I swallow. His jaw tics.
“Fine,” he growls at last. “Ava, stop fucking screaming before I change my mind. We’ll meet y’all at Coyote Joe’s tomorrow at three. So help me God, if you’re not wearing real clothes . . .”
I’m on him the second he hangs up. I curl my hand around the nape of his neck and pull him in for a quick, hot kiss, the kind that has him groaning into my mouth as he loops an arm around my middle and melts his body against mine.
“Thank you,” I say, pulling back so that our noses touch. “This is going to be so fun.”
He glides his hand inside my shirt, trailing his fingers along my spine, thumb finding the bottom loop of my ribcage. My body ignites. “Is it?”
“Yes.”
“I apologize in advance for anything my sisters say or do.”
I peck his chin. “No apology necessary. They’re your family, Theo, and you are who you are because of them. And I like who you are very much.”
His eyes are on mine again. They’re stripped of annoyance now, stripped of everything. There’s a bareness there that makes my heart plunge and my sides ache. “You mean that.”
He says the words like he still doesn’t believe them.
I’ll make a believer of him yet.
I put a hand on his chest. Feel the thump of his heart, quick, strong. His breastbone rises and falls beneath my palm in an unsteady rhythm.
He’s scared.
He’s letting me in anyway.
I suddenly feel bare too. “I do mean that. You may need to worry about Ava’s outfit choices, but you don’t need to worry about me. We’ll have fun, okay? I promise.”
“Okay,” he replies gruffly before guiding my shirt over my head.
It’s the first promise I’ve made him. I hope it’s not the last.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Theo
“Aw, honey, you look cute as hell.”
I can only stare as Nora does a little spin, emerging from her bedroom. She’s wearing jeans that are tight tight tight. These fancy cowboy boots that are a shiny gold color and a silky white shirt that’s just sheer enough to give me a glimpse of the hot pink lacy bra she’s wearing underneath.
My dick nudges against my zipper. Nora and I fucked not an hour ago before heading to her place so she could change, and I’m already half hard again.
Woman is turning me into an animal.
“Thank you,” she says with a Dolly Parton wink. Her eyes sweep over my body. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“Stop, or my dick’s gonna tear the crotch of these jeans in two.”
Nora insisted I wear the same pair of sun-bleached Wranglers I wore last time to Coyote Joe’s. They’re a little tight—and by that I mean I’m bound to deeply offend several strangers’ sensibilities at some point today—but what Nora wants, Nora gets.
Because I’m a lucky bastard, she takes pity on me and gives me road-head so fucking good I almost plow my Jeep into a guardrail on the drive to the bar.
The head eases my nerves. My stomach still flips when we pull into the parking lot and I see my mom’s old Chrysler minivan already here. Putting the Jeep in park, I take a deep breath.
This is it. The first time I’m intentionally bringing my two worlds together. Part of me knows it will one hundred percent be a disaster. I love my family, but even I can admit we’re a pain in the ass sometimes. But then Nora is grabbing my hand. She’s giving it a squeeze and she’s smiling, her eyes sparkling, her whole face lighting up.
I don’t get why she’d be excited to spend her Saturday line-dancing at a dive bar with my mom and sisters, most of whom aren’t old enough to order a beer. But she is, and that makes me feel better.
Makes me feel a little steadier. How did I ever call this woman an Ice Queen?
We climb out of the car and make our way toward the entrance. I don’t know what our rules are for being out in public right now, so I don’t reach for Nora’s hand even though I could use a little moral support. My dick was just in her mouth, for Christ’s sake. What’s more intimate than that? But it’s up to Nora to determine when and how we go public, so I follow her lead and follow her into the bar, hovering my hand a few inches over the small of her back.
It’s a bright, sunny day outside, but inside the bar it’s dark. We blink at the sudden onslaught of neon lights and stale beer smell. I hand the bouncer a twenty and we head inside, the music becoming louder. I can already hear Shelby hollering, followed in short order by Ava telling her to “shut up, God!” I wince, my gut lurching.
Nora grins at me over her shoulder.