Page 210 of Cowboys & Navy SEALs

She snorted out a laugh. “Seriously?”

“Just hear me out. Eve partook of the fruit, leaving poor Adam no choice but to also partake.”

“Original sin, huh.” She shook her head. “Blame it all on poor Eve.”

“Okay, you want another example from the Bible? Take Sampson and Delilah. The guy got his mind all wrapped up in a woman and she tricked him into cutting his hair.”

“All right. I’ll play along.” Her eyes sparkled with interest. “What else you got?”

“David and Bathsheba,” he said, his tongue hanging on the wordbath.

She laughed. “I don’t think her name is pronounced that way. It’s more like Basheba, with the T being silent.”

“It’s Bath Sheba. After all, her bath was what started all the trouble.”

“Oh, no. Don’t go blaming David’s treachery on Bathsheba. The poor woman was simply taking a bath. It wasn’t her fault David was a Peeping Tom.”

“She was bathing on a rooftop. If you ask me, she was begging for trouble.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Actually, if you go back and read the Bible reference, it doesn’t say specifically where Bathsheba was. David was on the rooftop when he saw her taking a bath—something she was doing not only for hygiene purposes but also for a ritual ceremony required by the Law of Moses. The fault lay clearly with David. Think of the beginning, how the story was framed, ‘In a time when all kings went to war, David stayed back.’” She wagged a finger, giving him a victorious look. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”

He let out a low whistle. “Wow, you know your Bible references.”

“I’ve taken a few classes on the subject,” she quipped.

Addie was wicked smart. Her appetite for continuous learning was one of the things that first attracted Maddox to her. Like him, she loved traveling to new places. They used to talk for hours about the places they’d like to one day visit together. It cut to know that would never happen.

“Putting the blame on Bathsheba’s par for the course. A typical male perspective,” she huffed.

He winced. “Ouch. That hurt.”

She rolled her eyes. “Is that all you’ve got, Bama boy?”

“What about Jacob? The poor sucker worked seven years for the love of his life and ended up with the sister. Need I say more?”

Her eyebrow shot up. “The women didn’t do that. It was their father.”

He blew out a long breath. “Okay, I’ll give you that one…if we’re splitting hairs.”

She shot him an incredulous look. “Give me that one? Really? All right, mister. What about Queen Esther? Her valor saved an entire nation.”

“All right,” he drawled. “You’ve got me there.”

She looked back at the table. “Would you hand me those glasses?”

“Sure.” As he handed them to her, something hanging on the side of the refrigerator caught his eye. He peered, getting a closer look. It was a card with scraggly edges like it had been crafted by a child. There was a tree and a smiley-faced heart drawn in crayon with two words—Be Happy. It looked like something a student would give a teacher. To Maddox’s knowledge, Addie had little interaction with children. “What’s that?”

She followed his eyes. “What?”

“The card on the refrigerator. What’s the story behind that?”

She looked thoughtful. For a second, he thought she was going to tell him, but a cryptic smile curved her lips. “A story for another time.”

“Now you have me intrigued. Come on,” he urged. “Tell me.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Nope. Don’t think so,” she chimed. Their eyes met, sending a burst of exhilaration shootingthrough him. Being here with Addie felt right—more right than anything had felt in a long time.

He moved closer, the air between them crackling with unleashed energy. “But I’ll be so disappointed,” he murmured, his gaze tracing down the line of her delectable neck, begging to be kissed.

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