Page 78 of Feverburn

“Wait, why?”

“We’re going to see Greta Van Fleet. They’re playing at the House of Blues in Boston.”

I let out a girlish squeal and lunged at him in a tackling hug.

Chapter Thirty

I slurped the black coffee with a slight wince.

Bear grunted across from the boat. “You’re too used to your girl’s fancy coffee.” He screwed the Stanley thermos lid back on, each squeak irritating me.

I squinted at the sunrise on the horizon. “You’re not wrong.”

“I know I’m not. I’ve barely fished with you lately.”

I glowered at him. When he was married to Kenzie, I never guilted him for missing fishing.

His chest heaved with a chuckle. “Take a load off, I’m just giving you shit, man. I take it you like your new distraction?”

“Oh, she’s more than just a distraction. She’s—” I interrupted myself to fight a smug smile, knowing she was still naked in my bed. Even my hoodie smelled like her because she stole it for several days.

“Wow.” He pawed at his beard. “You’re that far gone?”

“Can’t help it. She’s just…good. Everything feels good with her.” That was an understatement of the fucking year.

“Good enough to tell the family and town?”

I groaned, rolling my head to the side. I had told him about the dream, blessing, and our plans. “You know she doesn’t want to do that yet. Don’t rub it in.”

This woman was giving me everything: her body, her future, my freedom, our fate. I needed to respect her wishes to wait to go public.

I went on, “She has the most to lose. Her life, for one. But also her job and her friendship with Kaylee. I was there with the aftermath of what she did to my brother when she ran from here. That girl is a fucking wildcard, and I don’t want to know what she’d do to Rosie if this ends badly.”

“But what if Rosie never wants to tell people? What if she keeps you a secret forever? At what point do you take on a new curse?”

I scowled at him, running my thumbnail up and down my cup.

Sensing my torment, Bear added, “I’m just looking out for you, man. I had front-row tickets to the Whit shit.”

“No, you’re right,” I sighed. “We kept it a secret, and it made everything worse. Rosie would never cheat on me, but she’s already infiltrated my life. Everyone knows and loves her. Like she goes thrifting with Kaylee and Frankie, she even joined Viv’s book club for fucksakes. She stopped at the gardening center for houseplants and talked to my dad for a half hour. She even got wrangled into going to the women’s circle my mom hosts with Kaylee.”

I blinked in horror, wondering what the hell that looked like. Reading my mind, Bear snorted, “They probably wrote a poem about—“

I chucked an empty can at him in disgust. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence!”

Chapter Thirty-One

I rounded the corner to catch Carson on a call. It wasn’t his cell but his landline, a corded rotary phone older than us. He mouthed a hello before muttering, “Yeah, I’ll wait.” He held the phone away from his mouth. “Morning, baby.” His free hand went right to my ass as I stood beside him, planting a smacking kiss.

“Good morning. I love seeing you before work like this.” I held his handsome face, kissing the crease between his eyebrows. “You stressed?”

He nodded. “Yeah, dipshits lost half my order. I’ve been on hold for twenty minutes as they try to track down the driver. I swear to god, if we hadn’t used this company for 50 years—”

A gruff man’s voice filled the phone, yammering on without breath. I ran my fingers through the sides of Carson’s hair, my tits damn near in his face as he listened to the guy, and said, “It’s not the first time, Stewart. This happened back in March, too. Remember? Listen, I know this isn’t your fault, but that new guy of yours sucks. What happened to Tommy?”

The man went on.

Carson gritted his jaw. “No, that won’t work. You know that won’t work.”

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