Page 33 of Jack Raider

We eventually made it out of the shower—barely. It had taken two towels, three kisses, and one intense round two on the bathroom counter before we even made it to the bed.

Now,I was sitting at Eloise’s kitchen table, wearing borrowed sweatpants and sipping a mug of coffee while she cooked eggslike she hadn’t just rocked my entire worldview and cleaned me of Bull poop trauma.

I leaned back in my chair, grinning like an idiot. “So… do all your vet visits end with clothing removal and a decontamination rinse?”

She flipped a pancake without turning around. “Only the ones involving bulls and city boys like you.”

“City boy? I was in the military.”

“Jack, you stepped directly into a poop blast zone. You’re not ready for this level of country.”

Before I could argue, her phone buzzed. She glanced at it, then smirked and hit speaker.

“Hi, Mable,” she chirped, turning the heat down on the stove.

“Eloise?” Mable’s voice crackled over the line. “Are you busy?”

“Not at the moment.”

I took a slow sip of coffee. The shirt Eloise was wearing was mine. I was glad I had brought extra clothes. The satisfaction in my bones was off the charts.

“You don’t sound alone,” Mable said suspiciously.

I cleared my throat. “Morning, Mable,” I said.

“Oh dear Lord,” she muttered. “Is he naked?”

Eloise burst out laughing. “No, he’s clothed. Now.”

“Oh good. Because I must had gotten a butt call from you earlier and I accidentally hit the FaceTime button with my elbow earlier and got an eye full of bare man chest and foggy steam and—I dropped my phone in the sink trying to hang up!”

I coughed, almost inhaling half the coffee.

“Mable!” Eloise gasped between laughs. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK,” Mable screeched. “It was like a live-action soap opera, and I was trapped. It’s about time you started living a little.”

I tried to speak, but no sound came out. I was crying. I wasactuallycrying from laughing so hard.

“And what were you doing,” Mable continued, not at all scandalized, “kissing like that in the shower? You could have slipped and cracked a hip! Or his hip! He’s not a young man anymore, Eloise,” she burst into laughter.

“Excuse me,” I said, wheezing. “I’m thirty-five. My hips are pristine.”

“I’m eighty-two, not dead. Iknowa steamy situation when I see one. And let me tell you something, son. If you're gonna be hanging around, I expect you to treat her right, feed her real meals, andneverleave your boots on the porch again. I walked up there and thought someone exploded a barn.”

I buried my face in my hands, shaking with silent laughter.

“I couldn’t bring them inside they were covered in…I don’t even want to think about that again. I managed between breaths. Full respect. I’ll burn the boots.”

“And buy her a ring if you’re gonna keep showing up like this. I may be old, but I’ve got standards. I won’t be the last decent woman in this town living in sin by association.”

Eloise was howling. “Mable, we haven’t even had breakfast yet!”

“Well, you skipped dinner andthree showers, if that steam was anything to go by. Anyway, I’ve got to go. My blood pressure monitor is screaming at me.”

She hung up.

Eloise turned to me, eyes wide and shining. “Shesaw us?”

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