With hope fluttering in his chest, he’d snagged his coffee and followed her to the table like an eager puppy.He’d hoped to talk about the breakup, but she’d made it clear she had no interest in rehashing the past.So they’d talked about her career and his, their families and friends, local sports and politics.And when they’d parted, the brief hug she’d given him had left him walking on air for days.
A few days later, he’d taken a chance she hadn’t changed her number since college and had texted a meme to the number he still had memorized.She’d responded with a simple ‘lol’, then two days later had sent him a Reddit post she’d thought he might find funny.
And that, plus the occasional lunch and ride to the airport, had been the sum of their friendship for the last three years.Until she’d called him in January and asked him if he wanted to move in with her when his lease was up at the end of May.
He’d told her he needed to think it over, and they should probably meet to go over the terms, but those were bald-faced lies.The answer was always yes, and would have been no matter her terms.The fact that it would save him money was just a bonus—the real prize was getting to see Bailey, every day, and maybe, just maybe, start to build something more.
Because she was still the love of his life.
He let out a slow breath.He wanted her back, and though he’d long since reconciled himself to the fact that she owed him nothing—not forgiveness, not a second chance, hell, not even a hello in a coffee shop—he hoped.Beyond reason, beyond sense, he hoped.Because he’d gotten the hello, and the forgiveness, and if a man got two miracles in one lifetime, then he might as well go all in and wish for the third.
Chapter Three
When he’d finished his unpacking, he left the bedroom to walk down the short hallway to the laundry room.What had been the kitchen of the small house sat in the very center at the back of the first floor.It made a poor kitchen by modern standards, closed off as it was from the rest of the house, but there was enough space to make half of it a butler’s pantry, and the other half a small laundry room with a stacked washer and dryer, a short counter for folding with storage underneath, and a small utility sink.
He started to pull his clothes from the dryer, but he could still hear a motor buzzing outside.Unable to resist, he crossed the few feet to the back door and, nudging the curtain aside, peered through the glass insert into the backyard.
Bailey was mowing the lawn in a pair of athletic shorts and a matching bra, both in hot pink, her hair swept up in a high tail that bounced with every step.Her eyes were shielded by oversized sunglasses, sweat dampened the hair at her temples and nape and ran in little rivulets down her throat and into the valley of her breasts, which bounced along with the ponytail as she worked her way across the lawn.
“Don’t look at her tits,” he muttered and, pulling the other earbud out of his pocket, stuck it in his ear to tune out the mower and turned to deal with his laundry.
He pulled out the dry clothes, shifted the ones waiting in the washer up to the dryer and set it tumbling, then started folding.He was singing along with Rhianna and folding a pair of jeans that was threatening to fall apart at the seams when Bailey tapped him on the shoulder and sent him leaping into the air.
“Jesus!”He dragged the earbuds out, heart pounding, and turned to stare at her.“You scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry,” she said, toeing off her shoes.“I said your name twice.”
“Didn’t hear you.”He held up the ear buds.
“Sorry,” she said again, and swiped at her sweaty brow with her forearm.
“No problem,” he said, fighting for casual.The athletic bra she was wearing was either too small or not built for full coverage, and Bailey wasn’t exactly built delicately in the boob department.It was distracting.“Something you need?”
“Water.”
He frowned.“I don’t have any water.”
“No, but the kitchen does, and you’re in the way,” she informed him, pointing over his shoulder to the open doorway into the butler’s pantry.
“Right.Sorry.”He stepped to the side and, despite the fierce lecture he gave himself, watched her walk through the doorway.
The rear view was just as compelling as the front.
“Do you want one?”she called back to him.
“One what?”he answered, still thinking about her ass.He had fond memories of that ass.Veryfond memories.
Her face appeared in the doorway, the sunglasses shoved up on her head and a smirk on her face.“Water.”
“Oh.Sure.”
She disappeared, and he used the opportunity to give himself another silent lecture about getting distracted by her body, because now was not thetime, dammit, but then she was back in all her sweaty, scantily clad glory, and he just sighed.
She handed him the water.“You okay?”
“No,” he said and guzzled like a camel.
“Is it the ass or the boobs?”