Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Blythe

I could hear my co-workers whispering behind me, but I was too busy daydreaming to really pay attention to what they were gossiping about. I barely comprehended the words on the screen in front of me as I brushed my fingers over the mouse to scroll from page to page.

A throat cleared behind me, the sound so obnoxiously loud that it burst my happy little bubble and drew me back to the present.

I blinked and swiveled in my chair, facing Heather, Diana, and Gretchen. “What?” My gaze bounced between all three of them as they snickered. “What did I miss?”

“You’ve been in your own little world over there,” Gretchen pointed out with a cheeky grin.

“Yeah,” Heather added. “We’ve been trying to get your attention for five minutes now, but your head is so high in the clouds you couldn’t hear us.”

Diana waggled her brows, “Looks like someone got slammed nice and hard.”

I choked on the sip of coffee I’d taken as Gretchen burst into laughter and Heather cut her eyes in her direction. “You don’t have any kind of filter, do you?”

She lifted her chin proudly. “Nope? I am who I am.”

“She has a point, though.” Gretchen narrowed her eyes, studying me closely. “You’re all glow-y and blissed-out this morning. Unless you found a new skincare serum that creates magic overnight, I can only think of one thing that makes a person look like that.”

“Yeah, a nice, hard dicking.”

“Diana!” I croaked out, nearly choking on another drink of coffee.

“Don’t get all bashful now,” Heather said in a scolding tone. “Not when you’ve got tea to spill.”

“It’s that guy who came in the other week, isn’t it” Gretchen asked. “That really hot one with the killer smile?”

My face felt like it was on fire, and the blush gave me away before I could get a word out.

“It is!” Diana jabbed her finger in my face. “Look at her. She’s blushing!”

“I’m not surprised. Aren’t you living with the guy?” Heather asked.

“We were more like housemates,” I explained. “But... things changed last night.”

All three of them let out squeals of excitement that stabbed through the air like needles jabbing at my eardrums.

“How did it happen?” Gretchen asked.

“Yeah, tell us,” Diana insisted. “Did the sexual tension get to be too much and you guys ripped into each other like rabid gorillas?”

My chin jerked back in shock. “As colorful as that visual is, no, it wasn’t quite like that.” Well, we ripped into each other, but it wasn’t like rabid gorillas, that was for damn sure. “He and I actually dated for three years when we were younger.” A dreamy smile tugged the corners of my mouth upward. “We were each other’s first loves. And, well... other firsts.”

Heather clasped her hand in front of her chest. “Oh my God, I love that. It’s like a romantic movie come to life or something.”

As if we’d spoken him into existence, the door opened and the man of the hour came walking in. The sight of him in those faded jeans and a cotton tee was enough to rev my engine in a very big way.

“Hey,” I said, smiling brightly.

“Hey back, Angel.”

“Gah, I love that he calls her Angel,” I heard Gretchen mutter, but I couldn’t pull my attention from the man in front of me.

He braced a forearm on the counter between us and lifted his hand, making a come-here motion with his finger. A girlish giggle worked its way up my throat as I pushed up from my seat and leaned across the counter so I could give him the kiss he so clearly wanted.

“This is a really nice surprise,” I said. “What brings you by?”

He placed a familiar paper bag on the counter. The contents smelled so good they made my stomach growl. It wasn’t until that moment I realized we didn’t have dinner the night before or breakfast earlier that morning. We’d been too busy doing other things to think about food. “Thought you might want some lunch. Evergreen’s California Club and Tomato Soup, right?”

There were so many things on Evergreen Diner’s menu that were absolutely delicious, but their California Club and Tomato Soup were in my top five favorites.

I pushed up for another kiss, whispering, “I love you.”

When I pulled back, his lips were smiling and his eyes were lit with happiness. “Love you right back, baby. You having a good day so far?”

“So far. How about you?”

“It just got a whole lot better.” God, I’d forgotten how damn good he was at lighting me up from the inside. “But I have to admit, I have an ulterior motive,” he confessed, his expression growing sheepish. “I’ve been tryin’ my hardest to put Gypsy off on forcin’ you and the kids to come for family dinner, but she called today and informed me we’d be having it at our house this weekend. Some bullshit excuse about a busted oven or something, but the truth is, she’s run out of patience and is trying to force my hand. I totally understand if it’s too soon. If you want, you can take the kids to your mom’s for a few hours Sunday night, and I’ll make up an excuse for you.”

“Or, and I’m just throwing this out there... we could stay and have dinner with your family.”

I could tell by the way his eyes heated that he really liked that idea. “You sure? I mean, we haven’t even talked to the kids about all of this yet. I don’t want you to feel pressured into moving faster than you’re comfortable with.”

Logically, I knew that our relationship was only hours old and other people might look at us and think we were moving too fast—we were already living together, after all—but it felt like the past twenty years didn’t exist, that we’d picked up right where we left off before everything had gone south. I was happy for the first time in far too long, and I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone dictate the speed of this relationship. That was up to Rhodes and me alone.

“That family dinner is still a few days away, so we have time to figure out how we’re going to tell the kids.” I reached out and took his hands in mine. “You aren’t going to scare me off,” I assured him. I knew it was exactly what he needed to hear when his shoulders slumped and his lips pursed on a relieved exhale. “I told you, I’m in this with you, Rhodes. I promise.”

He tucked his finger under my chin and guided me forward for another kiss. “Love you, Angel.”

My smile was so wide it made my cheeks hurt. “I love you too.”

A sexy, gratified sound rumbled up from his chest. “Say it again.”

I giggled and shook my head. “I love you too.”

“And again.”

“Love you.”

“Fuck,” he rasped. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”

“And I’ll never get tired of saying it. But we both need to get back to work.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice to a whisper so only he could hear. “I’ll gladly say it over and over later tonight while I show you how much I mean it.”

The grin that split his face hit me right in the core. He really was the most beautiful man. “I’m holdin’ you to that, baby. See you later.”

“See you at home.”

He glanced back over his shoulder. “Love hearin’ you call it home too.”

I waited until he walked through the door and disappeared out of view of the windows before turning around, only now remembering I wasn’t alone, that a gaggle of nosy women had been standing behind me the entire time. However, the earlier humor was gone from their expressions, and they were looking at me with something I couldn’t quite place. That was, until Gretchen spoke.

“I really love this for you, B.”

Heather nodded in agreement. “You’re so sweet, and we know you’ve been through a really rough time, so seeing what we just saw... well, we’re so glad you’re happy.”

I’d always enjoyed the women I worked with, they were colorful and funny and told it like it was, but I didn’t realize until then how much I’d grown to like them. In that moment, I stopped considering them co-workers and started thinking of them as friends. “Thank you,” I said past the lump of emotion in my throat. “That really means a lot. The past several months have been difficult, but you should know you guys made them a little bit easier.”

Diana rushed forward and wrapped her arms around me, squeezing to the point of crushing my lungs.

“Di?” I wheezed, struggling to pull in a breath. “You okay?”

“You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met. I’m really glad you’re happy, is all.”

“Well holy crap,” Gretchen started dramatically. “Who knew she had any feelings beyond arousal?”

She pulled away, shooting a killing look at Gretchen before batting the dampness from her eyes. “He looks like he knows how to lay pipe,” she added in typical Diana fashion, “and if there’s a woman who deserves a good railing, it’s you.”

Heather threw her arms up in defeat. “And there’s the real Di,” she grumbled as I tossed my head back and laughed, feeling a lightness I hadn’t felt in a really long time.