Page 217 of Smooth Sailing

“You materialized out of the night like a shadow taking shape. So I see what Dutch meant. I’m impressed.”

She was teasing, but he wasn’t buying it.

So instead of replying to what she said, he asked, “How’d that go?”

It took her a beat before she shook her head, planted her face in his chest a second, pressing the rest of her to him with both arms rounding him, and then she tipped her head back.

That was something he hadn’t felt before either, or he hadn’t let it penetrate.

And, damn, it felt good to stand strong when his woman needed to lean on him.

“She’s called Mom to chat every day since the incident,” she told him. “Even when Mom was still in town. Mom’s ghosting her.”

Christ, that woman was a total bitch.

He didn’t say that.

“You think she’ll cave?” he asked.

“I don’t know. No one has ever called Mom on her shit in that grand of a fashion. We’re in uncharted territory.”

His phone at his ass vibrated, he ignored it, and kept his attention on his woman.

He did this because they hadn’t had a lot of time in, but he still knew his woman.

“You gonna wade into that?”

She bit her lip.

Just as he suspected, Di giving everything to everybody else, sometimes at the expense of herself.

She didn’t know it, but her mother played a part in Di being like that. Diana had been dancing attendance on that woman since she’d taken her first breath, it was all she knew.

It was good that Di could twist it so it could be worthwhile for people who mattered.

And it was good she had him now, so he could make sure she didn’t use herself up.

“Di—”

“Ugh,” she grunted. “I can’t. No contact means no contact. And seriously, Mom’s so good at her games, she might be doing this to Gram for the sole purpose of making me wade in.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

“So I can’t.”

“Yeah,” he agreed a lot more firmly.

“Ugh,” she repeated.

Hugger bent to touch his lips to hers, and when he moved away, murmured, “Let’s get you home.”

“’Kay,” she mumbled.

They let go, he got on his bike, she swung on behind him, plastered herself to his back with her arms around his stomach, chin to his shoulder, and that didn’t feel as good as her leaning on him, but it still felt damn good.

They took off, and like he felt it, she probably felt his phone vibrating at his ass again.

When they stopped at a red light, he yelled over the pipes, “Grab that, will you?”

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