Formats

📲 eBook Exclusive

Buy the Book

Kindle

Nook

Apple

Kobo

More retailers

Series Info

• Book 2, Evergreen Cove series

• Featuring Anthony Renaldo & Lourdes Daniels

Excerpt

She couldn’t say she’d never noticed the man was attractive. She had eyes. What she hadn’t had was the luxury of reacting to what she saw. She’d been one-half of Liam and Lou from the start. She’d been taken. Committed. Whatever she’d noticed about Ant in passing had to do just that—pass.

But today was the first time she’d been alone with him for an extended period. She’d been watching him on and off, buzzing through that tree like Thor with a chain saw. And when he’d climbed her patio stairs, sawdust sticking to his skin, she had noticed the way his damp, white T-shirt with the faded Evergreen Cove logo on it clung to his muscular torso. Her reaction had been physical. Her pulse had quickened, and not just in her neck. A single word had flitted through her addled mind: Yummy.

Yummy wasn’t a word she’d allowed herself to think about any male other than Liam in years.

She peeked out of the patio door, holding Thumbelina to her chest. Ant had left his empty iced tea glass on the railing and had returned to the yard. As if he felt her watching, he glanced over his shoulder. She waved. Awkwardly. He smiled, which sent another inappropriate jet of heat through her limbs, and then he fired up the chain saw.

She backed away from the patio door, grateful for the barrier. Every bit of her wanted to stand and stare, but she couldn’t do that. Or at least, she shouldn’t.

Three hours later, she was rinsing out her coffee mug when she spotted Elliott outside with a bag of sandwiches from Reggie’s. Thank God. Lou was starving! She raced out the door and through the side yard, both hands out

“You’re the best,” she told Elli.

“You’re stranded. What kind of friend would I be if I let you wither away?”

“Ant has been working his ass off.” Lou gestured to the driveway, where he was mid-log-haul, dragging a massive tarp to his truck. “He deserves better than peanut butter and jelly, which is about all I have inside. I need to go to Abundance Market this week before I run out of that too.”

Elliott surveyed the piles of branches stacked almost as tall as she was. “He’s been busy.”

“And still has a lot to go.” Lou appreciated the work he’d done but also worried she wouldn’t be able to leave her house tomorrow. And she needed to. She had an interview scheduled with Sofie Pate about a festival in town. A phone interview was out of the question. This was her opportunity to finally see inside the elusive Pate Mansion. She was dying for a peek.

“Hey, Beemer.” Ant offered Elli a chin nod. He’d nicknamed her after her BMW. At Brady’s request, Ant had replaced a flat tire for Elliott when she’d first come to town. Elli had been hesitant to accept, but Lou had reassured her that Ant was trustworthy. Even after all that had happened, Lou still trusted him.

“Lou thought you deserved a wholesome submarine sandwich. She mentioned your ass too, but”—Elli peered around his body—“it seems you haven’t worked it off, after all.”

“Thank you.” Lou snatched the bag and gave Elli a pointed look.

“Mine’s in there too.” Elli grinned. “Your treat. Should we eat on the patio?”

Lou cast a glance at Ant, who seemed to be waiting for her response. They hadn’t eaten lunch together in forever. An awkward silence stretched between them before he offered an almost imperceptible nod.

“I, uh, I’d better eat down here. I stink to high heaven.” His eyes were shadowed beneath the brim of his hat, his smile pure mischief. To Lou, he smelled of sunshine and sawdust, far from “stinking,” but she kept that thought to herself.

Lou slapped a wrapped sandwich and napkin into his broad palm, unable to keep from offering, “Sun tea?”

“’Preciate it.”

“Of course.” She held her smile until she turned her back on him. Then she collected herself—and her breath. What was with her today? She’d never been awkward around him before, had she?

Only when you first met him.

Right. The moment his shop door had swung open and revealed a tall, wide, sexy, smiling man when she’d been expecting a gangly sixty-something grandfather type. She’d mentioned her fiancé right away in an effort to stamp out the instant attraction before it turned into a raging forest fire.

She climbed the patio stairs and collected his empty glass. Elli followed her up and into the house. Once the door was shut behind them, Elli let her have it.

“Okay, what is up with the crazy sex tension going on between you two?”

“I don’t know!” Lou had been facing the sink but spun around to face her friend. Elli looked positively delighted. “God. I knew you could tell. I’m so transparent.”

“As a windowpane, my friend. But you’re not the only one. He’s looking at you like you’re lunch.”

That was…alarming. Lou filled his glass with more ice from the dispenser on the freezer door, her movements jerky.

“Where’s the squirrel?” Elli lifted the empty cashmere sweater, her expression anguished. “Oh, no. Did it—”

“No, no, he’s fine. Thumbelina is also a boy. Lara picked him up about an hour ago since I can’t leave.”

“Isn’t your interview tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Grateful for the change of topic, Lou relaxed incrementally. “Hopefully, Ant is a miracle worker. I can’t miss it.”

Elli leaned on the countertop and returned to the previous topic with no preamble whatsoever. “Sooo, about that tension…”

Lou considered asking her to drop it, but she could use someone to talk to. She didn’t understand what was going on either. “Did you notice anything…different about him today? About the way he looked?”

Elliott frowned in thought. “He looks the same as he always does. Fedora, piercing brown eyes, body that won’t quit.”

Lou let out a laugh. “Right?”

“The man is hot, Lou. There’s no denying it.”

“I don’t deny it, I just…wasn’t allowed to react to him before.”

“Because you were married. And then you decided to be mad at him. Why would you have reacted to him when he wasn’t a viable dating option?”

“I’m not dating anyone.” Especially Ant, Lou mentally tacked on. That was an outrageous idea. And weirdly tempting. She scrunched her nose. Maybe she could blame sleep deprivation on her bizarre reaction to him today.

“Why not? It’s been almost two years since Liam and you split.”

“A year and eight months.”

“You’ve lived here for over a year now. You’re employed, settled. Available.” Elli paired the last word with an eyebrow waggle.

“Ant is my friend. Was my friend.” Lou twisted her lips. “I’m not sure what he is now.”

“Other than hot.”

“Right. No! Elliott! You tricked me.”

“Fine. I’ll stop.” Pleased with herself, Elliot giggled. “I just don’t want you to miss an opportunity to be more than friendly with your friend down there. You want him back, don’t you?”

“As a friend?”

“Sure. You can start there.”

Lou let out a breath, considering. “I was so upset when I found out he knew about the affair. I felt betrayed by both of them. Do you know what that feels like?”

Elli’s expression went from smug to serious as she touched Lou’s arm. “Not exactly, but I can imagine. I’m no stranger to feeling alone or having to start over from scratch.”

“Of course,” Lou said. Elli had had her own brush with assholery. She patted her friend’s hand. “I guess…I’m starting to have trouble holding that grudge. Holding Ant at arm’s length feels more like a habit I’ve cultivated than what I really want.”

“That’s good. That’s what healing looks like, babe. Time heals all wounds.” Elli pulled two glasses from the cabinet and filled them with ice. “If you haven’t noticed, Ant never left. You may have been pushing him away, but he doesn’t seem like a guy who is easily pushed around.”

“He’s not.” He was firm in his decisions and loyal to a fault. When Lou had learned he stopped taking Liam’s calls, she’d felt both surprised and grateful.

“Which means he willingly stepped back to give you the space you needed. He didn’t let his hurt feelings keep him from caring about you.”

“Do you think I hurt his feelings?” Ack! The guilt! Lou had been overwhelmed by her own hurt feelings at the time. She hadn’t considered she’d hurt his.

“Lou. He’s standing in your yard right now, sweating his balls off because he wants to make sure you’re okay.”

Lou was a big enough person to admit she’d been ungracious when it came to the Ant-knowing-about-the-affair situation. He had tried to explain, but she’d refused to listen. Eventually, he’d stopped trying. She didn’t know how to ask him to be in her life again.

“How the hell do you re-friend someone?”

Glasses balanced in one hand, Elli slid open the patio door. “You can start with sun tea. See how it goes from there.”

Lou set the wrapped sandwiches on the patio table while Elliott lowered into one of the cushioned chairs. “Nice scenery you have here, Lou.”

The “scenery” she’d referred to wasn’t the gorgeous view of the flat blue lake or backdrop of tall, regal evergreen pines beyond. No, her friend was unmistakably watching Ant, who had finished his sandwich and was now removing his T-shirt.

“Very nice,” Elli whispered under her breath.

He started up the steps, and Lou had to remind herself not to stare at his naked chest with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. “His tea! Dammit.”

She scurried to fill his glass with sun tea. She met him halfway down the staircase and thrust the glass toward him, her eyes snapping from one pec to the other to his shoulders to his belly button. God in Heaven, there was no safe place to rest her eyes.

He chugged the tea, standing right where he was two steps down from her, and then wordlessly handed it back to her. She flashed a smile she hoped didn’t make her appear constipated, and then turned and ran back up the steps. She filled hers and Elli’s glasses with sun tea, willing her warm cheeks to lose their pink color before she sat down.

Once Ant was out of hearing distance, Lou hissed, “Stop staring. What would Brady say if he saw you ogling his friend?”

“Brady loves me and knows I love him. He also knows you and Ant need to heal this rift between you. It’s been hard on us.”

“How has it been hard on you? When I met you, Ant and I were far from simpatico.”

“Not as far as you’d like to think.” Rather than argue further that point, Elli continued. “You can only hold up your guard for so long before your arms grow tired. You don’t have to hang out with him every day, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to talk to him like you used to? From what you’ve shared with me, you and Ant used to be two peas in a pod.”

“And Liam made three,” Lou mumbled as she unwrapped her sandwich and took a bite. When Ant had come by the house that first time to measure the room for the dining room table, he and Liam had become fast friends. It had been easy for them. The dude-talk topics had ranged from cars to boats to tools. Lou had served sun tea and lingered, wondering if she should make herself scarce. But each time she’d reentered the room, Ant had made it a point to include her in the conversation.

She’d always appreciated that about him. He’d never once overlooked her.

“I haven’t had the chance to know Ant without Liam around. Maybe that’s what’s throwing me. No buffer. Holy God,” Lou added under her breath. Ant, shirt and hat off, was walking toward the water, his back muscles flexing and glistening in the sun. At the dock, he kicked off his shoes and then took off his low-slung shorts. “What is he doing?”

“I think he’s going to jump in the lake.” Elliott sounded amused, but Lou didn’t turn her head to check. She couldn’t seem to avert her eyes from a firm ass outlined by a pair of snug black boxer briefs. He tucked his thumbs into the waistband of those briefs, and Elli and Lou collectively stopped breathing. When he snapped the band back in place, only then did they suck in an inhalation.

“Damn. So close,” Elli whispered.

Ant dove off the end of the dock and into the water with a neat splash. Lou unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth and guzzled down half of her tea. When she did look over, Elliott’s expression was as amused as Lou had expected. “You’re more fun to watch than he is. You might want to pour the rest of that iced tea over your head.”

“I’m worried about him diving. He could knock himself unconscious if there is a log hiding beneath the surface.”

“Uh-huh,” Elliott mumbled around a bite of her sandwich.

Lou went back to eating, surreptitiously watching the water. Ant surfaced, swam parallel to the shore, and then dove under again. By the time she finished her sandwich, he was walking out of the water and pushing a hand through his hair.

Rarely didn’t he wear the hat, but she’d noticed longer pieces of his hair sticking out of the back. It was a good look for him. Along with the half-naked look. That was really good.

Lou chugged more tea, not fully understanding her reaction to his physique. She’d been on his boat how many times? Countless. He’d been shirtless around her before. But still, she stared.

Rivulets of water followed the curve of his impressive pectoral muscles, clinging to the dark hair there. The water continued its seductive travels along his flat stomach, pooling at the waistband of his briefs. His stomach wasn’t crazy defined like the guys who dehydrated themselves to make their abs visibly pop. Ant didn’t have a gut by any means. There was the right amount of muscle tone, and the dip that cut in at his slim hips was…

Yummy.

“You’re drooling,” Elliott pointed out.

“I’m not. I’m just…” Lou folded the paper sack around her leftover sandwich and stood. “I’m going to put this away.”

“Might want to grab him a towel while you’re in there,” Elliott called out. “Grab one for your chin too!”

. . .