Her blue eyes shone brighter. “I like that. HAFA. It even has a cheery ring to it. That’s perfect.” She tapped his chest and said, “Good in the bedroom and in business. If you could bottle yourself up, you could make millions.”
Already there, sweetheart.
Jett watched the shadows dancing around them as he listened to the storm battering the windows and the crackling of the fire. When he’d gone outside to check on the theater, he felt again that he’d been there before, and he still couldn’t shake that feeling.
“I think I must have come to see a play here when I was younger,” he said. “It feels familiar.” The weird thing was, she felt familiar, too.
She yawned again and murmured, “I hope you did. I’d like to think he touched your life, too.”
He did. He brought me you. He gritted his teeth against the strange thought, absently stroking her back as he wrestled with it.
He’d been thinking and doing weird shit all evening, like rescheduling his flight, not checking his phone while they were together, and getting annoyed when he’d received calls. Although Tia had sounded equally annoyed with him when he’d asked her to reschedule his flight after she’d had to pull strings to get him on it in the first place. But he’d wanted to be here with Tegan, to help her with her business, with any damage the storm might cause, and fuck him sideways because he also wanted this. To be close with the woman who had made him happy for the first time in forever. But he wanted to understand why she had this hold on him. It wasn’t just the sex, though their chemistry was off the charts. She was intellectually and emotionally stimulating, and she was fun. Her sense of humor and smart-ass comments made hours pass like minutes.
Why was such a beautiful, adventuresome woman still single? And why the hell had she agreed to this FWB thing with him of all people?
He opened his mouth to ask, but she was fast asleep.
On the floor beside them, her phone lit up, and a bubble appeared with the name Jack Jock and beneath it the message How’s my stubborn girl? Call me.
Fuck.
He closed his eyes, telling himself to let it go.
But her words of wonder about love lingered in his mind.
She deserved to find a man who could give her the type of love her uncle had found.
Jett knew he wasn’t that guy. Maybe Jack Jock was…
He gritted his teeth, holding her a little tighter.
Fuck it. It had been a hell of a couple days. He deserved a little sunshine before diving back into the work grind. He closed his eyes, but he wasn’t fooling himself.
He knew he was just too damn selfish to walk away.
Chapter Eleven
TOASTY WARM IN her cocoon of blankets, Tegan awoke to the creak of the hardwood floors and the scent of Jett’s cologne on the pillow. Delicious memories of last night rolled in. They’d laughed and lusted, satiating their every desire. She’d never laughed during sex before, but it was easy to be herself with Jett, and maybe that was because they didn’t have those strings that often got too tangled and had to be cut free. Or maybe, just maybe, their connection went deeper than either of them realized.
She listened for the sounds of the storm, but it was Jett’s hushed voice that caught her attention. He was pacing in the hall just outside the living room where she lay in front of the smoldering fire.
“I know I’m not around that much, but I’m here now. If you need anything, you can count on me.”
Tegan rolled onto her stomach, peering around the sofa at Jett standing at the entrance to the living room with his back to her, wearing only his boxer briefs. And boy did he wear them well. She wondered if he was talking to Dean or his parents.
“Aw, come on,” he said playfully. “You know you’re my one and only.”
Tegan’s eyes widened. So much for Dean or family. She narrowed her eyes, sure she had smoke billowing out her ears. Being friends with benefits and seeing other people was one thing. Making sexy promises to some other woman while standing in her house after having a night of incredibly hot sex was another! And it was definitely not okay. She sat up, holding the blanket to her chest, and debated clearing her throat to let him know she was onto him.
He chuckled into the phone as he turned, catching her eavesdropping. He winked and lifted his chin, mouthing, Good morning. “I’ve got to run, Grandma. I love you, too. Try to behave yourself.”
Grandma?
Relief and embarrassment intertwined. She warmed all over knowing he was up early checking on his grandmother. He ended the call and came to her side.
“Morning, gorgeous.” He dropped to his knees, his clear blue eyes coasting over her face.
“You’re so sweet, calling your grandma.” She felt foolish for thinking he’d be sleazy enough to have been on the phone with another woman.
“She lives at LOCAL. I wanted to be sure she was okay, which she is.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Chloe works there. Does she know her?”
“Yes. My grandmother knows everyone. She’s feisty. You know those jokes about old ladies pushing their Life Alert necklaces just to get hot paramedics to come see them?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if my grandma Rose and her rowdy friends owned Life Alert necklaces, they’d not only push the buttons, but they’d probably bribe an electrician to rig up video cameras so they could catch the paramedics’ asses on their way out the door.”
“Oh my gosh. She sounds like a riot.”
“She’s pretty cool.” He leaned down, kissing her softly. “It’s raining out, but I think the worst of the storm has passed. The power is back on here, but thousands of people are still without, and there’s a lot of storm damage up and down the Cape.”
“Oh no.” She reached for her phone and scrolled through texts from Jock, Chloe, and Harper, breathing a sigh of relief that Chloe and Harper were safe. “Have you talked to anyone? Chloe and Harper are fine. But what about Daphne and Hadley, and everyone at Bayside and Summer House?” Jett was looking at her phone with a serious expression. “Jett?”
He cleared his throat and shook his head, as if he were lost in thought. “Sorry. I spoke to Dean about an hour ago. Everyone there is safe. Daphne’s apartment and the office have some water damage, but they’re on top of it. She and Hadley are going to stay in one of the cottages, and the guys are helping her move. But we haven’t been able to reach our parents. Dean and I both got fast busy signals when we called. I’m not too worried. It’s probably issues with the lines. But I’m going to head down to Hyannis after we take a look outside to make sure there’s no damage to your property.”
She dropped the blanket and pulled on the shirt he’d worn last night. “I didn’t hear any other crashes, so hopefully the theater’s fine. Let’s take a quick look and then we can get out of here and make sure your parents are okay.”
“Tegs, you don’t have to go with me.”
“Are you kidding? What if you need an extra pair of hands? I’m not about to pretend that I didn’t see you tense up when I mentioned your dad yesterday. Come on. We need to shower and we’re wasting time.” She tugged him up to his feet and headed for the stairs. “We should bring water bottles in case they need it.”
“Tegan,” he warned, stopping her midstride. “My father’s not exactly easy to deal with.”
“I didn’t think it was going to be a picnic in the park. That’s why I’m going, as a buffer.” She strutted back to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the stairs. “Geez, don’t you know me by now? I love a good adventure.”
“You have no idea what it’ll be like,” he said flatly. “I have no idea what he’ll be like.”
“And you have no idea how good I am at softening situations. Remember how uptight you were at the café, Armani? And look at us now. Trust me.”
“Nobody disarms my father. He’s a pediatric neurosurgeon with an ego to match his expertise.”
“Wanna bet?” she said as they climbed the stairs. “Maybe all
he needs is to lose the clothes that strangle him, too.”
“You are not going to get my father out of his clothes.” He smacked her ass, and she yelped, rushing up the stairs.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said through her laughter as he caught her around the waist and tackled her on the bed. She smiled up at him despite the tension riddling his body. “I don’t want to sleep with him! Geez! I’m not a tag-team FWB or a homewrecker! I just think there are lots of ways to ease tension, and sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference, like having a friend to distract him from that scowl on your face.”
“How do you know I’ll scowl at him?”
“Because the few times he’s come up you’ve gone from sexy Robert Downey Jr. to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now, get a move on. We have a lot to do!” She wiggled out from beneath him and strutted toward the bathroom, stripping off her shirt and tossing it over her shoulder. “And we both know how we are in the shower…”
THEY WERE QUICKER in the shower than they’d been yesterday, but they didn’t pass up the chance to let their hands and mouths wander. When they finally left the house, the rain was trickling and the wind had diminished considerably. They hurried through the yard, stepping over branches and around puddles. Tegan was glad to see that the old stone amphitheater was unharmed. As they headed back to the SUV, her phone rang with a FaceTime call from her mother.
“My mother is addicted to FaceTime. Do you mind if I take it really quick?”
He opened the passenger door for her and said, “No. Want me to wait out here?”
“In the rain? No. Get in.” She answered the call as Jett climbed into the driver’s seat. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I can’t talk too long. I’m on my way out.”
“We just had to see your face, to be sure you were okay,” her mother said. “The storm looked so horrible on the news, and the aftermath…”
“I’m fine. I promise. It’s just raining now, and there’s no damage to the property. But I’m going with my friend to check on his parents, so I have to run.”
“Okay, princess,” her father said. “Be careful, and we’ll see you in a few weeks.”
“I can’t wait! Love you!” After she ended the call, she said, “Sorry. They worry.”
Jett started the engine and said, “You’re really close to them.”
“Yeah. They’re coming up for the opening of the children’s program, Memorial Day weekend.”
“Sorry I’ll miss that,” he said. “I’d like to come for the opening of the adult program, to see all of your hard work come to fruition.”
She tried not to make too much of that and said, “Thanks. It’s the first Monday in August. But if you can’t make it, it’s totally fine.”
Jett drove down the long private road, maneuvering around the enormous pothole that had caused Tegan’s car to land in the ditch, and said, “You need to get these potholes fixed.”
“It’s on my list. They aren’t usually this bad.”
“They should be nonexistent on a gravel driveway. We can talk to Justin’s father, Rob Wicked, about fixing the foundation under the gravel to keep that from happening again.”
“His father does roadwork? I thought he did home renovations.”
“On the Cape, everyone does everything,” he said as he pulled onto the main road, heading toward town.
Jett turned on the news reports, which told of downed trees, flash floods, and dune collapses on the oceanside. The roof had been ripped off a motel near Hyannis, and they thought it might be days before electricity was restored across the Cape.
“Check that out.” Jett pointed up ahead to a tree blocking a driveway. An older couple stood under umbrellas, looking perplexed. Jett slowed the truck. “We should help.”
“Definitely,” she said as he pulled over. “But what about getting to your parents?”
“We’ll get there. If anything awful had happened, the hospital or the police would have gotten in touch with me or Dean.” They pulled on their hoods and climbed from the truck. As they approached the couple, Jett said, “Looks like you could use some help.”
The portly gray-haired man held up a trembling hand and said, “Can’t manage my chain saw like I used to.”
“I used to be pretty good with them. It’s been a while, but I’m sure I’ll be fine.” Jett offered his hand and the man shook it. “I’m Jett, and this is Tegan.”
“Jett?” the man said brusquely. “That your real name, son?”
“Larry,” the tall woman chided him. She turned apologetic eyes to them and said, “I’m Greta. Please excuse my husband.”
“It’s okay. I get that a lot,” Jett said. “I was named after my father’s best friend, who was killed while serving our country. His real name was Jethro. He was a pilot, and everyone called him Jet, with one T. My mother didn’t like the name Jethro, so they added a T and called me Jett. I think I lucked out.”
“I’ll say.” Larry motioned toward the backyard and said, “Come on out back. We’ll see if we can get the old chain saw up and running.”
Tegan couldn’t imagine Jett as a Jethro, but she wondered what had gone wrong between him and the man who had obviously named his son after someone he loved.
“Why don’t you come inside where it’s warmer, hon,” Greta said.
“Thank you.” Tegan followed her in.
“Do you live around here?” Greta asked.
“Yes. I recently inherited my great-uncle’s property down the road, where the amphitheater is.”
Greta pushed open the kitchen door and said, “Oh, you’re the Tegan, Harvey’s great-niece.”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“Oh, honey, everyone around here knows that Harvey left you the property. We lost a special man when Harvey Fine left us. It was tragic when he lost Adele.”
“Did you know her?” Tegan took off her coat and sat at the table, hoping she did. She hadn’t ever met anyone who’d known Adele.
“Yes, even before she met your uncle. She was a doll, until the accident. I wasn’t sure she’d ever get past that, but your uncle refused to let that tragedy steal her from him. I don’t know how Harvey did it, but he got our sweet Adele back.”
Greta told her stories about the great-aunt she’d never known. She told her what Adele was like as a young woman and how she’d fallen just as hard for Harvey as Harvey had fallen for her.
A little while later, Larry came through the kitchen door, his nose red from the cold. “The rain stopped. Tegan, that man of yours is doing a fine job out there.”
Tegan had been so caught up in Greta’s stories, she’d forgotten Jett was working outside. She glanced out the window. Jett was wielding the chain saw like a pro, cutting the tree into pieces. “I should help him move the wood out of the driveway,” she said, putting on her coat. “Greta, thank you for telling me about Adele. I don’t know anyone else who knew her.”
“It was my pleasure. You’re welcome to visit anytime.” She wrote down her number on a piece of paper and gave it to Tegan.
Tegan went outside, and as she and Jett stacked the wood, she told Jett about their conversation.
“That’s great, sunshine. I’m glad you met someone who lives close, too, in case you need anything.”
“That’s sweet, but I’m really fine out here.”
Greta and Larry came outside as they finished stacking the wood and offered to pay them for helping.
“No need,” Jett said.
“I’m a big believer in paying it forward,” Tegan added. “Greta, thank you again for sharing your memories of Adele with me.”
As they drove away, Jett said, “You’re a pay-it-forward person, too?”
“What do you mean, too?”
“Don’t tell me the guy at the gas station pocketed my money instead of paying for your gas.”
“That was you?”
“Who’d you think it was?”
“No one,” she said lightly.
He scowled. “
The guy in the truck?”
She grinned, and he shook his head.
“What?” she said incredulously. “He could have been my soul mate.”
“Women are so weird. How does paying it forward equate to a soul mate?”
“I don’t know. Common interests and beliefs? Thank you, by the way. I appreciated the gesture.”
“You can thank my grandmother. She used to say it wasn’t how much money we had, but how we used it to help others that mattered.”
“What does she say now? Something different?”
“Now she’s too busy getting into trouble and trying to get me to start dating to worry about life lessons.”
“You could try a dating app, like Chloe.”
He gave her a deadpan look. “I don’t need a girlfriend to disappoint.”
“Why would you disappoint her?” she asked as he slowed to a stop behind a row of cars.
The muscles in his jaw bunched, and he nodded toward the policemen directing traffic up ahead. “Looks like it’s going to take a while to get to the highway.” He turned up the radio again, using the news to effectively end their conversation.
She mulled over his comment as they crawled through traffic. He was such a good guy, she couldn’t imagine him disappointing anyone. She gazed out the window as he followed one detour after another. The radio announcer went on about extensive storm damage from Hyannis to Provincetown and listed the locations of emergency shelters.
“My fallen trees are nothing compared to the damage they’re reporting. It sounds like we must have had a guardian angel watching over us.”
“You’re not kidding. Maybe your uncle was looking out for you.”
She liked that thought.
A little while later they passed a small retail center where people were cleaning up debris and gathering branches, putting them through a wood chipper. Tegan saw Joni coming out of a food truck wearing a ladybug raincoat and purple rain boots, carrying a tray of food.
“That’s Joni! Can we stop?”
Jett pulled over, and Tegan climbed from the truck, heading for Joni, who was handing out sandwiches to the people who were working.
Bayside Fantasies (Bayside Summers Book 6) Page 15