Page 17 of The Stone Family Warrior

Chapter 4

Liberty wasn’t sure why this mongoose of a wet man was following her into her grandmother’s house—correction: it was her house now—but it wasn’t like she could order him back out into the rain. That wouldn’t be very decent of her.

They entered through the greenhouse. Since they were both soaked, she grabbed two towels out of the towel bin her grandmother had by the door. She handed one to Trent.

“Thanks.” He took it and proceeded to dry himself.

Feeling jittery, she quickly wiped herself dry, then began wringing out her wild hair. She needed to get a good conditioner on it. “You can towel off and dry, and then I’ll give you a ride home.”

He grinned at her. He wasn’t coy about taking a pretty good sweeping look. “I told you I want to take you out to dinner.”

“Just stop.” There was an edge to her tone now. She was insulted that he was being such a baby about this. “Plus, I have a mess to get through. Lots of boxes to lug around.”

“I can help with that.” He shook his head, and the droplets from his hair sprinkled over her.

It was stupid, but it reminded her of all those summers that she’d watched the Stone brothers do the same thing when they came out of the ocean.

He pointed at her. “Why are you smiling like that?”

Liberty scowled. It was like she’d committed a national crime. She moved down the hallway to the bathroom. “I wasn’t smiling like anything.”

He followed her, a fact that she was keenly aware of as she walked into the kitchen. She took the kettle and filled it, then put it on the stove. Business as usual. Trent Stone was intimidating, but she wasn’t a silly teenage girl anymore.

Casually, she asked, “Since you’re not leaving, do you want some herbal tea?” She lit the burner and then grabbed a clean kitchen towel to dry her hair. Her grandmother wouldn’t have wanted her to do that, but it was her house, right? At least, maybe it was. If she didn’t sell it.

Trent stood in the middle of the kitchen, seeming daunted by her question. “Um, sure.” He looked around the room, wandering to the cork board. “When I was out there stalking your house, I remembered coming to parties in the summer.” He laughed. “And when we were younger, we’d come to those New Year’s parties.”

“Yeah.” It smarted a bit to hear him talk about the thing that she and her brother had just discussed.

“Wow.” He pointed to one of the photos. “The whole beach crew.”

She froze. She knew what picture he was staring at.

He turned to her. “It was your sixteenth birthday party, right? Not too long before you left.”

For some stupid reason, her spirits fell as she thought of how happy she’d been that night. It’d been right before they’d made their exodus to Germany, changing her life forever.

“What’s wrong?” He was staring at her.

“Nothing.” She tossed the kitchen towel into the laundry room and then moved back to the stove. It unnerved her that Trent was here. He looked so much like Aquaman, standing in her kitchen soaking wet, his hair all mussed up. In contrast, she imagined she looked terrible.

He turned back to the pictures. “This is cool.”

The kettle sang out, and she took it off the stove and put it on the hot pad already on the table. She gathered cups and an assortment of tea that her grandmother had always stocked, along with some spoons and napkins, and put them on the table. “You ready?”

The side of his lip went up. “Born ready.”

So cocky. It made her nervous, the way he looked at her. “Why are you looking at me like that?” They sat, and she made herself busy, pouring water and ripping open a packet of chamomile tea.

He picked a mandarin orange spice. “Like what?”

She met his sapphire eyes. Her heart skipped a beat. Dang, the man was handsome with his wet hair all slicked back in that messy way. “Never mind.” She pressed the tea bag into the water with her spoon.

The corner of his lips quirked up. “Would it make you uncomfortable if I told you that you look kind of amazingly gorgeous?”

It was blatant flattery, but it sparked the natural chemistry that had always brewed when she’d been around Trent. She thought of how her brother had asked about Shane, the PE teacher who was interested in her. She definitely didn’t feel this kind of attraction for Shane. Was it attraction? She had to process these old feelings. It might just be memories of the past. That’s all.

“Penny for your thoughts.”

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