Page 7 of Lovesick
I nodded.
JJ regarded me curiously for a moment, then turned back to his tea. “I remember that transition. As if it wasn’t hard enough just to graduate, now you have to figure your life out. There’s a lot of pressure.”
Several things startled me there. First of all, I didn’t know college had been part of his world. Second, he was at least nine years older than me. Word around town pegged the Bailey boys at thirty.
“You graduated college?” I asked.
He nodded. “Bachelor’s in Environmental Science.” Then he laughed, presumably at my expression. “I take it you’re surprised?”
“A little.” I gave him a sheepish smile. “I guess I assumed you’ve just always been climbing and living in a van.”
He shrugged and leaned back, leaving the tea to cool. His arms looped behind his head, and it was a struggle not to stare.
“I’ve always climbed. Just like you, after I graduated, I took a step back to see what I wanted to do. Then I just ... never did it. We did live in a van,” he tacked on with a roguish grin. “For about a year.”
The last words came out quieter, but I couldn’t tell if it was regret in his voice, or something else. A loud bark of laughter came from the attic.
“What about Mark?” I asked, taking another sip of hot chocolate. It was over halfway gone by now, and I almost was too. The snap of the fire had lulled me. Being alert and on guard for so long had worn me out. Not to mention sleeping on and off in a ball on the hospital bed for forty-eight hours.
“Mark went too. Graduated with a degree in business. Eventually did his MBA online while we traveled.”
“And then?”
“We bummed around together for a long time. Neither of us wanted to grow up, so we just kept playing. Traveling. Getting into trouble. My poor mother has too much gray hair because of us.”
I smiled. His mother, a flight nurse in Jackson City where Bethany had just birthed my adorable nephew, was lovely.
“We messed around for almost a decade, living off climbing sponsorships, odd jobs, and sometimes Mark’s rampant charm. We did that right up until he bought Adventura and ‘settled in.’” JJ’s air quotes looked ironic, at best. “Mark will never really stop. He’s started one business and he’s already on to another one. He’s a moving target.”
Sensing something beneath the surface, I asked, “And what about you? Are you a moving target also?”
“Dunno yet.”
The last sip of hot chocolate slid down my throat. Although curiosity tugged at me, I stood with the empty mug.
“Thank you, JJ. This helped calm me down. But I think I’ll go to bed, if you don’t mind.”
My body had relaxed into a state of near-sleep. This seemed as good a time as any to hide away. To avoid the beautiful way the fire warmed his skin to golden tones. No reason for me to study the angle of his jaw and replay the way his arms had kept me from death.
He took the mug from me. “Good. I’m sure some rest will help. I’ll take care of the cup.”
“Thank you.”
“Oh, Lizbeth?” he called as I headed for the bedroom.
I glanced over my shoulder. He stood there, holding my mug, looking gorgeous in the firelight.
“If you get too cold, we keep the fire running all night. Feel free to add more logs to it, or sleep on the couch. Mark and I are upstairs if you need anything.”
“Okay.”
“We can report the accident in the morning, but there isn’t much they can do now, anyway. It’ll eventually have to get towed. If they can even reach it down there.”
My mind spun. I hadn’t even thought of getting the car out.
“Thanks.”
I closed the door behind me, bathed in a sudden chill. This little cabin clearly didn’t have central heating, and the window didn’t keep out the cold. JJ had set a few more blankets and a pillow on the bed. I fluffed the pillows and climbed in. When I tugged the blankets all the way to my chin, I realized that the pillow smelled like JJ. Was it his?
