Standing there as if he owned the place.
Looking better than any man had the right to.
For the last three weeks, he’d been taking stock.
Making lists of what needed to be achieved and the different projects that needed to be tackled.
Not to mention the fact that he paced, watching out the windows, continually ready to step in and protect Bailey and me if anything threatened us.
Sometimes I wondered if he had manifested from the walls. As if he’d been there all along, waiting to be awakened, summoned back into existence.
There to tease and taunt me with ideas I couldn’t keep out of my mind.
He started my way.
The air shivered.
The ground shook.
Oh goodness.
I was gettin’ in deep. Feeling things I shouldn’t.
Couldn’t.
My mind continually traipsing through the memories of what we’d once been and what we’d once hoped to be, stirring them up, tendrils of them trying to crawl up through the dirt where they’d been buried and take root.
Blossom.
Just like those roses that had once been forgotten but had come to flourish.
But that was an impossibility.
As he approached, Jace sent me the softest smile, and still, somehow, it was lined with the fierceness of the man.
A quiver took to my entire body.
Impossible, I tried to remind myself.
Right?
God, I just didn’t know anything anymore.
I shook myself off and returned the easiest smile I could manage with nerves whipping through me as strong as a tree trying to stand its ground in the middle of a hurricane.
“Tell me you didn’t drag everyone I know here before dawn to make them work all Saturday.”
No doubt he was responsible.
“Now why would I go and do something like that?”
Something playful pulled at the corner of Jace’s mouth, something soft that I’d seen coming from him more often over the last week.
Something that twisted through me, made a place inside me glow that should have been forever dimmed.
Bailey’s eyes went wide when she finally noticed me. She raced to catch up to him and then started to trot along at his side. “Surprise, Mommy! We pwans the whole big secret. Jace said we a team.”
Emotion crashed in my chest. “This is quite the surprise, Button.”
“You wike it?” she asked. “We gonna fix evwy’fing.” She threw her arms up, bouncing a step.
“Yeah, Button, I like it.”
Loved it so much.
Only I wasn’t looking at her when I said it because it was getting harder and harder to look away from the man standing in front of me.
“How’d he manage to put you up to this?” I asked as I situated a bunch of glasses on the tray next to a pitcher full of fresh lemonade.
Courtney took the knife she was using to cut the watermelon and used it to slide all the diced pieces into a bowl, cutting me a glance as she did.
“Um . . . didn’t take a whole lot of convincin’ considering all of this is for you and Button. I mean . . . all of those cards and flowers you got after Joseph died?”
She studied me. “How many people said to let them know what they could do to help you? But if anyone knew you, they would have known you weren’t gonna ask for a thing. You needed someone who would step in and actually take action. Someone who saw a need and could figure out a way to make it happen.”
I peeked out the big window off the kitchen where everyone was starting to gather.
My breath left me when Jace, Ian, and Mack rounded the corner and climbed the rickety porch steps.
They had peeled their drenched shirts from their bodies, sweat gathered across their heated skin, and all three of them looked like a little taste of sin.
My stomach tightened.
But Jace . . . Jace looked like the ultimate temptation. Everything I’d ever wanted and should have known better than to take.
All hard, packed muscle on his towering body, chest so wide, his flat abdomen carved and cut and making my mouth water a little bit.
Oh, had the man grown into his tall, gangly frame.
God, the sun had to be putting me into a swoon.
That was it.
Courtney pinched my forearm, shocking me out of the stupor. “What are you lookin’ at, Faith?” she singsonged.
I swatted at her. “Nothin’.”
Her brows lifted. “Oh really?”
“Really.”
She spun her finger around my face. “Somebody is tellin’ lies. It’s written all over you. I know where that mind of yours went. I bet you’re thinking about running your hands all over that delicious skin, aren’t you? Giving it a little lick? I wonder what else you’re thinkin’ about lickin’.”
There was nothing but suggestion in her tone.
Redness rushed all over me, heat climbing my neck and landing on my cheeks.
“Courtney, I swear to goodness, you are ruthless.” She could give Jace a run for his money with all the trouble she was glad to provoke.
She let her salacious gaze travel out the window. “What? Even I have to admit that is one fine-specimen of a man. Now tell me if he’s given you something a little fun over the last few weeks he’s been here.”
I choked out a sound of disbelief. I shouldn’t be surprised. This was Courtney I was dealing with. But even after knowing her for over twenty years, she still managed to shock me with the things that came out of her mouth.
“Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” She hiked a not-so-innocent shoulder. “Felix does rock my world. Now you’d better start fessin’ up on the details of what’s going on between you two, because I know it’s something. I can’t believe you’ve left me in the dark. That’s not cool, Faith Avery, after all, I tell you all my dirty little secrets.”
I started to fill an ice bucket. “Who said I wanted to hear all your dirty little secrets? You usually leave me feeling like I need to pour bleach into my ears. And there is nothin’ going on. He’s watching out for Bailey and me. That’s it.”
Why’d that sound like a lie?
“Right . . . the man is staying under the same roof? Him looking the way he does and you all smokin’ hot and sexy? All that unresolved history built up between you two? I bet you are absolutely killing him.”
She clucked. “Hell, I bet the only thing filling up that big head of his is the image of him sneaking into your room and doing all kinds of dirty things. I just wonder how long it’s gonna be until he actually does it.”
Visions slammed me.
What that would be like.
Jace over me.
Our bodies drenched in sweat.
The expression he’d wear on his face.
Heat flashed.
Too much.
Overwhelming.
Courtney grinned. “Or maybe you’ve already done it.”
I forced a scowl onto my face. “I hate you, you know that?”
“Pssh . . . hate me? You love me. Who else is gonna tell you like it is?”
“Stop it. We’re just friends and you know it.”
Her smile was somehow soft and wry and brimming with sympathy. “Cut the crap, Faith. Friends is not what you call what’s going on between you two. There’s so much friction and energy radiating from the two of you that you’re about to make the entire house go boom.”
“You know I’m not ready for that,” I whispered, an emphatic plea. “I don’t understand why you keep pushing me that direction. My heart doesn’t have room for any more breakin’.”
What kind of horrible person did it make me that I was having these thoughts at all? The feeling rushing me every time Jace stepped into the room.
Attraction and desire.
Part of it made me feel dirty. The other part of me was sure I couldn’t stop it if my life depended on it.
I guessed that probably stemmed from the fact that’s the way loving Jace had once felt.
As if my life depended on it.
Courtney reached out and fiddled with a loose strand of my hair, her expression encouraging. “I think you’re ready for more than you’re willing to admit. I think you’re so much stronger than you think. And I think maybe that amazing heart of yours is ready for something good after it’s been dealt so much bad.”