Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I lean back enough to see his face. There’s a crease between his brows that wasn’t there five minutes ago, the kind born of care, not doubt. I smooth it with my thumb. “Better than okay.”
“Good.” He exhales, relief softening all his edges. “Because that was…” He shakes his head, letting the end of that sentence go unsaid. He’s not a man who drops confessions lightly. If he says them, he means them. If he can’t say them, maybe tonight is that bridge he doesn’t want to burn crossing.
I kiss him slow, grateful. “You don’t have to narrate.”
He huffs a laugh, like he knows I’ve seen through him. “That would be a change.”
“Get used to it, author man.”
He groans at the nickname and wraps his arms around me, rolling us gently to the side. Careful, always careful, he slips out of me with a soft apology against my hair that warms my chest. He deals with the condom quickly and efficiently, a trip to the trash can just off the porch, the soft snick of the lid. When he returns, he pulls me against him, my leg thrown over his thigh, my skirt still bunched up around my waist, but I don’t even care.
We’re quiet as his fingers trace idle patterns along my upper arm.
“Penny?” he says eventually, so soft I almost miss it.
“Mm?”
“This wasn’t a hookup, you know that, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, drawing circles on his chest. “It was so much more.”
“How in the hell did this even happen to us?” he says, marveling at how fast things have changed.
“I think we were both in the right place at the right time in our lives.”
Sam’s quiet. “But… is this the right time? You’re visiting and my career just went nuclear.”
He makes a good point. Nothing in our lives is secure right now. “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I do know that the right now is pretty damn good.”
“Truer words,” he murmurs, head back so I can see that almost-smile again. “I’m glad we agree on the important stuff.”
His hand slides to my jaw, thumb brushing the corner of my mouth in a way that makes everything inside me go quiet and certain.
He kisses me, not to start something new—though my body votes yes instantly—but as a seal on what just happened. A promise handed over in the dark.
“Stay tonight,” he murmurs.
I press closer, my smile against his skin. “Okay.”
His arms tighten, and as a testament to his strength and power, he effortlessly stands from the couch with me cradled in his grasp. I loop my arms around his neck and feather my lips over his jaw as he carries me inside.
CHAPTER 17
Sam
Last night with Penny is still at the forefront of my mind as I find a parking space in the town square. She lingers now, just as she has throughout much of the day. I was able to get some decent words down on my current work in progress, and Derek and I worked on a few of the finer details of the press tour I’ll be doing. But she’s always there… I could taste the whisper of Penny’s laugh against my mouth and the way it felt to be inside her.
It’s like finding a part of myself that I didn’t realize was waiting just out of reach all along. I’ve written a hundred versions of connection and somehow, they all look pale next to the real thing. The way her knees bracketed my hips, the tremor in her breath when she said my name, the way she curled into me afterward and went so quiet, the peace of it all felt weighted.
Now I can’t stop the thought that keeps circling… I’m falling for her.
Not in a free fall with an inevitable crash. But rather in a steady, deliberate way—like the tide coming in because it can’t help itself.
Yes, she’s leaving soon. DC is more than just her job… it’s her purpose. She has a life there and friends who stay up too late in restaurants that serve dinner at eleven. Whynot has a piece of me on every damn surface. There’s no way we could really work.
And yet—she keeps showing up for me. At the signing. In front of my mother. On my porch, telling me to stop thinking and just feel. Every time I needed a shoulder, she handed me both.
I don’t know what we’ll do when the map pulls us in two directions. I know I’m not ready to pretend last night was a fluke, or that “right now” isn’t already rewriting my plans. Maybe that’s foolish. Maybe it’s just romance. Around here, those two things are kissin’ cousins.
By the time the sun slides low enough to turn the sky orange, I’ve convinced myself I can hold two truths at once. I’m a man in love with this town, and I’m starting to be a man in love with Penny Pritchard. But tonight, I’m supposed to be the author, so I tuck those other truths in my pocket with my truck keys and head toward the bar.