Chapter 17

Late that night, Jewel groaned when she checked her watch. “I should get going. I have no idea how I lost track of so much time, but we’re both going to be dead on our feet tomorrow.”

Discreetly checking my wrist, I couldn’t understand how the evening had flown by so quickly. It had been three hours since Colten had gone to bed and we were still talking.

Stretching her arms out above her head, she yawned and then slowly got up as she relaxed out of the stretch. “Thank you for a wonderful evening, Landon. I’m sorry I kept you up so late.”

“It’s no problem,” I said as I stood up as well, sweeping a hand out to let her precede me to the back door. “I’m as much to blame as you are, and at least I’m already home. Would you like me to drive you? I can collect you in the morning so you can come get your car.”

“No, that’s okay,” she said sweetly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, worry nagging at me when I thought about the long, winding mountain road back into town. “I wouldn’t mind at all. It sure is dark around here at night.”

“Nah, it’s perfect,” she said, chuckling as she turned to me when she walked back into the house. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it, and I prefer total darkness to pretend darkness with so much ambient light that you can see everything anyway.”

I nodded sharply, still not quite comfortable with the idea, but she had a point. She’d grown up here. She was obviously used to it.

Walking her out to her car, I said goodbye and watched as she climbed in, but the engine didn’t turn over when she turned her key. I frowned, but she just sighed, shaking her head before sending me a reassuring grin.

“Don’t worry about this either,” she said after manually winding down her window. “It happens all the time. Sasha just needs some love to start when she’s feeling neglected.”

“Sasha?” I asked, inclining my head toward the vehicle. “Why Sasha?”

She chuckled. “It was the name of the old lady I bought her from. It seemed a nice way to remember her. She gave her to me for a really good deal.”

Turning back to the ignition, she tried the key again, but it wouldn’t work. I drew in a breath, striding to the hood and praying my limited knowledge would be enough to help her with the problem. “Why don’t you open this for me? I can’t guarantee anything, but I can try to help you get it going.”

Her cheeks turned that rosy hue of pink again and she nodded. The hood popped open with a mighty creak. Wincing, I lifted it and found that the arm to keep it open had rusted off. After taking a cursory look, I discovered a loose connection on her battery and jiggled it a bit, hoping it was the issue.

“Try it again.”

She did and I waited with bated breath to see what would happen. Mercifully, the engine turned over this time but the noise coming out of it wasn’t normal. I gave it a wary look, wondering if this thing was even going to get her home, but I knew I couldn’t insist that she stay.

I could, however, try to convince her. Walking to her window after shutting the hood, I looked into her eyes and hoped she’d take me up on the offer.

“The magic I just worked isn’t going to last long, so drive straight home, okay?” I said, taking a brief pause before I added, “Or you could just stay over for the night?”

She shook her head, a soft smile on her lips. “That’s very kind of you, but I’ll be okay. Sasha’s just temperamental, is all.”

Shit.“Once you turn it off, it might not start again, so it might be best to get to wherever you’re going to be sleeping and then call a mechanic first thing in the morning.”

She arched an eyebrow at me, humor once again flaring to life behind her tired eyes. “I’ll be sleeping at home, so I’ll take your initial advice and drive straight there. Scott can get Sasha up and running for me again in the morning, and he’s free labor, so he’s better than a mechanic.”

Laughing as she said it, she gave me a little wave and eased her foot down on the gas, creeping out from underneath the porte cochere before rumbling down the drive. I watched her go, knowing that if Colten hadn’t been asleep inside, I would have jumped into the truck and followed her home just to make sure she got there okay.

I really didn’t like the thought of her on these pitch dark, narrow roads all by herself in that hunk of junk. While I was by no means an expert on anything automotive, I did know that it was only a matter of time until that thing conked out for good—I just hoped it didn’t happen on her way back to town tonight.

Worry sat like a rock in the pit of my stomach. I checked in on Colten and leaned against his door for a moment as I watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest in his sleep. It calmed me, but it also allowed me to feel something that had been tugging at my insides for the last couple days.

I’d been trying to shut it out, but right then, it was so persistent and loud that I couldn’t ignore it any longer. This is where we’re supposed to be.

It just felt so damn right that somehow I knew that we’d been meant to land here for the summer. I wasn’t really one for fate and stuff, but this sure as shit felt like exactly that. I had this one summer to make the most of things.

That was why we’d come here—existentially as well as literally. Soon, my son wouldn’t be a boy anymore and I needed to squeeze every last drop of bonding I could out of the next couple months.

I owed it to Walt and to myself, but most of all, I owed it to Colten. This place would be good for his soul if he let it. He could learn a lot here and it could change his perspective before he went into his next school year.

Nodding to myself as I pushed off the door, I had to admit that I felt better for having acknowledged the tugging in my gut. Heading back downstairs, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called the senior living facility to check on my stepfather.

This had been the first week in a very long time that we hadn’t gone to visit, and I was kicking myself for not bringing him with us. It was late and he would be asleep now, but at least I would be able to make sure that he was okay.

“Walter?” Gabi, one of the nurses, said after I’d asked. “Oh, he’s fine, sir. He’s been in good spirits and he spent most of the afternoon bragging about his grandson’s chess skills, much to Chester’s irritation.”

I chuckled. “Sounds about right. Alright, thank you, Gabi. Will you tell him I called?”

“Of course. Have a good night, sir.”

“You too.” I hung up as I walked outside to collect Jewel’s tea cup and my mug.

Carrying both back to the kitchen, I set them down in the sink and rinsed them before adding them to the load in the dishwasher. Inhaling deeply, I smiled. The scent of Jewel’s cleaning products was still in the air—along with that of her God-awful cooking.

Standing alone in the kitchen now, I laughed out loud when I glanced at the stove. How she had eaten that casserole without even flinching, I didn’t know. Her taste buds must be dead.

Still chuckling, I switched on the dishwasher and turned off the lights. Then I went upstairs, winding down for the night in my bedroom after a quick shower. For the first time in years, I was truly looking forward to tomorrow.

There would be no guilty criminals to defend. No strategies to formulate. No court appearances. No judges to contend with or juries to convince.

Just sunshine, simple living, quality time with my son, and a beautiful girl to get to know better.

At that last part of my thought, I exhaled sharply in the dark of my bedroom. Having her in the house today hadn’t been easy. Not because she’d been in the way or anything, but because all I’d wanted to do was spend time with her.

Eventually, I’d broken the promise I’d made to myself and had logged into my work emails on my phone just so I’d have a distraction. As I looked around the room now, even in only the silver moonlight filtering in from outside, I imagined her in here earlier.

In fact, the last person to have touched this bedding had been her. My cock stirred and I scrubbed my palms over my jaw. Groaning, I squeezed my eyes shut.

Ever since that very first time I’d seen her, she’d plagued my thoughts at night. At first, it had frustrated me to no end that I saw her endless curves every time I closed my eyes, but now, with the sound of her easy laughter in my ears and more memories of her in a swimsuit, it was even worse.

But it didn’t annoy me anymore. It was a whole different kind of frustrating now. The kind that made me want to reach down and take matters into my own hands.

I cut off that line of thinking. Breathing in and out deeply, I tried to focus on the fun I’d had playing football with them yesterday and on some of the work I’d gotten done today. Jewel was still hovering in the back of my mind though, and as soon as I fell asleep, my subconscious went to the place my conscious mind wouldn’t let me go while I’d been awake.

Since Jewel and I were outside in the pool for this dream and I wasn’t worried about Colten coming home, I knew it wasn’t real, but it felt like it was. A gentle breeze cooled my skin as I sat on the step with her on my lap, her body hot against mine from a day spent in the sun.

She smiled, her eyes sparkling as she brushed her fingers through my hair. Ducking her head, she slanted her lips over mine, moaning as my tongue dove between them. I was hard as a rock, aching to get inside her. She kissed me, grinding against me in a way that was going to make me lose it any second.

Her breathy moans got louder as I ran my hands up and down her sides, then finally tugged at the knot keeping her bikini top tied around her neck. The straps fell free immediately and I ran the flat of my hand along her spine until it brushed the knot there as well. I reached for the ends, freeing them and letting the bikini top float away.

Bringing my hands back to her ribs, I let them rest there for a moment, so turned on at the sensation of her pebbled nipples against my chest that I couldn’t bear to touch them. I was breathing hard, fighting for control as our kisses grew harder and more purposeful.

Jewel rolled her hips against mine. “Landon, I want you.”

Her voice was a husky whisper, the words spoken into my mouth. I swallowed them hungrily, reaching for the front panel of her bikini bottoms, and just as I was about to pull them away, my eyes opened and I sat bolt upright in bed.

Alone and panting, I groaned, my cock straining against my boxers for attention. Dropping back down on the mattress, I had no idea what had woken me up, but I was taking it as a sign that I shouldn’t be having sex dreams about a girl who loved her simple life here in June Lake.

A girl who probably wouldn’t be interested in a summer fling—and I wasn’t interested in that either. As attracted as I was to her, Jewel and I weren’t going to happen.

Now I only had to find a way to convince my cock to stop trying to make it happen.