He stared at me. A drop of melted snow rolled over his beard. “No.”
“I’ll leave it out for you, then.”
He nodded and stomped out of the garage. I rolledmy eyes to the ceiling, then turned to take one last look at a life stuffed into a closet. I hadn’t expected any of us who’d loved Eli to be the same after he’d died, but perhaps I’d been wrong to think such a big part of us hadn’t passed away with him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jonah
I’d never inspected my ceiling so much in my life, but I was doing a lot of lying in bed, wondering. My new goddamn pastime with Summer under my roof. I threaded my hands behind my head. My shoulder was back to aching, thanks to the shoveling. My hip was fine, but my knee wasn’t happy and my foot was threatening to cause problems too.
I needed a long soak in hot water with my Epsom salt mixture.
But first, I’d have to leave this room. I’d have to find out if Summer had had problems sleeping last night. I’d thought I’d stay awake to listen for creaking stairs, but working outside in a blizzard had taxed me.
Every flake of the snow I’d moved, and a ton more, was back where I had shoveled it, but her car was safe inside. Why seeing the damn thing in my driveway hadbothered me, I didn’t know. But now I didn’t have to picture her wiping mounds of snow off and scraping windows. When the weather cleared and the roads were plowed, she could get in and leave.
Several days from now.
The wind was supposed to be a problem through tomorrow. Then more snow was on the horizon. After that, it was wait until the plows could get to us.
Summer and I would be together for days yet.
I got out of bed and let my knee take its time straightening. I rolled my shoulder and went through some gentle warmups and stretches my physical therapist thought I had ignored her about. Years later, I continued to do them if only to stay away from clinics and hospitals and therapists.
I’d take a bath and do some laundry. The power was holding firm, but I didn’t want to let dirty clothing stack up just in case. I left on my sweatpants and grabbed my work clothes from yesterday on the way out the door.
In the hallway, I stopped and listened. No movement. But the sound of deep, steady breathing reached me. I padded to the living room and peered over the back of the couch. My heart twisted.
I hadn’t seen a lot of fairy tales, butBeauty and the Beasthad been my mom’s favorite. I had a shit library, but I felt every inch the Beast. Summer had been in her room when I’d eaten a late lunch. She’d stayed up there the entire time, giving me the space I hated her for.
Now she was slumbering on the couch. She’d probably come down when she couldn’t sleep because of the wind. I was in a warm, cozy bed, and she was on the couch with an old gray-and-blue throw Mom had given me for Christmas.
Her pink lips were squashed from half her facebeing smashed into the pillow she’d brought down from the room. Her sweater was bunched up around her chest but the throw covered any skin that was bared.
I hated the blanket too.
The palm of my hand tingled. The skin of her belly had been so damn soft. Hot in all the right places.
I shook the memory away.
Her feet were bare and sticking out past her one cover. I should grab a bigger blanket?—
She was fine. Resolutely, I spun and took my armload to the washroom on the other side of the bathroom. When I turned on the light, I was struck still as lust pounded into my belly.
A lacy bra hung above the dryer and a pair of matching panties were next to it. My mouth went dry, and I got tunnel vision. She wasn’t wearing a bra or underwear?
No, idiot. She’d been stranded with only what she was wearing. Of course she’d had to do laundry.
How had the woman who’d ruined my life and that of my brother managed to burrow under my skin and nestle in a spot my hate could hardly reach? How had she managed to never leave my thoughts after I’d driven her out of the hospital room? Had I known what she was going to tell me?
My chest burned. I needed to take that damn bath, but I also couldn’t relax after seeing the generous cup size of her bra.
I left my laundry on top of the washer and went to my bedroom. I dug out an Omaha Zoo sweater my parents had gotten me from a trip over the summer and a pair of black sweats I hadn’t thrown away from when Iwas first discharged from the hospital. I’d filled out since then, but I hadn’t trashed the sweats.
I laid them on the back of the couch and stood there like a fucking creep watching her sleep. Then, I went into the bathroom to take my bath, and as much as I swore to myself that I wouldn’t, I jacked off to the thought of her not wearing underwear.
Summer
