“Hell yeah.” She bridged the final step between us and wrapped her arms around my waist, pressing her face into my chest. I heard the sniffles she tried to hide and smiled to myself as she looked up at me. “I thought I’d never see you again, or hold you like this Max. I’m glad you came back.”
“I couldn’t have possibly done anything else, Jana. You’re it for me. In fact,” I leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “You’re kind of stuck with me.”
“Since I love you back, I guess you’re stuck with me too.”
I wrapped my arms around her and pressed her against the wall right beside the painting that had put me on the path to healing. “Sweetheart, there’s no place I’d rather be.” And then I touched my lips to hers and kissed her like she was everything, my woman, my lover, my heart, my light. And my love. She was all those things and so much more and I would make sure she knew that.
Every. Damn. Day.
Chapter 20
Jana
“You really are disgusting, you know that don’t you?” Teddy dropped down onto a lounge in the backyard, her long shapely legs on display in a knee-length summer dress. The yellow and white polka dots were at odds with her sophisticated up do, but matched perfectly with her sun kissed skin and freckled shoulders. “I mean, I’m happy for you and all, but seriously.” She rolled her eyes and slid the sunglasses over her blue eyes, but I saw the twitch of her lips.
“I think it’ll be a nice surprise.” Six months had passed since Max and I declared our love for each other and things were damn near perfect. I couldn’t have asked for a better man than Max Ellison. He always made me feel beautiful and desirable. Wanted.
“How is that,” she pointed at the wooden slats surrounding the newly planted vegetable garden, “a nice surprise?”
“You’ll see,” I told her as I manned the grill. Max and Tate were coming home today. They’d been in Reno for a few days so Tate and his lawyers could argue that he should be compensated for his wrongful conviction. It was a travesty they didn’t automatically pay exonerees but I had hopes that Tate would win. “I made a pitcher of lemonade if you’re thirsty.”
Teddy groaned as she got up and poured a glass. “Lemonade,” she scoffed. “I don’t know if I like this new you,” she grinned into her glass and promptly groaned as the boozy cocktail hit her taste buds. “Damn, I still love you girl.”
I laughed and rolled my eyes, moving the steaks around the grill and turning over the fish. “I thought you might.”
“You thought she might what?”
I turned at the sound of Max’s voice with an excited grin for him and Tate. “Hey guys! How’d it go?” I stopped in front of Tate and waited.
“Fantastic. They’re working up a settlement agreement as we speak.”
“That’s great!” I wrapped my arms around his big body and squeezed tight. “I’m so happy for you, Tate.”
“Yeah, thanks babe. What smells good?” He sniffed the air and moved toward the grill while I drew closer to Max.
Big, delicious, manly Max. “Teddy will show you where everything is, won’t you?”
With an exaggerated eyeroll, she stood and waved for Tate to follow her. “You have three minutes,” she whispered as she breezed on by.
Max frowned. “Three minutes? That’s just enough time to get you all wet and bothered.” I felt my skin blush at his words and I cringed. Six months later and the man could still make me feel like a virginal schoolgirl.
“I have a surprise for you, but if you want to go with your thing, I’m game.” Cupping his face gently, I pressed a hard kiss to his mouth. “I missed you.”
“Not as much as I missed you.”
I loved to hear him say things like that, but I really loved it when he got that intense expression on his face that told me just how much he meant that. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise like those magic brownies to help me sleep or like that blue lingerie?”
Another blush stained my cheeks and I buried my face in his chest at the memory of that lingerie. I’d never been so bold in my life, but he’d stayed overnight for five straight days and on the sixth I’d worn the most outrageous lingerie I’ve ever owned. It was a fun night. “Neither, actually.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to the small garden area. “It’s a salsa garden.”
He frowned in confusion and dropped my hand, but I didn’t panic. I knew, with absolute certainty, that Max would love this. Especially when he finally saw the sign that read, ‘Garcia’s Bomb Ass Salsa Garden’. “You did this for me?”
I nodded. “The experts say that remembering the good things is the key to overcoming a trauma and though it’s never worked for me, I think it could work for you. This way every time we eat salsa, it’ll be Garcia’s.”
He stood and wrapped me in his arms. “Is that why you planted the brown eyed Susan’s? Because I told you about Reilly’s favorite spot on the family ranch?”
“Yep.”