Free The Best for Last by Maria Geraci Page B

coastal-style pieces that suited the interior nicely.
    â€œYou’ve been busy.”
    He raised a brow. “You haven’t seen anything. Half the fixtures in the kitchen have been replaced.”
    Speaking of the kitchen… The smell of onions and garlic hit her empty stomach. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast so she should be starved. But she was too nervous to think about food.
    â€œWhat’s for dinner?” she asked anyway.
    â€œYou.” He grabbed her by the hand and started dragging her toward the first-floor guest bedroom, a room Kitty was all too familiar with.
    â€œHold on, tiger,” she said, laughing, but it sounded strained to her.
    â€œFor what?” He reached beneath her edge of her skirt and ran his palm up the back of her thigh then gave her ass a thorough squeeze. “Do you know it’s been over a week since we’ve had sex? I don’t know about you but I don’t think I can wait until after dinner.”
    She didn’t want to wait till after dinner, either, but she couldn’t just jump in bed with him right now. “We need to talk first.”
    He groaned. “What? Did the napkins for the reception not come in?” he joked. He wore faded jeans and a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers T-shirt. He was also barefoot and hadn’t bothered to shave this morning because his five o’clock shadow was heavier than usual. He looked so sexy right now she could almost cry.
    She thought about the best way to start what was probably the most important conversation of their lives. I love you. Do you love me? Sure, it sounded simple. In theory. Maybe she’d scribble it down in a note like grade school. She could even draw him a box. Please check off one of the following: YES or NO.
    â€œDid you know my father has invited half the town to the wedding?” she blurted. Okay, maybe it was best to ease into the conversation with something a little less threatening. “Well, not half the town, but the Babes and some of the Gray Flamingos. Betty Jean included. Speaking of which, she said something to me about a card she’d given you. How she was sorry but a woman’s got to do what a woman’s got to do. Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”
    â€œMaybe,” he said cryptically. “Although the hell if I understand it.” After a few seconds, he shrugged. “It was a business card for a hair salon that belongs to her niece. But I tossed it.”
    â€œBetty Jean wants her niece to cut your hair?”
    â€œBetty Jean wants her niece to do a whole lot more to me than just cut my hair.”
    â€œ What ?”
    â€œThat was my reaction, too. Do you know what she meant by it? Hell, she knows we’re together. Right?”
    Kitty felt her cheeks go pink. That skunk! Betty Jean thought she and Steve were breaking up and she was already trying to introduce him to her niece. And to think, Kitty had helped her fill out the paperwork to refinance her house. There was gratitude for you!
    â€œOf course Betty Jean knows we’re together, it’s just… Okay, so remember last week after I came home from Bunco and you asked how the night went and I told you, kind of jokingly, that we’d talked about you?”
    He looked at her funny. “Yeah.”
    â€œWell, it wasn’t a joke. We did talk about you. Nothing terrible. It’s just…the girls wanted to know more about our relationship.”
    â€œI hope you told them it was none of their business.”
    â€œKind of.”
    â€œKind of?” He sounded angry. Which startled her. She’d expected surprise, annoyance, even amusement, maybe. But not anger. Not when she hadn’t told him the bad parts yet. This was going to be a lot harder than she’d envisioned on the drive over.
    â€œIs that why Frida was acting so weird the next morning when I went in The Bistro to get coffee?”
    Kitty nodded.
    He didn’t say