his head, Hogan and Colt shared a grin that Jason ignored.
“His brain is starting to rot,” Hogan said. “There are easier women around, you know.”
Colt shifted, uncomfortable with that particular topic.
It infuriated Jason that his brother could be that callous. While going through his own ordeal, it seemed he’d forgotten how it all affected his son.
The seconds ticked by in silence, and then Colt said, “I didn’t tell her about the garbage yesterday. Did you?”
“Nope.” Honor still hadn’t gotten a lid for her can, and once more, her garbage had gone everywhere. Jason had woken early that day to see raccoons rummaging through it.
There’d been no sign of Honor or her car, so he and Colt had picked it up again. She hadn’t gotten back home until that evening, and as usual, she’d looked limp with exhaustion.
For the past few nights, though, he didn’t think she’d gone out. He was so attuned to her he’d have somehow known, no matter how she skulked about.
Sometimes he’d be working in the garage and sense her the moment she got near her house. A dozen times, occasionally during meals, once in the middle of a shower, he’d been drawn to the window and found her out there, either leaving, arriving or working.
She kept odd hours, she kept secrets—and still his hunger for her grew.
Suddenly she glanced up, saw them all clustered in the window, and she waved.
Colt waved back.
Hogan glanced at Jason. “She still rendezvousing in the middle of the night?”
Colt answered before Jason could. “Yeah, she is. But she’s getting sneakier about it. Sometimes I hear her, and sometimes I don’t.”
Well, hell. He hadn’t realized that Colt was aware of it, too. His bedroom was on the same side of the house as Jason’s, so he should have expected it. Hogan, luckily, was on the opposite end, making do in Jason’s den, sleeping on a couch and keeping his clothes on hanging racks.
“I never should have told her that we could hear her departures or arrivals.” There were a lot of things he regretted telling her. Did she work herself so hard trying to prove something...to him? He hated that idea.
“Where the hell does she go?” Hogan wondered aloud.
Colt shrugged. “She hasn’t said.”
Suddenly Honor lurched back from the scraggly shrubs remaining in front of her house. Screeching all the way, her expression comical, she high-stepped it toward their house, jiggling and slapping her hands all the way.
All three men headed to the front door to greet her, with Jason in the lead.
He got the door open and she barreled into him, hopped and jumped around him in a ridiculous and awkward dance, and finally managed to gasp, “Snake!”
Jason caught her shoulders and held her still. “Snake?”
“In the bushes! Over there.” She stiff-arm pointed toward her property.
Jason took in her abject horror, then his brother and nephew’s wide-eyed astonishment. His smile cracked and once it did, Colt and Hogan roared.
They laughed so hard they couldn’t stay upright. Doubling over, they fell into each other, and occasionally one of them would say in a ridiculously high pitched voice, “Snake,” while prancing in place.
Jason had to admit, it was pretty funny. And damn, he liked seeing Hogan like this. For too long it had seemed as if Hogan lost the ability to laugh when he lost his wife.
But he was laughing now.
Honor tried to shove away from him, and without thinking about it Jason folded her in close, locking his arms around her. She quickly subsided. In fact, she went stock-still.
Worked for him. The heat of the day had intensified the musk of her skin and hair. He breathed her in. Her skin was silky soft, dewy warm and damp. Against his ribs he felt the plump cushion of her breasts.
Colt got it together first, but then he was more attached to Honor since he’d been working with her all week, so he’d naturally be quicker to want to guard her feelings.
Around spontaneous chuckles, he asked, “What kind of snake was it?”
Jason felt her lips move against his chest when she said, “The kind I don’t want to see.”
“Meaning any kind?” Hogan guessed.
“Pretty much.” She snuggled in closer, turning so her cheek rested on him. “I’m sorry for bothering you with this. You told me to get a dog or a gun, and since I haven’t done either, I just...came here.”
“I’m glad.” Jason smoothed her untidy ponytail, more than a little turned on. “If you’d had a gun, would you have shot the snake?”
“No, of course not.” She tipped her face back to see him. “I don’t want it hurt.”
That got Hogan guffawing again, and Colt struggling to contain his hilarity.
All Jason could think about was kissing her. When she looked up at him like that, he was a goner.
With a sigh, Honor resettled against him. “Why are you always shirtless?”
“It’s ninety?”
“So in the winter...?”
He shrugged. He wasn’t big on bundling up unless he knew he’d be outside for a while. “Depends.”
After a few seconds more, she inhaled and levered away. “Guess I made a fool of myself.”
“Nah.” Hogan further mussed her already disheveled hair. “You just showed us your dance moves.”
She surprised everyone by reaching out to playfully punch Hogan in the shoulder while grinning. Her amusement faded and she shuddered. “Sorry, but I was using all my bravery for the bugs. Once that python showed up—”
“Python?” Colt asked.
“To me, every snake is a python.” She hugged herself. “The one I saw was just gray. And not that big. But...” She mean mugged each of them. “It looked at me.”
On another short laugh, Hogan shook his head. “Well,” he said to Colt. “Should we go slay a dragon?”
“Sure.” Colt gave Honor a crooked grin. “How about if we just relocate it?”
“Far away?” she asked hopefully.
“The woods on the other side of the creek should work.”
That intrigued her enough that she lost her jitters. “You can get to it?”
“Yeah, sure. Be right back.” He and Hogan walked off.
Leaving
