Anna was busier than ever, but she had her full calendar color-coded and sticky-tabbed, she’d found her studying groove, Jules was mostly pleasant, and she managed to find some quality time for Kaci and her friends.
And Jackson was keeping her girly bits happy too.
The Friday after midterms, she rushed home after work to pack. Jackson arrived before she was done. Not that she minded. If she’d had to wait on him, she would’ve been mad about missing prime marshmallow roasting time.
But something was off. He walked stiffly through her door with a wrinkle in his forehead and no sign of his normal good humor. “Jackson? Are you okay?”
He shut the door with a definitive click. He cast a quick glance around the room, spun her against the wall next to her overflowing bookshelves, and kissed the bejeebers out of her. His hands slid up her shirt, his hard body, hardeverywhere, trapped her against the wall with her purse hook poking her back. His leg pushed between hers, and she forgot all aboutcampfires and marshmallows and sleeping naked with him in a sleeping bag.
That was hours away.
He was hot and hungry and readynow, and she was in a mood to oblige.
She pushed his flannel shirt out of the way and reached for the button on his jeans. He let out a primal growl, then cupped her rear end and tugged her closer.
Someone knocked at the door.
He broke the kiss with another growl, this one more frustrated than turned on.
She blinked up at him, her chest rising and falling in time with his, neither of them all that steady. “Who’s that?” she said.
“Hurricane Louisa just blew all my plans to hell.”
His words filtered through the haze of lust obscuring her senses. She wanted to cry.
No naked sleeping bag time. Not with his baby sister within earshot.
But Jackson had saidhell.
She bit back a giggle. He shot her an irritated look.
She couldn’t stop her smile. “Does your momma know you cuss like that?”
“Don’t you be getting on my list, Anna Grace.” He flung the door open.
“What are y’all doing in here?” Louisa poked her head in. She gave Anna a once-over. “Ain’t you packed yet?”
“Almost done.”
Anna hadn’t known Jackson evenhadblood pressure, but a vein in his neck throbbed so hard, he might need medical care before they got out of the apartment. “Is Radish coming?” she asked.
“She’s waiting on your lazy butt out in the car,” Louisa said.
“She eats that food, you’re having sticks ’n’ leaves for dinner,” Jackson said.
“Fine.” Louisa dragged out the word to triple its normal syllables. “But hurry it up. I want to help build the fire.”
She stalked back out. Jackson shut the door, then collapsed against it. “Couldn’t leave her home,” he said on a wince.
“Don’t trust her, or feel guilty?”
“Both.”
“Sheislegally an adult. What were you like when you were twenty-one?”
He shoved away from the door and into the kitchen to nudge her cooler with his foot. “Anna Grace, that’s a three-point question.”
On a laugh, she scooted around him and headed toward her bedroom. “Let me toss some flannel pajamas in my bag, and I’ll be ready.”
