Wilder

I leaned over the counter and kissed her cheek. “I know. I just like spending mine on Leah.”

She waved me off, and I headed out back, savoring the warmth of the sun as it soaked into my skin. This place had always healed my soul, even when I was a kid. Through the fights and the inevitable divorce, Mykonos had always given me a safe haven.

I hoped it could do the same for Leah.

Chapter Eighteen

Leah

Mykonos

I messed with my hair for the hundredth time and finally settled on leaving it down. Down said I hadn’t messed with it that many times, right? It said that I wasn’t nervous. Was I seriously depending on my hair to lie for me?

The minute Paxton had told me to be ready at five o’clock, I’d broken into a sweat. Thank God I’d picked up deodorant, makeup, and a few new outfits to tide me over until the ship came in a few days.

His mom had been amazing, the perfect amount of distance and intrusion—enough to let me know she was interested in me, but not enough to make me feel like I was being inspected. Plus, she had great taste in clothing.

My gaze darted to the white halter dress that hung from the closet door. It was tight on top with spaghetti straps around the neck and then flared out to just above my knees in a breezy flow of fabric. It felt like freedom, flirtation, sex appeal, and Greece, so I bought it on impulse after I tried it on. But it left my legs bare.

He already knows.

I sighed. If I was going to try to be anything real with Paxton, he was inevitably going to see the train wreck of scars down my legs. He said he wouldn’t care, and I trusted him. For God’s sake, he’d brought me home and introduced me to his mother. If he could open up a piece of his soul, I could handle a couple awkward looks from strangers.

Five minutes later, I’d traded my linen pants for the sundress, slipping into the little wedge heels his mom had insisted on. I backed up enough to see my full reflection in the dresser mirror. The scars were straight, thick lines that ran from my knee to my ankle along the front of my shin, with smaller marks that ran along both sides. Maybe they wouldn’t have been that thick if that infection hadn’t set in…or if I’d gotten out of the car sooner…

If. If. If.

I shook my head and blew out a long breath. None of that mattered—not anymore.

A quick touch of lip gloss and then I walked out of the bedroom and down the hallway to the kitchen, where I heard Paxton laughing at something his mother said. He was different here—lighter, all Paxton and no Wilder.

All mine. My jaw nearly dropped when I saw him casually leaning up over the counters to put away groceries for his mom. It wasn’t just the cut of his button-up shirt, or the way it was loosely rolled on his arms to reveal his colorful tattoos, or even the way his cargo shorts hung on him. It was the domesticity of the moment, seeing him truly relaxed and at peace.

It made my heart lurch, reaching for a future where he’d put the cereal into the cabinet, or sneak in way too much junk food. A future where we shared a kitchen, a home…a life. It was a dream I had no right to even think about, and one I didn’t realize how desperately I wanted until this moment.

I was falling for Paxton so fast that I wasn’t sure even one of his parachutes could save me.

“Hey, you ready?” I asked, my voice shakier than I intended.

He glanced over and then did a double-take, his mouth slack-jawed. My heart pounded as he came closer, his quick strides eating the distance between us. His eyes drifted from head to toe and back up again, and the air stilled in my chest as the world paused.

“You look amazing,” he told me, but it was his eyes that let me breathe again. They darkened with want as he leaned in, his mouth brushing my ear. “You make that dress sexy as hell, and if my mother wasn’t across the room, my hands would already be under it.”

My eyes fluttered shut, relief washing over me with the same force as the desire pounding through me at the mention of his hands. I knew what they could do, how they could set my body on fire, and I wanted it again—wanted him. “You look good, too.”

Lame compliment compared to what the sight of him did to me, but it earned me a smile as he backed up a step.

“You two have fun. I have plans for the evening,” his mom called, rattling her keys as she walked out the front door.

“You ready to say yes yet?” he asked, his eyes bright.

“Yes to what? To sex? To being official? To what…going steady?” Nerves crept up my spine, sending chills down my limbs.

“Yes to all,” he answered, tucking his thumbs in his pockets. “I mean, sex is optional, but given the pretty insane chemistry between us, I’d say it’s a safe bet that it would follow pretty shortly after the other yeses. As for going steady, I’m sure I could find my letterman jacket from high school or something if you want it.”

“This isn’t funny,” I said, panic pitching my voice higher. I felt like we were on the edge of something, and I was either going to gloriously fly or die in the fall.

“I’m not laughing.”

“What’s the purpose? We’ll go our separate ways in eight more months, if we can even last that long. You’re not exactly known as Mr. Long-term Relationship.”

“Do you always skip to the last page of the book, Leah? Feel us. Feel what we can be like together. I do, and it’s nothing like I’ve ever known. You’re right. I’ve never been a relationship guy, but I’m ready to take that risk.”