Page 11 of Inevitable

CHAPTER SIX

Saturday, July 22nd

The third time someone hit the doorbell about had his temper snapping. Who the hell needed to see him at eight on a Saturday morning that badly? Tucking the towel around his waist, he decided that if it was people trying to save his soul, then they could just take him as he was…fresh out of the shower.

“Hold your damn horses,” he called out as he got closer. He threw the locks, opened the door, and almost started laughing when he saw Claire’s expression. Her mouth was hanging open as she clutched a basket in her arms. “Morning, darlin’. Wasn’t expecting company.” He stepped back so she could come in and noticed it took her more than a minute to peel her eyes away from his almost naked body.

Which he figured was damn good news. Whatever he could do to make her interested was a good thing. If she liked what she saw, then he’d wear as few clothes as he could get away with. Considering it was the middle of July, it wasn’t going to be all that hard to do.

When she stood in the foyer, he leaned over and tried to get a look into the basket. Whatever she had in there sure smelled delicious. “This is a nice surprise.”

Claire moved her hand over her bangs and cleared her throat. “I guess I should’ve called before I came over. I brought you breakfast as a thank you for saving my bacon last night.”

“Not necessary,” he said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “But much appreciated.” Feeling her warm skin through the thin material of her summer dress was a blessing he wasn’t expecting on this fine Saturday morning, but one he would be sure to thank the good Lord for later. “Coffee is made. Let me get you a cup and then I’ll change.”

“I was just going to drop this off. I don’t want to interrupt your day.”

He slipped his arm from around her shoulders, took her hand, and led her toward the back of the house. “No way I’m letting you leave. We can enjoy this together and sit out on the sun porch.” Seeing her eyes stuck to his chest and the pink spreading over her cheeks made him want to pull her into his arms.

“Well, all right.”

He took the basket from her hands and set it on the counter. “Mugs are above the coffee maker as well as sugar, so help yourself.”

“Thanks, Brady.”

“I’m going to put some clothes on and I’ll be right back.” As he walked down the hall, he swore he heard her mutter, “Don’t do it on my account.” Which made him laugh.

Thank God she had called him last night and allowed him to take care of her. It had given him just the opening he needed to begin getting to know her. All he knew so far was that every time they spent more than five minutes together, his heart beat a little faster.

And…she had a fine sense of humor and always gave as good as she got, which he enjoyed the hell out of. Verbal sparring was one of his favorite things and she could do it better than most. A woman had never kept him on his toes before and now that he’d found someone who did, he wasn’t going to let her get too far away. Claire Hughes was definitely someone he was going to stay as close to as he could. And if she preferred him without clothes, all the better.

Walking into his bedroom, he admired the view of White River and wondered if she might like to come over sometime and do a little fishing. An afternoon on the water with a pretty girl sounded about perfect. Truth was, a lot of things with Claire probably would be.

And he was ready to get started and see what they had. All he had to do was get her to cancel the rest of the dates she had scheduled. No way was he going to sit around and let her go out with another man, especially in light of what happened last night.

Not that he could tell her what to do. Even he knew she wouldn’t tolerate any advice or opinions he had to offer. No, he had to play it cool and see if he could get her to make that choice all on her own. Maybe charm her and see if that worked.

He grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt from the bureau and walked into the bathroom. As he changed, he tried to come up with something they could do that would interrupt her evening plans. He was supposed to go over to Brock and Lilly’s later. Maybe she’d like to join him. If he got her good and distracted, she might forget about whatever plans she had in the evening.

Looking into the mirror, he realized it wasn’t his best idea. He ran his hand through his short hair and decided that he’d come up with something better after he got a feel for where she was on this whole online dating nonsense.

Gather intel, assess the situation, and then form a plan. Worked in his career. No reason it shouldn’t work in his love life. As he dumped his towel into the hamper and turned off the light, he realized that he’d used the word love. Which didn’t bother him as much as he would’ve guessed.

As he walked down the hall toward the kitchen, he smelled something terrific. God damn, it was a good day. As he walked passed the sunroom, he noticed that she’d set the table. He had no idea that he had so many nice dishes. When he’d bought the home, the former owners had left a bunch of things because they were downsizing. The woman had told him she was happy to make sure he had what he needed for entertaining and she hadn’t been lying. Granted, a lot of it was from the seventies or eighties, but he didn’t care because he didn’t really have any taste.

“My God, woman, what kind of magic have you conjured up?” When she twirled around and gave him a smile, his heart beat double time. Claire was so appealing with her light brown hair resting against her bare shoulders and her bright hazel eyes flashing with mischief. Made him want to pick her up and take her to bed and see what she tasted like. Which was not one of the PG thoughts he should have been having.

Wondering what kind of panties she was wearing and how well she was going to fit into his hands were not thoughts that need to happen, either, before he took her out on a proper date. Biting the inside of his cheek, he decided to ignore how much he wanted to lift her in his arms, run back to his bedroom, and lock the door.

“I made a breakfast casserole and I’ve got it reheating in the oven. I also have fruit salad and cinnamon muffins.”

“You can just move in now and we can save ourselves a lot of time. I’m ready to lock you down and I haven’t even tasted anything yet.” Throwing her head back, she let out a loud laugh. Her whole body got involved and he’d never seen anything so joyous in his life. “I mean it, Claire. You just stay and I’ll do my best to make you happy.”

She shook her head and bent over to check the oven. “We wouldn’t last five minutes in one another’s company. We have nothing in common.”

Seeing her bent over and the fabric of her dress pull tight across her ass let him know they had plenty in common. Hell, he’d start loving that horrible music she enjoyed and be happy about it. “You don’t know that, Claire. This is our first date and I bet we’re going to find all kind of things we’d like to do together.”

When she closed the oven door and turned around, he saw the heat in her eyes. Then her pink tongue slipped out to wet her lips, and he knew she might like some of his ideas about how they could spend their free time.

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