Page 6 of Follow Your Bliss

But he wasn’t fast enough to stop the cascade of hormones whizzing straight to my vagina.

“Yeah. That’s the most action I’ve gotten in two months,” I said. Painful heat shot up my face as he stared at me for a full second.

He cleared his throat and coughed. “Me too,” he admitted, his face reddening.

Now all I could think about was his hand on my boob. I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Yeah,” I said in a small voice. “The plaque is…well it doesn’t seem to be here. Anymore.”

He set his big muscles to work, digging twice as much and fast as me. Neither of us spoke as we dug. I wanted to be digging my own grave. What could I say to him after that? I couldn’t very well ask him when he got so freaking hot. And for the love of chiffon, I wouldn’t mention the eighth grade spin-the-bottle debacle.

“Did you really buy St. Dorothy’s?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t pass it up. Repurposing old buildings was my main interest when I went to school for architecture.” He paused to wipe sweat from his brow. Eyed his shoulders and brushed off the dirt I’d put there. “I always wanted to live in a converted church.”

“Why’s that?”

“I love the bones of it.” He gestured toward the old church. “The steeple, that amazing bell tower. Churches are built to last, and you just can’t replicate the original stonework, the stained-glass windows, the vaulted ceilings. Plus, all the utilities are there.” He leaned closer to me on the handle of the shovel as if to get me to share his vision.

I froze like a deer in headlights, my next big breath taking in the lusty, masculine scent of soap heating off his toned body. I bet he tasted as good as an orgasm felt.

“I’m so sorry. You’re gonna need another shower.” I curled into myself. I shouldn’t be allowed to talk to people.

He glanced at me kinda sideways. “No worries. I love the creative challenge of putting everything into place in a new way. Not to mention save a community building from being demolished to build another soulless neighborhood of duplexes with no trees.”

His excitement was infectious. Or maybe that was his pheromones? Regardless, I’d always loved this church. As a child, I sat in the pews on Sundays looking up at the rafters and spent so many days after school running through the brick arches in the back. I was glad it was in such sexy, rough-looking hands. I mean, such good hands.

Cheese and crackers, Rose, remember Isaac?I was with Isaac.

But…window shopping was okay, right?

Jason turned to me as if remembering himself. He smiled sheepishly and went back for another shovelful. A mosquito landed on his large, smooth shoulder, and I swatted it off. He looked at his shoulder and back up at me.

“Mosquito,” I squeaked.

“Thanks. Hey, are you sure we’re digging in the right place?” He dove the shovel in again, and it pinged against something hard. He looked up at me, dark eyes sparkling. “I think we found it!”

He dug around the edges of a stainless-steel cylinder, hefting it out of the dirt. “This is almost exciting, like a treasure hunt.”

“God, I’m glad you think so.”

He chuckled and pulled the cylinder from the mud, knocking the worst of the mud off. “Your time capsule, m’lady. Let’s bring it to the porch so we don’t lose anything in the dark.”

“Bless you. You’re my knight in shining…” He wasn’t wearing a shirt. “Flesh.” I winced. Too weird, Rose, too weird.

He set the time capsule down onto a piece of plywood stretched across sawhorses and pulled off his gloves. Even more handsome in the incandescent light of the porch, his eyes were the big brown I remembered, the kind of warm eyes I wanted to curl up in. His dark, thick hair was curly and out of control in the best possible way, loose around his ears.

“Hmmm. Looks like I’ll need a wrench—hang on, I’ll be back.”

He went inside the church, and I took off my mom’s gardening gloves and sat them on the workstation, studying the time capsule. Eight bolts on either end. This was gonna take a minute, and here I was with still no makeup on, in a tiny tank top—with no bra—and shorts that barely fit anymore. And he was going to have to see me in the light. I pulled my hair down and back up again, adjusted my clothes. Lily was going to owe me the freaking world.

Jason

I walked back onto my porch with my favorite toolbox. The pretty yard vandal smiled at me and went back to studying the time capsule. When did I last see Rose? It had to be her prom. She’d worn the tightest black dress and barely spoke a word except thanking me profusely the whole night for taking her.

Wrench acquired, I set to work on the time capsule’s bolts and threw a quick up-and-down glance at her. Her thick, dark hair was a messy bun on top of her head, and frizzy, corkscrew curls poked out wildly at the nape of her neck. Mud smudged her pretty pink cheeks and the colorful tattoo of roses on her upper arm. That was new. She fidgeted with a pink crystal necklace that kept falling into her cleavage, which was generous and also mud streaked. Jeez, how did I accidentally grab her boob?

I tried to avert my eyes from her chest, but she kept pulling up on that tiny tank top and drawing my attention to how her nipples stood proud of the fabric. My shorts were suddenly tight.

Kind of like my pants on prom night.

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