Perfect Kiss (26 page)

Amy glanced up at Shelby then sighed like she was remembering a sweet memory. “I miss that. Although, it would be nice just to have a
conversation
with Matt that wasn’t interrupted. He forced me to come out tonight to get a drink and have adult conversation, and I’ve insisted that he hangs out and plays basketball with the guys, but we haven’t had any real time together.”

Shelby had a brilliant idea. “I’m off tomorrow night. Why don’t I babysit and you and Matt have a date night.”

Amy blinked several times. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. You can even use the gift card that Levi and I won to The Cove.”

“Oh my gosh, that sounds awesome!” Amy agreed.

“Hey.” Nikki spun towards her sister, sucking in an audible breath of surprise. “Mom and I offered to babysit all the time. Why didn’t you go out then?”

“You guys kept offering right after the girls were born. I couldn’t even imagine leaving them yet. But they’re three months old now. It’s time.”

“Fine, but just so you know, the offer stands whenever you need a break or just want a night with your hubsters.” Nikki hugged her sister.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know I did until I saw the look on Shelby’s face.” Amy shook her head and shrugged.

“Dang, girl. Your love life is so hot it’s getting other people laid,” Nikki joked, and all the girls laughed.

Shelby noticed a couple trying to get her attention at the end of the bar, so she left her friends to help them. As she chatted with the couple and filled their drink order, she realized she was happy. Really, truly happy here. She had friends here; one of them even came with benefits. She loved the B&B. The thought of leaving at the end of the summer felt
wrong
.

Never in her life would she have thought she was a small-town girl. She’d always dreamed of living in Vegas, New York, Miami, or San Francisco. Running a five-star hotel. Eating at fabulous restaurants and enjoying city living. But all of that sounded empty, lonely, and not at all appealing anymore.

Levi’s arm brushed hers as he stepped behind the bar and grabbed a pitcher. “You doing okay?” he asked as he pulled the tap down.

“Yep,” Shelby answered honestly, looking right into the milk-chocolate eyes that saw down to her soul. “I’m good.”

*

Something had once again shifted between him and Shelby. He wasn’t sure what had happened. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it was different. Or maybe it was just her.

All night, every time he looked over at her, which was often, she looked relaxed. Happy. Confident. She’d been talking and laughing with the customers. That was the girl he’d met at the wedding.

They were almost done closing up, and Levi wanted to know what the change had been inspired by, but he didn’t want to rock the boat. So he tested the waters with, “How was your lunch?”

“Good.” Shelby stopped sweeping and looked up. “I told my uncle about Kevin. Not everything, but enough for him to get the idea.”

“I bet he wants to kill him.” He sure as hell knew
he
wanted to murder that asshole.

She let out a forced laugh. “Yeah, I think he does. But despite that not-so-fun topic of conversation, we still had a really great time catching up. We talked about his ranch, and he filled me in on all the juicy town hall gossip.” She paused for a moment before taking a deep breath. “He asked how long I planned on staying.”

Levi’s heart felt like it had stopped beating. Was that why she’d been happy tonight? Because she was leaving? He felt like the rug had just been pulled out from under him.

“Really.” He tried to sound as casual as he could as he asked, “What did you say?”

“I said that I planned on leaving at the end of the summer.”

Levi tried to do the math in his head. What did that mean? Four weeks? Six weeks? Eight tops, depending on her definition of the summer. Then what? She’d move on? Of course she would. How had he not considered this before?

The fact that he’d been so distracted by the fact that Shelby had seemed so unlike herself and the fact that he’d been walking around with a perma-boner probably hadn’t helped his deductive and reasoning skills.

Did he actually think a girl like Shelby would want to settle down in a town like Hope Falls? She had city girl written all over her.

“But,” she said, sounding a little nervous. When he looked up, he saw that she was biting the inside of her lip.

“But?” he repeated hopefully.

“Tonight, when I was working, I started thinking that maybe I might want to stay a little longer.”

Levi didn’t want to get his hopes up too much. Maybe she just meant until the holidays or something. But he couldn’t stop himself from asking for clarification.

“How much longer were you thinking?”

“Hmmm.” Scrunching her face, she looked up at the ceiling like she was deep in consideration. When she looked back at him, she had a glimmer in her eye, and as much as he was trying not to get his hopes up, he felt them rise against his will. “I was thinking maybe…permanently.”

“Permanently?” he asked, needing her to confirm it.

“Yep.” She nodded but then started explaining, “Not that you’d be stuck with me. I can get—”

Before she even got the words out, he was across the bar and had her in his arms. “All I want is to be stuck with you,” he said, as he buried his face in her neck and held her tight.

“Good, because the job market here sucks,” she joked as she hugged him back just as tight.

Leaning back, he cupped her face. “You have no idea how happy you just made me.”

Tilting her head into his hands, she grinned as she placed her hands over his. “Awesome, because I have something else to tell you that you may not be too happy about.”

“What?” It didn’t matter what she said now, as long as she was staying, he was happy.

“I
may
have given our gift card to The Cove away to Amy and Matt.” Lifting her hands she made the hashtag sign with her fingers. “Hashtag ‘sorry not sorry.’”

He laughed at the cute expression on her face as she looked up at him. And her use of the hashtag.

Her eyes shined up at him as she explained with conviction, “They need a date night, so I offered to babysit and let them use our winnings tomorrow night.”

“You want some help babysitting?” Levi offered.

She stepped away from him and dropped her arms to her sides as her eyes grew wide. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Sunday nights are slow and Kensie owes us.”

“Yes, I want help,” Shelby agreed enthusiastically as she picked up the broom. Then she swept the debris she’d collected into the pan. “I’ve been freaking out thinking about having the girls by myself for hours. I just kept telling myself that, if Matt and Amy can do it, so can I. But I am not that convincing. Thank you so much.”

“No worries.” Levi was actually looking forward to it.

“Oh, there is something else I want to tell you,” Shelby said just as Levi started counting the till.

“You gave the bar to Sue Ann because she needed a break from selling sandwiches?”

“Ha ha ha!” She rolled her eyes and threw a dishcloth at him.

Reaching out, he grabbed the towel, grinning from ear to ear.

“No, this is kind of serious. Charlie was at Sue Ann’s today, and he came over to our table.”

Levi had never stopped smiling so fast in his life. “What did he say?”

“He just apologized to me for yesterday.”

“He apologized to you?” He could not remember him ever apologizing for
anything
.

“Yeah. He said that he hadn’t meant for that to happen. That old habits and patterns were hard to break. That it was his fault and he was sorry.”

He sure as hell had never known the man to take responsibility for anything. “That was it?” he asked.

“That was it,” Shelby said as if it were odd to her, too. “Anyway, I just wanted you to know.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly as he started counting his till again.

What the hell was his dad up to? Levi knew there was only one way to find out. It was time for a face-to-face.

Chapter 24

‡

S
helby sniffed her hair as Levi opened the door to the cabin. “I smell like baby barf.”

Levi lifted his shoulder to his nose and smelled. “I think I do too.”

Inside the cabin, they both went straight to the couch and plopped down. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the last time she’d been this exhausted. She couldn’t. Every muscle in her body ached. She was bone-tired.

The night had felt like a marathon that was never going to end. When one of the girls had been happy, the other one had been crying. Shelby should have known something was up from the worried expression Amy had been wearing when they’d showed up. She had just chalked it up to normal maternal anxiety. She had noticed that the girls were a little extra fussy. Before Amy and Matt had left for their date, Amy had explained that they were teething, which was not supposed to happen until the girls were six months old. Matt had joked that they were overachievers already.

Shelby had laughed as she’d shooed her brother and his wife out the door, telling them to have fun and not to worry about the girls, assuring them that she and Levi had everything under control. That confidence lasted, ohhh, about twenty minutes.

One fun tidbit she’d found out earlier was that teething caused not only sore gums, but also fevers and upset tummies in babies.

Good times.

Shelby had a new respect for her brother and Amy. And all parents who had twins.

“How do they do it?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Levi said, sounding worn out. “I don’t remember it being this hard. Of course, I was only six when my mom had the boys. I had energy to burn.”

Exhaustion pulled at her as she said what absolutely needed to be said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there. Thank you so much!”

“We make a good team,” he said, his deep voice sounding sleepy.

They did. Whether it was at the bar, fixing up the B&B, or babysitting fussing, teething three-month-olds, they worked together like a well-oiled machine. Even when they were under pressure—like when the bar was unexpectedly slammed, a pipe burst in the remodel, or two babies were crying and needed to be fed, changed, and burped—they just had a way of communicating with looks and, she guessed, a sixth sense of each other to get the job done.

Scooting up to a sitting position, she glanced over at Levi. He was sprawled out, his long legs straight out in front of him, his head leaning back, his eyes closed. At that moment, she realized that, no matter what her days were like—good, bad, or filled with baby spit-up—she wanted to share them with him. She wanted to start her mornings by waking up next to him and end her nights by going to bed in his arms.

I love him.

There was no question in her mind. The thought of falling in love with someone had always scared her. But now that she was actually here, all she felt was calm. And right.

“I love you,” she announced without any hesitation.

Levi’s eyes popped open and shot to hers. “What?” he breathed with a look that was either panic or disbelief.

If it was panic, Shelby still wasn’t sorry that she’d told him. She’d spent the last year of her life being scared of speaking her mind, of saying what she felt, of talking at all—she wasn’t going back to that place. So, even if he didn’t feel the same way, she wanted him to know.

“I love you.” As she said the words the second time, they just solidified her feelings even more. Hearing herself say it out loud to Levi, something she’d never told anyone she’d been romantically involved with, was freeing. Honest. Real.

“I love you, too.” His voice dripped with emotion and sincerity as he started pushing off the couch, moving towards her.

Shelby jumped up and ran to the bedroom.

“Hold that thought!” she yelled over her shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

She was tearing off her clothes before she even made it to the bathroom. With one hand, she turned the knob to the shower, and with the other, she grabbed her toothbrush. While scrubbing her teeth, she kicked her shoes off and pushed her jeans down. Leaning over the sink, she spit as she stepped out of her pants. Then she hopped in the shower.

“Ahh!” she cried out as the freezing-cold water hit her body. Normally, she gave the water plenty of time to warm up. But since she had just told the man of her dreams that she loved him, and he returned the sentiment, and she actually
believed
him, she had no time to wait for something as insignificant as warm water.

In record time, she shampooed her hair, scrubbed her body clean, ran a razor over her legs, dried off, ran a brush through her wet hair, and applied her favorite apple-pear-scented body lotion.

Standing in front of the mirror, she had to make a quick decision: walk out naked or throw something on. Naked? Not naked?

She wanted tonight to be perfect. Since she’d already confessed her love while she’d looked like death warmed over and smelled foul, she wanted to get
this
right.

Naked it is.

As she opened the double doors that led from her bedroom to the front room, the first thing she noticed was that there was light flickering on the walls and ceiling. When she stepped out, she saw that the source of the flickers was the roaring fire Levi had started in the stone fireplace. His back was to her as he stoked the fire with the iron poker.

His hair was wet, and there were droplets of water sprinkled on his bare, muscular back. He must’ve taken a shower in the upstairs bathroom he’d finished yesterday. Dark-gray sweats rode low on his hips, and light from the flames danced over the rippling muscles of his sculpted back and arms.

He was perfect and he loved her. In that moment, Shelby wondered if she’d won some kind of cosmic lottery.

A sigh of sheer appreciation and love slipped out, which alerted Levi to her presence. Turning his head, he looked over his shoulder. As soon as he saw her, his eyes darkened with hunger, and then they ran up and down her body with an intensity so heavy that made it hard for Shelby to stand.