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I cross the room, and he grabs my hips and pulls me into his lap. I would be more mad at him if it wasn’t so hard to ignore the fact that his hands almost meet around my waist. And it’s kind of making me want him to pick me up and use me like a toy like he did earlier when I was on top.

“Good,” he says. “Go call your mom and tell her.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

JAMIE

I sit on the couch and watch the storm, the faint sound of Serena on the phone coming from the bedroom.

I know I said one more night, but I really want two more days. Then she can go home, and I’ll consider this resolved. For the next forty-eight hours, I won’t think about driving her to the airport.

Crash.

The floor shudders. I get up and go to the window. This is my favorite season, when the wind whips up over the water. It suffocates the rest of the world and holds it at bay. It would be even better if the storm would take out my phone signal. Then, I’d have a perfect excuse to block everything out, and I don’t get yelled at as badly when it’s over because signal outage is something that makes sense to clients.

Personal time…they’re far less forgiving.

Her feet pad on the floor. I turn, watching her tap her phone into her palm.

“What’d she say?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I mean…I’m a grown-ass adult. She can’t make me come home.”

“But she disapproves?”

“No, not really.”

That surprises me. My only experience with her family is Bill, her gruff, closed-off father who didn’t seem to like my presence on the ranch as well as I thought he might. He was good friends with my father before he passed. But that might have changed as his daughters got older. From what Coen’s said, he’s pretty damn protective over the girls. It would probably send him into cardiac arrest if he knew Serena was in Maine with me instead of with her mother.

Doesn’t matter. She’s right—she’s a grown woman.

“Alright,” I say. “Then get your ass back in the bed. Time’s wasting.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SERENA

My heart pounds. My finger hovers over the contact in my phone. I’m at the kitchen counter, and Jamie is dead asleep in the bedroom. The storm has died out, and the sky is clear now.

I need some advice.

Swallowing, I hit my sister’s name. It rings a couple times, then she picks up. It sounds like she’s in the middle of making dinner, which would make sense. It’s late here, and she’s a few hours behind, I think. I’m not good with time zones, honestly. They confuse me more than analog clocks and figuring out which way is north without a map. Clearly Dad’s Boy Scout ways never wore off on me.

“Hey,” Sabrina says. “How’s Mom?”

“She’s good.” I turn in a circle, brushing my hair back. “So I am not actually there right now. But I was…and she’s good. But I am…not there now.”

I hear something shuffle, then it’s clear she takes the phone off speaker. Footsteps patter up the stairs.

“Where are you? You in trouble?”

“Nope, I’m good,” I say, cringing. “Okay, I need to tell you something, but please don’t be mad.”

“I won’t.” Her bedroom door clicks shut.

“So last year, when Jamie and Coen came back to the ranch after your road trip to Nashville. I kind of…hooked up with Jamie,” I force out.

“Oh God.”