Never Stopped Loving You (28 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Kara buttoned her pants, leaned over the bed and slapped Wade on his naked back end. “Hurry up!”

He groaned and those curvy cheeks of his that she’d gotten her hands on last night flinched. “You’re killing me, woman.”

“I’m saving you. Sleep through breakfast and see how far you get today.”

He pushed up on his elbows and revealed more of his completely naked body on his—their—bed. A shiver went over her, but she resisted. “People will be knocking on the front door any minute now.”

He laughed. “Knocking? With these people around here? There would be no knocking.”

“All the more reason to get up.” She slipped her shoes on.

“All the more reason to hide in our bedroom for the day.”

“All right. Stay here and let your sister catch you naked again.” A pillow flew at her and she ducked.

“Evil woman. What are you cooking?”

“At this rate? I’ll fill you a bowl of cereal for breakfast. People will be here in two hours and I haven’t even started baking yet! I’ll be lucky to just get some cookies out.”

He pushed up to sitting on his naked butt and put the front side of his completely
naked
body on display. All those great muscles and tanned skin. Light hair across his chest and down his belly. Yeah. Reexploring all that, first chance she got.

He scrubbed over his face. “I told you to do that last night.”

She picked the pillow up and threw it back at him. “Last I remember was someone telling me we should go to bed.”

“And I told you to go back later.”

“Yep! Cold cereal for you.” She turned and cleared the doorway just as a pillow came sailing back out. Laughter bubbling in her stomach had her bouncing down the steps and into her beautiful kitchen with counters and cooking space and that sexy stove she’d drooled over in the store. She plucked her apron from the oven door handle and strapped it on to begin work.

It was Halloween and the fields were ripe with big pumpkins waiting to be carved up by kids and their parents. It was also the first time opening their home up. She wiggled her finger and the ruby stone flashed at her. Also the official announcement of their wedding date.

Best. Day. Ever.

She tied her apron in place and her front door opened with a knock. “Knock, knock!”

She knew that voice and she started to the door. “Come in!”

She cut across the living room as Mrs. Jana walked in with a bag over her shoulder. Kara wrapped her up tight. “What are you doing here?”

Jana returned the hug. “Did you think I would miss the big announcement day? I hope you two can agree on a day before this afternoon.”

“We did.” December twenty-fifth. She’d wanted a spring wedding since that’s when she’d come back to town. Wade wanted something sooner rather than later and argued what was more home and family and love than Christmas Day. He was a hard man to disagree with.

Kara squeezed Jana one last time and leaned back. “Glad you came.”

She reached in her bag and pulled out the paper. “I picked it up for you. Still can’t get the paperboy to bring it all the way to the house, I guess?”

“Not a chance.” She grabbed the paper and stuck it securely under her arm as she led her future mother-in-law into the living room. “That quarter-mile-long gravel road would just kill him after driving all the way out here.” She gestured around at the room. “What do you think?”

Jana shook her head as she looked up at the high ceilings with the exposed rafter beams. “I can’t believe this used to be a barn.”

“Mom?” Wade called from upstairs and rounded the corner. He paused midstep, then trotted down. “What are you doing here?”

She hugged Wade, and Kara couldn’t help it, she wiped at her eyes. Happy was awesome.

Wade patted his mom’s back and brought her in against his side. “How long are you staying?”

“All the way through Thanksgiving.”

“Your bags in the car?”

She nodded. “Whitney has them.”

“I’ll help her. Glad you came. Kara needs you right now. She went to bed early last night instead of baking for the kids today. She’s such a risk to this farm.”

Kara pulled her newspaper out and slapped him on the back of the head. This thing had more than one use. She lowered the paper by her side. More than once over the past several weeks she wondered what the point of it was. All her dreams were coming true. Fantasyland was no longer a fantasy. She placed the paper back under her arm. In the end, it was always a good reminder that her life was awesome.

And it was only going uphill from here.

* * * * *

About the Author

Keri Ford was raised in South Arkansas on a farm surrounded by family, horses, cows, donkeys, ostriches, emus, chickens, ducks, Canada Geese and enough dogs to make one think they were a pound...and then she bought a
Cosmopolitan
magazine when she was twenty-two. All it took was one excerpt of a sexy romantic suspense and her life would never be the same. Well, parts of it. She still lives on that farm.

Visit Keri online at
keriford.com
.

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ISBN-13: 9781426897528

NEVER STOPPED LOVING YOU

Copyright © 2013 by Keri Ford

Edited by Melissa Johnson

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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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