14
Clara waited fifteen minutes before she slipped out of the kitchen and went up the stairs. Jesse’s room was empty, so she knocked on the door of the adjacent bathroom.
“ Ocupado ,” came his voice over the sound of the fan.
“Are you dressed? Let me in.”
The door opened and steam engulfed her. Jesse was bare above the waist and shaving over the sink.
“Wow, you’re not wearing a shirt,” she said, hopping up onto the counter beside him. “Look at your abs! That’s crazy.”
He sighed. “What do you want, Clara?”
“I thought you might want someone to doctor your war injury.”
He turned his head to show her the red mark on his jaw. “I already did it myself. Was that it?”
“Yeah, but I’m not leaving while this is going on,” she said frankly.
He glanced at her again, reluctantly amused.
Focus, Clara. “Mom said we’re letting bygones be bygones.”
“Yeah?”
“Which means no one’s allowed to talk about it at her birthday lunch. Act natural.”
“Fine with me. Guess we both need some time to decide what we believe.”
Clara didn’t think that was her mother’s reasoning, but she could understand that he might have one or two lingering trust issues. “As long as you don’t hate her anymore.”
“I didn’t hate her.”
“You just felt like she hated you?”
He finished shaving his upper lip before answering. “I don’t know. Kind of.”
“But now you know everyone loves you. With or without a shirt.”
“Are you trying to make me blush?”
“That, or ask me out,” she said without thinking.
His dark eyes snapped to hers.
“’Morning,” Beck grumbled from the open doorway. “Good to see you, Jesse. Almost didn’t recognize ya.”
“Beck. How you doing, man?”
They shook hands.
“All right,” Beck answered. “Oh, hey, Clare, got you something.”
“You did?”
He handed her a little plastic bag. “Saw it at Buc-ee’s last night.”
“That’s so sweet, Beck,” she exclaimed, taking out a delicate turquoise bracelet. “It’s super cute. And I have a belt that’ll match it.”
“Well, there you go. Mom up yet?”
“Yeah, in the kitchen. Dad’s frying bacon.”
“Cool,” he said. “Hey. Did Clara really have a hangover last weekend?”
“Definitely,” Jesse answered, toweling his face.
“Not cool,” Beck told his sister with a sleepy grin, and then slapped the top of the door jamb before vanishing down the hall.
They were alone once more and it was very quiet. Time for a little damage control.
Clara fastened her new bracelet and hopped off the counter. “I was just kidding before, you know. About you asking me out.”
Jesse finished rinsing his razor and tossed it into his Dopp kit. “Don’t worry about it. You’re probably ovulating.”
Spoken like a man who’d never consider asking her out, even if she moved back to Austin.
“Moisturize,” she reminded him glumly.
“Uh-huh.”
He rubbed lotion into his face with alarming vehemence, sprayed antiperspirant under his arms and pulled on a T-shirt.
“Time for breakfast,” he announced, and hit the light switches on his way out of the room, plunging her into semi-darkness.
Clara followed slowly, reflecting ruefully that there was nothing like a shirtless man shaving his face to make a girl sit up and take notice.