Page 46 of Feuds and Interludes
He slid his fingers under the waistband of my pants and I sucked in a breath as he crushed me against him.
“Never knew you had such a sweet tooth, Butler,” I whispered as he went to work on my neck. I clutched at his shoulders and gasped. “Maybe you need to watch that.”
“I’m watching my intake, I can pace myself, but I want more.”
“Fuck, it’s yours.” My phone vibrated in my pocket, clearing my head enough to remind me of why I’d been looking for him. “Shane, sweetie. It’s our grandparents.”
“What about them?” He kept kissing me like that, up my throat, along my jaw, behind my ear, and I could barely breathe.
“They’re here.Now. They got into Portland last night and they’re staying at a hotel. Together.”
He pulled back. “Together? Shit. That was fast.”
“Yes. And they want us to come into town and meet them tomorrow night for dinner before they come here and work out all the stuff for the show.”
Shane rubbed a hand over his mouth and thought for a minute, but he didn’t let go of me, thankfully.
“All right.” He barked out a laugh and, once more, I was ready to have him sit down. I wished I had smelling salts. His expression was so stunned, I worried he’d keel over any minute. Although, maybe I was projecting whatIwould be like in the same situation.
“All right?”
He nodded and smiled at me, using that hand to smooth back my hair. “Yeah. I can keep my hands off you for a dinner.”
I frowned. I hadn’t thought about that, the fact that our grandparents had no idea what we’d been up to. Maybe he wasn’t ready to tell them. “Oh. Sure, okay. Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Right about what? I just mean I’ll need to behave myself and not give into the desire to maul you for a few hours. Jesus, I really did a number on your neck?—”
“Forget about that. What…what should we tell them about us?”
It was his turn to frown, but then he had a playful smile on his face. “Well, definitely not how much I love that ball on your tongue.”
“Shane. I’m serious. Are you ready for other people to know about us? Especially our grandparents?”
He pulled me closer, and I started to shiver, maybe from the cold, but more likely from my fear that this was the end of any possibility of a partnership with Shane.
“Why, are you worried? You think Vera Jean will object?”
“God, no, Shane. She adores you.”
He smiled. “That’s nice. I’ve always admired her.”
He was acting so weird. So un-Shane-like.
“Shane! Focus. What are we doing?”
“I can tell you what I’mnotdoing. I’m not freaking out. It’s weird that I’m not freaking out, but I’m not. That goes for my band, and it goes for you. Us.” His smile fell. “But Boone? I’m kind of floating unmoored here. I hope…I hope this wasn’t just an experiment for you. I don’t fuck around with people. If you’re not serious?—”
“I’m serious as a goddamned heart attack, Shane. I’m still waiting for you to send me away, though.”
“Why do you keep saying that?” He rested his hands on my hips. “Why do you act so confident one minute, telling me what you want, what to do, and so damned skittish the next?”
I pulled away from him. I needed some space if I was going to admit some shit.
“You called me perfect. I’ve been called that before. Let’s just say perfect gets old real quick for a lot of people.”
He reached for my hand but I took a few steps away, over to one of the trees. I ran my fingers over the bark on the trunk and looked up at theperfectlyshaped fruit. “Soon these apples will turn from this current shade of green to shiny red and yellow. They’ll be harvested, sent out to stores, and some choosy shopper will pluck them from a pile thinking they’re perfect, but once they get them home, they’ll start to see the imperfections and wish they would have picked another one.” I turned back toface him and took in his confused expression. “That doesn’t stop me from trying to be perfecter, but yeah, usually people decide real quick that they should have picked a better apple.”
“They were ignorant then. Nobody’s perfect. That’s a helluva weight to put on yourself, Boone.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But is…Is that how little you think of me?” he asked after several beats.
