Page 101 of Ever With Me

Brooks frowned at her. “What was what?”

“Didn’t you hear?—”

“Dude, Maddie . . . what the heck?” Logan said as he and Kayla rounded the corner. They stopped short, and Logan turned around to block Audrey from seeing her.

The little girl popped her head around Logan’s leg. “Hi, Miss Maddie!” She seemed oblivious to Maddie’s lack of clothes,thank goodness.

“I—” Maddie grabbed her orange-and-brown-plaid flannel shirt and pulled it on.

Fuck.Heat flooded her cheeks. Logan was already walking the other way, lifting Audrey onto his shoulders.

Kayla smiled at Brooks, then Maddie. “Good to see you again, Maddie. We’ll catch up in a few.” She followed Logan, laughing as she hurried to catch up.

Maddie’s fingers trembled as she buttoned the shirt. “Any chance they think that was a perfectly innocent encounter?”

“Is that what it was?” Brooks’s eyes gleamed wolfishly. “Why the hell are you out hereonlyin a bra and underwear?”

“I waschanging.I have to go over to the Auction-a-Peck in a couple of minutes, and I didn’t want to look like a crazy lady.” She pulled on a long, flowy white skirt, then took out her boots.

“I have a feeling I’m gonna regret asking what Auction-a-Peck is.”

Brooks’s look of amusement hadn’t faded.

“Laugh it up, Mr. Rock Star.” She found her hairbrush and loosed her hair from her ponytail, shaking it out. “It’s an auction. For apples. And kisses. The volunteer who comes out holding a peck-sized crate of apples—which is about thirty—also offers a kiss to the winner of each auction.”

“A kiss?” Brooks appeared skeptical.

“Yes.”

“Like on the mouth?”

“Yeah, but like a peck. Pay attention.” She applied lip gloss from a tube.

“I am paying attention.” He frowned. “So you’re going to kiss some random person who bids on the apples you’re holding?”

“I mean, I didn’twantto volunteer for this. My brother Jake signed me up. He got roped into it by one of my step-grandma’s friends. And the proceeds from the auction go to the senior center, so it’s a good cause.”

“Uh-huh.” Brooks’s frown deepened. “Well, good luck with that.” He started down the lane in the direction Kayla and Logan had gone.

“You’re not going to come bid?” She hurried to catch up with him.

“On you?”

“I mean, it doesn’t have to be on me.” She hesitated, then teased, “My brother Jake is volunteering, too, if that’s more up your alley.”

He guffawed. “Madison, there are far better ways to ask me to prove I’m straight, if that’s what you want to know. In fact, I would have been happy to prove it the other day, but I wasn’t the one who held back.”

If she didn’t know any better, he seemed . . .annoyedthat she was doing this.

“So you won’t bid?” she asked, setting her hand on his forearm.

Brooks stopped, then turned to face her. “If I kiss you, it’s going to be because I know we both want it. Not because I won it in some auction, understood? I already crossed the line with you and regret it. You told me no last time. I accepted it and moved on. I won’t do it again.”

She gaped at him.

He really regretted the kisses they’d shared?

It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted it.Is that what he thought?That she was holding back because she didn’t want him? She’d told him the other day that she wanted to keep going . . . it just wasn’t a good idea.

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