Page 48 of Where It All Began
“No sex in the house?” she offered, thinking of the future Mrs. Pierce.
John stared down at her breasts that she’d neglected to cover. “I think it will be easier if I just tear down the house and start over.”
“Okay, good. Because I don’t want to get hay in my crevices. What else?”
“What does this mean?”
She laughed and rubbed her nose against his cheek with affection. “Isn’t that my line?”
“It appears I’m the only one concerned with the long-term effects of this.”
He was dead wrong, but she wasn’t about to get into all that and ruin the afterglow. “What do you want this to mean?” she asked, linking her hands behind his neck.
He shrugged. “I may be able to eventually wrap my head around temporary, but I can’t do casual.”
“So, monogamous then?” Phoebe clarified.
“Hard line.”
“Agreed,” she said cheerfully.
“You make it sound like we’re deciding on appetizers.”
“Ifthatwas an appetizer,” she said, gaze sliding to his crouch, “I may not survive the entrée.”
He pinched her. “Be serious for five seconds, please.”
“John. I like you, you like me. We know this can’t go anywhere beyond the summer. Let’s just be okay with that and enjoy it. I want to look back on you as my most memorable summer. Everyone should have a summer love that they remember forever.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” he admitted.
“You can name your next rescue cow after me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Phoebe strolled through the town square, a fresh donut decked out in a rainbow of sprinkles from the bakery warm in her hand. Elvira hailed her from outside the record store.
“Pheebs!”
Phoebe waved and headed in her friend’s direction.
“Did John give you the afternoon off?”
Phoebe grinned, finishing her bite of sugary perfection. “He’s doing the books and claimed I was distracting him.”
She’d sailed through the kitchen buck naked while he sweated over ledgers with a pencil and stack of receipts. The receipts and ledgers had been swept off the table and replaced with Phoebe’s ass until John came to his senses.
“Just give me the afternoon,” he had begged. “I swear I’ll make it worth your while.”
She had no doubt of that. So, it was off to Blue Moon to while away the afternoon. Her thesis was finally in completed draft form and sitting on John’s nightstand. He’d promised to read it this week, but Phoebe was in no hurry. Now that it had taken shape, it was mostly just polishing to do. And now that she’d found her way into John’s bed, she wasn’t in any hurry to find her way out.
Elvira fell into step beside her. “Okay, I’ve waited the appropriate amount of time to ask what happened last night. You two disappeared and missed the fireworks.” Her dark eyes sparkled with the anticipation of steaming hot gossip.
“Oh, believe me, we saw fireworks,” Phoebe said, offering Elvira half her donut.
Elvira grabbed it. “I knew it! How was it?”
Phoebe rolled her eyes back into her head as she had with the first bite of donut and Elvira squealed.
