15. Fifteen
Fifteen
Henry
B lue came to lay at our feet just as Juliet shifted her weight. I figured her knee was aching and nodded toward the boulders at the edge of the shore.
“Why don’t we sit?” I suggested.
She gave a grateful nod, so I helped her over the rocky beach and lifted her onto one of the boulders, ignoring her scowl as I hopped up beside her. The rock’s awkward shape forced her to sit right next to me, so close that our thighs were pressed firmly together from hip to knee.
I tried to convince myself that the sun-warmed surface of the rock was the only thing heating my skin through the dark denim of my jeans, but there was a faint pink to her cheeks that suggested she was feeling it, too.
Eventually, the peace of our surroundings melted away the awkwardness of our position. Juliet relaxed little by little, leaning ever so slightly against my side. In a tone just above a whisper, I pointed out a bald eagle soaring over the trees to our left. Her expression of wonder made me want to show her everything the area had to offer—everything I had to offer her.
Well, her expression and also the faintly floral, utterly intoxicating scent of her hair when I leaned close.
At the moment, it was difficult to tell what exactly drew me so intensely, but it was clear this woman was quickly getting under my skin. Though it wasn’t what I'd expected, I was more than willing to accept it. Even if I wanted to, I wasn’t sure I could resist the pull between us.
I was absolutely certain that I had no desire to try.
Blue trotted out into the water until it reached her belly, then pounced excitedly at a school of tiny fish. Juliet laughed when the dog returned to my side to shake herself off, sending a spray of lake water all over me. I yelped and shifted closer to use Juliet as a shield, dragging her partway across my lap in the process.
She shrieked when the cold droplets of water hit her skin. Laughter rumbled low in my chest and I grinned down at her.
“Hey! I’m injured!”
“Oh, I don’t know, Red. You said you were fine ,” I replied, letting my gaze travel over her, lingering for the barest second at the lacy neckline of her shirt, “and I’m inclined to agree.”
I reached up to brush a drop of water from her chin before settling her back into her spot beside me. Much to my delight, her cheeks flamed in response to the soft sweep of my fingers. That blush was something I was determined to invoke as frequently as possible when I noted the appealing shade of pink creeping along those delicate cheekbones.
Still, I was gracious enough to give her time to compose herself while I leaned away to grab a stick and hurl it down the shoreline. Blue chased after it with joyous bounds.
“Let me know if you get tired and want to head back,” I said when I turned back to her. “Libby will rip me a new one if she thinks I’m delaying your recovery.”
Juliet didn’t look worn out, in my opinion, not in the slightest. With the breeze lifting curling tendrils away from her face and the sunlight brightening those turquoise eyes, she was absolutely breathtaking.
I had to force my gaze away before I did something stupid like lean in to kiss her, so I took advantage of Blue’s return to throw the stick again.
“You agreed that I’m fine,” she replied after a moment.
The hint of challenge in her tone had me grinning. In an attempt to resist touching her again, I eased back onto the rock until I was lying down with my arms folded behind my head.
“I did, indeed,” I murmured, closing my eyes.
When I finally snuck a glance at Juliet beside me from under my mostly-closed lids, the serene expression on her face unleashed a strange flutter in my chest. Blue returned with the stick and Juliet had to lean across my body to reach it. I felt her shifting, so I opened my eyes fully, admiring the way her shirt lifted to reveal a smooth swath of skin at the small of her back when she launched the stick.
I’m such an idiot.
I'd thought to put a little distance between us by lying back on the rock, not to torment myself further. Last night had been a revelation—when I stepped into that bathroom, everything inside me coiled tight, desperate to drop my attention to those creamy bare shoulders hovering just at the edge of my field of vision. My entire body had gone tense with the effort of resisting that urge, and now? The feeling was only growing stronger.
If she hadn’t been injured, if I hadn’t been such an asshole in those early days, if I was sure she’d really forgiven me, I would have lifted a hand to trail my fingertips across her back. Hell, I might have even tugged at her arm just hard enough to send her sprawling atop me again.
It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to keep from reaching for her. This new pull between us was damn near irresistible, though I couldn’t quite pinpoint why.
While I was focused on getting control of myself, Juliet sighed softly. The whisper of breath was barely audible over the sounds of the lake, but I sat up slowly and touched her shoulder, almost by reflex. Her skin was as soft as I remembered from the night before. Biting back a groan, I dropped my hand.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, keeping her eyes on the water, but I could see her copper brows drawn together, a tiny dip between them.
“Just thinking. If it wasn’t a gunshot I heard up there, what else could it have been?”
I puffed out my cheeks as I considered. “A tree branch breaking? We had some bad storms last winter, and sometimes trees get damaged enough to split a branch from the trunk. They don’t always fall right away.”
“It sounded close,” she added softly. “Close enough and loud enough to startle me into stepping back too far at the edge of the ravine. I thought . . . ”
“You thought what?”
She bit her lip and the crease between her eyebrows deepened. “It’s stupid, but I thought I saw someone up there, right after I fell. I was still dizzy, though, then it was gone. It was probably just an animal.”
Every minute of my hike with Blue, from hopping out of the truck to buckling Juliet into it, replayed behind my eyes. I’d seen nothing unusual, and the only thing Blue charged toward was Juliet, but those woods were huge. Definitely big enough to get lost in, intentionally or otherwise.
And her sketchbook was still missing.
She could have knocked it off the other side of the cliff when she fell, but Mark had gone back out with his hiking buddies the next morning to check the base of the ravine. There’d been no sign of it.
Someone might have picked it up between yesterday and today, but it seemed unlikely.
The surge of protectiveness rippling through my veins took me by surprise, but the last thing Juliet needed was to panic over what might amount to nothing.
I’d explore the possibility that someone else was out at Cooper’s Point that day on my own, so she could focus on her recovery. Anything that threatened her safety, especially into what could have been a much more serious accident, needed to be dealt with.
“I thought I was the only enemy you’ve made in town,” I teased, bumping her shoulder with my own to lighten the suddenly heavy atmosphere around us.
Juliet narrowed her eyes at me. “You could have hired a hitman. You certainly seemed pissed enough at me, between the inn and the incident at The Mermaid.”
“This ain’t the big city, Red. I’m just a small town boy, and believe me, I was more pissed at myself for not being able to control what came out of my mouth than I was at you.” I cocked my head. “How do you know what a gunshot sounds like, anyway?”
“My ex-boyfriend was a hunter,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “He insisted I go with him to the shooting range once. I hated it, but the sound is hard to forget.”
“Well, I’ll trust your expertise then. And I’ll ask around town. Blue and I hike those woods a couple times a week. I don’t want to risk running into some jackass shooting off-season out there.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, looking a little flustered.
“What’s that face for? Don’t you want me to ask around?”
“No, I do,” she insisted. “I just appreciate that you’re willing to trust my judgment, even if I might be wrong.”
It seemed like she was having a hard time reconciling the Henry Walker she was coming to know with the one she’d been desperately avoiding, which was something I had to take full responsibility for.
“Look, we got off on the wrong foot, Juliet, but this is your home now, too. I want you to feel safe here and I’ll do what I can to make that happen.”
Her pretty lips curved upward in a sweet, shy smile. “Right. Well, thank you, for all of it.”
Frowning a little, I touched a finger to the tip of her nose. “You’re getting sunburnt. We’ve barely been here an hour. That’s got to be some kind of record.”
She muttered something derogatory about her coloring beneath her breath, then grimaced at me. “As much as I’d like to never leave this spot, I should probably get back to the cottage before I fry. I should’ve thought to wear sunscreen.”
I was also tempted to protest, but beneath the pink of her nose and cheeks, she looked a little tired. At her warning scowl, I offered a hand to help her off the boulder instead of lifting her down as I wanted to—anything to get my hands on her again. Blue bounced toward us, tongue lolling happily from her open mouth.
“You stink,” I told the dog. “You’re riding in the back.”
“Is that safe?” Juliet asked with a disapproving frown.
“You want to snuggle up to this smelly mutt in the truck?”
“It seems only fair,” she replied, rubbing Blue’s head with her uninjured hand. “We’re the ones who brought her here.”
When she looked back at me, I was still staring at her, dazzled. Libby had always been one of my best friends in the world and she was fair almost to a fault, but Juliet’s sweet sense of justice simply bowled me over.
The woman in question rolled her eyes and said, “Look, do whatever you want with your own damn dog and your own damn truck.”
“You’re an unusual woman,” I replied, my face breaking into a wide smile as I took her elbow to help her toward the truck. Then I leaned down so that my breath tickled her ear as I added, “And if you need help washing the smell of wet dog off of that flawless skin of yours later, you just let me know.”
She blushed again as I ran my thumb gently along her bare arm. Blue leapt into the truck and Juliet slid in beside her, fighting a grimace at the smell now that they were in close quarters.
I had no such qualms. I made a face and nudged the dog closer to Juliet as I got behind the wheel.
“You’re a big softy, Juliet Morrison,” I said, shaking my head, “but you certainly do make life around here more interesting.”
The drive back to the cottage, while pungent, was as peaceful as our time at the lake. Despite her insistence that she was perfectly capable of traversing twenty-some feet on her own, I walked Juliet to the front door. I didn’t touch her, cognizant of the fact that I’d be sorely tempted to keep on touching her if I did, but when we reached the door, I gave her a smile that caused an audible hitch in her breathing.
“I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but please take it easy. If you need anything else from upstairs, I’ll bring it down for you. You’ve got my number. I’m just a text away.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Henry. I had a really nice time today.”
“I did, too. I appreciate you giving me a chance to prove I’m not a complete jerk.”
“Well,” Juliet mused, “you did want to make the dog ride in the back.”
I laughed and said, “And when you see just how long the smell lingers, you might realize that was the wiser option.”
The odor was much fainter now that we were outside of the truck, but as her cheeks blazed, I suspected Juliet was already fantasizing about a nice long soak in the bathtub—or maybe about my offer to help scrub the smell off her skin. When she finally forced herself to look over at me, I winked and gave a slight bow.
As far as I could tell, every thought in her head played clearly across her face, and damned if I didn’t find that absolutely delightful, now that I was inspiring dirty thoughts instead of murderous ones.
“Once your knee is back up to snuff, I’ll take you to my other favorite spot. You’ll want to bring your camera and a sketchbook for that one, I think.”
“I’m a quick healer,” she said, flashing a grin.
“Uh-huh. We’ll see, won’t we? Go on, get some rest.”
Without a word, Juliet smiled at me, those blue eyes filled with something warm and sweet, and slipped through the door to the cottage. I waited until she was safely inside before turning back to the truck.
Blue’s ears drooped as though she missed Juliet already. I heaved a sigh as I got behind the wheel.
“Cheer up, girl,” I told the dog as I shifted gears. “We’ll see her again soon.”
The reassurance did little for either of us, I noted with a tinge of frustration. What was it about her? Juliet radiated passion, as though that fiery spirit overflowed her enticingly curvaceous body and graced everyone nearby with the distinct sensation of basking in sunlight.
My original interpretation, crediting temper for that flame, had been dead wrong. It was something more innate, something that permeated her very essence. That spark colored all of her reactions, both good and bad, with those tiny licks of fire.
Though I was still ashamed of myself for picking a fight with her that first day at the inn, the memory of her threatening to break my hand outside The Mermaid made me grin as I drove home.
“She’s something, all right,” I said aloud.
Blue’s tail thumped against the seat in agreement.
I pulled into my driveway and, before I even opened the front door, my phone started chiming madly with an influx of text messages from Libby. She and her husband, Mark, lived across the street and three houses down—I shouldn’t have been surprised they were keeping an eye out for me to return.
Where did you take her?
How's she feeling?
Did you two make out yet?
I rolled my eyes and opened the front door. Blue sat herself down beside the couch, looking dejected.
“Don’t give me that,” I grumbled. “You just had the time of your life at the beach. You’ll survive an afternoon without her. Besides, the first order of business is a bath for you, my smelly mongrel. Juliet might not mind the stench, but I do.”
Blue, unfortunately, hated baths almost as much as she loved the lake. I sprayed her off in the downstairs shower stall, soaped her with some kind of dog shampoo that smelled inexplicably like blueberries, and toweled off as much water as I could before leaving her to dry in the sunshine on the back deck.
I decided to let Libby stew about my outing with Juliet and hopped in the shower without responding to her messages, though I set my phone by the sink in case Juliet needed to reach me.
As I scrubbed the tang of wet dog from my skin, I tried very hard not to imagine Juliet doing the same. In that, I failed most spectacularly. For a woman with such strength, she was perfectly soft, decadently sweet.
What I wouldn’t give to run my soapy hands over each delectable inch of her.
Libby had teased me ever since junior high that I was ruled by two extremes—acting immediately on instinct or dissecting an idea into microscopic pieces before making a decision. If my track record with women was anything to go by, that was one area where I was prone to impulse.
And now? Every impulse in my body was hooked on Juliet Morrison.
Barely twenty-four hours ago, I couldn’t stand the thought of her. No matter how many times I reminded myself of that, the memory of finding her in the woods yesterday streaked with blood and limping along kept flashing behind my eyes. Every time, it caused my heart to constrict with an echo of dread.
I grinned, though, when I recalled the fire in her eyes and the branch held before her like a weapon until she recognized me. She was a fighter, all right.
And the bra clasp—I actually groaned aloud at the thought of it. I saw every detail again clear as day when I closed my eyes: the flush in her freckled cheeks, the fine bones along her collar, the silken skin of her back beneath those pale pink straps, the way she shivered when my fingers brushed her spine.
I wouldn’t be forgetting that anytime soon. I pressed my forehead against the smooth tiles of the shower wall until I could think calmly again.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I muttered.
She hadn’t been too keen on me before yesterday, either, but that tremor running up her spine . . . things had changed between us. I was sure of that much. This new spark of attraction was not one-sided. Whether she’d be open to exploring it, I had no idea, but I was eager to find out.
After dousing myself with cold water, I dried off and threw on jeans that didn’t smell like lake-soaked dog. Libby had texted twice more, as had Mark, who begged me to respond so he could enjoy the afternoon with his wife. I grinned at that and replied as briefly as I could.
Injuries healing well. We hung out at the lake. No making out. Yet.
My finger hovered over the last word for a moment before finally deleting it and hitting send. Libby shot back a kissing emoji anyway. I was fairly certain she'd be playing wingman as often as she could in the coming weeks.
That begged the question of whether I planned to make a move, wingman or no. Juliet was technically my new boss, though in name only. A little light flirtation was one thing—throwing myself at her after our rocky start could be a mistake of epic proportions. It took barely the span of a heartbeat for me to come to a decision.
I would never forgive myself if I missed this opportunity.
What if she left town, went back to her old life, before I drummed up the courage to give it a try? If she shot me down, I’d figure out how to smooth things over, but in the meantime, I had to make a play. A subtle, careful play, and hopefully one that would convince her to engage instead of flee.
The next text came from Mark.
You gonna ask her out for real?
I kept my response short. Yup.
Rock on, man. Libby likes her.
I was grinning when I shot back, I'm so glad I have her permission to proceed , but Mark knew what I meant.
We want you to be happy. Can't wait to meet her, buddy.
Well, then. With my ex-wife’s approval, what could go wrong?
Blue wagged her damp tail when I let her back inside to join me in the living room, apparently forgiving me for leaving her new best friend behind at the cottage. I ruffled her ears and plopped down on my favorite recliner.
As tempted as I was to close my eyes and reflect on the past twenty-four hours, I figured it was smarter to distract myself from the pretty new redhead in town. Blue settled at my side as I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels to find something that might hold my attention.
I needed all the help I could get to take my mind off of Juliet Morrison.