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“Lack of sleep usually does that to a person.”
“You didn’t sleep last night?”
Was she serious? He’d slept six inches away from her. With a hard on that could have cut through the Hope diamond.
“I caught a few winks here and there.”
“Funny, I slept like the dead.” She pointed to the rooftop. “What do you think was up there today that made everyone think it was a ghost?”
“I thought we already went over that. There was nothing there. How did Mimi and Zeke take the news on Claire?”
She looked uncomfortable by his change of topic. “I’d rather not talk about that right now.”
He wanted to challenge her, but decided against it. Avoidance had always been Allie’s way of coping. Who was he to try to change her? Not that he’d want to. As infuriating as she could be sometimes, she was damn near perfect in almost every way. He’d forgotten that about her.
“What do you want to talk about instead?” he asked.
She began rolling a pebble with the toe of her sneaker. Back and forth. Like she was nervous. “How about you tell me what was so important that you couldn’t go to your son’s soccer practice?”
“What if I told you I was on a date? Would you be jealous?”
Her gaze collided with his. Bright and hot. “Absolutely not.”
“Liar.”
Her face fell. He watched in fascination as she tried to regroup her emotions. “You’re right,” she admitted. “I was jealous. Happy now?”
Fuck, yeah, he was happy. Happy enough that maybe he’d take a chance on telling her where he’d really gone. On the other hand, she’d probably think he was pathetic. “You want to know where I was tonight? I drove over to Panama City.”
“Is this where you tell me all about your big date? ‘Cause that might be kind of weird.” She laughed, but it sounded hollow. He didn’t want to play games with her. He wanted to tell her everything. That ever since she hit town he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. That seeing her again was like ripping open an old scab and that he was slowly bleeding to death and she was the only one who could staunch the flow.
“I had to go to Panama City to get some supplies to patch up a window for the parish hall in Dad’s church.” It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the entire truth, either.
*~*~*
Hold on. That made absolutely no sense. “What’s wrong with the Ace Hardware here in town?” she said.
“Absolutely nothing.” He smiled. Slow and lazy, as if he knew her better than anyone else. And in some ways, that was probably true.
Her skin felt tight, like it was ready to explode.
She didn’t love him. But she did want him. Even more than she had at eighteen. Enough with the sly flirtation and the innuendos and all the other bull. It was time to get down to the nitty gritty.
“You know what? I don’t care where you went tonight. Here’s the thing. I was thinking maybe we should have sex. Just once. To get it over with.”
His smile disappeared. Weren’t expecting that, were you, Tom Donalan?
“Because I think there’s a little bit of sexual tension going on that’s probably interfering with our partnership and—”
“Good idea.” He grabbed her hand and began pulling her toward the front door of the building. She dug in her heels but he was like a freight train, full steam ahead with no stopping him.
“Wait! I didn’t mean right now this instant.”
He let go of her hand and reached inside his jeans to produce a key that he slid inside the padlock. “What’s wrong with now?”
She glanced down at her oversized sweatshirt. This wasn’t how she wanted to look the first (and probably the only time) she and Tom made love. There was that Ben and Jerry’s fantasy, after all—the one where she looked unbelievably gorgeous and was utterly in control. Nothing could be further from that right now. “Because I’m a hot mess!”
“Is that a description? Or a promise?” Before she
