My Cone and Only (King Family #1) - Susannah Nix Page 0,65

be for the woman I’d written most of the songs about.

But now she knew.

She’d seen the damn notebook weeks ago. I remembered exactly what song I’d been working on that day too. What page had been lying open. What lyrics she’d read.

Fuck.

When I got back to Andie’s house, I took my guitar case inside and set it on the kitchen table. Then I headed back outside and got started on that primer coat.

By the end of the day, I was tired and sweaty, but I had two sides of the house fully primed. Andie got home right as I was putting away the last of my tools. She parked in the garage next to my truck, and I stole a kiss before following her into the house.

Her eyes focused on my guitar as soon as she stepped into the kitchen. “Are you going to play for me tonight?”

“Later, maybe. I’m starving.” I took the takeout bag out of her hand, peeking inside as I carried it to the counter. She’d stopped at Rita’s for tacos on her way home. Hell yeah.

While I washed my hands, she grabbed us two beers out of the fridge and started unpacking the tacos. “Two pastor for me, and four barbacoa for you.”

“Queso?” I asked hopefully.

“Of course.” She plopped a paper bag of fresh tortilla chips on the counter, along with a Styrofoam cup full of melted cheese mixed with diced tomatoes, onions, and jalapeños.

I beamed adoring eyes at her as I pried the lid off. “You always did know the way to my heart.”

She arched a teasing eyebrow. “Hot cheese?”

“Exactly.” I dunked a chip in the chili con queso and shoved it in my mouth with an exaggerated sigh of happiness.

We ate our dinner standing at the counter as we caught each other up on our respective days. Mostly I listened to her talk as I wolfed down my four tacos in the time it took her to eat two. I loved listening to her talk. I’d happily listen to her read one of those software terms of service agreements just to hear the sound of her voice. But I especially liked the funny stories she told about her students and the wildlife up at the park.

Today there’d been a sighting of something called a tarantula hawk, which was not, as I’d first thought, a hawk that ate tarantulas.

“It’s a wasp that hunts tarantulas,” Andie said, her eyes shining with excitement. “They can get up to three inches long, and their sting is considered one of the most painful in the world!”

I held up my fingers three inches apart, trying to imagine encountering a wasp that big. “And you’re…excited that you might run into one of these nightmare creatures up at the park?”

“Hell yes.” She grinned and took a drink of her beer. “They say the pain from their sting is so instantaneously excruciating and debilitating that the best advice is to lie down on the ground and scream.”

I’d just drenched a tortilla chip in queso, and I paused with it halfway to my mouth to blink at her. “That’s the official advice? Like for wildlife experts and whatnot?”

Nodding, she stole the chip out of my hand and shoved it in her mouth. I shook my head at her, smiling as I got myself another chip.

“Lying down keeps you from running off and hurting yourself,” she explained. “The pain is so bad that it causes loss of physical coordination, which makes it more likely you’ll run into a tree or fall off a cliff or something. And the screaming allegedly helps take your mind off the pain. But the sting doesn’t cause any lasting tissue damage, so the pain is only temporary. The best thing you can do is try not to hurt yourself while you wait it out.”

“Huh,” I said, not liking the image of Andie up there in the woods alone, lying on the ground screaming in pain. I knew she wanted to see one of those wasps for herself, but I dearly hoped she never did.

“I’ve always been curious how I’d do up against that kind of pain,” she added, not making me feel the least bit better.

I frowned at her, thinking about her daredevil streak and how often it had gotten her hurt when we were kids. “Andie—”

“Not that I want to get stung,” she clarified off my look. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to take any stupid risks in the field. I just wonder about it is all. I’ll