Heat instantly filled his eyes. “Right.”
Her heart thumped powerfully inside her chest as she imagined the hard shaft she’d just felt against her belly sliding into her aching core.
She licked her lips and whispered, “Good.”
Nate had just opened his mouth to say something else when a loud string of thunder rolled above them.
Gracie looked up at a large, gray cloud making its way toward them. “That doesn’t look good.”
He followed her gaze. “Damn. We should probably head back.”
With their mutual flirting session over, Gracie hid her disappointment by turning and swimming back toward the canoe. She could hear Nate making his way through the water behind her, but it was obvious he was keeping a safe distance between them.
It’s for the best.That little voice in her head was right. At least she fought to convince herself it was.
An hour later, they were back inside the cabin. After taking turns showering, Nate fixed them some ham and cheese sandwiches.
It was still thundering but hadn’t started to rain, so they decided to sit out on the small porch to eat.
Rocking in one of the two wooden rocking chairs, Gracie sat her empty plate down and sighed. “That was really good. Thank you.”
“You get enough to eat? I can make you another one, if you’d like.”
“No, thank you. I’m actually in the mood for something sweet.”
“We could make S’mores.”
Gracie felt her face light up. “I forgot we bought the stuff for those.”
Smiling back at her, Nate stood. “I’ll go start the fire.”
More than okay with that plan, she rushed to gather their plates before going inside. After washing the two saucers and sitting them in the small, plastic drying rack, Gracie went to the cabinet where Nate had stored all the dry goods.
Once the ingredients had been collected, she grabbed the two roasting forks by the door and headed back outside. She grinned, not surprised in the least that Nate had already managed to get the fire going.
The stone fire pit was positioned between their cabin and the one next door. Before today, that cabin had remained empty, but when they’d gotten back from their little outing, she’d noticed a small, gold car sitting in its parking space.
“Wonder who our neighbors are,” she mused as she made her way to one of the two benches provided for the guests. Positioned on opposite sides of the pit, she chose the one closest to their cabin.
“Larry and Connie Hays. Larry’s a retired sheriff from a few counties over, and Connie is a retired school teacher. Neither have any priors and they both appear to be good, upstanding citizens.”
When Gracie’s jaw dropped, Nate innocently asked, “What? I ran their plates as soon as we got back.”
Of course he had.
Before showering, she’d seen him checking the feed from the almost-invisible security cameras he’d installed the first night they’d gotten here. She hadn’t realized he’d ran complete background checks on their poor, unsuspecting neighbors, too.
“For a minute there, I sort of forgot why we were here.”
“For a minute there”—his gaze bore into hers—“so did I.”
Knowing he was thinking of the earlier moment in the lake, Gracie tried to come up with something else to talk about. Before she could, a sing-song voice travelled over to them.
“Hello!”
A tiny bit of a woman was walking toward them next to a man who towered over her. Her short hair was a pretty blonde and she looked to be around sixty or so. The man appeared a bit older, and the cowboy hat and boots he was wearing were definitely not just for show.
The woman walked straight up to Gracie and held out her hand.
