After a few minutes of him holding me, I glance up. “Thank you for coming over. I needed this. I needed you.”
“Good, because I have an idea.”
I’m almost one hundred percent sure he’s about to suggest taking me up to my bedroom, but then he pulls out a deck of cards.
I thought we could play cards.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and part of me thinks he’s hoping to place some bets on these games.
“That might take my mind off of some things. What were you thinking?” I smirk.
“Poker?” Walker suggests, toeing out of his shoes and sitting on the carpet like he’s made himself at home a thousand times.
I join him, sitting across the coffee table cross-legged. This is companionship, another facet to a relationship which I haven’t enjoyed in so long. Walker knew I’d be lonely and upset, so he came over to cheer me up. Sometimes, a gesture like this means much more than flowers or chocolate or great sex.
Though I am hard up for the great sex that he so selflessly provided.
“Don’t know how to play, sorry.” I shrug.
Walker begins to shuffle the deck. “That’s all right. How about blackjack?”
“With two people, that might get old quick. Plus, what’re we betting with?” I ask.
“I’ll get to that.” His grin could make the canary stroke out. “All right, go fish?”
I tap my chin. “How about war? I’m basically in one, a little battle would be welcome.”
The sound he makes is somewhere between a chuckle and a laugh, and it shakes his newly grown facial hair. I wonder what that would feel like against my skin.
Walker deals the cards, splitting it into two equal piles
He looks at me over his cards. “If I win, I want a kiss. I’ve missed them.”
“And what do I get if I win?” I shrug a shoulder in a cutesy way.
“Whatever you want.” The sexy tic in his jaw is downright sinful.
We slap our cards down, going through the piles fast, and laughing the whole way through. When our piles begin to dwindle, you can feel the heat and competition in the air.
Our eyes snap to each other, and then we’re practically leaping over the coffee table, our mouths crashing in the middle.
I’ve never relished losing so much.
22
Walker
“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said we should keep things private.”
Hannah looks up at the house looming in front of us, and I hope that its beauty and the snow surrounding the driveway can change her mind.
“I know it isn’t. But none of these people will say anything, you know they won’t. And you deserve the time off,” I state for the hundredth time before turning to the back. “Everyone ready to make some snow angels?”
Noelle and Breanna, Hannah’s daughters, clap and cheer excitedly. Dahlia looks up from her phone from the back seat of the Explorer I rented to drive us all here.
“I’m ready to get in the hot tub and drink my weight in apple cider, if that counts?” Hannah’s sister quips.
“That works, too! Let’s get unpacked.”
When I finally convinced Hannah to come to the Poconos house Clark and I rented, I felt like I’d won an epic battle of wills. Hannah insisted that this isn’t really under the radar, and her girls might be suspicious of all the new people. But once I mentioned Dahlia could tag along, and that this vacation is my Christmas gift to her since she hasn’t let me get her anything else, she somewhat relented.
In reality, she needs the break. I know she needed to get away from Packton, to take a couple of days to just enjoy some stress-free time with her daughters in a fun location with people she trusts. Colleen and Hayes are tagging along, Clark is coming, and so is our cousin Whitney with her husband and two kids. The kids are similar in age to Noelle and Breanna, and the cabin we’ve rented is more of a luxury resort in the middle of the woods. It has eight bedrooms, a hot tub, all kinds of snow toys like snow mobiles and sleds, massive fireplaces, and a chef that will cook two meals a day.
Plus, I told her we’ll finally be able to share a bedroom overnight, without either of us having to go home or make up an excuse about why we’re sleeping in the same bed. Over the past two weeks, our under-the-radar relationship has taken off once more. After the night playing cards, and then undressing each other in haste before Dahlia got home with the girls, we’ve been solid. No, I haven’t been able to take her out publicly, but we’re communicating every single day, and she’s come over to my place. I’ve gone over to hers twice; once when the girls had visitation with Shane, and another time when Dahlia was a good sport and took them out for dinner so we could have an in-home date night. Obviously, I wish I could see her every day, that I could bring her coffee at work or take her out to a movie on Friday night. Right now, those aren’t options, but I wouldn’t give this up.
“This place is insane,” Dahlia remarks as I haul our bags into the entryway.
The house is meant to look like a ski lodge or log cabin, and it’s all oak wood trims and stone floors. The fireplace looks like it was carved from boulders, but all the furniture is overstuffed and creamy. A fire rages in the hearth, and there are gift bags lining the foyer, with faux fur robes and slippers spilling out.
“Those are from the rental company.” Clark points to the bags as he comes out of one of the rooms above, an almost treehouse looking balcony surrounding the second level with doors branching off of it.
“Oh, hell yes!” Dahlia grabs one up. “Girls, let’s go see what kind of stash they have in the kitchen. Maybe they’ve got candy!”
Hannah’s daughters peel off after their aunt at the mention of candy, and Hannah just chuckles. She looks beautiful today in an apple-red sweater, jeans, and her black curls tumbling out of a bun.
Clark has disappeared once more, and it’s just the two of us standing with our bags, looking out the massive windows to the tufts of snow in the woods.
“See, aren’t you glad you came?” I wrap my arms around her, stealing a kiss from her lips.
“Yes.” She sighs against me. “I needed this. I needed some time away with them, and with you. This place is so peaceful.”
“And romantic. Don’t think I don’t have some things planned for later when the rugrats go to bed.” I wink at her.
“I was counting on it.” Hannah’s smile is sly, and my balls are already tingling in anticipation.
We’re interrupted when said rugrats come screeching back in, boasting faces full of truffles that they found in the kitchen.
“Want one, Walker?” Noelle holds out a melty chocolate ball to me.
I gobble it right out of her hand, which makes her giggle. “Don’t mind if I do.”
We take the next half hour to choose rooms, and while Hannah gets the girls’ room set up, I unpack some of my things. We’re here for four days, and being that I’m usually on the road, I know how to settle myself in with an end date in sight.
After we’re situated, it’s time to head out into the snow. Clark is already ripping around on the snow mobiles, Colleen and Hayes are playing a game of snow horseshoes, and Dahlia has commandeered the hot tub all by herself.