The Hometown Hoax (The Hoax Series)
Page 4
Holy shit, he’d give his left nut to be her fingertip right now…to feel her lips surround him, her tongue dancing across his skin. Instead, he was left standing in the middle of a soapy puddle, his heart racing, and his dick straining for release from its confines.
“Thanks for getting the spider. I’m going to rinse off now.”
“Want me to supervise in case there are other unwanted guests?” The words were out before he could censor himself. It wasn’t his style to be so obviously interested, but it wasn’t every morning he found a wet, naked woman in his arms either.
“No, but thanks. I’ll use the sink instead. I’m almost done anyway.”
She disappeared behind the bathroom door, and he heard the shower turn off then the sink turn on. An image of her bending over the vanity, bare ass on display, flashed through his mind causing the remaining blood in his brain to rush to another area of his anatomy. He perched on the edge of his bed, resting his head in his hands for a minute before scanning the floorboards for any sign of that spider. He saw nothing.
Logan wasn’t a big fan of creepy-crawly things either, but he was willing to wake up early every morning for the next week so he could find a new eight-legged friend to take up residence in their shower. Anything to get Tessa naked and in his arms again.
Chapter Four
Tessa paused for one last deep breath before opening the bathroom door while praying she was ready to face Logan. She hadn’t been able to convince herself to finish showering after the spider incident, so she’d settled for rinsing the shampoo out of her hair in the sink. Tomorrow, when she’d had a little time and distance to forget about the eight legs sharing her water, she’d face her fear and shower again. Until then, that entire area was the enemy, and she was smart enough not to cross into its territory. After dressing, blow-drying, styling, and applying makeup, she could find no other ways to delay the inevitable. The sooner she confronted the awkward situation that had occurred, the better.
He’d seen her freak out over a spider. Anyone would act the same in her position.
He’d seen her half naked, big deal. It was just a little skin.
He’d touched her bare ass with his large, strong, spider-hunting hand. Just another day at the cabin, right? If you bunk together, sooner or later someone’s bound to see some intimate skin.
Pulling open the door, she found the cabin empty and she sagged against the doorframe with relief. Thank God she wouldn’t have to deal with him yet. A few extra minutes to strengthen her backbone would make it easier. Of course, not running into him here meant she’d inevitably have to run into him around her family and that would make the situation infinitely more awkward. Unless he was a smart man and didn’t mention the spider incident when anyone else was around.
Slipping into her sneakers, she jogged over to the main cabin. It might be summer, but in the mountains, the mornings and evenings were cool. The spaghetti strap tank top she wore would be perfect for later, but even with the light sweater over top, she was chilly this morning and jogging warmed her up.
Oh, who am I kidding. Jogging sucks, but spiders suck worse. Jogging to the cabin was the fastest way to get from point A to point B without a spider jumping, climbing, or creeping on her again. Once per day was more than enough.
The scent of freshly brewed coffee and her mom’s warm cinnamon buns greeted her like a lover’s kiss. Not that she was thinking about kissing anyone, but if she were thinking about kissing someone, it would probably conjure the same response, make her mouth water, and her head spin with desire.
“About time you joined us,” her mom said, handing her a pastry on a plate and a mug of coffee—light and sweet, just how she liked it.
She took a seat at the other end of the table from Logan and tried not to look directly at him. She didn’t want to know if this morning’s adventure was still lingering in his mind as well. Better not to know.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were waiting on me,” she said after sipping her coffee.
“I wondered where you’d gotten to, that’s all. Thought maybe something had delayed you this morning since I know you tend to be an early riser. But then Logan wandered over for breakfast so…”
So what exactly?
“It took me an extra few minutes to get cleaned up today, that’s all. I’ll try to be quicker tomorrow.”
“We want to spend as much time with you as we can, Tessa-bear,” her mom cooed. “We only get you home for the week, you know.”
“Since I’m the one you’re referring to, yes, I’m aware of my scheduled return back to the city.” And I won’t let anyone stop me from leaving.
Her mom sighed and turned back toward the counter. Tessa sighed too, feeling guilt settle into her stomach because of her grouchy comment. It wasn’t a feeling she’d missed while being away. She didn’t mean to be a bitch to her mom or anyone else. She simply didn’t want to be hounded anymore about where she lived.
She licked sticky cinnamon bun frosting from her fingers.
Glancing up from her plate, her gaze landed on Logan who was holding his coffee cup near his lips yet wasn’t actually taking a sip. His tongue swiped across his lower lip seconds after hers did the same, a mirror image.
This morning, she’d turned in his arms and that mouth of his had been close to her own. So close it made her want to taste him. Too close if she wanted her fake boyfriend to stick around for a while, which she did. Leaving would be even harder if she didn’t have someone important to go back to the city for, at least as far as everyone else was concerned.
Nope. She couldn’t think about how tempting Logan’s mouth had been earlier or how much more tempting it was now that he would taste of sweet pastry and strong coffee—two of her favorite things. Logan was a complicating factor she didn’t need.
“No reason to get grouchy, Tessa-bear. That racket we heard coming from your cabin must have been you waking up on the wrong side of the bed.”
She stared at her mother. “You heard me screaming, while I was in a cabin alone with a man I barely know and shouldn’t even be rooming with, and you didn’t bother to wander over to find out if I was okay?”
“Well, we didn’t think it was anything to make a big deal over,” Sally said with a shrug from her place on the couch where she nursed her coffee.
“Your sister screaming isn’t a big deal?”
Mary rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you were being murdered in there or anything. Relax. Drink your caffeine fix. You need it.”
“How did you know I wasn’t being murdered? No one even checked on me,” she said feeling flustered. Didn’t they understand at all why she was concerned? What if it had been a weirdo psychopath in her cabin this morning instead of a spider?
“We didn’t want to interrupt anything that might’ve been going on between you two. That’s all.” Her mother clucked her tongue as she meandered back into the kitchen as if the conversation were nothing.
“What would we have been doing that would lead to screaming?” she asked.
Travis and Sally glanced toward each other grinning. “It’s more about how you do it than what you do,” Travis said.
He didn’t imply…
“I wouldn’t… We just met…” Her cheeks grew hot, and it had nothing to do with the steaming cup of coffee she hugged in her palms. “There was a spider in the shower. I freaked out. That’s why I was screaming.”
“I saved her,” Logan said.
“He saved you in the shower?” Mary asked, wide-eyed.
“Nice going, bro,” Travis said, holding up his coffee like a salute of manly solidarity.
Logan smirked but didn’t correct her brother-in-law’s inaccurate assumption.
“He wasn’t in the shower with me,” she said, her voice imploring them to get their imaginations out of the gutter, or out of the shower with her and Logan.
“It’s okay if you want to admit to being a little freaky. Mom’s in the kitchen and can’t hear us anyways.” Travis winked.
“Now that you’re not around, we don’t know anymore. Maybe the big city changed you into some kind of sexual misfit.”
“First of all, showering with someone else doesn’t make you a sexual misfit. It makes you environmentally conscious.” The room around her laughed and she felt her blood pressure boiling as she attempted to ignore them and maintain control in her voice. “And secondly, if the big city has changed me, it has opened my eyes to how much more world there is outside of this backwoods little town you think is the center of the universe.”
She pushed away from the table. “From now on, nothing that happens in our cabin is any of your business, not that anything else is going to happen… Or did happen.” Grabbing her cup, Tessa was about to leave to finish her coffee outside in the peace and quiet—God help the spider who bothered her right now!—when her mother walked into the room.
“I do hope you two won’t find the place too lonely out there, all alone. Every night,” she said.
“Why, exactly, am I sharing a cabin with him, Mom? I don’t even know him.”
Her mother smiled sweetly. “Well, he had to sleep somewhere, and after all the experiences you’ve had on your own in the big city and how much you love being surrounded by strangers, we figured you’d be more comfortable rooming with Logan rather than your family. Of course, that was before I knew about that other boyfriend person, but what’s done is done.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. You always are.”
Tessa closed her eyes and quickly counted to ten. I will not let circumstance risk my family finding out the truth about Richard.
Just because she’d be alone with Logan every night didn’t mean she would suddenly fall into his strong arms and snuggle against his gloriously sculpted chest. Nor would she spend each night lying in the dark beside him, talking about their lives and getting to know each other like they had last night, like learning about how he was an elementary school teacher and probably a super nice guy who cared about making kids healthy. No way. Touching and talking were off limits.
In fact, the less time she spent in the cabin alone with him the better. From now on instead of calling it bedtime early each night to avoid hanging out with him and her family, she’d stay up until she was one second from falling asleep in the fire pit and go straight to bed. Alone. To sleep.
She opened her eyes and forced herself to feel centered and completely not bothered. “I’m sure Logan and I will be fine. I’m going to finish my coffee outside.” She turned on her heel and resisted the urge to slam the door behind her.
“Why am I so grouchy?” she asked herself out loud as she perched uncomfortably on the edge of a picnic table by the lake, not too far from the cabin. “Why can’t I ignore their comments?”
“I’ve been wondering that myself,” Logan said sitting down beside her, close enough that their thighs brushed against one another.
“It’s a rhetorical question and one not meant for anyone else’s ears,” she said.
“Well then, you shouldn’t have spoken it out loud. That’s what internal thoughts are for.”
She didn’t need him telling her anything about internal thoughts. She’d had plenty of those lately too and most had been sexy and about the man confronting her. Anytime those wanted to stop intruding on her normal thoughts would be great. “I didn’t know anyone followed me since I came out here to be alone.”
He continued as if he hadn’t heard her and he obviously couldn’t take a hint. “I haven’t known you for long, and I’ve only known your family for a few weeks, not including Travis, but it seems like you get annoyed in a nanosecond where they’re concerned. As an outsider looking in, it seems a little uncalled for. And I won’t mention how you’ve seemed to be mad at me pretty much constantly since we met.”
“You’re suddenly an expert on my feelings and my family? You think you know what I should feel?” She couldn’t help defending herself even though she knew everything he said was true.
“It seems like you’re tense, that’s all. If you want someone to talk to about it, someone impartial, I’m here.”
That wasn’t what she expected. Guys didn’t usually want to sit around talking about feelings, theirs or anyone else’s. “Thanks,” she mumbled. “I think I’m a little on edge being home. No one wanted me to leave and it’s the first time I’ve been back. I knew they would hint about wanting me to stay but I didn’t think they’d be so blatantly intrusive about it.”
“What’s so wrong with Cutter’s Creek?” he asked, his voice quiet and comforting, not demanding and defensive like her family’s would be if asking the same thing.
“Everything. Nothing.”
“Well that clears it up.” He chuckled and nudged her shoulder with his.
“It’s…” How could she put into words all her feelings about this place to a guy who’d only been around a couple of weeks and who seemed to like it? She couldn’t and even if she could, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Some things were better kept to herself. “It’s not the place for me.”
“But New York City is?”
“Yeah. For now at least.”
They were silent for a few minutes. While she finished her coffee, they watched as geese landed on the surface of the lake, coming and going as a group. Always as a group. What if one wants to fly off on its own to explore for a while? Do all the others have to go too?
“I think I know exactly what you need to improve your mood,” he said suddenly standing up.
There’s a therapist in every group, she thought bitterly. Exactly what I need, more advice about how to live my life and what choices to make.
“Oh? What’s that?” Her attempt to rein in the bitchiness was futile.
He ignored her, his smile remaining intact. “The best thing you could do is come for a jog around the lake. It’ll do you good to get moving, and the fresh air always helps clear my mind and refocus my thoughts. When we’re back, I’ll make you one of my famous green smoothies if I can find a blender in the kitchen. How’s that sound?”
“Like a heart attack followed by an overly strong gag reflex.” The thought of a green smoothie made her shiver. She’d done the juice cleanse thing her first month in the city since everywhere she went someone was on one and saying how wonderful it was. Three days in and the mere thought of the green juice made her gag. The juice cleanse had been a mistake, and she wouldn’t willingly make it again with Logan or his famous smoothie. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
“Are you sure? It might help with your outlook on life. It couldn’t hurt at least.”
Her outlook wasn’t bad most days. Being home and feeling the pressure to move back did something to her, changed her in some way. Not a way she liked either.
“I think I hear another cup of coffee calling my name. I’ll see you when you get back,” she said, hopping off the table to head into the cabin for a refill. That didn’t sound too eager or anything, did it? That wasn’t the impression she wanted to leave him with. “Or not, whatever. Have a good jog.”
He finished stretching quickly then turned and jogged up to the lake, following the edge of the water around a bend and into the woods where she couldn’t see him, but not quick enough for her to miss the strength in his legs as he pushed off the soft ground, propelling himself forward.
It was one of the many things she shouldn’t notice when it came to Logan, along with his easy-going personality, his witty sense of humor that matched hers, and that he was a guy who she barely knew but who was willing to come out here and check on her, even if it meant talking about her feelings. What guys did that? Nice guys like Logan, apparently.
Now if only she could find a guy like him in the city, she’d be set and wouldn’t need to make up a boyfriend ever again. Then convincing her family her new life was not in Cutter’s Creek wouldn’t be so hard, because it would be
true.
As it was right now, she felt like she was lying about every aspect of her life—she didn’t have a boyfriend, she wanted to be happy but wasn’t sure she could honestly claim that status, and her big painting career had started out with her painting window murals on coffee shops and retail stores, instead of canvasses hanging in galleries. Definitely not the way she’d seen things working out. She wanted to claim everything was wonderful, but she couldn’t because everything was more challenging than she expected. Nothing seemed to be falling into place like she’d imagined it would. Nope, but she couldn’t admit any of that to her family.
More time, that’s all she needed. With enough hard work and perseverance, she’d get exactly where she wanted to be. In the city she was a nobody, anonymous, like she’d always wanted, and it would take a little more time for people to learn about her and her work. But they would learn about her eventually, and once they did, there’d be no stopping her dreams.
The same couldn’t be said if she moved back to Cutter’s Creek. Sure, here everyone knew her name, but no one cared about her dreams.
Chapter Five
Logan found a smooth branch thick enough to support his weight but still thin enough to wrap his hands around, then proceeded to do fifty pull-ups in quick succession. His jog around the lake had been a good workout given the uneven terrain and the rise and fall in elevation. The muscles up and down his legs ached, unaccustomed to running on uneven ground like this. His body was still used to pounding the pavement of city paths.
Even with the aching muscles, he still much preferred this run to his usual ones. Soft trails beat hard pavement any day, both in workout intensity and benefits to his body. Clean mountain air didn’t compare to city pollution. And there wasn’t even a tiny piece of him that missed the honking of car horns or rattle of buses and trains when he could hear birds chirping, squirrels scampering, and leaves crunching underfoot.
This was the life he was meant to live. Now he had to figure out a way to hold on to it.
Ideally, he’d be able to open a new personal training studio where he could give classes and private one-on-one coaching on a daily basis like he did in the city. Only here, he might stand a chance of paying the rent. With no big competitive gyms in the area, he would definitely have the market share.