Page 38 of Hot for the Jerk

“I’ve been texting with Gabrielle,” I said, not looking at him.“He’s having a blast with his cousins.”

“He misses you,” Effie said, resting her cool, papery hand on my arm.“Boys are fickle creatures.But they do love and miss their mamas.”

I smiled at Effie, placed my hand over hers, and said, “Thank you.”

Jagger returned to the table and embarked on a wild and humorous conversation with Julian, sitting to his right, about people who walked around no matter the time of year, or where they were, in their bare feet.

“It’s just tetanus, sepsis, or gangrene waiting to happen,” Julian said with a headshake.“Not to mention, the filth.I’m all for being a free spirit.You know, a … a crazy Hawaiian shirt once in a while.Or … or socks with sandals when I run to get the mail.But barefoot … in a restaurant?In the grocery store?I don’t get it.”

Jagger smirked and the two continued to discuss it.Mostly though, it was just Julian listing all the places where he’d seen someone in bare feet and they shouldn’t have been.

“Church!”Julian exclaimed.“A man came to church without shoes.Claimed if Jesus walked without shoes, so could he.But Jesus didn’t live in a time where hypodermic needles just casually hung out on a sidewalk.”

“Crazy people,” Jagger said, just adding fuel to Julian’s fire.

I kept my head down and chatted softly with Effie, but kept one ear peeled toward Jagger.Eventually, the older generation got pretty tipsy again, and the yawns interrupted their conversations more and more.

I stood up from my seat and went to Lenora, who sat with Cynthia at the end of the table.“Do you have any bricks?”I asked her, making sure I kept my voice to a whisper.

“Bricks?”she asked, into her cups again, and unable to control her volume.Several people turned toward us.“Why on earth do you need bricks?”

Jagger’s eyes were on me, and I was unable tonotlook up at him.The dark-blue burned back at me and my entire face turned molten hot.I exhaled and turned back to Lenora.“I thought it might be nice to heat up some bricks—you know, like they did in the old days—to help warm everyone’s beds before they retire for the night.”

“Oh!”Lenora’s eyes widened.“Hmm.”

“I saw some in the shed,” Jagger said, already on his feet.“I’ll be right back.”Then he was gone, the sound of the back door in the mudroom closing behind him a moment later.

“That’s mighty thoughtful of you, young lady,” Bernie said, chasing a yawn with a sip of beer.“You and your husband there, are quite the helpful couple.”

“Oh, we’re not … he’s not …” I protested, hoping to God my face didn’t melt off my skull it was so hot now.“We’re just … friends?”

“Why’d you ask us?”Cynthia asked, glancing at the others around the table.“You all heard that as a question too, right?”

Nods, and “mm-hmm” a plenty, made me want to crawl into a hole like a salamander and not come out until spring.“We’re friends,” I said again, making sure I added no confusing upward inflection at the end.“Justfriends.”

Now they all smirked and exchanged cheeky glances between themselves.I resisted the urge to launch into a full protest, show them diagrams, pie charts, and graphs just to prove that Jagger and I were barely friends, let alone anything else.But they were already on a different topic of conversation, thank the wine goddesses.

The knock at the backdoor had me jumping where I stood, then racing through the kitchen to open it for Jagger.“Sorry,” I said, accepting four of the eight bricks from him.“Why didn’t you make two trips?”

All he did was grunt and step inside, ditching his boots before following me to the woodstove, where we placed the bricks on top so they could heat up.“This was a good idea,” he said, stashing his boots next to the stove as well.“When I went upstairs to grab the rest of the food, our room was pretty chilly.So I left the door open.Hopefully some of this heat travels upward.”

Swallowing, and unnecessarily holding my hands palm down over the stove, I let my gaze slowly travel north along his body, taking in the raindrops clinging to his beard, on his glasses, and through his hair.

He blinked a few times when I reached his eyes, and let my gaze settle there.“You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?”His smirk was as annoying as it was sexy.

“No,” I said, lying through my teeth.

“Bullshit.”His grin grew wider, and he pulled one of my hands into his, pressing his thumb to my wrist.“Are you thinking about it, Raina?”

“No.”

The extra lift to one side of his mouth, along with those familiar lines at the corners of his eyes, had me practically swooning.“Liar.Are you thinking about it?”

I rolled my eyes.“Well, now I am.You won’t stop asking me about it.But mostly, I’m thinking about how annoying you are.”

“No, you’re not.You’re thinking about it.That’sallyou’re thinking about.”

I yanked my hand out of his grasp.“And you’re a jerk.”I stomped away, back to the table, back to Effie, and away from the man who turned me into a pile of frustrated, horny goo.

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