Page 9 of After You

She was sure it would include his phone number too. Wow. He was something. It didn’t bother her. Maybe because she and Kade weren’t really a couple. Or maybe because the guy could leave his number if he wanted to—whether or not she called was up to her. Or maybe because she’d grown up in Sapphire Falls. They put cocky in the waterhere.

“Can you take the late-night talk show downstairs?” a gruff male voice interrupted from two doorsdown.

They all turned to look at the neighbor they’d disturbed. Hannah had her mouth open to apologize. But she froze, mouth gaping.

No, not frozen. Her entire body felt hot suddenly. With shock, with mortification, with…shock.

Because the man standing in the doorway, in only boxers, his hair mussed, scruff on his face, rubbing a hand over his chest, was KyleAmes.

Possibly because he’d clearly been asleep, it took Kyle three more seconds to recognize who he was talking to. But she knew the instant that he did. He snapped upright, his eyes widened, and he said simply, “Hannah?”

That single word, in his voice, thundered through her. Her heart pounded, there was a rushing in her ears, and her whole body went numb. Shock. She realized what it was even as she knew she had no power to control it or reduceit.

Because Kyle was standing twenty feet away from her, mostly naked, looking sleep rumpled and gorgeous. His dark hair was sticking up on top, he had a line on his cheek where he’d been lying on his pillow, and he had more than a little sexy scruff on his jaw. He scratched said sexy, short beard and blinked as if trying to clear the confusion that was evident in his expression. And—well, he was mostly naked.

He’d always run religiously. The whole staving-off-aging-and-illness thing, at least in part. But he was also no stranger to manual labor. Helping people he knew build fences, load trucks, lay bricks, cut trees, and a million other things that people had to do on farms and even around town to keep things working. She remembered him saying how he missed being outdoors and working while he’d been in school. She also remembered, even then, wondering how he’d do as a physician, inside all day, lifting stethoscopes and pens rather than tools. But he’d assured her that he’d keep busy on the weekends with projects. There was always something going on in Sapphire Falls, and he’d intended to be a part ofit.

It looked like he’d donethat.

All of those thoughts tripped through her mind as her body reacted to the display of skin and hard muscles that she also remembered so very, very well. It all combined to shoot hot, hard yearning through her gut. She had always been attracted to Kyle, but never more so than when he’d been a little off-kilter and mussed and imperfect. She was the only one who had really gotten to see him like that, and even those times had beenrare.

The realization made the desire coiling through her belly mix with a healthy dose of nostalgia and regret, and she suddenly couldn’t pull in the good deep breath that her lungs were demanding.

“Whoa. Okay.” Kade’s hands wrapped around her upper arms, and he pulled her up against him, keeping her knees from literally wobbling.

She was so grateful for her friend who could read her, and her swaying.

“Breathe, babe,” he said near herear.

“Sorry, man,” Chase said to Kyle. “Didn’t mean to wake anyoneup.”

“You’re staying here?” Kyle asked, having not taken his eyes off of Hannah. AndKade.

She nodded dumbly but couldn’t unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth. Or maybe she didn’t want to unstick it. Because what was she going to say? Dammit. She had not been prepared for running into him likethis.

“There aren’t a lot of other options in town,” Kade said smoothly. “We didn’t want to put Hannah’s parents out. She will, of course, be spending a lot of time with Alice initially.”

Kyle’s expression went from flummoxed to hard in a snap. As if Kade’s voice had activated the reaction. “Right. Okay. Well, I have early rounds.” And with that, he turned into his room, shutting the doorhard.

Hannah winced. She felt Kade’s hands squeeze herarms.

Chase ran a hand through his wet hair. “You guys know Kyle, I takeit.”

“We, um…” Hannah’s mouth still didn’t want towork.

“Hannah is from here. She and Dr. Ames went to high school together,” Kade said, again smoothly stepping in while Hannah tried to make an ass of herself.

Okay, so maybe he was learning a few things about reading a social situation afterall.

Though standing with two half-naked men in a hallway after midnight might not be the type of “social” situation she’d been imagining.

“Oh, got it, okay.” But Chase looked like he might want to know more about what had just gone down in that hallway.

“We should get to bed,” Kade said, turning Hannah toward their room and nudging her forward.

“Right. Well, I’ll see you around,” Chasesaid.

“It seems that it’s nearly impossible not to see people around, here” Kadesaid.

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