Easy Kisses (The Boudreaux Series Book 4) - Kristen Proby Page 0,88
away and hear the door open behind me.
“Charlotte?”
I bite my lip and spin around and stare at his sleepy, messy haired hotness.
“Hi.”
“Come in.” He backs up and I get a good look at him in the glow from the lamp beside the bed. He pulled on shorts, but he’s shirtless. He’s tousled and sexy and his blue eyes are bright, not sleepy at all. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I reply, surprised that it’s the truth. “I know it’s late, or early, but I didn’t want to wait—”
“You’re fine. I told you to come anytime. Let’s sit.”
“Okay.” I nod and follow him into the suite and sit where he gestures on the sofa. He sits across from me on the coffee table and takes my hands in his.
“You’re cold.” He rubs my hands vigorously.
“I’m nervous,” I say with a chuckle.
“Why?”
“Because this is a big deal.” His gaze whips up to mine.
“Go on.”
“I love you, Simon. I think I fell in love with you in Montana, and then when you were here, well, I just… I felt things I never had before. And it scared me. It still scares me.”
“We’re in agreement there,” he says with a soft smile. His eyes are full of hope and love.
“I think I had some misguided notions about love,” I continue, thinking of my dream about my dad. “And I think I expected a lot.”
“You should expect a lot,” he says and squeezes my hand. “When you love someone you should expect everything.”
“But I can’t expect you to be a mind reader, or to be perfect. Because none of us are perfect.”
“I’m far from it,” he says. “I’m just a man, Charly. I’m a man who loves you fiercely, and I’m going to fuck up. I can’t promise that I won’t.”
“But we’ll learn from it when we do,” I interject and revel at the feel of his stubble on my palm as I cup his cheek. “There’s a learning curve involved here.”
“Are you saying that you’re willing to give this a try?”
“No,” I reply and lean closer when he frowns. “I’m saying that I want to commit myself to you. I’m not a tryer, I’m a doer. We can’t pick it up where we left off, Simon, but we can grow from it and move forward.”
“That’s more than I deserve and everything that I’d hoped for,” he replies and pulls me into his arms, rocking us back and forth. “God, I missed you, love.”
“I missed you, too.” He kisses my temple.
“What made you decide to come here now?” he asks softly.
I swallow hard. “My dad. I had a great conversation with him.”
He pulls back to look in my face. “Did you now?”
I nod. “He likes you.”
“Savannah thought he might,” he replies and brushes a piece of hair off my cheek.
“You saw Savannah?”
He nods.
“What did she say?”
“To fight for you.” He grins and kisses me, softly at first, and then more passionately, waking up parts of me that have been asleep for more than a month. “And if you hadn’t shown up here when you did, I was going to come to you in about four hours.”
“I beat you to it.” I stand and take his hand in mine, leading him toward the bed. “I don’t want to sleep alone anymore.”
“I don’t have any sleep in mind,” he replies with a wicked smile.
“Thank goodness.”
***
“You have done an amazing job with this,” Simon says six months later. He’s standing in the middle of Head Over Heels Miami, taking in everything. It’s the night before our grand opening.
My stomach won’t settle down.
“I’m nervous,” I admit.
“Trust me, it’s going to be fantastic. And I’m going to insist that we go back to the condo now.” He takes my hand and kisses my fingers. “It’s almost midnight, you’re exhausted, and I haven’t seen you in days.”
“That’s an exaggeration.” I roll my eyes, but stand on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek. I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Simon has been in Miami with me for the past month while I put the store together. He helped me when he could, and we bought a condo on the beach to use when we’re in town.
“Okay, I haven’t seen you much.”
“After grand opening week, things will slow down a bit. I hired a great team to take the reins.” I smile up at him as we walk through the displays and racks of gorgeous shoes. I decided early on that I didn’t want to live in Miami full time. New Orleans is where