Page 74 of Just a Distraction

He drops his head back in a laugh. “I know! I’ve never heard of anything crazier. You need to hear them tell the story. It was nuts. But my point is, it worked out. All of my brothers’ hardships turned out to be helpful to them. They just forget that when they see me.”

I nod slowly. “Maybe you’re right.”

“What? You starting to feel better about us?” His mouth drops open.

I lift a shoulder and play with the stem of my glass. “Maybe.”

Milo’s smile is grave. “I’ll take ‘maybe.’”

“You’re never fazed, are you? I don’t understand your level of commitment.”

“I’m loyal to a lot of things. But Rose? This isn’t about being a loyal person. This is about you and the way I feel about you.”

“I feel a lot of strong feelings about you, too.” My cheeks warm—due to more reasons than just the curry—and I hide them behind my napkin.

He seems to know there’s not much more about this that can be said right now.

We finish eating, he pays the bill. He even stands and pulls my chair out for me. Once outside in the early spring air, he wraps his arm around me as we walk along the pavement. Mysoul needs this man, I know this. His words enter my insides and brand them with an iron.

I use my fingers to try to temper the hair that the wind blows across my face so I can stare into his eyes. I can barely catch my breath. And suddenly, I’m a foreigner to myself. Because the Rose I know has been fighting for an illusion of control she never even had in the first place. In an effort not to become what I feared I would, I’ve become a shell of myself.

The real Rose Hawkins is too strong and brave to let fear get the better of her. The real Rose Hawkins keeps getting up and trying over and over again.

The real Rose Hawkins loves Milo Tate.

I grab the lapel of his sports coat and kiss him. Hungrily. Ferociously.

And without any fear at all.

Chapter 29

Milo

Rose’s lips are exactly how I remembered them. They became a part of the essence of me the night we met and now that she’s kissing me here in Longdale, Colorado, down the street from a mediocre Chinese Restaurant, I know I’m home.

Everything in me folds in on itself the more I wrap my arms around her and sink into this moment. Her lips search mine. She grabs at the collar of my shirt to get better leverage, and I yank her closer. She devours my mouth over and over again. When I tangle my hands in her hair, she trails her lips down to my collarbone and nibbles there, before returning to my mouth.

After a few more deep kisses, she pulls away to drag in a breath and rests the back of her hand over her mouth. She giggles lightly, then turns her hand over so she can run her fingertipsover her lips. It’s mesmerizing. Beautiful. And I have to force myself not to claim her mouth again.

She bridges the gap for me, taking my mouth in hers, savoring me as I’m savoring her.

“Rose,” I moan under my breath when we take a moment to breathe. Her hands knead my shoulders for one beat, her eyes darting to and fro as she breathes, and then her lips cling to me again.

Then we walk and kiss some more.

Rinse and repeat several times.

Longdale’s a small town. It’s not known for its nightlife. Still, she laughs as she pulls me behind a tree in the park strip and we kiss some more. We walk awhile and then I guide her behind a scrim of greenery in front of the city offices and take her lips in mine again.

“I don’t want to talk about when I move away,” Rose states flatly, her hand curling into my palm as she threads her fingers through mine.

“Then don’t.”

A laugh escapes her lips. “It complicates things.”

“Not for me. I really care about you, Rose.” The way her lips look right now, raw and pink and swollen, it’s difficult not to start kissing her again.

“I care about you a lot, too,” she says. And the finality in her voice makes me think that maybe we’ve said all we’ve needed to at this point.

---