Crossed: Book Two (A NEW ADULT ROMANCE) by Emma Browning Page B

Marcus for a few hours and he sleeps part of that time. We agree that we’ll be back in the morning and then Tyson and I take off. Nicky stays behind with him.
    Tyson and I are going out for the night. We agree it will be nice to go out for a ride, have a drink and a nice dinner. And try to just get back to what we are calling our “normal” life. Things have gone really well the last week and a half. And I feel like we have made some real progress towards working through everything that’s happened between us.
    We stop at a local bar to have a drink.
    “Everything okay?” I ask him. He’s been very quiet today, but I’ve assumed it’s because of everything with Marcus.
    “Yeah, uh why?” he responds.
    “Oh nothing, you’ve just been very quiet today.” I say and when I look over at him, I notice a quiver in his lip.
    “Well, Kase,” he says.
    “I’m just so happy right now. I don’t know how to even tell you about it. I just thought walking away from Mexico and my work with your dad would be a total disaster for me. For us. And it’s not. It’s been the opposite. I feel so free. So relieved. I’ve come to realize that it is all going to be okay. I can handle this.”
    “You’ve been holding onto that, I know. And I can understand it now. It was so hard a few weeks ago. There was so much going on. I knew it was right and I still know you made the right decision,” I say.
    “I’m so happy with you Kase. And I’m so happy we’re taking it slow now. Actually is a good thing for me now too.”
    I see his smile again. That smile that I knew before. It’s come back. Butterflies fill my stomach and I feel like I’ll take off at any minute with their flight. Confirming his feeling, I put my hand on his thigh and give a light squeeze. His face lights up and as he is turning to me, he says, “I’m so happy now, Kase. Thank you for being here for me.”
    “Always, Tyson. Thank you for coming to me,” I say. I lean over and kiss him gently on the side of his face. I feel the heat of his skin and it makes my hand move further inside his leg.
    Our drinks come and go and we walk out of the bar to the street. We are planning to go to a local diner that we both love, but Tyson pulls my hand in the other direction and starts moving faster. We are at a steady walk, and I pull back to slow him down, “Why are we walking so fast?” I ask.
    “Just come on,” he says, pulling me faster. It is nearly dark outside and I wonder if we’ll eat yet tonight. We get to his motorbike and he motions me to get on the back, handing me the helmet for that purpose.
    We get going and we ride north getting off the road about ten minutes later, well short of the cabin exit. “What are we doing?” I ask. Where is he taking me now?
    “You’ll see. Just relax.”
    We get to the road and I recognize it as the same road into the hills where I went with Nicky and Marcus for that party. We get to the site where the fire was and I see there is a much smaller stack of wood sitting there. We stop, get off of the bike and he opens one of the back compartments. Everything comes out for a picnic and I start laughing.
    “What, why are you laughing?” he asks, more seriously now.
    “Oh, sorry it’s not funny. I am impressed with your skills. I didn’t know you could put something together like this.”
    “Well, I do have some talents that you don’t know about.”
    “I don’t think I want to know any more about your other talents,” I say joking. “Haven’t we had enough shooting and fighting to last us awhile?”
    He lights the fire, looks over to me smiling and says, “Well, now I’ve turned my attention to cooking. So maybe you can benefit from that effort too.”
    I’m about to melt again with that smile when he hands me a flute, pulls one out for himself, and pops the cork off of a bottle of champagne. He pours both and holds up his glass to me. I raise my glass to meet his with nervous anticipation. I don’t know