“So what does this mingling entail?” she asked as they passed a few people and stopped a few feet from the food table, which was all but destroyed. Jack hadn’t eaten much at lunch and had skipped dinner. He suddenly realized he was hungry.
“You know, the usual. Small talk.” But that seemed nearly impossible with Maisie next to him, and he’d sooner cut off his foot than walk away from her now.
“So should we approach someone?” she asked. Then her guard went back up. “Unless you think you should talk to them alone.”
“Don’t you dare leave me,” he said, and it took everything in him to keep from reaching out for her hand. “I need you to protect me.”
“From Stella?” She nodded across the yard toward the older woman, who had gotten out yet another canvas and was painting a naked Lurch riding a goat. Thankfully, Lurch was posing with only his shirt off, several feet to her side.
“Obviously,” he said with a grin. “What if she finishes the painting and decides she needs a new model?”
He was about to lead her over to a small group of employees when River and Georgie walked through the back gate, looking happier than ever, if that were possible. He’d seen the spark between them before anyone else, on the night of the will reading. Of course, Adalia and Finn were now running neck and neck for the happiest couple distinction, and while Jack was happy for his sisters, he realized there was a tiny spark of jealousy too. Some people took him for a loner, but that was more because he’d had to be alone most of his life than because he preferred it that way.
“Say,” Maisie said, “you want to get out of here?”
He glanced down at her in surprise. “You want to get a bite to eat somewhere?”
“No,” she said, her voice husky. “I was thinking my place. I have food…and other things.”
Those words were like music to his ears, but this was dangerous ground.
“Don’t think so hard, Jack,” she whispered. “There’s only one rule: this is just for tonight.” She tilted her head up, her eyes glimmering with mischief and lust, her full lips slightly parted. “Deal?”
She was right. For once, he was going to stop thinking with his head and think with his… “Deal.”
Chapter Three
They about-faced to cut back through the house, acting like bandits. And maybe they were—they were stealing away with Dottie’s clothes, after all. But Dottie was the only person who saw them, and she just caught Maisie’s eye and winked, which was basically like giving her blessing.
Not that Maisie had expected her to do otherwise. Dottie always seemed to be on a one-woman mission to get her laid. Or, as Dottie would put it, find her a man who was human. She suspected River’s aunt knew more than she let on, which was unusual—Dottie usually liked to pretend she knew more than she did, not the other way around.
Once they were inside, Maisie set the lemon drop martini down on the kitchen counter.
“Don’t take it the wrong way, but it turns out I’d rather take the bartender home than finish the drink,” she said, grabbing Jack’s bicep. It felt just as good as she’d thought it would. And as soon as she got him out of River’s shirt, she could stop thinking about the fact that it was his shirt, questioning whether her attraction to Jack was about Jack or whether she was projecting. She didn’t think she was. Not this time. Jack was sexy as hell, smart, and quick-witted enough to keep up with her. But she’d gone to see her older sister a couple of months ago, and Mary had told her, gently, that her last three boyfriends had looked like they’d come from an audition for the role of River Reeves. They’d even had the same kind of baggage. Broken homes, parents who’d adiosed.
Just like Jack.
Stop sabotaging yourself. A smoking hot man who can make you laugh also wants to make you moan. Forget River. Forget Adalia. And definitely forget Georgie. Tonight’s for you. You, and this man with the ridiculous arms.
“I can’t fault your decision-making,” Jack said with a grin.
She heard voices near the back door. If anyone came in right now, it would destroy the spell between them, this bubble they were making, so she grabbed Jack’s hand and tugged him toward the front of the house.
“You can follow me,” she said as she led him out the door. “If you leave your car here all night, they’ll assume you got eaten by Stella.”
“All night, huh?” Jack said, his voice husky.
She could practically feel the prickles rising on her back. “Well, I wasn’t planning on driving you back in the dead of night. Last I checked, I’m not a taxi service.”
She came to a stop in front of her Jeep, and he stopped with her.
“Hey,” he said, lifting a hand to her hip, his touch searing her. It had been much too long since she’d been touched like that, and she wanted those hands everywhere. They were strong hands, capable. “That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I’m just feeling pretty lucky. It’s not every day a gorgeous woman invites me home.”
“You mean it’s only a once-a-week kind of a thing?” she asked.
He shook his head slightly. “After the goats and the goose and Stella…I’d say this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”
The way he was eyeing her up said he wasn’t just talking about the circumstances.
She wanted to kiss that grin off his lips, make sure the kiss in the kitchen hadn’t been a fluke—weren’t you supposed to preview the goods before you went all in?—but they were in full view of anyone in the street, plus maybe some of the people out back, and she didn’t want anyone to see them. She’d meant what she’d said: one night. The last thing she was equipped for right now was a healthy relationship. So she settled for touching those arms again, squeezing them.
“Which car is yours?” she asked.
He nodded to a Prius that had seen better days, and she reached around and patted her green Jeep, which had also seen better days.
“Nice car,” he said, and she just nodded. It wasn’t. But it had been her dad’s car, and her parents had been gone almost a decade now. She’d drive it into the ground and then some.
“See you there?”
“I look forward to it,” he said, in a deep, husky voice she felt down to her ovaries.
Down, girl.
He squeezed her hip and headed down to his car.
She drove carefully all the way home, checking her rearview mirror frequently to make sure he was still behind her. It had occurred to her belatedly that she should have given him the address, but Jack clearly knew his way around a car just like he knew how to stir a drink and calm a pissed-off goose. Every time she looked, she saw him there, right behind her. His expression looked intent, like he was planning all the things he wanted to do to her. Thinking about it gave her a full-body shiver. Her text alert went off a couple of times, and after she parked in her drive, she checked her phone.
They were both from River. Where are you? Dottie says there was an ‘incident’ with the goats, and you left. Someone stowed a goose in my old room, and I’m thinking of declaring the space a loss.
The second text was a picture of Diego sitting in the midst of a bunch of torn-up bedclothes and goose turds.