She's Up to No Good(82)

“She’ll be fine,” Sofia said, leaning across the table toward me. I turned away from my grandma’s progress, suddenly aware that we were alone and equally aware that my grandmother likely did not actually need to pee.

“This was lovely,” I said, but Sofia reached out and took my hand.

“He really likes you.”

I didn’t know how to respond. I really liked him too. But this was his mom. And she seemed to want a reply. I swallowed dryly and nodded, afraid to speak.

“Sometimes family makes things complicated. Sometimes the complicated part is in our own heads.” She patted my hand. “It’s good to see him smiling so much.”

“Mom, stop scaring Jenna.”

I looked up at Joe and pulled my hand reflexively out of Sofia’s.

“Who’s scaring anyone?”

He looked at me. He really likes me, I thought, and I smiled.





Sofia hugged me goodbye while Joe got the car, telling me not to be a stranger, her perfume smelling of honeysuckle, before embracing my grandmother. “You bring her back soon,” she said. The two women exchanged a look, and Sofia turned back to me. “Or you come back yourself.” I was hit again with a sense of foreboding, like this trip was the closing of some chapter for my grandmother.

“I’ll work on Anna,” my grandmother said. “The two of you have so much to discuss now.”

Sofia laughed merrily, and I shook my head as Joe pulled to the curb.

When we got back to the cottage, Joe walked my grandmother up the steps, and she turned to us at the door. “I’m going to watch TV in my room. With the volume up. Then go to bed. You two make yourselves at home. I won’t hear a thing.” Then she stumped past us into the house. We lasted about six seconds before we started laughing.

“We can’t go in there.”

“No,” he agreed. The porch lights provided two halos of light, enough to see that his eyes were fixed on my lips, his body close to mine. “Do you want to come back to my house? For a drink?”

I nodded, and he opened the porch door, leading the way back down to his car, where he held my hand, his fingers intertwined with mine, his thumb tracing electric circles in my palm.

The drive was short along the road parallel to the beach, then a left at the end to the small peninsula that jutted out at the end of the cove. He turned into a long driveway, stopping at an old Cape Cod, the moonlight twinkling on the water behind it.

“You really live right on the water?”

“You should see the view at sunrise. It’s spectacular.” He led me to the front door, and I realized as he put the key in the lock that I was probably going to be there for sunrise. I shivered slightly with anticipation. There wouldn’t be a drink. We would be kissing each other as soon as we were in the door. Then there would be a trail of clothes to the bedroom, and then— Jax came bounding out of the darkness and would have knocked me down the front steps if Joe hadn’t caught me. Joe’s arms were around me, but it was Jax’s large tongue all over my face, and it took me a second to get my bearings.

“Jax! Down! Down!” He pushed her off me. “I swear, she doesn’t usually jump. She really likes you.”

I brushed myself off and tried to discreetly wipe the slobber off my face. “I have to admit, I didn’t think she was who I’d be making out with.”

He laughed and covered his eyes with a hand. “I’m not good at this, am I?”

“We’ll blame Jax.”

“How about that drink? And we try again?”

I agreed and followed him to the kitchen, where he poured us each a glass of wine and suggested we sit in the living room. He let Jax out into the backyard, then sat next to me on the sofa.

I took a sip. “This is really good.”

He shrugged. “I don’t really know much about wine. I should, with my dad and all. But I just have what he gives me to try usually.”

“You haven’t mentioned him much.”

Joe took a sip. “He travels a lot. Wanted me to be a lawyer, not a photographer. But we do well otherwise.”

“And your sister?”

Jax scratched at the back door to come in, and he went to open the door for her. She jumped right into his spot on the sofa and put her head in my lap for me to pet her.

“Jax! For the love of—you’re not helping!” He tried to pull her off the sofa, but she had dug in.

“Is she like this with every girl you bring home?”

He laughed nervously. “She’s never like this. Jax! Treat! Come on, girl!” She jumped down at the word treat and ran toward the kitchen, while Joe quickly claimed the cushion she had vacated next to me. He took a big swig of his wine, then looked at me. “Hi.”

I set my glass down. “Hey.” We were facing each other, and he inched closer, putting one arm behind me, brushing my hair back with the other hand. I had forgotten this sense of anticipation, the delicious moments before a kiss happened, when it felt like gravity was pulling you into someone in slow motion.

His lips touched mine, and then everything moved quickly again. His hand was in my hair, and I was on his lap, kissing him with an overwhelming urgency as he pulled a strap of my sundress down my shoulder. I pulled my arm out and reached down to start unbuttoning his shirt when I felt his tongue along my neck.