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Foolproof Love(56)

By:Katee Robert
 
He didn’t say any of it with anger, more with a quiet fatality she didn’t know what to do with. “Adam, there’s no such thing as fate. You make your own future.”
 
“You don’t understand. I have this…I don’t even know what to call it—restlessness, for lack of a better word. It starts in my chest and builds and builds until I feel like I’m coming out of my skin. It’s been there ever since I was a kid, and the second I was old enough to get out, it eased the feeling. The only thing that takes it away completely is being on the back of a bull.”
 
How could she compete with that? She’d heard stories about rodeo widows, women who loved a man who loved the rodeo. How could a flesh-and-blood person stand against the roar of the crowd and the adrenaline rush of trying to stay on a rage-filled animal’s back for eight seconds? It didn’t sound all that wonderful to Jules, but she was unforgivably biased.
 
Adam leaned against the tailgate. “And now with my mom sick… I just don’t know how it’s going to end up.”
 
Meaning the cancer could take her.
 
If it did, not only would Devil’s Falls lose one of its favorite ladies, but Adam would lose the last anchor drawing him back to this place. She didn’t fool herself for a second into thinking Quinn and Daniel were enough to bring him home, not when he’d be faced with memory after memory of his mother.
 
And, no matter how she was starting to feel about Adam, she would never be enough for him. That was startlingly clear.
 
“It’s okay, Adam. It will be okay.”
 
But the sinking feeling in her chest wouldn’t go away. The only thing that had kept him in place for more than two weeks was his mom. If she lost her battle with cancer, he would run as far and fast as he could and not look back.
 
 
 
 
 
Chapter Twenty-Two
 
Adam woke up with a naked Jules in his arms, and hell if that wasn’t a way to start the day. He blinked at the bright sunlight and shielded his eyes. She lifted her head. “What time is it?”
 
“I don’t know.” He eyed the sky. “Still early. Maybe seven.”
 
“Crap, I have to get going.” She sat up, giving him the view of a lifetime, and grabbed her dress. “I open the café today.”
 
As much as he wanted to pull her back down and lose himself in her for a few hours, she was right. Responsibilities waited. His mama had a doctor’s appointment today, and he was determined to bully her into letting him go with her. He sat up and stretched. “Let’s get you back to town, then.”
 
Jules pulled on her dress and sent him a grin he felt right through his chest. “Last night was something else.”
 
“Yeah, it was.”
 
Her smile dimmed. “But we do have to talk about Grant at some point. He was a jackass last night, but you can’t just go around manhandling him because he said something…ill-advised.”
 
Ill-advised about summed it up. “Sure I can.” When she frowned, he relented. “Sugar, I’ll mind my p’s and q’s, but I’m not civilized enough to sit back and let him insult you. If that’s what you’re looking for, I’m not your man.”
 
She yanked on her boots. “Just try not to get arrested, okay? Sheriff Taylor is getting close to retiring, and having to haul you in will do a number on his blood pressure.”
 
He finished buttoning his jeans and pulled her into his arms. “You know, Quinn said the same damn thing to me back at the bonfire. Clearly I have a reputation if you all are so worried I’m going to give the good old sheriff a heart attack.”
 
“Well, if he caught sight of what kind of trouble we’ve been getting into in your truck, I think that’s a very real risk.”
 
Adam laughed. “You spend an awful lot of your time taking care of other people.”
 
“Some people don’t have anyone to take care of them.” She ducked out of his hold when he went for a kiss. “Morning breath!”
 
“I think we’ve already established I have a solution for that.”
 
“Good point.” She bounded around the side of his truck, reappearing a few seconds later with the fresh bottle of water he’d put in there yesterday, toothbrush, and toothpaste. “You know, I’m not really a fan of camping out, but this has been fun.” She shot a look at the bed of his truck, covered with rumpled blankets. “Or maybe I’ve been listening to too many country songs.”
 
“No such thing.” He waited for her to brush her teeth and then followed suit. “Everything worth knowing can be found in a country song.”