Fire Inside:A Chaos Novel(62)

I dropped my face to his chest. This was my way of answering in the affirmative.

He cupped his hand to the back of my head.

“Enough. I’m done. You sleep,” he ordered.

“Okay.”

His hand sifted through my hair.

I turned my cheek to his chest and held onto his warm, strong body.

His fingers kept sifting through my hair.

My body had melted into his, my eyes drooping, I was close to sleep when I whispered, “Please be real.”

His hand in my hair stilled, curled around my head and Hop whispered back, “Lady, I’m as real as it gets.”

I burrowed closer and fell asleep hoping he was telling the truth.

No.





Chapter Eight


“You’ll Accomp’ny Me”


Hop and I were sitting at a table in a biker bar that was so much better than the one I where I’d met Monster Truck Man, it wasn’t funny. That said, it was still rough but rough in a cool, kickass way, not a scary, precursor to being violated way.

Two mornings before, Hop had woken me early at his condo in Vail with a kiss that led to some cuddling and groping but he didn’t take it anywhere. Still, it felt nice and it was better than phone sex even if it didn’t lead to fruition. This was because it involved Hop, his hands, his mouth, his rough, sleepy voice right in my ear and his body right there for me to put my hands and my mouth on. It was fantastic.

We were up and out of bed before the kids woke. I was in the kitchen making pancakes when they cutely and sleepily made their way downstairs.

As an aside, Hop got gold stars because he had buttermilk available for pancakes. These stars started shining when he told me pancakes weren’t worth making without buttermilk and, since this was the God’s honest truth, I took it as happy indication that Hopper Kincaid and I might just be soul mates.

As they were waiting for pancakes, Hop gave the kids a vague explanation of why I was there, saying my parents had to go home early and he was helping out by giving me another day in Vail. The kids took this in but they did it in a way where I knew explanations were unnecessary. They liked pancakes. They liked being in Vail with their dad. They liked me. So it didn’t matter to them why I was there. They were just happy to go with the flow.

We did pancakes, we went into the Village, we had lunch then we headed home. Riding the high that was being with Hop and his kids, not to mention Hop coming to my rescue in a Dodge Ram the night before, I asked if they wanted to stick around when they dropped me off at my place and I’d make them dinner.

To this offer, I got two enthusiastic replies from the back of the cab and one eye slide complete with sexy, warm grin from the driver’s seat. I took this as ringing endorsement for my idea. I also didn’t try to stop myself from processing how nice that felt.

I didn’t have food so we stopped by the grocery store before we went to my house. Hop dragged my suitcase upstairs while the kids alternately explored and chattered to me and I made chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, thick white gravy with loads of pepper and green beans. Since I didn’t have time, I cheated on the key lime pie and made the pie my grandmother taught me how to make, “When you’re in a pinch, sugar plum.” That was, frozen lime juice concentrate mixed with Cool Whip, tossed into a premade graham cracker crust and chilled. It didn’t hold a candle to the real thing but, like Mamaw said, it did in a pinch or at least the way Hop, Molly and Cody wolfed it down, it seemed to.

Dinner was another revelation of all things Hop.

After taking my suitcase upstairs, he, like his kids, explored my house.

But there was something sweet and strangely profound in the way he did it. So much so, I found my eyes wandering to him and I found that warmth around my heart growing.

This was because I caught sight of him holding the framed picture of me and Lis. We were in profile, our foreheads pressed together, looking in each other’s eyes, smiling huge, clearly close and loving. When Hop was looking at it, his lips were curved up in a sexy smile, his eyes were soft, his expression something I felt like a physical touch. The same with the picture of Ty-Ty and me, both in little black dresses, both sitting at a swank bar, both holding a martini glass, both laughing so hard our heads were thrown back. The same when he ran one of his long fingers down the fake fur of the stuffed black panther I had on my couch. It was my aunt’s. She’d died young, but before she died she gave Lis and me a lot of loving. When she died, that panther was the only thing of hers I wanted. I got it and I kept it right on my couch so I could see it every day.

I could tell, because he didn’t hide it, that Hop liked having the opportunity to get to know me better by taking in the things I kept around me.