“Don’t wait so long next time,” he said softly.
“I won’t.”
They parted and settled on the swing. His shoulders were so wide, their arms were flush. He looked every inch the firefighter with his muscular build and stoic expression. The porch light did nice things for his patrician nose and high cheekbones. Its golden light shimmered in his dark hair.
“What’s that mess on your jaw?” she asked.
A smile played around his mouth as he stroked the stubbly growth. “A beard in the making.”
“You’ve always been an optimist.”
“It’s only been a week.” Growing facial hair was the one thing Ty couldn’t do as well as his brothers—and they loved giving him a hard time about it. He lowered his voice, his green eyes almost black in the shadows. “So what’s the deal with this guy and your mom?”
She shrugged. “According to her they spent a lot of time together on the cruise. She feels like she’s known him all her life, and now he’s staying with her indefinitely.”
His head jerked back.“Indefinitely?”
“That’s what she says. He’s up in the garage apartment. I guess we can be thankful for that much. For the record, I don’t trust him. He’s too nicey-nice. Acted like he was so happy to have me here, carried my bag to my room, couldn’t unload the groceries for me fast enough. And he’s in there right now slicing vegetables for supper.”
“Sounds like a real jerk.”
She elbowed him in the stomach. But the flesh didn’t give so much as an inch. “Nobody’s that nice.”
“Doesn’t he have a home to get back to?”
“All I could get out of her is that he’s retired and apparently doesn’t have any pressing obligations.”
“I hope that’s not because he’s a con artist who makes his living off lonely widows.”
Lonely widow.Guilt gave a good, hard jab. Was Mom lonely? Jenna used to visit every month or two. But the past couple of years she’d slacked off with her visitsandphone calls. Work kept her busy and she used weekends to decompress. And now that she thought about it, Jason was never eager to make the trip. He didn’t mind Jenna going home without him, but she didn’t want to leave him. After they broke up she should’ve come for a visit right away—without an ulterior motive.
“She say anything else?”
“Not really. And I had to be careful. Ever since the Douglas Debacle she’s been pretty adamant that I butt out of her love life.” Mom had met Douglas online and, despite Jenna’s advice, allowed him to pick her up at her house. The date didn’t go well, but that didn’t stop Douglas from stopping by and making a regular nuisance of himself.
“It doesn’t matter that you were right?” Ty said.
“Nope.”
“So you’re just supposed to be okay with some strange guy living on your mom’s property?”
“Apparently. But obviously I can’t leave her here alone with him.”
“You said he was staying indefinitely.”
“I suspect this will end, probably in disaster, sooner rather than later. I mean, she’s known him one week. Eventually he’ll show his true colors. I’ll just have to stick around until that happens.”
He tilted a smile at her. “I don’t hate the sound of that.”
She bumped his shoulder. “Aw, you’ve gone soft on me, Parker.”
“Nah. Just a little more in touch with my feelings these days.”
Jenna sobered at the reminder of his broken heart. Britt had left Ty suddenly last year, and it took a while for him to discover she’d been cheating on him for months. Understandably, he took it pretty hard. “Have you seen her yet?”
“Not this year.” Her family was from Annapolis and owned a summer home on the island, which Britt visited sometimes.
“She was never good enough for you, you know.”
