Page 65 of Keep On Loving You

Kat couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sure we could.”

The idea of a trial run was tempting, but that would mean she’d have to go out into the woods twice. Besides, there was something about this last thing on her list that felt different from the others. She had to do it all on her own. From start to finish.

“But I think it’s best if I just rip off the Band-Aid on this one.” Kat finished stuffing the sleeping bag in the tiny bag, rolled the top of it and clipped the sides up the way Kane had shown her. And to her complete astonishment, the bag sucked down to an impossibly small size. She held it up triumphantly. “Look!”

Andy laughed at her before leaving the stove to kiss her on the forehead. “You’re very cute, you know?”

She brushed him away and stood, leaving the pile of items on the floor to deal with later. “Remember, you can’t tell anyone about the hike. I don’t want to tell them until after.”

“After…”

“After I get back,” she said. “Or maybe after the whole will thing is done. I don’t know.” She shrugged. It was impossible to explain how she really felt about everything, and she was too exhausted to even try. “Just don’t tell, okay?”

Andy made the sign of zippering his lips shut, locking them and throwing away the key. “I’ll add it to the things I can’t tell anyone about.”

Before Kat could look at his expression and see whether he was kidding or not, Andy turned back to the stovetop and flipped the quesadilla out of the pan and onto a plate. “Dinner is served.”

She grabbed a few napkins along with the cutlery and set it up quickly on the table while Andy brought the plates over.

She waited until after they’d had a few bites before she said anything. “You know why we can’t say anything about…” She waved her fork between them. “Craig will lose his mind and?—”

“I know, Kat.” He sounded sad, but he stuffed another bite in his mouth and chewed before speaking again. Whenhe did, there was a lightness in his voice. “He’ll unalive me. And I like being alive.”

With a little smile on her lips, Kat slipped from her chair and straddled Andy’s lap. She kissed him and his body responded almost immediately, despite their earlier bedroom session.

“So, we won’t say anything.” Kat pulled back, catching his bottom lip between her teeth. “Because I like you alive, too.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Purple. Definitely go with purple.”

“No way.” Annie shook her head and plucked a Gerber daisy from a bucket. “Yellow. How can you not go with yellow?” She waved the flower in Kat’s direction.

“Because these are way too pretty.” Kat grabbed a few iris stems from the bucket she was standing next to and wielded them as if they were weapons. “Purple for sure.”

From the back of the storeroom, Charli groaned. “You two aren’t really helping, you know.”

Kat locked eyes with Annie across the rows of flowers that were ready to be turned into beautiful bouquets and laughed. “I don’t know. I think we’re being very helpful.”

Annie crossed the distance and put her daisy next to Kat’s. “Maybe yellowandpurple?” She turned to Charli, but Kat’s sister wasn’t paying any attention to them, so she looked at Kat with a grin. “Maybe we aren’t being very helpful?”

“Nonsense.” Kat grabbed the flowers and dropped them into a nearby bucket of water. “We arealwayssuper helpful.” Together they walked through the storeroom until they found Charli, who was surrounded by different types of roses that she was carefully removing from their shipping boxes.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” she said with a shake of her head. “And right now, you’d be a lot more help if you could keep Poppy from putting anything else in her mouth.” She gestured with her head to the baby, who was sitting up on a blanket, surrounded by plush toys.

“Anythingelse?” Kat grimaced and mouthed the words to Annie, who laughed, but she didn’t ask for clarification, because it was probably best not to know what Poppy had gotten into.

“This little angel is never any trouble.” She bent and scooped up her niece. “Are you, sweetheart?” The baby reached for her nose, and Kat laughed as she pulled away. “See? Charli, I don’t know what you’re even saying. She’s perfect.”

“Sheisperfect.” Charli shook her head. “She’s also a menace when she wants to be. Kind of like her auntie.”

Behind her, Annie burst out laughing.

Kat turned and glared at her. “What are you laughing at?”

“Ohh…nothing.”

Kat turned away but not before she saw the wink Annie gave her sister.

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