Page 30 of Next Time I Fall (Excess All Areas 2)

“Yeah. Something like that.”

She placed her hand on his leg. It was warm through his denim. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not particularly. In fact. I’d like to totally forget about it for forty-eight hours.”

Cerys glanced in the rearview mirror. “You should tell them where you are.”

“And you should concentrate on driving.”

“Fair enough.”

After a brief stop at a grocery store to pick up supplies, where she shopped and Jase insisted on paying, they arrived at her father’s second home.

“When you said cottage, I had something a little more rustic in mind.”

Cerys looked up at the chrome and glass structure tucked in behind a large fence. “Yeah, it’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

Jase opened the door and leveraged himself out of the car using the doorframe. He rotated his shoulder that ached slowly. He must have wrenched it trying to get out of the way of her car.

“How are you feeling?” she asked as she came to stand next to him.

“Fucking cold and very stiff.”

Cerys looked away quickly, but he caught her smirk.

“Did you seriously just giggle at me sayingvery stiff?”

She composed herself and then looked him dead straight in the eye. “Nope. Not at all.”

He held her gaze and saw the corner of her mouth twitch again. “I’mverystiff. But I think a bit of action will help loosen me up. I’ll grab the bags.”

Cerys pursed her lips. “Stop sayingvery stiff.”

Now, he did smile, and ran his teeth over his lip. He bent closer to her. “Very. Stiff.” His voice a whisper.

She shoved playfully at his chest. “Stop it.”

“Keep putting your hands on me and it will become a reality.”

Cerys pulled her hands away. “They aren’t on you.”

“I wasn’t complaining.” And he checked out her arse as she stomped in the direction of the front door.

* * *

When Cerys entered the kitchen to make coffee the next morning, she was surprised to find the air rich with the smell of it. A glance into the family room found Jase out on the deck, his jacket tight around him, as he looked over the lake.

A lake that was almost bigger than Wales.

Snow fell softly around him, gathering in his hair, on his shoulders.

His shoulders lifted jerkily, as if his chest creaked with every inhale, then released every last molecule of air before sucking in another breath. He repeated it over and over, and Cerys recognised that pattern of deep breathing she followed when she was too much in her own head.

Ignoring the coffee, she grabbed a thick blanket from the sofa and stepped outside before draping it over his shoulders.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, her voice low.

He glanced at her and then back to the lake. “Yeah.”

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