Page 51 of The Clover Chapel (Jamison Valley 2)
“Beer. I picked it up on the way here so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way into town.”
As we drove through the darkness, Nick reached out and captured my hand. He brought it to his lips and spoke against my skin. “Those are some boots.”
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re sexy as fuck. Sometime I’m going to see what you look like wearing them and nothing else,” he said.
I was glad the truck’s cab was dark and he couldn’t see my cheeks flush. A shiver ran through my body and my sex started throbbing at the mental image he’d conjured.
Nick and I hadn’t done anything but kiss these last few weeks and he’d kept them all PG-rated. He’d brush his lips quickly against my cheek or my temple, his soft beard giving me tingles. More often, he would lean down and kiss the tip of my nose.
And that’s exactly how I had wanted it. I wasn’t ready to take things any further. But my body was protesting my brain’s decision. At this very minute, it was running hot.
I rationalized it as a lack of sexual activity. I hadn’t had sex since moving from New York, five months ago. Back then, Logan and I’d had a great sex life. My feelings were all just a result of going cold turkey. Right?
Nick laughed. “Stop thinking about sex, Emmy.”
Shit.
The sexual tension in the truck was stifling. Of course he knew I was thinking about sex, so there was no use denying it. Luckily, the drive was short and soon we turned down the gravel lane that led to the Clearys’ home.
The farmhouse was outside of town and not all that far from mine. Their place was set further into the prairie but the back of their property butted up against the same forest that surrounded my house.
As we walked toward the enormous garage, which was perpendicular to the farmhouse, all of the sexual energy I’d been feeling was replaced with anxiety.
Nick must have felt my nervousness, that or heard my pounding heartbeat, because he shifted the six-pack he was carrying and grabbed my hand.
His hand-holding should have been comforting but it was actually making things worse.
The last time I had been here, I’d bolted right after the Halloween party had started. I’d seen the Clearys since but no one else from that night. Prescott was too small for Nick’s friends and acquaintances not to know who I was. What did they think of me?
Usually I didn’t care much about what people thought, but here things were different than they had been in the city. I wanted to fit in Prescott and I worried that I didn’t.
But that wouldn’t stop me from trying.
I wanted to be a beloved member of the community, like Gigi Cleary. Everyone talked about her with admiration. Even though she wasn’t a Montana native, she was one of Prescott’s adored citizens. I wanted to be the adored kindergarten teacher. At least for as long as I was living here.
All of the people here tonight were Nick’s friends and long-time Prescott residents. What were they going to think of me waltzing into a party, holding Nick’s hand?
“Don’t stress, Emmy,” he said.
“Easy for you to say. These are your friends. I’m just the estranged wife.”
Nick stopped us a few feet away from the garage door. “These are good people and they won’t judge. Besides, they all know that the reason we were previously estranged was because of me.”
“What? You told them?” I asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t go into specifics but I let them know that any anger or hostility you had toward me was well deserved. They all know that I was the one in the wrong.”
“Why would you tell them that?”
“Prescott’s a small place. I didn’t want gossip flying around and getting out of hand,” he said.
He had protected my reputation without being asked. He’d never know how much that meant to me, but it was the world. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“We’re going to walk in there and the women are going to steal you away.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
