by Amber Cross
Flicking the button open on his jeans, he slid the zipper down while she watched with anticipation. Slipped his fingers beneath the metal teeth and fisted his erection with one hand while using the other to slide the fabric down. Just enough for her to see the curve of his buttocks but no farther.
“Now you.”
Abby liked this game. Enthusiastically she put her thumbs inside the waistband of her yoga pants and rolled the material down an inch. Two. And stopped. “You’re next.”
His teeth slashed a white grin at her, and his blue eyes sizzled. “Anything for the lady.”
The jeans only made it to his upper thighs before a discordant noise shattered the steamy privacy of her bedroom.
“Shit.” He yanked his jeans up and slid a cell phone from the back pocket.
Abby scooted across the comforter and leaned against the headboard, her arms wrapped around her knees. Hoping the interruption would be brief but not wanting to sit there waiting, exposed. Like the person on the other end of the line could see what she was doing, could invade their privacy just as the call had.
Glen ran his fingers through his hair and turned away from her. This couldn’t be good.
“Shit.”
No. No, no, no! He would only say that a second time if this was the kind of news that meant he had to leave.
The expression on his face when he turned back to her confirmed it even before he spoke. “My daughter is sick.”
Chapter Six
Glen hated leaving Abby unsatisfied. And he couldn’t leave her condo with a hard-on or his kids would have a million questions for him. So he tugged his shirt back on, retrieved her clothes for her, then paced the length of the bedroom to exorcise his frustration and bring his body under control.
“She’s been sick on and off for a few weeks,” he explained, wanting her to know he wouldn’t leave her if he could avoid it. “Doctors are running some tests, but they haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“It’s okay,” she mumbled through the shirt she was pulling on.
“No. It’s not.” This was important to him. When she stood beside the bed, withdrawing in every sense of the word, he closed the distance between them and took her shoulders in his hands, forcing her to look at him. “It’s not.”
“What other choice do you have?”
“None. But this, you and me, isn’t over. Not by a long shot.”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug to indicate it was no big deal. A lie and they both knew it.
“Spend the night with me. With us.”
Her gray-green eyes wide with curiosity, she tilted her head to the side and waited for him to continue. The movement caused her hair to roll in a thick chestnut wave across her shoulder and exposed the side of her neck. A sweet temptation he was unable to resist. Pulling her closer, he bent and kissed the tender skin there. Lightly, so he wouldn’t put himself in the same situation he had just recovered from or tease her unfairly.
“Jason and Sara are having a snowmobiling party. Come with me. Meet the kids.”
Her breathing was soft against his shirtfront and only a little bit unsteady. “Okay.”
All he wanted to do was stay there for the day. The night. It would take several nights to quench his desire for her, and then he would probably still want more. But he forced himself to ease away from her body and walk to the front door. Like a hostess seeing her guest out, she trailed along behind him, but he didn’t face her until his outerwear was on. She looked a little sad, a little dazed, a lot tempting. He wanted more than anything to finish what they started. Instead he took her by the shoulders one more time and kissed her. Hard.
“If Darcy is feeling better, what do you say to a sleepover?”
Confusion pleated the smooth skin of her brow. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I’ll see the kids safely into bed, and then we’ll have a grown-up pajama party. You. Me. Here.”
A slow smile dawned across her pretty features.
“Without the pajamas.”
****
At six o’clock he and the kids stood waiting outside her door. They had been harassing him ever since he said he had a date, trying to guess who it might be, trying to bribe him into giving them more details. He finally told them it was the woman across the hall, but this only encouraged them.
“That doesn’t tell us anything,” Darcy complained, in full health again after an afternoon of soup and rest.
“I’ll bet it’s the lady from the wedding,” Colin guessed.
“Well, you’re a big help. Want to narrow it down for me?”
“You know, the one at his table that he wasn’t looking at when we asked to go for the champagne.”
“Don’t be stupid. If he wasn’t looking at her, how could she be the one?”
“You really don’t know anything about men, do you?” Which was a good thing as far as Glen was concerned.
“Fine. Then I’ll bet you twenty dollars you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Colin’s smile was smug. “Short like a twelve-year-old.” He held his hand up to indicate a height equal to his breastbone. “Thick, reddish-brown hair.” His fingers made fluffing motions around his head and down to his shoulders. “And a body like this.” When he cupped his hands then drew them closer together, indicating ample breasts and a smaller waistline, Glen almost choked. Just when did this kid become so damned observant?
The conversation came to an abrupt halt when Abby opened the door. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation, and her cheeks were as pink as the piping on her black down coat. He wanted to take her in his arms right there in front of the kids.
Instead he introduced her. “Abby, this is my son Colin and my daughter Darcy.” They exchanged greetings. “Ready to go?”
“I’ll get the elevator.” Darcy hurried to the call button. While they waited for the car, she looked Abby over, and he could see her impression was favorable even before she said, “You’re really pretty.”
“Thank you.”
“And I like your doorbell. The music it plays.”
A ping preceded the elevator reaching their floor. When the doors opened with a swish, Glen put a hand to the small of Abby’s back and ushered her inside, mostly because he wanted an excuse to touch her. His daughter watched the movement closely. Colin, on the other hand, was playing Mr. Cool and held the doors open while purposefully not looking at them.
Once inside he nonchalantly said, “I think I saw you at the wedding. You were at Dad’s table, weren’t you?”
“That’s right,” Abby confirmed, surprise in her voice.
“I remember faces.” He hit the button to start their descent. “Especially on pretty women.”
Glen raised his eyebrows at his son, who pretended not to see it. Leaning close to his sister, he stage whispered, “You owe me twenty bucks.”
****
Jason and Sara’s house was on the northeast side of town, just off the road to the quarry where he worked as the manager. It was a few minutes’ drive, and Glen’s kids filled the time with questions for Abby.
“Have you always lived here?” Darcy asked.
“No. I’ve lived in lots of places.”
“Like where?”
“Oh, let’s see. We were in New York when I was little. Then my parents split up and Mom got a job teaching at UVM, so I went back and forth between the city and Burlington for a while.” She loved both places but hated the travel and the uncertainty.
“Like us.”
Did Glen’s kids feel the same pull between two homes that she had? Even though they were closer to him geographically than she had been to her father, there would still be two sets of everything. Two houses, two beds, two pets, two bikes. Everything.
Before she could comment, Colin joined in. “Where else did you live?”
“Well, when Dad had made a name for himself, he only needed to have a gallery in New York, not work there, so he moved to Manchester, Vermont, with his girlfr
iend.”
“Are they still there?”
“He is, but his girlfriend Flo left after my little brother was out of high school. She’s in New York again.”
“So basically your whole family is in Vermont.”
Although she had never thought about it before, Darcy’s comment made her realize they were all Vermonters now with roots in and connections to other places. “I guess we are. At least my immediate family.”
“But the rest live somewhere else?”
“My grandparents on my father’s side live on Andros Island. That’s in the Bahamas. My other grandparents live in Yazoo County, Mississippi. I used to spend my summers between their houses, and I still go to see them all at least once a year.”
“Cool.” From Colin.
Darcy, like the most dogged investigative reporter, wasn’t done yet. “You said you have a little brother. Is he the only one, or do you have brothers and sisters?”
“Three brothers. The oldest one, David, bought The Gables a few weeks ago.”
“I thought Aunt Linda said a Chinaman bought it.”
“He is Chinese.”
“How does that work?”
“What do you say we give Abby a break and stop with the third degree?” Glen interrupted. “Besides, we’re here.”
The sweeping arc of the car’s headlights revealed a cape-style home below the main road on the banks of Somerset River. It sat nestled among towering, nude maple trees and backed by evergreens cloaked in winter’s protective white garment. A picket fence defined the boundaries of the front yard.
Several snowmobiles parked along the riverbank behind the house. Cars and trucks lined both sides of the dead-end road that also served as the driveway. Little white lights were strung between the maple trees. At the end of the road an abandoned cottage watched through sightless windows as they parked by the shed across from the house and walked to the gate.
“What a wonderful location.” She had handled the real estate transaction for Sara when she bought the place a year ago, but she had never seen the property before.
“Jason’s sister used to live here when we were younger, when his son Andrew was little. We spent a lot of time in these woods. It was kind of a homecoming for him, moving in after the wedding.”
“When are you going to buy that place for us, Dad?” Colin asked, nodding toward the cottage. He was first on the walkway, his sister just behind him.
“I don’t know.” Glen’s long-suffering tone implied he fielded the question on a regular basis.
“Jason said the owner is ready to sell.”
“We’ll see.”
“It would be so cool, even if it was only on weekends,” Darcy said. To Abby she added, “This is our favorite place on the planet. You’re so lucky to live here full time.”
“I think so.”
“So you’re staying?” This seemingly offhand question came from Colin, though Abby suspected there was more to it, given the sudden tension in Glen’s arm.
“I have no plans to leave.” Somerset was her home by choice, not by birth or by accident. With David buying The Gables she hoped it would be home to both of them for a long time. She imagined the two of them having families, their children growing up together, sharing holidays.
“And we’re here,” Glen announced.
Inside the house was all heat and light, from the kitchen full of guests on their right to the corner fireplace in the dining room on the left where a golden retriever lay on the braided hearth rug. Seeing them, it raised its head, eyes hopeful and tail wagging. Both teenagers knelt to pet and fuss over the dog.
“Can I take your coat?” Glen asked.
“Yes, please.” She unzipped it but turned her back so he could help her out of it. So he could touch her again. Ever since this morning she had been desperate to continue what they started but equally desperate not to think about it.
When his hands lingered on her shoulders longer than necessary before sliding the garment free, she closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath. Savoring the sensation of having him close enough to smell his light cologne. He put her coat on a peg beside the door and hung his own coat on top of it. A quiver ran through her belly. She wanted his body wrapped around her in the same manner.
“Sorry about the inquisition in the car,” he said.
“I’m a lawyer. I can take it.”
They shared a smile. He slid his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek.
“Abby!” Jason emerged from the group of people in the kitchen, took in the possessive nature of Glen’s hold, but said only, “It’s good to see you again.”
“Hey, you made it.” Sara detached herself from their other guests to join them. She butted Jason with her elbow, and he wrapped his arms around her trim waist, kissing the bridge of her lightly freckled nose.
It was the type of gesture that spoke to a couple being familiar with one another’s body language. A silent communication she longed to have with a partner. Not just anyone, either, but the man at her side.
“Where are the kids?”
Glen pointed to the dining room with his thumb.
“Ah. Spoiling Cortland.” On hearing his name, the golden retriever thumped its tail. “Hope you like fish, Abby. These two make a fishing trip to the Finger Lakes every year, and we’re cooking up some of last summer’s catch.”
“I never met a fish I didn’t love. To eat, that is.”
“Good. You can have Sara’s share too.”
At Jason’s words, a blush suffused his wife’s heart-shaped face while his countenance fairly glowed with pride. What was this?
Apparently Glen didn’t know any more than she did. “Are you on a no-fish diet or something?”
“Nothing she can’t recover from in, say, about nine months, give or take the last eight weeks.”
Glen slid his arm from Abby’s waist and stepped forward to punch his friend on the shoulder. “Congratulations, man. With this lady by your side, you can’t go wrong.”
“Thanks. We’re pretty happy about it.”
Stealing Sara from Jason’s hold, he lifted her until her feet dangled several inches above the floor. “Sweetheart, I can’t thank you enough for making this guy smile every day.”
“I love him.” That simple. That profound.
“And I love you for it.”
Sara kissed him quickly, then tugged at his wrists so he would return her to Jason, who welcomed her as if she had been gone a long time. A pang of longing for what they shared hit Abby, mixed with hope and excitement that she might be on the way to having something like it herself.
“In case you haven’t figured it out, Abby, we’ll be having our first child sometime next July,” Sara explained. “I haven’t had an ultrasound yet, so the date isn’t exact.”
“Congratulations to both of you.”
Jason was a good man. Once she had thought they might hit it off, had even gone out to dinner with him and another couple at The Gables, but when he excused himself to say hello to the young piano player with the silky auburn hair and blue-green eyes, she knew where his interests lay. Since then he had been a good friend and neighbor but nothing more.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe it!” Darcy cried, barreling past them and throwing her arms around Jason. “Can I babysit? Please?” Without giving him a chance to answer, she turned to Sara. “I promise I’ll take excellent care of him. Or her. I don’t care what it is. Do you care?”
Sara laughed at her exuberance. “Healthy is good. Although I think my husband may have a preference.”
“I’ll never get tired of hearing those words.” Still holding onto the teenager, he kissed his wife on the lips. “My husband. Music to my ears.”
“Are you two always this mushy?” Colin demanded. “Or do you lose all sense of decorum when you get married and automatically make fools of yourselves in public?”
“Big word,” Jason mocked. “Come closer and I’ll show you some decorum.”
The
threat was obviously an empty one, because he reached out with one arm, pulled the boy close, and thumped him on the back.
“Saaara, the fish is gonna burn if you don’t get your butt in here and start playing hostess again,” Jimmy Duncan called from the kitchen. He waved a spatula wildly above the heads of several guests and sent her a panicked look.
“Be right there, buddy.”
For the next hour Glen kept her at his side while they socialized with the other guests. Seventeen people in all, including his sister Linda, crowded into the kitchen and dining room, laughing and eating until the windows fogged up and Cortland retreated to the bedroom for some peace and quiet.
When the plates were empty and the dishwasher loaded, they tumbled out the back door into the clear winter night and the line of snowmobiles. Glen led her to the sleds farthest to the right where Colin straddled one and Darcy started to get on the other.
“Uh-uh,” he said. “This time you’ll be riding with your brother.”
“But I always—oh,” she finished, eyes wide with comprehension, moving back and waving toward the seat. “Here you go, Abby.”
Abby didn’t even bother to object because after watching him for the past hour and having to share him with everyone else, she couldn’t wait to get close to him once more.
He swung his long legs over the seat and slid forward to make room for her. When she climbed on behind him, her thighs lay against his. He patted her left calf and told her to move closer. After she had inched forward so that no space separated them, he took her hands and brought them around his middle.
“Hold on!”
She squeezed his waist to let him know she heard, and then they were off, screaming along the riverbank at full throttle. Plunging through the trees at the back of the property, snaking through the forest, rising and falling with the terrain. If he threw his body to the left, she followed; to the right, she went right. The cold stung her eyes and burned her cheeks. She loved it.
They topped a small rise and sailed into the air before emerging into an open field. Abby shouted her exhilaration as they sped across the moonlit landscape. It was so bright it looked like midday. The engine purred. Diesel fumes evaporated into the cold, still air. She pressed her cheek against his hard back and savored every minute of it.