Chapter 6
Chapter Six
IAN
I heard the sound of Jane’s breath drawing in sharply and felt her attention whipping toward me. I slid my gaze sideways. Her eyes were narrowed, and her cheeks a little flushed.
“I'm fine,” she said, her tone sharp.
“Well, that was a sigh over there.” I looked forward again. I didn't know why, but I enjoyed needling Jane.
“I was breathing,” she sputtered.
“Of course, you were breathing, but that was a heavy sigh. You sounded annoyed.”
She let out a huff. “Well, now I'm annoyed. Obviously, at you.”
I chuckled. “What did I do? I'm not the one who tried to drive down a snow-covered driveway and hit a boulder. I told you it wasn't a good idea.”
“Oh, my God,” she muttered. “I've been driving on winter roads for years. I grew up here, for God's sake. I didn't think about the boulders marking the end of the driveway. So yes, if you want to give me a little hell about that, go right ahead.” She swept her hand through the air.
I bit back the urge to laugh again. “Can you give me the name of whoever plows your driveway?” she asked. “I'll call them to have them go over to my parents’ place.”
“I'll call,” I offered.
“I can call,” Jane insisted.
“Jane, it's a friend. I'll take care of it. They might be booked up, but they’ll fit it in for me.” I didn’t want to say out loud that I’d already made the arrangements for her.
She let out another belabored sigh. “Oh my god, are you kidding?”
“No, I'm not kidding. I'll take care of it.”
I could practically feel her bristling. “Could you please just give me the information?” Before I could respond, she added, “You know what? Don't even bother. I'll find someone myself.”
Oh, great. Now, I’d have to tell her I’d already dealt with it. “No point. I already called them. It'll be taken care of once the storm is over.”
“Well, how much are they charging? I need to pay for it.”
“No, you don't,” I ground out. “I'll take care of it.”
“Oh, my god. You are really bossy.”
“Maybe so, but I don't really care.”
Jane mumbled something under her breath. This time, I chuckled aloud.
When we got back to the house, Jane promptly went up to the bedroom she’d claimed. That was fine with me. I put away the groceries that I'd left on the counter in a hurry. After that, I
began working on a project I'd started during my last visit here. Between my brothers and I, we were gradually getting this house back in order. This house and the property it sat on were the only assets that had survived the aftermath of my father’s fraud case.
The furniture had been sold off, along with just about everything else.
We’d used the proceeds to reimburse losses for those affected by the fraud.
The house had sat empty for several years, and it had been old, to begin with, so I had plenty of things to work on.
We'd replaced the boiler last year. I'd set out to gradually update the windows and sills and redo the cabinets in the kitchen. With it being winter, I didn't want to do any painting, but I’d basically turned the rec room downstairs into a workshop, so I’d started cutting the trim for the numerous windows in this house.
This project would probably take me two or three years, depending on how often I could travel up here.
I didn't mind. It gave me something to focus on and was a complete shift from what I usually did, which was to bury my head in numbers and deal with investment decisions.
For the past six months, I'd been smack in the middle of the whistleblower case. It was hard to ignore the tension about that and even more difficult to ignore my laptop and emails. I’d actually disconnected my email accounts on my phone, which was a smart move because then I couldn't easily check them.
After a few hours of work, I got hungry and went into the kitchen to make a sandwich.
I was surprised to see Jane there, peering into the refrigerator.
I stopped in the archway, hesitating to enter the room.
It didn't help that Jane was leaning over, and I had an excellent view of the sweet curves of her hips. She’d changed out of her jeans into a pair of comfortable sweatpants with these giant wool socks on her feet.
The cotton outlined her bottom delectably.
Fuck me. Of all the things I had planned on, getting the hots for one of my little sister's old high school friends wasn't one of them. That said, I relished the distraction she offered.
Walking into the kitchen, I commented, “I got plenty of food for both of us.”
Jane squeaked. Straightening and spinning around, she closed the refrigerator.
“Didn't mean to startle you,” I offered.
She lowered her hands, and a lovely pink flush washed over her cheeks. “What are you doing?”
“Coming to get something to eat. What are you doing?”
She shrugged. “Same.” She pressed her glasses up her nose. “Sorry I was a little bitchy earlier.”
“Oh, I don't mind. I kind of like you bitchy. We can argue, and that's fun.”
She pressed her lips in a line and blinked at me behind her glasses. “Seriously, Ian? How old are you?”
“Thirty-two, last time I checked,” I said dryly.
She crossed her arms, oblivious to the fact that doing so plumped up the tops of her breasts. I could see the lush curves along the edge of her V-neck T-shirt. “I do recall you being like this before. That's why I said you were the class tease.”
“Did I tease you?” I asked as I walked over and opened the refrigerator, pulling out bread, sandwich meats, and cheeses. I was a sucker for good cheese and had gotten an excellent selection, if I did say so myself.
“No, you didn't tease me. You didn't really notice me,” she replied.
“I doubt that. I noticed you.”
“Ian, you didn't even recognize me at first.”
“It has been over ten years. Cut me a little slack.”
Jane’s mouth twisted, and she rolled her eyes. A pleasant hum of electricity chased through me when I saw the flush rise on her cheeks.
“I basically look the same, ten years or not,” she protested.
I fetched a knife out of the silverware drawer and cut off a piece of cheese. Turning toward her, I shook my head. “No, you don't. You were serious and hardly looked at me. Now, you're fucking sexy with a whole librarian vibe.”
Her eyes went wide, and her breath drew in sharply. This time, her cheeks flushed a deep red. I was enjoying this way too much. “I do not—” she sputtered and then shook her head before shrugging and casting me a sheepish smile. “Okay, I definitely wasn't sexy in high school.”
“You were also my sister's friend. I tried really hard not to pay attention to Thea’s friends.”
“Really?” Jane countered. “Is that a thing?”
“I don't know what you mean by ‘a thing,’ but it was for me. It was kind of a respect thing, I guess. You were also a few years younger than me, which is the equivalent of a decade in high school.”
“The younger students are basically invisible to the upperclassmen,” she commented.
Her eyes slid to the cheese as I moved to cut another slice. “Would you like some?”
“I would, actually.” Her stomach growled just then, and she slapped her hand over it.
I chuckled. “Take your pick.” Gesturing to the array of cheeses on the counter, I handed her the knife.
“You don't mess around with cheese.”
“I love cheese.”
She flashed me a grin, and a sizzle of heat jolted through me. “Same here. Which isn't great.”
“Why isn't that great? Cheese is great.”
Jane gestured toward her hips with her free hand. I dipped my eyes down, not even bothering to hide my lingering look of appreciation.
“If you're implying that cheese causes a weight issue, you do not need to change anything,” I said bluntly.
She didn’t reply and cut herself a healthy slice of cheese. “When's the last time you came to Haven’s Bay?” she asked, shifting the topic.
“Just a few months ago. I came up this fall. Ever since we started working on the house, I make time to come up and do a few projects whenever I can. My main thing right now is replacing all the windowsills.”
She was chewing, but her eyes went wide. She swallowed and cleared her throat before replying, “This house has a lot of windows.”
I grinned as I stepped to the counter. She handed me the knife, and I opened several more packages of the cheeses. “It does, but they're all old and need to be replaced.”
“Do you know when this house was built?”
“Late 1700s.”
“So it’s over two hundred years old,” she observed.
“We still have the original windowsills.”
“It's amazing they've held up this long.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, and there’s probably an inch of paint on them, but it's time for new ones. I'm working on the inside of the sills during the winter, and I'll take care of the outside when it's nice.”
“You're replacing the windows too?”
I nodded. “It won't be cheap, but we're all working on it together, so it'll work out.” I leaned my hips against the counter as I took another bite of cheese.
“Have you spent much time in town on your visits up here?”
Jane took another piece of cheese, resting her hips on the counter beside me. “Oh yeah, Emile’s and Bay Bistro are still delicious. We should grab dinner soon. Maybe tonight.” I glanced out the window. “The snow is supposed to let up in the next hour or two.”
Jane’s gaze followed mine to look out the window. The snow was nothing more than flakes floating from the sky, and patches of blue were opening up amongst the thick cloud cover.
She looked back at me. “Dinner?”
“Yes. You know, the meal that you have in the evening so you don't starve during the night?”
She eyed me dubiously.
“Come on. Emile’s has upped their game. They serve locally sourced foods and more.”
Her eyes blinked at me from behind her glasses. She swallowed and caught the corner of her bottom lip with her teeth, worrying it just enough to send a jolt of awareness through my body. She finally shrugged. “Okay. We can have dinner, but it's not a date,” she clarified.
“No? Why not?” I couldn't help but tease. “We are having dinner together, and we're staying here alone at the house together.”
Jane’s eyes narrowed. “It's not a date.”
“What if I want it to be?” I didn’t know why I was pushing this issue, but I was. More than anything, I enjoyed getting a rise out of her.
Her nostrils flared when she let out a forceful breath. “Seriously? I'm definitely not the kind of woman you would ask on a date anyway, so why pretend? I'm just your sister's friend. Don't try to make it something it's not.”
Her comments irritated me. “You have no idea what kind of woman I would ask out on a date,” I countered.
She turned away from me, pushing off the counter and stepping to the sink. She rinsed her hands under the water, replying as she turned to face me while she dried her hands on the towel. “Back in high school, you were into cheerleaders.”
I tried to remember who I dated in high school, but in all honesty, I hadn't been serious about anyone.
I didn't like admitting it, but Jane was right. I had dated more than one cheerleader. In college, I didn’t date any cheerleaders, but I did date a few pretty, popular girls.
I felt a twinge of discomfort because Jane was beautiful now in a way that went much deeper than the surface.
Maybe I hadn't noticed her in high school, but she was beautiful then too.
She’d just kept to herself and was quiet. Whenever she was here hanging out with Thea, she was more relaxed. Not that I spent time with them because, well, Thea was my younger sister. We were just close enough in age that we often argued, even if we loved each other.
“Does high school really define who we are later on?” I mused.
Jane lifted one of her shoulders in a shrug. “No, it doesn't. But coming back to Haven’s Bay brings back all those memories.”
“That makes sense.” A part of me wanted to keep pressing, to rile her again, but I sensed now wasn’t the time and that this was a more sensitive topic for her than me. I glanced at my watch. “So, dinner around six? I'll drive.”
She let out a dry laugh. “Of course, you will. I don't have a car.”
I winked. “No, you don't. You’ll have to rely on me.”
“Are you going to hold this over my head?” She turned and hung the dish towel over the handle of the stove.
“Nope. I'm just glad it turned out I was here.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I wasn't, you'd be without a car,” I pointed out.
“I would have just rented one,” she snapped.
“Right, because there's a car rental place here in Haven’s Bay,” I deadpanned.
Jane actually stuck her tongue out at me at that, and I laughed. She waved over her shoulder as she walked out of the kitchen. “I'll see you at six. I have a little work to do,” she called.