Page 18 of Training the Heart

“Shit, honey, you ain’t heard nothing yet,” Mama Jo says.

“You all owe me some money,” Mabel says, pointing her fork at the swear boot.

“I think I like you all.” Ivy giggles again.

“The feeling’s mutual, dear,” Mama says.

Pop stands with his empty plate in his hand. “Alright, who wants some pie? Wade, you want some of Ivy’s pie?” he blurts.

I run a hand through my hair as most of my family snickers around the table.

This fucking family.

“All of you, get your heads out of the gutter. I just know he loves lemon,” he adds, raising his hands in innocence.

Ivy locks eyes with me and chuckles openly at Pop. Goddammit, she’s moved over to the dark side, and fuck, I hate that it looks good on her.

“She sure fits in with the fam.” Cole nudges me with his elbow as we clean up. I look out to the dining room and see Ivy parked in front of the couch while Mabel goes to town on her hair. Her wide smile takes up her whole face while she chats with Mama and CeCe.

“Maybe she needs to come to some more dinners, poor girl doesn’t seem to have a family,” Nash adds. Of course he’d have a soft spot for that, since we became like his family when his parents died.

“This was supposed to be a business dinner, I gotta maintain a little professionalism,” I grunt, and Nash smacks me with the dish towel he’s holding.

“Loosen up. Fucking cranky old man,” he whispers, looking into the next room to make sure Mabel doesn’t hear him cuss.

I look back at him. “Just trying to keep some boundaries, which is a normal, healthy thing to do.”

“You know what else is a normal and healthy thing to do?” Cole grins.

“Yeah I do, and trust me, I’m overdue, but I can’t really meet anyone right now, seems I’ll be doing all things training for the next few months.”

As I watch Ivy, I realize I’m looking forward to more time with her than I should. I can’t stop myself from wondering what happened with her family. Whatever it is, it hasn’t made her unhappy. Ivy doesn’t seem jaded like me; she seems kind, affectionate even, as she smiles up at Mabel. And she’s so damn confident in herself, as much as I hate to admit it, it’s sexy as hell.

She didn’t even look away when she walked in on me in a towel. I take a swallow of bourbon as I think of what she could’ve seen walking right in like that. I often don’t wear clothes around my own house; it was a total fluke I even had that towel on.

Maybe I should’ve left the room when I noticed her, instead of standing there half-naked, but I thought if I approached her, maybe she’d learn her lesson and leave in an uncomfortable huff, never to make that mistake again.

Instead, when she looked up at me, her eyes saidI think maybe I’d like to wear your hat sir, thank you very much,and ever since I’ve been semi-hard thinking about the soft skin of her face under my fingers and her juicy fucking lips partly open, the perfect place for me to slide my—

“Earth to Sergeant,” Cole says, calling me by my age-old nickname. “You’re staring, bro.”

“I am not,” I say defensively.

Cole chuckles in response.Fucking bourbon.

“You should really come with me to Lexington, you need a night out,” he says.

Lexington equals sex. Whenever Cole needs to get laid, he skips town for a night for one of his one-night stands—that way he doesn’t risk messing with someone’s sister or teacher from our lives. Small-town problems when you’re a manwhore like Cole.

“Mabel is going to be with Ernie and Trudy on Saturday,” he says, mentioning his ex-wife Gemma’s parents. They are actually stable, kind people and they spend more time with Mabel than her own mother does. “If you need a night to get away, let loose, let me know. I always welcome a wingman.” He grins as he says it.

“I’m not a fuckboy like you,” I snark back.

“At least I’m not wound up like a goddamn jack-in-the-box waiting to pop. You need to get out of town for a night. Trust me, it will help with the way you’renotstaring,” Cole retorts

Nash laughs quietly on his way by, sweeping the floor. “Ahh, don’t be too hard on him. After all, heisgoing out of town. Nashville, right? Good thing you won’t have any distractions there.” He winks at me.

I glance at Ivy in the living room, hair now done up in several clips, joining Mama and CeCe playing Just Dance in her painted-on jeans. As she rolls her hips to the music and her hands raise up over her head, my mouth goes dry as a fucking bone. I let out a shaky breath before swallowing the last of my bourbon.

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