Page 100 of An Unfinished Memory

A larger poster was underneath a few papers that had different versions of the logo and taglines.

Wilder Knight, a hometown boy who really cares.

Deputy Knight, duty, loyalty, honor.

Deputy Knight knows what it takes to keep your neighborhoods safe.

One of the papers had a color image on it. A picture of Wilder in his duty hat. He wasn’t smiling, and his chin was lifted. Pride shone from his face. His rugged handsomeness was undeniable. The picture was recent. The lines I liked to trace were in the corners of his eyes.

Wilder came out of the kitchen, lobbing a dish towel on the counter behind him. He’d put a thawed lasagna in the oven and had even tossed together lettuce and cucumbers and tomatoes for a quick salad.

Being here was weird. Facing Carla when I didn’t have to play nice with her because I lived in this town was liberating, yet the brief high faded when we came inside. This house used to be my home. Old feelings and resentments threatened to pile onto my shoulders. I wouldn’t let them.

I knew coming here for the first time would be a mental trip. Eating, sleeping, doing normal daily stuff I used to always do, but doing them now as a visitor. As his girlfriend. I hated that word to describe us, but it was no longer wife, so what was I left with? We were more than exes with benefits, but we weren’t husband and wife.

To keep from dwelling on why I could never get married to a man who couldn’t live in the same zip code as me when he knew how important it was, I pointed to his logo. “Am I going to have to ask for your autograph?”

His brows pinched together before his gaze landed on the campaign materials. “Jesus, Sutton. You’re going to make me blush.”

I laughed and pointed to the sheet with the logo on it. “It’s nice.”

He made a disgruntled sound. “How did I not know all this shit went into campaigning?”

“Because Ray’s run the same campaign every time.”

He spread a few of the papers out. “Those taglines are cringe, as the kids would say.”

“‘On god,’ as Catherine would say.” I put my arm on his. No matter how odd being in my old house was, I was glad I was here. “I’m really happy this is happening foryou.” I might not have been his boss’s number one fan, but Ray was retiring, so Wilder could be interim sheriff. It’d be harder for another candidate to oust him from the office than it would be for two new candidates to compete. Ray had known what he was doing.

“You really mean that?” He took my hand in his.

“Of course. You’re going to give everything to that job, just like you do now. You really have worked hard for this.”

“You of all people would know.” He feathered his lips over my knuckles.

The touch of his mouth made it hard to keep my clothes on. “I might need to get a copy of that photo.”

“You gonna hang it across from your bed for when I call?”

“Probably, but it’s better when I’ve got the real thing between my legs.” Yet, the thought of going to the bedroom, the one devoid of everything but a pair of underwear he’d taken months ago, messed with my mind. I wanted to be intimate with him, but I didn’t want the dynamics between us to change. I didn’t want the lonely kid inside me to insist that he was still in Buffalo Gully because I wasn’t good enough.

No, I couldn’t go there, but I needed his touch to root me to this moment, to how it wasnowbetween us. I spun him around so his ass hit the table, and I lowered myself to my knees.

I gazed up at him, loving the way his eyes darkened seeing me on my knees. “Remember when we first got this table?”

I had imagined a large family gathered around the solid hickory plank, and we commemorated the purchase by stripping down and having sex on it. We hadn’t usedthe table for much more than sex and an occasional meal together after that, making this a good spot for our first intimate experience in this house as a divorced couple who were dating. Long distance.

I flicked open his fly.

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the beveled wooden edge. “I think of it every time I sit in my spot. The way I spread you open like my very own four-course meal.”

“It was three courses if I remember correctly. I’m going to have the fourth course now, cowboy.” I fisted my hand around his sweltering erection and pulled him free.

“We’re not stopping there—” He cut off with a groan. I licked across his tip, tasting the familiar saltiness of his skin. “Fuck, Sutton.”

I closed my lips around his broad tip and sucked him in. A ragged groan left him. I knew exactly what he liked. The pressure, the rhythm, the way I cupped his balls. I hit every one of his preferences like I was proving we could still be us. Our circumstances might be different, but we were a part of each other.

Perhaps I was staking a little bit of a claim. Showing him there was a reason to keep turning down Carla. That long distance didn’t mean we couldn’t connect. Didn’t mean we would grow apart but also that our past wouldn’t ruin our future together. Again.

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