When he did that, she blurted, “You come from money and you handle elegant champagne glasses that had to cost a mint like they’re plastic.”
His head turned to her to see her face was pale and plainly anxious in the dash lights.
Fuck.
This was a surprise.
Fuck.
He put the truck in park, switched off the ignition and lights and turned to her.
“Come here,” he ordered quietly.
“I’m right here, Chace.”
“Come here,” he repeated.
“But, I’m –”
“Baby, come here.”
She leaned deep into him, stretching across the cab of his truck and resting a hand on his thigh.
He lifted a hand to the side of her neck, slid it back and up into her silken hair and he pulled her two inches closer.
Then he said softly, “I make almost double what you do and live in a ranch-style, four bedroom house on fifteen acres south of town. I got a manageable mortgage because my Ma’s folks left me a trust. That trust isn’t a fortune but it’s a whack. I dipped into it to get the house I wanted to live in and build a family in. I will not touch it again until I get married and have kids. Only then will it be used to make my house a home and to give my kids an education. It will be used for nothin’ else unless, God forbid, there’s an emergency.”
He pulled her an inch closer even as he moved an inch closer to her and kept talking.
“I got a small nest egg that I do what I can to make bigger just because it’s smart. I invest in a retirement plan that will augment my pension because when I’m done and livin’ the good life, I’d like that good to be better. I take two vacations a year, both to bodies of water where I can fish ‘cause I got ski slopes all around and I can go boardin’ whenever the f**k I want. I wear jeans and cowboy boots and I’ll trade up this truck this year because it’s four years old so it’s time. I’ll eat at The Rooster for a special occasion but even though that food is the shit, I’m just as happy with Rosalinda’s and that is no joke.”
He moved his other hand to curl around hers on his thigh and kept quietly going.
“My mother bought me those glasses, darlin’. That was the first time they were ever taken out of the cupboard she put ‘em in. There is other shit in that house Ma got me she thought I had to have and probably all of it is expensive because she can afford it and that’s her way. There is absolutely no shit in that house that belonged to or was purchased by Misty. What those glasses say was my life. I walked away from it when I was seventeen, I never went back, I’ll never go back and I don’t miss it. I don’t give a f**k about champagne glasses. They could be plastic for all I care. They break, they break. You broke, I’d care. Champagne glasses, no. Now you got it all so are you with me on this shit?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her eyes peering deep into his.
She was with him so he gave her the rest of it.
“I already know that family in there is better than the one I grew up in, honey,” he whispered back. “Money and status don’t mean shit. It’s character that means somethin’. My father doesn’t have that. Your father does, he married a woman who has it and together they built a family that has it. You’re nervous and twistin’ shit in that pretty head of yours to make you more nervous. Stop it. This is gonna be fine.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“Now you got a job ahead of you and that’s to try real hard not to be cute. When you’re cute, it makes me wanna kiss you in a way a deacon at a church, who still curses just not in front of his daughter, will not like. Since you’re cute all the time, this is gonna be hard for you. But I’m askin’ you to try.”
Her bubblegum lips twitched then she replied softly, “I’ll try.”
Staring at her mouth, he muttered, “And you’ll fail.”
“Chace –” she breathed and his eyes shot back to hers.
“You’re bein’ cute,” he warned.
Her ear dipped to her shoulder and her brows inched together.
Cute.
“I just said your name.”