Page 114 of Duke
Walking toward him, I open my bag and drop my phone inside. “So clever, I know. Mollie and I are debating whether to include this pair of boots in our first winter drop, but I…”
The words die in my throat when I see Duke stalking toward me. His jaw twitches. His boots mark a hard, quick beat on the wood floor.
He’s huge.
He smells fuckingdelicious, like freshly showered man.
He tucks his thumb and first finger underneath my chin and tips my head back. Then he leans in, neck bending in the most mind-bogglingly sexy way imaginable, and kisses my mouth.
“Blueballs,” he murmurs against my lips. “I’m gonna have ’em all night with you lookin’ so fuckin’ gorgeous.”
I kiss him back, rising up on my tiptoes. “I’m not fucking you before we leave. I don’t want to mess up my hair.”
“But you will fuck me after.” He gives my bottom lip a bite, then pulls back. “And Iwillmess up your hair. Ain’t apologizin’ for it either.”
I smile. “I look forward to it. You look so handsome, Duke. Love the hat.”
He looks at me for a beat. I look back. I feel like an emoji, the smiley face with the stupid heart eyes.
What the hell am I doing?
How can I do more of it?
Duke grabs my hand, my chest lurching at how dry and warm and big his feels wrapped around mine.
“Thank you.” His voice is quiet. “For agreeing to come to the fundraiser. Ella’s gonna get a big kick out of you being there. So are Sawyer and Ava.”
“I’m happy to.”
He nods at the door. “You ready?”
“I’m ready, cowboy.”
CHAPTER 26
Bidding War
Wheeler
My heart twists when Duke pulls into the parking lot beside a cute little building just off Main Street.
There’s a playground to our left, and to our right is a series of raised garden beds that burst with greenery and flowers.
The sidewalk is covered in rainbows drawn in chalk. A game of hopscotch is underway nearby, a handful of little boys and girls attempting to skip on one leg, their faces split into smiles.
“Adorable,” I breathe.
Duke puts the truck in park and turns off the engine. “Nice little spot. It’s Hartsville’s only preschool—used to be a church—and with all the newcomers we have, they need to add some more classes. That’s what they’re raising money for tonight, to fix up the new classrooms.”
There’d be room for our baby, then.
The thought takes me off guard.
I can only stare as Duke hops out of the truck and walks around the hood to open my door for me. He lookssogood.
So fucking handsome in his hat and his jeans and those gold-rimmed aviators, and so different from everything I thought I wanted. Everything I thought I knew.
When I was younger, I thought I’d end up with someone like Dad or Preston. The type of guy who had a corporate job and went to work in khakis and a polo emblazoned with a prep school logo. That’s how all my guy friends from high school and college ended up. I imagined I’d pair off with one of them, datehim for a while, get married at thirty, have a baby at thirty-five. That path, that way of life, was all I knew.
