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Ellen began to stir, waking Hendrix before his alarm went off, but he didn’t mind. He needed to be up early. It was Friday. He had one more workday ahead of him before the weekend and had to get a lot done. He still had to make up for all the hours he’d lost earlier in the week helping Ellen.
Besides, despite the passion and bravado he’d been feeling last night, he wasn’t eager for someone to spot his truck in Ellen’s drive, notice it’d been there all night and report it to Lynn and Stuart. If he left before the sun came up, maybe he could get away with having spent the night here. Relations with his aunt and uncle were strained enough as it was. The fact that Lynn had made the trek to Ellen’s house to deliver such a nasty note was proof she wasn’t going to let the Haslem thing go. Now that he wasn’t feeling the rush of euphoria and relief he’d experienced when Ellen came running out to stop him from leaving, he understood it would be best to work through a few things first. There was a lot on the line—they needed to be as smart as possible so they could successfully navigate whatever was coming.
“You’re awake?” Ellen yawned as he reached over to pull her tighter against him.
“I am. But I don’t want to get up. I wish I could stay in bed with you all day.”
“Last night was...” Her voice drifted off as if she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—finish that sentence.
“Good?” he suggested. Fortunately, he’d remembered to buy more condoms yesterday, because he’d definitely needed them.
“Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before,” she admitted.
“Does that scare you?”
“Doesn’t it scareyou?” she asked.
“If you weren’t smashed up against me, totally naked, it would.”
They both chuckled as she began to use her finger to draw an imaginary design on his chest. “What are we going to do? I don’t want to get you in trouble with Lynn and Stuart, and yet... I don’t want to give you up, either.”
Ellen was showing more trust than he’d expected her to have—and that gave him hope they might be able to hang on to each other and somehow make a relationship out of what they felt. At least she wasn’t telling him sex with him was only about pleasure, she didn’t really care about him and all the other stuff she’d tried to say before.
“It doesn’t make any sense to me that they’d try to keep us apart,” he said.
“And yet you know they will. Lynn, for sure.”
“For now, let’s just...keep things on the down-low as much as possible. I don’t mean we have to sneak around—” he felt she deserved more than that after what she’d been through “—but let’s not make any grand announcements until we can work through the Haslem well problem. It’ll be easier for me to approach my aunt about you if she doesn’t have anything else she can blame you for.” And waiting until then might give him and Ellen a chance to become more confident in what they felt and what they wanted from each other before the relationship could be targeted by those who’d like to see it destroyed.
As she slid her leg over his, he moved his hand up her bare thigh to curve around her firm ass. “Okay,” she said. “But...what if we can’t get anywhere with that? What do we do then?”
“It’s got to be Rocko,” he said, thoroughly convinced. “He’s the one who made up all that bullshit about the motorcycle accident, and I bet he did it to get you into a fight with Lynn and Stuart—and probably with me, as well.”
“I’ve been thinking it has to be him, too. Maribeth made him sound a little obsessive. Said her mother caught him stalking her. Maybe, since he’s turned his attention on me, he’s been watchingmyhouse and has seen you come over—”
“Or heard from Charlie, or someone Charlie told, that I helped you drill the Haslem well.”
“And thought he’d put a stop to anything that might be developing between us.”
Hendrix breathed deeply, taking in the appealing scent of her warm skin. “That sounds plausible. Except... Rocko doesn’t seem smart enough to come up with such a diabolical plan.”
“He’s not very self-aware,” she agreed, “but he’s been quite successful with his business. He must be smarter than he seems.”
While he was still skeptical, Hendrix couldn’t think of any other explanation. “Maybe. But how do we prove it was him so that everyone who’s involved can relax, and Lynn will put her guard back down?”
Ellen leaned on her elbows. “Has her guardeverbeen down when it comes to me?”
“You know what I mean,” he said, tucking a strand of her short hair behind her ear. “If she’d go so far as to come to your house to confront you, this situation with the well has brought all her animosity to the forefront.”
Ellen lowered her head and began pressing her lips against his neck. “I don’t know.” She kissed his jaw. “Without a witness or something—” another kiss—this one on the lips “—how can we prove it was him?”
Catching her face, he brought her mouth back to his for a longer, lingering kiss. “I’m hoping we’ll get lucky. Otherwise, my aunt will keep going after you until everyone believes you sabotaged the well and blamed her.”
“She can’t really believeI’dsabotage the well...”
“She believes you’d do anything to make her look bad. Probably because she deserves it,” he added as an afterthought.
Ellen seemed slightly surprised by his last statement. He was surprised himself. He owed Lynn his appreciation and respect. But the more he got to know and care about Ellen, the more torn he began to feel.
