BENJI HAD TO GRIT his teeth and think about cleaning toilets for fear of coming from the feel of Dixie's hot little hand clenched around his dick. There was a fire in her that was threatening to burn him up, and he only wanted to get closer.She ducked her head, and he watched in fascination as her lips stretched around his cock. The next instant the gentle suction of her mouth chased all rational thought away. He heard himself groan and mutter words, but he wasn't in control. She was.He fisted the blanket under him, determined to let her have her way. This moment was important to her and fuck if he was going to stop her.The pressure eased, but the warmth intensified as she took more of him in her mouth. It wasn't the unsure touch of someone who hadn't done this before. No, it was clear she had and knew what she was doing. But was she enjoying it?Benji peered down at Dixie, her blonde hair spilling over his hip and onto the blanket. He lifted his hand and wrapped the strands
DIXIE KNOCKED ON ELISABETH'S apartment at exactly eight thirty Monday morning.It was technically summer and though Elisabeth wasn't working for the school she had picked up hours at the library working with the restoration team trying to fill in the holes of the stolen albums.Footsteps thumped softly. Locks scraped free.Finally the door cracked open."Dee?" Elisabeth stepped back, squinting at Dixie with one eye. "What's up? Why aren't you at work?""I'm not going in today." Dixie pushed past her friend into the apartment and peered toward Harrison's door. "Is your brother here?""Still asleep. I haven't woken him up yet.""Can we talk?" Dixie turned toward her friend. "I mean, do you have time to talk?""What's up? Did something happen? Is Jace-""It's not Jace." Dixie paced past her friend into the tiny galley kitchen where the coffee machine waited.Elisabeth followed, still in her pajama pants and fuzzy robe."I let Benji stay the night last night." Dixie s
BENJI PULLED UP TO the curb and peered at the travelers armed with suitcases. Late July was a god-awful time of year in Texas with current temperatures well over a hundred each and every day. He was pretty damn jealous of Garth for getting away for two whole weeks.Scarlett flung her arm out at the window. "There he is."The crowd seemed to part for a moment."Fuck me." Benji chuckled.He'd never thought he'd see the day when his brother wore anything but starched jeans and boots. Benji hadn't been certain his brother even owned a pair of swim trunks when they dropped Garth off at the airport. The sight of him in shorts, flip-flops and a floral print button down over a white T-shirt was out of some strange, Twilight Zone world."You know Noemi is behind that look." Scarlett snickered, her hands covering her mouth."I want to know what bet he lost." Benji pushed his baseball cap up on his head.Garth reached the truck and grasped the door handle, but it wasn't unlocked.
DIXIE RIPPED THE TAB off the envelope."This is so exciting." Elisabeth bounced on the balls of her feet, hovering over Dixie's shoulder."It's not that exciting." She nudged the other woman away before pulling the photographs out of the envelope."Are you kidding? It is too exciting. Let me see."Together they poured over the dozen images of local landmarks and buildings that had withstood the fire of 68 and time. Dixie had been hesitant about taking on this project, but she and Elisabeth had made it into their personal scavenger hunt. They'd even found a few old farmhouses to document that hadn't been part of the original project."Those look so good." Elisabeth squealed and clapped her hands together."They're just snapshots of some buildings." Dixie smiled and flipped through the pictures one more time."Are you going to tell Benji about this now?" Elisabeth turned and leaned against the island in Dixie's house, facing her."I should." She winced and glanced at the
BENJI REACHED BEHIND HIM, grasping for Dixie's hand. She wasn't in this alone. He'd stick with her while they handled this asshole. Let the whole town see what a dipshit he was at last.It was just their luck that the first officer to react to the situation was Liam Jones. The guy was an easy going country boy-until he got into uniform.Where was Dixie's hand?"Jace." Liam lifted his hand, his focus on Jace. "Hey, Jace? Why don't we go around back and talk?"Benji glanced at Dixie just as she darted around him."Fuck you, Jones," Jace spat."Jace?" Her tone was all soothing and sweetness. Not what Jace deserved."Dixie-don't." Benji grasped her hand, tugging her away from where Liam and Jace now stood toe to toe.She whirled on Benji, her calm, collected nature shining through. "Stop.""Dix-""You're only making this worse. Just-stop." The chill rolling off her was almost cold enough to bring the Texas temperature down a couple degrees.Benji stared at her, too st
DIXIE STOOD BACK, ADMIRING the photographs. The ones she'd taken with Benji's camera.Shit.She wasn't supposed to be thinking about him."Why are you still here? Are you hiding?" Elisabeth breezed into the room that had been re-purposed for assembling the new scrapbooks."Yes." Dixie winced. There was no point in lying to her best friend."Have you seen or spoken to him since Saturday?" Elisabeth set the stack of newspapers down on the long table that stretched down the middle of the room."No." Dixie's insides quaked. It wasn't uncommon for her early week schedule to make it hard to see Benji, but they always talked."Seriously? No texts? Phone calls? Nothing?""It'll be too hard if we talk. I have to go cold turkey.""Okay. Does he know you're breaking up with him?""I thought I was pretty clear the last time we spoke." Or had she only thought those things? That whole conversation in her driveway was a blur. She'd been operating on autopilot and all she wanted to
BENJI HAD A LIST of things a mile long to get done today, but his heart wasn't in it.Five days. He'd never gone that long without seeing Dixie. Not since they'd begun their lessons. He'd shown up at her place last night hoping they were still on, but the darkened house spoke volumes.She wasn't showing up, and she wasn't speaking to him."Hey." Scarlett jogged up to him as he plodded toward his truck."Yeah?""Gosh, tone it down there. You might scare people, Chipper Charlie.""Chipper Charlie?" Benji frowned at his cousin."Yeah, that didn't work." Scarlett blew out a breath and swiped the back of her hand across her brow. "You headed to the store?""Yeah. Got the list." He waved the bit of paper at her."Great. One other thing?""Yeah?""No driving by Dixie's and I need more wine.""You aren't the boss of me." Benji scowled at Scarlett."No, I'm not, but you're seriously moping. I'm worried if you keep going by there she's going to take out a restraining or
DIXIE PEERED DOWN THE street at her house.Why did Jace have to do this on a Wednesday?She silently cursed her ex.The coast looked clear. On a normal day she'd be home maybe half an hour before Benji got there, if she was lucky. Her luck stunk lately.She accelerated down the street and hit the garage opener. For the last week she'd stayed at Elisabeth's. It was nice. Comforting to be around others. Plus Jace was a pain in the ass. She hadn't missed him being in rehab one bit. What was worse, it didn't appear to have dampened his temper.Dixie parked in the garage and slipped out to get a look at her front door. The metal mailbox bolted next to the door was ripped off. Some of the siding was cracked and it would need to be repaired.Great.One more thing to add to the list of things to do.When Liam Jones had called her about it during the work day, she'd almost cried. Except Jace wasn't worth her tears. The only thing to be done was get a handyman out to fix it."G
SIX MONTHS LATER...SCARLETT SAT STRETCHED OUT on the old, wooden swing content to watch the circus going on over in the flower garden.Mom threw her hands up and said something Scarlett couldn't hear. She chuckled and knew the others were likely beside themselves trying to figure out how to make Mom happy.They all called Noemi's mother Mom now. It just felt right. Garth stood next to Mom, shaking his head at the others. Noemi bent, fussing no doubt over the way the blankets lay or how the bow sat.Benji and Dixie had the whole light kit out and three cameras.All the attention was focused on the bundle of joy currently sleeping soundly in the cradle Garth had carefully restored. It was one of a handful of old things he'd found in the barn and kept. Judging by the initials on the bottom of the old crib, generations of Livelys had slept in that thing.And now so would her baby.Scarlett smiled and sank further into the cushions Cole had set up for her. She was still ex
Noemi WHIPPED HER CAR into the driveway. With it being so early and since everyone had family visiting the street was packed with cars. Garth's truck barely fit in the one open spot.Where the hell was he?What was he doing?Why was he talking to Ángel?A Jeep pulled across the drive behind her, Cole and Scarlett getting out."Why can't you answer your phone?" Scarlett demanded.Noemi threw up her hand as she caught the sound of a deep, rumbling voice."Benji? Hey, we're already here." Scarlett's voice faded as Noemi crept toward the fence and the gate her mother always left open between the two properties.Ángel sat in the swiveling chair at the head of the table on his parent's patio.Garth had a tight grip on one of the other chairs, his back toward her. He was leaning forward, his entire focus on Ángel, who was staring back at Garth like he'd just sprouted a second head or something."You're only going to get one shot at this. If she's decided to give you anothe
Garth HAD ALWAYS THOUGHT the hardest thing he'd ever done was bury his parents and accept responsibility for Benji and Scarlett.That had been easy. A simple process and an obvious life altering decision.Neither of those moments had anything on what he was about to do.Garth stood on the front porch of the brick house and glanced to his left, where Noemi was likely sleeping. He hoped that she was getting rest. She never took off except for holidays and if he remembered correctly, she had events this weekend. With any luck, she'd have someone in her corner that would look after her properly.He turned his attention back to the door. There was one of the new, electronic doorbells. He pressed it, listened to the chime and waited.It was early still, but he hadn't been able to make himself wait any longer.After a few moments the locks clanked and the door swung open.Ángel stood on the welcome mat in sweatpants, a T-shirt and a hoodie draped over his shoulders. His hair was
Noemi HADN'T SLEPT ALL night. Most of the time when she wasn't sleeping it was because she was up at all hours trying to pull the last bits of a wedding together. There was purpose to the sleepless nights.All she'd done since getting home around two was sit in the guest chair at her desk and stare at the clear surface. She couldn't claim to have done a lot of thinking in those hours. Mostly she'd sat, stared and let her mind wander. She'd poked at corners she normally ignored, examining her feelings, her thoughts and all the other uncomfortable bits of her life.She excelled at leaving relationships.There were only two men in her life who had ever left her.Her father.And Ángel.Noemi had left every other man before he could get tired of her. She'd known she had the habit, but she hadn't paused to think it through like this until tonight. It was easy to pretend that she didn't have time for men and relationships that weren't going somewhere. She could spin all the excuse
Garth GRIPPED THE WHEEL of his truck and drew in a deep breath. He knew it was his imagination. Noemi's perfume wasn't really lingering, he just wished it were.Another car rolled up to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. Garth waved and pressed the accelerator, heading into town.It was tradition for the guys to meet up at The Hole in town for beers on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Benji had already texted, wondering where he was. Scarlett and the girls were up to something. All the normal things were underway. Except for him.Garth felt stuck. Like he couldn't move.He rolled the problem around in his head as The Hole came into view.The little parking lot was full and people had taken to finding spots along the street. It would no doubt be loud in there, full of people ready to start talking about the Christmas tours, when they were bringing the tractors to Main Street to help decorate and so forth.He just wasn't in the mood.Garth turned the wheel away from the
Noemi KNEW TODAY WASN'T her best work. She'd gone through the whole day in a fog that had nothing to do with the large, Thanksgiving meal she'd eaten yesterday or the Black Friday shopping she'd done that morning.Once again she had to wonder at a bride choosing to have her wedding the day after Thanksgiving. If Noemi was going to have a wedding-No.Not going there.She shook her head and turned her attention back to packing up the arch and removing the flowers. She had about an hour to get the rental pieces ready to go while the wedding party ate dinner. There were still a few things to make sure went off without a hitch. The cake needed cutting and the bride wanted Noemi to keep the speeches short, but there was time before that got started.It felt like she'd lived in a daze the last forty-eight hours.Wednesday night she'd chosen to not go to the annual meal her family had with Ángel's. She couldn't be in the same room with him and act like she wanted to be there. Not
Both Garth and Noemi glanced at the door.Benji laughed loudly and a single pair of heavy footsteps came creaking up the stairs mixed with Dixie's softer voice.Noemi covered her mouth with her hand and glanced at Garth. Her eyebrows were almost at her hairline.He just shook his head as something-probably one of the pictures on the landing-clattered to the ground. Another burst of laughter followed by hurried footsteps into Benji's room and the slam of a door."Well, I guess no one knows we're in here," Noemi said dryly."No they do not." Garth put thoughts of his brother out of his mind. It wasn't the first time he'd ignored his brother's antics. "What's really going on, No-No?"She blew out a breath and let go of his hand. For a moment she fussed with her boots, unzipping them and getting more comfortable, sitting cross legged in the middle of his bed. He didn't say anything, just watched her face, how lines developed and went away as she thought through what was botheri
Garth STARED DOWN AT where he'd thought he'd seen Noemi.Except Noemi didn't wear flannel. He could count on one hand the number of times he'd seen her wearing jeans and have fingers leftover. But he was fairly certain that had been her."Garth?" Adeline's voice brought him back to the moment.He blinked down at this funny, sweet woman, but she didn't stir anything in him. Not like Noemi."Adeline?" He took her hand in his. "It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope we see you around. Scarlett's intentions introducing us were good, but..."She smiled a knowing smile and turned her hand in his so she could give it a friendly shake. "I can tell. She's a special woman. I appreciate the history lesson.""Thanks, Adeline."If he'd met her at another point in his life, he'd have been interested. But it wasn't the burning connection he'd had with Noemi. Nothing could compare to that.Garth headed for the stairs, taking them two and three at a time. He skirted the tables between
Noemi PARKED HER CAR out on the grass along with all the other cars.She could do this.Hopefully Garth wasn't angry with her. Well, he could be a little angry. She'd deserve that much. She just hoped he'd hear her.Noemi began walking with the crowd, toward the festival clustered around the barn. Her heart gave a twinge as she got closer to the houses.She hadn't told anyone she was showing up, partly because she was nervous and feared she'd chicken out. Through all the jumble of thoughts, the one thing she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that she loved Garth.As the crowd folded her into their midst, Noemi realized there were a lot more people there than she anticipated. How was she going to find Garth in all this?"Noemi?" a familiar voice called out.She turned and saw Scarlett standing with a basket of something hanging from one arm and a toddler perched on her hip looking at Noemi with wide eyes."Hey." Noemi fidgeted with the hem of her T-shirt.Scarlett gr