Page 82 of From Nowhere

When we reach the top of the stairs, her grandparents are nowhere in sight.

“You don’t have to braid her hair tomorrow morning. She’ll be fine in a ponytail,” Ozzy says while I shove my feet into my sneakers.

“I was going to knock on your bedroom window around six and slide into bed with you.” I glance over my shoulder at him.

Ozzy opens the front door. “I meant to say that if Lola doesn’t have her hair in braids for track-and-field day, she will be devastated.”

I step onto the porch with Bandit. “You’re such a good dad. Thinking only of your daughter.”

“What can I say? It’s part of my laser focus. Give me one sec.” Ozzy retreats to the kitchen and returns just as I reach the back of my RAV and put Bandit in his pet carrier.

“Hope is a slippery little bastard, but I’m trying to keep a grip on it,” he says, glancing around the rear of the vehicle, making a quick inspection before ducking back around the corner with me.

“How so?” I ask.

“I know there’s a lot stacked against us and whatever this is between us.” He pulls me to him by sliding his hands into my back jeans pockets. “But thinking about you—the next time I can see you, how I can sneak a few minutes alone with you, and doing little things like moving Heaven and Earth—has resurrected something in my life that I didn’tknow I needed until you sent me on a scavenger hunt for tampons and toilet paper.”

I press my hands to his chest and nuzzle my face in his neck. “The only thing stacked against us is your fear. Let it go.”

He angles his head to find my lips, and we kiss. It’s slow and easy. His mouth on mine has reached a point of familiarity. Everything fits.

Bandit meows, and we laugh, ending the kiss.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” He reaches behind himself and pulls spears of asparagus from his pocket—six, to be exact. Then he digs out a note from his front pocket. “You mentioned asparagus. Correct?”

I slowly shake my head in amazement and grin.

“Finding these feral little sproutings was harder than I thought it would be,” he says.

I open the note.

Asparagus has been cultivated in the US for 150 yrs, and it can give you stinky pee if you have the gene for that. Hope you love them!

Ozzy x

“Ozzy ...” I don’t even know what to say.

He turns and heads up the walkway, glancing over his shoulder with a triumphant smile.

I climb into my RAV. “Enough with the smirk, Oswald,” I mumble to myself. “I’m already falling for you. What more do you want?”

Chapter Twenty-One

Ozzy

When I shut the front door, Tia steps out of her bedroom in her blue robe and moccasin slippers. “Is yourfriendgone?”

“Yes.Marenjust left.” I head into the kitchen, and Tia follows me. She’s at least four feet away, but I still feel her breathing down my neck.

“I hope you’re not giving Lola the wrong idea,” she says, scooping her fiber powder into a glass of water while I grab an apple from the hanging basket by the fridge.

“The wrong idea about what?” I bite into the apple.

“I realize men and women can be friends, but Lola likes to let her mind wander. We need to keep reminding her that she is your only concern—your number one priority.” Tia stirs her concoction, pinning me with a firm gaze.

I chew slowly for a few seconds before swallowing. “Lola is and always will be my number one priority. I don’t think she’s confused about that.”

“She might get confused if she sees you giving attention to pretty women.”

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