Page 16 of Sheltering Lawson
She did and Brax just laughed. “He made a rude gesture and I’m sure it was directed at you. At least I think it was.”
I grinned. “C’mon, Lawson. You’ve got to see Hope Parish. It’s amazing. You’ve been here for a while already and haven’t even seen the town. This will be a start.” She sighed and I wished I could see her expression. “You know the floor is cypress and I laid it myself. The beams in the ceiling I cut to fit perfectly. All those blisters should heal,” I said with enough forlorn in my voice to make even a stranger feel sorry for me.
“Oh, you are being very bad…and very…persuasive.” Was I imagining things or was that definitely affection in her voice. She was torn, and I understood that she was struggling with keeping her distance. This was supposed to be temporary for her, but I had an ulterior motive. I really should back off. Resist her. I was fragmented in my work and in my thoughts about the future. Getting caught up in Lawson wasn’t helping matters any. My daddy was going to put more and more pressure on me until I gave him the answer he wanted. I wasn’t sure ten years ago, and I wasn’t sure now. Had I run from being a preacher because it wasn’t right for me? Or had I run because I didn’t want to follow in my old man’s footsteps, be an extension of anyone, live up to his expectations and not my own? Being a Marine had defined me in a way I had never expected. It was hard, demanding, heartbreaking, and the best thing I’d ever done in my life.
I grinned without an ounce of remorse. “No pressure. It’s just an outing.”
Her quick laughter settled over me, and I closed my eyes at the sexy sound. “No pressure, my butt.” She sighed again. “I’m not off until nine, so—”
“Leave now,” I heard Brax say. “You’ve been here since five this morning. Why don’t you go to lunch with Ethan? Get outta here.”
“That’s a great idea. Why don’t you come home with me? Then we can go from there to the boat, see some of the bayou before it gets dark? There’s nothing like a bayou sunset. Does that work?”
“What?” Her voice was suddenly breathless. “Lunch with your family? I’d need time to change. I wouldn’t want to hold you up—”
“Thirty minutes.”
“I don’t have a thing to bring.”
“I can spare some of my fresh biscuits,” Brax said and Lawson made an exasperated sound.
“Isn’t this imposing on your family? It’s short notice.”
“My momma and daddy love company, especially new people. He’s the town’s preacher.”
“The town’s preacher…I don’t know, Ethan.”
“He’s not going to make you kneel and praise God. At least, not at the first meal. But we’ll probably have hellfire and brimstone for dessert.”
“My favorite,” she said with a dry tone, but I heard the inflection of humor in her voice. “This isn’t funny.”
“Aw, c’mon, darlin’, I’m charming and you know it. I promise the food will be good and my parents are great. My sister and her husband will be there along with their kids. It’ll be organized chaos.”
“That’ll feel just like Outlaws.”
I laughed, “Yeah. Just like Outlaws.”
“Will there at least be whipped cream and a cherry on top of the hellfire and brimstone?” I laughed at her cute joke and the fact I had won. I could hear the acquiescence in her voice. “Pick me up in thirty minutes.”
She disconnected the call, and I sat there for a few minutes, anticipation of seeing her sooner than I thought curling through me.Thank you, Brax!And, the thought of having Lawson all to myself jacked me up.
At exactly thirty minutes, I was outside her door. When she emerged, I caught my breath. Lawson always looked good, but she’d gained a little bit of weight which filled out her beautiful face, and for the first time, she hadn’t put her hair up in a bun. I couldn’t quite breathe as the wind caught her waist length locks and they ruffled around her body. She wore a white dress, the lace resembling spider webs along with a small short sleeved pink sweater, flat pink sandals on her delicate feet. She carried a plastic container and a small bag. Once I could breathe again, I jumped out of the truck.
“Can I carry something for you?”
“I should say so. You got me into this.” Her cheeky tone only made me smile. She knocked the bag against my chest, and I caught it with anoof. When I inhaled, I got a lungful of her flowery scent, enticing me to bury my nose in her fragrant hair.
She tipped the plastic container and said, looking mildly embarrassed, but smiling all the same, “These are the biscuits. Brax is one pushy so and so…uh…boss.” I opened the door for her and she slipped inside. I tucked in her skirt and accidentally brushed my fingers against her silky thigh. She smoothed over the area I’d touched and gave me a magnetic glance from those sultry blue eyes as I closed the door. Going around to the driver’s side, I got in and deposited the bag in the back seat.
“You look nice,” she said, setting the container on her lap.
My body leapt in response to her softly spoken compliment, urging me to do something—anything—about it. Hard to keep my perspective when she was so easy to interact with and this sexual tension between us was palatable. After kissing her mouth, I so wanted more of it.
I glanced at her and said, “You look beautiful.”
She toyed with the lip of the container and looked over briefly before focusing on the windshield again. She had freckles, a light scatter of them across the bridge of her nose, adding to her aura of innocence.
We approached town and the edge of the buildings broke through the dense growth of trees. “Here we go,” I said. “This is Suttontowne.”
