Southern Secrets (Southern #7) - Natasha Madison Page 0,63

My girl lights up, and when we walk out of the house an hour later, her hand is in mine.

"How are we going to explain this?" Amelia asks. "I can’t even walk properly, and my whole body hurts."

"We can say you fell," I say, and she laughs.

"On your dick?" I open the truck door for her, and she gets in and winces. I close the door, laughing to myself, and when I walk around the truck and get in, she leans over and kisses me. "This is going to be a challenge."

"What is?" I ask, pulling away from her house.

"Being in front of my family and not being able to just kiss you or hold your hand," she says, and I look over at her.

“Or we can tell your family?” I wink at her, and she rolls her eyes.

“You know how they are.” She turns her back toward the car door. “They’ll be all up in our business, and for now, I want it to be just the two of us. I want it to be ours.” Her voice trails off.

I grab her hand and bring it to my lips, smiling. “Three hours,” I say, looking over and seeing that it’s noon. "Make that two."

"I’ll fake sick." She looks over at me, and I park my truck on the street. I look around, making sure no one is out or can see before I grab her face and kiss her one last time before we get out of the truck.

She walks slowly beside me, our hands grazing when we walk into the backyard. Ethan is the first one who sees us. "What happened to you?" He looks over at Amelia.

"I was getting a bowl on the top shelf in the kitchen and fell on my ass," she says without skipping a beat.

"Where were you?" He looks over at me, and my tongue gets bigger in my mouth.

"What the hell kind of question is that?" Amelia says, pushing his shoulder. "I don’t need a man to help me get a bowl."

"Obviously you do?" He points at her. "You should go see Grandma. I’m sure she has some home remedy in that book of hers." He takes a look around before he tells her the next part. "Yeah." He turns, looking out at the crowd of people who are there. "Reed showed up with Hazel today."

"Hazel who?" She turns and tries to find him in the crowd. "Dammit. She’s one of my best waitresses,” she hisses. "He needs to stop dating my staff members."

Amelia looks at me and then back at Ethan before walking away, and I have to roll my lips when I see her put her hand on her back. "I feel bad for the guy who has to deal with her," he says, and I can’t look him in the eye. I feel like I’ve lied to him.

"He’ll be fine," I mumble out. "I’m going to go and get some food," I say. "You coming with?"

"Nah," he says. "We ate already."

"Okay," I say, looking around to see if I can spot Amelia. She looks over at the same time as I spot her, and I motion with my head toward the food. She nods and walks to me, and I try not to laugh.

"Hey," I say when she gets close enough, and I can’t stop the smile on my face. My hand itches to grab her face and kiss her.

"There you are." I hear over my shoulder and turn to see Billy coming toward us. "I was wondering where you were," he says. He slaps me on my shoulder, smiling, and then going to Amelia. Her eyes light up when she smiles at him. "You look tired."

"I didn’t get much sleep last night," she tells him, and I look down at the grass as the gnawing guilt hits me.

"Go get something to eat and get back home," he tells her, then turns to look at me. "You make sure you take her right to bed." He slaps my arm. "See you tomorrow."

"Well, you heard the man." She smirks at me. "You better make sure you take me straight to bed."

I laugh, shaking my head. "I couldn’t even look him in the eye," I admit. "I thought for sure he would know that I saw you naked." She puts her head back and laughs. "It’s not funny. Even with Ethan, I couldn’t even look at him."

"Your secret is safe with me." She steps closer and looks up at me, and