really need to get together. I left the house without even grabbing my phone.” She laughed. “It’s been ages since I’ve left it behind without worrying that I’d miss something from work. Do you know what I mean?”
He shrugged. His brothers had bought him a cell phone and made him promise to keep it on him because of his condition. It was in the bottom of a drawer somewhere. He wasn’t sure if it was even charged currently. “I have to get back to work.”
“Of course, but I’m holding you to going out with me for a beer, or maybe I’ll wander over with a six-pack, so we can catch up on the past seventeen years.”
He nodded and whistled for Barnabus, who had wandered off while they’d been talking.
She closed the distance between them again and wrapped herself around him for the third time. “I’m glad I ran into you.”
He awkwardly patted her back this time. His body felt charged with electricity everywhere she touched him. He stared down at her dark hair. She wasn’t like the women in town who tried to draw his attention. Most of those women were divorced or widowed. He didn’t have a problem with them, but he wasn’t sure he was the best choice for a long-term relationship, which is what at least some of those women had wanted. As long as he picked the right ones, things worked out just fine.
But Nicole had been his buddy. Her father, John, would kill him if he messed with her; besides, they’d never been like that. They’d gone frogging together back when she wore braids and T-shirts and walked like a boy.
There was nothing boy-like about her now, except those underwear that he shouldn’t be thinking about. He wouldn’t even know about the different styles of underwear if he hadn’t been forced to go back-to-school shopping with his sister-in-law and niece. The only reason they apparently had taken him was to get him out of the house more often.
Nicole would be better off if she didn’t get to know the guy he’d become and just remembered the boy she’d left behind.
She released him, graced him with another smile and spun in a circle. “I feel better already. See you soon, Sam.”
As she sashayed away from him toward the fence, his eyes were drawn to the curve of her bottom. If she was enticing in a skirt, she’d be irresistible in a pair of jeans. Barnabus rushed out of the bushes and sat patiently at his feet. This summer had just gotten interesting.
Nicole straightened her shirt, tucked her hair behind her ear and shifted the six-pack from one hand to the other. She stood in front of Sam’s screen door, which he could walk by any minute and see her standing out here in the dark like a ninny. This was Sam. Her friend, her confidant.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door. She could hear some shuffling from the other room, and then he was walking toward her. Holy crap, it hadn’t just been her imagination. He was tall, dark and handsome. Not at all the kid she’d left behind.
Earlier today, his blue eyes had been amazing close-up, sparkling in the sunlight with flecks of dark blue mingled with light blue and even hints of gold. Not that she’d been staring earlier. It had taken most of her willpower not to check him out the way he’d done to her. Farming had definitely been good for his development. His chest was broad. His arms were muscular, but not overly so. And she’d bet money that he was packing his own six-pack under that AC/DC T-shirt.
As he drew closer, he ran his hand through his thick, shaggy hair and she wanted to do the same, except, in her fantasy, when she wove her fingers in his hair, she would jerk his full lips down to hers. When he stopped at the door, she held up the six-pack and smiled.
She needed to stop thinking of Sam as eye candy. Their meeting today had caught her off guard. She hadn’t thought, just reacted. And it had felt good.
With everything that had happened in her life recently, she could really use a friend. Maybe Sam could use a friend, too. She’d kept his friendship close to her heart when she’d moved to California. Sam, who’d always known the right thing to do. She’d written him letters as she maneuvered through a new school and social situations she never would have experienced in Tawnee Valley. She’d never sent the letters that shared all her secrets and fears. Just a few when she’d first moved away. Right now, she needed a friend more than sex... At least, that’s what she reminded herself of when he stood on the other side of the door looking like sex on a stick.
He opened the screen door, and she slid through the opening under his arm, into the kitchen, before he could tell her not to.
“How’s it going? I brought beer.” She moved around him, catching hints of the crispness of his soap and that distinct, manly scent that was all Sam. Raw, powerful.
“You aren’t going to hug me again, are you?” He eyed her suspiciously.
She shrugged and set the beer on the table. “Probably.”
She pulled out two beers and handed him one. He took it from her, almost as if he were afraid to touch her. He hadn’t returned her hugs earlier. Of course, he hadn’t been touchy-feely when he was a fourteen-year-old, either.
Twisting off the cap to her beer, she glanced around the kitchen. It looked the same. Her dad had mentioned that Mr. and Mrs. Ward had died years ago. Other than that, her father hadn’t talked much about the Wards, except to say Sam was a hard worker.
“Cheers,” she said and clinked her bottle against his. They both took a swig and then stood there awkwardly with their beers. “So...does the rest of the house look the same? The kitchen definitely hasn’t changed.”
He shrugged. His gaze dipped down to her bare legs. She’d changed into shorts and had managed to find her one pair of sneakers that she didn’t use for running.
“This is ridiculous,” she said.
He lifted his gaze to hers and raised his eyebrow.
“We were once best friends, Sam. I used to sleep in your bed. We used to run around in bathing suits and sneakers. I showed you mine and you showed me yours...in a perfectly scientific discovery sense. We should be able to have a beer together and catch up like normal people.”
He shifted his weight on his feet, and the corner of his mouth twitched upward, about as much of a smile as he could make, apparently. “Sure. You want to see the house?”
“I’d love to.” That had been what she was angling for, after all.
Sam had a house, a job, a couple of dogs that had greeted her when she walked up, while she was adrift in life. She didn’t have a job and could end up anywhere in the United States with her search. She’d just left a long-term relationship and wasn’t in the right frame of mind to start anything. Even with her old best friend who was now hot but completely anchored to this town.
He led the way, and she noted how he filled out his carpenter jeans with a very nicely shaped butt. As he stopped abruptly, she ran into him. He looked over his shoulder at her with that disgruntled expression of his.
“Do you ever smile?” She returned his look before she stepped back and glanced around the dining room. “Nothing’s changed. How do you manage that? I’m constantly changing things. Moving furniture, painting walls,
