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There were too many Edens.
He strode into the room wearing a pair of faded jeans and a black plaid shirt with its sleeves rolled up his forearms. It hung open, revealing a white T-shirt underneath that pulled tight across his broad chest. A silver and gold belt buckle gleamed beneath a flat stomach. His brown cowboy boots were scuffed and faded. Like the other Edens, he had dark hair and sapphire eyes. It was the playful grin that set him apart. The mischievous smirk on his soft lips. The sharp corners of his stubbled jaw and the twinkle in his blue gaze. This kitchen was full of beautiful people. He put them all to
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“Hey.” He dipped his chin, like he was tipping an invisible hat. “I’m Mateo.” That name locked into place for all time. Mateo.
He was the light. My light. The shining star that chased away the dark.
If I was being honest with myself, I was in no place for a relationship. I had more small steps to take. More leaps. I was still discovering what I liked and what I didn’t. So while I worked on me, I’d hold him in my heart. He’d be my ray of sunshine to chase away the rain.
Mateo used the spoon to clean up her chin. “You’re a mess, Sprout.” He’d started calling her Sprout not long after Vance and Lyla’s wedding. The first time I’d heard him, at a family dinner at this very table, I’d had to excuse myself to the bathroom to hide the tears. Vance had snuck away to check on me two minutes later. Dad had called Elsie Sprout. And he’d called Hadley Jellybean.
And because I wouldn’t want Hadley to be left out, I’d started calling Allie Jellybean.
“I’m done waiting for you to see me.” I flew from the bar. I ran. And as I raced down Quincy’s sidewalks, I put my love for Mateo away. I shoved it in that locked box. And buried it down deep.
I’m done waiting for you to see me. I saw Vera. I’d always seen Vera. She was sweet. Strong. Her hair went wild sometimes and she’d get so annoyed she’d rake it into a ponytail with a huff that always made me chuckle. She loved cherry tomatoes. I hated them but always thought it would be weird to offer her food from my plate because that was something couples did and we weren’t a couple.
“You’re not broken.” That wasn’t the right place to start. An apology or anything else would be better. “Everything you said last night was right. Except that. It’s the one thing you got wrong.”
“You’re the most courageous person I’ve ever met, Vera. You’re not broken. When I think about your strength . . . if Allie gets just a fraction of that when she’s grown, I’ll be grateful.”
She was beautiful. Vera had a beauty not a soul would miss.
Something shifted beneath my feet like moving sand. Things in my chest, around my brain, rearranged. It was like a deck of cards being shuffled. There was before. This was after.
“You should go fly,” I said. “Even if it’s just a hobby.” “Would you go with me?” My jaw dropped. “W-what?” “Go with me. Have you ever been in a small plane?” “Um, no.” “Then we’ll go tomorrow.” He turned and walked away. Just declared we were flying, then walked away. “Wait. I have to work tomorrow.” “Then Tuesday,” he called over his shoulder, still walking.
Lol he just TOLD her they’re going on a date 🤭
Because Vera had kissed me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It felt like someone had slipped glasses on my face. And that someone had given me permission to see. Now I wanted to learn everything there was to learn about Vera. I wanted to see it all. “Clear and a million.” Vera glanced over. “What?” I pointed to the sky. “You have to know a lot about weather to be a pilot. There are different classifications of clouds, like overcast or broken or scattered. Then there’s days like this. Not a cloud in sight. Unlimited visibility. Nothing but brilliant
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Everyone else had turned that money into a business or advanced education. After I’d graduated college, I’d taken my money and bought an airplane and built a hangar.
Pink infused her cheeks, the same rosy shade as her mouth. Vera always had pink cheeks. I’d assumed it was just a natural blush. But maybe, all this time, it had been for me. Damn.
“You’re flying an airplane, Peach.” Peach? Where the hell had that come from? It had just . . . slipped out. Like I should have been calling her Peach for years. Like the way I’d started calling Alaina Sprout. One day she didn’t have a nickname. The next, she did. And Peach was Vera’s.
Clear and a million. Today, I was seeing clear and a million. “Will you teach me to fly?” she asked. Spend hours and hours with her, alone and above the world? “Absolutely.”
“Vera.” He stopped me just as I’d opened the door. The night air should have cooled my face, but Mateo’s stare was so intense that sweat beaded at my temples. “Yeah?” “I see you.”
Mateo used his free hand to pull the door open wider. Then he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. And untucked it a moment later.
Ahhhh!
There’d been too many years of staying on my side of the boundary line. That kiss she’d given me at Willie’s hadn’t just been an eye-opener. It had been permission. There were no more lines. Something here was worth exploring, and I wasn’t wasting my chance.
“You kissed me last week.” I gulped. “Sorry?” “You should be sorry.” His hands threaded into the hair at my temples. “You kissed me before I could kiss you back.” “Oh.” My. God. “Oh.” A grin stretched across his mouth as he bent closer. “My turn.”
I’d hit the brakes after that kiss and now I was the bad guy? No. Fuck no. She didn’t get to keep running away from me. Avoiding me. Standing me up. Especially after that kiss. It was the game changer. Everything was different now. There wasn’t just something between us. There was something life-changing. And the chemistry? It was unlike anything I’d felt before. From the moment my tongue had touched Vera’s, from the second I’d tasted her sweet lips, I’d been hooked. Not a chance I’d let her go now.
“Why do you call me Peach?” So she had noticed. She hadn’t reacted when I’d said it last night. I’d assumed either she hadn’t heard it or she didn’t like it. I threaded my fingers through her hair. “Because your hair reminds me of a sun-ripened peach on a hot summer day. Because you’re sweet. And because it’s my favorite fruit.” “No, it’s not. You like strawberries best.” “Not anymore,” I murmured, bending to take her lips.
“I want you. So much I can’t see straight. But I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t want sex to be all we have. I don’t want to wake up in bed one morning and have you tell me it’s been fun and all, but a relationship isn’t really what you’re after. That the months we’ve been together meant nothing. And I don’t want to walk away and find out nine months later I have a daughter no one was ever going to fucking tell me about. That is why I stopped kissing you last night.”
I’d found my father today. Sort of.
“Wait.” He snagged my hand before I could duck outside. “Don’t go. I meant what I said earlier. I don’t want to fuck this up. Part of me knows the responsible thing to do is get an umbrella and walk you to your car. But the other part wants to say fuck it. To pick you up and carry you to my bed and pray like hell I don’t ruin us.”
was stripping me bare. “You’re so damn beautiful, Vera.” His voice was hoarse. “Look at me.” I opened my eyes and found his waiting. “I see you.”
When Mateo returned, he curled his body around mine, holding me close. And just as I was drifting into dreamland, his lips brushed the shell of my ear as he whispered, “Mine.”
“I don’t want to fuck it up with Vera.” For myself. And for Allie. I didn’t want to mess up the chance for her to have someone like that in her life. “Then don’t fuck it up,” Knox said. I laughed. “That easy?” “Yeah, brother. It’s that easy. Just love her. The rest takes care of itself.”
God I love Knox
The next morning, when I woke to find Vera in the kitchen with Allie again, the sky was blue. The sun was shining. The weather today, inside and out, was clear and a million.
“You have different ohs. That’s the tired one. You have another when you’re surprised. One when you’re entertaining Allie, pretending to be enamored with whatever she’s showing you. And the oh you make when I go like this.” He bent, his lips finding my pulse. The moment his tongue skated across my skin, I shivered. “Oh.”
“Peach, it’s not like they all don’t know why it took me thirty minutes to collect you for dinner.”
Omg!
“Hey, don’t get mad at me for kissing you in front of everyone. You started it.” “I did no—” Shit. Yes, I’d been the one to kiss him first. That night at Willie’s. God, it seemed like eons ago.
“You did Allie’s bath last night.” She swallowed hard and wiped at the corners of her eyes. “Yeah. So?” “She rarely throws a fit for you. You tell her it’s time for a bath, and she thinks that’s the best idea in the world. Because it’s you. You’re her Ve-wa. Every time she says it, she might as well be calling you Mommy.”
“I didn’t think she’d ever have that. A mother. I didn’t even want to let myself dream she could. But she does. It’s you. You are her family. You are hers.” I crossed the room and took her face in my hands, holding those beautiful chocolate eyes. “And you’re mine. We are your family.”
“I love you, Vera. I fucking love you. I won’t leave you. And I won’t let you go.”
“How’s the weather, Peach?” “Better than I expected,” she whispered. “It started overcast and gray.” “And now?” She smiled. “Clear and a million.”
“I love you.” Nothing else mattered. On the hardest days of her life, I’d be here to remind her that I loved her.
“You don’t have to thank me, Peach. We go together. From here to Idaho to the ends of the earth.”
Maybe my sisters were up there. Allie knew about them. So did Mateo. Whenever a memory crossed my mind, I gave it voice. Five years, and I saw them the way I saw Mateo and Allie. Not a cloud in sight. This life of ours was clear and a million.
