Uninhibited in Apple Trail, Arkansas - Volume 2 by Keri Ford Page A

was not going to do without her. Period. She was just going to have to get over it.
    He pushed off his truck and returned to the back porch only to find it empty. He turned in the yard and backed up to look at the old, weather streaked windows of the second floor. God, this house was in bad repair.
    The formally white, beautiful home looked mostly rotted. Two of the five second story windows were broken. Only a single screen remained on one. The roof was missing several shingles. He squinted, seeing something over the roof in sections, some sort of blue patches, but he couldn’t tell what they were. The once tall and beautiful chimney was crumbling.
    His jaw hardened. He should have seen this sooner. “Tiffany!”
    There was no answer. He searched all the windows as close as he could for shadows, but saw nothing. “Tiffany!”
    Still nothing. No. She wasn’t getting away that easy. She’d have to kill him first. He marched up the steps and jerked open the back screen door. The whole damn door ripped from the frame and he stood there, staring at the door in his hand and wood crumbling from the rusted hinges. “What the hell.”
    “The house is falling apart. You have to be gentle with her.”
    Mike turned around, still holding the door to see Jessie standing there. “I’ll fix that.”
    She shrugged and moved up the steps. “Second step on the back porch is iffy. The third step on the front we skip over entirely.”
    Mike sat the door aside. “This isn’t safe.”
    “It’s home.” She walked in the now open doorway. “Avoid the dining room. The ceiling fan has fallen a bit.”
    He peaked in to see the fan holding on by a few wires and the blades were fucking duct taped to the ceiling like they were in a sling. The ceiling itself, was caving from the weight. “Jessie.”
    She swallowed. “If you go up the stairs, stay next to the wall. And don’t run. The handrails shake.”
    “Jessie, this is insane.”
    She turned and shrugged another shoulder. “This is home. It’s the best we can do. Now what did you do to Tiffany to make her run off.”
    “She’s being unreasonable.” He followed her into the kitchen, making his steps fast as he passed under the sagging and leaning frame from the breakfast room to the kitchen. It looked like some kind of earthquake damage…only the few quakes to hit this area were so small, you didn’t feel them. “How long has this been like this?”
    “A few years. It didn’t all happen at once, of course. Just bits over time. Is Tiffany being unreasonable, or are you?”
    He crossed his arms over his chest. “She is. She wants to—”
    “I know. She wants to take care of you.”
    “That’s bullshit.”
    She shook her head and pulled a glass from the counter. She lifted a pair of pliers, twisted the faucet on, filled her glass with water and twisted it back off with the tool. “You can either make it right, or I can kill you. There’s not much I can do for her or protect her from, but don’t think for a moment I’ll let someone hurt her and get away with it.”
    He eased back a step, not doubting for a second that she wasn’t serious. “I need to find her. Where’s her bedroom?”
    “She’s not in her room. She takes walks when she’s upset.” She slanted him a look, a look that said he wasn’t earning himself any favors. “You must have made her cry.”
    He swallowed down the knot filling his throat. “It’s not what I wanted. I love her.”
    Jessie smiled behind her cup. “Then give her what she wants.”
    “I refuse to hide. She’s worth more to me than anything.”
    Jessie’s brow rose in response. “If you love her, then you’ll give her what she wants.”
    “If she loved me, she’d marry me and that would be the end of it. Time would put her past to rest and everything would be fine.”
    Jessie choked on her water. “You asked her to marry you?”
    Marry? Had he said that? He sighed, pulling both hands over his face. He had said marry. And