Doing It Over (Most Likely To #1)(96)

“Yeah, so don’t make me spank you.”

Hope made a perfect little O with her lips. “You won’t do that.”

“You’re right.” He snatched her around the waist and started to tickle her. “I have much better ways to punish disrespectful little girls.”

Sir Knight barked and ran in circles around them for the few minutes Hope giggled in her attempts to get away. She cried “uncle” before the two of them ran off.

When Wyatt turned back to his work, he saw Melanie standing in the soon to be doorway, her arm leaning against the frame. How long had she been standing there?

“Hey, darlin’.” He moved in for a kiss, didn’t linger long. The fact she never unfolded her arms told him she had something on her mind.

“Hey.”

“What brings you out here?”

“Do I need an excuse to see my boyfriend?”

He chuckled and turned away. Oh, she’d definitely heard his conversation with Hope. How to play this?

“Is there something you need to say to me?” she asked, not moving.

“Nope, not really. Did you have something on your mind?”

She pushed off the two-by-four. “Anything you wanna ask me?”

“Yeah.” He pointed to the drill behind her. “Can you hand me that?”

She lowered her hands from her hips, grabbed the drill, and thrust it into his hands.

Pretending disbelief, he looked at the drill, then her. “Did I miss something? Why are you mad?”

When she let go of the drill, he nearly dropped it. “You’re infuriating sometimes. You know that?”

She twisted to leave and he caught her hand. “You’re adorable when you’re angry.”

Melanie actually growled at him.

Any minute she would stomp her foot the way her daughter did. Instead of waiting for it, he leaned in and kissed her. “I love you when you’re angry.”

“Whoa . . . what?”

He’d never said the words aloud and knew they sank in slowly. “Yeah, the way your eyes crinkle right here.” He tapped the space between her eyes. “The way you glare with that attempt at a stink eye.” He squinted his left eye and not the right. “I love you when you’re angry.”

“When I’m angry?” She did the stink eye thing, and he was hard-pressed not to laugh at her.

“And when you’re laughing. Like when I’m tickling you or when you’re watching TV and talking to it. I love you then, too.”

She was starting to catch on and folded her arms across her chest. “So you love me when I’m angry, and when I’m laughing?”

“And when you’re doing that thing you’re doing with your arms right now. That’s pretty adorable, you have to admit.”

She looked down at herself.

“And when I’m making love to you. That noise you make when I’m making you—”

He didn’t finish before she grabbed him by his shirt and kissed him hard.

Wyatt bent his knees and lifted her off her feet. She took his lead and wrapped her legs around his waist, laughing into their kiss. “I love you, Melanie.”

“You picked a funny time to tell me.”

She kissed him again. This time when she pulled away, an expectant look crossed over her face.

“What?”

There was that stink eye was again.

He laughed.

“One day,” he started to say . . . “One day, that isn’t today, I’m going to ask you to marry me.”

Her stink eye faded.

“And on that day, you’re going to say yes.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Am I?”

“Yes, you are.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you love me.”

She made herself comfortable in his arms as he placed her back up against the partial wall. “How do you know I love you?”

“You talk in your sleep.”

The stink eye made another appearance.

“Well, I could say no.”

He kissed her briefly. “You won’t.”

“You’re so sure of yourself.”

“Yeah. A little cocky. But I happen to know you came back to River Bend for a do-over. And that do-over is with me.”

She smiled, tilted her head to the side, and kissed him again.

When he finally let her back on her feet, her cheeks were flushed and he told her he loved that part, too.

He swatted her butt as she turned to leave. “Now get out of here so I can get this done.”

Melanie swatted him back and kissed him briefly. Then against his lips she told him what he already knew. “I love you back.”





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


A huge shout-out to Grants Pass . . . if not for the lovely experience of breaking down on the road, at the ripe young age of eighteen, at two o’clock in the morning, before cell phones had been invented . . . I may not have become a writer.

Note to self: Never ignore lights on the dashboard. They’re not lit up for Christmas.

To my agent, Jane Dystel, for your constant support and understanding during this crazy year.

For Kelli Martin, and all those at Montlake, for understanding my delay as I begin my own personal “do-over.”