Page 104 of The Last Goodbye

The simple things were becoming my comfort…my routine.

Watching Bass cook for us.

The way our conversations had no beginning and no end. As if we couldn’t get enough, and we never wanted them to end.

We bantered, we laughed—we just got each other in a way I’d never experienced before.

And the kicker…falling asleep in his arms every damn night.

It was too comfortable.

I was getting too comfortable.

And the clock was ticking.

We had an expiration date of two months.

Eight weeks.

Fifty-six days.

Bass and I treated it like a challenge. We spent so much time together, almost as if we were trying to find a reason to want the space from one another.

But that flawed plan was completely backfiring.

“Flawed” was an understatement.

The more time we spent together, the more we missed one another when we were apart.

He pulled me closer as we both lay on our sides, my back to his chest. “What are you thinking about, Magpie?”

His voice was sleepy and sexy, and his hand slid down the side of my rib cage to rest on my hip.

“How do you know I’m thinking?” I asked, a loud yawn escaping after I spoke.

“Because your body tensed up. I could feel it.”

“I thought you were sleeping?” I whispered.

“I’m not. Tell me what you’re thinking about.”

“I’m thinking about how much time we spend together,” I admitted.

His hand came around my waist, moving up over my breast. “Is it too much time?”

I rolled onto my back so I could look at him. “It should be. I never spend this kind of time with someone I’m dating. I usually see a guy once or twice a week, and we both have our own lives. But you and me, we spend time at the new location, at your restaurant, on the boat, at my rental house.”

He shifted, hovering above me, the man too handsome for his own good first thing in the morning. His scruff was a bit overgrown, hair a bit unruly, his dark blue eyes intense. Always intense. “Is that a bad thing?”

“I mean, normally it would be for me. I like to have my own life, but here I am mingling mine with yours and enjoying it. It feels like I’m on vacation all the freaking time.”

He smiled, flashing me his perfectly white teeth. You’d expect him to have had years of orthodontic work and thousands of dollars invested into that smile—yet he was just genetically blessed.

“It’s not the norm for me, either.” His voice was gruff, as if he wasn’t ready to be awake yet.

“And it’s not annoying you?”

“I wish I could say that it was, but—I like it. I like starting and ending my day with you.”