Ember #3
I tried to hide the hitch in my breath, choosing to glare at him instead.
His smirk told me he knew he’d gotten to me.
He leaned in. “Would you like to come with us to make sure we get the rabies shot?” he murmured, stopping so close I could feel the heat of him against my front.
“I know you won’t be able to sleep otherwise. ”
“I’ll come with you because you might need someone to drive you home,” I said primly, lifting my nose.
Jack’s gaze swept over my face. His expression was mocking, and my cheeks smarted with heat.
He thought I was ridiculous, which was no great surprise.
I knew how I looked to a man like him. But I knew I was right about the rabies PEP treatment, and I was pretty sure Jack knew it too.
If not for himself, at least for his daughter.
“Are you guys done? Come on!”
I poked my head out the door to see an exasperated Darby glaring at us from the driveway. Sighing, I lifted my hand at her in acknowledgment, glanced over my shoulder to shoot Jack my most withering glare, then hurried down the steps toward her.
She already had the garage open and slid into the back seat of her father’s car when I stepped onto the garage’s concrete floor. I hesitated.
If I sat in the back, it would feel like Jack was our Uber driver. That was kind of rude, wasn’t it?
But sitting in the front beside him felt like a risk.
And wasn’t that a ridiculous thought? There was nothing risky about sitting in the front of the vehicle beside him. Nothing beyond the risk of being on the road at all, of course.
Huffing at my own ridiculousness, I climbed into the passenger seat, clipped myself in, and kept my gaze straight ahead as Jack settled himself behind the wheel. We backed out and got on the road, and Jack pressed some buttons on the dash to make a call. The name Harry Tomlinson lit up the screen.
“Yeah?” came the gruff voice.
“Raccoon attacked Darby,” Jack answered without preamble. He didn’t mention himself, I noticed.
“During the day?” Harry answered, sounding a little more alert.
“Yeah. Rabies?”
“Maybe. Where?”
“Our place.”
“I’ll get some traps set up.”
The call ended. Jack glanced at me and lifted his brows. “Happy?”
No. I was pretty sure this entire endeavor was a mistake. The marriage, the contract, everything. The raccoon had just been a sign from the universe that I was on the wrong path. Or maybe a vengeful spirit sent by my dead father. It would be just like him to try to kill me with a rabid raccoon.
But I didn’t believe in signs from the universe or vengeful spirits. I believed in math, and science, and logic.
Raccoons were the most frequently reported rabid wildlife species in the United States.
They were common in Maine, and we were surrounded by mixed forests that were their natural habitat.
This was just an unfortunate coincidence.
As long as Darby and Jack got their shots, they’d be fine.
Then Jack and I would convince everyone we were in love, we’d file the certificate, I’d get my money, and go on with my life.
We drove into Marswood Harbor proper, and I was once again struck by the shabbiness I’d noticed the first time I’d driven in.
Most shopfronts were vacant and had fallen into disrepair.
There were patches of paint that looked like someone had tried to get rid of graffiti.
A twinge of guilt went through me; Etta Mars was trying to save this place, and I was using her scheme for my own benefit.
Glancing at the man behind the wheel, I watched the easy confidence with which he drove. The way he rubbed his stubble-covered jaw, highlighting the handsome angles of his face. The shift of his forearm and hand as he turned the wheel.
He’d have no trouble finding someone when he was ready.
I wasn’t doing anything wrong by entering into this arrangement with him.
We were both getting something out of it.
We were near-strangers, and within a few months, when the certificate was filed, we wouldn’t even live in the same state.
I didn’t owe him anything, and neither did he.
By the time we pulled up outside the Marswood Harbor Community Health Center, I was calm. This was all temporary. All I had to do was convince Etta Mars I was in love with her grandson, get officially married, and then get out.
But first, we needed some rabies shots.
JACK
It was impossible to resist the urge to glance at Ember as we sat in the medical center waiting room.
Her back was perfectly straight, her hands folded in her lap.
Everything about her was exactly in place, from the smooth strands of her honey blond hair wrapped in a tight knot at the nape of her neck to the way she’d folded her purse strap before setting it on her thighs.
She was not the type of woman I pursued.
I went for easy women with invitations in their smiles. I took the path of least resistance. I kept things casual, surface-level. I didn’t care to delve deeper. What was the point, when a relationship would never happen?
But as I watched Ember, I felt the stirrings of desire. The kind of deep, pulsating want that wasn’t easily sated. The need to know her, understand her, possess her.
She was all wrong for me, and I knew it.
I could still feel the place on my forearm where she’d smoothed down the gauze. Could sense the press of her shoulder against my chest. For someone so small, she had a hell of a presence.
Darby shifted on the plastic seat next to me, and I jerked my gaze away from Ember. I checked on my daughter, who was staring at her scratched forearm.
Ember had been right to insist on us coming here. She’d put my daughter first, even when it meant going toe-to-toe with me. She hadn’t backed down when I’d tried to brush her off. That, I realized, meant something to me.