Page 112 of Hold Me Until Morning

“Okay, okay, give me one second and let me turn off this burner so we don’t burn the gravy.”

I flipped off the knob while Maddie kept tugging at my hand. “Right now, Mommy! Hurry!”

I laughed as she hauled me along. “Someone is excited.”

“I’m the most very excited ever.” She dragged me across the room and out into the descending night.

The air was grayed and cooled, the heavens colored in sweeps and swirls of fading color as the darkness wisped across the sky.

Maddie turned to face me as she led me down the porch steps. “Close your eyes, it’s a surprise.”

“A surprise, huh?”

“A really good one.”

I peeked over at the playhouse that had been set up beneath the big oak tree that stood on the far end of the yard, its branches stoic and its reach wide.

Madison’s playhouse was made to look like a cottage, the plastic shaped into planks of wood with a gray door and white-framed windows that were missing the glass.

She bounced all the way across the lawn until we were in front of it.

I knew the ceiling was basically only high enough for Maddie to stand in, so I was giggling when she threw open the door and demanded, “Keep your eyes closed all the way, Mommy, and follow me all the way inside!”

Trying to keep them closed, I got to my knees to crawl inside, squeezing through the narrow doorway as I patted my hands on the ground to guide myself.

When I made it through, Maddie shouted, “Open them!”

I was on my knees when I did, and a soft gasp escaped when I opened them to take in the scene. Blankets had been spread out on the floor and little twinkle lights were strung up on the ceiling, casting it in a soft, warm glow.

Her Princess Verona bunny and a couple other dolls were set up on the right side at the little table that extended from the wall.

And Cody…Cody had somehow wedged himself inside, the heap of a man curled up in the left back corner with his knees pulled to his chest and a fake pink pearl necklace around his neck.

“Surprise! We’re having a party!” Maddie threw her arms up again.

“A party?” I barely mouthed as I looked to Cody, an apology in my expression.

“That’s right,” he rumbled in that dark voice, his rugged face so handsome in the shadows that played through the confined space. “We’re having a party. I even got dressed up.”

He gave a soft tug to the necklace around his neck.

“And we have to eat in here because it’s a dinner party and I even got drinks but it’s not wine because I’m not old enough.” Maddie lifted a plastic teacup that brimmed with water, sloshing it over the side in her enthusiasm.

“Wow, this is amazing,” I drew out, sending Cody another apologetic look when I said it.

He just smiled one of those easy smiles.

Like this was no big deal. Like he wasn’t single-handedly wreaking havoc on my sanity. Or maybe he was just tweaking that sanity into something brand new.

My insides tumbled. God, what in the world were we doing?

That gaze shined, and beneath it, my lips tingled with the vestiges of that kiss.

That kiss that had wrecked me in the best way possible.

Made my knees weak and my head spin and sent my heart clamoring toward something that had felt so fundamentally right all while being intrinsically wrong.

That kiss that I needed to remember was only meant to send Pruitt a message.

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