“No,” he said. “Because I’m not normally getting that much attention.”

  He could have sworn every single person had come over to talk to them tonight. During the reception, they’d made their way to Ava’s table since Avery knew them well. Adele said she wished that Josie could have come and didn’t understand why she couldn’t.

  He’d thought it was funny but sat there quietly while Avery talked with Ava and Delaney, Hudson’s fiancée. Carson was single and they talked football for a few minutes, then left shortly after.

  “I don’t think it was that bad,” she said. “But I talk to people all day long.”

  “Not me,” he said, pulling his keys out and unlocking the door once she grabbed her overnight bag from the back. He’d bring her home in the morning.

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “If someone asks for me, sure. But I work on the car, then if I’m around when they are checking out I do it, or one of the other guys does. My mother will go upfront at times too.”

  “Because she knows how much you love to chat,” she said. “Hi, Dopey. Is your sister locked up for her own safety? Have you been keeping her company?”

  “She’s in the spare room,” he said. He had a craftsman-style house. He supposed that is what it was. There were two bedrooms on the main level and a full bath, along with a living room, dining room and kitchen. He’d converted the old attic space into a primary suite and full bath. He had a small office up there too with some storage.

  “Show me around,” she said. “Once you let the dogs out.”

  He moved to the bedroom off the kitchen. She followed him in there and saw Doc waking up from her nap and stretching, then getting excited when the big puppy noticed her.

  “No jumping,” he said to Doc.

  “She hasn’t jumped once,” she said.

  “Because she’s better behaved when she isn’t home. At home, it’s a free for all. Come on, you two. Let’s go to the bathroom.”

  Both dogs followed him to the back of the kitchen, he opened the door and the dogs went running out while he stood there in the cool November evening breeze.

  It was only a little after six and he was glad it’d been an early wedding. He took the day off and was able to spend it with Avery and now he could get some alone time with her without watching the clock for when he had to leave.

  Both dogs came running back in and he saw Avery still standing there. She’d taken her jacket off and he reached for it and brought it over to the hooks on the wall.

  “This is a nice kitchen,” she said.

  “It works,” he said. “I did some updates when I moved in. Houses aren’t cheap on the island so it was harder to find something on the lower end and do what I wanted.”

  He liked the darker wood cabinets but put in new tile floors and black granite. The walls were white because he was simple that way.

  “There is a bathroom right there,” he said, showing her the full bathroom between the kitchen and the room Doc was in.

  She popped her head in. “Nice. You did the work here too?” she asked.

  “Yes. Not much more than paint and a new vanity. Everything else was in good shape.”

  They moved through the rest of the downstairs. Nothing fancy in his eyes, but it worked for him.

  “It’s nicer than my rented place though I’m not complaining.”

  “Drew and Bode keep their rentals in good shape, but I can see where they don’t put in any high-end finishes or anything.”

  “Nope,” she said. “I wouldn’t either. Now show me to your room. Will your dogs stay here or are they going to join us because I might get performance anxiety if there were more eyes on me than yours?”

  “I’ll shut them out. Doc will behave as long as she knows I’m in the house.”

  They climbed his stairs. His office was to one side, the bathroom right at the top and his room to the other side.

  His bathroom, office and closet took up one half, his bedroom the other, the stairs not centered and it drove him nuts, but he couldn’t do anything about it.

  He pulled her into his room and shut that door, the dogs would go sit in his office or stay in the living room. He didn’t care where as long as it wasn’t in his room with him.

  Avery took her bag off her shoulder and let it drop to the floor, then her hands went for his tie. He wanted to ditch it hours ago and almost pulled it off on the way home, but she kept pretending to straighten it for him and if he took it off, then they wouldn’t have that little slow eye dance going.

  He wasn’t sure he was ever that much of a sucker for little moves like that before.

  “I’ve been thinking of getting you out of this suit all afternoon,” she said.

  “I was hoping that,” he said.

  His tie came off and she tossed it on a chair in the corner not that far away, then she made quick work of the buttons on his shirt, parting it open and pushing it off his shoulders.

  “Have I told you before what a great chest you’ve got?”

  “No,” he said. “Have I told you what a great one you’ve got?”

  She laughed, then leaned in to kiss him on the mouth. “No. But I’ve got them showcased for you tonight.”

  His dick was already hard, but somehow more blood rushed to it, straining it at the zipper of his pants.

  His hands went to the back of her black dress that fit her better than anything should fit another person. Though she looked beautiful, soft and feminine, she didn’t seem as comfortable like that.

  Just like him.

  Her dress came up to her collarbone but had a few little slits in it that were held together with nude material giving the illusion you could see her skin that was flashing, but everything was covered.

  The zipper came down, then he found the belt around her waist and undid that too, pushing the dress off her shoulders. He had to see what she had under it.

  “Shit,” he said when she did a little shimmy, the dress falling to her feet, her kicking it away.

  She had on black. All black.

  And lace.

  Panties, a garter belt and a matching bra.

  “You don’t even have to do anything more than remove my underwear to get to what you want,” she said seductively.

  He gulped, his hands going for the waistband of her panties and slipping them down.

  “I like this little surprise you’ve got for me,” he said.

  “I’ve got another one,” she said, her mouth moving to his ear. Her tongue came out and traced the edge of it. “I’m on the pill,” she said. “If you’re game.”

  “Very,” he said, undoing his pants quickly.

  He shed all his clothes while she remained there in her black pumps, stockings, garter belt and bra. The bra was pushing her together with more cleavage than ever before spilling out. Every eye would have been on her if she’d had a low-cut dress on and he was glad this was only for him.

  “Come to me,” she said.

  He’d follow her anywhere but didn’t want to voice that. He wasn’t sure he could get any words out of his mouth as it was.

  She moved to the chair she’d tossed his tie on, then nudged him down into it and climbed on his lap.

  It was a tight fit, but her knees were on the side of him, her feet hanging off, the leather of her shoes brushing against his legs.

  One hand was running up and down her back, his fingers brushing her auburn hair that she’d kept down and in loose waves. Her smoky eyes were on his face, a grin behind them easily.

  She inched forward, found his dick and slid down on him, his face right in the swell of her breasts now.

  She started to rise up and down and the last thing he wanted was to have her doing all the work.

  He’d let her control the pace, but he had to get his mouth on the treasures in front of him.

  “I never knew how much of a breast person I was until you.”

  “That’s nice to know since they are a bit bigger than I wanted them to be,” she said.

  “They are perfect,” he said, his tongue coming out to trace the curves in front of him.

  His thumbs went to her nipples which were hard and pebbling through the lace of the bra.

  He started to pinch and squeeze them, then freed one breast by slipping it out of its restraint and cupped it with his hand, his mouth going to that nipple and pulling it in.

  She was riding him faster now; his mouth latched on and he wasn’t letting go.

  She was making these tiny noises in her throat that only she could do that would stoke the fire in him to want to rage out of control.

  He’d never been someone to lose control in his life over anything, but when he was with this woman, he had no thoughts at all.

  She was bouncing up and down harder now. Faster. Her breasts jiggled and bobbed with her movements.

  He knew he was on the edge and not much more of this was going to send him over.

  The feel of them skin to skin, the heat and wetness, was already more than he was used to.

  His hand went down between her legs, found her little bud and flicked at it a few times.

  Her head went back, her nails were digging into his shoulders and she was now moving forward and back rather than up and down.

  The minute he felt her start to convulse around him, his mouth let go of her nipple, he grabbed her hips and pounded up into her hard and fast.

  It was like he couldn’t get close enough though and found himself standing up, her legs going around his hips, the heel of her shoe catching him and he could have cared less.

  He was hell bent on fucking her as fast as he could and making sure she knew who she was with right now.

  When she shouted out his name, he knew he’d done what he’d set out to.

  His body was drained and depleted right now.

  He moved to the side of his bed and sat down, her legs still around him.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m more than okay,” she said, sighing. “How about you?”

  “More than okay too,” he said quietly. “You pull something out of me every single time and I worry that I hurt you.”

  “I’m tougher than you think,” she said.

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean I ever want to hurt you. Physically or emotionally.”

  “We all hurt in life, Carter, even when we don’t want to do it to someone. It’s how you deal with it afterward that counts.”

  He supposed she was right but knew it was not something he wanted to talk about right now.

  Not when he felt like he was more in love than he’d ever been in his life and he was positive she had her own demons she was trying to hide.

  28

  Be Prepared

  “It’s so good to see you, Mom,” Avery said, giving her mother a big hug on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

  They’d been able to get on the ferry an hour earlier than expected as the appointments scheduled were things Kendall could deal with. Avery snuck out with Josie and they loaded up her car and took off.

  “You look so good,” her mother said, giving her a tight hug. Tighter than she remembered before. “Let me see you, Josie.”

  “I missed you, Dee,” Josie said, moving into her mother’s arms for a hug.

  “I missed you too, sweetie. But I hear everything is going well on the island. Let me see this puppy you’ve got.”

  “Betty has gotten so big, but she doesn’t look it next to Dopey and Doc,” Josie said. “You know Avery has a boyfriend, right? His name is Carter and he worked on her car and he fixed up the clinic for Avery before we moved. He’s nice to me and his dogs are huge, but they play well with Betty too.”

  Avery looked at her mother and saw the grin. “I did know about Carter,” her mother said. “I would have loved to meet him.”

  “He works a lot,” Josie said. “Like every day. I asked him to come with us, but he said he couldn’t and was sorry.”

  Avery turned to her. “When did you ask him?” Now she felt like an idiot that Josie asked and she didn’t.

  “Last night,” Josie said. “When you let Betty out after dinner, he was cleaning the dishes and I asked if he could come with us.”

  “Carter has to work,” she said. “He only has tomorrow off. He’s working on Friday and Saturday.”

  “That’s what he said,” Josie said. “But I still wished he could have come. Dee, you’ll need to come to the island to meet him, I bet.”

  “I’d like to do that,” her mother said.

  “Where is Grandma?” she asked.

  “She’s napping. They changed her meds and she normally has a nap before dinner. She knows you are coming and I think she wanted to be rested up.”

  “Josie,” Avery said. “Why don’t we go put our things in our rooms and then come back down and get a snack before dinner?”

  Josie grabbed her bag and Avery picked hers up and they went up the stairs. Her old room still looked the same as it had when she left for college over fourteen years ago.

  Josie was in the spare room and she could hear the drawers opening and closing fast which meant Josie took fistfuls of her clothes and dumped them.

  Nothing wrong with that. Josie was being a kid and she needed to do that at times.

  She heard the little feet running back down the stairs and it made her feel good that Josie felt so at home here. Her mother had watched Josie when Colleen had been alive too. When Colleen needed a sitter in a pinch or the two women wanted a night away, her mother stepped up to be the grandmother that Josie never had in her life.

  A mother to Colleen too when she needed it. Which wasn’t much because Colleen had always been headstrong and independent.

  She turned when she heard footsteps coming into her bedroom. “What’s she doing?” she asked her mother. “I hope she’s quiet so as to not wake up, Grandma.”

  “She’s in the living room trying to find some show on TV that she says I need to see,” her mother said.

  “I can only imagine which one it is,” Avery said. “I thought I’d go get pizza tonight since I’m here early. You didn’t make dinner plans, did you, since you’ll be cooking tomorrow?”

  “I didn’t,” her mother said. “Or nothing that needs to be cooked. Pizza sounds good though.”

  She nodded. “I miss the pizza here. There is only one pizza place on our end of the island. It’s not bad but not like Enzo’s.”

  “I suppose those are the things you start to get used to there. Everything else going okay? You looked a little stunned when Josie said she asked Carter to come.”

  “I didn’t know she was going to do that,” she said. “I didn’t ask him and now I wonder what he might think of that.”

  “Why didn’t you ask him?” her mother asked.

  “Because I knew he had to work. Why make him feel bad? It’s not like he can walk away from his job.”

  “That’s right,” her mother said. “So you shouldn’t worry about it.”

  “You’re right. I’ll text him in a bit. Actually, I’ll do it now. He wanted me to let him know I got here safe.” She pulled her phone out of her back pocket, drafted her text and then deleted it and then typed it again before she hit send.

  “Did you write a novel just now?” her mother asked, grinning at her.

  “No,” she said, sighing. “I wasn’t sure what to say. In the end I said I was here and that I was sorry Josie put him on the spot asking him to come as I knew he had to work.”

  “That’s fine,” her mother said. “I’m sure he understands.”

  “I know he does,” she said.

  “Then why are you bothered?”

  “No clue,” she said.

  “I think you are already falling in love with him, aren’t you?”

  “You aren’t supposed to guess that,” she said.

  “A mother knows when their child is happy. I can see it in your eyes.”

  “I am,” she said. “So very happy. I stressed and worried about this move and then I start to feel guilty on top of it that maybe it wasn’t best for Josie.”

  “Oh,” her mother said. “I get the feeling she is as in love with Carter as you are.”

  Avery laughed. “You might be right.” She debated a minute and then said, “Melody at work told me that Josie is always asking about her husband and what they do as a couple and saying that I shouldn’t be alone. Melody said Josie talks about Seth all the time. Adele’s father.”

  “I know who Seth is,” her mother said. “Josie brings him up with me when we talk too.”

  “Why are you only telling me now?” she asked.

  “Because I figured you knew. I didn’t think there was anything Josie was telling me that she wasn’t telling you too.”

  “Guess not,” she said.

  “One more thing before we go down. I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you or not but figured I should,” her mother said.

  “What is it?”

  “Kurt is having a baby?”

  “He’s having a baby? Did a medical miracle happen?” she asked. She was trying to process this in her head.

  “His new girlfriend is having a baby,” her mother said.

  “How did you find out?” she asked.

  “He’s got a Facebook page. You know that.”

  “I do,” she said. She didn’t have one personally, but since Kurt was in sales he did. He felt it gave him an edge to be on all social media pages and look human to people. Her mother must follow him.

  “He posted on it a few weeks ago that he was going to be a father.”

  “Good for him,” she said. “He never said he didn’t want kids. Just that he only wanted his, not to raise someone else’s. Guess he’s getting his wish.”

  “He was willing to raise Josie with you once he heard about the lawsuit,” her mother said after she snorted.

  “I told him my feelings on that.” She wasn’t one to swear, but she had no problem telling Kurt to go fuck off when he tried to get back with her then. He was gone from her mind at that point and she had more important things to focus on.

  Just like now.

  “Good for you,” her mother said. “I didn’t want you to be blindsided if you found out or heard from someone else.”