Page 39 of Dandelion Sighs

Landon held his hands up, but he fought for his life and failed to keep a smirk off his face. “Sorry,” he whispered, and Sheridan’s hand twitched where it rested on my stomach.

I tightened my hold around her shoulder. I would be stiffer than a two-by-four getting out of bed after sleeping for too many hours like this. Worth it.

Now I had to get this kid out of the room before I sported an inconvenient erection and before Sheridan woke up horrified to have gotten busted. We had talked about her parents and what she wanted to do at the beach. Then she’d said she was tired, but I’d only just finished my drinks. I might’ve nursed them so we could’ve talked longer. And I would’ve been fine to drive home long before she fell asleep, but I was a man of safety. Especially when my efforts got me a night with Sheridan in my arms.

I held up my hand, fingers spread, then made a fist and spread my fingers again. I mouthed Meet me in ten. I had to do it three more times before Landon finally nodded. He backed to the door, snickered, then left. The door slammed shut. Damn.

Sheridan popped her head up, her eyes as bleary as mine must’ve been. She squinted at the room, a frown playing along her lips. The side of her face was creased from my shirt, but nothing about it detracted from her sexiness.

Her eyes flared and she pushed away from me. “Oh god, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She peered out the still-open window. The birds almost got louder as if to highlight that we had slept together until morning. “What time is it?”

She twisted to look for the clock.

“It’s only seven.” My side was cold without her. “Landon must be getting to work.”

Horror dawned across her pretty features. “Oh no. I can’t be caught in bed with you.”

Ouch. I understood, but that didn’t help my pride, nor did it diminish the guilt of not telling her that he’d busted us or I would’ve continued slumbering a lot longer with her. “You can sneak out the side door. No one will know that you aren’t just walking to work.”

“Yeah. Right.” She didn’t move, frozen in place, her eyes wild.

I put my hands behind my head. If I didn’t act panicked, would it calm her? “Nothing happened. We fell asleep talking.”

She wrung her hands together. “Right. Nothing happened. I can’t drink around you anymore.”

Ouch again. Didn’t that make me sound like a predator? “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a bad influence.”

“It’s not that, and it’s not you. I’m just not usually so…” Her gaze stroked over the bed and my outstretched legs. “Sleepy.”

I chuckled, feeling a little better at her reassurance. “We talked until two in the morning.”

“I’m not usually so chatty either.”

I’d take that as a compliment. “Maybe you just needed to be around more people who’d listen.”

She blinked several times, and her pink lips turned into a frown. “I never thought of it that way. My best friend and I used to talk all hours of the night, but then she met Will in college after I dropped out, and he got all her hours.”

And she probably thought that was what she got for dropping out. A little freedom to find something that worked for her, minus a friendship she needed. “So when we go to the beach on Sunday, you can feel free to ask about anything and everything.”

Awareness played over her face. The beach. Was she going to try to get out of it now that we were back in work hours and she was afraid to be caught alone in a guest room with me?

“Sunday.” She rubbed her eyes. “About that.”

I tensed, waiting for the letdown. I wasn’t going to beg her. She regretted drinking too much around me, and she did not want to be here now. Both times had been unintentional, but from the way she was frozen yet primed to run, her brain didn’t know that. I refused to be the guy who made her feel uncomfortable about herself.

She slowly inhaled and dropped her hands. Her expression was set with determination. “What time?”

Chapter Twelve

Sheridan

It was Sunday morning, and my head continued to spin about how I had started the weekend. First, I had brought a six-pack to Jasper’s room. No, it hadn’t been his bedroom, and it hadn’t been a guest room that was in use, but it was a room with a bed, and we’d been in it together.

Waking up against that unyielding yet comforting body of his…I exhaled a wistful sigh. A girl could get used to that. What would it have been like under the covers—naked?

I gave myself a shake and continued digging through a box. I found one of my favorite wax melts—fresh linen in sunshine—and set it on the table. The warmer wasn’t a picture. It didn’t require me taking down one of Mom’s frames only to replace it with something of mine. Something that would look out of place where Mom’s orderly things once were.

Emotion clogged my chest, and I let the wave of grief roll through me. Tears welled and spilled and repeated. Then I blew out a breath and wiped my eyes. Okay. What next? Jasper was picking me up to go to the beach soon.