Page 12 of 40 and (Tired of) Faking It
“Bets on how long it takes before JD—”
With a roll of his eyes, JD clicked the End button, cutting off his friends. Some things didn’t change, no matter how old you got.
And even if they hadn’t changed, it never hurt to rag your friends about them. He’d have to see about ordering some little blue pills to send Carter’s way.
The idea actually pulled a chuckle out of him. He took a last look around the courtyard, making absent note of the limbs that needed trimming and some areas of the cobblestone that they would have to patch to make the patio smooth again, before turning back to the house. He had expected to feel something, anything, when he’d crossed the threshold of his grandparents’ eleven-thousand-square-foot house, had certainly been dreading it the whole way down from New York, but driving through the iron gates yesterday, there’d been no hesitation, no demons rushing out to greet him.
This was nothing more than a neglected property in need of a serious upgrade, not the prison he’d been trapped in for eighteen years. Of course, he planned a lot more for the property than mere upgrading. He’d take the time before dinner to explore the basement and make more notes for the renovations, then go back over the initial blueprints for the lodge before bed. He made a beeline for the dining room and the laptop he had set up there.
Anything to keep his mind off Lily Easton.
Chapter Six
The morning after meeting JD, Lily hurried into the elevator at the courthouse and waited impatiently for it to spit her out on the third floor. A restless night had her running late, and though she’d called ahead and gotten Maria to ready coffees for herself and JD based on his order yesterday, she was still cutting it close. At precisely nine on the dot, she pushed open the door to her office—and came to a complete stop.
JD straightened from where he’d been leaning his hip against Evan’s desk, talking with her assistant. Next to him sat a cardboard carrier with a frothy drink topped in whipped cream and a tall, insulated cup with no apparent frills.
The contents exactly matched the one in the carrier she held.
JD’s light blue gaze, the one she’d thought about far too much last night, dropped to her hand, then rose back to meet hers. Amusement glittered there, creasing the lines fanning out from his eyes and making that knee-weakening dimple appear in his cheek.
“Maria didn’t tell me—”
He raised a hand. “Only the nice young lady from yesterday—DeeDee, I think her name is?—was in the coffee shop when I stopped by. I must have missed anyone else.”
She barely refrained from a face-palm. DeeDee had been in the bakery, not the coffee shop, when Maria handed over Lily’s order. “I guess we have double the caffeine this morning.”
He grinned. “I have no problem with that. Caffeine should be its own essential food group.”
She matched his smile and handed over her own carrier before retrieving her mocha latte. “Give me a sec and we’ll get going.”
After stowing the second mocha in the tiny break room fridge for later and dropping her briefcase in her office, she returned to the reception area and checked in with Evan before gesturing for JD to follow her. In the hall he moved up behind her, one hand gripping his stacked coffees with barely there cream and sugar, one hand settling on the curve of her lower back as if guiding her when she, in fact, was leading him. The touch sent a jolt of heat up her spine and down her legs—at least as far down as the center between them, barely hidden behind the silky panties Erin had given her. All JD had to do was walk into a room and her mind seemed to melt from the normal intelligent, in-control woman she typically was. A touch from him was a thousand times more potent.
She almost couldn’t hold back a whimper.This is definitely going to get interesting.
She was so focused on JD’s touch that she failed to perform her customary surveillance on exiting the elevator at the ground floor—and paid for it when she looked up too late and saw Mason’s father barreling down on them. She didn’t bother to hold back her groan this time.
JD’s fingers clenched on her body. “You okay?”
No, definitely not.But she pasted on her “mayor” smile and held her silence.
It wasn’t silent for long.
“Lily!”
Dwayne Prescott had probably always been an obnoxious prick, but Lily had been wearing blinders to that fact until she and his son had broken up. Now Dwayne’s insufferable superiority was constantly on display whenever they ran into each other. Which she tried her hardest not to do.
Not easy when he was head of the town’s planning commission.
“Mr. Prescott.”
Dwayne planted himself in the middle of the hallway, his gaze sweeping over JD before dismissing him in favor of pinning Lily to her spot. “I was just on my way up to your office. The responses to those requests I sent haven’t landed on my desk yet.”
And likely won’t until Monday, when they’re due.“I worked on them yesterday but have not had a chance to finish. Evan should also have the final paperwork you need for that zoning inspection by your meeting next week.”
His frown told her he wanted what he wanted now, not when she deigned to give it to him. Too bad he was going to be disappointed. He stared her down for a moment as if willing her to submit to his dominance, then allowed his attention to turn to JD.
“And you are?”
