Page 13 of The Sweet Life

“You want to go out with me? Like on a date?”

“Well, I did, but you sound horrified by the idea so maybe forget I said anything.”

“No, not horrified, just… Flynn, I’m six years older than you.”

He frowned. “So, what’s that got to do with anything? You’re a gorgeous, interesting woman I enjoy talking to, and I got the impression you enjoyed talking to me too.”

“I do, very much. It’s just that you’re my sister’s ex and my daughter’s father.” She lifted a shoulder.

“And?”

She stared at his strong features bathed in shadows and light and tried to force anopast her lips, but he was so gorgeous and sexy and interesting, and interested in her, that instead she said, “Yes. Okay. I’ll go out with you. But no one can know. It has to be our secret, Flynn.”

Chapter Five

Don’t roll over,” Jake warned, but it was Sage, so of course she did exactly what he’d asked her not to and ended up sprawled on top of him while they rode the waterbed’s waves as if they were on a blow-up raft on a choppy sea.

Sage slapped a hand over her mouth, making gagging noises.

He appreciated the distraction. If she didn’t sound like she was seconds from hurling, he might be focusing on how good her warm, curvy body felt lying half on top of him.

“Maybe next time you’ll listen to me,” he said, knowing hell would freeze over before the woman in bed with him would listen to a single word he said—but he needed to give it the old college try. The rolling mattress wasn’t helping the pounding in his head. He had the mother of all hangovers. “Stay still, and the bed will stop rocking.”

She lifted her head from his bare chest, removing her hand from her pouty lips and peeking at him through a heavy fall of auburn hair. Silky-soft auburn hair, he amended as her shoulder-length locks brushed across his chest.

“Please tell me we didn’t do anything stupid last night,” she said, her voice a husky rasp.

Some people were instantly attracted to a face, to a specific part of a person’s body, or to their personality, but not him. At seventeen, he’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for Sage’s voice. The attraction didn’t last long, though. All it had taken was being on the receiving end of her eviscerating wit to dull the appeal.

As he knew from following her career online, time had only served to sharpen her cool, dispassionate insults to a razor’s edge. The woman was a ball-breaker, something that made Alice inordinately proud.

Thinking of Alice hurt more than he’d thought possible. She’d been a mother to him, far better and more loving than his own. He wasn’t ready to let her go. He didn’t know what he’d do without her strong, guiding presence in his life.

He’d opened his eyes to the midmorning sunlight filling the spare bedroom at the farm, positive yesterday had been a bad dream. But reality hit him like a sucker punch in the chest when he saw Sage curled up beside him.

He brought his attention back to her. She pushed her hair from her face, looking at him through panicked, bloodshot eyes. He knew what she was asking, but even with his head feeling like it was about to blow off, he couldn’t resist the urge to tease her just a little. Another distraction before they dealt with the reality of their mutual loss.

“I’m pretty sure drinking nearly a bottle of tequila qualifies as the epitome of stupidity.”

She covered her mouth again, making more gagging sounds before getting them under control with a hard, desperateswallow. Then she said, her voice even huskier than before, “Don’t ever say that word again in my presence.”

Her voice was getting to him, probably because she hadn’t insulted him yet. He needed to get on that. “Epitome or…tequila,” he said, knowing full well that the latter was the word she meant. Even he felt a little queasy saying it, and he’d been notorious with the guys in his unit for his cast-iron stomach.

Sage lost what little color she had left on her face, rolled off him with her hand covering her mouth, and kept on rolling thanks to the waves. If not for the bed’s raised leather-wrapped frame, she would have rolled right off. As it was, she kicked her way out of the tangled sheets while trying and failing to push herself off the undulating mattress.

He reached over, half lifting, half pushing her off the bed. She landed on the hardwood floor with athunk.

“Sorry.” He felt bad not only for practically tossing her out of bed but also for teasing her. “You don’t have to worry. We didn’t have sex. We just passed out in bed together.” She was already halfway down the hall, so he raised his voice, repeating what he’d just said in order for her to hear him.

Instead of calling out her thanks for alleviating her worry, he heard her say, “Hi, Mom. Yeah, just give me a second,” she added before flying back into the room, skewering him to the bed with a glare. “Are you trying to embarrass me on purpose?”

“Come again?” he asked distractedly as he took in what she had on while at the same time trying to be respectful about it, which wasn’t easy given that she was standing directly in line with the sunlight coming through the window while wearinghis white T-shirt and… nothing else, apparently. Then again, his T-shirt hung almost to her knees. But that wasn’t the point.

The point was, why was she wearing his T-shirt and nothing else? They hadn’t had sex, had they? No way. It didn’t matter how drunk he’d been, he’d remember having sex with Sage. Anybody, he’d remember having sex with anybody.

“I can’t believe you just said that to me.” She fisted her hands on her hips, looking like a woman ready to do battle in a T-shirt that all but guaranteed her male combatants would fall at her feet. “Grow up, Walker.”

He dragged his gaze to her face. “What are you talking about?”

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