Page 115 of Fall Into Me

When he set me down out front, I was staring at him with nothing short of heart eyes. “You’re my hero,” I declared, pulling out my phone.

“What are you doing?”

He tried looking at my phone and the Notes app I’d pulled up before I pressed my phone to my chest.

“Just adding to my list.”

“What kind of list?” He slung an arm over my shoulder while we walked.

“You’ll see.”

“Is it a sex list?”

“You think about sex way too much.” (It was absolutely a sex list.)

One I did my best to keep from his prying eyes by trying to walk ahead of him.

“For calling Ashton an asshole?” He was grinning down at me now, eyebrows raised like he didn’t quite believe me.

“You looked sexy while doing it.” I shrugged. “Like a big, tattooed, sexy city cowboy.”

Fane hummed, pretending to think about it. “I can work with this.”

Pulling out his phone, he dialed Ashton, keeping his eyes on me while he spoke. “Hey Ash, if you don’t replace those cookie ingredients by tomorrow, I’ll toast your balls.”

He winked at me, and I snorted so loudly it echoed.

“And you need to make it up to her…No, managing the café isn’t enough, especially when you eat all her stock…If you bring a cake to dinner tonight that will count as making it up to her? Yes…No, you can’t use her ingredients…Yes, you can ask Sammy for help.” He pressed the phone against his shoulder, turning to me quickly. “Can Sammy come to dinner?”

I nodded my head enthusiastically, “Of course.”

“Yes, Sammy can come to dinner.”

When he hung up, he slid his phone into his pocket and watched as I pulled mine out, quickly adding something to the list before putting it away, and the look on his face was priceless.

When we got home, I found him behind the closed door of the bedroom, caught red-handed going through the sex list. He made it up to me by peeling off my jeans and dropping his head between my legs, apologizing profusely despite his no touch rule…twice.

Ashton and Sammy were already at my parents’ house by the time we got there. I had no idea what in the world was going on, but whatever it was, it looked good on both of them.

There was something incredibly healing for my heart to see the way my mom lit up at having so many people sitting at her dinner table, even though there was a part that ached at Abbey’s absence. Ashton’s cake was right in the center with writing on the top that saidSorry Carrie, and Sammy spent a good portion of the evening explaining to my dad who Carrie was.

“Flavor?”

“Vanilla.”

“How many attempts did it take you?”

“This was number two, and it’s mostly burned. You just can’t see it because of the icing.”

“Did Sammy help?”

“With the icing.”

“All right, apology accepted.”

Ashton did that little fist shake that tennis players did when they were kicking ass, and Sammy snorted so loudly my dad got up thinking the sound came from someone knocking on the front door. I almost peed my pants.

Just when I thought I’d calmed down, I took a sip of water, and a second wave of giggles hit me, sending my water praying right over Ashton’s piece of cake.

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