Page 39 of Shortcake
“Because… he was good?”
I still didn’t get it. If he was handsome. And smart. And kind. Why wouldn’t she want him? Even though she wasn’t rejecting me outright, it sure as hell felt like she was.
“No… I mean, yes. Kind of?” She paused, shaking her head. “I wanted excitement. I wanted spontaneity.”
“And he was boring?”
“Yes!”
“So… to you, good equals boring?”
“You’re not getting it. Warren was a narc! He was the hall monitor. He sent me to the principal’s office so much, it was a wonder we ever became friends with how much trouble he got me into.”
Okay. Now we were getting somewhere.
I grinned, picturing Addy in her younger teenage years, but still very much the same little badass she was now getting sent to the principal’s office for smoking in the bathrooms or something. “Sounds like you gotyourselfinto trouble.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s exactly what Warren would say, too.”
“I think I get it now. You and Warren have a history of being on opposite sides,” I said. “That explains why you wouldn’t date him backthen. But why not now?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, for God’s sake. I just can’t picture it. He’s the deputy sh…”
Her words faded right along with her smile.
“Sheriff,” I finished for her. “You don’t date cops?”
Pink tinged her cheeks as she blinked slowly back at me. “I… I guess I like my knights in shining armor on Harleys more than in squad cars.”
If the Eagle Scouts comment of hers had been a punch to the gut? Then this was a straight up knock out hit. She wasn’t trying to be cruel. She had no idea that I’d been internalizing every single one of her words.
If she’d known when she first met me three years ago that I was a cop, would we still have shared that amazing night together?
Doubtful.
She probably wouldn’t have given me a second glance.
If anything had solidified what we were now, this was it.
I was just her landlord. The old dude next door with the rebellious daughter.
That’s all I was to her.
And that’s all I’d ever be.
ChapterSix
Conrad
I was already regretting my offer to let Addy move into the basement.
After I woke Harper up, it took thirty minutes of fighting to get her to move into the upstairs bedroom. Then, by the time I’d showered, dressed, and come downstairs, I’d found Addy in a bikini, sunbathing on the deck out back.
It was the deck off of the basement. Technically it was her space. The space I’d given her to use. I gripped the edge of the kitchen sink, my self-control fraying as I stared out the window at her smooth, creamy skin. Skin I had tasted. Skin I’d been craving to lick again.
My gaze wandered down the swell of her cleavage to the mole on her flat stomach. Tight, muscled legs that begged for my tongue to trace their lines all the way up to that v between her legs.
I swear, I had almost stopped dreaming about Addy within the last year. My fantasies had finally waned to only one or two memories a month.
