Page 12 of The Other Room

He’s a liar. A cheater. A traitor.

Nope. Jake may have found it in his big, softie of a heart to forgive Matt for his transgression, but I wasn’t going to let it slide. The cut ran too deep. The damage too extreme. Stiffening against his charm, I lifted my chin. “Whatever you think is best, but keep in mind I can’t afford a whole lot of extravagant upgrades. Just the basics.”

“You don’t need to pay me a penny for labor, and since I’m footing the property taxes, you’ll have extra money to put into upgrades. See? Having me move in is the best thing that can happen to you!” His wide grin stretched across his unarguably handsome face, and I had to fight extra hard not to grin back at him. That same magnetic smile had sent me swooning when I was a young girl with a crush the size of Texas.

“Now, what about the roof?” He marched past me like a man on a mission and pushed his way out the rickety old screen door. “That needs some work, too,” he noted as it wobbled on its old hinges.

I followed him out onto the small porch that wrapped around the back of the cabin and overlooked the bay.

“Jo. I still can’t believe you scored property on the Sister Bay waterfront. This is amazing.” He stopped, leaning his weight onto the railing while he stretched his gaze out to the water lapping at the rocky beach beneath us.

“Yeah. It’s pretty incredible waking up to this every morning and going to sleep listening to the waves just outside my window every night.”

“I bet I can put on my waders and fish right out the back door.” Turning toward me, his smile grew. “Incredible.”

“Yeah, it is.” I stepped to his side, pressing my elbows into the wood while I took a breath and let the view and the sound of the waves calm me from the staggering shock that still lingered inside me over his arrival. When I pressed my weight into it, the railing creaked, the old wood buckling and giving way. I shrieked as I went with it, scrambling to stop myself from going over the edge and tumbling ten feet to the rocks below. Matt snagged me around the waist, pulling me into his arms and away from the ledge.

“Holy shit! Are you okay, Jo?” he asked, swiping a hand through my hair.

The gentle touch and the concern brewing in his eyes shook me to the core. The way his arm held me tight against his chest sent feelings through my body that were anything but anger.

Safe.

He made me feel safe, just like he had when we were kids. And teenagers. And even adults. Like the way he would toss handsy guys out of the bar when they went too far with me. It was that safety in his presence I’d lost when he’d betrayed Jake. That trust. He’d stolen that from me, and I missed it. I missed the feeling of having complete faith in him, complete faith that he was the kind of stand-up guy you could rely on no matter what.

Yet here I was, plucked from the clutches of danger and suspended in his embrace. Memories assaulted me in waves. It felt like the same embrace of the Matt who’d caught me before I fell off the back of the four-wheeler when we were fifteen. The same arms that had carried me back from the rock quarry when I’d sprained my ankle chasing him around in a game of tag on my eleventh birthday. The same hands that had pressed into the exact same spot on my lower back when he’d spun me around the dance floor at prom after Jimmy Hayes had stood me up. It was Matt who had appeared at my house like a savior after he heard the news Jimmy had ditched me for Lacy. When I’d opened the door, he’d stood there grinning and holding a corsage he’d made from wildflowers he’d picked on his drive over to rescue me from high school humiliation.

While I pressed up against him and his arms tightened around me, for a moment I forgot the hurt and the anger still raging inside me. For a moment, time stood still, and I was with that Matt again.

“Yeah. I, um, I’m fine.” I forced myself out of his grip, struggling to suppress the emotions the brief encounter unleashed inside me. “Wow. I almost fell.”

“Add a new railing to my list of house projects.” Blowing out a breath, he scrubbed a hand down his face. “You seriously almost went over.”

Peering over the now exposed edge of my porch down to the remnants of the railing scattered about the rocks below, I shook my head. “That was close.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

His hand settled on my shoulder, heat still searing through my robe and I nodded. “Yeah. Thanks for the save.”

“See? You’re lucky I’m moving in. If I hadn’t been here when that happened, we’d be scraping you out of the stones!”

Turning back to catch his grin caused me to cringe. Staying mad at Matt was hard enough when I could avoid him, which was exactly what I’d done the past year. Staying mad at Matt when he could assault me with his charm every hour of the day was going to prove more difficult than keeping up with all those drink orders last night.

Petunia’s hoarse meow shook me back to my senses, and we both turned to see her standing in the doorway.

“What the hell is that?” Matt breathed, scrunching his brow.

“My cat. Petunia.”

“That is not a cat.” He jutted a finger at her, and she growled. Matt stepped back and cast a sideways glance in my direction. “That is a gremlin. A hideous, terrifying gremlin.”

“She’s just cranky because I haven’t given her breakfast yet. Well, actually, who am I kidding? She’s always cranky.”

“Why does it look like that?” He choked on his laughter. “What’s wrong with it?”

I looked down at Petunia who only glared back up at me. Admittedly, she wasn’t the most affectionate cat in the world, and certainly not the most beautiful, but her odd looks had grown on me. “Petunia here has had a rough life.” I stepped back into the house and grabbed the bag of cat food. “When I moved in here a few months ago, she was living under the porch. Over a few weeks, I coaxed her out with food and eventually she started to come near me.” When I poured the food in her dish, she trotted over and started eating.

“Where are its ears?” Matt covered his mouth, but it didn’t hide the smile he fought to suppress.