The Slow Burn ~ Kristen Ashley

by Ashley, Kristen

I moved my hand to stroke his beard at his jaw, whispering, “Toby.”

  “Waited a long time for this five seconds,” he whispered back.

  I heard that.

  “Okay. Then let’s make it ten.”

  He smiled at me.

  Holding me in his arms in my bathroom, Tobias Gamble was smiling at me.

  God.

  Outside the day God gave me Brooklyn, this was the best day ever.

  We took our ten seconds (okay, maybe it was fifteen) before he bent his head to touch his lips to mine, that beard and mustache tickling me, and he sadly let me go.

  “You on beer or wine tonight?” he asked, nabbing his own beer from the counter.

  “Wine. Red,” I told him.

  “Got you covered. Get dressed,” he ordered, sauntering out of my bathroom. “And hurry.”

  “Order received, Talon.”

  He shot me a grin over his shoulder (hot) and disappeared in my bedroom.

  I turned to the mirror, righted my hair as best as I could then took off my robe, grabbed my perfume, which was also running out, and spritzed.

  I didn’t dally with donning bra and panties (matching, both pre-Brooks, both sexy), jeans, shirt, belt, earrings, socks and cowboy boots.

  I did put time into the lipstick because a bad application of red was never good.

  Then I hit the kitchen with dusk falling and only about ten minutes before everyone showed, which kind of sucked.

  I wanted more time with Toby.

  He was leaning with his hips against the sink, a beer still in his hand, but on the island there was an open bottle of red with one of Izzy’s wineglasses, which was squat, flat at the bottom of the bowl and had little bees embossed on it. That glass was filled with a healthy dose of vino.

  I gave half a second of attention to the wine and a lot more to the look on Toby’s face which showed he dug the outfit.

  Openly showed that.

  Like he openly showed he liked what he saw in the bathroom, openly shared verbally he thought I was gorgeous, and earlier, without hesitation or even a nuance of bullshit, he stated he was into me.

  It wasn’t about dancing around anymore, but that didn’t mean games couldn’t be played.

  Tobe was playing no games.

  Toby Gamble was no player.

  As he said, this was happening.

  And as I knew before, when a Gamble man found what he wanted, he wouldn’t fuck around.

  He was not fucking around.

  Okay, damn.

  Why did I feel like crying?

  I didn’t cry.

  I was Adeline Forrester.

  A Forrester Girl.

  We were made of sterner stuff.

  At least I was (Iz and Mom cried all the time, but there was still iron under all that fluff).

  To stop myself from crying, I handed him shit.

  “You can’t kiss me, my lipstick is perfect and it’ll get all over you,” I declared.

  “Addie, do you think I give that first fuck you get your lipstick all over me?” he returned.

  He had to be stopped.

  At least for a few hours.

  “You know, your brother, my sister, the two folks who helped raise you, Deanna, Charlie and my son are gonna be here in ten minutes. This whole thing with us is as new to them as it is to us, so we need to get a lock on acting like we want to jump each other’s bones.”

  “I got a lot in me, babe, you normally, but especially you as you look right now, I think that’s impossible.”

  Totally worth putting in the effort for Toby.

  I swiped up my wineglass. “Try. Now did you turn on my lights?”

  “Yup.”

  I took a sip of wine and it was delicious (Tobe had a way with picking wine that was uncanny since he didn’t drink it).

  I swallowed and demanded, “Show me.”

  He grinned, pushed from the sink, came my way and slung an arm around my shoulders, guiding me out of the kitchen.

  I slid my arm around his waist.

  Whoa.

  We fit.

  Prefect.

  With Dapper Dan trailing, we walked outside, across the porch, down the steps and into the drive.

  Dapper Dan took off to explore.

  I looked at the house.

  It wasn’t dark yet, though the sun was setting.

  It still looked fantastic.

  It was simple and bright and was already giving a warm golden-red glow to the house.

  My arm around Toby pulled him tighter to my side.

  “I feel like calling Margot and asking her to wait half an hour so Brooks can see it in all its glory,” I said.

  “Yeah, it doesn’t suck,” Toby replied.

  I turned to press my front down his side and got his neck twisted and his beard tipped down so he could catch my gaze.

  “It’s perfect,” I said quietly. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, honey,” he said quietly back, the look of wanting to jump my bones completely gone, a new look I had to admit I liked even more on his handsome face.

  “Thanks for the groceries too.”

  “Warning, that’s the first, it won’t be the last.”

  I stiffened.

  “To—”

  He turned into me so we were front to front, slid his other arm around me and tipped that beard even farther to put his face in mine.

  “No. Just no, Addie. We’re not gonna start this and fight about that. We’re not gonna be in this, and still fight about that. You’re gonna get your feet under you. We both know that. It’s not always gonna be bad for you financially. But I’m loaded. You know I am. I’ll probably always have more than you in that way. And you have to get over it and do it right now. It is what it is. I’m not gonna give my money to charity so we can be on an even playing field. I’m gonna use it how I wanna use it and you’re gonna let me. The end.”

  Not the end.

  “Can you see it from my perspective?” I asked.

  “No, because it isn’t that way. If I was in your spot, I would hope I’d be a big enough man I wouldn’t let something like that get in the way of me having something more important. Maybe something will happen so one day we know. Though I hope not, and not because I don’t want you to be comfortable, but because I kind of like being well-off and not having to worry about money. But for now, this is how it is and where you gotta be is trying to see it from my perspective. If I can, and I want to, why would you not let me do for you what I can because doing it makes me happy?”

  He had a point.

  And it was a good one.

  And if it was the other way around, I’d want to buy him groceries (and other) to leach out the stress and make life smoother.

  “Just don’t buy me any yachts,” I replied and got his grin and a squeeze of his arms.

  “We’re landlocked, baby. Not sure how a big yacht would fare on Shanty Hollow Lake.”

  I stayed where I was in his arms, my arms around him, which made my wineglass too far away, but I liked where I was, so I left it where it was, but I looked to the house.

  “And just to say, I’m spoilin’ the shit outta Brooks for Christmas,” he carried on, making me turn my head back to him. “And I’m doin’ the same for you. It’d help out a lot if you gave me your list for Santa.”

  Okay, I’d given in on the other.

  But this was pushing it.

  To communicate that, I snapped, “Are you kidding me?”

  “Not even a little bit,” he replied.

  “You do know that if I get something for you, which I wasn’t going to because I couldn’t, but I can now, it’d be using your money to buy something for you.”

  “I don’t need anything.”

  “Precisely the point!” I cried.

  “Adeline,” he growled.

  And I straightened in his arms because that wasn’t a turned-on growl.

  That was a WARNING!-Toby’s-getting-seriously-ticked growl.

  He went on doi
ng it. “My mother left when I was three.”

  Uh-oh.

  I’d taken him to a bad place.

  I knew all about his mom. He hadn’t told me, Iz had.

  But I knew all about that stupid woman.

  Damn.

  “Tobe,” I whispered.

  “My first living memory is sitting on my ass in our living room, watching my father sob the day she took off.”

  I pushed close and kept whispering. “Honey.”

  “You know the reason Iz is it for Johnny?” he asked.

  “She’s beautiful. She’s adorable. She makes breakfast with a canary on her shoulder like a Disney princess.”

  This was all true.

  Even the canary.

  “That and she’s gonna stick.”

  I stared at him in the golden glow of the setting sun and the golden-red glow of vintage Christmas lights.

  “Don’t think for one second my father didn’t spend thousands trying to find my mother after she split,” he shared. “And don’t think for a fuckin’ second he wouldn’t have given up everything to have her back. She didn’t just leave him. She left him and their two sons. You know what being a single parent means and you know that in two ways. Once, I didn’t give to Brooks what he deserved, and you lost your mind, justifiably. Not having a father who gave a shit, you get what your boy lost because he doesn’t have a father who gives a shit. How much do you think it’s worth it to have a woman in my life I know, if she falls for me, she’ll give a shit?”

  I felt my chest rising high and falling deep, but I didn’t have it in me to respond.

  “Some groceries?” he pushed. “Ten large? Christmas presents? Everything?”

  “Okay, honey, I get you,” I said gently.

  “Are we done talking about this?” he asked irately.

  I held him close and nodded my head.

  “Good,” he clipped.

  “I need shine oil for my hair. I’m running out,” I shared.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Shine oil for my hair. And perfume. And moisturizer.”

  He scowled down at me.

  “And just by the by, your mom was a fucking idiot,” I announced. “Because the Gamble Men are the best.”

  “You are so totally gonna have to redo that lipstick,” he growled, and this growl was not ticked.

  His eyes were on my mouth.

  I didn’t get the chance to refuse.

  He took my mouth and we made out in the cold next to a house lit up with Christmas lights.

  When it was over, it wasn’t so bad for him, due to the beard. His lips were red and there were lipstick smudges in his kickass mustache.

  But I was probably a mess.

  Toby confirmed this for me when, eyes to my lips, he muttered, “You look like you took a shot to the teeth.”

  “You’re totally annoying.”

  His red lips grinned.

  Headlights shone on the house.

  We both looked.

  Margot and Dave were early.

  Not a surprise.

  “Fuck,” I mumbled.

  “Clean up, baby,” Toby said, patting my ass. “I’ll get them.”

  I wanted to see my baby boy’s reaction to the Christmas lights.

  What I did not want was to do that with just-made-out-hot-and-heavy-with-Toby red lipstick smears the first time I faced Margot as Toby’s girl.

  I looked up at him.

  And when I did, this man who put Christmas lights on my house and put it out there about his mom and didn’t hide he was seriously into me and fucked like a god, I knew I’d been right.

  If Tobias Gamble gave me a hint we could take it there, I’d fall in love with him.

  We were taking it there.

  And I’d fallen in love with him.

  Honestly?

  Izzy was right.

  Because that happened when he carried me, sobbing in his arms, to Addie’s bed after I’d gotten done with Perry.

  And I fell deeper when he dropped everything and came to me after Brooklyn got kidnapped, and once he got me home to my sister, he went out and scoured the county looking for him.

  But I wasn’t in the right place in those times.

  Even with all life was throwing at me, I was in the right place now.

  So there it was.

  It was official.

  And I was totally down with that.

  “It’s not centered, move it to the left,” Margot ordered.

  There were three chickens roasting in the oven. The potatoes were peeled and ready to boil and mash. The beans were trimmed, ready to boil, and the bacon and onion chopped, ready to fry then toss together. The rolls were store bought, but they were heat and eat and delicious, so they were easy to pop into the oven and pull out after the chickens were carved. Iz had brought a pumpkin chiffon pie with a gingersnap crust and it was a miracle I didn’t shove my face in it the minute she’d unveiled it.

  Deanna’s homemade cheese ball was decimated, the remains sitting on the coffee table.

  The men had placed the lit garlands I had over the mantle and around the doorways to the family room, dining room and kitchen and up the railing on the stairs.

  Now Toby and Johnny were assembling the fake tree in the window of the family room under Margot’s scrutiny while Deanna, Iz and I unearthed ornaments.

  Dapper Dan was helping the women.

  Brooks was underfoot of the men.

  I did not bother monitoring this. Johnny and Toby would no sooner step or set a Christmas tree on my son than they’d slit their own throats.

  Instead, I was unwrapping festive baubles trying really hard not to giggle myself sick.

  No one was acting any differently.

  This was because nothing was different.

  Toby was into me. I was into Toby.

  They all knew this.

  So I was wearing more makeup, some hairspray, Tobe was in a button-up, we’d recently had sex and made out repeatedly.

  No biggie.

  And I thought that was hilarious.

  “Now a little to the right,” Margot commanded.

  “Margot, it’s fine where it is,” Dave said.

  I looked to my sister to see her lips were twitching.

  “It’s not centered,” Margot said to her husband.

  “Johnny and Toby have been movin’ that damned thing back and forth for the last twenty minutes,” Dave retorted. “It’s fine where it is.”

  I looked to Deanna to see her flat-out smiling.

  “It hasn’t been twenty minutes, and along the drive you can see the house from the street through the trees,” Margot declared.

  “Barely,” Dave muttered.

  Margot went on like Dave didn’t speak. “And what will the neighbors think if they see a tree in Adeline’s window that’s off-kilter?”

  “There’s at least three acres, most of it forest between Addie and either of her neighbors, so I don’t reckon they’ll care,” Dave fired back.

  “Well, I care because whoever sees that tree will know at least Tobias put it there and they’ll think he doesn’t care enough about Adeline and Brooks to center their tree,” Margot countered.

  “Think they’ll be more apt to jabber about the fact that Toby and Johnny spent now until New Year’s tryin’ to center a tree, instead of decorating the damned thing and then eating chicken, rolls and that pie that looks like it was made by the hand of God and not Izzy,” Dave rejoined.

  “I know one thing that isn’t helping,” Toby put in. “You two bickering about this.”

  I looked that way and watched him catch Johnny’s eyes.

  “Here,” he declared.

  They set the tree down.

  “It needs to go back to the left!” Margot cried.

  Toby looked to me and did what he did when he didn’t want to get into it with Margot.

  Ignored her.

  Now Johnny . . . Johnny handed her shit. He teased her like crazy.

 
; Not Toby.

  “You got a tree skirt, baby?” he asked.

  I jerked my chin across the room. “In that box over there, honey.”

  He moved that way.

  “Baby,” Izzy murmured.

  “Honey,” Deanna mumbled.

  They both giggled, even Deanna, who wasn’t a giggler.

  Okay, maybe folks were noticing a difference between Toby and me.

  But they were noticing it to wind up to giving me crap about it.

  “See those lights outside?” Izzy asked.

  “I sure did,” Deanna answered.

  “All Toby,” Iz told her.

  “Shoowee,” Deanna replied.

  Totally winding up to give me crap.

  And then giving me crap.

  “Dee-girl,” Charlie rumbled his warning.

  “What?” she asked her husband.

  He knew better than to fight it.

  So he sighed.

  Deanna looked to me. “Told you that storm would blow.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “And it blew all over a street in Matlock,” she concluded.

  “I have a feeling something also blew at Toby’s house today,” my good girl, straight-laced Iz put in on a hushed whisper.

  They burst out laughing.

  “Somebody kill me,” I muttered.

  Izzy’s laugh turned to giggling.

  Deanna grinned at me.

  Charlie let out another sigh.

  “I’ll arrange the tree skirt,” Margot declared.

  “Woman, you get down there, you’ll never get up,” Dave said, and the temperature of the warm and cozy family room, with it’s burgeoning Christmas cheer and the fire in the fireplace that Toby had lit while everyone was arriving, dropped fifteen degrees when Margot shot Dave a glare.

  “You keep running that mouth, David, you’ll be down in a way you’ll never get up either.”

  It was hard, but I didn’t even let out a snort in fighting back my laugh.

  “Dodo!”

  My attention went back to Toby just in time to see him swinging my son into his arms.

  I was a tough broad most of the time.

  But that?

  Every time.

  Serious melt.

  “Johnny, Margot gets that skirt down, will you light it up? I wanna see Brooks when it goes,” Toby said to Johnny.

  “Sure, brother,” Johnny muttered, hunkering down to help Margot with the skirt.

  It was then, I quit watching Toby holding my son close to his chest.

  It was then, I glanced around.