Page 81 of Needing Your Love
“Let me know if I can do anything to help, Mary,” Sutton said, stepping to my side and taking my hand in his as though he felt my pain.
Gram smiled as our fingers laced together. “I’m happy for you boys. Don’t let anyone steal this from you.”
Conflicting emotions weighed on me as Sutton and I stepped outside beneath the sinking sun. Joy attempted to bubble up inside me over being out with him in public, but disappointment over the entire Kurt/DJ affair kept popping it with a sharp pinprick.
Rather than tuck me into the cruiser parked alongside Gram’s shop, he tugged me toward the grocery store next door.
I’d walked the distance from his house north of town since the day had been so gorgeous. Probably our last taste of summerbefore the cooler season set in for good. I had told Sutton my plans but had intended to make my way over to the police station once I’d finished my visit with Gram.
“You skipped out early?” I asked, bumping into his shoulder as we ambled along the sidewalk.
“Yes. Thought we could go to The Market and restock the fridge and pantry we’ve emptied. Need another box of Snickers too.”
I grinned, joy winning in that moment. “Our first official outing together, and it’s one of the most mundane, domestic tasks—I love it.”
Love you.
Sutton’s gaze softened as he glanced over at me as though hearing the words I’d left unspoken yet again. We shared the sentiment in silence, our eyes saying everything we both felt deep in our souls. I could have sworn he’d held the same emotion in his heart and mind every time he slowed down to make love to me.
No man had done so before.
Every sexual encounter in my twenty-seven years had been nothing but transactional. There had been no sharing of something other than orgasms, no fulfillment emotionally.
With Sutton, a connection had blossomed, and his constant affection and attention was like rainwater and sunlight to the flower of my soul.
My chest lightened, and I snuggled into his side while heading across the parking lot toward The Market’s automatic doors.
Gram thought I might be the one to walk away from this.
I huffed beneath my breath.
No. Way. In.Hell.
Beside Sutton was where I’d always longed to be, and no person, no circumstance, would ever make me run again.
The grocery store’s doors swished open before we got there, Georgie Ellis slipping out with a cart full of stuffed, brown paper bags.
His family owned the only grocery store in town, and according to Gram, he’d been delivering to the elderly and too-busy townsfolk for years.
“Hey, Chief!” he called, his dark eyes bright as always, his grin infectious. “Jimmy.”
“Hi, Georgie,” I returned his greeting with a small wave.
Of course, Sutton paused to help Georgie load up the delivery van. We saw him down the road before our hands came together again like magnets.
“He’s a good kid,” Sutton said, and while I didn’t know Georgie that well, I trusted the chief’s discernment.
Georgie was cute as hell, I’d give him that. Had a great body beneath those snug jeans and form-fitting Henley. I bet he had the single folks in town salivating at his feet, but I had found my prince and didn’t have wandering eyes or a cheating heart.
I hadn’t lied to Gram about my desire for the man ambling along beside me up and down the aisles while pushing a cart and telling me what to retrieve off the shelves.
While The Market was no full-sized store with all the bells and whistles of the bigger shops down in Berlin, they carried most of what the townsfolk needed, and I happily filled Sutton’s cart to overflowing. He hadn’t been lying about the empty fridge and cabinets.
Other than his going to work, we had pretty much been holed up in his house, neither of us wishing to leave the world we’d wrapped ourselves in. Better than any vacation I’d ever taken—not that I’d gone farther south than Rhode Island before, but I’d driven up to the Maine coast twice on a whim. None of those excursions had gifted me the possibility of a happily ever after like this trip though.
“Coming back was the best spur-of-the-moment decision I’ve made,” I said while standing in front of the ice cream freezer section instead of doing what Sutton suggested and picking out what flavor I wanted.
“I agree wholeheartedly.” A smile rested in Sutton’s voice, and I grinned, going for Rocky Road. He grabbed my ass and gave it a healthy squeeze when I put the box of ice cream in the cart.
