Grace kicked her foot in the pool, splashing him with water. “Hey!”
That’s when Erin emerged from around the corner wearing a sheer cover-up that tried to hide the bathing suit underneath. It failed. It was a black one-piece. The kind models wore for magazines that weren’t labeled Playboy.
His mouth watered.
Those long legs peeked through, and even though he couldn’t see all of her, his body knew she was there. All the right parts of him took notice.
Behind him, Parker handed over a drink. “Don’t stare.”
Shit!
“Thanks.” He took a gulp of the drink and instantly winced. The ice rushed to his brain and froze off sections he hoped he never had to use in his life. He closed his eyes and forced down a few choice words.
“Slow down there.”
He shook the cold from his head.
“You okay?”
Erin’s voice was as smooth as whiskey and as comforting as a warm breeze on a summer night.
“I drank it too fast.” He opened his eyes to find her standing in front of him.
His brain short-circuited any and all cognitive thought.
“It’s in the sinuses.”
“What?”
“Here.”
He watched as she placed her thumb between his eyes and started to rub. She had the most mesmerizing blue eyes with long eyelashes.
“Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth.”
There were places he wanted to press his tongue, but his own mouth wasn’t one of them.
He enjoyed the feel of her touch, even if it was only one digit on one place that wasn’t remotely sexual.
“Better?”
“Almost,” he lied just to keep her there a little longer.
“What’s going on here?”
Matt heard his brother’s voice before his words registered.
“Matt has a brain freeze. Erin’s doing some kind of Vulcan mind trap, and this little dude is hitting on me,” Grace explained from the shallow end of the pool.
There was a solid ten seconds before his brother responded. During that time, Erin moved her touch away.
“Go for it, Austin.”
“For fuck’s sake . . . Parker, help me out here!” Grace cried.
“Austin,” Parker laughed. “Knock it off.”
“Thank you.”
Matt fist-bumped his brother in light of Grace’s unease.
“You do realize that Parker is my sister, not my mother, and I don’t have to do what she says.”
“That’s debatable,” Parker said.
“And I’m eighteen. So I’m legal.” Matt almost lost it when Austin ran a hand down his puffed-up chest, which was nothing more than a smattering of underdeveloped muscles that would need two hours of gym time a day to impress his sister.
“Quite the selling point there,” Erin said. “But do you even know if Grace is into guys?”
Grace pointed her drink in Erin’s direction. “Yes, exactly right. I like women, Austin. Sorry.”
Matt started laughing and caught Erin hiding a grin.
Austin rolled his eyes in good humor. “Yeah, yeah . . . okay. But if you change your mind, I could use an older, wiser woman to teach me a few things.”
“News flash, kid . . . no woman wants to be described as older and wiser,” Matt said as a free tip.
“I already used beautiful and sexy, and that didn’t work.”
Grace pushed up from the side of the pool. “I need more alcohol for this.”
Austin grabbed a pool noodle to float on, his eyes fixed on Grace.
Matt shook his head.
“Are you going in?” Colin asked him.
“Did you bring a pair of trunks?”
Colin pointed to a chair where he’d placed a couple of towels and the swim shorts.
Matt grabbed them and then looked at Erin. “Mind if I change in your place?” It was closer than walking all the way up to the main house. And besides, there was something about changing in her personal space that put a spring in his step. Even if she wasn’t there. He realized that might have sounded a little warped, but in his own mind, he figured he was safe.
“Go ahead.”
He walked around the pool and down the short walkway to her front door. He’d been in, out, around, and even on top of the house all day, but walking in and closing himself in her bathroom to change made him feel just about as desperate as Austin was acting in the pool.
The bathroom was full of the usual chick stuff. Lotions and potions women thought they needed but not one man could identify. Considering he could count on one hand the number of toiletries he had at any given time, he thought the entire cosmetic world and how they reached into every woman’s purse and pulled out handfuls of money was this side of brilliant.
Kinda made him wish he had extra money for stock options.
He forced himself not to open her medicine cabinet and pry and instead removed his clothes and pulled on his brother’s trunks. They were a little tight, but not enough to embarrass him. Matt folded his clothes and left them on the side of her bathtub. He’d have to change before leaving so he didn’t see the point in taking his clothes back outside.
He used the bathroom since he was there and made sure to lower the lid just like his mother taught him. Although in his own home, and at the fire station, lid lowering wasn’t needed. He gave himself kudos before exiting her space.
Colin had joined Austin in the pool, and the women were sitting under the patio enjoying the shade.
“How’s the water?” he asked his brother in an effort to draw Erin’s attention his way. She had her back to him talking to Parker and Grace.
“Perfect. Especially after working in the heat all day.”
Matt walked around the pool and over to his drink. He moved to the middle of the women and took his glass. “You ladies going in?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Grace said.
Erin finally turned his way. Her eyes landed on his chest and locked into place.
“I will.” Parker’s words hardly registered.
Erin was staring. Maybe the woman wasn’t completely unaffected by his presence.
He pretended not to notice and turned to the side much like a peacock showing a female another angle to consider. He sipped his drink, turned, and put it down right in front of Erin. Her gaze jolted to his face as if she had been caught doing something wrong.
“What about you, Erin?”
“Excuse me?”
“The pool? Are you going in?”
“Yes . . . wait, no.”
Was this her speechless? He liked it.
“Maybe.”
He would take the maybe and run with it . . . later. For now, he’d give her a little distance and something to watch.
He walked over to the edge of the pool and dove in.
The rush of cool water tapped his hormones down a notch and invigorated his body as he stretched out in the water. He popped his head out with a shake.
“I know where I’m spending the rest of my summer,” he announced.
“Great. Be sure to come on Sunday mornings when it needs to be cleaned,” Austin teased.
He glanced over and met Erin’s eyes.
When he smiled, she looked away.
“Deal.”
CHAPTER FIVE
She was tipsy.
Maybe even a tad drunk. And that was almost unheard of. The last time she felt her head buzz was on New Year’s Eve when she’d said a little too much to Parker about her past. Erin never relaxed around testosterone-filled humans. That she was doing just that with two-and-a-half men present—Austin didn’t feel like a full-fledged, card-carrying man quite yet—surprised her.
Dusk had fallen, dinner was only a memory . . . yet the margaritas were still being sipped and the fire pit was smoldering.
And she was tipsy.
She put her drink down and reached for a bottle of water.
Grace was sharing st
ories about her childhood to everyone’s enjoyment. “Our parents wouldn’t allow us to have computers in our bedrooms for the longest time.”
“That’s your fault,” Matt pointed out.
“One hundred percent,” Colin agreed.
“Why?” Parker asked.
The grin that split Grace’s lips spoke volumes. “You tell the story better than I do,” she told Matt.
“Colin was going into high school, I was in junior high, and Perv here was in what? Fifth grade?”
“I don’t remember,” Grace said.
Erin smiled, loving the family interaction.
“Colin finally convinced Mom and Dad to allow a computer in his room.”
“Up until then we were forced to use a central computer that our parents could police,” Colin added.
Matt groaned. “It sucked. Anyway, Colin was gone . . . don’t remember where, and Grace and I went into his room to watch YouTube or something.”
“Only that’s not what we ended up watching,” Grace said.
“Am I telling the story, or not?” Matt teased.
Erin laughed.
“Go ahead.” Grace sat back.
“So we click on YouTube and Gracie starts talking about a better YouTube she heard about at school. And now that our parents weren’t over our shoulders, we should check it out.” Matt glanced at Erin.
“There’s a better YouTube?” Erin asked.
“Debatable. So Grace here types in RedTube, presses enter, and our minds were blown.”
Austin immediately started laughing.
Parker and Erin just looked at each other.
“What’s RedTube?” Parker asked.
Grace sat back. “I don’t feel so bad anymore.”
“Porn,” Matt pointed out. “It’s an online porn site.”
“In my defense I hadn’t even had the conversation with my mother when this happened. I didn’t know an adult YouTube meant naked people.” Grace was all smiles.
Erin sat forward in her chair. “So what did you guys do?”
“We watched it. For a good twenty minutes.”
“Until Mom walked in,” Grace said.
Colin lifted Parker’s hand. “You should hear Mom tell this story.”
“Was she horrified?”
Matt shook his head. “First thing out of her mouth was directed at me. ‘Matthew, what are you showing your sister?’”
“Asshat pointed his finger my way so fast my head spun.” Grace nudged his foot with hers.
“I threw Grace under the bus, put the bus in reverse, and backed over her again. She didn’t see it coming. Screw chivalry. Besides, I knew Mom would go easy on her and I’d be banned from the internet for life.”
Erin found herself laughing and completely relaxed. “What was the punishment?”
“An entire dinner conversation about sex.”
“That sounds painful,” Parker said with a moan.
“To hear Mom tell it, she was dying of laughter the whole time. Her favorite memory of that night was when I asked why a woman would want to put a dick in her mouth.”
Erin’s head fell back and her shoulders shook with laughter. “Oh my God, that’s hysterical.”
Parker was cry-laughing right along with her.
“What did your dad say to all this?”
“All he added was one word . . .” Matt looked at Grace and they both said it together. “Foreplay.”
That had Erin laughing even harder.
Grace yawned. “You have to admit, from that day on if we had any questions . . . and I do mean any, Mom and Dad gave it to us straight up.”
“I guess that’s why you’re such a close family,” Parker said.
Erin felt her giggles fading and memories of her own family push in. Not the dark hole she wanted to think about after she’d been drinking. When Grace yawned again, Erin took the cue to suggest cleaning up. “We should probably put this stuff away.”
Parker scooted forward and stood. “It is getting late.”
Everyone mobilized at that point in a group effort to make quick work of the mess they’d created with their impromptu barbeque and pool party.
“We’ve got this,” Colin told her. “Matt still needs to show you how to use your new alarm system.”
“Oh, that’s right.” And just like that, her nerves returned. Erin pulled the cover-up closer together and turned toward Matt. “You said it was easy, right?”
“Yup. I’ll show you . . .” He walked the path to her front door and opened the screen for her. Apparently the chivalry that he denied his sister in junior high wasn’t gone now.
She turned the main lights on in her living room and kitchen.
The brighter it became, the less her nerves danced on her skin.
“I control it from this, right?” She pointed to a portable monitor that looked like a typical tablet.
“Yes, and the app you downloaded on your phone earlier.” He walked toward the larger monitor in the kitchen, and she followed. Matt pressed a button and the screen showed the two camera angles outside her space. One was at the front door; the other showed a wider angle taking in all but the very back of the house. “I’ve set this as your home screen so you can see what’s going on outside at any given time. If Scout runs by and makes the emergency lighting go on, you can check it out here before opening your door.”
He scooted a little closer and tapped the screen again. “If you press one image, it fills the screen so you can see a bigger image. Press it twice, it goes back to the double images.” He then ran through the motions of showing her how to set the alarm for when she left and disengage when she returned home. The night settings were what she was really looking forward to. The alarm would be set so if anyone tried to sneak in while she slept, it would scream and the authorities would be called. Maybe she could sleep without having to be exhausted.
“Show me how the phone works.”
Twenty minutes later she’d fiddled with both monitors, setting and resetting the system until she felt like she had the hang of it.
She stared at her phone and smiled when she saw the image the camera at her door displayed. “I can’t tell you what this means to me.”
Matt leaned against the kitchen counter, his grin spread wide. “You’re welcome.”
She paused, realized she hadn’t said thank you yet.
Erin reached out and said, “Thank you.”
His eyes drifted to where she’d touched him. The tips of her fingers were on his forearm. How they’d landed there she couldn’t say.
“You were flirting with him!”
“I wasn’t. I wouldn’t.”
“You were all over him.”
“I tripped on the carpet. All he did was keep me from falling.” Her voice trembled. The look on his face told her whatever she said wasn’t sinking in.
He took a step closer. Her feet didn’t move. She knew she couldn’t retreat or his punishment would be worse. She couldn’t swallow, couldn’t breathe.
“Who is going to catch you now?”
Erin closed her eyes and flinched.
“You’re okay. Put your head between your legs.” Matt’s soothing voice was beside her. Her vision cleared and she was sitting on one of the two stools that lived under the kitchen counter. Matt’s hand was on her back gently pushing her head down. “Just breathe.”
The beat of her heart was keeping time with a speed-metal band from the eighties. Her stomach sat in her throat, and she didn’t have any feeling in her fingertips.
And she was cold.
So cold.
She placed both hands over her face and pulled in a few more gulps of air to try and calm her nerves. “I’m sorry,” she managed as she slowly sat up.
“It’s okay.”
It was far from okay. “I’m sorry,” she said again. A habit she had still yet to break. Repeated apologies never stopped the fists from flying. But without them, it was always worse.
“It happens.” Matt kne
lt in front of her so she had to look down to see his face. Compassion, understanding, and a whole lot of concern laced the piercing look in his eyes.
“I’m—”
He lifted a finger in the air. “No more apologies. I’ll get you some water.”
She opened her mouth to stop him, but he was already up and walking to her sink. Erin took the few moments she had while Matt opened a couple of cupboards to locate a glass and fill it with tap water.
Slow breath in . . . slow breath out.
Memories, or maybe she should call them flashbacks, slammed on her like the one she’d just had and dropped her to her knees so often that even driving was sometimes dangerous. This was the second time this had happened in front of Matt. The first, Parker had told him she had a blood sugar issue.
Matt walked around the counter and pressed the glass in her hand. “Here.” She was surprised to see his fingers trembling nearly as much as hers.
“Thank you.” She took a sip. “Maybe I should have some orange juice.”
Matt knelt a second time, his eyes found hers and held. “Sugar isn’t going to help.”
She opened her mouth to argue.
He tilted his strong chin to the side as if he were telling her he was onto her lie. “Feeling better?” he asked.
“I can feel my fingers again.”
She looked down at his clenched hands. When she did, he flexed his fingers and rubbed them on his knees. “Did I do something to bring that on?”
“What? No.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure what happened. Maybe it was the margaritas.”
Matt stood and put some distance between them. He wasn’t buying her excuses. With a wide berth, he reached for her phone and handed it to her. “I need to show you one more thing.”
Once she unlocked her phone, she handed it back.
He swiped here, pressed in something there, and returned it to her. It was on a contact screen where Matt had typed in his number. “Any questions, call me. If anything is bothering you, call me. If you’re worried, scared, or if what just happened to you happens again and you need company . . . call me.”
“Matt . . . I—”
“Call me.”
Her throat felt thick.
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