Page 58 of Fresh Tracks
“Do I really make you nervous?”
I lean down and press a kiss to her neck. “Why do you think I’m nervous?”
“I can feel your heart pounding in your chest against my back.”
“Yes.” I wrap my arms tighter around her waist, holding her closer to me. “You make me feel a lot of things, Rainbow. A lot of things I haven’t felt in a long time and some things I’ve never felt before.”
She lets out a long, contented sigh and relaxes against my chest, resting her arms on top of mine. I watch the snowflakes falling onto her hair and all I can think is that I could spend a thousand nights like this and still need a thousand more.
She shifts in my lap and looks over her shoulder at me. “Hey, are you expecting company?”
“No, why?”
Her head turns toward the driveway and I see the light coming from in front of my house, shining toward the guesthouse, and getting closer.
She looks back at me again and I can see the alarm in her eyes. “So you have no idea who that could be?”
“There are only three other people besides you and me who have the gate code. Josie, Sutton, and Tanner.”
“Well it’s not Josie. She’s hanging out with Collin and Walker tonight and staying at their place.”
I nod, my pulse quickening again. “And it’s not Sutton. He’ll still be at Gloria’s. They’re always slammed on Saturday nights.”
“It can’t be Tanner,” she says. “They’re still on their—” she stops mid-sentence.
“Grace?” She turns back to me and I see the panic in her eyes.
“What day did you say it is?” she asks with a nervous smile.
“Saturday. Why?”
“They were supposed to get back from their honeymoon today. And it’s snowing. A lot.”
Realization of what she’s saying finally sets in. Tanner, her brother and my property manager, is driving his snow plow down my driveway right now, probably to salt it to get ahead of the snow coming overnight.
And I have his baby sister in my lap in my hot tub with no top on.
Fuck.
I lift her out of my lap and jump up to look around us, searching the water and the sides of the hot tub frantically.
“What are you looking for?” she asks, watching me do circles around the waist deep water.
“Where’s your top?”
“Oh. Yeah. That. We might have a small problem there.”
I turn to see her grinning, trying to contain a laugh. “Define small.”
She snorts, covering her mouth and then pointing over my shoulder. I turn and look, spotting her sports bra hanging from the branch of a small pine tree behind the patio chairs.
I groan and scrub my hand over my face. That’s not ideal. “You flung it that far?”
Looking back at her, she snorts again and shrugs. “I was really excited and didn’t think anyone would be coming.”
For a second, that actually makes me feel better that she was that excited to take her top off for me. But the sound of a door shutting and footsteps on the walking path grabs both of our attention and quickly erases that sentiment.
Pulling at my hair, I finally spot my t-shirt sitting by her bag. I grab it and toss it to her. “Just wear this.”
