One Hot Summer (33 page)

“I'd like to think I've evolved a bit this summer, thanks to you.”

She hugged him tight. “This summer has changed me, too.”

“Tell me more about your folks. Are they better drivers than you?”

Remedy had always fancied herself a darn good driver, but it would have been impossible to defend her skills without coming across like Rain Man. “My dad's better at driving golf carts, which is probably because he gets a lot of practice, playing golf as often as he does. But my mom's worse than me, with golf carts and cars. At least, that's my memory from when I was a kid. She hasn't driven in years. That's how much she hates it.”

“Really? How does she get around?”

“She has a driver.”

He groaned. “You're right. I might not have evolved as much as I'd thought. Tell me some normal things about your parents; set my mind at ease.”

Her mom having a driver and her dad's obsession with golf were her world's normal. She wanted Micah to like her parents, but they were who they were and there was no changing them. “My dad likes to grill. He fancies himself an amateur chef. My mom…” There wasn't very much down-to-earth about her mother. She'd worked hard in the film industry since she was a kid and had earned her eccentricities. “My mom loves her dogs. Like, so much. They're her life.”
Dogs
might be a stretch to describe the yapping balls of fluff she carried everywhere in a customized purse, but Remedy wasn't about to confess as much to Micah.

“My dad's that way, too, with grilling and with dogs,” Micah said. “He's got three German shepherd mixes now. Sometimes I think he loves them as much as his grandkids.”

Talking about Remedy's parents and Micah's dad made Remedy starkly aware of who they hadn't yet discussed. “I hope someday you'll feel like you can talk to me about your mom.”

Micah propped his hand behind his head and tipped his chin up to watch the treetops. “A while ago I decided she wasn't worth my time or energy thinking about anymore.”

This from the man who'd insisted to Remedy over and over that where a person was from and what their family background was held infinite importance in their life. She decided to risk one more question. “When did she die?”

“She's alive. I'm not sure where. We haven't spoken in years.” He huffed. “So many years. By her choice. And it's the choice I'm most comfortable with, too.”

She kissed his shoulder. Remedy's world would capsize if she and her mom were to sever ties. She couldn't even imagine it, but it was a truth Micah lived with every day.

“How old were you when she…”

“Twelve. And that's all I'd like to say about it for now.”

Remedy nodded, even as she drew lines in her memory with other stories he'd told her about his youth. He was eleven when the fire struck. He and his family had spent nearly a year at his grandparents' house while their home was rebuilt. And his mother left in the middle of all that upheaval, when her children needed her most? Unfathomable. Absolutely despicable. No wonder he didn't want to talk about her.

Time for a subject change to break the grim mood. “You mentioned your dad having grandkids, so that means you're an uncle, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks to my older brother and two younger sisters. I earned my Favorite Uncle status one water gunfight and trip to the ice-cream store at a time. My brother has two girls and my sisters both have boys. You'll meet the whole crew on Sunday.”

“I can't wait. Just … they're not going to serve any of those weird Jell-O and mayonnaise salads like we had at Albert and Tabby's wedding, are they?”

He chuckled, his grief seemingly forgotten. “It's always possible. In fact, I might volunteer to bring one. Just for you. Maybe I'll sprinkle some raisins on top as decoration.”

She poked him in the ribs. “Is that your idea of sweet-talking me?”

“No. And neither is this.” In a flash he'd rolled to his side, his hands out, tickling her. She squirmed and lurched all over, splashing water and squealing and laughing until the tickling got too much and she pleaded with him to have mercy.

“I told you I'd file that ticklish information away for another time.”

She slid her leg across his body, then pushed herself up to straddle his waist. “So you did.”

Then she threaded their fingers together and pinned his hands into the sand near his ears.

Sand and water sprinkled over his taut chest and muscled shoulders, and a few grains of sand had found their way into his long, dark eyelashes. He was so beautiful. He was hers.

“You're bringing me home to meet your parents.” The wonder of it. Of them together. The Hollywood event planner destined to leave and the small-town fire chief with roots planted so deep that he could never leave without giving up the very essence of the man she was falling hard for.

His eyes glowed with affection. He brushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Just do me one favor, would you, darlin'?” he drawled.

She loved the way his twang got more pronounced when his voice turned husky and low like it was now. “Anything.”

A boyish grin broke out on his face. “Try not to burn my dad's house down while you're there.”

“Micah!”

“Or break any windows. Or crash your car through the porch steps. Or sic your pet pigeons on the dinner spread.”

His belly laugh vibrated through her thighs and shook her body. She released his hands so she could tickle his ribs, but before she knew what had happened she was flat on her back, Micah on top of her. No more laughter in his eyes. All she saw was heat and need and love as he caged her head between his arms.

She searched his gaze. “When I saw you here, I thought you and I might be through. For a fleeting second, I wondered if you were here to break up with me.”

“Not even close.”

“I'm responsible for the fire at the ball,” she said.

“Not you. It was my error in judgment. I'm pretty pissed off at myself. I should've never let Emily sucker me into agreeing to something I knew was dangerous.”

“I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a way of conjuring disaster.” The threat of tears stung her eyes. Copping to that flaw wasn't supposed to feel so vulnerable, but she needed Micah to see her for everything she was, the good and the bad—and she needed him to choose her anyway.

Affection bloomed in his eyes. “I did notice that, actually. And I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Xavier tells me I have a compulsive need to swoop in and save the day.”

“I think Xavier's on to something.”

He stroked a tendril of hair from her cheek. “So I'm working on a theory involving your disaster-conjuring gene and my hero syndrome being perfectly suited to each other.”

In other words, they didn't make sense except that they did. She lifted her head and kissed him. “I think you might be on to something.”

He fingered her shirt collar. “Speaking of saving people, I think I need to do something about these wet clothes you're in.”

“Could be dangerous.”

He popped the top button open. “I can't allow that.”

While he unbuttoned her shirt, a splash of white color caught Remedy's eye. The pigeons, inching ever nearer to Remedy and Micah. “We're being watched.”

Micah craned his neck to follow her gaze. “I'll be damned. You were right; those birds are stalking you.”

“They love me.”

He splayed her shirt open. “Never thought I'd have something in common with a bunch of pigeons.” He tugged her bra cup down and drew her nipple into his mouth with a hard suck that pulled a whimper from her throat.

She combed her fingers through her hair, reveling in the dual elation of his mouth on her flesh and her learning that he loved her. “Take me here, now. Just like this.”

She registered the desperation in her voice, the urgent need to connect after so much strife and uncertainty between them. With her on the pill and both of them recently tested, they'd abandoned condoms the night they became an exclusive couple. There was nothing stopping them from joining together in the very spot in which they'd first laid eyes on each other.

There was that lazy, lopsided smile that melted her heart. “It's kind of our thing, isn't it? Making love by the riverbank like a proper redneck couple.”

With her hands, she memorized the planes and curves of his shoulders and back. Her palms followed the contour of his spine to the dip of his lower back and the flare of his taut backside before it disappeared into the waistband of his briefs. “I would have never imagined this for myself before you.”
And now I'm having trouble imagining my life any other way.

His caressing hands dipped lower. He bunched her skirt at her hips, then peeled her wet underwear off and tossed it on top of his pile of clothes. “I'm gonna add this pair to the collection I started in my truck, to go with that first pair you left hanging on my rearview mirror the first time we slept together.”

“I forgot about those.” That night seemed like a lifetime ago, when she'd thought of Micah as an adversary, rather than a force of change and happiness in her world.

Their bodies joined together in an exquisite sharp bolt of pleasure. Her fingers slid over her belly to her clit, working it in time with his hips. Their mouths searched each other out and locked together in a never-ending kiss as they rocked in a slow and steady grind that seemed to stretch each second out with each dragging thrust of friction and flesh. As if they could stay in this moment together forever. As if there weren't a thousand forces trying to wedge them apart.

Remedy's buildup was swift. “Micah, I'm already there. Oh, damn.”

She allowed herself only quiet whimpers in such a public place. Thrusting her hips, she brought herself all the way home with her fingers on her clit and his cock pounding inside her. Tears crowded her eyes and slipped down her cheeks as her release welled up from a deep, dark corner of her being. A swirling, raw stew of bliss and heartache and need.

Micah's thrusts turned erratic, his breathing uneven. On a grunt, he pulled out of her and knelt, his hand rubbing himself in compact circles until he raised his face to the sky with a grimace and spent himself into the water.

“Not in me?” she croaked, empty now that the act had been so brief.

He collapsed next to her on the sand and pulled her into his arms. “I'm not done with you yet, not by a long shot.” He kissed her temple. “Let me take you to your place so I can get you naked and love on your body in a proper way. I'm in the mood to hear you scream my name.”

She scratched the hair at the base of his softening cock. “Only if I get to love on your body, too.”

“Darlin', I'll take whatever you give me. That's always been the case.”

A note of anguish touched those last words. As though she held all the power, his heart in her hand. She took hold of his head and arched up to kiss him full on the mouth. “Then I guess we'd better get going, because I plan on giving you everything you want.”

Touching and kissing, they hurried along the trail to her house, her in her wet suit, minus her underwear, and him going commando in his jeans, with his wet briefs and shirt stuffed into the waistband of his pants. When they arrived at the steps up to her back deck, he pressed her against one of the deck's wooden support pillars and took her mouth in a demanding kiss that left her dizzy and needy all over again.

A car drove by, breaking the spell. “Let's get upstairs,” he said. “You first so I can admire your ass.”

Remedy realized halfway up that the door to her back deck was open. “I didn't leave that door open. I'm sure of it.”

Micah swept past her, all business. “There's a white SUV parked in front and a big bruiser of a guy guarding it,” he whispered. “I don't know what's going on, but let's get back to my truck and call the cops.”

“Surprise!” came a booming voice from above.

Remedy nearly leaped out of her skin. Judging by the looks of it, Micah had experienced the same reaction. Hanging over the deck railing was none other than Remedy's mother.

It took a moment for Remedy to recover her wits before she could answer. “Mom? What are you doing here?”

Micah looked from Remedy to her mother in a stupefied silence, his eyebrows raised. Then, silently, he donned his T-shirt. Remedy sent him a silent apology. At the sight of pink fabric in his pocket, she got his attention and gestured for him to stuff her panties deeper inside.

“We heard on the news about the fire at the resort.”

“We?” Remedy said as her father stepped out of the back sliding door and stood shoulder to shoulder with Mom.

Remedy shifted her gaze between the two, stunned silent. It took a nudge from Micah for her to find her voice again. “You're both here. Together. Why? I mean, what a nice surprise. No. I take that back. I mean, why? Seriously.”

Her dad's smile crinkled the skin at the corners of his eyes. He set a hand on her mom's shoulder, as though that was the most natural thing in the world to do. “We wanted to make sure you were all right.”

Remedy tore her gaze from his hand and let her focus shift between her parents. “Why didn't you call? I could've told you I was all right over the phone.”

Her mom waved off the suggestion. “Surprises are a lot more fun. Plus Cambelle, Wynd, and Helen heard about the fire, too, and they wanted to come find out if it was going to affect their wedding. So I called your father up and we decided, What the heck? Let's join them.”

A tingling started in Remedy's throat. “Cambelle, Wynd, and Helen are here? Where?”

“At Briscoe Ranch. They were golfing, last I heard,” her dad said.

Oh boy.

“Why don't you two come on up and we'll have some champagne,” Mom said. “I can't wait for you to introduce us properly to your strapping firefighter man”—she cupped a hand on the side of her mouth as though telling a secret—“who doesn't look a thing like Tom Selleck, just like you told me he didn't.”