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Probably.
But that didn’t stop Holly’s curiosity. Besides, just because he asked didn’t mean she was compelled to answer.
“I guess so.”
“Earlier, after we finished dinner, you clearly withdrew into your thoughts. Yet when I asked where you’d gone, you blew me off as if you were only zoning out.”
“Because I was.” She wasn’t lying. She had zoned out, getting lost in the land of what might have been if the two of them had made different choices all those years ago. But they hadn’t, so what was the point of rehashing what could never be changed? “Exhaustion can do that to a person.”
“I suppose.”
The expression on his handsome face said otherwise. Therefore, a diversionary tactic was needed. One look at the mess surrounding them was all it took. “I should probably start cleaning all this up.”
“Leave it,” Chace insisted. “I can take care of it after I drop the girls off at school in the morning.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.” She flexed her toes, hoping to ease the ache that always settled in her arch.
“Why doesn’t it? I’ll be here all day by myself while you’re working. How fair is it for me to sit around here doing nothing while you’re off educating our youth?”
He made a valid point. The last thing Holly wanted to do after a full day of teaching was to come home to tackle this mess in addition to meeting the twins’ needs and taking care of her everyday after-work responsibilities. “Okay. If you insist.”
“I do.” Chace dropped his feet to the floor and pushed himself to a sitting position. “Now, come here.” He waved her toward him.
Holly narrowed her gaze. “Excuse me?”
Rolling his eyes, Chace slid onto the middle cushion and pulled her legs onto his lap. “You’ve been rubbing your feet and toes since you sat down.”
“I have not.” She attempted to yank her legs back.
Undeterred, Chace held tight. “Yes. You have.” He circled her arch with one of his big, strong hands. “Just sit back and relax,” he ordered softly before applying pressure with his thumb down the center of one foot and then the other.
And dammit, that one gesture was almost orgasmic.
Holly stifled the whimper threatening to escape the confines of her throat. She leaned back against the arm of the sofa and closed her eyes as Chace’s fingers worked their magic on her painfully tight muscles and tendons. Stroking, tapping, and kneading, the reflexology techniques he’d picked up while stationed in Japan, he worked to loosen the knots, alleviate the tension, and soothe the unrelenting ache in both her feet and calves.
Lord, how she’d missed this. Missed him. Not just his massage expertise, but every damned thing about him.
How he sent tingles through her belly, and lower, with just one look. The electric warmth of his touch, no matter how innocent or deliberate. How he could obliterate the world around them with only a kiss. And the way his tender yet explosive lovemaking always sent her soaring into the stratosphere.
When they were together, Holly had experiencedeverythingwith an intensity that was beyond measure. Chace brought her to life. Made her feel beautiful, desirable, and loved to the point no other man ever stood a chance.
Even after all these years.
“Do you still get those awful charley horses?” Chace asked, sliding his hand under the cuff of her jeans and running his cupped hand along the underside of her calf from ankle to knee.
Holly nodded. “Especially when we first go back. Standing on those concrete floors all day makes my legs and hips ache worse every year.”
Chace pulled on her heel to stretch her Achilles’ tendon, and again, it took every ounce of strength Holly possessed to keep from whimpering in ecstasy.
“Do you still enjoy teaching?”
“Most days.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “No, that’s not totally accurate because, in all honesty, I still loveteaching. It’s all the other bureaucratic bullshit that gets in the way of actually teaching that I can do without.”
“Sounds like almost every job in the world.” He pressed this thumb into the ball of her foot.
“Yeah, but in our case, we often have people that have never been in a classroom making educational decisions. Or if they have, it’s been so long ago they have no idea what’s going on now.”
Chace switched to her other leg to continue his glorious ministrations. “I imagine things didn’t get any better teaching in a pandemic.”
