Levi looked at me like he wasn’t sure if I was telling the truth. So I swigged another mouthful of wine from the bottle and decided to keep going.
“And since you seem to need to know everything, why don’t we back up and start from the beginning, shall we? First off, I didn’t leave Tanner like you apparently believe I did. He left me—after the second time I caught him cheating. Oh, and your wonderful brother? He also has a serious gambling problem and only saw his son a handful of times over the last few years. And about Thatcher… You’re so suspect of the reason I kept in touch with your grandfather? Well, the truth is, we bonded over Tanner. The two of us tried to intervene and get him help for his addiction on multiple occasions.”
I took another swig from the wine bottle and started to feel a bit lightheaded. “And if you don’t believe what I’m saying, you can probably verify everything with Fern.” I pointed the wine bottle toward the back of the house where she lived. “Because I’m pretty certain she was fucking Thatcher and wasn’t just his friend.”
Levi blinked a few times. He opened his mouth and then shut it. Then opened it. And promptly shut it again. He looked down for a few minutes and then slowly walked over to me and held his hand out. I wasn’t sure what he was asking for until he motioned down to the wine with his eyes.
I hesitated, but let him have the bottle.
His swig finished nearly a quarter of the contents. When he was done, he let out a loud ahhh and offered the bottle back to me. “So Gramps and Fern, huh?”
I smiled sadly. “I’m pretty sure.”
He nodded. “Good for Gramps.”
We stayed quiet for a long time, each sipping from the bottle and passing it back and forth. Eventually, Levi broke our silence.
“Tanner made it seem like you left him because he wasn’t going to be a football star anymore.”
“I figured that. I think he spewed a lot of misinformation around to your family. And I never said anything because the only one who gets hurt when I fight with Tanner is Alex. Your brother really changed after his injury. It was like he didn’t know who he was without football. You boys and your dad have the sport running through your veins. So I tried to understand as best as I could, even when he was treating me badly. That’s why I gave him a pass the first time I caught him with another woman. I knew he was hurting. But the second time, I couldn’t get past it, and we were fighting all the time. Eventually, he moved out.” I caught Levi’s eye. “You’ve known me as long as Tanner has, Levi. Do you really think I’m the type of person who would’ve left someone I cared about because life threw us a curveball?”
Levi’s eyes moved back and forth between mine. He shook his head and looked down. “No.”
After he gulped some more of the wine, he extended the nearly finished bottle to me. But when I went to take it, he pulled it back. Switching it to his other hand, he replaced the wine offering with his hand. “Peace?”
I nodded and put my hand in his.
A heavy silence fell between us as we shook. I figured Levi was busy trying to grasp everything I’d just said, or maybe wondering how the hell he was ever going to get the crazy person standing across from him to sell this mess of a place. But I was tongue-tied by the electricity I felt running up my arm from where our hands were joined. It was so incredibly strong—my eyes jumped to Levi’s face to see if he felt it, too.
But his eyes were cast down, and he seemed unaffected. Unfortunately, that only gave me the opportunity to soak in his face. He’d shaved the beard he’d had a few days ago and now sported a close crop of day-old stubble along his masculine jawline. Levi really was incredibly attractive.
Oh God. It’s the wine. It has to be. I need my head examined for thinking these thoughts.
Our hands were still joined, so I abruptly pulled mine back, which caused Levi to look up.
“Yeah, sure. Peace would be good,” I said.
Levi nodded and looked down once again as he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “Okay, good. Ummm…why don’t you, uh, go change?”
“Change?”
His eyes came back up, stopping on my breasts.
I followed his line of sight. Oh! Shit. I had on a white tank top with a sheer, nude bra underneath. The water from the flood had soaked them both, and my pink nipples were practically piercing through the wet fabric. I quickly folded my arms to cover up.
Our eyes met again briefly, and for the first time, I saw something other than disdain blazing in my direction. Unless I was crazy, that something other was the exact same thing I’d been failing to control around him lately: desire.
Oh God.
“Sorry…yeah… I’ll, uh, be right back.”
CHAPTER 4
* * *
Levi
I managed to avoid Presley for four days after that. And right now, if there had been any question in my mind as to why I’d steered clear of her, this was a giant, glaring reminder. Presley was in one of the guest rooms, up on the bed on all fours.
Jesus Christ. What the hell was she doing? But also, damn...what an ass.
It didn’t help that I could still picture her naked from the day she’d greeted me with a radio to the head. Or that I remembered she shook that ass better than a five-night-a-week stripper.
When she reached one arm between the headboard and the mattress, I cleared my throat. “Lose something?”
She whirled, startled, and I put my hands up. I guess I should’ve been grateful there was nothing sharp or heavy nearby.
“I didn’t hear you come in. And yes, I dropped some photos behind the bed, and I can’t reach them.”
I walked into the room. “Let me see. My arms are longer.”
Presley parked her ass on her heels on the bed. “That would be great. I never realized these headboards were nailed to the wall.”
I stuck my arm down behind the bed and reached around until I felt something. Pulling up some old photos, I held them out to Presley. “How many were there?”
“I think just those three. Thanks.”
I pointed to the headboard. “There’s a story behind why those are screwed into the wall.”
“Oh yeah?”
“When we were little, Grams and Pops used to have us stay over once a month to give my parents a night off. I was probably about six this one time we came for our visit, and I was staying in a room two doors down from here. A young couple was staying in the room next to me. All night long, the headboard banged away. There was also some grunting. When I asked Pops if he’d heard the noise the next morning, he told me the couple must’ve been jumping on the bed, and he was going to have a talk with them about it, because the beds weren’t for jumping.”
Presley smiled. “I take it they weren’t jumping on the bed?”
I shook my head. “Definitely not. But the next afternoon, the sound was back again. Pops had run out to the hardware store, and Grams was busy in the kitchen. So, being the man of the house, I decided to knock on the door and tell the guests the beds weren’t for jumping. They didn’t answer at first, but then I heard the woman yell, ‘Yes!’ so I opened the door.”
Presley’s big, green eyes widened. She covered her mouth. “You walked in on them?”