Page 124 of A Dream for Daphne

“I’m making up for it now. Don’t worry about that in the least,” she said, smirking.

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WHAT HE FOUND

“Are you slowing down at all?” Daphne asked Abe the following week. She’d told him she was getting out of work early and he suggested she stay at his house tonight.

He liked the night with her. He knew she liked staying with him. But he didn’t always want to be at her place. She’d offered to come to his during the week and this time he took her up on it since he had to start early on a job thirty minutes in the other direction from home. Forty-five minutes from her place, so he wouldn’t see her much this week.

“Not really,” he said. “Which isn’t a bad thing. The weather is holding and that’s the best part for us.”

He had full-time work all the way to the end of the year if they went that long without snow sticking.

The ground wouldn’t be frozen either until January with any luck. Some years he was actually still working with half a crew in December doing jobs that people didn’t want to wait until spring for.

“I’m so happy for you,” she said. “How hot do you want these wings?”

“I like spice,” he said. “And spicy things. That’s why I love you so much.”

She laughed and wiggled her ass for him while she checked on the wings in the air fryer.

He’d just gotten out of the shower. He’d texted her when he was leaving his last job and they arrived about the same time. She offered to start dinner while he cleaned up.

“I think you just like that I cook for you all the time.”

“There is that too,” he said. “But you don’t do it all the time. I still have to mooch meals off of Laurel.”

He was doing it less and less though. He loved his cousin’s fiancée and all, but he’d obviously rather have time with the woman he loved.

“I’m sure she doesn’t mind either,” she said. “She told me she always makes extra.”

“When did she tell you that?” he asked. They’d gone to dinner with Abe and Laurel one other time, but it’d been a busy few months for everyone.

“At Raine’s bridal shower,” she said. “She thinks highly of you. I’m sure you know that though.”

“I do,” he said, brushing his knuckles across his chest. “I’m a great guy to have around.”

“You’re so full of yourself,” she said.

He walked over and laid his lips to hers. “And you love it.”

“I do,” she said.

She was mixing hot sauce and melted butter in a pan. There was some other lemon honey glaze on the stove.

“Are you mixing those two things?” he asked. “Not sure they are going to taste good together.”

“No,” she said. “I’m going to put a few in the lemon, honey, ginger one for me. You said you liked hot wings.”

“I want to try that,” he said. He stuck his finger in it. “That’s good.”

“Do you want this instead or both?” she asked.

“I’ll have both if it’s not too big of a deal,” he said.

“They are both made. It’s just tossing the ones you want. There are two bowls in the fridge if you want to grab them.”

He moved over and opened the fridge. “What’s in them?”

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