Page 94 of Blue Collar Babes

“Wait here.” I hop out of the cab and round the hood to open her door. Once she steps off the running board, I take her hand. If she can feel the sweat gathering in my palms, she doesn’t mention it.

She’s silent on the way to the front door. The scrape of the key in the lock announces our presence in the stillness. It’s almost like neither of us breathe until we cross over the threshold.

“Is this where you’re staying?”

I stand in the entry and watch her absorb the space. If I know anything about Cortney, it’s that she’s soaking in every detail.

“Yeah,” I answer nervously.

“For how long?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You don’t know how long your rental is?”

“I’m not…I mean, I’m renting, but it’s not short term.”

Confusion clouds her features. “Then what is it?”

I scrub the back of my neck. “Permanent? I don’t know what else to call it.”

“Spencer. I need you to spell out for me what exactly it is you’re doing here.” Cortney’s breath hitches halfway through her sentence but she powers on.

A hesitant step carries me further away from the door. “I got off that plane and left you at the airport and realized I couldn’t walk away from you without seeing if we have something real happening here. Because I don’t know about you, but those two weeks felt fucking real to me. Felt like the realest thing I’ve felt in the last twenty years.”

“It feels real to me too.”

A breath of relief rushes from my lungs. “Then I don’t know what you’re doing all the way over there. Because if you don’t come over here in the next five seconds—”

I can’t even finish my sentence, because the next second she’s burrowing into my chest and yanking my mouth down to hers.

A deep groan breaks free when we resume what we started back at the shop. I yank my mouth away and rest my forehead against hers.

“I think I'm in love with you.”

Cortney nods, craning her neck in order to reach my mouth. “I might be in love with you too.”

“Shit,” I laugh, squeezing my eyes shut as I grip her against my body. Her proximity soothes the adrenaline firing through my veins.

“What?”

“Your brothers are going to kill me.”

The longer the silence stretches, the harder it is for her to deny.

“We don’t know that for sure.”

Gripping her shoulders, I put enough space between us to see her face. “Did you tell them that I fucked you after graduation and left the next day?”

She looks to the side, avoiding my eyes. “I didn’t quite say it like that.”

“Right.” I nod, resolute.

“So we won’t tell them.”

“That’s not right.”

“No, it’s perfectly right. Do you think I want to deal with all the pitying looks and the questions and the assumptions about how I’m moving on too fast? Maybe I just want to enjoy this for a little bit. Enjoy you.”

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