Love Uncovered (Forbidden Fruit) by Evelyn Adams Read Free Book Online

but God he loved his son. He loved all of them. He’d be lost without Julie and the kids.
    “Sometimes would be okay,” she said, balancing her plate on her lap. “I wouldn’t mind sometimes if it made you happier when you were with us.”
    Max smiled and reached for her hand, brushing a kiss across the tips of her fingers. They sat side by side, hands twined, for a few moments in the growing dusk and watched the sun start to sink below the horizon. The lake reflected back the corals, salmons and smoky purples of the sunset and Max was struck by the simple pleasure of sharing a beer with his wife and watching the sun set. After all these years and everything they’d been through together, she was still his favorite person in the world. How many people got to say that after sixteen years? Fucking that up would be a sin.
    “I love you, Jules.” He squeezed her hand and watched her smile out of the corner of his eye.
    “I love you, too.”
    He waited for her to raise the bottle to her lips before he spoke again. “And it’s not just because you let me fuck you in a hay field in the middle of the day.” She spluttered on her mouthful of beer and he grinned at her. “Although that was memorable.”
    She stood, still coughing a little and reached for his empty plate . “Light the fire, stud. I’ll go get dessert.”
    As the sun went do wn, the temperature started to drop. Unfortunately, the bugs came out, too. Max bent and lit the fire in the red clay chiminea. It was cracked and flaking from years of hard use, but it let them have a fire without burning down the deck and knocked the bugs back to tolerable. He’d managed to settle himself in the Adirondack to watch the fire when Julie came back balancing a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, chocolate and a skewer. He hurried to help her before she stabbed herself.
    “ S’mores,” she said, the triumph in her voice making her sound decades younger than she was. She dropped the s’more fixings on his lap and knelt in front of the fire. “Here, I’ll toast; you fix them.” She stuck a marshmallow on the end of the skewer and held it over the fire. In moments, it had started to flame and was quickly turning to charcoal. “Crap!” She yanked it from the fire and blew furiously on the burning sugar.
    With her hair piled on her head and the fire lighting her face she was so beautiful she took his breath. He watched as she flung the burnt treat and licked the sticky bits from her fingers. She looked so free and unencumbered, like there was nothing more important in the world than toasting marshmallows with him. God, he loved her. He’d missed this so much, missed her, his Julie laughing and playful. She reached for the bag and he put a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back to him.
    “You should wait a couple of minutes for the fire to die down. Come here.” He tugged until she was settled between his legs. Resting his hands on her neck, he used the pads of his thumbs to rub the base of her skull.
    “God, that feels good,” she groaned, practically purring. She draped her arms over his legs and melted into him. They sat for a few moments, watching the fire while Max rubbed her neck and shoulders.
    “What about you, Jules? What would you change?” He felt her stiffen under his hands and forced himself to sit still and wait for her response. She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her knees.
    “I don’t know.” He voice sounded small and sad and he fought hard to keep from rushing in and explaining to her why she shouldn’t want change anything. Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t true. Neither of them had been happy lately. “I don’t like myself very much anymore. Hell, I don’t recognize myself most of the time. I miss who I used to be.”
    It was his turn to freeze. “Do you wish we hadn’t done this – got married, had the kids?”This time his dragons closed in on the circle of their fire.
    “ No, of course not.” She