“So you wanted to flash your ass in front of everyone?”
“No.” Jill’s eyes flared. “I got caught up in her enthusiasm after drinking a couple of shots. It was stupid,” she admitted. “But I never said I was perfect.” She stood up and paced to the window. “How bad was it?”
“A little fuzzy on the details?” he asked.
The back of her head bobbed as she nodded. “You earned the undying respect and admiration of every guide south of the Rio Grande. But don’t worry,” he added with a lift of his hand, “your boyfriend made sure everyone knew you were taken.”
She spun around. He could tell by her pinched expression he’d hit a nerve. “In other words, I made a fool of myself.”
Lyle stood up and faced her across the desk. “Jill, you were drunk at a bar. Big deal. It’s not a front page story.”
“I work here. I’m trying to earn the respect of my boss and my employees.”
“Didn’t you hear me? You did earn their respect.”
She picked up a notepad and threw it at his head. He ducked as it sailed over his shoulder. “Why are you here?” she asked.
“Mom asked me to check on the tile she ordered at Barton’s design store. Figured I’d make sure you were still among the living and kill two birds with one stone.”
“You’d better hurry if you want to catch her. Tommy’s holding a community meeting about the proposed development and I know Tracy Barton’s in favor of the project. She thinks it’ll bring a lot of business to her store.”
“This whole development is really stirring people up. It’s all anyone’s talking about these days. You’d think, with the rodeo next week, they’d have better things to talk about.”
Jill settled behind her desk and laid her hands on the keyboard. “As long as they’re not talking about my ass, I don’t care what they’re talking about.”
Lyle chuckled as he walked out of her office and out into the bright afternoon sun. He skirted the hood of his SUV, shifting his sunglasses into place when a sporty red convertible pulled into the lot. He stopped in the act of opening the door and turned to greet Jill’s mom. “Bobbie Jennings. What are you doing out here on this fine day?”
She eased out of the car and dragged him into a full body hug. How the woman with the infectious laugh and contagious smile had given birth to her grumpy daughter, Lyle would never know. She stood back and gazed at him as if he’d presented her with a gleaming diamond.
“Lyle! I didn’t expect to see you all the way out here in the Lower Fork. How are you?”
“I’m good, Bobbie. Just stopped in to say hi to Jill on my way to get Mom’s tile at Barton’s.”
“Ooohhh, is she redoing her kitchen again?”
“No, they’re fixing up the bathroom in the caretaker’s house.”
“How is Miguel?” Bobbie asked. “I heard his back’s been bothering him again.”
“Good as new, thank God. Dodge wasn’t fun to be around when Miguel was laid up in bed for a week.”
Lyle scowled when he glanced across the lot to the fly shop and Ty walked out with a couple of older men in tow. Bobbie followed his stare.
“Do you know that young man?” Bobbie asked.
“He’s a fishing guide from North Carolina.” Lyle searched Bobbie’s eyes when he detected a note of curiosity in her voice. “Why do you ask?”
“I went by Jill’s apartment yesterday to drop off Olivia’s present.” She lifted the gift bag from the back seat of the car. “I saw him coming out as I pulled in the parking lot. I didn’t want to make the poor girl feel awkward by showing up right after her man had left.”
Lyle lifted his brows in surprise. He knew Bobbie was open-minded, but watching a man leave her daughter’s apartment early in the morning had to have been uncomfortable. God knew his mother would have blown her lid if she’d caught a girl sneaking out of his room.
“Have you seen Olivia?” she asked.
“No. You could check the raft shop.”
“I will. If she’s not around, I could leave it with Jill.”
Lyle couldn’t let this opportunity to slip through his fingers. “So what do you think about him?” Lyle asked.
“Who?”
“Tyler.” When Bobbie stared at him blankly, Lyle nodded with his head in Ty’s direction. “Jill’s boyfriend.”
In an almost comical jaw drop, Bobbie muttered, “Jill’s boyfriend?”
Oh no. He’d done it again. “I gotta go, Mrs. Jennings.” He patted her on the arm, hopped into his SUV, and got the hell out of there as fast as he could.
Chapter 25
Ty jogged back from the dock to the fly shop when he realized he’d left his dry bag on the counter before his afternoon float. When he spotted the same woman standing in the parking lot he’d seen moments before wearing a trendy outfit and a befuddled expression, he walked over to offer her assistance.
“You look a little lost,” he said. “Can I help you find something?”
Her whole body shook as if he’d woken her from a trance. “Oh, no. I’m fine, thank you.”
“You sure?” he asked. She seemed more confused than ever, staring at him as if trying to read something on his face.
“Mom?”
Ty turned around to find Jill, in jeans and a black shirt, striding toward them. She’d left her hair down and it bounced around her face as she walked. As usual, the sight of her left him more than a little dazed himself.
“Jill,” the woman said. “Do you feel okay? You look pale.”
Jill snuck a glance at Ty before a patch of red flooded her cheeks. “I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
She lifted the bag in her hand. “I came by to drop off Olivia’s birthday gift.”
“Oh.” Jill looked up at Ty. “Have you met Tyler?”
Her mom’s mouth turned down in a near mimic of Jill’s when she was upset. How had he managed to tick her mom off already?
“No, I haven’t.” She held out her hand. “Bobbie Jennings.”
Ty shook her hand and painted on his most friendly smile. “Tyler Bloodworth. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Jennings. I can see why Jill’s so beautiful.”
He may as well have called the woman a leper. “Thank you,” she said with an accusing stare at her daughter.
Okay… Ty snuck a glance behind him to where his two clients were examining the fly rods on the dock. “I’ve got to get going. It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Jennings.”
She gave him a curt nod of her head that felt like an arrow to his chest. “I’ll call you later,” he said to Jill before making a quick escape.
She nodded and bit her bottom lip. It felt like they were both in trouble. Great. He wasn’t sure how he’d managed to screw up meeting her mom for the first time, but it was obvious he had.
***
“Well, that was certainly rude,” Jill said to her mother after Tyler strode off. “Why were you so short with him?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Her mother clutched a hand to her chest. “Did I insult your boyfriend?”
Jill’s heart rate started doing a two-step. “My what?”
“Your boyfriend. At least I hope he is since I saw him sneaking out of your apartment first thing yesterday morning.”
“Mom…”
“Don’t try to deny it. Lyle confirmed he’s your boyfriend. To think I condemned poor Olivia for having a man stay over at her place when all along it was you.”
“If you’ll stop reading me the riot act, I can explain.”
Bobbie shook her head violently. “I’d rather not hear the details.” She turned her face to the sun and closed her eyes before leveling an accusing stare at Jill. “I know I told you to do something wild, but really, Jill, who is this guy?”
“It’s not what you think.”
“It’s not? He wasn’t sneaking out of your apartment after spending the night with you?”
“Technically, yes, but nothing happened.”
“Oh please,” Bobbie
said in a shrill voice. “Do you think I’m a fool? He’s attractive, you’re attractive, and you’re both over the age of consent. I don’t know why I’m so upset except for the fact that you have a boyfriend I knew nothing about.”
“It happened kind of fast,” Jill tried to defend herself.
“I’ll say.”
“Look, the last couple of times we talked, I was too busy defending myself to mention anything about Tyler.”
Bobbie puckered her lips as if she’d tasted something sour.
“Come inside,” Jill said. “Let’s sit down and discuss this like adults instead of hurling insults at each other in the parking lot.”
“I can’t stay. Your brother’s car is in the shop and I told him I’d pick him up from work.”
“So you don’t want to talk about Ty?”
“I do. But I don’t have time right now. Bring him to lunch on Sunday.”
“After the way you just treated him?” She raised her voice a full octave. “I don’t think so.”
Bobbie placed her hands on her hips and tucked her chin to her chest. “Jill Jennings. Are you ashamed of your family?”
Oh, brother. Her mother could lay it on thick. “Of course I’m not ashamed of my family.”
“Good. I expect to see you and your boyfriend on Sunday.”
Great. Just great.
Chapter 26
Jill was waiting on the dock when Ty came back from the float. He spotted her as his raft edged past the last bend, her legs dangling, her hair radiant in the dusky light. She stood up as he approached and stepped back as the two fishermen disembarked.
“I need to talk to you,” she said and shoved her hands into her back pockets.
“Okay. I need to wrap this up first. Can you wait a few minutes?”
“No problem.”
He watched her pace around his truck from inside the fly shop, picking at her nails and kicking dirt as the men settled their bill and left Ty a very nice tip. Jill was like a lit fuse when he finally approached her, her eyes a little bit wild and her hair scooped back into a messy ponytail.
“You spent four hours with them on the river.” She shoved her hands into her front pockets. “Was it really necessary to recount every ripple of the water?”
“Part of the experience,” he said and reached out a hand to steady her jittery movements. “You seem upset,” Ty said, mimicking his dad’s head tilt. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not upset. Well,” she amended, “maybe a little. Okay, I’m upset.”
Ty laughed. “And people think you’re moody, but clearly that’s not true.”
“What people?”
“Everyone. I thin—”
“Who’s everyone? And why would they say that? I’m not moody.”
Ty wanted to point out that her defensive stance and the line between her brows told a different story, but he knew better than to overstep. “I know you’re not. It’s your mouth.”
“My mouth?” She let out one loud, skeptical snort. “What?”
“Your lips. They turn down at the edges, kinda like a pout. It’s sexy.”
“Sexy?” Another snort. “No one’s ever called me sexy.”
“That’s because of your pouty mouth. And because you intimidate people.”
“Do I intimidate you?”
“No.”
“Why not?” she asked, the line back between those artful brows.
Ty shrugged. “I enjoy a complicated woman.”
“Complicated?” She swung those caramel eyes in his direction. “You mean ‘high maintenance.’”
“No, I mean multi-faceted, driven, unpredictable, and sexy as hell.”
“Well,” she said after a long pause. “You southern boys are certainly schooled in charm. When did you learn those lines? On the elementary school playground?”
“You see? Most women would take what I said as a compliment, but not a complicated woman like you.” He brushed a finger to the end of her nose and considered himself lucky when she didn’t try to bite his hand.
“My mother wants you to come over for Sunday lunch,” Jill blurted out.
Ty felt like he’d been swooped up by a giant bird and placed on a tight wire between two mountains. No matter which direction he fell, there was hell to pay. “Oh.”
“Oh? All you have to say is ‘oh’?”
“What would you like me to say?” he asked. He took a step back when her cheeks turned pink and her hands fisted at her sides.
“She saw you leaving my apartment. She called you my boyfriend.”
He couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from lifting at the way she said the word ‘boyfriend’ as if it tasted like lemons on her tongue. “Well, aren’t I?”
“I guess…I don’t know. We’ve never called this—” she waved her arm between them, “anything.”
He took a tentative step forward. “Does that scare you?”
“What? Labeling this?” She shrugged and dropped her eyes to her hands where she’d clasped them in a white-knuckle grasp. “I don’t know. If someone asked you who I was, what would you say?”
“As a matter of fact, the two men I took out this afternoon asked me that very question.”
Her skeptical eyes shot to his face. “What did you say?”
He stepped closer, so close that he could see the flecks of gold in her eyes. “I told them you were my girl.”
When she lifted her chin and placed a hand at the base of her throat, he trapped her between his body and the side of the truck. “You did?”
“I did. So, I suppose that makes me your boyfriend.”
“I suppose it does.” She moved her hand to rest it upon his chest. He wondered if she could feel his heart tripping against her palm. She lifted her hands to his head, winding her fingers through his hair and pulling his mouth down to hers.
Greedy. She assaulted his mouth with a hunger that had him leaning into her, aligning their bodies, begging for more than the kiss could provide. He dragged his mouth from hers as she scraped her nails down his shirt. “God, Jill, I want you. I want you so much I can hardly see straight.”
“I know,” she gasped. “I know.” She arched against him and nipped at his neck before pulling back and looking up at him with a pitiful expression. “I have to run.”
“Run? As in run, run? Now?” When he was ready to take her against the truck, propriety be damned?
“I’m too keyed up. I know myself and I have to get this out.”
“Might I suggest another method of letting off steam?”
She laughed, throwing her head back and exposing a thin column of white skin he longed to mar with his teeth. “Go home,” she said. “Let me run and then I’ll come to you.”
“Jill…” He gave it one last try, capturing her head in his hands and suckling her lips like wine until she was purring and boneless in his arms.
“I promise, Ty. Give me an hour, two tops. I’ll be there. I want to be with you.”
“Come home with me now.”
“Wait for me?” she countered.
How could he not, when the need for her pulsed through him like poison. “Hurry.”
***
The sky was alight with stars when Jill’s car made its way up the steep incline toward Ty’s cabin. The sound of the woods echoed through her open windows, beckoning her forward, urging her to speed when safety called for a steady hand and a cautious pace.
She felt nothing of caution tonight. Tonight she felt wild and reckless and free. Tonight she felt like a woman, more than she ever had in her life, racing along the gravel road to the spot where her lover waited.
Her lover.
She and Ty would be lovers tonight. She could hardly breathe through the impatience and fear. Her body felt swelled and ready, like a grape at the peak of ripeness just waiting to be plucked. Only Ty knew how to ease the ache that had burned deep within her for weeks. Months, really, when she thought back to last summer when he’d watch her from his porch.
His door opened as she pulled into the drive. He stood in the doorway wearing a fresh t-shirt and jeans. His feet were bare. Somehow that one intimate flash of skin had her breath coming out in a shaky wave and her stomach smoldering with need. He didn’t move from his perch, but watched her as she approached, his hand on his abdomen.
“I was worried you’d talk yourself out of coming during your run,” he said when she stopped in front of him.
“I was trying to calm myself down.” How did her voice sound so composed when she was fraught with anxiety?
He took her in from her flip-flops to where her jeans sat low on her hips and up to the thin blouse that covered her chest. His expression darkened as her nipples puckered under his stare. When his eyes met hers, she saw the hunger she felt reflected in his pupils. “Why are you scared?”
“I feel like I do before a race,” she admitted.
His eyes flew to her chest before mocking her with a lifted brow. “How so?”
“Every time I stand on the starting line, I feel a little nervous and a whole lot excited. I’m not…” she bit her lip, “very experienced.”
He reached out and clasped a lock of her hair, twisting it between his fingers. “Do you think that makes me want you any less? This isn’t a performance, Jill. This is just you and me.” He let his hand drop. “Do you know how many times I’ve dreamt of having you here? In my house? In my bed?”
He smelled like soap and the woods where he lived. “Take me to your bed, Tyler. I don’t want to wait a second longer.”
He crushed her to him, dragging her inside, slamming the screen closed with his foot. Lips locked, they bumped into a chair and the side table before he threw her over his shoulder and stalked down the hall to his bedroom, her laughter ringing through the halls. The only thing she registered was the wood paneling and a brown cover before Ty was all she could see, all she could hear, all she focus her attention upon.
She tasted the minty freshness of his toothpaste on her tongue, smelled the soap on his skin, and watched his jaw tighten as he lifted the shirt from her back.
Mending the Line Page 15
