Page 38 of The Hot New Single Dad Next Door

That’s all it took. My name on her lips.

Suddenly, I couldn’t say a word.

I didn’t want to talk anymore.

I wanted nothing more than to tell her that no one would ever hurt her or her son ever again, but all I could do was kiss her.

And then… well…

I didn’t mean for this to happen.

But I’m glad it did.

As Lottie stirs in my arms now, I enjoy the feeling of her smooth skin against mine. I relish in the scent of her, her hair. I kiss her shoulder and taste her skin, and she smiles, her limbs rubbing softly against mine under the covers.

My heart pounds. Truthfully, I thought I’d never fall in love again. Even more truthfully, I didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure I even could.

But… there she was.

Here she is.

Kiss County strikes again, as Summer said.

“Scott?” Lottie whispers.

I kiss her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids. As her eyes flutter open, I smile. “Good morning.”

She chuckles. “Good morning indeed.”

We laugh. We kiss. For a moment, everything is wonderful and perfect, but my gut teases with doubt.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “About last night.”

Lottie furrows her brow. “I’m not,” she says.

“No?”

“No.” She turns to face me, worried. “Why? Was I not good?”

“No!” I say. “I mean, yes. Yes, it was incredible. You were... everything. I just thought that maybe we should have talked about it first or something.” Lottie chuckles, and I relax a little. “That we should have had dinner first. Alone, I mean. A date or something.”

“Guess we do things differently down here in Small Town,” she says.

“Guess you do,” I say.

“I’m sorry if I rushed you into it.”

“I thought I rushed you.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to be standing there,” she says. “And when I saw you, I had to...”

“Kiss you,” I say.

“Yeah. I had to...”

We kiss softly now, that warm feeling growing between us again.

“I had to kiss you,” I repeat with a whisper. “I had to...”

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