Page 39 of No Take Backs

“Yes,” Ella says dramatically. “Because duress is the two of us standing here while I watch my daughter obsessively during a party to make sure she doesn’t have an asthma attack while she’s playing with her friends.”

“I got upset with him and accused him of acting like he owned me.” I stare at the grass around us, pretending to be fascinated by the different shades of green. “We were joking around with his roommate, then later Eddie showed up at work to ask a favor. Josh acted like a guy, and instead of talking to him about it, I kind of pushed back, saying some not great things. I didn’t mean it. Most of it.” I add the last part as an afterthought, fighting off the shard of embarrassment at letting my sister into my hidden shame.

“Ahh.” Ella finally takes her eyes off the tree house, her gaze sharpening as she focuses on me. The emotion in her eyes catches me off guard, making my breath hitch in my throat. “So what you’re saying is that the ambitious Virginia Lee Davidson—the one who’s spent her entire life avoiding anything resembling settling down—is struggling with the idea that she might have actually found someone worth loving?” She pauses, letting the weight of her words settle over me like a blanket. “And not only that, but you accused him of acting the same way Rich’s brother Royal used to act about Kennedy. Do you realize how big of a deal that is? How much that would hurt a good man?”

If I look in a mirror, I’ll no doubt resemble a fish out of water. Even while I want to stop gaping at her, I can’t. Everything she says is the truth, and it freaking hurts to hear it.

“Besides,” Ella goes on like I’m not having the biggest breakthrough in my entire emotional life. “It looks like you didn’t scare him away, even if you wanted to.”

Mouth still hanging open like a dork, I turn around and watch as Josh hands my dad a reusable grocery bag full of what looks like steak and chicken, gives my mom a kiss on the cheek, and then walks directly toward us.

“I’m just gonna go,” Ella announces abruptly, her voice laced with something that sounds suspiciously like glee. Before I can even think to grab her arm and keep her by my side because let’s face it, I could really use a buffer right now, she’s already turned on her heel and is making a beeline for the other side of the yard. “Bye!” she calls over her shoulder, leaving me standing there like a deer caught in headlights.

“Josh,” I say quietly, unsure of both how I sound and myself in the current situation. “What are you doing here?”

“Well…” Josh trails off, his hands finding their way into his pockets as he rocks back on his heels, that familiar easygoing demeanor barely masking the uncertainty in his eyes. He’s watching me carefully, like he’s bracing himself for a potential explosion. “After what happened at work yesterday, I figured you might need some space to handle shit, so I wasn’t planning on showing up. But then your mom showed up at my apartment this morning. She knocked on my door at an ungodly hour, by the way, and demanded my presence here.” He chuckles softly, a hint of nervousness in his tone. “Your dad even told me I had to bring the meat for the barbecue. Couldn’t really say no to that, could I?”

“Look.” I freeze, unsure of what I can say, or should say, in that moment. An apology isn’t enough.

“You were right.”

For the second time in five minutes, I am shocked speechless. First, by Ella calling me out on the way I’ve acted and then by Josh trying to take all the blame when he clearly wasn’t the only one at fault. If there was anything wrong in what he did at all.

“No.” I hold a hand up when he looks like he is going to contradict me. “I wasn’t right.”

After rubbing a hand down my face, I tilt back the rest of my iced tea and finish the glass. Then I take Josh’s hand and lead him up the back steps and into the house, shutting the sliding back door behind us. I don’t stop, though, until I put my empty glass in the sink. Josh, proving to be even more perfect than I already knew, follows me without saying a single word. He just lets me direct both of us, allowing me to take control of everything.

“I wasn’t right,” I tell him after turning around and seeing the unsure look on his face.

“I shouldn’t have been an asshole when you were talking to Stryker.”

With a half smile, I reach out and run a hand down his arm, trying to force myself to face the truth. “You’re right. You shouldn’t get jealous of Eddie. But I also shouldn’t have jumped down your throat and accused you of trying to own me. You’re not possessive or abusive or anything like that.”

“I’m a little possessive.” He pulls me into his arms and presses a soft kiss to my lips.

A soft kiss that quickly turns to more. Josh’s hands wrap around my waist and lift me up onto the counter. I wind my legs around his body, lock my ankles together, and moan as his tongue caresses mine.

When I lean back slightly, Josh’s hands press into the counter next to my body, effectively caging me in—like I would ever try to escape.

Before we can do anything stupid, like have sex on my sister’s kitchen counter, Josh apparently decides to do the responsible thing and step back.

Which sucks.

“No,” I groan. “I wasn’t ready to stop.”

“If we didn’t stop,” he says with a smirk. “I’d be doing extremely inappropriate things in the kitchen where anyone could just walk in and see.”

Like he’s summoned them, a stream of children appear like magic. Okay, not like magic since they start knocking on the glass door behind Josh and then open it carefully.

“Josh!” the little Nox kid calls out. “Did you bring your fire axe?” He turns to the girl he called Bee who stands at his side. “This is the firefighter who almost won career day last year. But he didn’t have a machete, and Aunt Kennedy has a machete so she won. Not even a fire axe wins against a machete.”

Bee nods solemnly before she leans toward him and tries to whisper. Unfortunately, they are kids and are terrible at it. “I don’t think firemen are cool, anyway. Both Emma and Dom are cops, and they say firefighters are just hose chasers.” Then she smiles brightly at us and waves. “We’re going to go watch a movie in the living room ’cause Mrs. Prince said that it’s okay.”

Then she takes Nox’s hand and leads the five other kids behind him through the house like we don’t matter.

Lyla is last, and she stops right at Josh’s side before shoving him out of the way with her elbow. “Was he hurting you, Auntie Nia? If he was, I’ll go scorched earth on him and Daddy would keep me from getting in trouble ’cause he says I’m his favorite.”

She stares at Josh like she’ll stab him with a spork, and I can’t help laughing at her not-so-subtle threat.

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