Perfect Kiss (14 page)

“Thanks.” Shelby smiled, hoping to camouflage her reaction to her sister-in-law’s kind words.

Amy’s sincerity twisted the knife in Shelby’s heart. Guilt consumed her. She had a family that loved her. That would do anything to support her. How had she let herself stay in that horrific situation for so long?

“Yay! We’re all here now!” Amanda enthused as she flung the door open.

After Amanda gave Amy a huge hug, Shelby found herself the next to be wrapped in her welcoming embrace.

“I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Me too,” Shelby answered honestly.

Both she and Amy followed Amanda into the living room, and their host went through introductions. Shelby knew most of the girls there. Three of them she would have recognized even if she’d never met them. Lauren hosted a real estate reality TV show she loved, and Karina was the reigning princess of pop. Then there was Sam, an Olympic athlete who had retired and now worked at Mountain Ridge.

Amy’s sister, Nikki, and sisters-in-law, Tessa and Lily, were also there. The only person Shelby didn’t remember meeting before was Jane. When Amanda introduced her, she said that Jane worked for Nikki’s husband, Mike.

Shelby naturally gravitated towards Jane. Not only did she seem really sweet, but she was also the only other odd man out. Amy, Nikki, Lily, and Tessa were all related. Amanda, Karina, Lauren, and Sam had all been friends since they were kids. Shelby and Jane were the outsiders.

Although, in all fairness, no one treated them like that.

As Shelby listened to all the gossip and catching up the girls were doing, she couldn’t help but notice what an accomplished group of women was gathered here. She’d had dreams, ambitions, and goals, but this past year and half had derailed all of them. Sitting there, listening to everyone talk, lit a fire inside her. It was about time to get her life back on track.

“Soooo, how are things going with Levi?” Amanda asked.

When the room went silent, Shelby glanced around and realized that all eyes were on her. “What?”

Karina repeated the question. “How are things going over at Levi’s?”

“We heard that you moved into the cabin,” Lauren stated.

Shelby’s eyes flew to her sister-in-law.

“It wasn’t me.” Amy put her hands up in surrender. “The only people I talk to are Paige and Peyton, and they definitely didn’t say anything since they can’t talk.”

“It’s a small town,” Amanda explained. “News travels fast.”

Shelby nodded. It shouldn’t bother her that everyone knew she was staying at Levi’s, but it did make her feel exposed.

Maybe sensing how uncomfortable she was, Karina raised her hand. “Sue Ann told me. She said that Levi mentioned it. Then I told Lauren and Amanda.”

“My mom told me,” Nikki piped in. “She was with Sue Ann at JT’s when Levi was talking about it. And I told Tessa and Lily.”

“I didn’t know,” Jane said quietly, shrugging her shoulder. “If that makes you feel any better.”

For some reason, Jane’s comment not only did, in fact, make Shelby feel better, but it also made her laugh, and the tension she’d been feeling evaporated.

“Welcome to small-town living.” Karina lifted her glass of wine. “Everyone is always in your business. You can now consider yourself officially initiated.”

Everyone raised their glasses and cheered Shelby’s “official initiation.”

“So…” Karina smiled slyly after taking a sip of her wine. “How is living and working with Levi?”

Shelby almost choked on her vino. “I don’t
live
with Levi. I’m just staying in the cabin.”

“Right.” Karina nodded with faux sincerity. “That’s what I meant. How’s living in Levi’s cabin?”

The girls all chuckled, and Shelby felt her cheeks growing red. She was not one to easily blush—or even blush at all. But having her and Levi’s living situation called into question had her cheeks burning up.

“It’s good. He’s doing a lot of renovations on it. It’s going to be amazing when he’s finished.”

“Oh.” Karina perked up. “Does he have a tool belt? I’ve always had a thing for a guy in a tool belt.”

“I thought a guy with a guitar was more your speed.” Sam nudged Karina, who was sitting beside her.

Shelby remembered that Karina was engaged to Ryan Perkins, Sue Ann’s grandson. They were both musicians and had just finished a tour together.

“Oh, it is! Ryan is the hottest thing on two legs. But a girl can fantasize.” Karina wagged her eyebrows.

Sam hit Karina with a pillow.

Amanda raised her hand slowly. “I’ll admit I’ve had a fantasy or two about Levi.”

“Thank you!” Karina’s arms flew out dramatically.

“I have, too,” Lauren admitted with a sigh.

“I’ve had more than one,” Nikki chirped happily.

“Okay. Show of hands, who in this room has had immoral thoughts about the sexiness that is Levi Dorsey?” Karina’s voice rose as she scooted to the edge of the couch and raised her hand.

Amanda’s, Lauren’s, and Nikki’s hands shot up immediately. After a beat, Jane, Amy, and Shelby slowly raised theirs. The only two without their hands in the air were Sam and Tessa.

Karina looked at both women and shook her head with a look of pity. “That’s just sad. You’re missing out.”

The room erupted in laughter, and then the conversation moved on to talk of babies and weddings. Shelby spent the next few hours laughing so hard that she was pretty sure her cheeks were going to be sore the next day.

But one question kept coming back to her mind. All of these gorgeous, talented women had not always been in the relationships they were currently in. They’d been single and known Levi. Had he hooked up with any of them? It hadn’t sounded like it, but why wouldn’t he?

The thought of him being with one, or more, of them shouldn’t have bothered her. But…it did.

Chapter 12

‡

L
evi was doing everything he could to distract himself from the Daisy Duke jean shorts Shelby was wearing. They fit her like a second skin, leaving very little to the imagination. But what they did leave, Levi’s mind was more than happy to fill in.

They’d been working on pulling the linoleum flooring up, refinishing the hardwood beneath it, and installing floorboards in the dining room for the last few hours. And every time Shelby bent over, Levi grew hard. Uncomfortably hard. Rock hard. So hard that, if he lost his hammer, he could easily replace it with his dick.

Being in a constant state of arousal was not exactly the most comfortable—or even safest—way to work on demo projects. But if Shelby was going to be helping him, Levi figured he might as well get used to it. There was something about her that his body responded to without getting the green light from his brain.

At almost thirty-six, the last thing Levi would have thought he would be dealing with was unwanted boners. It seemed that not only was life full of surprises, which popped up in the form of painful hard-ons, but apparently life also had a sense of humor, because there was nothing he could do to alleviate his condition.

Sure, he’d taken matters into his own hands. Literally. Sometimes several times a day. But it barely took the edge off. Within minutes, his desire was back in full force.

Hooking up with anyone else was not the answer. The one time he’d attempted that had been a huge failure that had ended in Dina paying him a visit he wished he could erase from his memory. No way was he planning on going down that road again.

This entire situation might have screamed
glutton for punishment
, but he wasn’t a masochist. And there was no reason to drag someone else into his fucked-up life. That would most definitely be a recipe for disaster.

“I’m going to get some lemonade. Do you want some?” Shelby asked, as she pushed off the floor where she’d been kneeling and stretched her hands above her head. The motion caused the sleeveless flannel shirt that was tied at her waist to rise and expose a couple of inches of her tan, taut stomach.

Levi’s mouth watered, but it had nothing to do with the promise of lemonade. Arousal shot through his body with so much force that his knees buckled. He fisted his hands at his side and inhaled deeply through his nose. Someone seriously needed to shoot him and put him out of his misery.

This was torture.

“Sure,” he said gruffly as he turned his attention back to the boards he was cutting.

With the pencil in his hand, he finished the line on the two-by-four he was cutting to size. After pulling his safety goggles back down, he pushed the wood through the table saw and the end piece tumbled to the ground. When he turned the saw off, the room was silent except for a barely audible hum of singing. Bad singing.

Taking his glasses off, Levi craned his neck so he could see around the corner to the kitchen. Shelby was bopping her head as she twisted the ice cube tray and pulled several pieces out before plopping them into two large tumbler cups. The afternoon light, beaming in from the picture window above the sink, was shining on her like a spotlight. As she happily sang and filled their glasses, there was a hazy glow around her.

Levi’s heart clenched. He felt like someone was squeezing it like he had done with the lemons he’d used for the lemonade. Putting his hand over his chest, he felt his heartbeat pounding… And then it hit him. For an inexplicable reason, he knew, in that moment, that Dina had been right.

He was in love with Shelby.

His mind started doing a rapid-fire Google search to try to figure out when in the hell this had happened. How in the hell had he fallen in love and not known it?

Levi had always prided himself on being self-aware. Since he was a kid, he’d had a strong sense of self. He’d embraced the good, the bad, and the ugly about himself. So how was it possible that something so significant as falling in love had crept up on him? How had a stranger been able to figure out what was going on before he had?

Before any answers were clear in his head, Shelby was standing in front of him, two cups of lemonade in her hands. Worry was etched over her pretty features, and concern dripped from her voice as she asked, “Are you okay?”

Not trusting himself to speak, Levi nodded and took one of the cups. Then he downed the entire thing in three gulps. When he lowered it, Shelby was staring up at him with wide-eyed astonishment.

“Wow. You were thirsty.”

Using his forearm, he wiped the excess liquid off his mouth. “Yeah. I guess I was.”

She raised her eyebrows and motioned over her shoulder. “Do you want me to get you some more?”

“No. I’m good. Thanks.” Pushing past her small frame, Levi tried not to let the panic—or anything else he was feeling—show on his face.

After stalking over to the sink he’d installed last week, he dumped the ice and rinsed the cup out. He felt, more than heard, Shelby behind him, and for some reason, knowing she was so close to him made him feel like a caged wild animal.

Not that she was trapping him—at least, not in the way most women trapped men. She was totally unaware of the turmoil her presence caused him, and he planned on keeping it that way.

It was the situation that was making him feel like he was being backed into a corner. If he could be honest about how attracted he was to her, how much he wanted to be there for her. How amazing he thought she was. How much he loved her, things would be different. Even if his feelings weren’t reciprocated, at least he wouldn’t feel like he was hiding something from her.

Honesty was important to him. He demanded it of himself and expected it from others. So keeping everything he was feeling about Shelby to himself felt…wrong. Like he wasn’t telling the truth. Unfortunately, putting his cards on the table wasn’t an option. She was not in the emotional state to play any games, even if she was holding the winning hand.

“Levi?” Shelby’s voice sounded so small. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Hearing her like that made him feel like he was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. On the one hand, he was furious that she’d had to go through whatever had caused her to shrink inside herself. He wanted to kill whoever was responsible. On the other hand, he was flooded with compassion. He wanted to gently pull her into his arms and rock her and take away all the fear, all the pain she was so obviously in.

He’d never felt so at odds with himself. Levi wasn’t sure he could keep this up. He wasn’t sleeping. He was barely eating. Which was completely his fault. He’d put himself in this predicament. Now, he just had to figure out how to navigate through it and not lose his sanity in the process.

Once he’d turned to face Shelby, he saw a questioning look in her eyes. No matter what he was going through, the last thing he wanted was to upset her or make her feel uneasy.

“Sorry. I’m just tired.” As the explanation left his lips, his stomach simultaneously growled like the MGM lion as if on cue. After laughing at Shelby’s surprised expression, Levi added, “And hungry.”

A huge grin lit up her face. “Well, I may not be a great cook, but I can make a mean sandwich.” Pulling a chair out, she patted it. “You sit. I’ll make us some lunch.”

The thought of sitting in those close quarters with the girl who was driving him crazy with lust, with worry, with another emotion that Levi may have admitted to himself but didn’t want to name, did not sound like the best idea in the world. But in the vein of self-awareness and self-acceptance, if there was one thing he’d learned about himself over the last few weeks, it was that, where Shelby was concerned, he couldn’t say no.

*

Shelby’s hands were trembling a little bit as she spread mustard on all four slices of bread in front of her. It wasn’t from nerves or fear. Nope. Her shakiness could be attributed to one thing and one thing only. Arousal.

Spending the last few hours working with Levi had been the sweetest form of torture imaginable. It wasn’t just that he was just so damn…capable. Although, come on. That didn’t hurt one iota. What girl didn’t love a man who was good with his hands? His large, callused, work-worn hands. Hands she’d been imagining running all over her body…

I digress.