“Okay, let me see what I can do,” she grumbled.
“You’ll come over here?” Tom asked, hopes rising.
“I’ll come by for a weekend once it’s bee-free and you’ve got somewhere decent for me to stay,” Ximena said sharply. “But I’ll see what I can do from here right now. Jesus, you asshole, you had better buy me the biggest bouquet of flowers you can find as soon as you get that next Equity check. I mean, entire rainforests had better disappear from the size of that thing.”
“I will,” Tom promised, grasping for the thread of hope,even though Ximena hadn’t promised anything specific. “The size of a Thanksgiving Day float.”
He felt only a little better as he hung up the phone, but at least he’d done something. Doing the first thing was often the hardest part.
9
Rose had decided to be asleep when Tom got back to the cottage. Easier said than done, even though she was running on fumes. Her brain felt like it was downloading a decade’s worth of software updates on one bar of cell service.
When Tom came in, his steps more confident than when he’d left, Rose shut her eyes to a crack and positioned a pillow over her head. Avoidance was not a healthier coping mechanism than smoking, but with lungs like hers, it was the one she had.
Tom climbed the ladder to the loft without unnecessary noise and peered into the bed nook. Rose held her position, curled in the center of the bed, pretending to be asleep. He must have bought it, because he slid back down the ladder and went to check the water heater with a hand on the tank. Apparently satisfied with the temperature, he began to strip.
Off went the black waffle-knit T-shirt, tossed to the couch.
Off went the blue jeans, discarded in a puddle on the floor.
Rose wanted to be a good person. She paid her taxes to thepenny. She volunteered. She donated. She generally tried to treat people as she wanted to be treated. Voyeurism was wrong.
However, she didn’t think Tom would mind if she looked at all that sun-kissed skin he’d just exposed—in fact, he’d probably be flattered at the bolt of heat the sight sent zipping through her body. Tom was anything but shy. If he was putting on a show, he wanted someone to watch. So she looked. Tom had a soft spread of dark fuzz across his chest and trailing down across his stomach, and she knew what it felt like under her fingers, but she imagined pressing down and feeling nothing but solid muscle coiled underneath.
Rose expected him to go after his socks next, or perhaps move closer to the shower stall, but Tom slipped his thumbs under the frayed band of the boxer shorts that already concealed very little of the muscular shape of his thighs and leaned forward to slide his underwear off.
Oh God. She was going to spontaneously combust if she kept watching.
Rose sat up and tossed a pillow down at him.
“Modesty, Tom,” she said in a rebuke that would have been more convincing if her mouth had not been so very dry.
Would his boyfriend really not care if anything happened? Was that what they’d hammered out on the phone just now? Maybe she’d feel better if she actually confirmed it with Boyd somehow.
“So youareawake,” Tom said, grinning cheekily up at her. He caught and held the pillow just at waist height, so she was not longer confronted with a view of the forbidden mountain,so to speak, but he cradled the pillow in his hands as though preparing to toss it right back at her.
“I’m awake now,” she said, jerking the covers up like she was ready to go right back to sleep, but she probably undercut this posture by staring directly at the pillow.
“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before,” he said very innocently.
He knew it was a different view from before. He was fishing for compliments.Yeah, it’s really nice, Tom. You must have worked really hard. I bet you could support my body weight on like five different muscle groups. Though your cock is still very good looking too; I’m glad you didn’t go too porny with the manscaping.
If Rose had been running on full steam, she would have made sure to sound snarky and aloof when she replied.
“Gah,” she said instead, rubbing her face with her hands and peeking at him through her fingers. “Please put a towel on. I can’t right now. No striptease until I’ve slept.”
Tom made no move to cover himself, tipping his head back to laugh at her instead. “Babe, I could accurately describe the location of every single freckle on your body. You’re bothered by some nonsexual nudity?”
Oh, he was definitelytryingto mess with her. He wasn’t letting this go without specific feedback, but she was going to expire if she let herself think about it.
So she tossed a second pillow at him. He retaliated by dropping the first one.
“I’m just taking a shower!” he insisted, hand pressed between newly defined pecs instead of over his heart.
“It’s nonsexual nudity?” she asked, unconvinced.
Tom’s expression grew even more delighted. He squared up his hips and spread his feet as though trying to stand on full display.
