Page 49 of An Ex Affair

I leaned over and kissed her forehead, heart heaving at the familiar game we used to play, pointing out stars as we cuddled. So much had changed and yet so much more hadn’t. I was still crazy about this girl.

“When you moved away, did you miss it here?” Tully asked out of the blue.

My brain needed a second to switch gears. “Uh, yeah. I mean, I only left Blueball to escape memories of you. Of us. Ended up missing a lot more. Probably should have come back sooner. That’s why Dad told me on his deathbed that he expected me to move back and honor his last wish.”

I didn’t explain that making things right with Tully had been part of his last wish. That level of pressure was the kind of thing that would send Tully running.

“I miss your dad,” she said on a sigh. “He was so funny.”

I grinned up at the tips of the trees barely visible against the dark sky. “Yeah, he was. Always going on about that rooster of his. Kept calling it his cock even with Mom yelling at him to stop saying that.” My chest started bouncing as I laughed in earnest. “Mom called me one day and said he was watching your show and you held up the caulking gun and showed how to caulk the baseboard. He hollered that if it was okay for you to say it, it was okay for him to say it. Mom didn’t really have a leg to stand on after that.”

Tully propped up on her elbow, laughing with me. When our laughter wound down, she just stared at me, studying my face.

“What?”

She lay back down and I tightened my grip on her. “I didn’t know your parents watched my show. That couldn’t have been an easy pill to swallow.”

I shrugged, her head bouncing with the movement. All that anger I had when she first came back to town had dissipated the last few weeks. I’d seen her with her mama, Gabi, Em and her crew. Somehow, I just couldn’t find the energy to be mad at her anymore.

“Honestly, Tully. You were right to leave me. It hurt to watch you become successful without me, but it was the rightmove. Flat out. You couldn’t have done all that from Blueball, especially not with me pressuring you to follow my own dream. My pride was wounded, but I was proud of you.”

Tully sniffled against my rib cage, her hand swiping down my side to pull me into a fierce hug in return. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m proud of what I accomplished, but I hate that it hurt you. And I hate that my dream lost its luster once I had it in my hands.”

“Maybe your dream just changed. You’re allowed to change your mind, you know.”

We lay like that for at least ten minutes, both of us absorbed in our own thoughts. There was a lot between us, most we had talked about, but a lot that still had to get worked out. I wasn’t mad at her, but that didn’t mean I trusted her when she said she planned to stay in Blueball this time. And she had to learn to trust me again when I said I didn’t want to tie her down.

“How come you never had the constellation tattoo removed?” she finally asked into the silence.

That was an easy question. “I don’t want to erase the past. You were too important to me to try to erase.”

She sniffled. I didn’t really want to get more emotional about all this stuff between us. Especially when I had her naked. I rolled on top of her, nudging her legs apart until my dick settled into the hot valley of her body. “I believe you asked for long and slow, right, ma’am?”

Tully smiled up at me, looping her arms around my neck. “Ohh, you keep calling me ma’am and you might just get lucky, sir.”

I ended up ma’am-ing her for the next hour. All the way ’til she fell apart in my arms for the second time that night.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Tully

“I’ve hadthree people ask me about you making them a designer dog ramp. Just today.” Colson stripped his uniform T-shirt off his body and rubbed a hand over his chest, looking around for a clean outfit to wear to dinner tonight. He was referring to the ramp I’d made for Hayes, replacing the makeshift one he’d made out of boring old plywood. That sweet boy deserved a ramp fit for a king and I’d made it for him, sharing it on my social media when I was done painting it. Carl down at the hardware store even ordered in bright gold paint for the trim pieces.

Except right now, I was hot and bothered over my own personal strip show by our town’s hottest firefighter. My legs gave out and I had a seat right there on the love seat in my bra and underwear instead of getting dressed. Colson yanked on his belt, sliding it out of the pant loops with a whipping motion that made my mouth run dry.

“Gabi told Joey, who told me, your social media is going crazy for it. They love the all-woman crew. Joey had a good idea.You need to get a website up and running. Maybe offer some of these items for sale?”

He kept talking, but I wasn’t listening. I’d gone with a group of ladies to see Thunder Down Under in Vegas before one of my crew members got married several years ago, but nothing compared to this firefighting version right here in my mama’s carriage house. Colson was sculpted with hard, bulging muscles, just like those guys had been, but where they were polished to a shine, Colson was downhome good looking. His chest hair wasn’t overabundant, but it wasn’t waxed off either. Scars littered his hands and forearms and don’t get me started on his calluses. Even the few silver strands I’d found at his temples the other night were sexy as hell.

“Take it off, hotshot,” I drawled, spinning my finger high in the air for him to turn around and give me a view of that tight ass of his when the pants came off.

Colson’s head snapped up and the grin he gave me was a blend of surprise and cocky aw-shucks. But the man who’d been all angry looks and grumpy comebacks when I arrived in Blueball had found his playful side again. He wagged an eyebrow and spun seductively slow on his heels, giving me his broad back. His hips swiveled and my gaze dropped to that ass of his. The pants slid down a few inches, revealing black boxer briefs. Another hip swivel and those were dropping too, showing off white skin where the man didn’t get any sun. I hooted and hollered encouragement, and he dropped them to his ankles. But the hip swivels didn’t stop there, and even though I loved every second of it, I couldn’t help the ridiculous giggles that plagued me.

Colson tackled me on the small love seat, his handsome face split in a grin. “What are you laughing at, woman?” He smelled like smoke and sweat and the man I’d fallen in love with decades ago.

I wound my arms around his neck and tugged him onto the love seat, my neck bent at a weird angle. He was far too large to be sprawled on this piece of furniture like this, but we made it work. Hopefully the damn thing wouldn’t break.

“I giggle when I’m happy,” I sighed, a few little bubbles of laughter still coming out.

---