Casanova(84)

My smile changed to a grin that stretched ear-to-ear. “Exactly like a new puppy.”

She laughed, her smile mirroring mine. “You’re crazy, Casanova. And if you say ‘only for you,’ I’m going to punch you.”

“I’m crazy for my new puppy.” I stepped back when she twitched. “I didn’t say it!”

I was pushing my luck though, wasn’t I?

“I sure hope you’re not calling me a bitch.” Her bangs swept over one eye as she fixed me with a steady look.

“Damn it.” I knocked my fist against the top of the railings behind me. “That backfired.”

Lani held the look for only a few more seconds before her wild giggles returned. She tapped my nose with a cheeky smirk on her lips. “Of course it did. I’m female. I can bend anything to go my way. Hell, I could twist steel if I wanted to.”

“Yeah? Well let’s get the rest of this night over with so, if you still want me later, I can take you home and you can show me just how twisty you can get.”

“Was that supposed to be sexy?”

I paused. “It wasn’t?”

She tilted her head side to side before pinching her fingers in front of her face and squinting. The tiniest breath of air was left between her finger and thumb. “Lil’ bit. Not a lot.”

I sighed. “If Aunt Bel was right about anything, it was that of all the women in the world, I had to pick you, didn’t I?”

“Of course.” Lani grinned as she walked toward the door and threw over her shoulder, “I’m fabulous.”

I dropped my eyes to where her dress hugged her butt. “So is your ass in that dress.”

She clapped her hands over her butt cheeks as she disappeared inside the room.

Damn it.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE


LANI



I leaned back against the wall. Dinner had been over for a while, and now I watched everyone else dance. Camille flirted with Xavier somewhere in the room—hopefully hidden from her brother’s potential view—and Aunt Bel told anyone who’d listen about her gerbil with an allergy to lettuce.

I didn’t know anybody or anything could be allergic to lettuce, but if it had to happen, it would be related to Aunt Bel. Because, crazy.

Even my sister had left, but not before she guilt-tripped me for not calling her since Brett and I figured things out. Well, most things. Apparently one thing still lingered. She didn’t know about that, though, so I apologized and promised to bring her donuts the next day.

It was the least I could do.

At least, it was according to Connie.

I now knew better than to argue with a pregnant woman. Especially that pregnant woman.

I liked the quiet that being on the outskirts of room gave me. Okay, quiet was an exaggeration, but it allowed me to think. Mostly about Brett’s secret and my future here in Whiskey Key.

I wasn’t lying when I said to him he was a reason to stay.

He was.

I couldn’t deny the way things had changed. I couldn’t ignore the butterflies he gave me just by looking at me or the way my body reacted to him. The way I reacted to him. It had almost become a new normal. The tingles and the heat and the racing heart.

It was effortless too. He could look at me across a crowded room and I’d still feel the same.

I was in love with him. Completely, utterly, wholly, irrevocably. There was no way out from this. I didn’t want a way out. I didn’t when I loved him as a teenager and I didn’t now.

If soul mates existed, he had to be mine. There was no other explanation for the way we both felt about the other after so many years.

So much had changed, but the fierceness with which I was able to love him hadn’t.

If I regretted anything, it was not telling him I loved him when he told me.

But I’d wanted him to fight. I’d wanted him to prove on some ridiculous level that he really, truly wanted me. He’d done it though. He’d won that the moment he told me he wanted me to love him because I wanted to, not because he’d made me.

That alone showed me that maybe his love was worth more than mine, although mine was the only one that had never really been in question.

To me. He’d questioned it the way I’d questioned his.

Then again, he’d never questioned the way he loved me.

Our biggest tragedy was naive teenage stupidity and fear. If we’d gotten through that, we could get through any secret he had buried in his closet...couldn’t we?

Because I wanted to. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted him to fight for me, but I wanted to fight for him too.

Brett needed fighting for. Insecurity wasn’t a quality he shared with anyone very easily, but I’d seen it tonight. It’d been all over his face. Insecurity and fear plagued him, and I was in the center of that. I wasn’t the cause of it, but I was sure as hell the catalyst for it.

I didn’t see how he could have done something that made him feel that way.

Unless he’d killed a puppy. Then we’d have issues.

“Lani.”

I turned at the sound of my boss’ voice. “Mr. Reeves. How are you?”

“I’m well, thank you. Yourself?”

“Can’t complain.”

“Can we have a word?”