The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,53
me, she’ll give a shit?”
I felt my chest rising high and falling deep, but I didn’t have it in me to respond.
“Some groceries?” he pushed. “Ten large? Christmas presents? Everything?”
“Okay, honey, I get you,” I said gently.
“Are we done talking about this?” he asked irately.
I held him close and nodded my head.
“Good,” he clipped.
“I need shine oil for my hair. I’m running out,” I shared.
“What?” he asked.
“Shine oil for my hair. And perfume. And moisturizer.”
He scowled down at me.
“And just by the by, your mom was a fucking idiot,” I announced. “Because the Gamble Men are the best.”
“You are so totally gonna have to redo that lipstick,” he growled, and this growl was not ticked.
His eyes were on my mouth.
I didn’t get the chance to refuse.
He took my mouth and we made out in the cold next to a house lit up with Christmas lights.
When it was over, it wasn’t so bad for him, due to the beard. His lips were red and there were lipstick smudges in his kickass mustache.
But I was probably a mess.
Toby confirmed this for me when, eyes to my lips, he muttered, “You look like you took a shot to the teeth.”
“You’re totally annoying.”
His red lips grinned.
Headlights shone on the house.
We both looked.
Margot and Dave were early.
Not a surprise.
“Fuck,” I mumbled.
“Clean up, baby,” Toby said, patting my ass. “I’ll get them.”
I wanted to see my baby boy’s reaction to the Christmas lights.
What I did not want was to do that with just-made-out-hot-and-heavy-with-Toby red lipstick smears the first time I faced Margot as Toby’s girl.
I looked up at him.
And when I did, this man who put Christmas lights on my house and put it out there about his mom and didn’t hide he was seriously into me and fucked like a god, I knew I’d been right.
If Tobias Gamble gave me a hint we could take it there, I’d fall in love with him.
We were taking it there.
And I’d fallen in love with him.
Honestly?
Izzy was right.
Because that happened when he carried me, sobbing in his arms, to Addie’s bed after I’d gotten done with Perry.
And I fell deeper when he dropped everything and came to me after Brooklyn got kidnapped, and once he got me home to my sister, he went out and scoured the county looking for him.
But I wasn’t in the right place in those times.
Even with all life was throwing at me, I was in the right place now.
So there it was.
It was official.
And I was totally down with that.
“It’s not centered, move it to the left,” Margot ordered.
There were three chickens roasting in the oven. The potatoes were peeled and ready to boil and mash. The beans were trimmed, ready to boil, and the bacon and onion chopped, ready to fry then toss together. The rolls were store bought, but they were heat and eat and delicious, so they were easy to pop into the oven and pull out after the chickens were carved. Iz had brought a pumpkin chiffon pie with a gingersnap crust and it was a miracle I didn’t shove my face in it the minute she’d unveiled it.
Deanna’s homemade cheese ball was decimated, the remains sitting on the coffee table.
The men had placed the lit garlands I had over the mantle and around the doorways to the family room, dining room and kitchen and up the railing on the stairs.
Now Toby and Johnny were assembling the fake tree in the window of the family room under Margot’s scrutiny while Deanna, Iz and I unearthed ornaments.
Dapper Dan was helping the women.
Brooks was underfoot of the men.
I did not bother monitoring this. Johnny and Toby would no sooner step or set a Christmas tree on my son than they’d slit their own throats.
Instead, I was unwrapping festive baubles trying really hard not to giggle myself sick.
No one was acting any differently.
This was because nothing was different.
Toby was into me. I was into Toby.
They all knew this.
So I was wearing more makeup, some hairspray, Tobe was in a button-up, we’d recently had sex and made out repeatedly.
No biggie.
And I thought that was hilarious.
“Now a little to the right,” Margot commanded.
“Margot, it’s fine where it is,” Dave said.
I looked to my sister to see her lips were twitching.
“It’s not centered,” Margot said to her husband.
“Johnny and Toby have been movin’ that damned thing back and forth for the last twenty minutes,” Dave retorted. “It’s fine where it is.”