Now that my heart rate has returned to normal, I have the urge to smile.
“This is where I read. I didn’t know you were here.”
My eyes flick to the cat. “I see you found the cat.”
“Phoebe foundme. She was sleeping on my bed.”
“Phoebe?”
She nods. “She has female energy.”
I laugh. “That’s what I said.”
So the cat likes Tateandhis daughter. Phoebe opens one eye and gives me an expression full of hate. I roll my eyes.
An urgent knock on the front door has me raising my eyebrows at Bea. She raises hers right back.
“Jordan?” Tate’s voice sounds through the door as I slip out of bed. “Everything okay?”
I open the door, and my thoughts dissolve.
He’s shirtless and sweating. Wearing black athletic shorts that reveal his impressive thighs. A trail of dark hair trickling from his navel into the waistband of his shorts. Defined pecs, rounded,toned shoulders, and a carved six-pack. Damp hair, a glistening sheen along his forehead and chest.
Holy hell. Tate Ward isjacked. He has the body of a guy fifteen years younger.
He has a sneaky tattoo on his left pectoral. Two constellations that look like the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, but with extra stars connected. Something snags inside me at the idea of someone as responsible and controlled as Tate Ward getting a tattoo.
“Jordan.”
I snap my gaze to his. My scalp is prickling. I mean, he’s just so... hot. I knew this, and yet being presented with all this skin and toned muscle and chest hair is?—
“Were you working out?” I ask, stupidly.
“What?” He looks down at himself. “Oh. Yes.”
What I would pay to see that.
“I heard you shout,” he prompts.
I open the door wider so Bea is visible, still reading on the bed.
He sighs, but he’s smiling. “Hi, Bee.”
She flips the page. “Hi.”
He gives me an apologetic look. “She reads in here, sometimes. I was planning to tell her we had a guest when I got in from my workout. Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine.”
“She taught me how to roll a joint,” Bea calls to her dad.
My jaw drops. “I didnot.”
Bea smiles into her book, and oh. Tate’s smiling, too.
“I see where she gets her weird sense of humor from,” I tell him.
His smile curves higher, but my gaze is caught behind him, at the wide-open cove. Emerald mountains, brilliant blue sky, water sparkling in the clear morning light. It takes my breath away. So pretty I could look at it forever.
