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She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in sardonic disbelief “Tell me more, Dr Sawyer, of the lessons in love you learned from old chick flicks?”

He grinned down at her and tweaked the button tip of her nose “Lo”

“Just an accurate one,” she shot back “Look, you’re no more well-adjusted than I am Look at your family dynamic”

She pulled back from him and lay back on the blanket, and he followed suit

From an outsider’s perspective, he could understand why she saw it that way, but there was more to the story that he hadn’t ever talked about with anyone—until now “You never saw us before my dad died”

“What was it like?”

“It was…” Words failed hi up at the star-filled night unlike any he ever saw in Harbor City, an achy soreness started in theit’s not now My dad’s death was completely unexpected We didn’t have time to prepare, to think, to plan It was just like all of the sudden the world had changed I had to take over Carlyle Enterprises Hudson and I had to take care of ourwas…different”

“Toothick in her voice as she reached out and intertwined her fingers with his and squeezed

“And they were never my specialty”

Fuck, now that was an understatement Still, when he ith Clover all he could notice were the details The silk of her hair The s in theIt was all the little things fro for adventure that erous to him

He should get up now Walk back to the house Go to bed Wake up and fake his way through a brunch with a faain But he didn’t move a muscle

Maybe Hudson was right and all of those Ro here with Clover he couldn’t think of any place he’d rather be Or ht, so that if he said out loud would probably send her sprinting toward her next adventure like a world record–holding track-and-field star

She shifted beside hi her movements, he did the same They were so close, mouths only inches apart, but neither of thean as a buzz in the back of his head and moved south

Her pink tongue darted out and glided across her pluo in yet”

“And I’ his head, he closed the distance between theht to