Sleeping with the Boss (Anderson Brothers, #1)(38)
He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He looked away and exhaled.
“How about a drink?” she offered, heading toward the bar to get some distance between them. Being in his arms again had put her body into an adrenaline frenzy.
“Nah. I’m driving, but I’d love a soda or some water.”
He followed her to the kitchen where she pitched him a bottle of water from the fridge. She pulled one out for herself and bumped the door closed with her hip. “You don’t have to talk about Beth if you don’t want to. It’s just a little confusing to me. I’ll be honest. I don’t like the woman.”
He leaned against the counter and twisted the top off the water bottle. “I met Beth at a frat party during my junior year of college. I wanted nothing to do with her.” He slid the cap into his pocket. “She felt differently.”
He took a sip from his bottle, staring at the cabinets over Claire’s shoulder, avoiding eye contact. She knew this was hard for him. “Beth represented everything I grew up with and wanted to get away from: society, the show of money, prestige. It seemed like no matter where I went after that, she was there. It turned out that she had known who I was since our freshman year and I’d never even noticed her.” He smiled, but it was not a happy smile, and it made Claire’s chest ache. “She resented the hell out of that—probably still does.”
Claire cranked open her own bottle and took a sip, waiting while he stared off into space for a moment.
“It became a running gag with my frat brothers that I had a stalker. After a semester of supposedly coincidental meetings, I started actually looking forward to seeing her. She was familiar by that point. So I finally asked her out.”
He took another chug of water and then set the half-empty bottle on the counter behind him. “Turns out we got along really well. Both sets of parents were over the moon about us dating. I mean, hey, an Anderson-Carmichael union would be like uniting two small countries in their eyes. Peace, love, and glitter-shitting unicorns.”
She laughed. He gave her a slight smile and continued. “Beth said she wanted the things I wanted, but it was all an act.”
“What kind of things?”
He shook his head. “Open air, quiet, a family eventually.”
“So you asked her to marry you.”
“No. She asked me.” He ran his hands over his closely cropped hair. “Honestly, when I look back on it, I should have seen the signs. I was projecting what I wanted, rather than seeing what was really there. I just kept looking for rainbows.” He took a slow, deep breath. “Even in Afghanistan, I kept chasing those rainbows.”
Claire knew all about chasing rainbows. Rainbows obscured the reality that crept up on you in the middle of the night when you realized your mommy wasn’t ever coming home. Or when the screams of pain started in the next room because the morphine pump wasn’t enough anymore.
They stared at each other until she felt a little dizzy. She knew what he’d been through and how much he’d been hurt. “I’ve been told that sometimes, there’s a pot of gold at the end of those rainbows. I’d sure like to find it.”
This time when he smiled, his dimples showed. “Me, too.”
She couldn’t help but smile back at him from across her small kitchen.
“You up for a little adventure?” he asked. “I’d love to show you something.”
There were lots of things she’d like him to show her. Maybe her pot of gold was closer than expected. “Sure. You’re the boss, Mr. Anderson. Set the agenda.”
…
Will loved the feel of Claire on the bike behind him with her arms wrapped around his torso. At first, she had tried to maintain some distance, but before long, she was resting fully against him, and it felt so right.
He turned into his subdivision and his heart rate kicked up a notch. He wished it weren’t nighttime so that she could get a better look around, but the streetlights created pools of light that were big enough to give her the gist of it. His need for her to like his home bordered on irrational. He made a right at the second stop sign and took a deep breath. She was leaving in a little over a week, so in truth, her liking it was neither here nor there. Maybe he just wanted affirmation that the house he had restored and loved had value. Or maybe he wanted the girl he was falling for to value it, too. And with that thought, Will knew he was completely and totally f*cked. He had it bad for this woman. Fate had thrown him a bone he couldn’t chew and it pissed him off.
Claire’s arms tightened around his body and she let out an excited squeal when they passed a large bush in front of the house two doors down from his. “Whoa! Did you see that bunny? There was a bunny! Like the hoppy, cute, white-tailed kind.”
“There are lots of them.” He turned into his driveway and parked the bike under the overhang in front of the garage. “Off you go.”
His body felt cool where her arms and thighs had been. He got off and flipped down the kickstand as she walked out to the middle of the yard to check out his house. He held his breath, waiting for her verdict. The last time he’d brought a woman here, it hadn’t gone well. Beth was less than impressed.
“Wow. This is perfect. It’s your family’s?”
He almost laughed. The Anderson Foundation would never invest in a small, restored, historic home. Islands, high rises, Riviera condos? Yes. Long Island bungalow? No. “It’s all mine.”