Page 59 of Beneath the Quiet

“Good. See you later, Farm Boy.”

My breath stills. “Farm Boy?”

She laughs as she turns her back on me. “Since you won’t stop calling me Detective, it seems only fitting that I give you a nickname in return.”

I turn to face her and widen my stance as if I’m ready to go to battle, and even though it’s clearly not the case, I need to set things straight with her. I reach out my arm and curl it around her shoulder. She stiffens for a moment but doesn’t resist me when I pull her closer to my side, her ample breasts flush to my chest. Her eyes widen, and I can’t resist dropping my eyes to her full lips.

I clear my dry throat.

“You need to get more creative, and you’d do well to remember I’m no boy.”

She opens her mouth but then shuts it again. I raise my chin and slip my arm off her shoulder. I flip my glasses down as I pass her to open the stable door and fix her with a stare for as long as I can without tripping over my own feet.

“Get home safe, Detective.”

Chapter Sixteen

Maeve

There’s absolutely no doubt that I know Aidan hasn’t been a boy for a very long time. He looks like every woman’s wet dream, and he’s certainly starred in mine more than once since then.

The way the blue T-shirt clung to him, his hair slicked back, drops of water running down his hard as flint jaw. All that heated testosterone aimed directly at me, who looked like a drowned rat with raccoon eyes was the most incredible distraction. He’s too much for any woman to bear.

It’s interesting and infuriating at the same time.

I’m so bloody aware of him and the way he moves that lithe body when I’m with him that I can barely see straight.

I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to drown out the noise from the other villagers frequenting Holly’s this early evening. I wasn’t sure I’d stop by, but Aidan’s friendly warning about not becoming a recluse resonated with me, and I’ve thought about his words far more than I should have since then.

I’ve thought about that man way too much, period.

I can’t shake the butterflies I feel, either, and it’s annoying as hell. He’s too bloody handsome for his own good.

He’s too much for a woman like me who hasn’t felt the touch of a man for so long that she hardly remembers what it’s like to let go and just feel.

I crack my neck and sit up straighter in my seat. If I don’t think of something else, I’ll combust on the spot. I flick my hair behind my ear and focus on the newspaper in front of me, flipping it open to the crossword puzzle page and set to work quietly. As the puzzle so often does, it drowns the chatter around me. I focus on the words on the page and work methodically. I frown at one of the trickier questions, pen paused in the air but then the answer comes to me, and I scribble it in the boxes. I tilt my head at the next one, then fills in four letters without hesitation. Another pause. Another answer. Bit by bit, I relax in my seat, lost in the calmness of solving the puzzle one word at a time.

In fact, I’m so lost in it that I don’t even notice I’m no longer alone before the clearing of a throat close to me makes me snap my head back.

Aidan gives me a crooked smile and sets down a pint next to me.

“Any good?” he asks.

I give him a small shrug. “Keeps my brain busy.” I look down and point to a phrase I can’t work out. “This one is a little annoying, though.”

He cranes his neck. “A deep enjoyment or passion for the act of kissing. Whoa.” His eyebrows shoot up. “Is there actually a word for that?”

“Apparently.” Warmth creeps up my neck. “I have the first two letters, see?” I push the newspaper closer to him so that he can see the p and h clearly. “I know I can just look it up online, but…ugh,” I groan.

He sits down next to me, and I scoot a little further away on the bench to give him more room. Unfortunately, we’re at a corner booth, and I can’t avoid him completely. He presses close to my side, and I push a lock of my hair behind my ear, trying to do my best not to think about his body mine. Hip to hip. Thigh to thigh.

“When did you start doing crossword puzzles?”

I pull my lips down, thinking hard. “It was shortly after I came to live with my last foster family.” I stare off in the distance and let the memories wash over me.

Jack coming home with a magazine. Jack sitting down next to me when I needed help with an answer. Jack giving me a high five when I got a really good one.

“Nellie and Jack, right?”