She’d paused with the dishes and sat down, taking out her knitting bag to work on something pink and small with a skull on one side. Her rage-knitting was a weird-ass hobby. My eyes flicked to a pair of potholders she made that saidDon’t Be A Twat-Waffle, but it was nothing compared to her damn topiary designs. She threatened to make me a likeness of my,ahem, area if I kept moving them outside. “They have a whole romance genre dedicated to this kind of thing. It could be true love.”
“Think of the possibilities. She might blow your mind and chain you to a radiator to be her sex slave. Hell, you have handcuffs, use them,” Magnum said.
“Boys, be nice to your brother.”
“Yes, ma’am,” three voices chorused.
“But you should take her up on the offer if she’s into handcuffs. It’d be good for you to blow off some steam, and it might lead to a relationship. I’ll never meddle in your love-lives, but I hate that all of my boys are lonely.”
Mom put her knitting down and crossed her arms, looking at the four of us with a sympathetic expression on her face. I don’t know what threw me more. That her idea of casual sex involved handcuffs, or that she said it was a good idea for me to get laid. Magnum and Miller were leaning against the counter with their mouths wide open, and Maverick was doing his best to hide behind the pizza boxes.
“I just want my boys to be as happy as I was with your father.” She shrugged and picked up her project, pulling out the needles and tying off the end.
“Mom, my brain’s about to explode. Did you just tell Mark to get laid?” Magnum asked.
“Well, it releases endorphins. I mean, do you think your father and I only had sex four times?”
“Nope, three. My birth was an immaculate conception,” Miller said.
“No, it most certainly was not. I remember this one time when your father was late coming home, and I surprised him with...”
“Mom!” we all said at the same time. Miller stuffed his fingers in his ears, and Magnum was shaking his hands like he was trying to dry them without a paper towel.
“The pizza guy was standing in the yard trying to figure out how to get up the non-existent steps, so I took these off his hands,” Maverick said, completely ignoring the conversation.
“Nice,” Miller said, grabbing the boxes and doing the same thing.
Mom smiled, then passed around paper plates, and we all dug in. The cheesy goodness made my eyes heavy, and when someone suggested I lay down again, I didn’t argue. I dragged my tired ass up the stairs and eased Phoebe off my pillow, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the soft surface.
I got this. Deep breaths. It was only a month.
As my Tahoe neared Magnolia Crescent, my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. I felt like crawling up the walls or running twenty miles. Anything to keep me away from her house a little longer.
Why was I nervous?
I asked myself that question one too many times this week. Time to nut up or shut up.Ugh.Bad analogy. I pulled into her driveway and took a minute to look at her house. It had a one-car garage with three steps leading up to the red front door. Her small porch was covered with plants. It was a wall of green in front of her yellow house. You would think a yellow house with a red door and shutters would be an eyesore, but it worked muddled by all the green. It looked like her. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, shaking my head at the message.
Jenna: Door’s open.
I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face as my nerves settled down. I didn’t know why Jenna’s type of crazy was so damn cute. These random texts should be creepy, but they weren’t. Even her constant babble was adorable as fuck. I wanted to be here, in her space, not because she owed me anything, but because she wanted me here.
Phoebe meowed from her carrier, so I quickly pocketed my phone, grabbed my duffle, walked up the steps, and opened the door to the foyer. There was a long table against the wall painted light blue with a huge mirror over it. A green bowl filled with sea glass sat in the middle of the table, and long, puffed cotton stems were twined together on each side. Several pictures hung beside the mirror.
One was Jenna holding her doctorate, presumably with her parents, and another of Jenna and three other girls hugging with huge smiles on their faces. There was one of Jenna when she was younger, dressed in a lab coat with a stethoscope. My eyes moved over each important moment in her life, and I smiled, enjoying every new detail I learned about her.
“Hey you,” she said, walking into the foyer wearing shorts and a tank top. “Promise I wasn’t being a weird stalker. I was in the kitchen when your SUV pulled up.”
Her face was free of makeup, and her feet were bare. I stood there like an idiot, staring at those legs and curves. Being in such close quarters with her was going to be more complicated than I thought. I stuck one hand in my pocket and rubbed the rabbit’s foot, keeping my eyes from straying down her body again.
“Hi,” I said, taking a few steps further inside. Jenna came closer and opened her arms. The thought of wrapping my arms around her was something no sane man could resist, and as my hands touched her arms, she lifted her chin and smiled. I couldn’t help myself. I leaned down and brushed my lips against her cheek. She sucked in a quick breath before she tightened her arms around my neck and kept them for seconds longer than a friendly hug should last.
Like last time, she fit in my arms and laid her head on my chest. She tucked her head under my neck and gave me one last squeeze before letting go and taking a step back. Her cheeks were flushed, and I could see the color creep down her neck and across her chest. I wanted to run my hands across her collarbone and down her cleavage, tracing that blush.
Fucking hell, I had to stop this.
“Did you find the house okay?” Her soft voice danced across my skin like a lover’s caress, and I wanted nothing more than to grip the back of her neck and expose her throat to see how fast her pulse was racing. But I breathed in deep through my nose and pushed the feelings down, determined to get myself under control.
“Yeah, no problems. I can’t tell you enough how thankful I am for this.”
