Page 21 of Jason
“I don’t know,” Jason said.“I think she likes having a place to herself.And she doesn’t like stairs.This place has a lotof stairs.In her cottage, she’s closer to Pam and her husband Joe when no one else is around.”
The sound of thunder in the distance brought their attention to the ocean.The clouds were building over the ocean, but they hadn’t turned menacing yet, which meant the storm was developing behind them.Mallory turned back to her food.“So everyone comes here for the summer?”she asked before another big bite.
“Yep.Some weeks the house is full.Like last week—my cousin, Devlin, raced in the Southern Maine Sailing Invitational.”
“How fun!I’ve never been on a sailboat.Did he win?”
Jason chuckled.Devlin didn’t win the race, but he’d definitely won the girl.“In a manner of speaking.He and my uncle Graham came in second.He’s really good.So fill me in—what’s going on in the office this week?”
“Oh, the office.”She shook her head.“Ye old Peyton Place as always.So you know Jericho has been—” She was startled by a louder clap of thunder and jerked her gaze to the ocean again.“But the sky is—”
A gust of wind hit them so hard that a cloth napkin and little pot of marigolds went flying off the table.On the backside of the house, it was often hard to tell anything was happening with the weather until it was right on top of you.
“Oh no!”Mallory cried.“I have to get to town, Jason!”
As if on cue, the skies opened and the rain began to pour down from what seemed like giant buckets.Jason grabbed their plates.Mallory was right behind him with his drink and the silver.
Another, bone-rattling clap of thunder made her shriek.She put the things she had on the kitchen table, then hurried to her backpack.
“What are you doing?”Jason asked, confused.
“I have some weather apps!”
“Apps?As in plural?”A streak of lightning flashed in through the windows.A heartbeat later it was followed by another clap of thunder that rattled the windowpanes.Rain began to fall sideways, lashing at the house.
Mallory looked wide-eyed at Jason.She turned the screen of her phone to him and showed him what he assumed was a weather app.The entire screen was red.
“That settles it,” he said.“You’re staying here tonight.”He picked up a bottle of whisky from the kitchen counter with a glossy black label and gold lettering that readBlackthorne Reserve.“Now will you have that drink?”
Chapter Six
She should have knownhe’d get his way, even if he had to usher in a storm to do it.Mallory stared at the bottle of whisky he was holding.And at her half-eaten meal, which he’d set down beside a laptop and a mess of papers and ledgers and printed pages from digital storyboards on the kitchen table.Outside, the day had gone almost black, it was raining so hard.
Yep, it definitely looked like she was stuck here for the night.Which, all things considered, was a fabulous place to be stuck.Just not if you had a crush on the only man in the house.She sighed.“I told you I needed to get a room sooner rather than later.Now look what’s happened.”
“It’s notthatbad,” he said, clearly offended.
“No!Your house is beautiful.It’s just…I don’t want to impose.”
“Jesus, Mallory, you’re not imposing.How can you be imposing on an empty house?”
He had a point.How did she explain she couldn’t stay here because she was ridiculously attracted to him and all she could think about were his abs right now?
Jason lowered the bottle.He braced both hands against the kitchen bar and pinned her with a look.“Listen, Mallory, I think we need to address the elephant here.”
“What?No, Jason.Don’t address any elephants!All the elephants are perfectly happy roaming around and do not need to be addressed.”
He arched a brow.“Clearly they do.”
Mallory groaned.
“This…elephant anxiety you’re having has to do with that night in the office, doesn’t it?”
She said nothing.
“Because if that’s what is bothering you, I swear to God, I will be a perfect gentleman.I cannot apologize enough for having…for having made you uncomfortable.”Wait.That sounded like he thought she was worried about him being a gentleman.She was worried aboutherbeing a gentleman.What was she going to say?She should come clean.Except that was ahorribleidea.Talk about elephants—that would invite an entire heard into the room.
Her inability to speak seemed only to agitate Jason more.“I’ll put you in a room with your own bath.You can lock the door.Pull a dresser in front of it if that makes you feel better.”
