Page 82 of After You

They had both been kicking ass and taking names and setting goals and mowing them down. Hannah had never really needed him. Sure, she loved when he worked beside her and they turned manual labor into something fun and flirty. But it wasn’t like she couldn’t have gotten it done without him. She was the most capable person he’d ever met, next to himself.

Now it was different. They were seeing things in the other that needed some TLC. And they wanted to be the ones givingit.

That felt…awesome. He could admit it. In all those years of taking care of other people together, they’d never really taken care of one another.

It was time that changed.

They turned off of Main onto a sidewalk leading north and a minute later were in a quiet residential area. Not that Main Street Sapphire Falls was loud and crazy and busy, but it was truly the hub of the businesses and where the majority of what traffic they did have could be found. Even a block north of Main, things got quiet and slower.

They cut through yards, making their way to Hannah’s mom and dad’s house. They weren’t talking. But they didn’t need to. They’d already said a lot and, frankly, Kyle’s mind was a lot more focused on showing Hannah how he was feeling verysoon.

As they came around the corner of the Warners’ house, just a block over from the McIntires’ house, they were hit in the face with drops of water and they pulled up short. The Warners were watering theirlawn.

The spray arched away from them, and Kyle said, “We’ll have to cut this way.” He started to skirt the wet yard and head through the space between the shed and the neighbor’s yard, but Hannah pulled him to astop.

“Or,” she said, giving him a big smile. “We could just go right throughhere.”

There was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that made Kyle willing to do anything. It was strange, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Hannah mischievous before. He’d seen plenty of other emotions, of course, over the years, but definitely nothing that had to do with trouble or naughtiness.

He liked it. A lot. Which was also a little unusual for him. And worth exploring. He liked predictable. Mischief was not predictable. And Lord knew he should be careful about letting things with Hannah be unpredictable. But he couldn’t help himself, it seemed.

“Through the sprinklers?” he asked, eyeing the fountain-like spray that bowed over the yard, leaving silvery drops on the grass.

She nodded and started walking backward, tugging him withher.

“But we’ll get wet,” he said. It was a weak protest at best. But honestly, neither of them had ever been big into getting messy in the past. Then again, things had gotten messy anyway.

“Yeah, but you like it when I getwet.”

Kyle stopped. Hannah had never talked dirty. Not to him. And frankly, if he thought about her doing it with anyone else, a possessive anger filled his chest. Suddenly, with that single, still-not-even-all-that-dirty sentence, he wanted to hear so much more. “Yeah, I really do,” he told her with anod.

“And if our clothes get wet, we’ll just have to take them off and put them in the dryer when we get to my house.”

Yep, he was all inhere.

He pulled her to his body, wrapped his arms around her, and lifted her off the ground. She gave a little shriek as he headed into the cold spray. Within moments, they were both soaked. They were also laughing. And Kyle felt like his heart was beating harder than it ever had, looking into her eyes as they spun through the sprinkler like two little kids. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her quite like this. And, hell, he’d seen her as a little kid. But even then, she’d been more…reserved. He’d seen her happy, of course. But this was different. This was just pure happiness on her face. It wasn’t about some accomplishment or some big family event or a parade or the annual festival. It was simple and spontaneous and…absolutely gorgeous. They hadn’t done this—this silly, in-the-moment-just-because fun. Not enough, anyway. Not nearly enough.

Their skin grew wetter and slippery, and Hannah’s grip on his neck grew tighter, until almost instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his waist to keep from sliding. His hands went to her ass to keep her up against him and their mouths ended up only millimeters apart. They stood under the spray, just looking at each other, not caring that rivulets of water were running down their faces and that their clothes were plastered to their bodies.

Well, he cared about that a little. Her tank and shorts molded to her body, and she looked like a freaking water goddess.

“I wish I could keep this look on your face forever,” he told her, not even aware he was going to say the words until hehad.

Her expression softened. “Really?”

“Really. God, maybe if we’d done more of this—” He cut himself off before he completed the sentence.

She pressed her lips together, staring into his eyes. Then she said, “I know. I think thattoo.”

“I’m sorry. For not being what you needed.” His voice sounded tight, which made sense since he practically felt his throat squeezing the words as they wentpast.

She took a shaky breath. “Don’t be. We were us, Kyle. We were what we both wanted us to bethen.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I know. I just— We missed some stuff.”

She nodded. “But we’re here now. We can do that stuffnow.”

“Anything,” he said, completely serious. “Anything to make you look likethat.”

---