Before I could do anything I’d regret, one of the baby goats burrowed her way between us, bopping me with her nose before she, too, tried to climb up on the Brady train, desperate for a ride on the sheriff.
Me too, girl. Me too.
Needing to avoid any further missteps, I made sure to pay extra attention to the rest of the ladies, even completing an impromptu Facebook Live interview courtesy of Mabel when class had wrapped up. Anything to keep busy and away from the grump who’d somehow snagged my—and my libido’s—attention.
I’d led hundreds of yoga classes, and I’d never—not once—been attracted to a client. Not like this. And certainly not to a man like Brady.
But I’d gotten myself into this because, as usual, I’d leaped before I looked. So not only was I going to have to do this all over again with him—and without the convenient interruption of the baby animals—but there was still the matter of that massage…
After all the other attendees left, Brady, for all his goat bluster and bad attitude, helped Jane load the animals back into the truck before sending her off with a double pat to the truck bed and a wave.
I squinted up at him when he stepped in front of me, the sun peeking out behind his tousled hair. “How was it?”
“Exactly as bad as I thought it’d be,” he said, reaching out to pluck something from my hair. He held the blade of grass up between us before releasing it into the breeze. “And not nearly as relaxing as you promised.”
His gaze dropped to my lips, and the heat between us ratcheted up another dozen or so notches, officially sending it into the stratosphere. There was no denying whatever I was feeling wasn’t one-sided.
I just didn’t know if that made this special hell we were in better or worse.
CHAPTEREIGHT
BRADY
Since it wasmy day off and I was already at the resort, I figured I might as well swing by the diner and grab something to eat. Even if it meant taking a ribbing from one or more of my brothers on the fact that I’d had to endure those damn goats. Didn’t matter. In fact, it might help. God knew I needed something to focus on to get my mind off Luna and her hands on me.
Why the hell had I given her the green light to touch me? Especially when she’d been wearingthat—a pair of leggings that showcased her perfect ass and a thin shirt that left little to the imagination swooping low over one shoulder. It showed off the tiny strap of a pale-pink tank top and the black lines of a dainty tattoo in the shape of a constellation that stretched across her left shoulder, just over her collarbone. I had no doubt the damn thing would make an appearance in my dreams tonight, along with the remembered feel of her hands on me, and the coconut-lime scent of her hair that made me hard for no goddamn good reason.
I pulled open the door to the diner, pleased to see a couple I didn’t know at one of the three tables and Jon, the owner of the hardware store, taking up another. Three people buying lunch wouldn’t exactly spark life back into this place, but it was better than nothing.
Jon and I exchanged nods as I settled at the bar, running a hand through my hair as Beck stepped up and slid me a glass of water.
“How was it?” he asked.
I grunted then drained the glass. “Never thought I’d need to wear a cup for yoga, so there’s that.”
Beck snorted, leaning back against the counter behind him, his arms and ankles crossed as he regarded me. “Well,Idefinitely had fun. Thanks for the entertainment.”
He and half of Starlight Cove, thanks to Mabel, her nuisance of a phone, and her penchant for causing trouble.
“Yeah, well, thanks for lunch.”
“What lunch?”
“You know what I like. I’ll wait.”
Beck just shook his head, turning his back to me as he pulled out ingredients. “It’s really a wonder why you’re still single,” he said dryly.
Considering my job was a very close second on my list of priorities right after my family, and my life always consisted of issues from one or the other, no. It really wasn’t a wonder. No one wanted to be third place after a job that took too much of my time and a family that took even more. I was thirty-five years old and had never had a relationship—long-term, short-term, extended booty call, or otherwise. I’d never allowed anyone past the wall I’d erected a long time ago, and no one had ever cared enough to try.
“Could say the same about you.”
Beck grunted and set a plate down in front of me as he waved to someone outside the diner. Considering we had all of…zero guests staying at the resort, I twisted on the barstool and glanced out the front windows to see who it was.
Luna. Of course, because I couldn’t get away from her.
She smiled at Beck, lifting her hand in a wave as she strolled down the path toward the main inn. The tiny niggle that had been consistently getting louder by the day was nearly a siren now as I darted my gaze between my brother and the woman who drove me out of my mind. The woman whose lips I could still taste and whose fiery eyes and undeniable spark lit something inside me I’d long thought dead.
Nothing good would come of voicing this question, no matter what the answer was. But I still couldn’t seem to keep it bottled up.
