Chapter 26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

C olson

One of the kids called Joey’s cell phone after we pushed our salad bowls aside, bellies full. Then Gabi and Tully had to visit the restroom together. I went outside to give Joey some privacy as he talked one of his girls down from some social media slight one of her friends had dealt her today. Made me glad all over again that I didn’t have teen girls. Or boys for that matter. I should know. My brothers and I had been more than a handful to raise.

My head was in the clouds, thinking about everything that had happened today and why I was feeling unsettled about it. I didn’t see the woman before I plowed right into her. I reached out on instinct, grabbing her arm and her waist before she teetered off and fell right there on the sidewalk.

“Oh!” Hattie McGhee, the local librarian, put one hand on my chest and one hand on her glasses to push them back up the bridge of her pert nose. Startled blue eyes stared up at me right before her cheeks turned crimson. She stepped back and my hands fell away.

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Downtown Blueball was busy today between the farmer’s market and the beautiful spring weather that brought everyone out in droves. I needed to pay more attention.

“That’s okay. No harm done.” She smiled. “That’s what readers call a meet-cute moment.” Her smile dropped and her hands waved wildly like she was trying to clear away her own words. “Not that…you know. I know you and…well.” She cleared her throat. “Congratulations to you and Tully.”

Hattie had always been quiet and shy, but cute in an awkward way. This interaction was no different. I dipped my head in thanks.

“Yeah, life’s strange, isn’t it?” I didn’t want to get into it with a virtual stranger. Especially not right now when my head was in a mess over Tully. We’d gone from confessing we loved each other this morning to me being so insanely jealous of her past relationships I couldn’t see straight.

“It really is,” Hattie agreed, tugging on the ends of her thin white sweater that covered a brightly colored sundress. “There’s a bit of magic in everything and some loss to even things out.”

I tilted my head, resonating with what she’d said. “Shakespeare?”

Hattie grinned from ear to ear, transforming her face from cute to flat-out beautiful. “No! Those are lyrics from the rock singer Lou Reed.”

I nodded, thinking I didn’t know this woman that well, but she was nice to chat with. “I guess you could say I’ve known both magic and loss when it comes to Tully Cassio.”

Hattie’s smile dimmed. Her hand came back to my chest, patting lightly. “I understand that completely, though I’d have to estimate I’ve seen more loss than magic.” She scrunched up her entire face, making her glasses slip down her nose. “Have you seen who’s available in the dating pool recently?”

I covered her hand with mine and gave a squeeze before she dropped her hand. “Sadly, yes, so I get it.”

We shared a smile. It felt nice to connect with someone. Sure, I talked to my friends at the station, but their shoulder to cry on was a little rougher. They’d only listen to me whine for so long before calling me an asshole and telling me to man up. Tough love was what they had to offer.

“You know…” Hattie looked past me before bringing her gaze back to me, something twinkling in those wide eyes. “Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Another song lyric?”

She shook her head. “Joseph Addison. An English poet.” Her cheeks seemed to reignite the blush that had been there earlier. “Nothing like a little jealousy to make a woman realize what she has.”

I folded my arms across my chest, thoroughly lost in this conversation. “Huh?”

Hattie lifted her nose in the air. “I’m willing to kiss you, Colson. Make Tully a little jealous to even out the loss and magic scales. She’s right inside there with Gabi and Joey.”

I nearly choked on my own spit. “Um, yeah, no. Thank you for the offer, but I don’t like to play games.”

Rosemary Roberts, the principal at the elementary school, stepped between two parked cars and linked her arm through Hattie’s. “Oh, I think it’s a great idea. Except maybe we should both fawn all over you. A Wolfe sandwich, if you will. Really ramp up the jealousy.”

My jaw dropped. I was used to being hit on by the old ladies of Blueball, but Rosemary and Hattie were a decade younger than me.

Rosemary leaned in. “You know, I dropped by your place a few weeks ago when I happened to be driving by. Thought I’d ask you about coming by the elementary school to read to the kids. It’s like a ‘career day’ type of thing for the super young ones. Anyway, Tully was staring me down from the corner of her mama’s house! I didn’t bother coming back to ask you again once I saw she was back in town. Honestly, I think a little jealousy is the push she needs.”

I gaped at her. This was all news to me.

“Oh! She’s coming!” Hattie whispered, practically giddy. She placed her hand on my arm and rubbed up and down, same time Rosemary sidled up to my other side, putting her arm around my waist. She tossed her head back and laughed like I’d said something hilarious.

Before I knew what was happening, a growling bulldog pushed between me and Rosemary. I raised my arms in the air like the FBI had raided the area and I was proving my innocence. It was actually Tully, not a bulldog, but she was as vicious as an animal in heat, yanking me away from the two ladies and down the sidewalk as fast as her short little legs could carry her.

“Did you seriously tell me you love me just this morning and now you’re flirting with two women right in front of me?”

Oh, she was jealous all right. Hopping mad too. She let go of my arm and whirled, hands on her hips, stopping our retreat. Heads turned but I couldn’t have cared less. I was having a hard time not doubling over laughing. Tully must have seen the smile tugging on my lips because she smacked me right in the chest.

“Hey! This isn’t funny!”

A bark of laughter escaped. “Are you seriously jealous, Tully?”

“Yes!” She threw her arms out to the side. Then she dropped them and stared at me like she was as surprised as me that she was so worked up. She’d never been the jealous type. I’d never given her a reason to be jealous when we were kids. Not when she’d been my whole world and she knew it.

“You may be feeling a little bit like I did when Benny and Muriel were talking about Benicio.” I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “I didn’t plan that back there, that was all Hattie and Rosemary. I wasn’t trying to make you jealous. I don’t play those games.”

“I know that.” Tully’s voice was calmer and quieter. “Still felt jealous though.”

I reached out for her hand and she let me hold it. “We got issues, woman.”

Tully huffed out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, I’ll say. Think we can work through them?”

I pulled her closer, inhaling her perfume and letting my body relax when I felt her familiar curves press against me. Her head tucked perfectly between my pectoral muscles. “Fuck yeah, we can. I believe in us. Always have.”

Her answer was muffled with her mouth pressed against my chest. “That might be the thing I love about you most.”

I kissed the top of her curly head. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

Neither of us wasted much time stripping our clothes off after letting Hayes out to do his business. He whined and lay down in his doggie bed in the corner like a good boy. When Tully headed for the love seat, I pulled her back, redirecting her to the bed. She paused, searching my face.

I shrugged. “I don’t want another hamstring cramp.”

Tully eyed the bed where we slept together but had never had sex. “I was leaving that decision up to you. Whenever you’re ready.”

“You’re in my heart, Tully. You might as well be in my bed, don’t you think?”

Tully ran her hands up my chest and laced her fingers behind my neck. “I love you.”

I let the simple words coat every hurt part of me like a balm. Every insecurity that had grown and festered after she left me soaked them in. Every bruise I carried seemed to have her name on it, which meant only she could heal me. My palms landed on her hips and curved around to grab her ass like those curves were made for my hands.

“I love you too.” Always have , my brain tacked on.

I pulled upward and she jumped, her legs coming around my waist. She kissed me, her hands cupping my jaw roughly. She didn’t waste a second grinding herself against me. My woman was thirsty for what only I could give her. I laid her down on the bed and followed her down, sliding inside her heat while she moaned my name into my ear. Her heels dug into my ass, urging me faster, but I wanted to take my sweet time.

“Easy, baby,” I muttered, planting my elbows on either side of her head and looking down. Her cheeks were pink and her lips wet from our kiss. Tully’s eyes fluttered open as I stopped. She opened her mouth to give me hell, but I just smiled. “There you are. I want you looking at me when I fill you. Can you do that?”

Tully licked her lips and nodded. God, I loved it when she was compliant. I loved her sass too, but damn, sometimes a man just needed his woman to be soft and accommodating, especially when he was deep inside her. I pulled almost all the way out, then thrust back in nice and slow before grinding against her flesh. Tully’s eyelids fluttered, but she kept them open.

“You like that, baby?” I pulled back out and did it again, taking my time but giving her what she needed too. Her arms hooked around my neck and held me tight. So tight I could barely move in and out. Tully didn’t seem to mind, she just ground herself against me, taking the pleasure she wanted and needed until she arched upward, moaning my name.

I watched her, loving the way she came apart on my dick, the look in her eyes as she tried to keep her gaze trained on me like I’d asked. The clenching of her muscles and the shiver that wracked her body made me grin like a madman. I took advantage of her arms going limp, pulling back and thrusting back in with hard, fast strokes until I came with a shout. I spilled into her, staying tucked into her warmth as my arms gave out. She let me stay on top of her until the sweat dried on my back.

She finally poked me and I stirred, half asleep. “Can’t breathe, hotshot.”

Reluctantly, I pushed off of her and slid out, staring down at the mess between her legs. She tried to bring her knees up and close her thighs, but I held her open, dragging a finger through my mess and shoving it back inside of her. She gasped and bit her lip.

“I’m determined to make you love this mustache, baby.” I dipped my head and replaced my finger with my tongue, making her gasp and groan all over again. I licked her clean until her fingers dug into my hair and she dug her heels into the bed on another orgasm.

I gave her exactly five seconds to come down before I started playing with her.

“Say you love it.” I flicked her swollen, abused clit with my tongue, making her whole body jolt. “Say it or I don’t stop.”

She huffed, giving my hair a swift, hard yank. “I love your mustache,” she finally admitted.

I grinned, pressing a closed-mouth kiss to her flesh and climbing back up. “Was that so hard?”

She rolled her eyes and I laughed at the sass that came back so quickly. She wiggled her ass backward as we snuggled. I kissed her shoulder and wrapped my arm around her, holding one perfect breast as we caught our breath and drifted into sleep. Fuck, I loved Tully so much I wasn’t sure it was healthy.

But I wasn’t giving her up, no matter what.