanted someone else melted away. Every tear I’d cried over not being enough to hold him dried up. I shoved off from the counter and went after him. He was walking across the yard, headed to the barn, when I hit the first step.
“Cage! Wait!” I cried, and started running down the rest of the steps.
He turned around and saw me then started walking back to me in long strides. “Don’t run, baby, you could fall,” he said, looking concerned.
I just laughed. He was my Cage. He was back. My nightmare was over. He grabbed me around the waist, but I flung myself into his arms. “I love you. I love you so much. I should have listened to you. I was so emotional and I wasn’t myself. But you deserved more from me. You deserved to be heard and I wouldn’t give you the chance.” I held him tightly knowing nothing I said could make the fact I hadn’t trusted him better.
Cage’s arms tightened around me and I felt him shudder underneath me. I cried harder. The boy who hadn’t been loved and had been left by everyone had trusted me with his heart and I’d let him down. I would never do it again. Ever. If he was going to give me the chance, then I would spend my life proving it.
I ran my hand over his head and threaded my fingers through his hair. He had bent down and buried his head in the crook of my neck and wasn’t moving. He just held me silently. “I love you so much. I never stopped,” I told him again.
Slowly he lifted his head and looked down at me. “You’re my world,” he said simply.
CAGE
Eva wasn’t loosening her hold on me, and I was good with that. We’d stand here like that all damn day if she wanted to. “I’m not engaged to Jeremy anymore,” she said against my chest. I smiled. I had forgotten that she didn’t know I knew she wasn’t engaged anymore.
“I know,” I replied.
She frowned and gazed up at me. “You do?”
I pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, he called me. Let me know.”
Her frown deepened. “I was going to break it off. He just beat me to it. I don’t want you to think I wanted to marry him.”
My smile only got bigger. I took a small taste of her bottom lip with my tongue. “I know,” I whispered before she slipped her tongue into my mouth and I entered the sweet warmth I’d missed.
Her body molded against me. Feeling the small swell of her stomach pressed against me made the possessive beast inside me come to life. That was mine, and I wasn’t fucking letting it go again. She couldn’t force me to leave her side with a damn gun pointed at my head.
Her hands slid under my shirt and went straight for my nipples. The woman was obsessed. I kissed a path from her mouth to her ear. “You start playing with my nipples, baby, and I get to play with yours.”
She arched her neck, and I took it as an invitation to continue kissing and licking my way down to her neckline. She started pressing her breasts toward me and kissing any skin she could find, including my biceps. “Cage,” she said, sounding desperate.
“Yeah, baby?” I asked as I eased my hands under her shirt so I could finally get my hands full of her breasts. They were different and I wanted to get my hands on them.
“I need you to touch my boobs,” she said in a throaty plea.
“Yeah, I need that too,” I replied, unable to keep the smile out of my voice.
“And I need you to make love to me,” she finished.
I cupped her ass and picked her up. She wrapped her arms and legs around me and kept kissing me. I was going to take her inside or to the barn—I wasn’t sure which was closest.
“No. Here. I can’t wait,” she said, tugging on my shirt as her legs slid back down my body.
“Here?” I asked.
She managed to pull my shirt off, and her mouth was on my left nipple as a small moan escaped her and I decided that right there was a pretty damn good spot.
I reached for her shirt. She lifted her arms and stopped flicking her tongue over the small metal bar in my nipple just long enough for me to get her topless.
I unsnapped her bra and slid it off her arms in one swift movement. Taking both of her shoulders, I held her back and took in the sight of her high, heavy breasts sitting over her now round stomach. She was beautiful. Perfect. And mine. All mine.
“I need time with those,” I said, looking at her breasts.
“Good, but let’s do that after I have you inside me,” she said, reaching for my sweats and slipping her hand inside to wrap her hands around me.
“Anything you want. Anything you fucking want,” I groaned.
*
A couple of hours later we’d managed to sate ourselves enough to make it back inside the house. Eva was curled up naked against my chest on the sofa, and we had the blanket pulled over both of us. Her eyelids were growing heavy as I played with her hair. There was a lot that needed to be done outside. Jeremy had made a list for me. But it wasn’t getting done today.
“I wasn’t sure what her middle name needed to be. But since her last name is going to be York, can we let her middle name be Brooks?”
I smiled and bent my head to kiss her neck. “Yes, I like it.”
“Bliss Brooks York,” she said with a pleased sound. “That way, she’ll have both of our last names.”
I froze. Both of our last names.
Eva’s last name hadn’t been something I’d been thinking about. I had been so focused on getting her back, I hadn’t thought about much else. I had always planned on marrying Eva. She was my always. But I knew it would be later. After school. After I had a job to support a family.
I slid my hands down over Eva’s stomach. I was about to have a family. Things weren’t exactly playing out in the order I imagined them. “I don’t even know her due date,” I said more to myself than Eva.
“March seventeenth,” she replied, laying her hands over mine.
We had three months before we became parents. I wasn’t going to let my baby be born into this world without her momma’s last name being York. But I needed a plan. Eva deserved something special.
“Cage?”
“Yes?”
“Will you cut us down a Christmas tree. We need one right over there in that corner.”
I loved that she had said us. “Of course. I’ll do it today.”
“Thank you. I’ll make you cookies,” she replied.
I moved my hands up to cup her breasts. “I like cookies, but I can think of a few parts of your body I’d rather eat,” I replied.
Eva shivered against me. “Okay. It’s a deal.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
EVA
Cage had to work extra hard to catch up on the work he didn’t get done the past two days. Between me begging him for sex and him happily obliging and our picking a tree and decorating it, he’d had very little free time.
Jeremy was coming back today. He’d texted Cage last night to tell him that he’d be here late, but he’d be here. Cage had mentioned we needed to hire someone else and let Jeremy go. I agreed. He shouldn’t have to continue working here. Not if he wanted to do other things.
It was just after nine when Jeremy’s truck came rolling over the hill and across the field. He was a good man. Daddy was right about that. I loved him and I wanted him to find happiness. I wanted him to fall in love with a girl who couldn’t imagine life without him. It would happen. I knew it would.
He wasn’t Josh, but he looked just like him, and Josh had been beautiful. Jeremy was just as special. His truck stopped, and he stepped out then headed toward where I stood under the magnolia tree beside the porch.
“From the smile on your face, I think I stayed gone long enough for you two to fix things,” he said as he put his hat on his head.
“Yes. Thank you. For everything. Thank you.”
Jeremy grinned and then turned his head to spit out that nasty tobacco I wish he’d stop dipping. “You’re welcome. For everything,” he replied. “I figure Cage York ain’t gonna let you get too far out of his reach again. I hope you get everything in life you want, Eva. You deserve it.”
“You too, Jeremy. You too.”
He straightened his hat and looked out at the barn. “I’d hug you, but I gotta go work with your man today, and he’s watching me right now like he might need to come up here and beat my ass at any second.”
I glanced back and, sure enough ,Cage was standing beside his truck with his hands on his hips and his hat pushed back off his forehead, a piece of straw sticking out of his mouth. He looked like a television ad for sexy cowboys. I blew him a kiss and laughed.
He shook his head and grinned before shooting Jeremy one more pointed look. Then he turned and walked over to the barn door. “Don’t see a ring on your finger. Thought I’d see one of those when I got back.”
I glanced down at my hand. I hadn’t expected Cage to purpose to me. “Why would you think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you’re pregnant with his baby,” Jeremy shot back.
Cage wasn’t like that. He hadn’t grown up thinking the way Jeremy and I had been taught. I wanted to believe one day Cage would ask me to marry him, but after the way I’d treated him and hadn’t trusted him, I doubted he would be trusting me with something that big for a while. I was okay with that. I understood.
“I just took another man’s ring off a few days ago, Jer. I don’t think he’s ready to stick his on there. He looks tough and he acts like a badass, but he is fragile. He expects people to leave him. He also doesn’t trust that I won’t leave him again. I have a lot of proving to do before Cage trusts me with something like forever.”
Jeremy frowned. “Really? You’re now taking the blame for all this? How the hell did that happen?”
Jeremy wouldn’t understand. No one had seen Cage with his guard completely down. I’d only seen it a few times myself. “I can’t blame him for his insecurities. His momma screwed him up emotionally. I knew that, and I didn’t stop feeling sorry for myself long enough to think about that.”
Jeremy shook his head, but he didn’t say anything else about it.
“I’m gonna help him find a replacement. Then I’m hitting the road.”
“Where are you going? I thought you didn’t want to go to school, that you wanted to stay here on the land?”
He nodded. “I did. I’ll be back. But right now I want to just ride. Go see other places. Not settle down anywhere, just find myself.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I wanted him to be happy, but I didn’t want to be the reason he was leaving.
“Let me go help him before he decides to come get me,” he said with a wink, then headed down to the barn.
He seemed happy. This was what he wanted to do. Maybe he’d find that girl to make him complete out there on the road. Once he opened the barn door, I turned and headed back inside.
CAGE
Jeremy walked into the barn, looking pissed. “Why don’t she have a ring on her finger, York?”
I grabbed my work gloves from the bench I’d left them on earlier. “I’m working on that. Not that it’s your damn business.”
The tension went out of his shoulders and he nodded. “Oh. Good. She don’t seem to think you are. She thinks you can’t trust her or some stupid shit. I wasn’t following her. I just knew it was dumb.”
Couldn’t trust her? What the hell was the woman thinking now?
“I just need one thing from you. I need to know where her piano went.”
Jeremy grinned. “Why?”
“I just need it. Where is it?”
“I could not tell you for being an ass.”
“And I could beat your ass,” I replied.
Jeremy laughed. “Fine. It’s in my basement. Eva thinks she donated it to a kid’s center for underprivileged children. When actually, Wilson bought them a piano for that center and he had Eva’s piano moved to my basement.”
I knew she’d gotten rid of it. I had expected it to be harder to find. “Why did he do that?”
“Because he’s her daddy and he knew she would want it back one day. Just like he knew you’d be back.”
