Page 48 of Hate To Love You

“This is a tree fort, and he couldn’t hear us talking. He’ll…oh my god, what if he heard me just now? I’m going to die, Apollo. I’m going to die of embarrassment.”

“You’re not,” I tell her firmly.

She stands up and pulls her leggings on so hard and rapidly that I swear they could rip in half. They protest, but they hold.

“Apollo? I thought I heard a gunshot,” my dad calls out from the outside.

Good god, that was quite a while ago. Patience points at me, which basically means her finger goes straight into my chest because I’m so close. “Don’t look at me like that,” she whisper-yells. She’s good at that, whisper-yelling under her breath. “Don’t look at me like your night was just totally ruined. I was the one who was mid-coming.”

She’s only a breath away, and she’s furious. Her cheeks are flushed, and it’s all I can do not to grab her and crush her lips with mine. Instead, my hands circle her waist, and I haul her up against me. I make sure my extremely-hard-to-the-point-of-probably-falling-off cock hits her extremely-sensitive-to-the-point-of-nearly-coming clit. She gasps, gives me the dirty eye, bumps against me again, and claps a hand over her mouth to stifle the sexed-up sigh that escapes her.

“We’re okay, Dad. We’re good. It was just the blow-up chair. I sat on it wrong, and I was too heavy for it, so it popped.”

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that,” Dad advises.

“I can see why now. Anyway, it’s okay. You can go back in. Nothing’s happening out here.”

“Okay, just wanted to check. You never know what might be going on in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, up in a treehouse. Someone might be up to no good.”

Patience looks like she’s going to strike out for real. I clap a hand over her mouth this time and barely stifle her laughter on time. I have to clamp my lips shut to keep mine inside too.

“If you’re sure, then I’ll go back in and resume my skunk cuddles,” Dad says.

“I’m sure. Thanks. We’ll be in right away. We just wanted to stay out and watch the stars and talk. We’re kind of having one of those serious conversations and need a bit more time.”

“Right. Yes, uh, okay. I’ll see you in a bit.”

We listen to his steps fade. I can literally hear when he opens and closes the door to the house.

Patience licks my palm, and I yank my hand from her mouth because her eyes are snapping fireworks at me. “He totally heard us. He freaking did. Oh my godddddddddd, no.”

“He didn’t. It’s all good,” I say comfortingly.

“I was saying I wanted to lick your butt, telling you to put body parts into my body parts, and telling you I was coming. How long was he out there for?”

“Probably not long. He heard the pop and then listened for screams, sat there for a few minutes deciding what to do, talked himself out of coming outside, and then came outside anyway just to double and triple check because he has that kind of engineering mind where he can’t let it go and needs to follow up with a whole process. And part of that process is just not being able to help himself. Also, dad instincts. He had to make sure we weren’t in danger.”

“That better be true.”

I hope so too, and I answer instead by kissing her.

CHAPTER 17

Apollo

My dad leaves two mornings later, super early. He gets a hug from both of us, even though Patience is scarlet whenever he’s around now. I carefully hold back tears, and he also carefully holds back tears. We both pretend we aren’t carefully holding back tears. And if he heard anything a few nights ago, he pretends he didn’t too.

After he’s gone, Patience finds me in the kitchen. I only just turned on the coffee pot since Dad assured me he didn’t need any before he got on the road back to Seattle. The house feels very quiet, and Bitty Kitty misses our dads. She’s curled up on her bed in the living room, but she did an aimless circle right after Dad left.

“It’s quiet.” Patience uses an equally quiet voice, like she’s afraid to disturb the silence.

“Well, the birds are giving ‘er outside, if that counts.” They are. I absolutely love their chitter. Even the ravens and crows, when they get to their cawing out there, have a unique sound. I love watching those birds. They’re so freaking intelligent. I’ve never found their calls ugly or annoying.

She leans on the counter with both elbows and looks out the window. “You’re right. It’s pretty.”

“Do you want coffee?” I ask.

“I think I’ll have tea this morning.”

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