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“What, Kyle?” Laney shook her head. “He’s got family stuff today. I am going to see him tomorrow, though. Keep that under your hat, okay?”
Evie smirked.
“What?”
“I’m not sure it’s going to be a secret for long. Kyle’s downstairs in the kitchen having coffee with Mom.”
“EVIE!” She spun around in a circle, looking for something that she couldn’t remember all of a sudden, then gave up and glared at her sister. “I’m going downstairs. You. Be. Good.”
“Always, always,” Evie said, chuckling under her breath.
Laney managed to slow her pace, if not her heart rate, as she went downstairs and she strolled into the kitchen with relative calm. “Hey, you.” She looked back and forth between Kyle and her mom. “You are…here. Having coffee. That’s nice.”
Kyle smiled. “Yep. Just being neighbourly.”
Claire stood up to make room for Laney at the table, but Kyle waved her down.
“Actually, Claire, I was hoping that Laney might go for a quick walk with me.”
All three Calhoun women nodded, each in a different way, and Laney kicked her sister in the shin for no good reason other than they were sisters and she was off-kilter. Evie giggled and instead of kicking her back, gave her a gentle shove toward the door. She slid into her boots, pulled on her parka and followed Kyle outside.
“I like your hat.” Kyle flicked the furry white brim. “Festive.”
Laney stared at him. “What are you doing here? I mean, thank you. But what are you doing here? This really isn’t a good idea.”
Kyle shrugged. “I didn’t think it would be that big a deal. I’m just heading home to change. I spent the night at my parents’ place, but there are twelve people competing for the shower, so this is easier. And it was a good excuse to bring you a present.” He leaned in close to whisper in her ear. “Because I really, really liked your present, and you deserve something in return.”
She had started the slow burn of arousal the second Evie told her Kyle was downstairs, but that brush of hot breath against her ear sent her up in flames. She sucked in a breath, mindful that they were still in view of the kitchen windows. He pulled her toward his truck, and she had to skip to keep up. Excited in more ways than one, she pressed her hip into his as they stopped next to the driver’s side door.
“Down, girl,” Kyle murmured.
“You don’t understand what you do to me.” She groaned into his shoulder. “It has literally been years since I’ve been this turned on, and I only have a couple of days to take advantage of it. This is a bonus that I wasn’t counting on.”
Kyle turned his back against the truck and tugged Laney hard between his legs. He stared at her for a beat, and then opened and closed his mouth. His beautiful mouth, that could go from an open, happy grin to hungry, restless kissing in the blink of an eye. But he wasn’t leaning in to kiss her, and he wasn’t grinning. He raked his eyes over her face, a tiny twitch in his jaw the only betrayal of an otherwise neutral facade. She had no idea what he was feeling, or thinking, and she hoped that this wasn’t about to get heavy. Hot and heavy, on the other hand, would be just fine.
“I was going to give you your present and a quick kiss and be on my way,” Kyle said, drawing out each word with deliberate calm. “But when you say things like that, when you remind me that the next time that we’re together might be the last time, then I can’t help but want to drag you off to a dark corner. You make me lose my mind, Laney.”
She let a happy smile creep across her face. She didn’t need to play the seductress, or any other game. They wanted each other with honest abandon, and neither of them would fight it.
“Want to go make out in the barn?”
Kyle lowered his face to hers, rubbing their noses together. “Abso-fucking-lutely. But first—” he opened the truck door and grabbed a slightly crumbled, probably re-used, glittery red gift bag. “This is for you.”
She reached inside and pulled out a familiar well-worn t-shirt. “Your swim team shirt?”
“You used to like sleeping in it.”
She nodded, remembering. “It looks exactly the same.”
Kyle returned the shirt to the gift bag and stashed it in the truck, then captured her hand in his, pulling Laney toward the barn. “I haven’t worn it since we broke up. I actually tucked it away in a box, which has lived at my parents’ place for a while now. I was thinking about you last night, and decided it might be a fitting Christmas present.”
Appreciation fluttered through Laney’s lower belly, softening the tug of arousal into something infinitely more dangerous. She needed to be careful that they didn’t conflate whatever they were doing now with what they used to have. She knew that Kyle didn’t mean for that shirt to be a Trojan horse, and she understood why he would think it was the most appropriate gift—it was free, and sexy in a not-trying-too-hard kind of way. And he didn’t need to get her anything at all, but now that he had, it felt right. Dangerous, but right.
“You’re thinking hard about something.” Kyle pulled her close.
She shook her head. “Nothing important, don’t worry. Thank you, for the shirt, and the visit. And the last few days. You are...you are just so easy to like. How did I forget that about you?”
“It’s been a long time.” Kyle shrugged. “Don’t overthink it. This is just us having fun, right?”
