23. Cody

TWENTY-THREE

"What all do we need?" I asked as I pushed the cart through the double sliding doors and into the grocery store. In an instant, the heat of the summer was squashed by the cold air that pumped from the AC in the small store in Hendrickson.

I'd felt like I'd been being burned alive the entire day, and the temperature outside didn't have a thing to do with it.

It was this woman ambling along at my side that made me feel like I was getting singed.

"I just need to grab a couple things for dinner and some milk for breakfast in the morning." She walked ahead of me, guiding me into the produce section.

"And what are we having?" I asked.

It was a wonder I didn't knock into the displays around me considering I couldn't look away from her ass. That lush, ripe peach swaying with each step that she took.

Hailey sent me a playful scowl. "What, you think I'm going to feed you, too?"

"If you have a problem with it, I'll be happy to cook for you."

Her brows arched, mischief playing on her face. How she managed it after dealing with that prick last night and whatever bullshit her father had clearly been spewing at her this morning, I didn't know.

But I somehow got that she'd spent enough time being dejected and she wasn't going to allow it any longer. She was going to rise above her circumstances, enjoy the good of each day.

"You cook?" Her question rang with speculation.

"I am a bachelor. How else do you think I survive?"

"Pizza?"

"That's a little cliché, isn't it?"

"Is it? Who doesn't love pizza?" She leaned over and started to inspect the broccoli spears, the ones she approved of going into the bag as she bent over the display.

I salivated at the real display, that ass pert and so tempting it rendered a man stupid.

I edged up so I was standing right behind her, drawn by that gravity. Unable to stay away.

When she turned around, I was right there. Invading her space. Wading closer.

A frown pulled across her pretty, pretty face, and she whispered around the surprise and need emanating from her sweet soul. "Cody."

Unable to stop myself, I pulled her against me, an arm around her waist, bringing us chest to chest.

"What are you doing?" she asked with tremulous words.

God, I loved the way she smelled, like strawberries and cream and the most delicious thing.

I wanted to bury my nose in her hair.

Put my mouth to her flesh.

Drink her up.

Devour every inch.

"Just double checking that you're real because it should be impossible for someone like you to exist."

Her fingers twisted in the fabric of my tee like she was searching for support, the girl swaying as she peered up at me, knocking me off my damned feet with those icy eyes that slicked through me on a fiery chill.

"Cody," she warned, though my name fell from her softly, hitting me like a caress that would be so easy to lean into.

"Hailey," I razzed back, letting the words go as a ravenous tease, doing my best to keep my head above the sea thrashed waters that kept threatening to drag me under, like it was completely normal for me to be holding her like this when we were just supposed to be friends.

"You are nothing but a heap of trouble, Cody Cooper." Redness splashed those cheeks, and she couldn't contain this timid, affected smile when she pulled away.

That's the way I wanted her.

Smiling.

Unafraid.

"You have no idea," I told her, and I took her hand and threaded our fingers together before I lifted them to brush a kiss across her knuckles. "Honestly, Hailey, I needed to check that you're real and whole and safe. Touch you to make sure you're right here with me."

Hailey got stuck there, staring up at me, before she seemed to gather herself, clearing her throat as she unwound her fingers from mine.

"Come on, let's get what we came for. I want to get home. I miss my daughter and I'm starving and want to change out of these clothes. It's been a long day."

A grin pulled to my mouth as I thought of that little Button who'd be waiting for us to return. "Yeah. We'd better get back. I still have an important job to do."

Hailey moved to the onions, going through the pile in search of one that suited her. The whole time, I watched her itch. Disquiet spinning her into unease, reservations vying for a way to be released.

"It looks to me like you have something to say, darlin'."

She inhaled as she put the onion into the cart before she turned her attention to me.

"I need you to be careful with her, Cody. She's…" She paused as she considered her words. "Her heart is wide open, but it's fragile, too, and I'm worried she's going to get attached to you. I don't want her to get confused by you being around so much."

She hesitated, teeth clamping on that plush bottom lip, before she looked up at me from beneath those lashes with those bottomless eyes. "Just…don't make her promises you can't keep."

"I don't intend to."

"But it's easy to get caught up in something, to start to believe it's going to end one way when there's no chance that it really could."

I wondered which of us she was really warning.

"And sometimes we end up exactly where we're supposed to even when we never believed for a second it could be a part of our destination," I told her.

She looked away. Without a doubt, she was terrified of believing what I was saying.

Fuck, guess I was, too, but I was having a harder and harder time envisioning walking away from her in the end.

I had to.

I knew it.

But that didn't change the way I felt.

"You know we can't, Cody." It was the softest rejection that still clanged in our ears.

"Excuse me." A voice came from the side.

I jolted out of the spell this woman had me under, turning to find an older woman written in sheer irritation as she waited to get to the potatoes I was blocking with the cart.

"Sorry," Hailey rushed, flustered that we were so caught up in each other that we'd gotten lost to anything around us.

She grabbed the end of the cart and hauled me along as she hurried deeper into the store. She basically went to ignoring me as she grabbed the few things she needed.

Bread.

Steak.

Milk in the dairy section.

Five minutes later, she was heading up to the register and got in line.

I nudged her out of the way, loaded the items onto the belt, then dug into my back pocket to get my wallet so I could take out my card.

"What do you think you're doing?" She whispered it again. Harsh even though it was quiet. It was the same thing she kept asking again and again.

It was a prudent question.

What in the ever-loving-fuck did I think I was doing? Whatever it was, apparently, I couldn't stop.

I put my mouth to her ear. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm taking care of you."

Because people who cared about someone took care of them.

In any way they could.

We loaded everything into two bags then I carried them out to my truck.

Hailey scrambled along at my side, trying to keep up with my long strides.

It was still hot out, just after five-thirty, the summer in full force.

I clicked the locks and the running lights flashed, and I opened the back passenger door and placed the bags on the floorboards.

Just as I was ducking out, the hairs lifted on the back of my neck as a bolt of awareness streaked through the atmosphere.

It covered me in a cloud of that same vile contempt that I'd been struck with last night when I'd felt Hailey's fear from across our yards.

Only this time, it was directed at both of us.

Hailey must have felt it, too, because she froze where she was standing facing me.

She paled.

Gorgeous face going a pasty white.

Fear so distinct it clotted the air and weaved its way down to saturate my lungs.

Hatred spun me into disorder.

I couldn't stomach that one person could have the power to put that look on her face.

I scanned the lot. It didn't take me long to pinpoint where the source was coming from.

A little café down to the right where a few tables were situated under red umbrellas outside the front.

Pruitt sat at one of them, slung back like a pompous prick wearing a button-down and slacks. Sipping from a tiny cup that was likely a reflection of the size of his dick.

Even in the distance that separated us, there was no mistaking that his dark eyes seared into us.

Hailey was stock-still and staring my direction, not wanting to look over her shoulder to confirm that he was there.

Like she didn't want to contemplate if he'd followed us here or if it was just bad fucking luck that we'd ended up in the same place.

It wasn't like Hendrickson was all that big of a town. If he was sticking around, we were bound to cross paths, but I had a hunch this dickbag was going to be popping up from out of nowhere.

Only solution was getting this bastard out of here sooner. Giving him the damned clue that he wasn't welcome here. That there was no fuckin' chance that he could have her.

"Do you trust me?" I muttered, a secret between us.

Hailey hesitated for only one second before she gave.

"Yes." The word was so tiny but still struck like a bomb in our atmosphere.

Maybe it was me who shouldn't trust myself.

Because I could feel all my reasoning slip away when I wound my hand in the length of her braid and cinched it up tight.

Could feel the ground falling away when I looped my other arm around her waist.

Could feel all rational thought take flight when I spun her around so her back was to the truck and she was concealed by my body.

Becoming the shield between her and Pruitt that I'd promised her I would be.

I wanted to be.

Fuck, I wanted to be.

But the reason for it got distorted when I tugged her closer, became mangled and deformed when I inhaled her scent.

It left me altogether when I leaned down and captured her mouth with mine.

Sweet. Fucking. Heat.

Her eyes went wide for one shocked second before she melted into me when I wrapped my arm tighter around her and pulled her flush. She sighed into the kiss like it was the one thing in this world that could offer her respite.

Somehow, I knew that was exactly what it was for me.

Respite.

Bliss.

Motherfucking heaven.

I kissed her deeper, and she opened to me, and her tongue stroked out to meet with mine.

Strawberries and cream.

I pulled her so close that I lifted her off her feet as I kissed and kissed her, my other hand yanking harder at her braid as I devoured her mouth.

Lips and tongue and teeth.

Greed and lust and something else that hovered around us like the utterings of a lost dream.

So fucking intimate, so damned close, that I thought this girl might become an intrinsic part of me.

I drank down the whimper she exhaled, and I nearly got knocked to my knees when she wound her delicate arms around my neck and pressed her tits to my chest.

Then she had to go and whisper my name against my lips. "Cody."

No one had ever once said my name like that. Or maybe it was the first time I was listening.

Possession wound me in a fist, ribs clenching around my heart as the single word thundered through my mind.

Mine.

He couldn't have her.

I wouldn't let him.

Fuck, what was happening to me?

I forced myself to slow because I knew I was cracking, one mistake from splintering, from completely losing control.

Setting my hands on her waist, I peeled my mouth away and dropped my forehead to hers, knowing we needed space but there wasn't one goddamn molecule in my body that could fully let her go.

Both of us were panting for the air that'd gone missing, and Hailey gulped as she tried to orient herself. At least thirty seconds must have passed before she finally asked, "Is he still there?"

Rage blustered through me when I forced myself to look over my shoulder, ready to take on anything that was to come, only the bastard was gone.

"Nah, we got rid of him."

If only it were permanent. I doubted much that he was going to get the message so easy.

Pulling back an inch, she blinked as she tried to process what the hell had just happened. Her fingertips were still nailed into my shoulders, confusion and need whipping her into a puddle.

"What are we doing, Cody?" The words were haggard.

"We're showing your ex that he can't have you." It scraped up my raw throat.

Her teeth raked her bottom lip that was still plump and glistening from the kiss. "I'm afraid we might only be making it worse."

"We'll figure it out. Together," I promised.

I couldn't help but think she was likely right.

The fucker was going to be pissed, his ego ripped to shreds.

And I was the asshole who thought it might be worth it because I didn't think I'd ever felt anything better than this.