When she came up on the room Kate had texted her, Jill paused before knocking on the door. Drilling came from the other side of the wall, and she was certain Kate didn’t even own any power tools. Either that, or her one glass of wine had gone straight to her head.
Jill gave a tentative knock, but the drilling continued, most likely blocking out the sound of her knock.
She pounded harder and yelled, “Kate, seriously, let me in before you hurt someone.”
A moment later, the door swung open, and it was definitely not Kate or Mia in the doorway.
“Jill?” The way the man said her voice, low and deep, it made every muscle in her body clench.
A man stood there, sweat beading at his forehead and slicking down the front of his gray T-shirt. She knew him, yet she couldn’t put her finger on how. Odd, since there was no way she’d forget a guy that hot.
He smiled, and something in the glint of his blue eyes flooded her brain with all her teenage memories, ones of summers by the pool and way too many embarrassing secrets that she’d die if anyone else knew. Sweet Jesus. No way her former next-door neighbor had filled out this much.
“Aaron?”
He gave one quick nod and ran a hand through his damp blond hair. Bless him, he’d grown a good foot since high school, and added on another Aaron in the shoulders department.
“Oh my God, I haven’t seen you in…”
“Eleven years?”
“Yeah.” Ever since he joined the military straight out of high school. He’d shipped off to basic training, and she never saw him again. He’d written to her occasionally at the beginning, but then letters stopped coming by the time he was sent on his first deployment.
He pulled her into a hug, and she did her best not to creepily inhale the scent of sawdust and soap.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. His eyes swept over her, keeping to polite areas.
“My friend sent me the wrong room number.”
“You mean Kate?”
“Yeah…how did you know?” Oh, this didn’t bode well. Not at all.
“I saw her twenty minutes ago.”
Wait a minute… You’ll thank me for this. Kate’s text was making a lot more sense.
“Did you give her this room number?”
“Yeah. She mentioned you’d be here with Mia, and I told her we should all meet up later.” His brows furrowed. “Why?”
That new pair of leggings Kate wanted to borrow? Yeah, so not happening now.
She cleared her throat and looked around the room, which was in serious disarray. “Nothing. So, what are you doing in here, anyway?”
“Doing some modifications to the room.”
She peered around him to the plastic-lined wood floor and dust particles floating in the air. Of all the places. She never expected to run into him again, especially not here.
“Do you…work at the hotel?”
“No, I’m back in town. Just got out of the army and I’m picking up the slack for my dad. Sea Glass Inn contracted his company.” He gave a tight-lipped smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes.
Her mama’s neighbor, Aaron’s dad, had been sick for the past few months. According to the gossip mill—aka her mother—his rheumatoid arthritis was kicking in full-force.
She pointedly kept her gaze nailed to a spot on the floor, definitely not checking out the places where his sweat-soaked shirt clung to his chest. Nope. Wasn’t checking him out whatsoever.
Lying to herself was never her strong suit—same with denying instant gratification when it came to checking out eye candy, for that matter. She took another peek and sucked a quick breath through her teeth. Wow. The army had been very good to Aaron. Very, very good. His Steve Rodgers-esque transformation deserved a standing ovation.
He caught her eye and gave her a knowing look.
Way to be subtle, Jill.
That free wine downstairs was calling her name. At least she could douse her embarrassment with a glass of merlot—right after the ass-chewing she was about to dish out to Kate.
“Well, I’m sorry about interrupting your work. I’ll just be going now. It was nice seeing you.” She turned to the hallway, feeling dumb for not having anything better to say to someone who was once her closest friend.
“Jill?”
She whirled back around. “Yeah.”
He let out a low chuckle, one that made her nipples pucker in response. She crossed her arms over her chest, cursing that her thin excuse for a bra did nothing to hide this. “I’d really like to buy you a drink when I finish up.”
She swallowed hard. The smart thing to do was to politely pass, but before she could do anything sensible, the words, “I’d like that,” came out of her mouth.
He gave her another grin. Something about his mannerisms had changed over the years. He stood taller, his shoulders squared. Confident, she realized. This man in front of her wasn’t the lanky kid who was happier sitting on the sidelines. No, a man like this demanded the attention of anyone in a two-mile radius. “Let me take care of this one thing and then I’ll clean up. I’m staying overnight and was planning on finishing up in the morning. No use heading home in this weather.” He jutted his chin toward the window.
The storm of the decade had moved south. They’d called it the Snowpocalypse in New York. It’d dropped massive amounts of snow in the New England area last week and had been working its way down to South Carolina. The most snow Jill had ever seen in her lifetime was a mere two inches, so tonight they’d probably just get crappy, rainy conditions.
“Okay, sure. Let me just text my friend.”
Jill: FYI, you’re an asshole for giving me the wrong room number.
Kate: I take it you’ve seen Aaron?
Jill: Yes.
Kate: Remember our agreement. And he doesn’t even have neck tats. ;-)
Jill: Screw you. And that’s awfully presumptuous to think he’d be interested, too.
At least she didn’t think that was the case. They’d always been friends, nothing more.
Kate: I will climb that man like a tree if you deem him not your type.
Her first thought was to text: Back off, B. I will shank you. But she refrained because, first off, she could barely stomach squashing bugs. Second, this was her best friend. She also ignored the hot slice of jealousy that zipped up her spine at the thought of Kate scaling Aaron. What a ridiculous reaction. Nobody laid claim to this man, and she’d certainly never thought about him in that way before, so why did it matter?
Jill: You do you, Kate.
Kate: I’ll do someone.
With it, she sent an obscene gif of someone dry humping a chair.
Jill rolled her eyes, but couldn’t fight the smile that twitched at her lips.
Kate: Also, Mia texted she’s here.
Good. Jill felt a little guilty for bailing on her friend, but the mission of the night was to find a guy for her, so this seemed like a solid start.
Jill: Later.
Kate: Get some!
Way to be delusional, Kate. There was no chance in hell she was hooking up with her old neighbor.
“Why don’t you sit down while I finish hammering this frame into the wall?” Aaron motioned to the tufted loveseat in the corner of the room.
Jill nodded, brushed off a few specks of debris, and sat.
“How long are you back in town?” she asked while crossing her legs. The fabric of her dress inched up her thighs, and Aaron quickly looked away as she pulled down the hem. But not before she noted the bob of his throat, the widening of his pupils.
Aaron pulled a nail out from where he’d been holding it between his lips and placed it in the corner of the doorframe. “I’m not sure.” The edge of his shirt lifted, exposing the band of his boxers and a small strip of skin as he hammered the nail into the wood. Jill’s mouth went dry. “Have a job lined up when I return to D.C., but they’re flexible with the start date. So I’m helping Dad for a bit.”
He moved a few inches d
own the frame, and the muscles in his bicep flexed as he banged the next nail into the wall. This was dirty and wrong, and she definitely should not be staring at him like he was a freaking carton of her favorite ice cream.
Of course, at that moment, Aaron turned to face Jill, whose gaze was planted firmly on his ass.
“Nail gun’s out of juice, so had to do it the old-fashioned way.” He jutted his chin to his tool, charging across the room. When Jill didn’t say anything, he cleared his throat and said, “Guess this is good for tonight. Let me just change my shirt and wash up a bit, and I’ll be good to go.”
Jill pulled out her phone because it was a heck of a lot better to pretend she was playing a game on there than to stare at someone taking off his clothes. Okay, who was she kidding, her eyes were about to pop out of her head for how hard they were straining to catch a side glance as Aaron pulled his dusty shirt over his head.
Ridges of muscles formed on his stomach, and his forearms flexed as he rooted around in a black duffel bag and grabbed a fresh black shirt from the bottom. Jill swallowed hard. Holy crap. Was it even legal to have that many defined muscles? He probably needed a concealed-carry license with all that he was packing.
Nope. Not happening. Maybe she’d lost a few brain cells from all the sawdust she’d inhaled, because she would not think about Aaron in that way. She’d been in the room exactly ten seconds and was wise enough not to get all insta-lusty. That was how her daughter Emily had come into existence. She’d seen Jake from across the bar, loved the tattoos on his biceps, ended up in bed with him, and boom, nine months later she was a single mom while he rode out of town, not even sticking around long enough for the epidural to wear off.
Her radar was totally on point when it came to picking guys. Obviously.
Aaron pulled a plaid flannel over his shoulders and made quick work of the buttons. “You haven’t changed a bit since high school.”
“You’ve been inhaling the paint fumes for too long, my friend.”
“You’re just as gorgeous as you were—even more so.” He cleared his throat and added, “And I didn’t paint today.”
Heat ran from her ears to her knees. “Well, thank you.”
“I’m ready to go if you are.”
Jill swallowed hard. Nothing more than two old friends catching up. Right?
Chapter Three
Shit, when Kate had mentioned that Jill was here tonight, he didn’t expect to lose his goddamn mind at the sight of her. Big blue eyes, red lips, and curves for days—he wasn’t lying when he said she was even more gorgeous now.
“What brings you to the Sea Glass Inn?” They both walked out to the elevator, and Aaron kept his hand on the small of her back, her skin smooth and creamy underneath the pads of his fingertips. She wore a low-cut black dress with a cutout across the middle of her back that exposed the two dimples above her shapely ass. She shivered under his touch, and he allowed himself a smile.
They ran in different circles when they were younger, when Aaron was too busy with sports and too chickenshit to ask anyone out. Being painfully shy hadn’t done him any favors. Over the years, he’d rarely made it home for the holidays, mostly because of deployments, but every time he’d visit his dad, Jill always seemed to be out of town. His father kept him updated, though. From what he said, she had a daughter—and a smart one, at that, if she was going to Brighton Prep.
A flush filled Jill’s cheeks as she muttered, “Girls’ weekend.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Mia and Kate—they thought I could use a night out.”
He nodded. The three of them had been inseparable in high school. Didn’t surprise him they were still close.
“They were taking me out this weekend to get my mind off some…stuff. So, we’re doing a singles mixer.”
Aaron’s steps faltered. She needed a pre-planned event to meet men? He had a hard time believing that any guy would pass up the opportunity to talk with Jill, event or not. In fact, it was a minor miracle she was still single.
Who was he to judge? His relationships rarely made it past the thirty-day mark.
“A singles mixer?”
Her face turned an even deeper shade of red. “It’s really not my thing, but the girls persuaded me. It was awful, though.”
“How so?”
“There was a man who didn’t like cheese. Who doesn’t like cheese?” She threw her hands out to the side, revealing a tiny heart tattoo on the inside of her wrist.
“A sociopath.”
“Exactly. And then another guy talked about taxidermy. He stuffed his dog, Buttons. Even showed me pictures on his phone.” She shuddered.
“Sounds like you need a drink.”
She wagged a finger at him. “I didn’t hear an S in that last word. This calls for the plural form.”
“Of course.” Damn, he forgot how she made him laugh. When he’d been shipped off to basic training, he’d kept Jill’s senior photo tucked into his boot. She still had the same smile, same laugh, but she’d grown into one hell of a sexy woman. Who, apparently, needed help dating. Something didn’t add up.
“If this sort of thing isn’t your scene, why are you here? Everything all right?”
All pretense of a smile faded away at his question. “My grandmother passed two weeks ago.”
“Grammy?” Everyone in the neighborhood called her that. She was warm and kind, but scary as shit if you got on her bad side. Their families had done Thanksgiving together one year, and Grammy’s mashed potatoes had yet to be rivaled by anyone. She also told him he needed to sit up straighter, and that he ought to do something with that rat’s nest on his head or else God was going to judge him. A little eccentric, but what southern me-maw wasn’t?
Jill nodded, frowning.
“I’m sorry to hear that. She was one hell of a lady.”
She nodded again. “That she was. Anyway, I could really use that drink.” She glanced at him, taking a long perusal. He liked the way she looked at him.
“Let’s do it, then.” The elevator door opened, and Aaron motioned for her to walk through. His hand pressed to the small of her back as they entered the main lobby area. The way her soft skin felt against his callused hands nearly made his eyes roll back in his head.
“So, what have you been up to for the past decade? I only get the abridged version from my dad.”
“Well, I’ve been busy with Emily. Other than that, nothing has changed. I’m working part-time at an accounting firm, and the other part, clerical work at a radiology center.”
He lifted a brow. “You ever sleep?”
“Isn’t that what coffee’s for?”
He chuckled. “Can’t stand the stuff, but I’ll take your word for it.”
She looked at him with narrow eyes and pursed her lips. “I don’t know if I can accept that drink now.”
“What I lack in coffee-affection, I promise I can make up for in booze and semi-decent conversation.”
“Only semi-decent? That doesn’t exactly help your cause, Collins.”
His chest tightened at the comfort of falling back into old ways with Jill.
“Wouldn’t want to set the bar too high. That way you’ll be pleasantly surprised by my vast knowledge of stimulating topics,” he said.
“Deal.” She pointed a finger at him “But one mention of colonization on the moon and all bets are off.”
He raised a brow. Maybe she’d had a little too much caffeine, because he didn’t know where the hell that came from.
She must have seen the question in his eyes because she added, “That’s what this one guy was talking about before I snuck out of the party.”
“No moon talk, got it.” The guy obviously didn’t know the first thing when it came to date talk. Rule numero uno, always ask the woman questions.
“Trust me, I’m just happy to see a familiar face. Nothing you could say would have me running for cover.”
“In that case, did you know that only fifty-nine percent of the moon
is visible from Earth and I sent my taxidermied moose on the first colonization shuttle there?”
“And I’ll just be going to the ladies’ room and never coming out.” She pulled away from him, bee-lining in the direction of the restrooms.
“Hey, I’m kidding.” Aaron caught her by the arm and gently tugged her to him. Her body fit nicely along his side, her supple curves feeling way too good underneath his palm. Anything to keep his hands on her. It was selfish, but for the next hour or so, she was all his.
“Okay, fine. Almost anything. And did you really taxidermy a moose?”
“Hell, no. That shit’s creepy. My uncle used to have a moose head in the guest bedroom when I was a kid. Scared the crap out of me. You try to sleep when that beady gaze is staring you down.”
She shuddered. “Yeah, that’s enough to give me nightmares for a week. No, thank you.”
“C’mon, let me get you that drink.” They entered the elegant restaurant, and Aaron realized just how underdressed he was. His flannel may have been clean, but it stood out among the sea of ties and crisp button-ups in the room. He hadn’t been expecting to go to the bar tonight—he’d planned on working another hour or so, then crashing.
As soon as the hostess led them to a table in the grand hotel restaurant, Jill slipped her shawl off her shoulders and folded it over the back of her chair. Her tight black dress stopped in the middle of her thighs, hugging every gorgeous curve on her body. Aaron’s mouth went dry.
She let out a husky laugh that went straight to his cock, obviously reading his expression. Looked like he was as good as Jill was at hiding his thoughts.
Over a decade had passed, and she was still as fucking irresistible as she was back then. “I know, I look silly, right?” She smoothed the front of her dress and sat down.
His mama’s thumps across the back of his head when he was a kid reminded him that staring was impolite. But, hell, Aaron’s thoughts were so far past polite, staring was the least of his issues. “Uh, that would be the last word that comes to mind.” In fact, the only thing that ran across Aaron’s mind was how long it’d take for the dress to hit the floor once his fingers found the zipper. Christ, the woman just had a horrible night of dating and lost her grandma.
Falling for the Fake Fiance (Snowpocalypse) Page 2