Chapter 11
Reese
“Seriously, Ree?” Ever complained as she pushed open the door to the house she rented in town with our other cousin, Ava. “What the hell’s wrong with your apartment?”
“This is all your fault.” I wheeled around from the counter, pointing the knife I was using to cut a piece of cheese in her direction.
“Whoa. Put the knife down, crazy,” she said, taking a step back.
“I wouldn’t have come home if I had known you were planning on stabbing me.
” Once I placed the utensil on the counter, she stepped up next to me and grabbed a piece of cheese from the plate I’d prepared.
“Lordy, your man’s got you all riled up.
I take it he’s the reason for our location? When did you even come over?”
“After you left this morning and shut up.”
I’d spent most of the morning dodging Clay in the B&B until I finally passed off front desk duties to our part-time employee, Constance, and headed to Ever’s. No one knew where I had sneaked off to, so I didn’t have to worry about an uninvited guest showing up.
“Oh, absolutely not, bestie. You texted like you wanted to talk.” Ever quirked her brow at me. “So, talk. Why aren’t we at your apartment?”
I rolled my eyes. She was a lot like me in terms of personality and tenacity. It’s why we bonded so much even though there are a few years between us. When I texted this morning, I knew I needed to talk everything out. Didn’t mean that when the time came I actually wanted to, however.
Because I didn’t.
“Reese.” She pointed her finger my way. “Talk.”
“Because it’s too close.” Too close to temptation. To dragging myself over to the house and up the stairs to his room and finishing what we started. No matter how many times I told myself it was a bad idea, my body did not want to hear it. It wanted more of what it’d had before. Greedy bastard.
“To your sexy guest, I take it.”
“He’s not mine.” I glared at her, not thrilled with her description of him. Not that I should care one way or the other, and I couldn’t disagree, not without looking like a complete idiot. I had working eyes, and the man in question fit the sexy definition to a T.
“Not yet.” She wandered over to the couch and dropped onto the cushions. “But that’s neither here nor there. Talk woman.”
“This is all your fault.”
“How? I didn’t make you jump him.” Tucking her feet under her, Ever pointed at the glasses I’d already set on the counter. “Pour the wine and get to talking. Then I can figure out how to help you.”
Opening the fridge, I pulled out a bottle of our Pinot Grigio, pouring two generous glassfuls.
I was going to need some sort of liquid courage to deal with everything I had going on right now.
I walked over to the sofa, handed her a glass, then returned to the kitchen to grab mine and the mini-cheeseboard I’d created.
“What do you mean, how? It was your phone call that brought him here.”
“No, no. Don’t pin that on me. I got you a phone call.
I’m guessing your highly charged conversation and texts is what got his ass here.
” I could kick myself for opening my mouth and telling her everything, especially about the way it made me feel.
“I told you it sounded like some foreplay going on,” she ended with a knowing grin.
“There was no foreplay.” Even I didn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.
Our phone call had been the most highly charged sexual experience of my entire life, and it didn’t even involve sex.
That was, until the man showed up and caught me with my ass up in the air.
“Ever, he found me crawling on the floor looking for Grams’ ring when he first arrived.
” I twirled said ring around my finger, my embarrassment not curing me of the habit.
“I dropped it under the damn desk in the living room.”
Blue eyes, the exact shade as mine and almost everyone else in the family, stared back at me in widening astonishment. Then she burst out laughing.
“Oh my God. That’s priceless. Only you, Ree, only you.
” She put her glass down, picking up a napkin to wipe at her eyes.
“So first you flirt, then you practically moon him, and you wrap that up by dry-humping him against the wall.” She looked at me, shock in every feature of her face.
“At least you didn’t let him clear the bases. ”
Everleigh was a menace.
I averted my eyes because I didn’t want her to see the truth in them.
She chuckled and pointed my way. “But you wanted to.”
“Fuck you.” I jumped up and strode to the kitchen to get the bottle of wine. Anything to keep from having to give her more information or answer any questions.
“I could say something about who you should say that to, but I digress.” She changed positions until her back was resting against the sofa arm. “So, you’re avoiding him by hiding at my place.”
“I’m not hiding, I came to talk with you, but yes. Are you happy? I am avoiding him. I thought I had a reasonable plan, but now I can’t actually do it, and he doesn’t seem on board with that.”
Topping off her glass, I did the same to mine before I reclaimed my seat.
“And what was this plan of yours?”
I told her and watched for the slightest hint it was the right move.
Or the wrong move. Really, any help at this point would have been a blessing because I seriously doubted my judgment.
Except in extending the offer to Clay, I hadn’t had a moment of doubt.
I couldn’t accept his word on helping us, but I also was not about to let someone in who didn’t know what we wanted and, more importantly, who we were.
I may have grand ideas for our property, but I never wanted to lose the essence of who we were as a family and as part of the Henley Falls community. The town was as much a part of this as any of our businesses, and I needed him to see it.
“I have one question.”
“Only one?” That was so unlike my cousin, I was a little fearful.
“For now.” Ever chewed on her lip until I nodded my consent. “Did you make the same offer to Fitzgerald?”
“No. They’re not here.”
“But would this make them come down for a visit?”
I shrugged. “How should I know? He wasn’t very nice on the phone.
I don’t know if he would have offered to buy us out, but I didn’t think he’d want much of our input.
Their rep talked a lot about the vision they could develop and how they planned everything at the resort in West Virginia.
It was a whole lotta talk about them and not us.
” It was the first time I’d put my thoughts about those phone calls into words, but they rang true.
Never once did I feel as if they wanted to involve us, which was fine if we wanted to sit back and turn the reins over to someone else.
Except we didn’t. We wanted to be the driving force in this project, hands-on and boots on the ground, so to speak. Not to sit back and let someone else tell us everything they wanted. It ranked right up there with selling the land.
Neither were options.
My family and I would do this our way, or we wouldn’t do it at all. I wasn’t willing to compromise on that.
“You know,” Ever said, popping a grape from the board into her mouth, “I can’t help but be curious that you only asked one person to stay for a couple of weeks. The one you are currently mooning over.”
“I’m not mooning over Clay.”
Her raised brow was her only response.
“Ree, you can’t kid a kidder. You are undoubtedly attracted to him.
” I opened my mouth to denounce the thought, but the look on her face stopped me.
“Don’t even try it. I knew when you told me about the call.
I knew for certain after your text. When was the last time you actually wanted to kiss a man?
Not wanted like ‘oh, it may be nice’ or ‘I guess it’s time,’ but really wanted it.
A soul-deep want to lose yourself with a man? ”
Tossing back the rest of my wine, I thought about her question and tried to remember.
The dates I’d been on recently, not that there had been many, sure as hell hadn’t inspired that type of reaction.
Even when I kissed them or had sex with them, it was more of a “yeah, why not” type of thing.
Not once had it been an “oh my God, I want him” situation.
Which was exactly what it had been like when Clay wrapped his hand around my wrist and dragged me into him.
My body had blazed hot, while my limbs melted until all I had holding me up was him.
The sensations he stirred within me were unlike anything I’d ever felt before, and they couldn’t have been caused by a more inappropriate man.
I didn’t know whether to savor the feeling or pretend it never happened in the first place. Yeah, like that’s going to be a possibility.
“Never.” Ever jumped in, pulling me out of my memories. “You don’t even have to answer me because I know you.”
I didn’t want to give in that easily. “That’s not true. There have been times.” Despite the fact that I couldn’t think of a single one, I was going to attempt to hold on to some dignity.
“Whatever.” She held up her hand in a stop gesture. “Don’t even try.” Pinning me with her stare, she asked, “What was his reaction to this proposition?”
“He, um…” I cleared my throat, then did it again. “He said he couldn’t leave after our kiss, so I guess he’s staying. I don’t really know because I’ve been avoiding him.”
“Color me surprised that the man wants to stay after that.” Taking another sip of wine, she smiled over the rim of the glass. “I say go for it.”
“Go for what?”
I must have lost the plot somewhere along the way because there’s no way in hell my cousin was saying what I thought she was.
“Jump him again.” She wiggled her brows. “Fuck him,” she added on a shrug. “Have a fling.”
I jumped to my feet. “Are you crazy, Everleigh?”
“Likely, but that’s neither here nor there.”