Page 8 of Summer Affair
It took a while for him to admit that she had a point. She told him he needed to think about his life after ball, but at the time, he was only getting started. Since then, he’d kept it casual with women—no strings, no commitment, nothing more than some fast-lane fun.
Now, he was closer to thirty than to college ball, and there was this nagging feeling that he was missing something. A big something. That if he didn’t act soon, it would slip through his fingers.
Clay caught himself glancing around the bar again and when he looked back all his brothers were grinning—except Gage.
“What’cha looking for? Or should I say who?” Owen asked. He was back behind the bar making a round of some girly drink in martini glasses. And he was making Clay mad.
“You’ve been hanging out with Mom too much. You going to her tea parties now?”
“Deflection,” Rhett said. “Interesting.”
“Not interesting. None of your business,” Clay said.
“You got the neighbor naked,” Rhett said. “On night one. That’s interesting as hell.”
“She wasn’t naked,” Clay said, thinking back to that bombshell in a bikini. And the way she filled it out. He liked curves and a great ass, but he was a leg man through and through. And Jillian’s?Hot damn, hers were toned, tan, and never ending.
But it was the sweet and genuine smile that pulled him in. Then there were her eyes.
He didn’t normally go for sweet. In fact, he avoided it—almost as much as he avoided single moms. Oh, he was fully aware that she’d checked him out in the past, but he’d never paid it much attention. Until the other night when he found himself looking back.
“You keep staring at me like that and I’m going to expect dinner afterward,” Rhett said. “And skinny-dipping is a strict date three activity. I want to be respected for my mind, not my body.”
“She didn’t know I was there.” Something that he should have rectified from the moment he saw her walking across the bridge that ran over the stream between the houses. But then she started rattling off some kind of resolution list and he’d decided to stay in the shadows. He didn’t want to embarrass her, but when she dropped the news that she was going to drop trou, he knew he had to let her know she had an audience.
“She was fully clothed,” he lied. “She was coming over to see what I wanted for breakfast.”
“Wow, breakfast?” Owen said, and everyone burst out laughing. Loud, amused laughter.
“Can we drop it?” Clay walked behind the bar and poured himself a beer from the tap.
“You know Dad’s rules. Unless you’re old enough to shave you’re not allowed behind the bar,” Owen said.
“Actually, Dad’s rule was ‘No fighting in the bar because you might get beer on the customers.’ So unless you want a fat lip, drop it.”
“Drop what? Your suit?”
“Can you guys stop acting like a bunch of schoolgirls?” And that’s when he felt Gage’s eyes boring a hole in his back. “What?”
“She’s a single mom,” Gage said. “And she’d Darcy’s best friend.” Two things that he was acutely aware of. “She’s off-limits.”
“Never thought any differently.” Well, maybe for a brief moment his brain had stumbled, but he didn’t have the luxury to go there. No matter how sweet and sexy.
“Let’s keep it that way.”
“You hear from your coach?” Josh asked. He wasn’t just the rock of the family, he was also the arbitrator, keeping things running smoothly.
“He moved up my start date,” he said, resting his arms on the bar top like he was a proper bartender and knowing it would piss off Owen. They might all have a stake in Stout, but Owen had a hard time sharing. Always had.
“How you doing with that?” Josh asked in that way that always reminded Clay of their father. Strong and unwavering in his belief in his sons.
After their father passed, Josh had really stepped up for Clay. In fact, all of his brothers went out of their way to give Clay the kind of support a dad would give. It killed him that his dad never saw him play professional ball. Hell, he didn’t get the chance to watch Clay play college ball. But no matter where his brothers were they always watched his games, even rotating trips so that someone was always in the stands during home games.
But Josh was the one Clay turned to for advice. Lately, though, Josh had been caught up with his new job at the DA’s office and his own family. But Clay couldn’t be happier for him. He’d never seen him as carefree as he was with Piper. They met last summer, married in the fall, and had a baby on the way.
Not wanting to change the tone of bro time, Clay considered keeping his news to himself, but he could tell by Josh’s expression he needed to fess up or Josh would pester him until he did.
“I have eight weeks to get back into fighting shape or he’s moving Skye to first string.”
