Page 53 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

I couldn’t hold back my snort. “Gargoyles?”

He shrugged those massive shoulders, making the muscles beneath his skin dance, reminding me that Jude was still shirtless, enough beauty to make a sculptor weep with joy on full display. “My family is as ugly on the inside as gargoyles are on the outside, and they’re both made of stone. The comparison works, trust me.”

“I trust you.” I held up the hand that wasn’t keeping my modesty checked in surrender. The smile fell off my face with my next question. “Are you really going to go to that thing?”

I could feel the weight of his sigh on my own shoulders, squeezing my heart. I hated the shift in his demeanor and wanted the lighthearted, playful Jude from earlier back. “I have to. I can’t let her go by herself, and there’s no chance I’ll be able to talk her out of it. Damn stubborn woman won’t budge when she gets something in her head.”

I pulled in a steady breath, the decision practically stitching itself together all on its own. “Okay, then I guess I’m going too.”

Jude’s head shot around, bewilderment carved into his strong, granite features. “What?”

“I’ll go too,” I repeated resolutely. “You’re going so you can have your gram’s back, but who’s going to have yours?”

He quickly closed the distance between us and reached up to take my face in his large hands. “You don’t have to do that, princess,” he said gruffly.

My fingers clenched the material of the sheet tightly, needing something to ground me as butterflies fluttered to life in my belly. “I know I don’t, but I want to. I mean, I kind of owe you, right? It’s the least I can do after you broke that jackass’s nose on my behalf.”

His smile was gentle and completely disarming. “Can’t ask you to do that, baby,” he said in a tone just as gentle as his expression.

Something warm and overwhelmingly pleasant unfurled inside me. “You didn’t ask. I offered. After your gram informed me, of course,” I added with a snarky grin. “But even if she hadn’t steamrolled me, I’d still want to go to have your back. Plus, there’s the added bonus of getting to make your ex feel like complete shit for throwing you over. I’m not too big a person to admit I’d like rubbing her face in her gigantic mistake.”

He arched a single brow. “How do you know she didn’t trade up?”

I blew out a raspberry and rolled my eyes. “Oh, believe me, I justknow. First of all, the guy’s name isChandler.” I curled my top lip up in a face as if to sayneed I say more? But I did anyway. “Then there’s the fact the dude is such a pig, he’d willingly nail his own cousin’s fiancée. The guy could have the personality and looks of Chris Evans, and he’d stillbe a total loser for that fact alone. But mainly, I know she traded down because I knowyou.”

His hands trailed down my cheeks, coming to rest at the sides of my neck, his long fingers tangling with my hair. “That’s really saying something, considering just last night you were claiming to hate me,” he rumbled with a teasing smirk.

“Heat of the moment,” I said with a lackadaisical shrug. “I don’t hate you. I’m not sure I ever really did.”

“I know for a fact that I never actually hated you.”

Well that was nice to hear. “Okay, so we’re in agreement then. We never really hated each other, so how about we start fresh?” As much as I didn’t want to, I took a step back so I could break from his hold and extended my hand in a friendly shake. “Hi, I’m Layla. Nice to meet you.”

He pressed his palm to mine, curling his fingers around my hand and using his hold to pull me back into him. I couldn’t help but notice just how well I fit against him. He really was the absolute perfect size for me. “Nice to meet you too, I’m Jude. This might sound forward, and I know we only just met, but want to have sex?”

My head fell back on a deep belly laugh at the same time lava filled my core. I was just about to tell him that sounded like a plan I could get on board with when I caught sight of the clock on his microwave. “Damn. I’d love to, but I have to go. I need to shower and change and get to Hope House.”

“I thought you were just there yesterday? Don’t you only do that once a week?”

“Yeah, but Homecoming is coming up and some of the older girls asked if I’d come back and teach them to do hair and makeup. They can’t afford to stop at the mall to get all beautified, so I’m helping where I can.”

The delicious little shiver I felt at the crestfallen look on his face was almost enough to make me throw up my hands and say screw it! But I couldn’t do that to my kids. Iwouldn’t. Every one of us who worked or volunteered there knew how important it was to provide those children with a level of stability they’d never had before. I’d made a commitment to them, and there was no way I’d go back on that.

Then I remembered my last visit. “Speaking of Hope House, I’m not sure if this is something you and your guys do, but I promised the director I’d at least ask.”

His fingers grabbed hold of a lock of my hair, giving it a twirl before sliding them down to the end, almost as if he was seeing how it felt against his skin. “Ask me what?”

“They wanted to make this garden for the kids to tend themselves. You know, to teach them a sense of responsibility, but it’s also supposed to be a form of therapy. However, the project kind of got away from them.” I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down, sure my eyes were glimmering hopefully as I asked, “Is that something you guys do?”

“It is. Tell you what. How about I come with you today and scope things out? See if there’s a way I can help.”

I let out a delighted squeal and, no longer giving a damn about modesty, released the sheet so I could jump up the front of him and wrap my arms around his neck. He caught me with ease, his arms squeezing me to him so my feet were dangling off the floor as I peppered his face with kisses. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I know that’s not a firm yes, but just the fact you’re willing to look means the world to me.”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen his features so tender as he looked down at me just then. “These kids really mean a lot to you, don’t they?”

“They’re my world,” I confessed with ease, because it was the God’s honest truth. “I love them like they’re my own. None of us had any family so we made one of our own with each other.”

“I like that you have that, princess,” he said softly. “I’m looking forward to meeting them.”

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