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Of all the fucking times for Mrs. S to call!Disappointment lanced through Brock. He’d gotten so close…
“Grandma!” Summer said into her phone. She sounded breathless. “Uh, how are you? Are you home yet?”
Brock’s eyes never left her face. She was flushed, and her lips were swollen in the most enticing way. He pictured them wrapped around his stiff, aching cock, and groaned softly.
“Oh, that’s great!” Summer was saying. “I’m so glad! And you’re feeling better?”
There followed a minute or two of Summer repeatedly saying “Mm-hmm,” then, “Are yousureyou’re up to it, so soon after your surgery?”
Another pause while she listened. Her brows went up in surprise at something her grandma said.
“Um, okay, sure, I’ll ask him. He’s right here—we’re, uh, at the diner. Discussing some ideas.” Summer’s blush darkened a shade or two. It was fucking adorable. She glanced up at him. “Grandma Abigail wants to know if you’d like to have dinner with us at the ranch tonight. Six p.m.? Dad’s making his famous bison and blue cheese burgers.”
“Sure, that would be great,” Brock replied. “Can I bring anything?”
Dinner with Summer and her family sounded more appealing than going home to his cottage and eating dinner while watching tonight’s baseball game.
And if he played his cards right, maybe he’d get to kiss her again at the end of the evening.
“Oh, you heard that?” Summer said into the phone. “Yes, I’ll tell him. I’ll be leaving the diner in a few minutes—see you soon, Grandma.”
She ended the call, and looked at him wryly. “Grandma said to just bring yourself.”
Brock nodded, but decided that he’d cut another bouquet of roses from his garden when he went home to shower and change before dinner. Mama had taught him never to show up empty-handed to a dinner invitation. Plus, he wanted to keep making a good impression on Summer’s folks.
“You know that Grandma and everyone else are going to be expecting a report on our diner project, right?” Summer asked.
“I figured.” He grinned down at her. “We can tell them that the espresso maker is a ‘go.’”
Chapter Eleven – Summer
Snowberry Springs Ranch
Wednesday, June 15
It had been two hours and seven minutes since that incredible, earth-shattering kiss, and Summer still felt the imprint of Brock’s mouth against hers. Her chin still tingled with the tender scrape of his stubble. And her core still throbbed with unsatisfied need.
Kissing Brock wassucha bad idea, she told herself, touching her lips.He’s already broken your heart once. Are you going to let him do it again?
She’d driven back to the ranch in a daze, wondering what the heck had just happened. One minute, they’d been sparring over her proposed changes for the menu. He’d frustrated the hell out of her with his stubborn, defensive refusal to consider anything new for the diner.
And then he’d defended her against Kenny’s accusations before kissing her into a frenzy of need.
The past few days had been a confusing seesaw between the same Brock the Jerk she remembered from their high school days a decade ago, and the gallant man who drove her to the hospital after she was stranded at his diner, and who made her laugh with his outrageous double-entendres.
In a daze, she helped Mom peel and cut potatoes into home fries. Then she harvested lettuce and the season’s first tomatoes from the garden.
Now it was nearly six p.m. and Summer was up in her old bedroom in the ranch house’s second story, trying to decide what to wear. Should she go with her usual cut-off jeans shorts and tank top, or something a little nicer? And should she unbraid her hair and wear it loose?
She dithered until she heard the crunching of gravel under tires drift through the open window.
Brock’s here, and I’m still in my underwear. Crap!
She grabbed for her shorts, tank top, and a cute floral button-up blouse and scrambled to get dressed. No need to attract comments from her family by dressing up for Brock. And it was too late to do anything about her hair.
It’s not like I’m embarrassed about kissing Brock, she told herself.
But she wasn’t sure what to make of it, either. Was he finally interested in dating her? Or had the kiss just been a one-off thing, a way of blowing off stress after the tense encounter with Kenny?
