“There’s nothing to live for, Perry,” he said to his sister-in-law. “This is just two people engaging in small-town talk. That’s it.”
“Well, that’s interesting enough in and of itself.”
“Get the grill going,” Austin said. And then Flynn found himself out on the porch, grousing as he ignited the grill and put the steaks on. That’s where he was standing when Jessie Jane pulled up in her old blue truck.
His body reacted. Which just made him madder. Madder at himself, madder at her for what had happened at The Watering Hole. Just mad.
She grinned at him from the driver’s side window as if they hadn’t left each other hot, panting, and furious last time they’d talked, and then parked next to Carson’s truck. She got out of the oversize vehicle, jumping down to the gravel and making her way over to him. “What are you grilling?”
“Elk,” he said, his voice clipped.
“Cool. Thanks for having me up for dinner.”
“This isn’t my house, and I’m not the one who invited you.”
“You’re such a romantic, Flynn. How is it that a girl hasn’t snapped you up yet?”
“I don’t know, Jess,” he bit out. “Maybe the same reason a man hasn’t made an honest woman of you.”
“You got me there,” she said, pointing finger guns at him.
Finger guns.
Like she hadn’t locked them in a bathroom and then run when it got too intense.
His blood felt hot. Felt like it was running just a little bit fast. He didn’t like it. He was used to being in total control of his attraction to women, and maybe that was the real thing that bugged him so much about Jessie. The control seemed to rest entirely with her.
“Be forewarned that my family is about to descend upon you like a pack of ravenous wolves,” he said.
Jessie did not look concerned about this at all. In fact, she looked as irrepressible as ever. “Excellent. Being invited to a Wilder family gathering. It feels like a Discovery Channel special. I’m about to see a rare creature in its natural habitat.”
“We aren’t all that rare.”
In truth, though, he supposed that he was. The only one of his kind. Part Wilder, part Respectable Family About Town. But that wasn’t what she was talking about.
“You get to give your little speech again.”
“I love a speech.”
She walked up the steps, but she didn’t knock on the front door; instead she came to stand beside him, craning her neck to look at what he had on the grill.
“Jessie,” he said, his tone warning. “Don’t make a nuisance of yourself.”
“But that’s what I do.”
He turned his head to look at her, and she was far too close. He wouldn’t take money for helping her, but he knew exactly how he would like to extract payment from her.
That was … not a thought he needed to be having right now standing on his brother’s front porch while grilling steak. No, it wasn’t.
But he felt compelled to make her pay for last night, or at least make it clear he hadn’t forgotten.
“Don’t push,” he said.
“Or …?” she asked.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.”
“Maybe I do want to know. I heard curiosity killed the cat.”
