I had a shot of showing her that, I needed to do things differently.
We sat staring at one another and the energy between us was thick with anticipation.
Another loud snore popped the bubble of intimacy that had formed around us. Reagan let out a tiny giggle as she sipped her coffee before setting it down. “Poor thing. I think tonight was a lot for her.” She tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Did people give her a hard time?” My brotherly instincts might’ve been dormant for twenty years, but they were back with a vengeance now.
“No.” Reagan shook her head and a stray strand of hair fell over her forehead. “Everyone was really sweet and welcoming. They told her how happy they were that she was home and a lot of them commented that she looked exactly like your mom.”
“Yeah, I heard that, too.”
“Does she?” she asked, tilting her head to the side in a way that was equally adorable and sexy. The curious look on her face was so open and vulnerable, and the smooth skin on her exposed neck was like a beacon calling me to mark it.
I cleared my throat as I tried to resist all of the vampire-inspired fantasies that were running through my brain. “I think she does. My memories are a little fuzzy,” I admitted before taking a drink of caffeine I probably didn’t need to be putting into my bloodstream considering how amped up I was already feeling.
When I set it back down I noticed the concern brimming in Reagan’s deep blue eyes. She set her cup down and leaned forward. “How are you doing with…everything?”
Since Pop had passed, a lot of people had asked me that question. My responses had been automatic, I’m fine. I hadn’t put any real thought into it. But with Reagan, I didn’t do that. With Reagan I answered honestly. “Today hit me kinda hard.”
“Were you close to your dad?”
“No.” A smirk pulled at my lips. “Since I wasn’t a bottle he really didn’t have much use for me or my brothers. But I don’t know…somethin’ about the finality of the will,” I lowered my voice, “and Cheyenne coming back, it really sunk in that he’s gone.”
“That makes sense.”
“Does it?” I shook my head. “Because I thought I was prepared for this. I mean, to be honest, I thought I’d be relieved. Relieved that I didn’t have to worry about getting a call that he drove his truck off the side of the road and hurt himself, or worse, hurt someone else. Relieved that I didn’t have to worry about making sure he really took his medication and wasn’t lying about it, or worse, selling it on the side. Relieved that I didn’t have to worry about him taking money out of the safe or till to use for poker, or about him and his friends drinking our inventory dry.” I leaned back in my chair, letting out a slow exhale as I ran my fingers through my hair. “But I’m not. I’m not relieved he’s gone.”
A sad smile lifted on her lips and she tilted her head to the side as her shoulders lifted in a shrug. “People don’t have to be perfect for you to love them.”
Her words shot a cupid’s arrow straight into my chest. Her understanding and support was indescribable. It wrapped around me like a hot towel after an ice bath, thawing out my frozen heart.
All my life, people had judged me, my brothers, and my old man. But there was none of that in Reagan’s stare. I’d just told her that Pop was a lying, thieving, alcoholic drug dealer and she hadn’t batted an eye. Maybe it was because she was an outsider, or maybe it was because she was a genuinely decent human being. I couldn’t be sure. Normally I trusted my instincts, but I feared that I couldn’t do that with Reagan. She’d short-circuited all my wires, why else would I be hearing wedding bells and picturing her walking toward me in a white dress and veil every time I looked at her?
I grinned, trying to mask the depth of emotion she’d exposed in me. “But I don’t want to think about all that. Tell me about you.” I wanted, no needed, to get to know her more than I’d ever wanted or needed anything. In the short time she’d been in my life, I’d become consumed with the dark-haired, blue-eyed beauty sitting at my kitchen table. “What’s your story?”