Except …
Except Nick’s eyes. He looked at her exactly the same way he had when she was fifteen, as if he wanted to say so much. Warmth and interest and hope and something else she couldn’t define. Maybe she shouldat least offer to dry his clothes and shoes.
Yes, she would do that. After all, it was the right thing to do.
“Take off your clothes.”
Nick blinked. “Pardon?”
“You heard me. Take off your shirt and pants and give them to me. I’ll throw them in the dryer, and you can be on your way.”
“Not how I imagined this.” He smirked. “But, OK.”
Smirk still planted on his face, he began undoing buttons, and damned if her eyes weren’t glued to his nimble fingers as his shirt began to part, and he shrugged out of it.
Whoa, what a chest. Had he gained even more muscle since the last time she’d seen him? Sure looked like it. Lord, he was fit. Hours and hours at the gym, she’d bet. The guys she knew who looked like that, all friends of Blake’s, invariably possessed some level of narcissism.
It suddenly occurred to her that she was standing two feet away, watching a man undress. It also occurred to her that he might take this too far.
Spinning around, she turned her back to him, resisting the urge to peek over her shoulder. “Leave your underwear on,” she said, her voice a tad too high.
“Not happenin’. Those are the most uncomfortable.” A pause. “Here.”
She hesitated for a beat before reaching back and taking his shirt, holding it away from herself as it dripped onto the limestone deck. Keeping her head down, she stole a glance at him. His fingers were on the silver buckle plate. It disappeared into his palm as he tugged on it to undo his belt, then flicked open the button and grasped the zipper tab.
She hastily turned her head, heard the sound of wet fabric flopping, and then his hand appeared again, holding his pants and a pair of bright red boxers. The large white writing on one leg read, “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT,” the warning on the red safety tags typically used on parked aircraft.
Jannie stifled a hysterical laugh that came out as a snort. This was definitely something she would buy as gag gifts for her brothers, if buying underwear for them wasn’t weird.
She grabbed the wet clothes and started to go inside but realized thatwould mean leaving Nick, stark naked, on her patio. The lake would give him some privacy, as it was wide and the houses across it were far away, but the next-door neighbors would get an eyeful through the live hedge.
Tossing everything onto the summer kitchen counter, she shrugged out of her robe and offered it to him over her shoulder. “Here.”
A pause. “You’re kidding me,” he muttered.
“Take it. Or not. But I don’t think Mrs. Stevens next door would survive you flashing her. And her husband is a Vietnam vet. He might take issue.”
Nick grumbled something she didn’t catch.
He took the robe. “OK, I’m decent.”
Jannie faced him and pressed her lips together to hold back laughter at the sight of Nick in her yellow Donald Duck robe. The two sides of the garment barely met, but since it was oversized, it at least covered everything. Well, almost. A strip of chest was still very much visible.
“OK,” she said, collecting his clothes again, then headed toward the sliding door, pointing toward the double chaise lounge facing the pool. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“Outhere?”
“Well, yeah. I’ll throw these in the dryer and bring them when they’re ready. Oh, and I’ll get some newspapers and a fan for your shoes.”
She had hardly taken a step when he grabbed her wrist and spun her around.
He was silent for a beat. And then, his gaze caught hers. “Why are you afraid of me, Jannie?”
What?
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
