CHAPTER 8
It was hot. Not just normal hot like it got at home in New York in the summer, but beastly, sauna kind of hot. It felt like she’d stuck her head in a pizza oven.
Nicki let out a breath, but even her own breathing seemed to raise the temperature.
She leaned against a fence in the shade and wiped the back of her hand over her forehead, ignoring the fact she’d probably just left a lovely dirt streak there.
“How you doing?” The deep sultry voice came from behind her.
Speaking of hot . . .
His hotness didn’t overshadow that Jack had managed to sneak up without her hearing him once again. It was like the guy walked on air.
“It’s hot,” she complained, not in the mood to hide her discomfort and pretend she was happy with the climate in the south.
Jack laughed. “Oh, darlin’, by the calendar it’s not even summer yet. What’re you going to do then?”
“Die. Or get a job in the frozen-food section of the grocery store in town.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I can’t let you do that. Jared would kill me if I let you quit over a little heat.”
“A little heat?” She glared at him for that understatement.
Though he didn’t look uncomfortably warm at all. Thin blood, she decided, from living here his entire life.
He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Come on. I know how to cool you off.”
She dug in her feet but lost the battle as he pulled her along behind him. “Wait. Where are we going?”
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. She did. Over the last few days, they’d settled on a kind of unspoken truce. He’d stopped with the questions, and she’d stopped avoiding him. But since this heat wave had hit overnight, she honestly was too hot to move.
“You’ll see.”
“Is it far?”
He shot her a glance. “No. And don’t look so miserable. You’re not going to melt from the heat. I promise.”
They crossed the field beneath the brutally hot sun until they were beneath a stand of pine trees. She was happy to be in the shade again and even happier when they broke out through the trees and she spotted Jack’s destination.
He stopped in front of a big, beautiful and, most important, cool-looking pond shaded by a giant willow tree.
She took another step forward. “It’s like heaven.”
He smiled down at her. “And it’s fed by an underground spring, so it’s always cold.”
That information nearly sent her running into the water fully clothed. She wouldn’t do that but taking off her boots, hiking up her jeans, and wading in far enough to get her feet wet was definitely an option.
She’d just turned to thank him when she noticed Jack stripping off his shirt while kicking off his own boots.
“I don’t have a suit,” she said.
He grinned. “Neither do I, but don’t worry. We’re not formal around here.”
Her eyes widened. “You don’t mean . . .”
Surely he didn’t intend to jump in naked. Did he?
He paused with his hand on the top button of his jeans and looked at her. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been skinny dipping before?”
“Okay, I won’t tell you.” She kicked at the dirt and tried not to notice the muscles of his bare chest. Swallowing hard, she forced her gaze back up to his face.
He paused, then bent and retrieved his discarded shirt and boots. “Okay. I’ll give you some privacy.” He turned back toward the way they’d come when she put one hand on his arm and stopped him.
The sun glinted off the sheen of sweat on his face proving he wasn’t as immune to the heat as she’d thought. It wouldn’t be fair to make him leave. He was just as uncomfortable as she was, and it was his family’s pond.
“No. You don’t have to leave.” She hesitated, then asked. “So, you do this a lot? Skinny dip?”
He cocked his head to the side. “I was swimming in this pond naked before I could walk.”
“With girls?”
“Yup.” He shrugged. “Just another rite of passage. It’s really not a big deal around here. Now going to the local drive-in for a first date with a girl—that’s a big deal.”
She looked toward the water and could practically feel it against her skin, cooling her right down to the core. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
He smiled. “Good for you, darlin’. You really haven’t lived ’til you’ve jumped into a cool pond on a hot day.”
She kicked off her rubber mucking boots that made her sweaty feet feel as if she’d stepped in a swamp and paused with her hands on her jeans’ button.
Jack pulled his pants off. While she stood frozen in shock, he stood in nothing but his boxers.
“Um, Jack?”
He raised a brow. “Yeah?”
“You are a gentleman, aren’t you?”
He laughed, a sound that started deep in his chest and kind of bubbled out. “Darlin’, I’m southern.”
With that he pulled off the boxers and she got quite a view of his white ass cheeks as he ran for the pond. With a whoop, he dove in head first, naked as the day he was born.
She couldn’t help but be jealous of the sheer abandon of the move as he swam, smooth as an eel under the water.
Hoping there were no actual eels in there she stripped naked and dove in herself while he wasn’t looking.
Nicki broke the surface and shook the wet hair out of her eyes. “This is amazing.”
He swam circles around her. “Told you so. When are you gonna start trusting me, darlin’?”
She treaded water and spun to follow his motion as he moved slowly around her. “I do trust you.”
Her words had come out softly but he’d obviously heard them. He stopped swimming and just bobbed. “You do?”
Uh, oh. When had this gotten serious? “Of course. You’ve never given me reason not to. Your entire family has taken me in as one of their own. Why wouldn’t I trust you?”
He looked like he wanted to say something more, but instead he just shrugged and starting swimming around her again.
“Um, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“How do we dry off so we can get dressed again?”
Tight jeans and wet skin did not mix well.
He stopped swimming and grinned. “Sunshine, darlin’. Sunshine.”
“Oh.” She’d been afraid that might be his answer.