Page 2 of An Uphill Battle

“Oh, you are so sweet,” I coo in Brody’s ear. “Such a handsome littleman.”

“Someone talking ‘bout me?” I spin in place and find Drake standing behind me, watching me with a sexy smirk playing on his lips—the same lips that were offering me the world in mydream.

“Ha! You wish, asshole.”Shit!I gotta learn to watch my mouth around Brody. Don’t want his first word being one with fourletters.

“Nah. Don’t gotta wish. Iknow.”

“You are so cocky, it’sabsurd.”

“Only absurd thing here is the way you fight yourfeelings.”

I scoff and press my face into Brody’s neck, effectively hiding the emotions I know are dancing across my face. Because, cocky asshole or not, he’s right. I am fighting my feelings for him. Not that I’ll ever admit it to him. Lord knows, he’d gloat for aneternity.

“Oh, please. Getreal.”

“You want me to get real, Bit? Okay, I’ll get real.” He saunters toward me. One step. Two steps. Three steps, and he’s all up in my personal space, his delicious earthy scent surrounding me like a warm blanket. “You want me, but you’re so damn hung up in the past that you don’t know up from down and left fromright.

“I know you have trust issues. I know you think I’m a player. But I also know that deep down, you know better. I know we could be good together, Bit.” My heart stutters at his words, so similar to what he said to me in my dream. Drake pauses and presses his lips to my cheek, just below the corner of my eye. His kiss is featherlight, but I feel it all the way to the depths of mysoul.

With his lips still hovering, he whispers, “So fucking good.” I’m frozen. Completely immobile. I just stand there, staring at him, clutching baby Brody to my chest. Taking a few steps back from me, he asks, “That real enough for you, Bit?” But before I answer him or determine his sincerity, he pivots and walks out thedoor.

Dumbstruck, I lower myself into my salon chair. “Well, that was... intense,” Seraphine says as she plucks Brody from my arms. I’m too shell-shocked to put up afuss.

“He’s fighting dirty. Thatbastard.”

“Girl, you need to give that man a chance. You know he’ll love youright.”

I sigh. “I’m sure he would, until he wouldn’t. Drake isn’t the kind of man to settle down with one woman. He likes...variety.”

Tucking her coppery-red curls behind her ear, Myla Rose snorts out a laugh as she steps into the main salon area. “Do you even hear yourself? Drake has been hung up on you for going on eight yearsnow.”

“Childbirth has obviously made you insane, Myles. Is Drake attracted to me? Yes, duh. Does Drake want me? Sure, he does. Preferably on my back, and therein lies the problem. Drake wants me as a casual hookup, and I’m not down forthat.”

I finish my little rant, only to find three sets of eyes all looking at me with the same expression—the one that says I’m the insaneone.

Seraphine is the first to speak up. “AzzyJo, we love you. We totally do, but you’rewrong.”

I shake my head, ready to argue that they don’t know what I know. They don’t know about our hookups—yes, that’s right, hookups, plural, as in more than one. They don’t know that we’re drawn to one another like magnets or that when we’re together, we combust into an uncontrollableinferno.

They also don’t know that every time we’re together, I swear it’ll be the last time because every time, he never asks for more. No, Drake Collins and I aren’t meant to be anything more thanbedmates.

Hell, if I was smarter . . . stronger . . . we wouldn’t even be that. Because while there aren’t any strings on his part, there’s an entire web of them on mine, and my heart’s right in the center of it, mercilessly tangled up in feelings for him that run so deep, I know I’ll be irreparably broken when he moves on to whoever will weave her web around hisheart.

“No, Azalea.” Myla Rose speaks up before I get the chance to set the record straight. “That man loves you. Quit hiding under all your BS excuses, and you’ll see ittoo.”

Love? Drake loves me. Hah! Laughable. Truly laughable. I’m still snorting with laughter when I feel a hand come down lightly on myshoulder.

I lift my gaze to see Magnolia at my side. “He does. I can see it. I may not know much about anything, but I can see his feelings for you. He all but wears them on his sleeve.” She sucks in a deep breath and continues, “Y–you can tell a lot by a person’s eyes, and if a man ever looked at me the way Drake looks at you, I’d count my lucky stars and stripes, because that’s the kinda stuff fairy tales are madeof.”

“As much as I appreciate y’all’s input and opinions, I need to know what Kool-Aid y’all are sippin’ so I can steerclear.”

“Stubborn as a damn mule,” Myla Rose mutters under her breath, causing us all to dissolve in another fit of giggles. “On another topic—Azalea, can you watch Brody next weekend? I’m six weeks postpartum this week, and Cash hasbig plansfor us,” she says, waggling her brows. “If you know what Imean.”

“We do,” Seraphine assures her, “but we don’t wannaknow.”

I grab my phone from my station and check my calendar. “Should be fine. My house oryours?”

“Mine. Cash got us a room at theGrand!”

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