Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(34)

Doing her best to avoid looking directly at him—lest she miss her meeting completely—Xoey headed over to her closet to get dressed.

Only to have a low, slow whistle accompany her on her journey.

Spinning around quickly, she grabbed the nearest pair of panties to slip over her hips when her sleep-foggy brain finally realized she’d been walking around buck naked.

“That is the sexiest reverse stripper dance I have ever seen,” he hummed in appreciation, his bemused bedroom eyes watching her with languid, sleepy lust.

“You know, you could at least pretend to look away so I can get dressed in peace.”

His expression told her that was possibly the craziest thing to ever be uttered in the human language, before he proceeded to continue ogling her until her entire body was blushing from the attention.

Two could play at that game.

“I’ll be back in an hour.” She blew him a kiss and swiftly scooped up all his clothes from the ground. Before dashing to the front door with her bounty. “Feel free to rock one of my thongs and shorty tees if you get hungry and need to leave the apartment for sustenance,” she called out before she yanked the door shut behind her.

Halfway down the stairs, however, she felt a needle of guilt when she remembered she hadn’t gone grocery shopping in a week. She didn’t want the man to starve. Sighing over her kind heart and magnanimous generosity, she jogged back up and cracked open the front door to throw in a peace offering for him to wear.

His socks.

Well, one of his socks.

His instant bark of laughter echoing around the apartment had her smiling all the way down to the brewpub.

After dropping his clothes in a pile on her office desk, Xoey headed to the side employee entrance for her meeting with one of her new produce vendors. Humming the entire time.

It was a good morning.

An hour and a half later, she returned to find him in exactly the same spot she’d left him, dozing away like a content cat. Glancing at the clock with a concerned frown, she hopped on the mattress edge to wake him up. “Sorry my meeting ran long. Are you going to be late for work?”

He rolled onto his back and gave her quite the eyeful as his flexing muscles rippled out a lazy stretch. “I told my staff I’d be coming in late because you hid all my clothes. I’m not sure if it says more about you or more that they didn’t even ask a single follow-up question.”

Xoey beamed, before getting very distracted when his next stretch revealed even more skin.

“Hey, Isaac?” she asked softly, her eyes tracing over the lines of his body still hidden under the thin sheet.

His eyebrows lowered in hungry expectation. “Yeah?”

Her fingers drew a lazy treasure map down his exposed abdomen. “Where’s the sock?”

The glint in his eyes challenged her. “Come find it.”

She eventually did find it.

A few times.



*



FOR THE SECOND TIME that day, Xoey found herself being woken up prematurely. Only this time, it wasn’t her alarm. It was her phone.

And the flashing caller ID name on the screen had her jolting up out of bed.

“Vivian? Is everything okay?”

“Xoey, thank God. I didn’t know who else to call. Darcy was in a car accident.”

“Oh my God.” Xoey jumped up to get dressed. “Is she okay? Is Blake okay?” Just the thought of her friend Darcy and her son Blake injured was enough to send her into a panic.

“Darcy’s in surgery now. Blake wasn’t in the car.”

Xoey sat on the bed and held her hand to her heart, vaguely registering that Isaac was behind her stroking her back in comfort. “What can I do? Are you heading to the hospital now? I can meet you there.” Darcy and her sister Vivian lived a few hours north of Cactus Creek. If she left now, she could beat the afternoon traffic.

“Actually, I’m with Hank and the kids out East visiting his parents. The first flight I could get was the redeye tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll go to the hospital and find out what I can. Which one is it?”

“They won’t tell you anything because you aren’t family. But actually, it’s Blake I’m worried about.”

Xoey was back to panicking.

“He’s at home with the sitter, but she’s in a bind. After I told her about the accident, she did offer to spend the night, of course, but the thing is, she wasn’t even supposed to watching him for more than a few hours today. She has her LSATs in the morning and if she misses them, there’s only one more she can take this year—?

“Say no more. I’ll be right there. I’ve served drinks to a lot of pre-law students over the years; I know all about needing that second test in case you don’t pass the first one. I can be at Darcy’s house in two hours. Do you want me to take Blake over to see his mom?”

“I don’t know how bad her injuries are or how she even looks.” Vivian’s voice shook. “I don’t want Blake to be traumatized if he doesn’t have to be. I’ll head straight to the hospital from the airport and call you when I know more. If you could clear your schedule tomorrow too and be on standby to bring him by—?

“Of course, anything you need. I’m heading out right now. I’ll have my cell with me the entire time, call me if you get any news. Or even if you just need to talk, you hear?”