Page 143 of Broken Grump

She swallows hard, and I can practically hear her gulp.

“Hayden.”

I cup her face and use my thumb to point her chin up. Then, I graze her lips ever so softly with mine—just so she can get a taste of what’s to come.

“Um, excuse me.” I flag our server down as he walks by. “Check, please.”

Chapter forty-one

Hayden

After paying, I callLionel to tell him that we’re ready, and then we wait outside near a parking structure for him to come pick us up.

It’s gotten even chillier out, and I can see the breath escaping from Addie’s mouth.

“Here,” I take off my coat and offer it to her.

“Oh, thanks. But aren’t you going to be cold?”

“Maybe.” I pull her in closer. “Except this certainly helps.”

She’s facing away from me, and I revel in the feeling of her perky ass nuzzled perfectly against me.

Adding ambiance to this scene is the hustle and bustle of the crazy town around us. Yet, here, the space between us feels perfectly calm.

She turns her head and looks back at me. “Thank you for dinner. I don’t think I said that before.”

I bend down and kiss the bridge of her nose. “You are very welcome, Addie. Thank you for joining me.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry it took me so long. But after everything—”

I push my finger to her lips. “Please. That’s all in the past.” My therapist has recently been teaching me that happiness in the future is about accepting and then freeing yourself from past hurt and past mistakes. “What I want to focus on is the here and now. Us.”

She grabs my hand on her shoulder and smiles. “I’d like that too.”

We just stand there for a while, embraced in each other’s arms. The heat is still soaring between us, but as we’re in public, we can’t exactly act on any of the impulses we may be having. So, for right now, having her in my arms has to be enough.

And it is.

When a gust of wind blows past us, I get a strong whiff of her tantalizing perfume.

“May I just say, you smell wonderful tonight, Miss Flores.”

“Miss Flores, okay.” The muscles around her mouth turn down.

Yeah, two can play at that game.

“And thank you.Someonejust so happened to leave a fancy gift bag filled with Jo Malone fragrances.”

They’ve always been my favorite, but I wasn’t sure which one would smell the best on her. So, I went with a few options from their citrus, fruity, floral, spicy, and even woody categories. Now, was it one of the more expensive gifts I’ve ever given a woman? Yes. But this is Addie we’re talking about. And she deserves the whole world.

“Which one did you pick tonight?”

She squints as she thinks. “Pear something, I think.”

“English Pear and Freesia?”

“I think so. But what is freesia?”

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