He took me up, up, up with skilled precision. With dedication. With determination.
And when I shattered, when I burst over that top and cried out his name, there was nothing but joy and love in the air.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Beckett
WORST WAY
Performed by Riley Green
FIVE MONTHS LATER - DECEMBER
HIM: Did you read the scene in the book I sent to you?
HER: I read it at work! You were supposed to warn me!
HIM: Tonight. That’s you and me.
HER: If you can make me beg like that, I really will petition the city council to build you a statue.
HIM: Better get your speech ready, darlin’.
“Maise, we gotta go, or we’regoing to be late,” I hollered down the hall toward our bedroom asVader scratched at the back door to get back inside.
I’d barely opened it, letting in a biting wind and a flurry of flakes, before Vader was brushing past me and heading toward the living room.
“Vader. Feet,” I commanded, waiting for him to come back and wipe them off on the towel we had sitting by the door. It had been Maisey who’d trained him to use it, but it had saved me from mopping up his mess a dozen times a day.
When he turned around, I groaned. “Oh, hell no.”
I swore he grinned at me around the kitten he held gently by the nape of its neck between his teeth.
He whimpered, and the cat mewled a pitiful plea right as Maisey walked into the kitchen.
“Oh, Vader! Not another one.”
As if sensing a disturbance in the force, Dorothy came scampering into the room with Todo, the wiry-haired black cat that Vader-the-Cat-Whisperer had brought in two months ago, right on her heels.
As my ridiculous dog with a savior complex held out the new, orange kitten, the other two cats sniffed and hissed and snarled before losing interest. They headed to the automated feeders that were ready to go off at any second.
Vader sat on his haunches and whimpered again.
“Oh, for the love of—” I started as Maisey said, “He’s so little and sweet.”
And I knew we were going to end up with another stupid cat. At this rate, I was going to have to add on another room to the house just for the herd of cats we were collecting. Were they called a herd? Or were they a litter?
“We don’t have time for this. We’re going to be late,” I said again.
Maisey leaned down to kiss Vader on the top of his head. “You’ll have to get him settled in all on your own. Make sure he doesn’t tear up the couch.”
My dog nodded as if he understood every command.
Maisey grabbed her coat off the hook, and I stepped up to hold it while she slid into it. That was when I really noticed what she was wearing. A deep-maroon sweater that clung to her curves and ended just above her belly button, showing a hint of skin before it disappeared below the waistband of dark jeans. I groaned again, this time in agony for an entirely different reason.
“Did you put that outfit on just to torture me?” I breathed out as I swept her hair to the side and dipped my head to place a kiss on the smooth skin of her neck. I made the mistake of inhaling, and the water-lily scent of her went straight to my groin.
She laughed softly, turning to face me. She hooked her arms around my neck with ease, which had me eyeing the spiked boots that made her a good three inches taller than normal.