One Hot Summer

by Melissa Cutler

  “Twenty-five,” she said. “One for every year of my life.”

  “Thousand or million?”

  She raised her eyebrows. That he’d asked only highlighted what different worlds they lived in.

  Shock rippled across his face before he schooled his features. “Twenty-five million dollars? Sweet Jesus.”

  “The money’s either gone or accounted for,” she rushed to add before biting her lip to keep herself from explaining herself away or apologizing for who she was.

  He made a strangling sound.

  “What does that noise mean?” she said.

  “Nothing. I … The money’s gone? What did you do to blow twenty-five million dollars in four years? You’re not the type of person to waste a fortune like that on material goods, so that makes no sense.”

  “You’re right, I’m not that person.” Had anyone ever seen her so clearly as Micah? She sincerely doubted it. “When my parents released the money in the trust fund to me, they said, ‘Don’t let this make you lazy.’ I knew it wouldn’t because I grew up with my parents as role models and they’re two of the hardest-working people I know. They worked constantly, long hours and often overseas, and all while keeping their marriage healthy and raising me. I work because that’s the kind of person I want to be. Someone who values an honest day’s work.”

  He rolled to his side and propped his upper body up on an elbow. His free hand splayed over her belly. “So then, where did all your money go?”

  She rested her hand over his and let her fingers explore the bones of his wrist. “A lot of places. I created five funds with a million in each, one each for any future children I might have.”

  He blinked down at her. “You want five kids? Xavier has two and that seems daunting enough.”

  “I like the idea of two kids, but you never know. I remember thinking when I set the funds up, what if the person I marry already has kids from another marriage and then with our two we have five. Stuff like that happens all the time.”

  He curved down and angled his lips over hers in a sweet, closed-mouth kiss. “Well, I don’t have any kids from a previous marriage, and I think five kids might be three too many, for the record.”

  His earnest response melted her heart. She looped an arm around his neck and pulled him to her for another kiss, this one deeper. His tongue teased the edge of her lower lip until she gave herself over to him and opened her mouth. He pressed her body back until her head rested against the sand.

  “Back to your money and where it all went. We’ve now accounted for five million. Twenty more to go.”

  His prompt evoked a smile. Her discomfort about sharing her financial specifics all but vanquished by his disarming earnestness. “I used one million in the first year or so, give or take, for fun and administrative expenses, a new car, a personal assistant, and so forth. And I donated fifteen million to various charities.”

  There was that strangling sound again. “That’s a lot of money.”

  “Not really. There are a lot of people in this world who need help. Fifteen million doesn’t make a dent, but it’s a start. And the last four million I invested. I use the interest from the investments to live on. And then every year I cut the investment amount back down to four million and split the rest among my favorite charities. I like having that cushion of money, the four million. My fallback fund. Having a safety net has helped me take more risks in my career. It’s one of the reasons I think I’ve been so successful as an event planner.”

  “I can’t wrap my mind around that kind of cushion. Money was always elusive for my family. There was never enough, and my dad worked himself to the bone for thirty-five years as a welder. After we lost everything in the fire, the settlement from the insurance was barely enough to cover the cost of rebuilding and new furniture. There was never anything left over. I worked to pay my own way through college and struggled to pay off student loans until I was thirty.”

  “Money would have solved a lot of your family’s problems, I know. But please believe me when I say it brings with it a whole new set of problems.”

  He stroked her cheek. “I would’ve never believed that before I met you, but I can see now how it would. Here’s the thing, though. When the Zannity scandal happened, why didn’t you give the finger to the wedding-planning industry and move to some tropical beach?”

  “I did take a big break from the industry when that all went down. I rented a yacht and traveled the Virgin Islands with my friends. After a month, I was bored silly. It was time to get back to work.”

  “But why here?” he pushed.

  Tamping down her annoyance that their every personal conversation circled around to that same question, she rubbed her temple. “We’re back to that again.”

  “Yes, we are, because it doesn’t make any sense why you would want a job with so much drama, working for that asshole Ty Briscoe. You have a multimillion-dollar nest egg. You don’t need to put up with all this.”

  “You’re right. I don’t.” Especially if working at Briscoe Ranch started to harm her reputation even more, as some of Ty’s veiled threats had insinuated. “But I told you why I’m here. I want to fix my reputation. This was always supposed to be temporary.” God, she hated the way that sounded, even if it was the truth.

  He settled on his back again and gave a frustrated shake of his head. “You’ve been up-front with me about you being a short-timer here in Texas from the get-go. I thought I’d be content just to have you to myself for a little while, before you moved on. That some time with you was better than no time. I don’t feel that way anymore and it scares the piss out of me that this situation with Ty is going to drive you away even faster.”

  He was so honest and he deserved an honest answer in reply. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I keep thinking this feud with Ty will blow over. My plan was to stay here long enough to make a name for myself in the industry. I thought I had years, not weeks. I don’t want to leave yet. You and I are still unfinished business.”

  He turned his head and looked into her eyes for a long time; then he pulled her into his arms. “On paper, we’re all wrong for each other. We should have never happened in the first place.”

  He was right. “We don’t make sense, except that we do.”

  “I’m asking you not to quit your job yet. I’m asking you not to leave. Will you give me a chance to make this right for both of us with Ty?”

  “Micah, you’re the one whose job is on the line. I can’t stand by and watch your career fail. Love doesn’t work like that.”

  Love? She bit her lip.

  He wrapped his arms more tightly around her. “No, it doesn’t. Which is why I’m asking you to let me take the lead on this one. Let me see what I can do before you think too hard about quitting before you’re ready.”

  She peppered kisses on his chest. Such an alpha. “My friends back home warned me about falling for the charms of a cowboy.”

  “I’m no cowboy, but merely a humble public servant.”

  She brushed her thumb over the five o’clock shadow on his cheek. “Lose the word humble and you’ll be on the road toward the truth.”

  “You think your parents are going to approve of your public servant boyfriend? I’ll get to meet them in a few weeks at this celebrity wedding you’re putting on, I do believe.”

  The ache inside her from the thought of leaving Micah and Texas behind morphed into a rock in her stomach. “That’s true. I can’t even imagine it, you and them in the same room. Heck, I can’t imagine the two of them in the same room together, for that matter. They’re the embodiment of everything you despise. Forget about them approving of you. I don’t see how you could approve of them.”

  “I’d like to think I’ve evolved a bit this summer, thanks to you.”

  She hugged him tight. “This summer has changed me, too.”

  “Tell me more about your folks. Are they better drivers than you?”

  Remedy had always fancied herself a darn good dri
ver, but it would have been impossible to defend her skills without coming across like Rain Man. “My dad’s better at driving golf carts, which is probably because he gets a lot of practice, playing golf as often as he does. But my mom’s worse than me, with golf carts and cars. At least, that’s my memory from when I was a kid. She hasn’t driven in years. That’s how much she hates it.”

  “Really? How does she get around?”

  “She has a driver.”

  He groaned. “You’re right. I might not have evolved as much as I’d thought. Tell me some normal things about your parents; set my mind at ease.”

  Her mom having a driver and her dad’s obsession with golf were her world’s normal. She wanted Micah to like her parents, but they were who they were and there was no changing them. “My dad likes to grill. He fancies himself an amateur chef. My mom…” There wasn’t very much down-to-earth about her mother. She’d worked hard in the film industry since she was a kid and had earned her eccentricities. “My mom loves her dogs. Like, so much. They’re her life.” Dogs might be a stretch to describe the yapping balls of fluff she carried everywhere in a customized purse, but Remedy wasn’t about to confess as much to Micah.

  “My dad’s that way, too, with grilling and with dogs,” Micah said. “He’s got three German shepherd mixes now. Sometimes I think he loves them as much as his grandkids.”

  Talking about Remedy’s parents and Micah’s dad made Remedy starkly aware of who they hadn’t yet discussed. “I hope someday you’ll feel like you can talk to me about your mom.”

  Micah propped his hand behind his head and tipped his chin up to watch the treetops. “A while ago I decided she wasn’t worth my time or energy thinking about anymore.”

  This from the man who’d insisted to Remedy over and over that where a person was from and what their family background was held infinite importance in their life. She decided to risk one more question. “When did she die?”

  “She’s alive. I’m not sure where. We haven’t spoken in years.” He huffed. “So many years. By her choice. And it’s the choice I’m most comfortable with, too.”

  She kissed his shoulder. Remedy’s world would capsize if she and her mom were to sever ties. She couldn’t even imagine it, but it was a truth Micah lived with every day.

  “How old were you when she…”

  “Twelve. And that’s all I’d like to say about it for now.”

  Remedy nodded, even as she drew lines in her memory with other stories he’d told her about his youth. He was eleven when the fire struck. He and his family had spent nearly a year at his grandparents’ house while their home was rebuilt. And his mother left in the middle of all that upheaval, when her children needed her most? Unfathomable. Absolutely despicable. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about her.

  Time for a subject change to break the grim mood. “You mentioned your dad having grandkids, so that means you’re an uncle, right?”

  “Oh, yeah. Thanks to my older brother and two younger sisters. I earned my Favorite Uncle status one water gunfight and trip to the ice-cream store at a time. My brother has two girls and my sisters both have boys. You’ll meet the whole crew on Sunday.”

  “I can’t wait. Just … they’re not going to serve any of those weird Jell-O and mayonnaise salads like we had at Albert and Tabby’s wedding, are they?”

  He chuckled, his grief seemingly forgotten. “It’s always possible. In fact, I might volunteer to bring one. Just for you. Maybe I’ll sprinkle some raisins on top as decoration.”

  She poked him in the ribs. “Is that your idea of sweet-talking me?”

  “No. And neither is this.” In a flash he’d rolled to his side, his hands out, tickling her. She squirmed and lurched all over, splashing water and squealing and laughing until the tickling got too much and she pleaded with him to have mercy.

  “I told you I’d file that ticklish information away for another time.”

  She slid her leg across his body, then pushed herself up to straddle his waist. “So you did.”

  Then she threaded their fingers together and pinned his hands into the sand near his ears.

  Sand and water sprinkled over his taut chest and muscled shoulders, and a few grains of sand had found their way into his long, dark eyelashes. He was so beautiful. He was hers.

  “You’re bringing me home to meet your parents.” The wonder of it. Of them together. The Hollywood event planner destined to leave and the small-town fire chief with roots planted so deep that he could never leave without giving up the very essence of the man she was falling hard for.

  His eyes glowed with affection. He brushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Just do me one favor, would you, darlin’?” he drawled.

  She loved the way his twang got more pronounced when his voice turned husky and low like it was now. “Anything.”

  A boyish grin broke out on his face. “Try not to burn my dad’s house down while you’re there.”

  “Micah!”

  “Or break any windows. Or crash your car through the porch steps. Or sic your pet pigeons on the dinner spread.”

  His belly laugh vibrated through her thighs and shook her body. She released his hands so she could tickle his ribs, but before she knew what had happened she was flat on her back, Micah on top of her. No more laughter in his eyes. All she saw was heat and need and love as he caged her head between his arms.

  She searched his gaze. “When I saw you here, I thought you and I might be through. For a fleeting second, I wondered if you were here to break up with me.”

  “Not even close.”

  “I’m responsible for the fire at the ball,” she said.

  “Not you. It was my error in judgment. I’m pretty pissed off at myself. I should’ve never let Emily sucker me into agreeing to something I knew was dangerous.”

  “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have a way of conjuring disaster.” The threat of tears stung her eyes. Copping to that flaw wasn’t supposed to feel so vulnerable, but she needed Micah to see her for everything she was, the good and the bad—and she needed him to choose her anyway.

  Affection bloomed in his eyes. “I did notice that, actually. And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but Xavier tells me I have a compulsive need to swoop in and save the day.”

  “I think Xavier’s on to something.”

  He stroked a tendril of hair from her cheek. “So I’m working on a theory involving your disaster-conjuring gene and my hero syndrome being perfectly suited to each other.”

  In other words, they didn’t make sense except that they did. She lifted her head and kissed him. “I think you might be on to something.”

  He fingered her shirt collar. “Speaking of saving people, I think I need to do something about these wet clothes you’re in.”

  “Could be dangerous.”

  He popped the top button open. “I can’t allow that.”

  While he unbuttoned her shirt, a splash of white color caught Remedy’s eye. The pigeons, inching ever nearer to Remedy and Micah. “We’re being watched.”

  Micah craned his neck to follow her gaze. “I’ll be damned. You were right; those birds are stalking you.”

  “They love me.”

  He splayed her shirt open. “Never thought I’d have something in common with a bunch of pigeons.” He tugged her bra cup down and drew her nipple into his mouth with a hard suck that pulled a whimper from her throat.

  She combed her fingers through her hair, reveling in the dual elation of his mouth on her flesh and her learning that he loved her. “Take me here, now. Just like this.”

  She registered the desperation in her voice, the urgent need to connect after so much strife and uncertainty between them. With her on the pill and both of them recently tested, they’d abandoned condoms the night they became an exclusive couple. There was nothing stopping them from joining together in the very spot in which they’d first laid eyes on each other.

  There was that lazy, lop
sided smile that melted her heart. “It’s kind of our thing, isn’t it? Making love by the riverbank like a proper redneck couple.”

  With her hands, she memorized the planes and curves of his shoulders and back. Her palms followed the contour of his spine to the dip of his lower back and the flare of his taut backside before it disappeared into the waistband of his briefs. “I would have never imagined this for myself before you.” And now I’m having trouble imagining my life any other way.

  His caressing hands dipped lower. He bunched her skirt at her hips, then peeled her wet underwear off and tossed it on top of his pile of clothes. “I’m gonna add this pair to the collection I started in my truck, to go with that first pair you left hanging on my rearview mirror the first time we slept together.”

  “I forgot about those.” That night seemed like a lifetime ago, when she’d thought of Micah as an adversary, rather than a force of change and happiness in her world.

  Their bodies joined together in an exquisite sharp bolt of pleasure. Her fingers slid over her belly to her clit, working it in time with his hips. Their mouths searched each other out and locked together in a never-ending kiss as they rocked in a slow and steady grind that seemed to stretch each second out with each dragging thrust of friction and flesh. As if they could stay in this moment together forever. As if there weren’t a thousand forces trying to wedge them apart.

  Remedy’s buildup was swift. “Micah, I’m already there. Oh, damn.”

  She allowed herself only quiet whimpers in such a public place. Thrusting her hips, she brought herself all the way home with her fingers on her clit and his cock pounding inside her. Tears crowded her eyes and slipped down her cheeks as her release welled up from a deep, dark corner of her being. A swirling, raw stew of bliss and heartache and need.

  Micah’s thrusts turned erratic, his breathing uneven. On a grunt, he pulled out of her and knelt, his hand rubbing himself in compact circles until he raised his face to the sky with a grimace and spent himself into the water.