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They walked back in the house together where Jill headed off for a restless night's sleep. Her dreams that night were heated and racy, filled with a grown-up version of the boy next door, doing more than watching her as she lay by the swimming pool.
Chapter Four
Andrew poured his coffee and walked over to the window to see how much snow had stuck to the ground the night before. He scratched his face as he went. He was sleeping in later while on leave from the office and had let the scruff on his chin grow.
The snow had just dusted the ground and was already melting away in the mid-morning sun. Andrew was treated to another sight that was more welcoming than snow.
Jill Walsh was back in her grandparents’ backyard. He watched as she stretched up toward a tree limb. She hung what looked like a saltlick in a small metal frame mounted on the tree. Jill’s dog ran in circles around her as she walked across the huge backyard toward another tree. Andrew could make out one of the metal frames on that tree as well.
He laughed to himself as he watched her. Most people thought of the deer as pests that ate the flowers and shrubs. Jill was encouraging them to come visit her.
What the hell? Might as well go say hey to pretty Jillie Walsh.
He drew a pair of threadbare jeans up over his hips and tossed a well-worn Yale sweatshirt over his t-shirt. Shoved his feet into a pair of duck boots and trotted downstairs without bothering to tie the laces of the boots. His grandmother’s yard connected with the Walsh’s by a fence in the main areas, but toward the back, where the yards became more wooded, the fence ended and the two yards were open to one another. Andrew trotted around the back end of the fence and headed toward Jill.
Before he reached her, he was greeted by Jill’s dog, who ran up to Andrew as if the two of them were old friends. The dog jumped up with both paws on Andrew’s chest to land kisses on his face.
“Hey, boy,” Andrew said. He buried his hands in the curly fur to give the dog a good scratch before heading toward Jill.
Jill was headed back toward the house so Andrew called out to her as he fell into an easy jog. “Jill! Welcome back.”
He watched as she turned toward him and squinted against the glare of the morning sun. She hesitated before returning his greeting. The dog ran back and forth between Jill and Andrew, bouncing as if he couldn’t wait for them to meet up in the middle.
“Andrew? Wow, is that really you?”
“Yeah. I heard you were back in town. Saw you out here and thought I’d say hi before breakfast,” Andrew explained as he approached her.
Jill let out a laugh. “Breakfast? It’s almost ten thirty. You’re just having breakfast?”
Andrew shrugged. “I’ve been sleeping in lately.”
He had no problem getting up at six o’clock on days he went to the office, but easily reverted to sleeping later on weekends and vacations when he felt like it.
Jill tilted her head and studied him. “You’re living at your grandmother’s?”
“Uh, just for a while,” he said vaguely, not sure if Nora would want him to mention her hip. Nora was proud and might not want everyone to know how much help she needed right now. “I’m taking a leave of absence from work for a while.”
“Um, I was just going to make some hot chocolate.” She gestured over her shoulder toward the house. “Do you want some?”
“Sure.”
Andrew eyed Jill sideways as they walked toward the house together. He couldn’t believe how incredible she looked with her cheeks all red from the cold and her hair tangled up around the collar of her coat. Andrew was dying to see what she looked like when all the layers of winter clothing were stripped off.
Most of the women he dated wore ridiculously tiny coats and gloves made for fashion, not warmth. Jill was bundled up in an old, bulky ski jacket and still looked better than any of those women.
She had very little makeup on, but her eyes sparkled and Andrew found he couldn’t look away from them as the two of them talked. Jill Walsh still had the same appeal, and he still responded. More so now as a man who’d experienced women than he had as a fifteen-year-old boy with only his imagination to fuel him.
He shook off his thoughts. She was his grandmother’s neighbor and Andrew knew his grandmother was still friends with Jill’s grandparents. In his book, that meant she was off limits. He didn’t date women that close to home.
Jill opened the door and stomped the snow off her boots. He watched with interest as she stripped off her coat and crossed to the stove to turn on a burner. Yup. Incredible body, just like he figured. Damn, what a waste. Why did the woman who was so strictly off limits have to be so damn gorgeous?
“Nora said you’re a photographer now,” Andrew’s voice was husky. He tried to control his response and pulled his boots off before grabbing a stool at the kitchen island.
“Mmm hmm. It started out as mostly a hobby but now I’m trying to make it work fulltime.”
“What do you photograph? Do you do portraits and things or...?” His voice trailed off and his gaze moved to Jill’s slender fingers as she added marshmallows to a mug of steaming hot chocolate and handed it to him.
How the hell can fingers be sexy?
