Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
DANI
“Okay, what the hell?” I asked, keeping my voice low as I fed the Christmas lights to Shay where she stood on a stepladder.
Shay didn’t spare me a glance. “What do you mean?”
“Fine. Play dumb. What’s your deal with asking Wade and Boone to help? You know Grace gets super tense around Boone.”
Grace was across the room, having dedicated herself to the rather tedious task of making star shapes out of the Christmas lights on one wall. Mind you, it wasn’t like that was necessary, but she suggested it. It also happened to be a task she needed no assistance with, which was convenient.
Shay glanced down to me, a slow smile stretching across her face. “I’m not trying to make things difficult, but those two need to talk. What the hell happened with them anyway?” she asked. “Grace and Evie were two years behind us in high school so I didn’t get all the details.”
“Yeah, same here. I don’t know. Something about him cheating on her.
Like Wade, he moved away during college and now he’s back.
What is it with all these men becoming first responders and then working at this damn lodge?
” I muttered, almost to myself. “Here’s the end of this run.
” I fed up the last bit and turned to grab another section of lights.
Shay looked away as she affixed the lights under the tiny nails Wade had placed in even intervals where the wall met the ceiling. As I carefully unwound a string of lights, I glanced up at Shay. “Ready?”
“Sure am. Just keep handing them up,” she replied.
“To your question, this is a good place to work. It so happens most of the crew for the first responder team is friends with Jackson. So even if they don’t work here, they’re going to pop in every so often.
Instead of worrying about Grace and Boone, why don’t you tell me what’s up with you and Wade? ”
Shay’s tone was innocent, but she didn’t fool me. Not for a second. I shrugged when she looked down at me, willing my face not to flush. “Why do you ask?”
“Because for once, y’all aren’t at each other’s throats. Maybe you finally burned off some of that tension?” she teased as she reached for the lights I was feeding up.
As if on cue, Wade came back through the door. “How’s it going in here?” he drawled. After he and Boone helped us get set up, he had left, saying he desperately needed to shower.
When I looked over, my pulse took off at a gallop. Wade’s presence was like the starting shot at a race. His brown hair was damp and his skin was flushed from the cold outside. An icy gust of wind came in through the door behind him.
I saw Grace turn and look toward the door. Her expression was so controlled it was hard to know if I saw disappointment or not. My eyes immediately traveled back to Wade as if he were a magnetic point in my own personal compass.
He walked with an easy swagger, his faded jeans molded to his legs. He wore a T-shirt under an unbuttoned denim shirt. I instantly recalled the feel of his muscled chest against my body and my mouth watered as liquid heat slid through my veins.
Shay replied to Wade’s question. Good thing too because, apparently, I was speechless. “We’re almost done.”
“Need any more tall person assistance?” he asked as he stopped beside me. The scent of fresh snow and winter air clinging to him struck me. The urge to be enveloped in his strength and his intoxicating scent was nearly overpowering.
I handed up another section of lights. Shay glanced down, commenting, “I think this is the wrong end.”
Flustered, I glanced down to the two sections I held in my hands.
“Here, I’ll take those,” Wade said. His fingers brushed mine as he lifted one string of lights from my grip.
“Here you go,” I said, sheepishly handing the other to Shay.
She gave me a knowing smile and kept working.
With my hands empty, I willed myself not to look in Wade’s direction, but my eyes had more say in the matter.
Looking over, I saw him reaching above his head and quickly tucking the lights over the nails.
I forced my eyes away only to catch Shay watching me.
My ears got hot, and I knew my face was probably bright red.
“It’s okay,” she said under her breath, “he’s totally hot. I don’t blame you.”
“Shut up!” I hissed before I elbowed her in the knee as she climbed down from the ladder.
She squeaked. “Hey, easy.”
Looking away, I strode over to where Grace was finishing up the last star she had created. She tapped a hammer lightly on a tiny nail. “Those look great,” I said as I surveyed her work.
Grace smiled over at me, her expression more relaxed than it had been earlier when Boone was here. “Thanks. I thought we might as well make it a little fun.”
I spun in a slow circle, taking in the twinkling lights running along the ceiling, and Grace’s wall with its collection of stars scattered across it. There were two small wreaths mounted on the double doors at the front and a large one hanging above the reception desk on the wall behind it.
“It feels festive,” Shay commented as she stopped beside me.
The family came out with the puppy, effectively breaking up our little party. If that was what it was. Shay hurried over to check them out while Grace and I packed up the boxes.
Grace glanced at the clock above the door just as we were finishing up. “I need to get to the lodge for my shift,” she said suddenly.
“You go on, I’ll take these down to the storage room.”
Grace hurried off. The moment she was gone, I realized that left me alone with Wade while Jackson and Shay walked down the hallway after the family exited out the front door.
The moment I looked at him, I was trapped in his gaze.
I hated how much the hope inside my heart was trying to get my attention.
I felt like it was a little cheerleader inside, throwing pom-poms in the air, doing flips, and all sorts of ridiculousness.
Just to get me to believe maybe I should hope for something.
Here, I had somehow convinced myself I was strong, certainly stronger than that dark summer which stole a piece of my soul and made me wonder if my banged-up heart could ever want anyone again.
“Well, thanks for your help,” I heard myself saying brightly.
Wade held my gaze. For a few seconds, I felt as if I had stepped into the past—smack into the middle of those months leading up to that one night with Wade. Months of stolen kisses, of giggles, of having a silly crush on a boy who had been my friend for years.
I had trusted Wade so completely. What I hadn’t understood was that even when you trusted someone, life could still break your heart.
But for those few seconds, I was caught in his gaze, in the tractor beam of intimacy, understanding, and innocence contained there.
Not because he was innocent, nor I, for that matter, but because once upon a time, life had sent us skidding sideways and we hadn’t been able to see it coming.
We’d clambered out of the wreckage, nursing our own wounds alone.
Tearing my eyes free from his, with my breath coming in shallow pants, I looked down at the empty boxes sitting on a chair beside me. “I have to carry these downstairs,” I said, my words coming out breathy and shaky.
“I’ll help,” Wade said easily. If he sensed how rattled I was, he didn’t let on.
I opened my mouth to protest and a slow grin stretched across his face. “Dani, you’re not gonna argue with me. Not over something as small as carrying boxes.”
I bit the inside of my cheeks and shook my head. “No, I was going to say thank you,” I lied.
“No you weren’t, but that’s all right.” Without waiting, he went to the boxes, quickly stacking them on top of each other and lifting them. “There, I’ve got them all. Just tell me where to put ’em.”
I wrinkled my nose. “You know, I could’ve gotten all those. They’re empty boxes. Not exactly heavy.”
“’Course you could. But I’m helping. Lead the way,” he said, gesturing with his chin toward the side door that led to the lower level of the renovated barn.
I walked ahead of him, holding the door open as he passed through with the boxes.
The echo of my footsteps was loud on the wooden staircase.
With this barn built into a hillside, the vet clinic and administrative offices occupied the upper floor, while the lower floor had storage on one side and horse stalls on the other.
The barn downstairs was quiet this time of night.
Shay usually took care of the feeding, and I knew she had fed the horses before we came over to help with the lights because she had texted to make sure I didn’t bring the lights over before she was done.
The motion sensor light came on when I stepped onto the landing at the base of the stairs. The lighting was adjusted for the time so that it wasn’t too bright for the horses down here. I could hear the soft sounds of them chewing hay as I passed the aisle between the stalls.
Another light came on as I moved into the hallway beyond that where there was a row of storage rooms. This was the newest barn on the old farm property. Jackson had it built across from his family’s old farmhouse where he lived with Shay now.
I was hyper-aware of Wade’s presence behind me. Every hair on my body was raised slightly. It felt as if my cells themselves were standing at attention, all focused toward Wade although I wasn’t even looking at him.
“In here,” I said, opening a door at the end of the hallway, with another light coming on the moment I stepped into the room.
Only a month ago, Shay had Jackson install motion sensor lights just about everywhere on the farm and at the lodge.
She said she was tired of showing up in rooms and trying to fumble for light switches.
“Just tell me where to put them,” Wade said as he stepped past me into the small storage room.
The room was lined with shelves on all sides. This space was the room equivalent of a junk drawer. The other storage rooms had more organized purposes, such as the tack room, the feed room, and so on. This one served as the catchall for things that had nowhere else to go.
“Right there,” I said, pointing to an upper shelf.
Wade lifted the empty boxes and slipped them onto the shelf.
My eyes, my willful eyes, dropped to the little strip of skin that peeked out as his T-shirt rose when he lifted his arms above his head.
He just had to expose that strip of skin above his jeans where I could see his muscled abs and the trail of dark hair that led to the promised land.
That was what my body thought Wade’s cock was. I didn’t realize I had let out a little sigh until he dropped his arms and turned, his gaze immediately capturing mine.
“Now, what was that for?” he drawled.
“Just breathing,” I snapped, flustered he was so attuned to me.
“Just breathing, huh?” he mused as he stepped closer, lifting a hand and catching one of my curls. He pulled it out and let it go. It bounced on my cheek.
“You’re pulling my hair?”
“I don’t think that quite counts as pulling your hair,” he teased as he came even closer. “I bet you didn’t even feel that. Not like this.” Another step erased the distance between us. He trailed the backs of his fingers along my side, his touch nothing more than light and teasing.
I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out as his fingers coasted up over my shoulder and along the side of my neck, goose bumps rising in the wake of his touch. His thumb dusted gently across my jaw as his hand slid into my hair, gripping just enough that I could feel the tug on my scalp.
I feared he could see the shock of lust on my face. Oh God, why did I have to want this man so much?
“Lie to me, Dani. Tell me you don’t feel that,” he murmured, his tone husky, stepping so his chest was flush against mine.
My nipples were tight little peaks pressed against his chest. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and lose myself in everything that was Wade as need thundered through me.
When I looked into his eyes, that old trickle of annoyance I clung to—that had protected me so well—failed to fire up.