Page 111 of Wicked Me
His words soaked inside me with a warmth that powered my soul. “I kind of like that truth,” I said.
His lips tilted. “Good.”
“How about another truth? I met my daughter. Sophia,” I blurted through a watery, likely maniacal, grin.
“Yeah?”
“She’s absolutely perfect. Her parents can’t keep up with her reading habits, and she gets this mischievous grin that lights up an entire room.”
He slid me a knowing smile. “Kind of like someone I know.”
“Her seventh birthday party is coming up if you would like to meet her.”
He looked at me with something that I could only describe as hope and happiness. “Yeah. Of course.”
“I love you, Sam,” I said, because that was the easiest truth, then I stepped into his arms forever.
As he held me tight, he sighed into my neck, a long one that sounded like he’d ended a tiring journey and finally arrived home. “I love you, too.”
33
Sam
WE TALKED INTO THErest of the night, our backs to the bookshelves and junk food wrappers from the vending machine in a pile at our feet. We talked about Riley, Sophia, the future, how since I had a big red stain on my criminal record and couldn’t do police work that maybe I could start my own private detective business like the dude from the Lisa Montgomery bookHeist My Heart. Yeah, I’d been at the presentation to hear her, far enough from Paige so she wouldn’t see me yet, and it was fucking awesome.
Paige collected the trash and brushed stray crumbs off her tight black skirt as she stood. “There’s one more thing we haven’t talked about.” She held her hand out to help me up, and the slight V in her hot librarian button-up shirt dipped for a nice view.
Jesus H., I’d missed her. Not just her body—hear that, dick?—but how we just clicked together so comfortably. I’d never spent almost the entire night talking to a woman about our future, but it felt exactly right. Everything felt right with her, especially her hand in mine when I grasped it and the immediate zing between our palms. I stood, close enough so the toes of my boots and her librarian heels touched.
“What’s that?”
Her tongue skimmed the bottom of her teeth and her chest heaved. “Um, we haven’t talked about bacon.”
I smoothed some hair behind her ear then tracked my thumb down her jaw. “Bacon?”
“Uh-huh.” She closed her eyes when my thumb found her lower lip and outlined its perfect shape. “I like having your around, so maybe we could talk about portion control.”
