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Chapter 23

Sloan

♪Into Dust | Mazzy Star

Jason staggered into the kitchen at 7:00 a.m. with Tucker and found me not only awake and caffeinated but showered, dressed, and cooking with his mom.

Patricia and I had coordinated the start time for breakfast last night, and I took my cooking duties very seriously. Apparently we were expecting a large crowd.

“Good morning, ladies.” He slid open the back door and let Tucker out. He poured himself a black coffee, looking unbelievably adorable with his messy hair in his eyes.

His plaid pajama bottoms and gray T-shirt made me want to wrap my arms around his waist to see what his chest smelled like. My heart picked up a little thinking about it.

He held his mug in his hand and came around to the stove and gave Patricia a peck on the cheek. Then he turned to me where I stood cutting a melon by the sink. “Did you sleep well?” he asked. Before I could reply, he leaned in and gave me a swift kiss too, only he put mine on the lips. In front of his mom.

I knocked over a container of blueberries.

Nothing was inappropriate about the kiss. It was kind of sweet, actually. I’d just been under the impression we were going to be totally hands off in front of his parents. He’d kissed me good night last night, but only after walking me to my room, and the hallway had been empty.

Patricia smiled down at her frying pan.

In typical Jason fashion, he grinned at the victory of catching me off guard. He popped a blueberry into his smiling mouth and then seemed to decide he’d embarrassed me enough for one morning and excused himself to take a shower.

“Sorry,” I said to Patricia, picking up blueberries from the counter, my face hot. “It’s like he has to fluster me once a day or a baby bunny dies somewhere or something. He’s very committed to it.”

She laughed heartily. “He learned it from his father. I think they like the color it puts in our cheeks.”

I smiled. Hanging out with Patricia was my idea of a good time. I loved her.

A half hour later, Jason came back in and helped with dishes and cleanup as Patricia and I cooked. He found any chance he could to put a hand on my back or to stand close to me. Patricia totally noticed it. She kept smiling at us.

People started to filter in for breakfast around 8:30. Two cousins of Jason’s, three of Jason’s friends, and a neighbor were joining the Larsen men to do some work around the property, and the deal for free labor included food.

After the men went to work, I kept finding excuses to go outside to see what Jason was doing. I found him on the roof pulling shingles.

He wasn’t wearing a shirt.

I was a lurker. His shirtless body had me creeping on him from the trees. I’d have used binoculars if I could have done it without being noticed. Broad, strong shoulders, six-pack abs, a defined chest that made me want to trace the contours with my fingers. I was my boyfriend’s stalker.

When the men pulled on their waders and started putting in the dock, it was almost lunchtime. I liked the dock project because I could see Jason from the sliding glass doors off the kitchen, though he had a shirt on now, so it was slightly less exciting.

When Patricia and I brought sandwiches down, we set them right on the wooden planks so the men could stand in the lake and use the dock as a table. They descended on the food. Jason grabbed two sandwiches and a beer and we moved to the end, away from everyone, and I sat down with my legs crossed under me so I could be by him as he ate. He stood up to his stomach in water.

“Are you having fun?” I asked him, my chin in my hand.

“I am now,” he said, smiling at me, taking a bite of a turkey sandwich.

I wanted to kiss him. He looked extra rugged and handsome today. Heaven help us both if he did one more sexy man-thing around here. If he took off his shirt and started splitting logs, I’d probably drag him into a bush and let him have his way with me.

“How cold is that water?”

He shrugged. “Forty-five? Forty-six degrees?”

“Wow. That’s cold. But you’re dry in there?” I peered into the front of his camouflaged waders.

“Want to put a hand inside and check?” His eyes gleamed.

I dipped the tips of my fingers into the lake and flicked him with water. He laughed.