I laughed, and Momma smiled.
She leaned down to press a soft kiss on his mouth. "Reminds me of someone else."
He grunted.
"It's Grady, right?" she asked, eyes resting carefully on me.
"How'd you know?"
"I met him just after you started working for him." Her smile was mysterious, just like so much was about my mother. "He made sure to tell me that I should be proud to have you as a daughter."
I sat forward. "He did?"
She hummed. "Any man who's brave enough to tell me what I ought to feel about anything, especially my own daughter, is all right by me."
Daddy blinked. "Are you wearing house slippers, Magnolia?"
All three of us looked down at my feet, which were clad in pink fuzzy slippers. I lifted my chin imperiously. "Yes, I am."
"Huh."
I stood quickly. "I need to go."
"Already?" he asked. "You just got here. I could make some breakfast."
My heart was racing. "I forgot to leave some Valentine's decorations at the office."
My parents traded a look.
"You okay, Magnolia?" my momma asked.
I nodded. "Never better."
With a peck on the cheek for both of them, I ran in my pink fuzzy slippers back to my car and jammed the key into the ignition and started it.
Before I backed out of my parents' driveway, I pulled out my phone and flipped furiously until I reached my voicemail screen. There it was, as it had been for weeks. Waiting patiently for when I would be ready to hear it, just as he'd said.
I pressed the play button, his voice filling the car from the speakers.
"It's me."
Oh Lord, how I'd missed that voice.
"I probably should have handled all of this differently, Magnolia." He sighed. "I'm sorry for telling you the way that I did. Sometimes, I get so excited about stuff happening that I don't always think through how I've got to get there." Grady chuckled under his breath, probably thinking about the way he'd begun with Valley Adventures. "But you know that. I think I'm most sorry that I made you feel stuck or trapped in any way because the way I feel about you, that's the last thing I'd ever want. So, while my intentions were good, the execution was ... lacking. What I should have done in that tent was tell you that I could kiss you like that for the rest of my life, and I'd be perfectly happy. I should have told you that even though you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life, what I feel for you goes so much deeper than that.
"Your brain and your drive and your humor, it's so sexy, Magnolia. Everything about you is perfect to me. And I should have given you time, right alongside my honesty, and trusted that you'll make the right decision for you. Not for me. Not for anyone else. And I should have known that waiting for you to get there is the best kind of waiting I could ever do. So, I hope you listen to this someday, my Magnolia, and I hope you'll come to me. I hope I'll get to love you the way I was born to because I'll do that better than anything else in this world, if you do me the honor of allowing me to."
Tears streamed down my face as he disconnected the call.
This time, I didn't wipe them away. I let them fall. As I peeled out of my parents' driveway, through my happy tears, I thought I caught a glimpse of them smiling.
Chapter 27
Grady
I wished it were raining.
It was a strange thought as I brought the ax down onto another piece of wood. If it was raining, then everything around me would've matched my mood.
Instead, the day had dawned bright. The sky was painfully blue and free of clouds, the sun pushing warmth into the air as it rose higher.
When I showed up at the office, earlier than I'd ever dared, I swear I still smelled Magnolia's lingering scent.
But for the first time since we started our little Valentine's game, nothing was left behind.
She'd been there because the frames holding the cards had been moved.
My back muscles screamed with overuse as I bent down to grab another piece of wood.
No email to let me know what she thought.
Sitting at the office was impossible with my mind racing in the wake of her silence. The hope I'd felt building all week suddenly felt too big. Was she quiet for a good reason? Or were the cards too much?
I tipped my face up to the sun and felt a trickle of sweat slide down the side of my face. At this rate, I'd have the entire grove of trees next to Aunt Fran's garden chopped up. They'd have firewood for a decade, and she'd kick my ass for getting rid of her morning shade on the front porch.
The piece of wood in my hand was rough, and I set it carefully on the splitting log. My shoulders were burning before I even lifted the ax because I'd done this so many times in the past two weeks. It was one of those moments, the kind men don't really like to admit to. I knew it was dumb, and I knew I could injure myself. But I needed the outlet. Each swinging arc of the ax, each satisfying hiss as it came down, each rewarding thunk as it dug into the wood was like releasing a pressure valve inside my body.
The smaller of the two pieces flung out into the air, and I sighed heavily.
I set the other one on top of the stack, set the ax up against the splitting log, and as I was leaning down to grab the piece from the ground, I heard a car pull up.
Uncle Robert was working, and Aunt Fran was spending the day in Knoxville with Sylvia, which was the only reason my heart gave the slightest hiccup. Given that I was around the side of the garage apartment I called home, whoever pulled into the driveway couldn't see me.
I swiped my discarded shirt from the ground and wiped at the sweat coating my forehead and face. That was when I heard the knock on the door of my apartment.
My chest heaved on a massive inhale.
"Be right there," I called out. Even though my chest was still sweaty, I tugged my T-shirt on.
The default optimism built in me wavered because I didn't want to expect to turn that corner and see her. It was probably someone else. Maybe Connor. Maybe Grace. Maybe Tucker.
Except when I took that corner, I ran smack-dab into Magnolia, who was coming around the back.
My hands gripped her arms so she didn't fall backward.
"Whoa, sorry," I said.
The automatic reflex to apologize for almost running her over was such a bullshit lie because I wasn't sorry.
Having the ability to touch and see her had all my senses reeling.
She laughed under her breath as I set her back gently. "It's all right."
My eyes devoured every inch of her after weeks without a single glace. Her face was bare of makeup, her hair pulled off her face in a high, simple whatever women called it, a bun or something. Whatever it was, that bone structure of her face, her big eyes, her soft lips, nothing distracted my hungry gaze.
Magnolia did some studying of her own. "What were you doing back there?"
I rubbed the back of my neck. "Chopping enough firewood for the whole town."
"Ah." She licked her lips, and I almost groaned. In pain. In pleasure. Hell, if I knew. "I loved the cards, Grady. They're beautiful."
My heart was beating dangerously fast. "You're welcome. I'm trying to make up for my lack of a Christmas gift."
Her lips curled in a tiny smile. "That so?"
Any hope I'd been lacking that morning, any optimism that had ebbed in even the smallest amount exploded in a bright, painful burst behind my ribs. Her eyes glowed, and that glow was like an entire can of gasoline tossed carelessly onto a fire.
"I'm a hopeless wreck, if you hadn't noticed," I murmured, taking the tiniest step toward her.
A white flash of her teeth appeared as she bit down on her bottom lip. She shook her head slowly. "You're no such thing, Grady."
I let out a slow breath. "Why are you here, Magnolia?"
Before anything else happened, before anything else was said, I needed to hear her say it. I needed to know.
She looked briefly at the ground, and her chest expande
d on an inhale. When her head lifted again, I saw my answer, and it took every ounce of restraint not to pounce on her, take her to the ground, and devour her.
My hands curled into fists at my side.
"I listened to your voicemail," she said quietly. "I'm sorry it took me this long."
I shook my head. "Don't apologize. I-I threw so much at you."
"I think," she started, "I think I needed to make sure that what I felt could stand on its own before I really knew what you'd said."
Let her finish, let her finish, let her finish, I instructed my body. Because it was like a snarling, starved beast, just out of reach of a fresh meal.
She took a small step of her own. Her hand lifted, those long, graceful fingers trembling slightly before she curled them into the edge of my shirt. With the slightest tug on that fabric, she pulled me to her, and oh, did I go willingly.
After that, my body, my heart, every instinct that knew exactly what to do with Magnolia took over. My hands slid around the curve of her hips and to her back. Her hands moved like silk up my chest, and her face found a resting place against my neck as I curled my body around hers.
I exhaled when she was fully wrapped in my embrace.
"Just to be clear," I said, my lips resting against the crown of her head, "this isn't some new work trust exercise you want to try out, right?"
Her frame shook with laughter, and she lifted her chin to look at me. "No." Her eyes dropped to my mouth. "This is me coming for you, Grady Buchanan. If you'll have me."
My hands tightened on her back. "If I'll have you," I breathed incredulously. My forehead dropped to hers, and I exhaled a laugh. "Magnolia, I'm not going anywhere unless you asked me to."
She surged up on her toes, arms snaking around my neck, her mouth settling onto mine with startling intensity. A relieved groan broke free from my chest when her tongue swept against mine.
This kiss was freedom, the unshackling from whatever had held the two of us back, and all those burdens fell to the ground when her fingers dug into my hair, and I bent at the knees to boost her up into my arms. Her legs wrapped around my waist, my hands gripping her ass while I kissed her with abandon.
The fact that we were alone was a miracle, because when I pressed her against the wall and rolled my hips, Magnolia's mouth broke away from mine with a gasp. Her head dropped back against the garage, and I sucked at the edge of her jaw, tasting all the glorious soft skin that I hadn't been able to since the last time we did this.
She tasted sweet and clean and heavenly in all the places that my lips traveled while we clutched at each other.
I was in love with her. And she was here.
With surprising force, she gripped the sides of my face and brought my lips back to hers. I smiled into the kiss until she bit my bottom lip. My head slanted, deepening the kiss to someplace dirtier, someplace darker, and my sweet Southern belle, she met me there.
This was what I'd been waiting for.
This sense of rightness. When the surety that had been planted the moment she walked through the door was allowed to bloom into something incredible.
Magnolia broke away from the kiss and took a gasping breath. "Can we ...?"
I stared at her mouth.
"Grady," she whispered, her finger lifting to trace my lips. I nipped the tip of one, sucking it into my mouth, rubbing my tongue against the fleshy pad. "If you keep looking at me like that ..."
"What?" I rasped.
She pitched her hips forward. "Can we go inside?"
I froze, watching her face. "If you want to," I answered carefully.
There wasn't a moment's hesitation. "I want to."
"As my lady wishes." I straightened, keeping her firmly in my arms.
She placed sucking kisses along my jaw as I opened the door with one hand. The apartment was dark, but thankfully tidy. The bed was big and comfortable, but that felt presumptuous, so I strode toward the couch.
Magnolia pinned me with her gaze, and holy shit, pleasure followed that look all the way down my spine.
"Not the couch."
"I love a woman who knows what she wants," I said fervently. We toppled back onto the bed, and she laughed when I sat up between her bent knees. I just wanted to look at her.
My hands slid up her legs, covered in soft cotton.
"Did you come to me wearing pajamas, Magnolia?" I asked.
She smiled. "Yes."
Slowly, I felt along the curves of her thighs, her calves, my fingers tracing her slender ankles. My head tilted when I got to her feet.
One was bare.
One was in a strange, fluffy pink shoe.
She laughed, leaning down to snatch it off and toss it to the floor. "Ignore those."
"Oh, I don't think I can." I bent to take her mouth in another kiss. "It was very bright pink. And furry."
One perfectly arched eyebrow lifted in such an imperious way that I couldn't help but laugh.
"They're house slippers," she explained haughtily. "And there is nothing wrong with them."
"Of course not." I dropped a kiss onto the side of her ankle. "I love your house slippers." My hands moved back up the insides of her legs, which made her lips roll together impatiently. "And I love these pants." My fingers trailed softly along the edge of her cotton shirt and pushed up underneath it. My palms covered her ribs, the tips of my fingers brushing the underside of her breasts, soft and warm and full behind a thin layer of silk. "And I love whatever is under here that I can't see yet."
She moved restlessly, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Are you going to keep that shirt on all day?"
I grinned at her obvious impatience. "Do you want me to?"
"No." Magnolia stared me down. The challenge I saw in her eyes, the demand, almost had me falling on her like a freaking beast. This was a woman with no fear. No shame in what she wanted from me, what she wanted for her. And I felt like a fucking king that she was showing this side of herself to me.
Before I pulled my hands from under her shirt, I coasted my palms up and moved them in a ghost of a circle over the top of her breasts. Her eyes closed, her chin tilting toward the ceiling. With a smirk, I reached behind my neck and tugged the shirt off.
She sighed happily, trailing her fingers along my abs, which contracted helplessly under her touch. Her fingers curled into the waist of my shorts and tugged until I had no choice but to fall on top of her.
I caught my weight before it landed fully. Our noses brushed, my lips whispering over hers.
"You are so beautiful to me," I told her. "But I will not screw this up by moving too fast, Magnolia." Her eyes softened, and she cupped the side of my face. I turned, placing a fervent kiss in her palm. "You mean too much to me for that."
"You think I don't know that already?" Her fingers swept over my cheekbones and slid back into my hair. "Why do you think I'm here?"
I kissed her sweetly, brushing the tip of my tongue against hers before pulling back again.
"Grady," she whispered, "nothing about this feels fast or rushed or wrong." She kissed me, a mirror of the one I'd given her. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't committed to this. Even if you hadn't told me what you did, I was falling for you before I even recognized what was happening."
I blinked. "You were?"
She smiled. "Who else would I go camping for?"
"No one," I answered honestly.
Magnolia was still laughing when I swept her up in a deep kiss, rolling so that we were on our sides. I wasn't exactly sure how long we kissed like that, how many minutes we spent learning the feel of each other's bodies.
She was ticklish, which I discovered when I peeled off her shirt and dragged my lips along the line of each of her ribs under her skin.
When I closed my mouth over the silk scraps covering her chest, pulled the material down with my teeth, hollowed my cheeks with a deep, sucking pull against her sinfully warm skin, it did the most amazing thing. My sweet girl moaned a curse word so foul that I wanted to beat my
chest like a fool.
She liked to be underneath the full weight of my body, especially as I tugged off her clothes and spent glorious minutes discovering each part of her that I uncovered. Anytime I propped myself up to see better, she'd grin and tug me back down, wrapping her legs around my hips and trapping me in place. It was fine by me, of course, because I loved the way my skin slid across hers as I moved.
And in turn, Magnolia discovered things about me.
When she sucked on my tongue, it was like she released a lever in my hips, helpless rocking motions against her core.
When she whispered in my ear that she wanted her hands on me, wanted her mouth on me, wanted my mouth on her, my teeth found the curve of her shoulder so that I could scrape her skin, a gentle bite that had her gasping.
When she pushed my shorts off, followed by my briefs, and we were finally, finally both free of every inch of clothing, we'd worked ourselves into such a frenzied state, such a mindless build of slow pleasure, it was like she unclipped a leash, whatever harness had held me back.
Magnolia wrapped her hand around me, and I dug my fingers into her skin, dug them in hard.
I whispered her name and tugged her hands away, pushing her arms up over her head where I anchored them in place with one of my own.
My other coasted down her skin, the lithe, endless curves of her insane body, and I couldn't stop marveling over the fact that she was mine. That I could see her like this. Experience her like this.
It was my turn for my hands on her, and as I devoured her mouth, our tongues and teeth clashing, slashing, sucking, tasting, my fingers had her crying out against my lips in only a few short moments. Her back arched, her chest heaved, and I was so far gone for this girl.
"Grady," she whispered, "come to me. I need you."
The plea was so drowsy, so drunk with pleasure, and I was still so amped with unspent energy that I let go of her hands, eager to feel them against my back. She complied immediately, sliding those fingers down my spine until she gripped my ass and urged me forward.
I was trembling when I felt her for the first time, when I urged myself to move as slowly as possible, to let this go on forever.
Steal My Magnolia (Love at First Sight Book 3) Page 22