Page 28 of Scent of Home

“How long have you known him?”

“Not long,” Erin says back and steps closer to me. Her breasts brush against my forearm, and I swear, my whole body goes still, focusing on that minute touch.

“He’s got strong feelings for you.” I clear my throat and awkwardly peer at her again.

She just tips her beer down her throat with another one of those mysterious smiles.

I flounder, unsure what to say, but the longer the silence lasts, the more frustrated I get.

“Walk with me,” Erin says suddenly, then turns and heads outside.

Anything is preferable to being inside with all these people and noise, so I follow her. Her ass is divine. She’s the kind of woman I’ve thought about for years. I’ll now have a face for my spank bank.

I shove those thoughts aside as I approach Erin. She sits down on the stairs and leans back, smiling up at the night.

“I needed this. All I did was work. I never stopped. I can’t remember the last time I looked at the stars.”

“Why did you work so hard?”

“Because I wanted to be the best, I kept setting up goal posts and moving them, over and over, more and more success.”

“Did something happen?”

“I mean, not really. I achieved it all. There are only a few things left to do, like, get a high-profile case, charge millions of dollars, become a judge. I’m not interested in any of them. I simply got bored.”

“Did you want to be a lawyer?”

Erin laughs. “Noooo, I wanted to be a princess and have a circle of knights. But my aunt said if I could argue like that with her, I could go and do it professionally. She was right. I was good at it.”

I chuckle and sit down beside her.

“Brayson and you have a thing going on.”

It’s not a question, so I don’t answer it.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s powerful. You should both try talking to each other, though.”

“Talking is the problem. I don’t do it well, and he does it too well.”

Erin laughs again. “That shouldn’t make sense, but it does. I get it. Still, it’s a shame to see people being unhappy when they have a chance to have something incredible.”

I shake my head. “Complicated. You and Locke?”

She grimaces. “Complicated. I hate secrets and lies. He’s keeping some big ones.”

“His secret isn’t that big,” I say before I can think.

Erin sits up straight and turns in my direction. “You know it? He told you?”

My anxiety explodes, and my attempts at words fail, coming out in stuttering sounds as panic pours over me, making my skin feel like it’s rippling.

I shake my head, but I’m standing up, backing away. Erin reaches out and grabs my shirt.

I back into a hard body and turn my head. Brayson winks at me.

“Hello, hot stuff, you want to back into me, you’re free to any day.”

I jump away from him but find myself squaring off against Erin again.

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