Page 53 of Shortcake
We drove in silence for several minutes before I rolled my window down. Both Addy and Harper followed suit after, rolling theirs down, too. And soon, the cool lash of air whipped around us, drowning the unrest we’d all been feeling since this morning’s fire in the churning white noise of wind.
As I turned onto our street, I glanced at Harper in the rearview mirror. “Hey, Turkey. Addy had a good idea for tomorrow if she’s feeling well enough for it.” With my quick glance to the right, I saw Addy’s brows lift. “She thought you two could go to the bookstore together.”
Harper looked back and forth between Addy and myself as I pulled into the driveway. “But… but I’m grounded. Aren’t I?”
“Yes,” I said, turning off the car. “You’re still grounded. But if you spend your grounded time reading? I’d say that’s pretty dang good. And you still have to buy your summer reading books for class.”
Her smile curved. “Can I also get the new Olivia Harper book?”
I unbuckled, feeling Addy’s hot gaze on me. “Sure. But you have to read your syllabus books first.” As we all climbed out of the car, I added as an afterthought, “And I’ll make a deal with you. If you continue to help unpack rooms in the house, I’ll shave time off your sentence.”
“Really?” she squealed.
“For every room you finish, one day taken off your grounding.” The math basically added up to a full week taken off if she played her cards right.
Harper launched herself at me, hugging me tightly. “Thanks, Dad.” She gave me a peck on the cheek and ran in the house.
Addy sauntered around to the front of the car and, arms folded, leaned a hip lazily against the side. She waited until Harper was inside the house, door closed behind her before she said, “Youwere supposed to take credit for the bookstore idea. I was going to let you be the hero, remember?”
I reached forward to take Addy’s arm, but as I did, she stepped to the side and my hand connected with her hip. I sucked in a sharp breath and instead of pulling back like I should have done, I closed my palm around the curve of her body, stroking my thumb against the strip of skin revealed between her tank top and jeans. Heat sparked from where my fingers touched her causing goosebumps to race up my arm.
Slowly, I pushed the tank top a little higher, revealing that mole on her flat stomach, just beside her belly button. Heated memories flashed through my mind. My tongue tracing a path from that mole to between her legs. Those muscled thighs clamping my waist as I drove into her. The sweet scent of her arousal as I licked paths all over her body.
I cleared my throat, looking into her eyes. “That’s the thing about heroes,” I said. “Heroes don’t lie. They don’t claim ideas that aren’t their own.”
I wasn’t sure who leaned forward first, me or her. But next thing I knew, there were only a couple inches separating us and I was aware of every breath she took. Every twitch of her fingers. Every shift of her feet against the hot, sticky pavement of my driveway.
With a sharp, raspy breath, I closed the little remaining space between us, leaning down until my lips touched her ear. Beneath my palm, her flesh lifted with goosebumps of her own and despite the summer’s heat, I felt her shiver.
White hot desire curled up my spine and my senses were flooded with her sweet, clean scent. Like freshly washed linens that had line-dried in the sun.
Sliding my gaze down, I saw as her chest hitched, the small swell of cleavage bouncing with the sharp breath. Only then, did I whisper, lips brushing her ear as I spoke, “If I’m going to be a hero at all, I sure as fuck plan to earn the title.”
ChapterNine
Addy
“Are yousureyou feel okay?”
“I feel okay enough to smack you upside the head if you ask me that one more time,” I teased, giving Harper a wink as we perused the aisles of the bookstore.
She rolled her eyes in that good natured way teenagers do. “God, two days living with us and you already sound like my dad.”
I picked up a copy of the newest Jennifer Weiner book and skimmed the blurb. She clearly meant for that to be an insult, but just the mention of her dad sent my pulse into overdrive. I wasn’t sure what the hell happened yesterday next to his car, but I knew I wanted his hands on me like that again. As many times as I could handle. “Oh, come on. Your dad’s not so bad.”
“Maybe not for an old man,” Harper snorted.
Old man. I didn’t see him that way. Not at all. Sure, he was older than me. Probably a good ten to fifteen years older than me. But he was sexy and driven and for the first time in my existence, I was desperately and inexplicably attracted to a cop. Or, actually, I guess it was the second time in my life… I just didn’trealizeI was attracted to a cop three years ago.
“Look,” Harper said with a sigh. “I know you love it here in this tiny ass town, but it’s only a matter of time until dad realizes he made a mistake moving us out of New York City.”
“Why do you say that?” The thought of Conrad realizing the move to Maple Grove had been a mistake made my stomach turn. I barely knew the guy. Yet I was already so invested in him, that the idea of him leaving had me wincing in physical pain.
I was already attached. He wasn’t evenmineand I was attached to him.
“Because. He literally grew up in New York City his whole life. He went to high school in Brooklyn. The same high school I was going to before he ripped me out of there. When grandma died, I think he thought it was too painful for me, still living there in her house. But being there, around all her stuff was the opposite of painful. It wascomforting.”
I didn’t realize they had lived with Conrad’s mother. That explained why this adjustment was extra hard. He went from having a small support system in New York to being truly the only caretaker of his rebelling teenage daughter.
