The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(33)

“Don’t hold yourself back on my account,” Brynn said. “I don’t drink OJ.”

He pulled the OJ off the shelf and tipped his head back for a long drink. She watched him swallow, thinking it should be illegal for a guy to look that good in everything. And nothing. “It’s going to be hard to go scuba diving in that, isn’t it?” she asked.

He grinned at her. He was the first guy to actually like her smart-ass side. “I’ve got to testify in court today on a case about a gas leak into the marina by a service station.”

“Our local expert,” Max said proudly.

“Don’t be impressed,” Eli told Brynn. “I’m just the only one in my department who owns a suit.”

Kinsey gave a rare laugh. “And don’t be impressed by that either. He can’t tie his own tie. So . . . settle a bet for us. You haven’t unpacked your duffel bag. Why?”

Brynn’s heart skipped a beat. She’d assumed no one had noticed. “It’s only been a few days.”

“A week, but yeah, exactly,” Kinsey muttered oddly to both Max and Eli. Then to Brynn, she said, “Also, where’s all your other stuff?”

Her pulse kicked into gear at the thought of her secret shame. Her palms began to sweat, but with some hard-won effort, she left her expression dialed to neutral. “How do you know I even have other things? Maybe I just live light.”

“Doubtful, since you used to come to summer camp with two huge suitcases filled to the brim.”

“Things change.” Brynn’s hands went onto her hips and she looked around. “Do we have a problem?”

“We’ve got a bet,” Kinsey said. “There’s twenty bucks on the line and I want it.”

Brynn looked at Eli.

“Not me,” he said, and eyed the others, looking pissed off. “Leave her alone.”

Max lifted his hands. “Hey, I just thought it’d be an easy twenty bucks.”

Brynn felt irritated, but she knew that was her shame at what she’d allowed to happen to her. Didn’t stop her from saying, “Maybe I have lots of stuff. Maybe I just haven’t fully decided on you guys, that’s all.”

“Aha! I win!” Max held out his hand, palm up, to Kinsey. “Pay up.”

“No way,” Kinsey said, and looked at Brynn. “And hey, we’re a delight.”

Eli laughed, and the weird tension was defused. Brynn even laughed too, but that was because Eli’s laugh was contagious.

“Look, it’s no big mystery,” she said. Such a fib. “I’ve just been busy this week. My driver’s license needed renewing, and my moms had stuff they needed me to do, and the teacher I’m subbing for didn’t leave me a lesson plan, which means I’m creating a curriculum as I go, and it’s taking a lot of time.”

Max wiggled his fingers at Kinsey, who sighed and grabbed her purse off the counter.

“Hey,” Brynn said.

They all looked at her.

“I want in on the next bet.”

Eli grinned like he was proud of her, flashing a dimple and everything. And she might be a strong, independent woman—or at least she was working on it—which meant she didn’t need his or anyone’s approval, but it also didn’t mean it couldn’t feel good to get it.

“You need to get going,” Kinsey reminded Eli.

They all looked at the tie crumpled in his hand.

“Shit,” he said. “I’d rather get stung by a jellyfish again than wear this.”

“Pretty please try to tie it on again,” Kinsey said. “That was a fun show to watch.”

Brynn set down her things and took the tie. Going up on her tiptoes to get it around his neck, she dropped the ends of the tie to lift his shirt collar. When her fingers touched his throat and encountered warm skin, she went still and forgot to breathe.

He was watching her from all of two inches away, and it was . . . shockingly arousing. Enough to fog her glasses. He hadn’t shaved and his scruff scraped at her knuckles, and also at a few other body parts that were thankfully hidden away. She had to take off her fogged glasses, but somehow she still managed to button the top two buttons of his shirt and then work on the tie, keeping her eyes studiously on her own fingers and what she was doing, all while incredibly aware of the way she could feel his warm breath against her temple. They were toe to toe, and nearly chest to chest. If she so much as breathed deeply, there’d be contact.

Please let there be contact, her body whispered to her brain.

Her brain, clearly not on the same no-decision moratorium, approved, and she took a deep breath, her breasts leading the way, gently bumping into him.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

His hands went to her hips and he shook his head, maybe meaning no need for the apology. She felt drunk from inhaling his clean, sexy scent, all of which somehow made the moment even more memorable than that long-ago kiss they still hadn’t talked about.

“There,” she croaked, finally finishing the knot on the tie, giving it a pat.

Eli’s eyes held hers and warmed. And then Kinsey of course had to ruin it.

“Jesus,” she said. “Get a room.”





Chapter 11


From thirteen-year-old Brynn’s summer camp journal: