Page 243 of Money Reigns
I don’t push. I just walk beside him, biting back a grin as I glance toward the front door where mom and War come out. She hugs him close.
“You two will come back soon won’t you?”
“Jillybean! Let them be,” Daddy calls out as he steps up putting an arm around me. “You be good Ollipop and if you need me, I’m on the next flight.”
“Me too!” Dean shouts from the doorway, brushing past War and wrapping me up in a bear hug.
I laugh and shake my head my eyes meeting Wars as he heads to the car to place his bags in the trunk.
“We’ll be back Jillian, can’t keep me away when you make the best pecan pie,” War says sure.
Mama beams and Chase emerges with a cookie in hand. He comes down the porch steps ruffles my hair with calloused fingers like I’m still twelve, grinning that obnoxious dimpled grin that’s gotten him out of trouble since kindergarten.
“Don’t let her fatten you up when she makes you her famous double-chocolate cookies, Beaumont,” he warns, patting his own annoyingly flat stomach with a theatrical slap.
I swat at him, but War only smirks. “I like cookies too much to care,” he says easily, and Chase barks out a laugh.
“But you’ll be back right? maybe Christmas with both of you?” mama asks once more, her voice pleading that it cracks me open.
Daddy steps beside her and holds her close.
I glance at War, uncertain, but he beats me to it. “I promised her Paris,” he says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world, “but then yes—we’ll be stopping by here. Wouldn’t miss it.”
My mother practically swoons. “Paris? Oh, I wouldloveto see Paris…”
War tilts his head at her. “When’s your anniversary?”
My face flames. “War, no.”
He frowns. “No?”
“June fifteenth,” my mother answers, ignoring me completely.
War nods like he’s just made a mental note for the ages, while I shake my head, half exasperated, half…so damn full of love I can’t even speak.
Mom cups my face in both hands, eyes bright. “Liv bug, I can see it. That little ounce of guilt… youstop it.”
Tears burn my eyes. “Mama—”
She shakes her head. “No, Olivia Lynn Baker. You were made for more than just this town. So you go be more.”
Her arms lock tight around me, and I break, crying into her shoulder.
“I love you, Mama.”
“Love you too, Liv Bug.”
Chapter fifty-four
Olivia
“War.”I giggle,an actual girlish giggle I don’t even recognize as mineas he trails kisses up my neck. “We haven’t been in the air five minutes.”
“Then that’s four minutes too long,” he murmurs, his voice a low rumble against my skin. “I’ve waited months to have you like this again.”
His hand slides to my thigh, gripping with quiet possession. “You’re not walking off this plane without feeling me still inside you.”
My breath hitches. “Plane bathrooms aren’t exactly—”
