Page 19 of Major Love

“Filling the hole.”

“Are you serious?!” she asks, before throwing her head back with relief. “Oh, thankGod. Jason, I have no idea where that thing came from.”

A quiet chuckle rumbles through my chest. “I put it there,” I tell her simply.

“What?!” she squeals, and I head back out toward my truck, her feet padding quickly behind me as I go to grab the other bags from the bed.

I glance back at her over my shoulder and see her leaning on the timber of Casey’s porch railing, waiting for me.

And my heart stutters in my chest as I take in how beautiful she looks.

More than fifteen fucking years, and I’m still not over her.

“Why would you dig a hole?” she calls out, laughing gently as she leans over the railing.

I smile back at her as she watches me, my biceps flexing as I lift the bags.

“Homecoming present,” I tell her, grunting as I haul the remaining sacks off the tail-bed.

“For Casey?” she asks, sounding surprised. And maybe a little concerned.

I glance up at her, trying to work out the reason for that nervous expression.

“Yeah, for Case,” I reply, carrying one sack in each fist, my boots thudding against the porch steps as I make my way back up to her. My gaze lingers on hers when I reach where she’s standing, and I tower over her for a beat before looking through the door.

I tip my chin toward the inside of Casey’s cabin, silently offering Sunday to take the lead, because it’s traditional etiquette for her to enter the house before me.

Old habits die hard.

“When did you arrive?” I ask, as she begins walking ahead of me, and I glance at the bare backs of her thighs as I haul the weighted sacks through the front door.

“Yesterday,” she says, in that sweet, husky voice of hers.

“Got plans while you’re in town?”

“Depends who’s asking.”

She shoots me a naughty smile over her shoulder and I shake my head, biting back a grin.

I do a brief scan of the cabin’s interior as Sunday leads me slowly through it, my eyes pausing on a can of bear spray as I side-step Casey’s couch.

“What’s the bear spray for?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s for this solo bear-watching expedition I was thinking of going on.”

My eyes widen and I instantly halt, but then she grins back at me as she steps outside.

“Kidding.”

“Jesus Christ,” I laugh, tossing one of the sacks beside the back door, and Sunday yelps with giddy fear, running barefoot across Casey’s grass.

Because it might be over a decade since we last saw each other, but she knows I’ll still throwdown with her when she’s being a smartass.

“Not funny,” I tell her, but I’m grinning like an idiot as I drop the other bag, descending the steps and treading the grass before crouching down beside the tarp. Then I crook two fingers at her across the yard to come over and check it out.

If she’s staying at Casey’s I might as well show her what I’ve been up to.

She jogs back over to me with a gorgeous smile on her face, using both hands to shield her eyes from the quickening rain. And I can’t help but give her golden legs a subtle once-over, looking her up and down until she’s standing right beside me.

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