Page 88 of Win Some Love Some
Too much. Too fast. What the hell was I thinking?
“Nora-”
She yanked me to her, kissing me as hard as I’d been kissing her. Like she couldn’t get enough. This was Nora. She was the reason I knew what love was, and she was holding on to me like she was dangling over a cliff and I was her only hope to live.
Which is why the knock on the passenger window and the burst of light in my face scared the ever-loving shit out of me.
“Hey there, Nick,” Sheriff Bobby said through the glass, standing on the other side of the truck door with a wry smile on his face. “Sorry to uh…interrupt you, but I wasn’t sure what your tow truck was doing parked outside the Barnes residence. Oh hey there, Nora. Nice to see you.”
“ILOSTMYCONTACTINMYEYEANDNICKWASHELPINGMEFINDIT!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“What was that?” Bobby asked.
“Really? Contact lens?” I muttered under my breath.
“Go with it,” she said between gritted teeth.
I hit the button on the console to roll down the window. “I was dropping Nora off because her car died and she…she lost her contact in her eye and I was helping her find it?”
Bobby nodded. “Solid option. Not the first time I’ve heard it, but utterly plausible. Unless of course, I’ve known you your whole life Nora, and I know you don’t wear contacts.”
“They’re for color enhancement,” she squeaked out. “It’s a French thing.”
“You’ve got to love the French,” Bobby chuckled. “I’m guessing you two kids want to keep this under wraps from Roy?”
“Keep what under wraps?” I asked Sheriff Bobby with a tone in my voice that reminded him I could take him for every penny at every poker game from now until next year if he didn’t keep quiet about this.
“Gotcha,” he said with a wink. “Nice car you got there, Nora. Don’t forget to stop by the bakery now and again. Mari wants to hear all about your experiences with French pastries.”
He walked off and a second later his squad car drove past us down the quiet residential beach community.
Nora collapsed against the door, her head in her hands.
“That was close,” Nora breathed.
I shook my head. “Not even a little. He knows what we were doing.”
“What the fuck were we doing?” she groaned.
I ran my hands over my face like I could hold the memory of her, the feel, the taste. It was burned into me. My brain. My body.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Sorry?” she asked carefully, like she was a bomb about to go off. “Nick, so help me God, if you think you can dick around with my heart after everything I’ve been through-”
“Sorry that Sheriff Bobby found us. Not that we…not that we kissed. I’m not sorry for that. I could never be sorry for that.”
She brushed her hair from her face and tugged down the hem of her sweater. “Nick, you are sending me so many mixed messages right now. You don’t want anything to happen, but then you kiss me. You’re sorry, but you’re not sorry. What is going on with you? I can’t-”
“I can’t lose you again,” I said, the words spilling out of me like they’d been waiting for their moment. “I can’t lose you again. The last six years were shit, Nora. Total shit. And you’re here now, making my life better. Brighter. If I lose you again, I won’t survive it.”
Never in my life had I been so honest. It took all my courage to look at her. Tears streamed down her cheeks and I moaned in my throat. No matter what I did, I hurt her.
“The stakes are so high,” I whispered.
She swiped the tears off her face and I wished I could hold her, but I was paralyzed between want and fear. She stiffened her shoulders – the grown ass woman who’d bought herself a car today.
“Will Sheriff Bobby keep his mouth shut? The last thing I need is more town gossip,” she said.
