Chapter 22
“No! Mikey, get back here!” Kasey whispered somewhat hysterically as her ten-year-old daughter ignored her and ran off with Sebastian towards what Reese had sworn was the best tree house in the state.
“They’ll be fine,” Reese, the man that she needed to get a little distance from so that she could think clearly, said softly as he reached past her and closed the driver’s side door.
“Okay,” she said, because that was apparently all she was capable of saying right now.
“Do you want to go inside?” he asked, stepping back only to place his hand on the small of her back and gestured towards the large two story Victorian house that she assumed belonged to his parents.
“Okay,” she said, immediately feeling like an idiot as she allowed him to lead her towards the front door while she tried to get her mind off the fact that for a moment there, she’d actually thought that he was going to kiss her.
When he stepped back and broke whatever spell he had over her, she should have been relieved, but instead she was…
Confused.
“My father’s at work, but my mother should be here,” he said, opening the front door and gestured for her to go inside.
“What does your father do?” she asked, proud that she’d managed a whole sentence, especially since he was now running his thumb back and forth over the small of her back in a gentle caress and making it hard to think about anything else but him and just how close he was.
Back and forth…
Back. And. Forth.
“He’s a doctor,” he said, keeping his touch soft while he continued caressing her back as he led her inside the incredibly beautiful house.
“What about your mother?” she asked, deciding that she needed to put a stop to this before it went any further.
But, in another minute.
Her back was just so sore from that four-hour drive and if she was going to be any use to him, she was going to have to suck it up and enjoy this. The things she did to help others, she thought with a sigh, wishing that she wasn’t so damn giving even as she paused in the foyer so that he could continue attending to her sore back.
“She’s the boss,” he said with a warm smile as his hand slid across her back and settled on her hip, and before she could start freaking out, he dropped his hand away and gestured towards the back of the house, “and she’s most likely in the kitchen.”
“Lead the way,” she said with a smile as she shoved her trembling hands in her pockets.
With a wink, he did just that, leading the way and giving her a chance to…
Well, since she had no idea what she was supposed to say or do, she settled for following him, promising herself that she’d figure this whole thing out later. Telling herself that everything was going to be fine, because apparently she was still lying to herself, she followed him as he walked into the kitchen and-
Slammed into his back when he suddenly stopped and that’s when things really got interesting.
“Reese!”
“Shit!”
“Oh, my god!” this one came from Reese as he stumbled back, forcing her to jump out of the way, which gave her a view of an incredibly handsome man, definitely older and definitely Reese’s father judging by the uncanny resemblance, leaning over a woman that she really hoped was his wife, in a desperate attempt to shield her.
Sadly, the attempt only made what they’d just been doing more obvious.
Well, that and the fact that his pants were down around his ankles, he was pressed up tightly against the woman that he had bent over the table and…
Sighs, he had a really nice ass, she noted, shifting her gaze to Reese’s and couldn’t help but wonder if he took after his father. Probably, she thought with a wistful sigh and a tilt of her head, but before she could make a more informed decision, she found herself being herded back out of the kitchen.
“Maybe you should have called first?” she asked with an innocent smile.
“We never speak of this again,” he bit out as he rushed her back down the hallway towards the front door.
“Speak of what? The lovely kitchen table that your father had your mother bent over? Or the special exam that your father was giving her? Are those the things that we’re not supposed to speak of?” she asked, blinking up at the man scowling down at her.
“You’re evil, did you know that?”
Sighing heavily, she nodded solemnly and said, “Yes, yes, I did.”
*-*-*-*
“Do you want the drop cloths?” his father asked.
Still. Fucking. Smiling.
“Yes,” Reese bit out with a glare as he grabbed the stack of drop cloths from his father and placed them next to the large stack of tools that was never going to be able to fit in the back of his truck.
“So,” his father said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels, “what do you need all this equipment for?”
“I took a job to keep busy,” he said, checking the blade of his utility knife before placing it back in his toolbox and moving on to check the rest of the tools in the toolbox.
“What kind of job?” his father asked, picking up the circular saw and looking it over for him while Reese shot a glance towards the kitchen door, wondering how Kasey was holding up with his mother.
“Renovating a kitchen and laying down a new hardwood living room floor,” he said, glancing out the window that overlooked the backyard to make sure that Mikey and Sebastian were okay.
When he spotted them safely sitting in the tree house that he’d built with his brothers, he shifted his attention back to the toolbox that he was packing and added another hammer. For several minutes, they worked in blissful silence until the bastard that had put his dirty hands all over Reese’s mother decided to break the silence.
“Who’s the girl?”
“Which one?” Reese asked, glancing up again to make sure that Mikey was still okay.
His father followed his gaze and chuckled. “Is this the little girl with the killer curveball?” his father asked, letting him know that someone in his family had a big fucking mouth.
Nodding, he said, “That would be the one.”
“She’s a little cutie pie,” his father said with a chuckle as he moved on to check the socket set for him.
“She definitely is,” he agreed with a smile.
“And her mom?” his father asked, shooting him a look that had Reese swallowing back a groan, because he knew that look.
“I have no idea what she is, but I’m doing my best not to scare her off and it’s hard. It’s so fucking hard to hold back with her sometimes,” he admitted with a heavy sigh as he rubbed his hands down his face, starting to regret bringing them here, but the thought of going a day without seeing her hadn’t been a possibility.
One fucking week…
He’d only known her for one fucking week and the idea of going even one day without seeing her was tearing him up inside. He was in over his head on this one, but no matter how many times he told himself that he couldn’t seem to stop himself from thinking about her, wanting to touch her, to hold her, and that was dangerous.
She was-
“Oh, then perhaps one of us should go inside before your mother manages to get out the baby pictures.”
-going to be the death of him, he realized as he shoved past his father and ran towards the kitchen door, praying that he was able to get to her in time.