Page 34 of Blue Jean Summer

Doors slammed, and Lewis appeared like Bloody fucking Mary. He took one look at the two of us, drew the simplest and most logical conclusion as to what we had been up to, and sneered in disgust as he cut through the first floor to the front door.

“Lewis, I’m making dinner for everyone tonight. You’re welcome to join. Seven o’clock,” Hallie called after him.

That made him stop in his tracks. “Well,” he sniffed. “That’s more like it. I’ll take my dinner on the patio.”

Hallie cocked her hip. “You can take it family style with the rest of us, or you can grab leftovers from the fridge.”

Lewis huffed and groaned. When Hallie didn’t budge, he departed the house with one final slamming door.

Hallie turned her attention back to us. “Well, I think the sight of you two was effective. I hope y’all enjoyed yourselves.”

Catherine pursed her lips to try to hide her guilty smile.

I hid mine with a shake of my head as I pivoted toward the study. “I’ll see you at dinner, fiancée.”

Chapter 10

Catherine

I wasn’t a morning person by nature, but I had been wide-awake ever since I heard Hayes moving around on his side of the east wing around four in the morning. I tried to chalk up the inability to fall back asleep to being in a new place, in a new bed, with new sounds and shadows, but I knew that wasn’t the case.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

About the way he kissed me like he was trying to steal my breath. The way his hands roamed my body. The way we fit each other like a lock and key.

It had just been first-night jitters. It would get better. I’d be able to fall asleep without thinking of him on his side of the wall. Unbuttoning his shirt…Taking off his slacks…Is he a boxers or briefs kind of man? I’d be able to fall asleep without fantasizing about whatever it was he did to blow off steam.

We would find our new normal. It was like moving in with a new roommate. Things were always awkward in the beginning.

I tiptoed down the stairs, desperate for a hit of caffeine before I went into town with Hallie. The moment my foot hit the bottom step, Hayes slipped out of the study. I froze like I had been caught sneaking out.

“Morning,” he said as he closed the study doors behind him. It was just after nine, but he had been up working for hours.

“Hi,” I squeaked as I debated whether to go back up to my room or not. Hayes had been nothing but welcoming. He was familiar and safe.

Still, we could both admit this was fucking weird and it annoyed me that he looked completely nonplussed, while I was spiraling inside.

He turned his back to me, grabbed the coffeepot, and topped off his mug.

Hot damn…I had never been into the corporate type, but Hayes wore slacks the way cowboys rocked a tight pair of faded blue jeans. His dress shirt was pressed and fitted, but not overly tight. It showed off every inch of his delightfully broad shoulders, then tapered down to narrow hips.

“You okay?”

I blinked and found Hayes standing in front of me. He took a slow sip from the mug that sported Honey Hollow High’s mascot, the Fighting Bee.

I cleared my throat. “Uh-huh.”

He didn’t buy it. Hayes glanced left and right, making sure we were alone. “Having second thoughts?”

Waking up in one of the opulent rooms of the sprawling estate house, then looking at my phone to find emails reminding me that I had to make payments on the loans I had taken out was a reality check.

Even if I started a new job today, it wouldn’t give me the same financial stability as Hayes’s offer to marry him. I was desperate, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew a good offer when I saw one, but I knew there were always strings. Always consequences. Always risks. And I had a feeling the biggest risk was the invisible string that seemed to tether us together after all these years.

I tried to swallow my nerves away, and he clocked it.

“Cath…”

Gravel crunched outside as a car rolled down the lane and came to a stop, but Hayes never looked away. The front door groaned as someone pulled it open.