Page 72 of Until You

First. Wow. I’ve been there for a whole four days and the town already knows? The girls must have told someone who told someone who told someone.

Second, the Maddens have been in Redemption Falls for a few weeks. She acts like we’ve been having a fling for months.

“Good to see the rumor mill is still alive and strong and wrong,” I say with a placating smile on my face but don’t care to elaborate. The last thing I owe anyone, let alone Bobbi Jo, is answers to the question she’s asking without putting words to—is it true? Are you and Crew an item?

Let her stew on it.

Let her guess.

Next, the town will say I’m knocked up with twins or something like that.

“Don’t be so shy about it. We’re all just a little jealous is all. It’s not often we get new, handsome bachelors around here to gawk at.” She taps my arm. “Now, where were you on securing sponsorships for the banners?”

I fill her in on the phone calls I’ve made and the vendors who have agreed to buy a banner to help sponsor and pay for some of the Founder’s Day expenses. It’s a cake job, really. Most vendors do it every year, and so it’s merely a matter of doing the paperwork and collecting payments.

“Good. That’s fabulous. I knew you’d be a great addition to the team.”

“Thank you. Now where are the old banners again? I’d like to go through them and see if we have any we can reuse. We’re getting short on time to get them made, so I need to take inventory.”

“They’re upstairs in the storage area. It’s a total disaster up there.” She mock shivers. “Stuff everywhere. It makes my OCD go absolutely haywire. Hives. And. All. I can always send one of the guys up there for you if you want.”

“I’ll figure it out. I’m resourceful.”

“Of course, you are. I’ll leave you to it then,” she says, the clickety-clack of her heels following her as she goes.

I glance across the community center to where I’ve convinced Crew to come help build booths for the day. He’s standing outside through the open doors, and I’m a tad distracted watching him work the hammer. With every swing, those muscles I know all too well contract and flex. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t caught almost every other woman in here noticing it either.

Crew glances up, and his eyes meet mine. The look he gives me and the flash of his lightning-quick grin has that slow fire we’ve had on simmer start to burn.

To say living under the same roof with him is difficult would be a lie. In fact, the first week has been quite seamless. I edit during the morning hours while he plays handyman doing some of Ian’s tasks. The girls swim and shoot and reshoot and then reshoot again their tutorials. Their laughter as they make them floats to wherever I’m working, and rather than distracting me, makes me smile.

In fact, after having lived on my own for the last two years, I thought living with someone else—let alone two eleven-year-old girls—might be sensation overload. Truth be told, I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much I’ve enjoyed having people and their noise around me.

Laughter. I never realized how much I’ve missed the sound of it, even if just in my periphery, until now. Until I’m working and I hear the deep rumble of Crew and the girls’ higher-pitched tone. While it may be muted through my closed door, it brings an automatic smile to my face. It gives me something to look forward to when I’m done working.

And that is something I haven’t had in the longest time.

It’s welcome.

It’s wanted.

And while the days have had an order that’s kept me sane—work, the girls, mealtime—the nights have been more challenging as Crew and I have to be clandestine with our flirting. Glances across the room that are held longer than one would deem platonic. The brush of a hand over my lower back as he walks past me. An innuendo made that flies over the girls’ heads.

But the following through on what that flirting promises has yet to happen. A stomachache one night led Addy to want Crew’s attention. A late-night movie marathon hindered another. An excitement over me being there and a sleepover downstairs in a homemade fort another.

The lack of opportunity for us to have sex again has made the desire that much stronger. Has made this burn so much more intense.

To have the dessert you want right at your fingertips but not be able to taste it is a torture in and of itself.

So when Crew looks at me like he does across the distance, every part of me dares him to find some dark closet and have at it.

Desperation and me are becoming good friends.

“Tenny?”

“What? I’m sorry. I was lost in thought,” I say, turning to find Tanya standing there with a smile on her lips. “What did you need?”

“It’s photo time.”