The very tip of her tongue darted out and gave the center of my bottom lip a little lick. It was the best kiss I’d ever had and it was barely a kiss at all. She fell back on her heels and gave my shoulders a little push so that I would let her go. I took a step back and used the tip of my own tongue to chase the way she tasted off my lips. Sweet. Everything about her was always so damn sweet. Her taste was going to be branded on every part of my memory long after she was gone, just like I could feel the touch of warmth against my skin and know she had been in the room recently. She thought I wasn’t aware of her. The truth was she was the only thing I’d been aware of since getting back home and turning in my fatigues.

She gave her head a little shake and blinked her eyes up at me like she was struggling to see me. A truck flew past us and blasted the horn, which made her jump and had me scowling after it as it disappeared down the road. “We should probably get moving. Being parked on the side of the highway in the dark isn’t much safer than riding down it.”

She nodded absently and waited for me to get back on the bike. When she crawled on behind me I expected her to sit stiffly the way she had been for most of the evening. I was a little surprised when she curled into my back and even more surprised when I felt the press of her cheek between my shoulder blades. It was nice to have a pretty girl that I had a hard-on for wind her way around me and hold on like she would never let me go.

The next exit was about twenty miles up the road and luckily there was a motel that didn’t look like it was a frequent sight for crime scenes or used as a meth lab, so I pulled over and stopped. I wasn’t sure if there was going to be an awkward talk while we discussed if we were sharing a room or not, honestly I was fine either way. I was used to sleeping in barracks and under the desert sky, so anything that even remotely resembled a bed was fine with me, but I never had the opportunity to ask because she shoved her credit card at me and told me to put her room on it as she hefted her backpack over her shoulders and told me she would be at the diner across the street when I was done.

I couldn’t tell if she was really that hungry or if she was cutting me some slack and taking the choice and the conversation out of my hands. I went into the office, pleased that the clerk didn’t look like an extra from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and secured us two adjoining rooms. Of course I paid for both. This long-overdue and overly dramatic homecoming was all of my making, so I had no intention of letting her pay for anything along the way. I already owed her more than I could ever repay.

I moved the bike so that it was in front of our rooms, dropped my stuff off inside the room I decided would be mine, and then made my way over to the diner. Dixie was already at a booth, a chocolate milkshake in front of her as she chatted with a waitress who looked tired but was still smiling because it was impossible not to smile at the redhead when she turned that infectious grin and those big doe eyes on you. I slid in across from her and got a raised eyebrow from the waitress. Her keen gaze skimmed over me and she turned to give Dixie a wink that made me frown. I ordered a cheeseburger without looking at the menu and narrowed my eyes at Dixie as she stuck the straw sticking out of the frothy drink into her mouth and sucked.

The way her mouth puckered and her cheeks hollowed out immediately made me think of her sucking on something else like that, which had me shifting uncomfortably on the seat and trying to discreetly adjust my jeans. “Why did she wink at you before she walked away?”

Her tongue darted out to catch a stray dollop of whipped cream that dotted her lip and I had to bite back a groan. “I told her I was waiting on the best-looking guy she was going to have in her section all week. She’s working a double because the girl that was supposed to relieve her called in sick and that means she had to leave her kids with their dad who has a live in girlfriend that is barely over eighteen. You walked in and proved me right. She needed something to make her smile.”

The waitress walked over and poured me a cup of coffee without asking if that’s what I wanted. I wasn’t really the smiling type but I did manage a stiff lip twitch for her when she let her gaze roll over me. There was a twinkle in her tired eyes that I knew Dixie was entirely responsible for. She simply had that effect on everyone that crossed her path.

“Did I ever tell you that you remind me of someone I used to know? Someone that also thought it was her job to make everyone she came into contact with smile.” I picked up the coffee and gave it a sip. It was surprisingly good.

She stuck a finger in the whipped cream on the top of her drink and stuck it in her mouth. I didn’t bother to hide my reaction to her innocent seduction. I could feel the heat in my gaze as I stared at her and I watched as it made her cheeks turn pink. She was cute but when she blushed she was so fucking adorable that it felt unfair.

“You’ve never told me much of anything, Church.” Her words cut because they were true. She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “When my dad got hurt he couldn’t work anymore and my mom was juggling a lot. She was trying to take care of him and of me and my little sister. She had to find a job but she had been home with us for so long that she wasn’t really qualified to do much besides service industry jobs. We had to downsize and move. We had to change schools. Things were really rough at home and everyone was in a pretty bad place. I figured the least I could do was try to be the one that stayed positive about things. I’ve always believed that you get what you put out there in the world and my family was putting out enough bad vibes that someone had to counteract that before karma kicked all of our asses. Sometimes it’s so much easier to focus on what went wrong rather than what went right.” She shrugged again. “It must have worked. Dad settled into his new normal and actually ended up being way better at staying home with us than my mom ever was, Mom got promoted at the hotel she was working at from banquet server to a conference planner, so she ended up making more than my dad did when he was working full-time, and a few years later my sister met Wheeler and he managed to curb some of her worst spoiled-brat tendencies. Having a positive attitude and an optimistic outlook on life didn’t cost me anything, and it was what my family needed from me. I guess I never stopped being everyone’s cheerleader.” Her chocolate gaze narrowed fractionally. “Who do I remind you of?”