Page 23 of A Reluctant Boy Toy
Ababybrought this beautiful man to tears as he laid a delicate finger over her cheek on the screen?
Loving someone can be like toggling a switch—you’re strangers, and suddenly you know something about the person, and you simply love that thing so much, you love the person too.
I fell for Molly the first moment we met. I saw her kindness and her beauty and understood she would always speak to me from her heart.
I felt the same sudden intensity of emotion for Stone Wilder.
Straight Stone. Probably married Stone.
Stone, who wept over the birth of his niece.
Things looked pretty hopeless for me in the romance department, but that didn’t feel so important just then.
This man is tribe.
“We should eat.” I opened the hamper and found ribs and brisket wrapped in butcher paper. A bag of biscuits. Greens, corn on the cob, and a vat of beans. The food seemed to keep on coming, plus there were two bottles of Pritchard Hill cabernet sauvignon. I drank wine, but Charles and Molly knew wine. It was bound to be good.
“Hey, there’s even a pecan pie.” I glanced toward Stone. “You like pie?”
“I love pie.” He turned off his phone before knuckling the skin beneath his eye.
“Then what are we waiting for?” I picked up the things that needed a reheat and asked, “I can warm these if you show me where.”
“Full kitchen. Here, let me—” He pointed to the toy hauler and made to rise.
I laid my hand on his shoulder. “Enjoy the sunset. I’ll get things ready.”
He lifted his gaze to mine. “Thank you.”
“I want to see more pictures of Artemis when I come back.”
He laughed. “Sure.”
Inside, his RV held the not entirely unpleasant funk of clean dog and fastidious man. The windows were wide open, and there was a half-burnt, spice-fragranced candle on the counter that smelled like Christmas.
I sighed and opened the wine before rolling my sleeves up. As I looked for a glass, I tried to remember if you were supposed to let this kind of wine breathe. Didn't matter. Since everything in Stone's kitchen had been organized well, I found a glass and poured myself some wine.
Who cared if the wine needed to breathe?Ineeded to breathe, and that was pretty hard to do around Stone Wilder—especially after I noticed the gorgeous family portrait on his lock screen.
Apparently, Stone had a gorgeous, freckled wife and three stairstep kids.
What was I even doing?
Morrigan poked her head in the door. She watched me steadily. She probably thought I was rifling through her human’s private things. I guess I was, ifprivate thingsincluded platters and bowls and silverware. She gave a sneeze and then tried to back down the stairs.Spoiler alert, dogs don’t go in reverse so well.
“Morrigan, did you fall down?” Stone chuckled. “Aw, poor baby, come here. You’re all right. You’re just embarrassed because you were trying to look cool in front of your new friend, huh?”
She barked. The wolfdogs answered.
“I don’t think he even noticed. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
This man is definitely tribe.
“Pigs n’ smoke it is,” I murmured into my wine glass. “Copy that.”
Chapter Seven
Stone
