Page 27 of Accidentally Falling
JUDE: …
ARDEN: Okay, it sounds a little like you but you talk to me
JUDE: You and Deacon—that makes two
ARDEN: You have to talk to more people than that—you see people all day every day at the bar
JUDE: Out of necessity
ARDEN: Well I’m excited to meet Dez
ARDEN: I’ve done no work so text me your coffee order and I’ll bring it to the bar
JUDE: A guy could get used to this, Tennessee
ARDEN: You’re the only guy I’m tolerating right now, Country Rhodes
JUDE: I’ll take the win
14
JUDE
Igave her two days. Two because I couldn’t give her a third, not with Dez finally coming home tomorrow. That little piece of knowledge lights me up inside in a way that feels so foreign.
Or it used to.
Because that little feeling keeps popping up every time I think about Arden and the baby. Or when she brought a coffee to the bar for me. Besides my brother, I don’t think anyone has ever done something like that before.
It’s strange and…nice…but I can’t think too much about it right now because I need to have a more important conversation first.
Texting with Arden has been fine but we need to talk.
Really talk.
Raising my knuckles, I knock on the door, my other hand fisted around the stems of the purple flowers in my hand. I have no idea what they are—I just liked them, liked them forher.
“Jude, hey, this is a surprise.” Her eyes rake over me as she braces herself on the doorjamb. “You look great, but we aren’t dating. We’re coparenting.” She frowns, taking in my dark wash jeans and the freshly pressed button-up I have on. I was a littlerusty using the iron, but there’s no way you can spend any amount of time in the military and not know how to use one.
“I never agreed to that,” I tell her, offering her the flowers as I use my size to back her into the house, shutting the door behind me.
“Jude…”
“I heard you,” I tell her, lowering my voice and taking a step closer. “Why did you let me touch you?”
“Because I wanted to. I wanted to feel good,” she says as her hands land on her hips.
“And?” I press, moving closer until she’s forced to tilt her head back to look at me.
“Because no one’s ever looked at me the way you do—the way you are right now.”
“And how’s that?” I murmur, letting the pad of my thumb run over her bottom lip.
“Like you want to devour me.” The admission is barely audible, her brown eyes hazy with lust.
“Is that what you want now?”
“What? Jude, I’mpregnant. I’m going to be a mom. I?—”
