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Kitty drove up to the McMansion with the fabulous view of the beach. Sometimes, she forgot just how stinking rich Steve was, but looking at this house was a reminder that the man she lived with was loaded. Not that he acted like it. Steve lived like a regular guy. He drove a pickup truck (albeit a nice one), cooked his own dinners, and even did his own laundry (along with hers, thank God).
Yes, he was good looking, too, but that wasn’t the reason she’d fallen in love with him. It was all the little things about him. Like the way he pretended to dislike Viola’s cat when she knew he secretly left treats for him in their backyard (the real reason Armand hung around their driveway!), or how he’d go bowling with his uncle Gus’s team when they needed another player, even though he hated the game.
But most especially, it was the way he made her feel. Like she was the only woman in the room. On the planet. In the universe.
He had to love her.
No matter what anyone else thought of him and his supposed intentions. Not Shea and Pilar and the rest of the Bunco Babes or Betty Jean Collins or even her own mother or father. She’d let her friends and family get to her. But no one else was in a relationship with Steve Pappas, except her.
She’d thought about tonight all day long and she’d come to a decision. She was going to tell Steve she loved him. It was what she should have done last Thursday night after she’d come home from Bunco. So what if she was the first one to say it? A part of her was nervous, and yes, even a little afraid. But deep down in the very core of her marrow, she was positive that he loved her, too.
She parked her car in the driveway and mentally prepared herself for the other part of tonight’s conversation. After what her father had told her yesterday, she had no choice but to tell Steve that the entire town was talking about them. It simply wasn’t fair that he didn’t know.
He must have heard her car drive up because he met her at the door. “What took you so long to get here?” He grabbed her in a long hug and kissed her, making her bones melt in relief. He had to love her. He just had to. “Have we ever been apart this long?” he asked, ushering her into the oversized foyer.
Kitty took a quick look around the house. She’d only been here a handful of times but the place looked completely different. Steve hadn’t liked it, but Terrie had had the house staged when it first went on the market with a Versailles-type gaudiness that had made Kitty giggle when she’d first seen it. But gone was the leopard print rug in the living room and the big golden mirror with the cherubs. In their places were a simple leather sectional and a few coastal-style pieces that suited the interior nicely.
“You’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.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked anyway.
“You.” He grabbed her by the hand and started dragging her toward the first-floor guest bedroom, a room Kitty was all too familiar with.
“Hold on, tiger,” she said, laughing, but it sounded strained to her.
“For 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.
“Did 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?”
“Maybe,” 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.”
“Betty Jean wants her niece to cut your hair?”
“Betty Jean wants her niece to do a whole lot more to me than just cut my hair.”
“What?”
“That 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!
“Of 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.”
“Well, it wasn’t a joke. We did talk about you. Nothing terrible. It’s just…the girls wanted to know more about our relationship.”