Page 81 of Summer Affair
Don’t give up on love.
Give up on idiots.
Clay slid on a pair of jeans but didn’t bother with a shirt since he had zero intentions for either of them being clothed for very long.
He’d heard the telltale sound of the back door opening and closing, could practically smell Jillian’s perfume of vanilla and cinnamon, envisioned her naked, and he knew he’d never be able to keep his hands off her.
Their time was winding down, and he didn’t want any of it to end, which was why he’d been making plans to ensure that there were no gaps between his return to Seattle and what they had going on here.
He towel-dried his hair, then headed downstairs. And that’s where he found her looking like she was about to put a little sunshine in his day.
She was dressed in a pretty, blue sundress and while it was all soccer mom up top, down below things got interesting. The skirt landed mid-thigh so when she bent over the counter it rode up—meaning, quite a lot of skin was in an ongoing game of peek-a-boo, giving him one hell of a good morning.
Without pause, he walked straight up to her, placing his palms on the counter, one on either side, leaning in to kiss her in the crook of her neck—a place he’d come to discover turned her on. Only instead of pressing back into him, like she always did, she shied away, even rolling her shoulder to shrug him off.
He moved in again, and again she shrugged him off, only this time he heard a sniffle.
What the hell?
“You okay?” he asked, remembering that Dirk the Dick was supposed to take Sammy to breakfast before camp. “Did he cancel on Sammy?”
She turned around and he saw she wasn’t just sniffling, she had tears running down her beautiful face.
“Whoa, hey. I got you.” He tightened his arms to hold her, but she shoved him in the chest, holding him back. He looked down and that’s when he saw the listing for a house he’d walked through when he’d been in Seattle over the weekend for a meeting with the team doctor—where he’d been completely cleared.
“Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” she whispered.
“It’s not what you think.” Because clearly she was upset and this wasn’t about Dirk.
He searched her eyes for a signal, a sign of why she was so upset. Then it hit him. Maybe she’d seen the listing and assumed he was moving up north full time, which would be the plan during the season, but he’d also figured out a solution for the rest of the time.
Their time here.
“Then you didn’t buy this enormous house, with a tree fort and tire swing for Sammy.”
“Well, I bought it for all of us, but yeah.” This time when he put his arms around her, she didn’t back away, but her smile was so sad it made his chest ache.
“And this?” She held up the rental agreement to her house, which he’d printed out and filled in, only he’d thought it would be cute to putFrom now until …in the date field.
Clearly, she did not think this was cute.
“I was hoping that we could stay here in the big house,” he explained, but a familiar pinch started in his gut and rose up until his chest was completely hollowed out. “Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
“I haven’t changed anything,” she said with enough emotion that he took a step back. “You’re the one who’s changing everything.”
“I’m not tracking here.”
“Of course you’re not.” Her laugh sounded more like a sob. “Why is it so hard for men to listen?”
“Don’t lump me in with the other assholes in your life.”
“Why not? The result is the same.” She wrapped her arms around herself like it was all that was holding her together. “This email says that you went into escrow last week. Which means you’ve been planning our life for an entire week without once asking me what I wanted. Or if it even meshed with my life plan. I made it very clear that I didn’t want to rush this, that I didn’t want to confuse Sammy.”
“How have I confused him?”
“How did you think this would work, Clay? You’d rent out my main house so Sammy and I can move in here, then you’d visit during the week? Maybe we’d fly up on the weekend?”
“Is this about money?” What was it with people and money? In his experience, they were either after it or intimidated by it. And while he knew Jillian would never want a dime from him, and she didn’t intimidate easily, he hadn’t expected her to have any kind of reaction—especially this.
