Page 133 of Give Me Love

Win-win.

I’ll also be able to talk to Lou, who has been missing in action since Mom got clean.

I know she’s staying away out of respect, and I realize the woman can’t keep coming over to my house and being a maid. I’ve tried to stop her before, because she refuses to let me pay her, seeming offended at the offer.

I pull up to the curb across the street from the coffee shop I half own and get out of the car.

I own a fucking coffee shop. Never in a million years would I have bought this place if it weren’t for that pretty, smart-mouthed girl walking around in there now. I stand, leaning against my door. She’s refilling coffee mugs and talking with her customers. She wears a burnt orange mini skirt with a white long-sleeved shirt tucked into it.

She smiles at a kid who’s sitting on the floor beside a high-back velvet chair his mom occupies. I see her bend down to his level, and he looks up at her with wide curious eyes. She says something that makes his whole face light up, and then she stands and walks to the counter.

I find myself doing this shit all the time.

Watching her.

Studying the way she moves and the things that make her smile. I’ve never cared about a woman like this before. I feel like a teenager who just got his first crush. I want her to pay attention to me, and I love teasing her so she’ll laugh.

I’m a needy fucker when it comes to my girl, and I don’t give a shit.

If this is how my dad felt, then I finally understand. I get why he was the way he was. I look up to the vast gray sky. “I get it, Dad,” I murmur before I push off the car and head inside so I can be near her and tell her the news.

Where there once was a bell, there is now a witch’s laugh when you step into the shop. K looks up from the kid she’s talking to again, and I see he now has a sucker.

“Hey, baby,” she says, standing.

Hey, baby.She’s never called me that before. Damn, I love it.

I clear my throat. “Hey.” The place is busy today. Several people occupy the chairs and tables. Some sit in the more comfortable chairs on their laptops while others browse the bookshelves. It’s a little crowded in here.

“What brings you by?” she asks me as she walks behind the counter. I follow.

“I can’t come see my girl?” I ask playfully.

“You can come see me anytime you want, actually. Especially since you kinda own the place.” She reaches under the counter and twisted orange and purple lights come on along the walls.

“Weown the place,” I correct her.

“Yes.We,” she says with a small smile, standing back up.

I grab her hand. “That’s not all I own, though.”

“Really?” she replies with a quirked brow.

“Yes, really. Come here.”

“Hold on.” She holds up a finger. “Becca, watch the front for me, please,” she says over to the young college girl who’s putting up more decorations. This place is starting to look like Halloween threw up.

“You got it,” Becca replies before I pull Kat away from prying ears, through the hanging beads toward her office. I shut the door behind us, locking it before quickly pushing her up against it. She sucks in a breath of air just before my lips smash against hers. I kiss her roughly while running my hand up the side of her thigh, lifting her skirt, pleased that she has on a thong. I grab a handful of her ass and suck on her lip.

I’ve missed her, and I just had her last night in the alleyway in the front seat of my car. My mind goes back to leather seats, sweet moans, and her riding my cock. She smells like warm caramel, and I know it’s the lotion she bought when I took her shopping the other day because she made me smell like twenty bottles of that shit. I let go of her ass and break our kiss only a tad.

“Come home with me,” I say.

She laughs. “I’m working.”

“No, I mean the place where I grew up. The ranch. I want you to meet my family.”

She pulls back from me a little, her eyes widening. “Really?” she asks.

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