Page 94 of Time Out

My shoulders slumped, and I wrapped a hand around his wrist and pulled it from my mouth. Before I could speak, he leaned in and kissed me slow. Sweet. Tender. No tongue but his lips lingered on mine until I wasn’t worried about becoming turned on in front of Jim, I was turned on in front of him.

“Davis,” I rasped against his mouth. “Are you sure?”

“Never been more sure of anything in my life.” His hand cupped my cheek, and he grinned. Those blue eyes of his popped as he waited until I blew out a breath.

“It’s a lot, and we’re still strangers, and our life keeps getting more complicated.”

“Easy is boring, Maggie. We’ve got this, okay?”

Right. “You have it, not me. I’m on the hot mess express and I’ve thrown you on the train for the ride.”

“Better than being alone.”

Gah. “Do you always have to be perfect?”

Behind him, Jim barked out a laugh. “Ain’t no such thing when dealing with people.”

“Yeah?” I pressed to my tiptoes and found Jim behind Davis’s side shoulder. “When isn’t he perfect?”

“Almost shot me in the ass one day when we were out duck hunting. Missed me by inches. That wasn’t very perfect of him.” He winked at Davis. “Missed the damn ducks, too.”

Davis rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “You weren’t wearing your orange vest, and I saw movement, Dad. That was your fault.”

“Still missed the damn ducks. Didn’t get any that day, did you?”

I chuckled. These men. They were just what I needed.

I headed into the living room.

“Fine,” I agreed on a mumble. “No one is perfect.”

Jim was looking back toward the kitchen and nodded at my agreement. “And everyone has their shit. Sometimes it’s big shit, sometimes it’s small shit. But everyone’s got time in their life when that’s their lot. Yours is now. Someday it will be someone else’s shit. I figure, girl as sweet as you, you’ll help them carry it all, too.”

I wasn’t quite sure I’d ever heard someone use shit so many times in a sentence or so eloquently.

“Am I wrong?” Jim pressed.

“No. I would probably help someone else with their shit, too.”

“Then that’s that. We do those things for people we love.”

My gaze darted to Davis. His eyes were round but not scared. “Dad,” he warned again.

“Said my piece. Think I’ll head out, see the town for a bit, give you two some time alone.” He slapped the back of Davis’s shoulder. “Call your mom, though. She and your sisters will want to talk about the game, and it might be time to tell them the rest, yeah? Sounds to me they might hear it from someone else first, and you don’t want that.”

Fear drained the color from Davis’s face. “No. Annie would kill me. You mind?” he asked me.

What had I been convincing myself of?

In for a penny, in for a pound?

“Go for it.” I shrugged.

After all, what else could go wrong?

I left Davis in the living room to call his mom first. Once Jim left, I decided to take the time to clear my things out of the bedroom he was sleeping in. If he was heading back to Nebraska soon, I would have kept it, but with Ruth coming… guess I wasn’t heading back to that room for a while. I had my phone in my pocket in case she or Mrs. Clancey called again and had my arms filled with the clothes I’d hung in the closet, crossing to Davis’s room when I could hear him laughing at something his mom said.

A grin broke out on my face.

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