Page 196 of Steamy Ever After

He gave a half-smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Funny.”

He toed off his boots and crossed the distance to kiss her. She drew back at the unfamiliar scent of his skin. He didn’t smell like his usual self. He smelled like pine and cold winter wind. She had the suspicion he hadn’t come from Atlantic City.

“Where were you?”

“Working.” He went to the kitchen and opened a cabinet. “Where’s all the stuff?”

“I packed it. What are you looking for?”

“Something hot.”

She nudged him aside and pulled down a mug. “I can make coffee.”

He sat at the table and folded his arms, staring at the surface. His hands were chapped and he had a few cuts on his fingers.

“What happened to you?”

“Sit down. We need to talk.”

Those words were the furthest thing from inviting, but she forced herself to sit once she set the coffee pot to brew.

“How was your show?”

She’d been angry that he wasn’t texting or calling as much as she wanted, but she promised herself not to fight about that. She refused to let her self-doubt bully her common sense, and was trying really hard to handle this long distance stuff like a mature, rational woman. But now, there was definitely something ominous in the air and her self-preservation didn’t seem as stable.

“The show was a bust.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She reached for his hand, but he pulled away.

“I took a job working for my dad.”

“What? But you said you hated?—”

“It doesn’t matter. I need a job and he offered one.”

“What about your standup?”

“It’s not happening.”

“Well, you have to give it time. Maybe you need a PR person?—”

“I don’t have the money for that. Look, I thought long and hard about this, and it’s the right move. Besides, if I work at the lumberyard, I can stay here and we don’t have to be apart.” He stood. “I need to take a shower.”

“But…the coffee…”

“I probably shouldn’t have any anyway. I need a good night’s sleep.”

Erin blinked at the empty kitchen unsure what had happened over the past two days. The man who left was not the same man who returned.

He was dirty because he’d already started working for his father. That meant he’d been back in Jasper Falls for some time but hadn’t called her. Why?

She shut off the coffee pot and waited for him in her bedroom. He kept a small bag of clothes at her house and pulled on sweats and a T-shirt after his shower.

“I’m so fucking cold I can’t get warm.”

She thought about the way they slept with their bellies pressed together that first night in the car. “Do you want to lay together?”

He rubbed the drops from his hair and tossed the damp towel in the hamper. Had he even missed her? He’d yet to even hug her.

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