Chapter 11 #2
I worried my lower lip. I never thought about it that way. Just about cleaning out Mom’s stuff. “Um…I like to do my own art.”
Surprise lifted his brows. “You’re an artist.”
“No.” I scoffed. “But I like doing crafty stuff. ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ type signs.”
He chuckled, then his lips formed a troubled line. “Where’s your stuff? Didn’t you have a house to move?”
“In the cabin. I didn’t have a lot. The breakup was shortly before Mom died, and I moved out.
Wanted a fresh start. So it’s all wedged into the garage.
But I don’t know, none of it calls to me either.
” I couldn’t picture the various craft signs I’d made over the years hanging on the walls of the house that was now mine. “Maybe I need to make a new sign.”
“What would it say?”
My mind spun over a bunch of syllables that never solidified into a real word, much less a phrase. “What if that’s the test? Once I come up with a phrase, then it’s time to clean out her stuff?”
His smile was understanding. “I think it’s tempting to put clarifiers on it. Maybe pick one phrase that’s yours and that feels right to sit among your mom’s things.”
“How about ‘All the Groceries Are Mine’?”
“I’m setting the bar higher, boss.” He finished his beer and tossed it into the trash. I’d make sure to clean that out, or we’d be the talk of the resort. “You could make one for the resort. ‘Live, Laugh, Rent a Room.’”
Laughing, I handed him another from the fridge.
“Getting me drunk, Bishop?”
“Fair play, Duke. Then maybe you can spill all your embarrassing thoughts about me.”
“I’m not embarrassed about a thing. I’m just waiting for the word to show you all my lewd thoughts.” He flashed a smile that told me he was kidding and he got up.
That could be my sign. It’d say WORD, and it’d be where Jasper could see it. If only I was brave enough to say it.
Holding the beer loosely, he inspected his work. “One more coat and I think I can call it a night.”
I took his branch of talking about work instead. “It won’t be good to rent tomorrow.”
“It can be a just-in-case room. This wall shouldn’t get bumped or brushed.” He kept hold of his beer and retrieved the paint roller. “But if it does, I can do a touch-up.”
Fascinated, I watched him work, chatting about the paint color and what I would do when I remodeled the cabin.
Mostly, I gawked and started on a second beer, just to have something to do.
The play of his muscles over his back when he rolled back and forth was my very own show.
The flex of his ass was subtle, but I was super attuned to him.
When he’d stop for a drink and keep going without letting one drop splatter. The man made everything look easy.
He finished his beer at the same time the wall was covered with its second coat.
I handed him a third, taking the final one for me.
The room spun slightly. I put the last beer on the stand by the TV.
I’d better not drink it, or I’d tell him that I could picture sinking my teeth into those firm buns.
How I wanted to strip that shirt off and slam my mouth onto his would spill right out of me.
He glanced from the can to me.
“Two’s my limit tonight.” I scooted it closer to him. “Go ahead.”
“Let me clean this up, and I will.”
I could help with tidying everything after watching him work.
Together, we hauled the painting supplies and ladder to the maintenance room.
He cleaned up the tray, and I grabbed a fresh garbage bag.
In the room, I switched out the bag in the trash and put our used one by the door so we wouldn’t forget it.
Our cans clinked together when I set it down. “Sounds like we had a party.”
“Nah, this was better than any party I’ve been to. And I won’t wake up with a hangover.”
Jasper took both beers and stretched out on the bed. He patted the spot next to him. “I can’t go anywhere until these wear off. Stay and talk.”
The only chair in the room had been slid close to the bed. It was too heavy to move, and I might bump a wet wall. I couldn’t ask Jasper to get up and do it just so I didn’t have to sit fully clothed on the same bed—above the covers—as him.
He might be lying down, but I still stretched out in the spot next to him. With the window open, the croaking of frogs, the humming of the cicadas, and chirping crickets serenaded us.
“I wish we were closer to the water,” I murmured. My eyelids felt heavy. Must be the little bit of alcohol. “I love the sound of the waves.”
“Have you been down to the lake since you returned?”
“No.”
“We’re going to fix that.”
Excitement unfurled in my belly. Why hadn’t I been down to the beach? There was a spot not far from the dock that people used to wade in. It’d been made an official beach, and I hadn’t gone to see it yet.
I’d been working, and I hadn’t been invited by someone like Jasper. “When?”
“This weekend. Sunday?”
“I should—”
“Work. I know. Take an hour.” He took a drink and held my gaze, challenging.
I had a crappy work-life balance, and that was the way it’d be for a while. But I could take a tiny bit of time for myself. “Okay. We’ll go on Sunday.”
Jasper
A click of a door roused me. My mouth tasted like I’d brushed my teeth with a stout ale. Just as I registered a soft, warm body next to me and pried my eyes open, a “Broooo” shot me awake.
I sucked in a breath, lifting my head to a blurry vision of a shocked Landon.
Blinking sleep from my eyes, I registered just what had him looking like he caught a cookie thief.
I was on the bed in the room I’d painted last night, still in my work clothes.
The window was open, letting in the dewy morning air.
Two empty beer cans were on the end table on one side of me.
On the other side, the delectable warmth that was glued to me was a snoozing Sheridan.
I put a finger to my lips.
Landon held his hands up, but he fought for his life and failed to keep a smirk off his face. “Sorry,” he whispered, and Sheridan’s hand twitched where it rested on my stomach.
I tightened my hold around her shoulder. I would be stiffer than a two-by-four getting out of bed after sleeping for too many hours like this. Worth it.
Now I had to get this kid out of the room before I sported an inconvenient erection and before Sheridan woke up horrified to have gotten busted.
We had talked about her parents and what she wanted to do at the beach.
Then she’d said she was tired, but I’d only just finished my drinks.
I might’ve nursed them so we could’ve talked longer.
And I would’ve been fine to drive home long before she fell asleep, but I was a man of safety.
Especially when my efforts got me a night with Sheridan in my arms.
I held up my hand, fingers spread, then made a fist and spread my fingers again. I mouthed Meet me in ten. I had to do it three more times before Landon finally nodded. He backed to the door, snickered, then left. The door slammed shut. Damn.
Sheridan popped her head up, her eyes as bleary as mine must’ve been. She squinted at the room, a frown playing along her lips. The side of her face was creased from my shirt, but nothing about it detracted from her sexiness.
Her eyes flared and she pushed away from me. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She peered out the still-open window. The birds almost got louder as if to highlight that we had slept together until morning. “What time is it?”
She twisted to look for the clock.
“It’s only seven.” My side was cold without her. “Landon must be getting to work.”
Horror dawned across her pretty features. “Oh no. I can’t be caught in bed with you.”
Ouch. I understood, but that didn’t help my pride, nor did it diminish the guilt of not telling her that he’d busted us or I would’ve continued slumbering a lot longer with her. “You can sneak out the side door. No one will know that you aren’t just walking to work.”
“Yeah. Right.” She didn’t move, frozen in place, her eyes wild.
I put my hands behind my head. If I didn’t act panicked, would it calm her? “Nothing happened. We fell asleep talking.”
She wrung her hands together. “Right. Nothing happened. I can’t drink around you anymore.”
Ouch again. Didn’t that make me sound like a predator? “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a bad influence.”
“It’s not that, and it’s not you. I’m just not usually so…” Her gaze stroked over the bed and my outstretched legs. “Sleepy.”
I chuckled, feeling a little better at her reassurance. “We talked until two in the morning.”
“I’m not usually so chatty either.”
I’d take that as a compliment. “Maybe you just needed to be around more people who’d listen.”
She blinked several times, and her pink lips turned into a frown. “I never thought of it that way. My best friend and I used to talk all hours of the night, but then she met Will in college after I dropped out, and he got all her hours.”
And she probably thought that was what she got for dropping out. A little freedom to find something that worked for her, minus a friendship she needed. “So when we go to the beach on Sunday, you can feel free to ask about anything and everything.”
Awareness played over her face. The beach. Was she going to try to get out of it now that we were back in work hours and she was afraid to be caught alone in a guest room with me?
“Sunday.” She rubbed her eyes. “About that.”
I tensed, waiting for the letdown. I wasn’t going to beg her.
She regretted drinking too much around me, and she did not want to be here now.
Both times had been unintentional, but from the way she was frozen yet primed to run, her brain didn’t know that.
I refused to be the guy who made her feel uncomfortable about herself.
She slowly inhaled and dropped her hands. Her expression was set with determination. “What time?”