Shit.
I should have made her stay in bed.
“You keep swinging that ass at me, baby, and you are going to be breakfast,” I call and she laughs as she shakes her hips and continues on down the stairs.
“God,” she fires back but I can hear the smile in her voice and in my head, I can see her rolling her eyes at me. “I forgot what an ass man you are.”
“I’ll show you ass man,” I grumble as I scoop my jeans off the floor and pull them on as I chase after her. She squeals and takes off running. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I grab her and toss her over my shoulder with her ass in the air as I smack it. She gasps and pounds her little fists against my back. I spot the counter where I bent her over and took her a couple of nights ago and grin. “You teasing me cause you’re looking for a repeat performance?”
“I suppose that depends.”
“On what?” I ask, setting her down in the kitchen. Heat pools in her eyes and I lick my lips, picturing lifting her up and setting her on the counter before spreading her legs and dropping down between them to devour her.
“You going to walk out without a word again?”
I shake my head as I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her closer. “Didn’t you hear me last night, baby? I’m never walking away from you again.”
She smiles but that damn fear flicks through her gaze again, so quick that I would miss it if I wasn’t paying attention, and it fucking kills me.
Why the fuck is she so scared of being with me again?
God, I have to fix this.
“I have a really important question for you, Pip,” I tell her and she smiles up at me as she nods.
“Shoot.”
“You still like your eggs over easy?”
She laughs and nods. “Yes. You still hate eggs?”
“Yes!” I exclaim with a mock shudder as I back away from her and open the fridge. “The road trip of nineteen-ninety-six ruined eggs for me forever. You know this.”
Her sweet laugh is music to my fucking ears. As I open the fridge, she pushes off the counter and steps up behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist and splaying her hands across my chest as she presses a kiss to the center of my back. In the simple touch, I can feel everything she is not saying and I smile as I grab the carton of eggs and turn back to her. Wrapping my free arm around her back, I press a kiss to her head and she sighs before she pulls away with a soft smile on her face.
“Hey, you know what I dreamed about last night?” she asks as she grabs a mug off of the shelf and fills it with coffee.
“When in the hell did you make coffee?”
She grins, shaking her head at me. “It’s set on a timer so I don’t have to deal with bullshit in the morning.”
“Shit, I forgot how grumpy you get in the A.M.,” I shoot back with a laugh and she shakes her head again. With the steaming cup in her hands, she walks across the kitchen and sits cross legged on one of the dining room chairs. I arch a brow as I start opening cupboards, looking for a pan to cook in. She points one out. “Next to the stove.”
I open the cupboard she mentioned and grab the pan. “Thanks.”
She nods in response and I grin as I set the pan on the stove.
“Now, what were you saying about a sex dream?”
Laughing, she rolls her eyes. “I didn’t have a sex dream, you pervert. I had a dream about that little vacation we took to South Carolina right before you deployed. Do you remember it?”
About two weeks before I deployed, I took leave and Piper and I went down to Charleston for a little getaway, something to remember during the year we were going to be apart and we spent five days on the beach or in bed, loving on each other and wishing we didn’t have to go back. I glance over at her and nod.
“Yeah, I do.”
She smiles. “We should do it again someday.”
“Yeah,” I agree as I open the carton and grab an egg. That trip was amazing and by the time we got back, Piper and I were so connected that I had no doubt in my mind that we were going to make it. Too bad I never saw the storm coming until it was too late. Just as I’m about to crack the egg over the pan, I turn to her.
“We should do it.”
She rolls her eyes. “I know. I just said that. Geez, pay attention, Landry.”
“I was paying attention, Pip.” I glare at her playfully as I set the egg back down in the carton and walk over to her. As I sink into the chair next to her, I grab her hands. “I’m saying let’s go back now.”
“We can’t just go back now.”
“Why not?”
Her gaze flicks up to the clock above the sink. “Because I have to be at work in an hour.”
“Yeah, but, do you, though?” I ask. “You are your own boss and I think Eden would understand if you bailed for a few days to spend time with your husband.”
“Don’t you dare use Eden’s obsession with getting us back together to your advantage,” she grumbles, her eyes betraying her mood. As much as she wants to be a responsible business owner and partner to Eden, she knows this sounds like a damn good idea. We can get to know each other again and really talk about everything. By the time we get back, we’ll be unbreakable.
“Come on, baby,” I urge, squeezing her hands between mine before leaning forward and cupping her cheek. “We need this.”
She sighs.
“Okay. Only because you look so pitiful when you beg.” She leans forward and kisses me before standing up. “I’ll call Eden and get her to cover or reschedule my shoots for the next three days if you’ll find us a house on the beach to rent.”
I nod. “Deal.”
Flashing me a huge grin, she jumps up to go grab her phone and as I watch her walk away, a feeling of peace settles inside me. This trip is going to be perfect and by the time we get back, that fear I see in her eyes will be gone, banished from our lives forever.
Chapter Seventeen
Piper
“I can’t believe you still have this thing,” I say as I run my fingertips over the multicolored stitching on the bench seat of his old Ford Bronco and take a deep breath. It smells exactly the same as I remember. I can’t identify it or compare it to anything but to me, it has always brought me a sense of peace because the scent is burned into my brain and forever associated with Wyatt. Peeking over my shoulder, I smile as my gaze lands on the back where Wyatt and I would cuddle up and make out down by the river on Friday nights.
When he was fifteen, his dad pulled into the driveway with this thing on a trailer. It looked like shit and it hadn’t ran in years but the two of them spent the next seven months fixing it up. I would go over to their house every single day and sit in a lawn chair, tanning, while they cranked on the engine and made it like new again and on his sixteenth birthday, his dad tossed him the keys and told him it was his. I’ll never forget the look on his face as he stared up at the truck he’d been working on for so long or the way he pulled me into his side and threw his arm over my shoulders as we took it for that first drive.
He scoffs and I turn back to him as he shoots me a look that makes me giggle. “Of course I still have it.”
Patting the steering wheel like he has to reassure the truck of his love, he shakes his head and I giggle again as I lean my head back against the seat and turn to stare out of my window as the endless ocean crashes against the shore. Butterflies flutter around in my belly and I can’t wipe the smile off of my face. I’m living in a level of happiness I honestly forgot existed today and I pray that I’m not going to wake up anytime soon. So many times over the past ten years, I’ve had dreams just like this one where Wyatt and I are together and back in Charleston, reliving the best time in our lives and I’ve had to pinch myself several times during our drive up here to remind myself that this is real.