“I can’t believe that will is so complicated.”
Kendall winced. She hated to lie to her mother. How was she supposed to tell her that everything was going to change when she was over three thousand miles away? “As soon as I know more, I promise I’ll let you know.” Kain tucked groceries into the fridge. She leaned heavily on the counter. Her good mood evaporated.
“Sweetie, I know you’re not telling me something. I wish you didn’t think you have to take care of me all the time. I’m the mother, you know.”
She smiled and dipped her head until her forehead touched granite. “I don’t want to worry you. Are you sure you can handle the Heron without me?”
“Bells has been stopping by to take me to the store every night. We only have one group of men here, and they are repeat guests. They don’t need you to be here to show them all the good fishing spots.”
From a monetary standpoint, that news sucked, but she was glad it would be an easy week. “You have—”
“Sweetheart, I have Bells’s phone numbers. You know this is a slow time of year. Thanksgiving is right around the corner.”
“I know.” Kendall hoped to God she’d be home before that.
“Just come home as soon as you can. And stop keeping me in the dark. At least say you’ll think about it. You’re as stubborn as your father was.” She could hear the tears in her mother’s voice. The news of Larry’s death had hit Lily hard. As if the man hadn’t abandoned them twenty-two years ago. Kendall felt a prick of her own tears in sympathy for her mother. Her mother was so strong about everything except that blasted man.
“It’s about damn time.”
Kendall looked up at Kain’s voice. Her gaze followed his to the kitchen doorway through to the dining room.
“I’d say the same thing. It’s about fucking time you two got back.”
“Mom, I gotta go.”
“Who was that?”
Oh, no one. Just the son of the woman who was more important than we were. “No one important.”
Shane leaned on the doorjamb with his arms crossed over his chest. A dark green thermal Henley pulled tight along his shoulders and biceps, bringing out the gold flecks of his hazel eyes. He hadn’t shaved since she’d seen him last. A beard darkened his handsome features, accenting the rough-around-the-edges man she’d missed. She hated that one look at him kicked her heart rate into high gear.
Son of a bitch.
“Mom, some answers just walked in. I’ll call you tomorrow morning, okay?”
“All right. I love you, sweetie.”
She looked away from Shane. “I love you too, Mom.” She shoved her phone into her back pocket. “Nice of you to show up.”
Shane crossed one booted foot over the other. “Glad you missed me, babe. Wouldn’t want you to get too comfy with Kain.” His body language said relaxed, but he was just as wound up as she was. And she had missed him. Kain had been attentive and charming, generous to a fault, but all she’d wanted was Mr. Surly. And right now, him calling her babe made her want to slap the almost smile right off his face. The twitch of his fingers on his forearm echoed in the fluttering of her belly. Damn him for looking so good.
Kain rolled his eyes and opened the fridge. He pulled out three beers and slid them on the island. “If we’re done with the flirting?”
Kendall took a beer and snicked off the top, then bounced it on the counter until it spun in front of Shane’s beer.
His eyebrow rose as he walked in and took his beer. “Where were you two?”
“I think the better question is where were you, pal? You left me here without a car for three goddamn days.” The only reason she knew he’d taken her rental car back was because she got a text from the rental place thanking her for the car being dropped off. “Kain was the perfect host. Even showed me around Monterey.”
“I know. I told him to.”
She snapped the bottle down on the counter. “Excuse me? I’m not some dog you dropped off at the kennel, you as—”
“I know, asshole. Is this asshole with or without the adjective?”
She clicked her molars together. Swearing wasn’t going to solve anything, but the man brought it out in her like no other.
Kain leaned on the fridge and sipped his beer.
Rein it in. She took a slow breath and lifted the bottle to her lips again. Shane did the same, and she forced herself to look away from his strong neck muscles pulling as he swallowed. Her hormones had been happily in a box for months. This man had to be the game changer?
“Are you done now?” Shane asked.
Not trusting herself, she simply nodded.
“We’ll be heading out in the morning.”
“Pardon me?”
“Pack up all the new goodies Kain bought for you.”
“I bought them myself, thanks.”
“Wasting trip money, babe?”
The bottle shook in her hand from holding it so hard, so she put it down. “First of all, I missed a perfectly comfy flight to stay and figure this out. A flight you asked me to skip so we could go back to New York together.” Okay, so the flight was economy and about as comfortable as sitting in a bumper car for eight hours, but goddamn that man.
He shrugged. “I trust you about as much as you trust me.”
“It was your bright idea to wait. So tell me, hotshot. How are you getting us back to New York?”
“We’re driving.”
“Driving?” Her jaw dropped. “That has to be three thousand miles.”
“A bit more, actually, but yeah.”
She couldn’t read a damn thing on his face. He couldn’t be serious. She couldn’t be trapped in a car with him for days on end. “This is your grand plan?”
“I sold off everything I could and shipped what I could to the Heron. The rest is in my truck, including you.”
Like she was luggage? “And you didn’t think to pick up the phone or come over here and discuss that with me?”
“What’s to discuss? All we have is the Heron. We’re in the same pile of shit, babe. While you were wining and dining with Kain, I was taking care of business.”
“So you’re just pulling up stakes?” Kain asked. His quiet voice dried up all the venom she was tempted to spew.
For the first time, a hint of emotion touched Shane’s face. “I don’t have a choice, brother.” He grinned, and his whole face changed. It softened him, and his eyes actually crinkled at the corners. “You’ll just have to make sure to come visit me, Daddy Warbucks.”
“Oh, don’t start calling me that.”
The smile slowly slid away. “I talked to the men and to Gerry. They’re all glad that they’re going back to work next week.”
“I told your father I’d take care of them.”
Realization that more than just her life had changed radically sank in. As much as she hated Lawrence Justice for what he’d done to her, she’d at least had her mother to lean on. Shane had no one. And he was going across the country to start over. A strange place and a strange woman were now the center of his life. She took her bags in one hand and rounded the island. She didn’t know how to deal with the flood of new feelings.
She didn’t have a choice but to walk by Shane.
He grabbed her wrist before she could pass him. The grip wasn’t hard, but he definitely wasn’t letting her by. She looked up at him.
“I’m going to try and make this as painless as possible for both of us.”
Not sure what to say or what to do, she nodded and tugged. He held on for another moment, his thumb brushing over the center of her palm before he let go. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk in the truck. I promise.”
“Damn right we will.” She stopped in the doorway, looked back at Kain, and mustered up a smile. “Thanks for entertaining me, Kain.”
“I think you have that backward, `ânela.”
Kain had made sure her days were so full that she didn’t have time to think about what Shane was doing, but he couldn’t
control her nights. Her body ached for something she’d never had before. It wasn’t like she and Shane had been close, but her body certainly craved him. She felt empty and itchy. The musky amber scent of him had those hints of cedar again.
He smelled of wood and autumn and home.
Of all the things she loved and wanted to hold close.
What a cruel trick of fate. She held her head up and went through the living room and up the stairs. She needed to pack. It was time for everything to change.
Again.
She tossed her bags on her bed. How long would it take to go cross-country? Trapped in a confined space with Shane and his Oscar impersonation was not what she’d call a good time. Would it be any cheaper to drive than fly? Remembering her bank account’s status as well as her credit cards, she definitely didn’t have any choice but to be at his mercy.
That made her belly cramp.
She took care of her own. She didn’t like to be beholden to anyone, and yet here she was. Beholden to a near stranger who knew her more intimately than anyone else and yet didn’t know the real her at all.
She snapped that particular box of ugly shut and dumped the clothes she’d bought out of the bag. Two pairs of cords, long-sleeved T-shirts in an array of colors she’d never thought to choose for herself—thank you, personal shopper chick—two pairs of jeans, one she was wearing, along with half a dozen bras with matching panties. Had she bought them for herself? Or just in case Shane got her naked again?
No. For herself. She happened to like pretty undergarments, dammit.
She folded the oversize fleece she’d picked up thanks to the cool nights in Monterey. She’d make do with what she had and get her ass home. Then she could figure out what to do with Shane and the Heron. Her phone buzzed, and she dug it out of her pocket. Bells. Her finger hovered on the Answer button when a knock on her door made her pause. She tapped Ignore and stuffed it back in her pocket. “Yeah?”
Without turning around, she knew it was Shane. Kain had been careful not to come to her room. He’d been the consummate gentleman. She must have a few screws loose, because she’d missed Shane’s surly disposition.
“What can I do for you?”
“You know you should turn around and check who it is. Or were you expecting Kain?”
She looked over her shoulder at him. He leaned on the jamb, something she was coming to know as his I’m-going-to-play-this-cool stance. Too bad it made her want to shake him up all the more. “Really? I’m tired of that song. Kain doesn’t come to my room.”
“No?”
She folded one of the shirts, stacking it on top of the pants. “No.”
He stepped inside. “And you’re not interested in Kain?”
“I’m not interested in anyone at the moment.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really.”
He stopped a foot away from her. “No one at all?”
She turned to face him. “It was just fucking, remember?”
“Right.” The gold color at the center of his hazel eyes caught her attention. A tiny flicker of heat was alive in all the cool green. Without the suit, he was a walking ad for LL Bean. Especially with the almost beard he was sporting. All he needed was a plaid shirt, and he’d be like every other man who came to the Heron. Except none of the fishermen made her feel like Shane did. Not that she hadn’t been interested in a few over the years, but knowing they would be leaving within a week or less tended to put a damper on any ideas besides a fling or two.
Most of the time it wasn’t worth the hassle.
Most of the time she didn’t have time to think about it.
As usual, Shane didn’t expand on that one word. The intensity was a living thing inside him, but it was behind a wall so thick she wondered if it could possibly be breached. Did she even have the right to wonder? Was it even smart to?
Their options were lousy, and nothing about this attraction was smart. He was in her life for one purpose: to become her partner or sell her bed-and-breakfast so they could each start a new life. Part of her wondered what it would be like to be free to do something else, but a larger part couldn’t face the idea of losing her home. It was everything she knew. Everything she’d built with her mother.
But she did have this one slice of freedom.
A few days to see the rest of the country and forget about responsibilities.
She closed the distance between them until her breasts brushed his chest. His nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened. At least she wasn’t the only one who reacted when they were close. “So we’re really going to drive across the country?”
He nodded slowly. “I sold what I could and sent on the materials for my furniture to the Heron.”
The first fingers of annoyance crawled up her spine. “Just like that? Without talking to me?” What the hell was she going to tell her mother? Oh, Mom…by the way. Our home isn’t ours anymore. We have to share it with the boy that replaced us. But that’s okay, right?
It just didn’t make sense that she’d even be attracted to Shane. And yet her painfully tight nipples said otherwise. Even now she wanted to take that final step and surround herself in the outdoor scent that was as much a part of him as his skin.
“I have just as much right to use the property for storage. It is half mine.” The gruff words were chased with a gentle pull of her hair. He wrapped the tail of her braid around his thumb.
He was a constant source of mixed messages. Each stroke tugged the braid lightly, keeping her nerve endings frazzled. As tempting as he was, they were forced to be in each other’s company. Would she want to be around him if she didn’t have to be? Would he want to be around her?
Would this gnawing hunger exist if they’d met each other through friends or at a Christmas party?
She just wasn’t sure.
She took a step back to prove that she could.
The ache didn’t go away, but at least she could think. “You’re right. You have every legal right to be at the Heron, whether it’s your body or your furniture materials. I’ll call my mom in the morning so she can direct the delivery to go into the barn.”
“I appreciate that.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say Hallelujah!, but she stifled it. This was the first time he’d been civil to her. She turned away from him and picked up one of her new shirts to fold. “What time do you want to leave?”
“I have a few things to do in the morning, and then we can leave.”
She smoothed her hand over the plum-colored T-shirt. “Do you want me to come with you this time?”
“Yes. Be ready at seven.”
She nodded but still couldn’t look at him. If she did, she’d want more. And she needed to think tonight. She let out a relieved breath when she heard the door close behind him. Tomorrow she’d be in his company nonstop. The thrill of it warred with her unease. Everything was changing. Her life had been static for so long she couldn’t imagine having the freedom to go and see and experience different places. And now she was doing just that. With a man who made her realize what she’d been missing.
Could she treat this trip as an adventure? She slipped her arm across her midsection.
She just wasn’t sure.
Chapter Six
Shane slammed the tailgate of his truck. The back was empty save for sleeping bags and his locker of tools. It was a crisp mid-November day, and the sun beat back the fog that had blanketed the coast. He’d been up well before dawn mainlining coffee. If they stayed on course, they should be able to make it across the states in a little under seven days. It was a big if. And the big if was because of Kendall.
She’d been laughing with Kain all morning. She was so easy with him. Shane envied their friendship. Hell, he envied anything that had to do with enjoyment and Kendall. The three days away from her had nearly killed him. The skin-on-skin contact was addicting enough, but he found that he missed her acerbic wit and the wide, sassy smirk when she tried to get him riled up.
> She was a means to an end. But when he was around her, he could forget how angry he was. He’d taken so much for granted being a California Justice. He’d worked on his furniture nightly, and it had been a solid goal for his future. But it had been a future with no end date.
This was real. And this was his future.
And Kendall was part of the now. Their reality was soldered together in two misshapen forms. Did it make something ridiculous that would need to be fired apart, or was it something interesting that might fit better than anything else he’d ever known?
Was he even in the right frame of mind to decide?
All he knew was that she made him feel alive. And it seemed to be the only thing he could focus on.
Her peal of laughter dragged him out of his thoughts. She was hanging off Kain with a good two feet of air between her feet and the ground. His best friend had her up on his hip, grinning like a lunatic as he whispered something to her.
She laughed again and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek. “Thank you so much for taking such good care of me. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so pampered.”
Shane’s jaw snapped closed. She dropped to the ground and gave Kain one more hug, her nose pressed into the middle of his chest. Shane couldn’t hear what else she said, but he could see the light of interest blazing in his friend’s gaze.
He fisted his hands.
He couldn’t blame his friend. Kendall was a pocket of sunshine with her warm, dark eyes that were at odds with her mane of almost-white hair. But that smile. Man, that smile was a blast to the gut. If Kain didn’t get his damn hands off her, he was going to snap his fucking wrist.
She bent to pick up her backpack, but Kain waved her off.
Fuck.
Shane walked toward them and took the bag from Kain. What was it about this woman that drove him crazy and negated any manners his mother had instilled in him? Kendall had him so freaking twisted up. And it pissed him the fuck off. “Thanks, Kain.”
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