Page 48 of Here & There

I feel around for my door. Behind me, I hear Mac putting the chair back in place. I steal a glance behind me to see his shadowy figure, towel snug around his waist. One hand’s out, the other is rubbing the back of his head as he moves toward the patio doors.

“Hey, Mac?” I whisper.

He pauses but doesn’t turn around.

“I…uh…I love my room.” It feels like a ridiculous thing to say now, but I can’t let it pass by unmentioned. I really do love it.

Mac grunts.

“Thank you,” I say.

A pause. “It was no problem.”

“I’ll just…stay here and listen for you falling.”

“You know what? If you hear it, maybe just let it happen.”

Chapter 12

Mac

I’m not sure what’s more humiliating, my deck being so unsafe I came pretty close to concussing myself or welcoming a beautiful woman to my home by losing all track of my towel. I can’t believe how bad the deck’s gotten. Until Shelby got here, we never used it. The formerly empty shed beside it only reminded me of losing Annie, which reminded me of losing Dad, and, of course, Mom.

That night, I lie in bed with an ice pack on my head and vacillate between agonizing over facing Shelby in the morning and coming up with a solution for how to make the deck less slippery. What if that had been her?

That only leads me to picturing Shelby on the deck naked.

The thought makes my dick swell. Not that I’d want her to fall, of course. I wouldn’t wish this kind of humiliation on anyone.

But then I think of what really happened. Shelby paused when she was checking me over. She stammered as her gaze lingered down there.

Heat thickens my cock even further.

If I could have seen her better, would she have been blushing? She looks so sexy when she blushes. It makes me think of other reasons she’d be flushed.

But as the blood rushes down low, it only exacerbates the throbbing in my head. And reminds me that I shouldn’t be thinking of her like this.

I groan, getting up to splash cold water on my face. I need to chill out. But then I see the little underwear set thing she gave me to cover myself on my dresser. Why the hell didn’t I leave it out there? I throw it on my chair and cover it with a pillow.

I decide on a cold shower instead, which at least helps get my appendage back to dormant. After I get back into bed, I notice a new text from Chris on my phone. She hit some semifinal in her race today, so she’s asking if she can have the next few nights off for training.

I’m so relieved at having an excuse not to be home for a few nights that I text her back right away without a word about tonight. I’m tempted to tell her I’ll cover her weekend shifts too just so I don’t have to face Shelby again until she moves back to the inn.

But Cal texts just then.

CAL: You up?

MAC: Unfortunately.

CAL: Everything okay over there?

For a moment, I have the absurd thought that he somehow knows what happened on the deck. Or he’s psychic or something.

MAC: What do you mean?

CAL: Moving Annie’s room today. It felt kind of…final.

I haven’t even had time to process my feelings over finally dealing with that room. But Cal’s right. Cleaning up the room that we made for her, the room she never visited, feels kind of like closing a door.

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