Worth the Fall (The McKinney Brothers, #1)(51)

They’d made love like he was sure no one had ever done in the history of time and she was glad he came?

“Abby.” He took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him.

“What? People leave. It’s fine. I’m fine. I tell Angie that all the time.” She shook her head. “She never listens.”

Matt smoothed his thumb over the bottom lip she was worrying between her teeth. She needed to work on her poker face. Her eyes gave her away every time. So damn wary and so determined not to cry.

A scared rabbit, terrified of letting anyone too close. Her own reservations sent her running for cover when things got too intense between them, but he wasn’t going to let her hide. He’d said maybe twenty words in all his morning-afters combined, and now he wanted to make a f*cking speech. But what could he say?

I couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss and had to touch you again?

I came here so I could go back to my job and hopefully not think about you so much?

That idea had backfired in a major way. And it’d been a lie from the start. He’d come because he wanted to see her. Period.

Being with her, making love to her, was like nothing he’d ever known, nothing he’d even thought existed, and now he had no idea what to say. What the hell did he say to a woman who’d been left all her life when all he did was leave? So, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and deep, and said the only thing he could. The only thing he was sure of.

“I’m coming back.”





Chapter 20


“Hi, Abby.” William Stafford met her at the door of an upscale restaurant in downtown Raleigh. “You look lovely,” he said.

“Thank you.” They followed the hostess, sat, and ordered drinks.

“I’m glad you could make it.”

Abby hesitated to say she was also glad. The truth was she wasn’t exactly sure why she’d accepted his invitation. “I’m not sure how much I can help, but I’m happy to try.”

They made small talk, William asking all the socially polite questions—where was she from, where did she go to school. It was all very nice and safe, and she couldn’t help but compare him to Matt. There was nothing hard about William. Fingers perfectly manicured, his eyes a soft gray, watching her attentively from across the table.

William definitely didn’t have that I-could-jump-up-at-any-second-and-save-the-world look about him. She sipped her iced tea and listened to his answers to the same questions.

She’d only talked to Matt a handful of times since he’d left. When she did, it was short. Hey, how are you? How are the kids? He always sounded busy.

His words replayed again and again. I’m coming back. They made her nervous and excited and anxious and scared. Just like the man. And they put her exactly where she’d sworn she’d never be again: waiting for and wanting someone.

She hadn’t returned his call from a couple of days ago, and she couldn’t really say why. Probably because you’re a coward. She’d picked up the phone a hundred times, but…the more she ached to hear his voice, the more she fought the urge. He hadn’t called again.

When William Stafford asked her to lunch to discuss the school project, she accepted. She wouldn’t let the volunteer Nazis squeeze her out, and any minute she was thinking about something else was a minute she wasn’t thinking about Matt.

And then Matt was the only person she could think about. Breakfast and dinner, hot kisses and hotter sex. Matt’s rough hands sliding over her body. The cold tea in her mouth went down the wrong pipe and she choked until her eyes teared. Yikes.

She recovered from the choking and the embarrassment, and William did everything he could to make her feel at ease, but somehow she just didn’t. When was the last time she’d eaten with a grown-up? Aside from Matt, she couldn’t remember. Would she measure every experience against those she’d had or hadn’t had with Matt?

William pulled her mind back to the here and now, and they discussed her ideas for the school. One was an art show, inviting alumni to bid on art created by students of all ages. Professionally framed pieces supporters would be proud to hang in their homes.

Lunch ended and William walked her through the restaurant to the door.

Abby did a quick side step to avoid his hand at her back, tripped, and caught her hip bone hard on the corner of an empty table.

Ouch. She sucked in a breath, covering the injury with her hands.

“Oh dear, Abby. Are you all right?” William’s hands were on her arms and his eyes on her belly, visibly concerned. “Is it the baby?”

“I’m fine.”

“Did you hurt yourself? Should I take you to the doctor?”

“No, really. I’m fine. Just a little clumsy.”

It took a while to convince him she was indeed fine, and all the way to her car he asked her repeatedly if she needed to see a doctor. William was a nice man, even if she’d never be interested. If it had been Matt…she’d trip a thousand times to be back in his arms. To kiss him. To taste the skin of his neck and run her hands over his back. To have his hands on her body.

He’d awakened something inside her and now that he was gone, she wasn’t completely sure that was a good thing.

—

Matt sat at his parents’ table, ready to enjoy his mother’s cooking, but missing Abby so much he ached. So much that a couple of the guys had caught him staring at her picture on his phone. Not that he cared. He wasn’t hiding it, though he didn’t appreciate their repeated requests for another look.