He got it out, gave it to her, hooked her around the neck and pulled her to him for a quick, hard kiss.

When he let her go, he got her dimple.

Then he got to watch her ass in her tight jeans as she walked away.

* * *

Three hours later…

Emme was collapsed on top of him, her face in his neck, her knees in the bed on either side of him, straddling him, her chest pressed to his, near on dead weight.

He ran his hands down the heated, soft skin of her bare ass and whispered, “Tender, baby?”

She mumbled, “Mm…” and fell asleep in the middle of mumbling it.

Totally out.

Deck smiled at the ceiling and wrapped his arms around her.

Suffice it to say, Emme got off on taking it up a notch.

In a big way.

Yes.

Absolutely.

His girl had it all.

* * *

Five days later…

Emme’s arm tightened around his stomach.

“Mm… no, honey, read here. I can sleep with the light.”

Her words were muffled since her face was mostly smushed in his chest. She’d just felt him make a move to leave the bed.

She liked him to stay close.

He liked to give her the option.

“Sure?” he asked

She didn’t answer. She was gone.

He carefully shifted, turned on the light on her nightstand and looked back down at her.

She didn’t even twitch.

He grabbed his book from the nightstand, shifted up the headboard and took her with him.

She didn’t move or make a sound.

One-handed, his other arm around her curled into his side, Deck opened his book.

Buford got up, circled the bed then collapsed on it lengthwise, four legs spread out, his groan sounding only after he was settled in.

Deck watched this and smiled.

His eyes went back to his book, and he smelled strawberries so they tipped down to Emme’s hair all over his chest. Her body warm, legs tangled with his, arm still draped over his stomach.

He looked to his dog taking most of her bed then to his girl.

Even as the blood in his veins heated, something warm settled deep in his gut.

This time, he was not going to miss it.

This time, he knew exactly what it was.

This was because he knew he didn’t have it totally right.

His girl had it all.

And now he did too.

Chapter Twelve

Bottom of My Soul

Two days later…

“Only you would grill chops in a f**kin’ snowstorm.”

Deck looked from the built-in grill on his back patio to Chace. They were outside. They were wearing jackets. They were drinking beer and Deck was grilling chops. It was, in fact, snowing. However, they were covered by the patio’s overhang.

“Look at these chops,” Deck ordered. Chace looked to the thick pork chops on the grill then at Deck and he grinned. Deck grinned back and finished, “Now, quit your bitchin’.”

Chace kept grinning then his eyes wandered to the huge windows and he kept his grin but it changed.

Deck looked that way too and saw Emme and Faye sitting on one of his couches. Emme, unsurprisingly, was talking. Faye was smiling.

Deck had to admit Faye was all kinds of pretty. The mountain girl next door. Even prettier now, heavy with Chace’s baby, glowing, happy, expectant.

But Emme—in a form-fitting, stylish sweater, tight jeans and bare feet with her toes painted wine red, her hair gleaming, bangs falling into her eyes, face animated—was stunning.

He looked back to Chace. “Surprised you’re here, man. What is she now? Two days past due?”

Chace tore his eyes from his wife and looked to his friend. “Yeah. Two. But she got to talkin’ to Emme, Emme mentioned she wanted us over so you could cook food that makes The Rooster seem like Taco Bell, and they could bond. Faye said no time like the present. My girl,” he shook his head, “nothin’ fazes her. She says Jake’ll come when he comes, and she figures our kid wouldn’t want her hanging around doin’ nothin’ while she waits for that to happen. So she’s not gonna do that.”

That sounded like Faye.

And Deck loved that Chace was naming his firstborn after him. Loved it so much he was going to return the favor. It might make things confusing, kids running around with their names, but he didn’t give a f**k.

It said a lot.

It meant a lot.

So he was going to do it.

“I gave in,” Chace went on, and Deck focused on him, “mostly because your house is closer to the hospital.” Another grin before, “Her bag’s in the car.”

Deck smiled. “Good thinking. Give her what she wants but have what you need.”

“Yep,” Chace replied, taking a sip from his beer. When he was finished, he asked, “Things cool with Emme?”

Deck looked back down to the chops but he knew his lips were curved up. “Yeah.”

“She okay with your folks comin’ to town?”

This was the most recent news.

Deck’s mom and dad were coming for a visit.

Deck was born and raised in Colorado, just outside Aspen.

Years ago, when Deck was in college, Deck’s dad had declared he was done with snow and took a job in San Diego. After retiring two years ago, they stayed. They didn’t visit often, Deck normally went to them, and they never came in winter or spring.

But his mom had called and Deck had told her about Emme. Then his dad got on the phone.

Deck remembered they’d met her once, one of the many times Emme popped by Deck and Elsbeth’s place. He remembered but they didn’t. That said, Richard Decker heard how Deck was talking about her and decided they were due for a visit. In March. When they avoided Colorado until June, earliest.

Though he was worried she wouldn’t, Emme took this news in stride. She seemed completely unaffected by it. But Deck was keeping a close watch on her in case she was hiding nerves.

To all appearances, she wasn’t.

“Seems to be,” Deck answered Chace.

“Outside the norm, Rich and Karla comin’ out when snow’s on the ground,” Chace remarked.

Deck finished flipping chops and looked at his friend. “Didn’t say it, where I am with Emmanuelle, but you know Dad. He heard it. Then he laid it out. He’s thinkin’ Emme and me bein’ together less than a month and this bein’ where it’s at is too soon. So he’s settin’ up to check things out and offer a father’s wisdom.”

“If it’s right, it’s right,” Chace stated quietly, and he would know.

After his life turned to shit, when it made the turn back, he’d connected with Faye, gave her no space whatsoever from the start and from the first night he had her in his bed, he’d never slept another one without her at his side.

“Dad’s Dad, Chace. You know him,” Deck replied. “He sticks his nose in anything he can when it has to do with his boys. Or, for that matter, f**kin’ anything.”

“I know, Deck, but you’re not twenty-three and thinkin’ with your eyes and dick.”

Now he was talking about Elsbeth, and Deck took no offense. They both knew that was the God’s honest truth with what went down with her, and they both had a bent toward stating it plain.

“Elsbeth was sweet, when she wasn’t being a grasping bitch, but Emme, pure you,” Chace continued, his eyes drifted to the windows and he muttered, “Fuck, like she was made for you.”

Deck looked to the windows and watched his girl smile, her dimple appearing as Faye burst out laughing. He saw Buford, flat out on his side by the one foot she had on the floor. Her other leg was tucked under her. She was leaned into Faye, hands up, still gesturing even as Faye laughed.

Watching her, he couldn’t say he wasn’t thinking with his eyes and his dick. It was just that, this time, they weren’t disengaged from his brain.

“Right,” Chace stated, and Deck’s eyes went back to him. “Freezin’ my ass off and salivating just watchin’ those chops cook, might as well take this time to fill you in without the women around.”

He was talking about the case that the task force was still working to put the finishing touches on for the DA.

“Give it to me,” Deck invited.

“That crew we brought down, bein’ good. Not associatin’ with each other. Checkin’ in with their bondsmen. Keepin’ their noses clean. Dane McFarland, though, is also keepin’ his head down. Way down. He’s got a brother and sister tied up in that mess, but far’s we can tell, they’ve cut ties.”

“Glad you’re keepin’ an eye on him, but like I said, he’s a f**kwad creep, Chace, but he’s not the ringleader. His best friend, that dealer, Danny, called the shots,” Deck told him.

Chace nodded but replied, “I get why you’d think that. But the man McFarland had a meet with that night you searched Emme’s place the night before you were deputized by Kenton was not found for questioning. Nor was he implicated by anything you turned up. Plate I ran from his truck puts him in Carnal. Been by his house a dozen times since then. He’s not at home, boss says he’s on extended leave, family emergency, unknown when he’s comin’ back. That’s fishy, Deck.”