Page 12 of Her Hometown Man
How many years had she dreamed of him looking at her like that? And he waited until now, when she was hip deep in family drama and counting the days—or weeks, actually—until she could put it and this town behind her.
Maybe she was reading more into it, she told herself. He could have been thinking about something else, and the desire she’d seen in his eyes had been nothing but a figment of her overheated imagination.
“I guess I should go find Boomer,” he said. “He went inside with the boys and he’s had more than his limit of human food for the day.”
“I should go help clean up,” she said, but still neither of them moved, and he was looking at her that way again.
It definitely wasn’t her imagination.
Case knew he couldn’t kiss Gwen. For one thing, multiple windows of the house looked out over the gazebo, and anybody in the family could be watching at that moment.
For another, he just couldn’t kiss her. Everything was a mess and getting involved with her would only tangle things up more. Even a temporary fling—and it would be temporary because she wasn’t shy about how much she preferred being in Vermont—would make things worse. Or at the very least, more awkward.
Summoning every scrap of willpower he could muster, he jerked his head toward the house. “After you.”
She’d probably assume it was the oldladies firstrule, but mostly he just liked to watch her walk. He might have gathered up enough discipline not to kiss her, but he wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to admire the way her hips swayed as she crossed the yard.
Once they were inside, he looked for his dog but was informed the boys had smuggled him up to their room to keep them company while they theoretically cleaned it. They claimed having Boomer with them would make the chore more fun, but they all knew there would be more belly rubs than pulling of dirty socks out from under the bed.
Lane left right away—probably feeling uncomfortable being in the house while Evie was there and still not really speaking to him—but Case hung around to help clean up the stuff that had been brought in from the barbecue. Plus, he wasn’t leaving without his dog.
After a half hour or so had passed, he realized he hadn’t seen Gwen in a few minutes. He also hadn’t heard anybody go up the old staircase with its distinctive creaks and squeaks, so he went looking for her. He didn’t have to go far.
She was in the formal dining room, alone and standing with her hands on the back of a chair. While her gaze was on the table, he didn’t think she was really seeing it. Either Gwen was getting worse at managing her facial expressions as she got older or Case had never really paid close enough attention to how readable her face really was. But he could tell she wasn’t very happy at the moment.
“You know they don’t really expect you to stay forever,” he said in a low voice, which necessitated him walking close enough so he could smell her. She smelled mostly like sunscreen and a bug spray designed to smell better than it actually worked.
“In Stonefield time, six monthsisforever.”
He laughed. “Come on. We’re not that bad.”
When she tilted her head and put her hands on her hips, he braced himself for a verbal blast. But she just glared at him for a few seconds before she spoke in a voice as low as his. “No, some of the people here aren’t that bad.”
Grinning, he nudged her shoulder with his. “How about me? How bad am I?”
It wasn’t until the words had left his mouth that he realized that was a question that could be taken in a couple of ways. He hadn’t intended any innuendo at all, but she might read some into the question. And when she glanced sideways at him, her eyebrow arched, he held his breath but she shook her head.
“You’ve been a pain in the ass since we were kids,” she said, amusement in her voice. “But I guess you’re notthatbad.”
It wasn’t exactly high praise, but he’d take it. “Are you hiding in here to get out of the cleaning up?”
She chuckled. “Just having a few minutes of quiet time.”
Stepping closer to the table, he looked at the jigsaw puzzle that was about half-done on the wooden surface. “There’s usually a puzzle going in here. I’ve been known to pop a few pieces in now and again.”
“You can tell Evie’s been working on it because all the fun stuff in the middle is done and all that’s left is the sky and the grass.”
“Doesn’t everybody do puzzles like that?” When she gave him a sideways look, he realized it was the wrong thing to ask. Maybe itwashuman nature to do the fun stuff and leave the boring and hard parts for somebody else, but it annoyed her more when it was Evie. They’d always been that way. “I remember the time your dad bought that puzzle that was just spilled milk or something?”
Gwen laughed. “I’d forgotten about that one. All the pieces were white—allof them—so all we had to go on was the shape. I hated that one.”
“We all did.”
She looked at him, her expression shifting to a low-level scowl. “That’s right. You were dating Mallory then, and I think you spent more time here than you did at your own house.”
He suddenly realized—as if a cartoon light bulb had lit up over his head—that Gwen didn’t like being reminded that he’d dated her sister in high school.
And that was very interesting to him. He knew, of course, that you weren’t supposed to date your sibling’s or best friend’s ex, but he was pretty sure that didn’t apply to relationships that happened while you were still kids. It was a small town. They all came out of high school with very tangled histories.
