Page 63 of Playing it Country

I shiver and then hustle around the bar to finish cleaning up because whatever he has planned, I’m totally in—even if I can’t walk tomorrow.

26

CASE

“Have you ever been in love?” Hannah asks, her naked body covered only by the sheet in the moonlight. The fact that she’s awake is surprising considering the day she’s had even before me losing my shit at the bar.

Initially, it had been this fun game, heightening her pleasure with the risk of getting caught, but then Sheriff Kade had actually walked in. He was just doing his job and normally I’d be thankful, butfuckif their interaction didn’t still have me kinda riled up. All sense of rational thought had completely left the building—that and all the pent-up feelings from walkin’ in on her meeting in the kitchen this morning.

I’d parked behind the restaurant so my truck wasn’t visible from the road, and figured we could just walk out back after she locked up. But then Kade had walked through the door and all bets were off. She wasn’t wrong when she’d called me a caveman. I’d been completely out of my mind for her and only her, and it scared the shit out of me.

“Once,” I say after my brain processes her question. The admission doesn’t hurt quite as bad as it used to; the pain of it has dulled over the years. Also, Hannah is one hell of a distraction.

“Do you want to tell me about her?”

“A little deep for what we’re doin’, isn’t it?” Her fingers trace up and down my arm, ignoring the bite of my words.

“I dunno, might help.”

“Help with what?”

“I don’t know—people talk about this stuff.”

I squeeze my eyelids shut as I blow out a heavy sigh. “Amelia.”

“What was she like?”

“She was a sweet girl. Light-brown hair and these freckles across her nose that were always more pronounced after we’d spent the day out on the water.”

“What happened? She sounds pretty great.”

I worry my bottom lip with my teeth. “I’m going to tell you something and I want it to stay between us, okay?”

“Of course. Naked bed confessions are sacred.”

I squeeze her hip and let my eyes fall shut as more emotions slam into me. “Fallon had just up and disappeared, and we didn’t know what happened. Otto was devastated—inconsolable even—but he wouldn’t talk about it. Wouldn’t let anyone in and he’s my brother so I did the only thing I could do to protect him.”

“You broke up with your girlfriend to be a bachelor with your brother?”

“It sounds weird when you say it like that, but yeah. He was hurting and I hated seeing him like that, so we played up the personas that everyone assumed we were anyway.”

“Does he know?”

“Hmm?”

“Does he know you did that for him?” Her voice is quiet as she asks.

“We’ve never talked about it and it’s not like I did it for any kind of recognition. I just did what I needed to do to pick my brother up off the floor and get through the day.”

“Is his wife the same Fallon? It’s not a very common name.”

“Yeah.” I smile as I look down at the woman in my arms. “Funny how things work out, I guess.”

“They seem really happy now.”

“They are and they deserve it—both of them do.”

“What about you, Case? Do you deserve to be happy?”