She swallowed hard and his gaze followed the movement of her throat before lingering on her mouth.
To hell with awkwardness.
Phoebe gently bit her bottom lip and Will’s fingers flexed against the sofa. When he met her eyes again, the heated look only deepened. Then he raised a playful chastising brow and Phoebe felt an answering throb between her legs. She shouldn’t be thinking of such things when her own parents were just a few steps away. And yet it was the very illicitness that seemed to spur her on.
“Although,” she rasped. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping.”
“Have you now.” Will’s voice was deeper than ever.
Phoebe nodded. At some point she had leaned closer and so had he. “My bed has become terribly uncomfortable.”
Will gave a slow shake of his head as he clicked his tongue and Phoebe nearly melted into the sofa. “What a shame. Something needs to be done about that.”
Phoebe rolled her lips together in a desperate attempt to stave off the silly grin that threatened to ruin the moment. How was Will so good at keeping a straight face?
“Yes, I was hoping—”
“Here you are, my darling.”
Phoebe nearly jumped out of her skin as her mother handed her a cup of tea. “Oh, thank you.”
As she took it, her hand was trembling so hard that a little tea splashed onto the saucer. Luckily, her mother was too busy handing a cup to Will to notice.
For God’s sake, get yourself together.
Phoebe inhaled deeply and recalled her first disastrous day at the school, which had culminated with a student putting a dead mouse in her desk drawer. She had never shrieked so loudly for so long. When her mother took a seat beside her, Phoebe was mostly recovered.
“I’m sorry about your father,” she began. “He does mean well, you know. And Will, you were marvelous. I think you made an impression on him.”
“It didn’t look that way,” Phoebe grumbled.
“No,” her mother allowed. “But when you’ve been married as long as I have, you learn to see things others don’t.” Then she gave Phoebe a significant look before she rose. “Excuse me. I think I need to throw Alex’s book into the hearth to get her to mingle.”
“Just make sure it isn’t a first edition,” Phoebe managed to quip even as her cheeks heated.
Her mother pressed a hand to her chest in mock horror. “Never.”
When she turned back to Will, he had removed his arm from the sofa and was taking a sip of tea, as if nothing untoward had ever occurred.
Phoebe couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. But that was silly, especially if her own mother had begun to pick up on this… this… whatever this was between them. After all, theycouldn’t possibly repeat the other night. She herself had insisted it could only happen once. And she’d meant it. Hadn’t she?
Before she could examine her confounding feelings any further, Mother dragged Alex over and demanded she tell them about New York. After that, Phoebe tried to concentrate as Alex reluctantly recited her trip down to the most inconsequential detail. Phoebe’s rebellious eyes drifted to Will every so often, but he did not look her way again for the rest of the evening.
As the party made their way to the front door to say their goodbyes, Phoebe’s heart dragged behind her. The Ericsons left first and Hank Junior nearly fell down the front stairs because he was too busy staring back at Freddie.
“Goodness, you will be the death of that young man,” their mother remarked to which Freddie just laughed.
Will then thanked her father and mother for their hospitality, wished Freddie a good night, and made a plan with Alex to meet up soon. When it was finally Phoebe’s turn, he took her hand. “Always a pleasure to see you,” he said, once again the very picture of the perfectly polite aristocrat.
“You as well,” she replied, utterly failing to not hide her disappointment.
But as Will bent over her hand, his fingers tightened slightly. “Meet me in the greenhouse,” he murmured. “Ten minutes.”
Phoebe’s breath caught, but before she could form a response he had already moved toward the door. She stared at his retreating back until Freddie interrupted.
“Why do you have your coat? Aren’t you staying the night?”
“Oh you must, my dear,” her mother insisted. “It’s too late for you to go all that way.”
