“That won’t happen.”

“You don’t think it will until it does,” he stated and his words made me still underneath him. “You worked too fuckin’ hard on this place not to enjoy the goodness you created. Do not put that in jeopardy.”

“Did that happen to you?” I asked cautiously.

“What?” he asked back.

“Did you lose something to the bank?”

His head cocked to the side. “Fuck no. Never owned property in my life and definitely never had a loan.”

That was intriguing, but I didn’t have time to get into it, he wasn’t done talking.

“I just know that shit goes down and it sucks. But if that shit happened to you with what I’ve watched you put into this place the last six years, it would do more than suck.”

He was not wrong.

He was also still not done.

“You refinance only if you’re gettin’ a better rate, you roll that second mortgage into it but you don’t borrow more to build the laundry or a gazebo. You don’t do those at all until you got the cash to pay for it or I got a good amount of time at Glacier Lily to put them up for you.”

Again, there was a lot there, all of it we had to go over, and I decided to start with the part that interested me most.

“You’ll put them up for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh, how are you gonna do that, Deacon? We’re not talking cleaning gutters here.”

I saw a veil slide over his features. He didn’t shut down, but he still shut me out.

He did this further by answering simply, “Got the skills.”

I took a moment to decide whether to push that or not.

In that moment I saw his expression remain veiled and we’d just shared something beautiful. I didn’t want to do anything to mar that, like push it when he wasn’t ready. So I let that go.

“The laundry would be a very nice added service,” I told him. “That’s probably the biggest request I get. There’s a Laundromat in town but people don’t like to schlep their stuff to town. And those coin-op machines cost a whack to use. It would pay for itself.”

“It could also start payin’ for itself when you can pocket that shit, not you earnin’ back what you put into it, givin’ it away, takin’ more time to do that since you’re payin’ interest on what you borrowed.”

He was again not wrong and this was sounding familiar.

“My dad would say that,” I told him.

“See your dad isn’t the scarecrow either,” he replied and I grinned.

“No, he isn’t.”

“No increase on your loan, Cassidy,” he ordered.

“You’re being bossy again, Deacon,” I returned, my grin dying, my decision not to mar this beautiful moment in cabin eleven suddenly forgotten. “Even if you do me the huge favor of building it for me, I have to pay you something and buy materials.”

“Pay me?” he asked, his tone weirdly incredulous.

“Yes,” I answered, my tone understandably determined.

“Pay me,” he repeated, but it wasn’t a question this time. It was an opportunity for me to take back what I said.

“Yes, Deacon. You wouldn’t be cleaning out gutters; you’d be building a building.”

At that, he looked to the pillow and told it, “She’s naked in my bed in eleven, my cum leakin’ outta her,” his eyes came back to mine, “so this conversation ends here.”

“We should get this straight,” I pointed out, because we should. Relationships crashed and burned after arguments about money and I didn’t want that for ours.

“We can do that when you’re not naked with my cum leakin’ out of you in my bed in cabin eleven,” he returned.

I sighed because he was right.

Deacon decided it was time to move on.

“What food you want me to bring?”

“The Red Hot Blues and the hummus,” I answered immediately and his lips started curving up. “And a bottle of red wine. And glasses. And whatever you want to drink, though you’re welcome to wine. And the rest of the pie. We’ll use the forks and plates in the kitchen.”

“See I’m gonna be makin’ more than one trip,” he muttered.

“I could help you,” I noted.

He pressed deeper into me. “You could. You aren’t. You’re gonna be lazy because, woman, trust me, you’re gonna need your energy.”

I squirmed under him at that promise and instantly acquiesced, “I’ll stay here.”

His lips curved up again and he replied, “Good call.”

“Though, I’m kinda hungry and I’m also leaking.”

“Right,” he murmured, taking my hint. He bent in, touched his mouth to mine, then said, “I’ll go.”

Then he went, sliding off me and rolling off the bed.

I switched positions to get under the covers.

When I had the covers up over my breasts and Deacon was pulling on his clothes, I called, “Honey?”

He kept his side to me, his hands doing up the buttons of his jeans, but he slid his eyes my way. “Yeah?”

“Hurry.”

At my word, his face darkened and he turned to me, bending deep. Putting a fist on the bed and one hand to my cheek, he bent deeper and took my mouth in a long, hot, wet kiss. When he released my mouth, he touched his lips to my forehead in a short, sweet kiss.

Then he straightened away, pulled on his tee, sat on the side of the bed to yank on his boots, and took off.

And with the amount of time it took him to get back, I knew he didn’t waste any.

* * * * *

Deacon

Hours later, in the quiet dark, Deacon lay in the bed he’d lain in many times before, this time doing it feeling Cassie’s soft body tucked to his side, her arm draped over his stomach, her cheek pressed to his chest, listening to her breathing.

All those times before, and more when he was on the road and away from Glacier Lily, he’d dreamed of this too.

I hope you know what you’re doing, asshole, he thought.

But he knew he had no clue.

He just knew he couldn’t stop doing it.

On that thought, he pulled her closer and closed his eyes.

Chapter Ten

Badasses Can Compromise

“They’re my gutters, Deacon.”

“You paid for the ladder, Cassidy.”

“So, it’s my ladder too. Or are you gonna take it with you on your next job?”

It was the next morning, after sex in cabin eleven, a shower in cabin eleven (something else that made Deacon and my dreams come true in spectacular ways, though, these didn’t end in tears, only moans—me, and groans—Deacon) and coming back to the house to have breakfast (eggs and bacon for Deacon, made by me, but I had oatmeal).