Just a Kiss in the Moonlight: Georgia Moon Romance Book 2 (18 page)

“No problem. I can’t wait to hear about everything.” He glanced over his shoulder to make sure the road was clear before heading toward the interstate. “By the way, Rachel just called me before I got here. I guess you’re a celebrity in Montana. That interview y’all just did is already all over the local news.”

“Yeah, my mom and sister both texted me.” Both women commented on how beautiful Taylin was and what a cute couple they made. He’d also received multiple messages from people he’d known before moving to Georgia. While he appreciated the concern, he didn’t want to deal with everyone right now, so he’d temporarily powered off his phone.

Although he was tired, Luke couldn’t sleep in the car. He and Dave used the drive home to talk about the weekend at Harmony Springs. Of course, Dave didn’t shy away from asking about Taylin. Even though Luke didn’t like talking about his feelings, he tried to answer Dave honestly. Each question, however, started making him more and more uncomfortable. By the time he got home, Luke wasn’t sure if he was ready for a relationship with Taylin.

As he made his way toward the front door, he was certain of a few things: He was in pain, exhausted and wanted to sleep.

“Hey, just because Taylin’s makin’ you dinner tonight, remember this is the South,” Dave said once they were inside the house. “And we southerners are all about food, so don’t be surprised if you get a bunch of people from church stoppin’ by with casseroles and desserts.”

“I’m a bachelor.” Luke grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. “I never turn down food.” Besides, once Mrs. Bradford found out, she would probably bring him dinner for the rest of the month. His neighbor and her grandchildren probably would’ve already come over if they hadn’t been out of town.

Dave grinned. “I guess enjoy that bachelor status while you still can.”

Luke’s muscles went rigid. Everything was moving way too fast. “No comment,” he said, twisting off the lid of the water bottle.

Laughing, Dave waved and walked toward the front door. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will.”

Standing on his leg, even for such a short time, made Luke’s knee throb with pain. He opened the pharmacy bag and pulled out the bottle of pain pills the doctor prescribed. He took one tablet and chased it down with water.

He wanted nothing more than to crash on the couch, but he needed a shower in the worst way. It hurt to remove the splint, and the bruising looked ten times worse than it had a few hours ago, but the hot water felt amazing.

The shower was always a good place to think and Luke used the time to analyze if dating Taylin was a good idea. His conclusion? He needed time and distance to make a decision. Sure, they were attracted to each other and he really enjoyed kissing her, but they’d just gone through something very traumatic. People usually bonded after experiencing a harrowing event like being caught in a tornado together.

When the water grew tepid, Luke reluctantly got out and carefully dried off. The pain med had kicked in, making him a little dizzy. He put the splint back on and then dressed in a pair of athletic shorts and a long-sleeved Montana State shirt. Shaky and tired, he grabbed his crutches and hobbled out of his room, settling onto the couch.

Getting as comfortable as possible, he picked up his phone and powered it on. He saw at least a dozen new messages awaiting him. He didn’t bother checking social media. The whopping number of notifications on his home screen indicated how many people had posted to his page. No doubt the live interview had spurred on the recent activity.

Not wanting to deal with everyone else right now, he opened a new message from his sister Diane.

Local news just aired the pictures of you and your new girlfriend at the spa. Very good work big brother. When do I get to meet her?

Hoping to reign in his sister before she had him engaged and then married, he typed in a quick reply.

We’re only dating, Sis. Don’t get too excited
.

Nice try, but the look on your face tells a different story
.

Luke wanted to argue, but knew it was true.

Still just dating
.

Still happy for you
. She added an annoying emoji of a kissing smiley face.

A new message dinged, but it wasn’t from his sister. It was from Taylin, which meant she’d gotten her replacement phone.

Missing you. Be there soon to start supper
.

Emotions of both anxiety and desire warred inside him. No matter how much he was attracted to Taylin, he feared getting into a committed relationship again. What if he just wasn’t the kind of guy women wanted to stay with? The way he felt about Taylin could shred his already wounded heart if she decided he wasn’t worth being with. Maybe it would be better if they didn’t see each other tonight. It would give them both time to process everything that had happened over the past forty-eight hours.

I know you must be as tired as I am so don’t worry about coming over
.

He really shouldn’t have been surprised when Taylin called him, instead of just replying to his text. Luke wasn’t sure if he would answer the call, though. He doubted he was strong enough to resist her sweet southern accent.

T
aylin’s fingers
gripped the phone tightly as she waited for Luke to answer the phone. She could read between the lines of his text message to know he was freaking out about being with her.

“Hey,” he said when he finally accepted the call.

Her grip on the phone relaxed when she heard his voice. He did sound tired.

“Hey yourself.”

“You really don’t need to come over, Taylin. I’m so wiped out I won’t be very good company.”

She couldn’t deny he sounded exhausted, but it didn’t matter to her if he slept the entire time she was at his house—she just wanted to be with him again. It hurt a little to know he didn’t feel the same way. Unless… he did feel the same way and he was just plain scared.

“All right, but you need to answer one question, Luke, and you have to be honest.”

“Okay,” he said after a slight hesitation.

“Are you really too tired to see me or are you freaking out about us?”

She already guessed what the answer was by the lengthy silence and stifled a laugh when he confirmed it.

“I guess I’m freaking out a little.”

“Am I that scary?”

“You have no idea,” he said wryly.

Taylin sat down on the edge of her bed. “Why?”

He blew out a long breath. “Because I like you, okay?”

His admission made her smile. “That’s good, because I like you too.”

“Even when I’m grumpy?”

“Yeah, I’ve decided I kind of have a thing for surly men.”

He snorted a laugh. “Okay, but if you come over, you really don’t have to cook for me. We can order takeout.”

“I’m making you supper, Luke.”

He chuckled. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

“I’ll leave the back door unlocked. Wake me up if I’m asleep.”

Grocery shopping took a little longer, since Taylin ran into one of her mom’s friends at the store. After answering several questions about her brush with a tornado, Taylin finally checked out and headed for Luke’s house.

As Taylin parked her mother’s car in Luke’s driveway, she tamped down the nervous flutter in her stomach. She kind of hoped Luke was sleeping. She’d love nothing more than to wake him up Disney style with a kiss.

Reaching across the seat, she grabbed her purse and the two grocery sacks before climbing out of the car. Circling around the house, she pushed on the gate and followed the brick pathway that led to the deck. The view of the lake from his back porch was spectacular, and she paused to admire the setting sun that glistened on the smooth as glass water. Sporadically, small rings appeared on the surface of the lake, indicating the fish were hungry. She bet Luke would be out on the lake right now if not for his injury.

Transferring the sacks to one hand, she slowly opened the door and stepped inside. She followed the muffled sound of a television until she came to the great room off of the kitchen and found Luke sound asleep on the couch.

Taylin took a few moments to observe him. The butterflies were back, but this time she let them flutter away. He was beautiful to look at, even with the gash on his head and a few tiny scratches on his face. He still hadn’t shaved, making him look a little bit like the bad boys Ashlee seemed to attract.

“Was I drooling?” he asked, cracking open one eye.

“Nope.” She sat down on the coffee table. “Do you normally drool?”

“Not that I know of.” He scooted up into a sitting position and winced a little. “Did you just get here?”

“Yeah.” She narrowed her gaze. “And you’re not sending me away, so don’t even try.”

The skin around his eyes crinkled with amusement. Bossy.”

“When I have to be.”

He eyed her for a few seconds, then reached out and took her hand. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” The skin beneath his touch burned and tingled. “So, are we going to talk about why you were freaking out?”

His gray eyes appeared as dark and stormy as the sky had looked when the tornado hit. Her stomach clenched with apprehension. Maybe he wasn’t afraid; maybe he just wasn’t that into her.

“I wasn’t lying when I said you scare me.” His grip tightened as if he needed something to anchor himself to. “I don’t want either of us to get hurt.”

Of course he had fears. His marriage had been filled with distrust and betrayal. She was scared too. This man could definitely do some damage to her if he decided she wasn’t what he wanted, but she was willing to take that chance. She just needed to find out if she was worth the risk to him. An idea about how to find out formed in her mind. However, she wasn’t entirely sure it was a nice thing to do. And she really hoped he didn’t agree.

“You told me before that you wanted us to be friends, right?”

He nodded his head.

“Then let’s keep on developing our friendship.” She removed her hand from his. “We can hang out with each other, but not exclusively. And to keep things simpler, let’s limit our physical contact, like no handholding and no kissing.”

A line formed between his eyebrows. “No kissing?”

She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. Her wicked plan just might work. “Yep.” She lifted one shoulder up into a shrug. “That way we won’t feel any pressure, and if we want more than that, we can talk about it when the time’s right.”

Luke held her gaze and the muscle in his jaw tightened. Taylin wasn’t sure what he was going to say to her plan and decided it would be better to let him stew about it.

“So.” She stood up. “As your friend, I’m going to make you the best chicken and dumplings you’ve ever tasted.”

She started to walk away, but he reached out and banded his fingers around her wrist, preventing her from leaving. “I don’t think I like your idea very much.”

His voice was low, and his eyes blazed with an intensity that sent her core temperature up a few degrees.

“You don’t like chicken and dumplings?” she asked innocently.

“Not sure. I’ve never had them before.” His lips twitched in a slight smile. “But that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Oh? What part didn’t you like then?”

“I don’t want you dating anyone else.”

Keeping her expression neutral, she nodded her head. “Okay.”

He loosened his hold on her wrist and slid his fingers between hers. “And I like holding your hand.”

“I like it too.”

He tugged on her hand, pulling her toward him until she sat on the edge of the couch. “And your
no kissing
rule needs to be nixed.”

Taylin couldn’t keep up the pretense any longer, and she smiled victoriously. “I’m glad you feel that way.”

Luke slanted forward and Taylin leaned into him until their mouths touched. His lips were warm and sweet on hers as he gave her a series of slow, shivery kisses. The clean scent of soap and his spicy deodorant filled her senses, making her head spin and leaving her so breathless she was glad to be sitting.

He gave her one last lingering kiss before drawing back to look into her eyes. “There’s one more thing I forgot to say,” he said in a husky voice.

A satisfied light came into his eyes when Taylin was too dazed from the fantastic kisses to say anything more than one word. “Yes?”

“Hanging out and dating are two different things, and we are not hanging out.”

That he knew the difference was impressive. Jared never got it that Taylin coming over to his apartment to make dinner while he played Xbox live was not a date.

“Wow…” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. “I like your rules much better than mine.”

He grinned. “I’m pretty sure you just used reverse psychology on me.”

“Did I?” she asked sweetly before standing up.

He laughed and then pressed a hand to his side. “Dang, I forgot about my ribs.”

“Do you need more pain medicine?”

“Not yet. I’ll take some before I go to bed.”

Taylin nodded her head and then started supper. Without having to ask, she found where Luke stored his pans. They all looked brand new, and he admitted he wasn’t much of a cook. It made cooking for him even better.

Luke watched her work from his place on the couch, and she could almost swear his smoldering eyes were hotter than the stovetop. They talked while she boiled, chopped and mixed to create the meal. It wasn’t the first time she’d cooked for a boyfriend, but somehow this felt different. Not like she was playing house or anything, but it brought her a level of contentment she’d never experienced.

When supper was ready, Taylin joined Luke on the couch to eat. He had Philip Jacob’s playing softly in the background. It would’ve been quite romantic if not for the constant interruption coming from both of their cell phones, continually dinging incoming messages.

“Whoever has the most text messages by the end of the night gets to plan our next date,” Taylin said after Luke got a series of texts from two unidentified numbers.

“Okay.” He placed his phone facedown on the coffee table. “But I think you’ll win. You have a lot more Facebook friends than I do.”

She glanced at him sidelong and grinned. “Really? And how do you know that? I don’t recall you issuing a friend request.”

The tips of his ears reddened. “I may have been Facebook stalking you.”

“Why Mr. McKay, I think you really do like me.”

He turned to look at her. “I’m pretty sure we’ve already established that fact.”

Those eyes of his were dangerous and said much more than Luke was willing to admit. She was a breath away from kissing him when her cell phone blared out the tone of an incoming FaceTime call.

“You better get that,” he said. “It might be your dad, and he already doesn’t like me.”

“He likes you just fine.” He did like Luke. He just didn’t like the way Luke looked at his daughter. Her daddy wasn’t ready to let go of his babies, even though his babies were twenty-four. And he highly suspected Taylin was about to be swept off her feet. She sure hoped so.

Taylin reached for her phone, but accidentally pushed it onto the carpet, forcing her to get off the couch to answer it. “It’s my sister-in-law,” she said when she picked up her phone. “I really need to take this. My brother was doing a mini concert for a corporate fundraiser, so they didn’t find out about the tornado until about an hour ago.”

Luke smiled. “I don’t mind.”

Sitting on the edge of the coffee table, Taylin tapped her finger on the screen to connect the call. Instead of Addie, the cute little face on the screen was her niece, Isabelle. “Izzy! Hey, baby,” she said waving at her favorite three-year-old. “It’s Aunt Tay Tay.”

“Show Aunt Tay Tay your silly face,” Addie said from off-screen.

Isabelle obeyed by opening her mouth with her little fingers and sticking out her tongue. Taylin laughed, knowing Chase had to be the one to teach his daughter this new trick.

“You are so adorable.” She turned the phone around so Luke could see the screen. The soft smile he gave her niece melted her heart.

Taylin turned the phone back toward her just as Addie came onscreen. “So how’s my famous sister?”

“Grateful to be alive.”

“Seriously! Chase and I about died when we finally read Mom’s text.”

“Where
is
my brother?”

“Changing Izzy’s diaper,” Chase hollered from the background.

“You have him trained so well,” Taylin said to her sister-in-law.

“Yeah, gotta love a man who will take on poopy diapers, especially since Izzy refuses to go number two on the potty.” Addie wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “Enough talk about potty training. I want to hear about the hot guy Dad caught you making out with.”

Taylin glanced at Luke and smiled at the embarrassed look on his face. “Hot Guy is sitting right here,” Taylin said. “And we weren’t making out.”

Addie’s eyes widened. “Is he really with you right now?” she whispered.

“Yep.”

“Sorry, Hot Guy,” Addie said on a laugh.

“He has a name.” Taylin turned the phone toward Luke again. “Addie, meet Luke McKay.”

Luke was a good sport and lifted his hand to wave at the screen. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Addie said, still clearly amused by the situation. “By the way, I’ve caught Mom and Dad Nichols making out in the kitchen plenty of times, so don’t feel too bad.”

“Thanks,” Luke said dryly. “I feel so much better.”

“Cute and funny,” Addie said. “I think I like you, Luke McKay.”

“Again, thanks.”

His deadpan delivery sent Addie into another round of giggles. Taylin pointed the screen back in her direction just in time to see Chase come up from behind his wife. “Would you stop flirting with Taylin’s boyfriend?” he said, snatching the phone out of Addie’s hand.

The screen was a blur of white, and Taylin heard Addie complain that she wasn’t done talking. There was more laughter, and then finally Taylin’s handsome brother appeared on the screen.

“That woman,” Chase teased. “I never know what she’s gonna say next.”

“I heard that,” Addie said.

“I miss y’all so much,” Taylin said, suddenly feeling very emotional. She wished Chase and Addie would move to Georgia. “Christmas is too far away.”

“Yeah, it is.” The screen went blurry again, and she heard Isabelle asking to
hold daddy
. Her tiny voice was so cute. When Chase came back onscreen, his daughter was snuggled up against his chest.

“Ah, y’all are killin’ me.” Taylin wished she could step through the phone so she could hold the little girl. The last time she’d seen Izzy was six months earlier when they’d made a short visit for Chase’s birthday. “Hold still while I take a screenshot.”

“Done?” Chase asked a couple of seconds later. “Because it’s my turn to meet… I refuse to call him ‘hot guy’.”

“Luke,” Taylin said with a laugh. Her brother and his wife were always very entertaining to talk to.

Raising her eyes, she found Luke watching her closely. “Sorry,” she mouthed.

He gave her a sexy smile that sent her pulse racing. “I’m okay,” he said in a low voice.

Instead of turning the phone around again, she decided to resume her position on the couch next to Luke. “Chase,” she said, holding up her phone. “Meet Luke McKay.”

Chase was usually a big tease, but he refrained from saying anything embarrassing to Luke. The two men said hello, and then Luke asked Chase about his music. It was a good move on Luke’s part. Her brother loved talking about his music.