Page 54 of When You Are Mine

“Your aunt Kris couldn’t have given us a better wedding gift.”

Jo’s face clouded, her smile slipping. She lowered her lashes, running her fingernail along the newly installed granite countertop.

“Is everything okay, Jo?”

Kerris’s heartbeat seemed to pause along with her hand, which was poised over a jar of chiles. She’d grown up waiting for something bad to happen. Maybe she had overactive Spidey senses, but Jo’s expression made them tingle.

“I’m a little worried about Aunt Kris.” Jo’s fingers drummed an anxious cadence on the counter.

“Is she sick or something?” Kerris’s heart resumed its regular beat. She opened the chiles, keeping her face as deliberately blank as Jo’s had become.

“She’s probably tired. I’ll make sure she gets some rest. The fall is such a busy season for her, gearing up for all her holiday projects.”

“You’d let us know if there was anything wrong, though, right?”

“Sure.” Jo looked back at her, the usually clear eyes opaqued with something Kerris couldn’t quite identify. “I think, more than anything, she wants to see Walsh. I could kick his ass for staying away so much this year.”

Kerris turned to the sink, washing her hands before she started cooking. She acknowledged Jo’s remark with only a grunt.

“I know Uncle Martin has him learning the ropes, but damn.” Jo leaned a slim hip against the sink, and Kerris felt the weight of the searching look Jo settled on her profile. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was avoiding Rivermont.”

“I’m sure he’s just busy.” Scrubbing the corn required all of Kerris’s attention. “Okay, I’ll need cilantro from my herb garden. Excuse me while I run out and grab some.”

“No, I’ll get going.” Kerris still felt Jo’s close regard. “I was hoping to see the birthday boy before the party tonight, but we’ll catch up later.”

Kerris grimaced at the thought of a roomful of people she barely knew and with whom she would have little in common. They would all spill out into the backyard to the picnic tables and benches she’d borrowed from the rec center. She’d already strung lights through the trees. People could play horseshoes, Xbox, poker—whatever they wanted. Cam hadn’t wanted much, just to be surrounded by his friends. That was the least she could do. It would be a pleasure.

She tried to remind herself what a pleasure it was a few hours later when her peaceful cottage had been invaded by Cam’s sophomoric friends, mostly male. There were a few women mixed in other than Kerris, Meredith, and Jo, but not many. The testosterone in the air was thick enough to choke a lady. Kerris replenished the beers in the coolers outside, offering a grim smile to a Neanderthal or two along the way.

She dashed back inside to whip up another batch of guacamole. They’d run out twice. She’d asked Cam to grab a couple of tomatoes from the garden for her when he got the chance, but he’d probably gotten caught up in the festivities. She should go get them herself, or snag Meredith when she surfaced from under a pile of men. Her friend loved being a single bee in this male-dominated honeycomb.

Two ripe tomatoes plopped down on the counter beside her. She barely took her eyes off the cilantro she was dicing.

“Thanks, baby.” She glanced over her shoulder, almost cutting a finger when she faced Walsh instead of Cam.

Walsh grinned with his arms outstretched. She stumbled toward him, experiencing a shiver and a shock when he pulled her close. The scent that was so distinctly his insinuated itself into her nostrils. The knot of tension she’d been carrying in her stomach ever since she’d heard he was coming liquefied, pureeing her insides until she could barely stand.

“You’re welcome…baby.” She felt his wide grin in the curve joining her neck and shoulder. “Meredith asked me to bring these in to you.”

“I didn’t know you were here.”

She pulled back, needing some distance to stand the ground she’d gained in the last year. They had not spoken to each other since that night at the gazebo. Hadn’t exchanged even a glance since the toast he’d offered at the wedding reception. She’d dreaded this moment for the last year, while perversely looking forward to seeing him again. Now she didn’t know what to say. Pretending with him never came easy, and certainly not now. Not after so long. Not when he was here, siphoning all the air from the room.

* * *

The skin on Walsh’s face tightened, his smile becoming harder to hold. There was still something just beneath her honeyed skin that he could never ignore. All the defenses he’d built up in the last year and had hoped would hold against her appeal gave way. The familiar scent of vanilla and brown sugar reached his nostrils and made his mouth water.

“Yeah, I’ve been busy.” He adopted a casual tone. No need for her to know he wanted to crush her against him and never let go. “It was impossible to get home.”

The quick glance she threw up at him, her fingers pausing in their chopping, told him she might know he was lying. He couldn’t care. They had become experts at lying to each other, and consequently to those they loved. He wasn’t sure he could stop now, or ever. The truth could destroy them.

“I was disappointed you couldn’t come with Cam to Kenya,” he said.

“Disappointed?” Confusion pleated her forehead. The chopping stopped altogether. “I thought…”

Her voice trailed off and her frown deepened for a second before clearing. She bit her lip and crossed over to grab an avocado from the windowsill over the sink.

“You thought what?”

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