Inspection: A Silver Fox Romance (Brady Family Book 3) by Lainey Davis

Author:Lainey Davis [Davis, Lainey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Kellen

I’M NOT SURE how many hours pass at the restaurant. Elizabeth and I have each had a few drinks, shared several pounds of bivalves, and are holding hands on the table. I keep staring down to make sure it’s really my skin against hers. A living woman. Someone I admire. She strokes my palm with her thumb and I feel the motion in every cell of my body.

“Tell me about your job search,” I say, dipping a piece of crusty bread in the buttery sauce from our dinner.

She frowns. “It’s a bit stagnant right now. I’m being really particular,” she says, and shrugs. “I can get by on the support from Todd.”

She hesitates, and I jump in, saying, “As it should be. Fucker.”

She squeezes my hand. “Yes, he is that. But it’s more like…I put up with bullshit for so many years. I just don’t have it in me to devote my time toward something that’s not dramatically fulfilling.”

“I love that,” I tell her. “Life is definitely too short to put up with bullshit.”

Elizabeth pulls her hand back, tucks her short hair behind her ears. “I am so sorry about your wife, Kellen.”

“Thank you.” I sigh. “Orla thinks I’ve been just waiting around to die.”

She laughs. “I don’t get that impression at all,” she says. “I’ve met your family. It’s a pretty wild bunch.”

“I agree,” I tell her. “It’s just…she’s a little bit right. I haven’t exactly been grabbing every opportunity, seizing the day.” I adjust my legs on the bench and my foot comes in contact with Elizabeth’s calf. I don’t pull it away and she doesn’t move her leg. “I’ve been…”

“Stagnant?” Elizabeth raises her brows at me and presses her leg into my foot. I nod.

Suddenly feeling anxious for reasons I can’t describe, I clear my throat and pull back my leg. “Elizabeth, I love talking to you,” I tell her. As the afternoon gave way to dusk, she and I sat here discussing history documentaries, our shared love of very dark chocolate, and Dolly Parton podcasts. She opened up about some of the struggles Jake faces in schools when rigid teachers can’t seem to follow the impact of their strict rules on a young man who just requires more and different explanations than other kids. I spent at least an hour of our conversation wanting to quit my job and go become a high school teacher so I could give Jake and kids like him a safe place to learn about physics.

“I love talking to you, too,” she says. And she flushes again. “I keep thinking about what we discussed…”

She doesn’t have to remind me which discussion. The one this morning, where she was so open about needing some careful attention before we can be physically intimate. “I…” I clear my throat and close my eyes, deciding blunt honesty feels best, even if I can’t brave the look in her eyes as I admit what I’ve been thinking all day. “I’m worried I’ll hurt you and am equally worried my own performance will be absolutely terrible if we…make love.

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