Page 95 of The Anaconda Downstairs

I grinned, draping the stuffed snake around my shoulders. “Already? Too bad, I guess I'll just have to put my snake away.”

Everett's laughter subsided into a warm smile. “Oh no... I'm, umm, very afraid. Please help me cure my fears.”

“We can't let you be afraid any longer,” I said with a wink. I reached for my phone, queuing up some sexy times music. As the first sultry notes filled the room, I began to move, swaying my hips in an exaggerated dance.

Everett's eyebrows shot up, a mix of amusement and arousal crossing his face as I shimmied towards him, the stuffed snake bobbing ridiculously with each movement.

“Is this... are you doing a snake dance?” he asked, his voice caught between a laugh and a groan.

I nodded, trying to keep a straight face as I undulated, letting the snake's head bop against Everett's chest. “I'm charming you, obviously. Is it working?”

He reached out, pulling me close, stuffed snake and all. “You had me charmed a long time ago.

I let the snake drop to the floor, wrapping my arms around his neck instead. “Looks like my evil plan worked. I've cured your fear of snakes.”

Everett laughed and pulled me onto his lap and kissed me, teasing me with little nibbles across my jaw, down my neck, and drawing my nipples between his teeth one at a time.

I rocked against him, needing so much more. “Mmm. Why, Mr. Kingman, is that an anaconda in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”

“Why don't you take them off and find out, my sweet Penny?”

I didn't even get a chance to, because Everett rolled me onto the bed and stripped his own clothes off faster than I could say snake charmer.

Everett made love to me, and I loved him right back. I may have thought in the past that a guy like him would never love a woman like me, would never even look twice at a me. That was only because the woman I was before I met him was... well, I wanted to say that I was really fucking dumb. But that wasn't fair.

I wasn't dumb, and neither were the rest of the women in the world who hadn't yet found a man like Everett to love them. I'd admit that I had been scared, and I'd been wrong, and I'd had some work I needed to do on myself before I was ready to accept love.

That wasn't dumb. That was life. That was being human.

As we lay tangled in the sheets, Everett's steady, satisfied breathing beside me, a flutter shimmered through my belly. I was overwhelmed with a sense of pure, unadulterated happiness and joy.

In that moment, I knew with absolute certainty that this—Everett's love, my love for him, and most importantly, my love for myself—was the greatest, most beautiful part of life, and I'd spend the rest of it with this man. The one who my most authentic love would belong to. Forever.

EPILOGUE: KINGMAN FAMILY GAME NIGHT

EVERETT

The familiar chaos of a Kingman family game night filled Cool Beans. The coffee shop buzzed with laughter, playful trash talk, and the clinking of game pieces. I smiled all the way from inside my heart as I took in the scene—my family, both by blood and by choice, all gathered around a cluster of tables.

Penelope sat beside me, her competitive streak in full force as she systematically destroyed Chris in Monopoly. It was inevitable, she was sitting on the lucky pillow. It still amazed me sometimes how perfectly she fit into our crazy family dynamics.

“Coach Kingman, Coach Kingman,” Billy's excited voice piped up from my other side, calling to my dad.

He'd decided to take up coaching again, but this time just for the pee wee league. They weren't even in season yet, but Billy and his friends came over almost every weekend to run drills with my dad. Somebody needed to get that man some grandkids.

I glanced over at Pen. Everything in life was a competition in my family, and my soon-to-be-wife and I were going to be the first to cross that particular finish line.

“I got to visit Bananaconda today. She's getting so big.”

My dad grinned down at our honorary little brother. “Is that right? And how's she doing in her new home?”

“She's awesome.” Billy beamed. “And Everett is hardly afraid of her anymore.”

It had taken a few months of hanging out with the kid, sans the influence of his dead-beat dad in his life, to get him to call me Everett. He looked up at me with what looked like pride in his little boy eyes. “Penelope says you're really brave now.”

Pen squeezed my hand under the table and that’s all the strength I needed. “Well, I had a great teacher in Lady Bananaconda Hisstledown... and an even better one in Penelope.”

As Billy launched into a detailed description of the snake's latest adventures in eating, which honestly still kind freaked me out, my attention was drawn to Flynn across the table. He was lounging in his chair, a cocky grin plastered on his face as he trash-talked Gryff and Isak over their poor showing against him and Jules. But there was something off about his usual bravado. A tightness around his eyes, a slight edge to his laugh that most people wouldn't notice.

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