“Hi.” He smiled, fully clothed again.
“Hi.” It was impossible to not smile back.
“Were you laughing at me?”
“No.” She laughed again, but not at him. “It’s just … it felt like we were two young kids sneaking into the bedroom to show each other our private parts. When I was seven, I remember my mom walking in on me and my cousin. It wasn’t sexual or anything like that. It was just a show-me-yours-and-I’ll-show-you-mine moment of sheer curiosity.”
“What did your mom do?”
Ryn shrugged. “Well, you know, she’s a nurse so she asked us if we’d had enough time to check everything out. Then she asked us if we had any questions. We honestly didn’t know if what we’d done was wrong. Remember, we were seven. We both shook our heads. Then she whispered that once you’re seven, little girls are not allowed to see naked boys and little boys are not allowed to see naked girls. Then she said she’d let it slide since we’d both recently turned seven, as long as we promised to never do it again.”
Jackson chuckled. “Your mom was pretty cool.”
“Yes, she still is.”
“There’s only one minor flaw in your story.”
Ryn narrowed her eyes. “What’s that?”
“Today … I showed you mine, but you didn’t show me yours.” Strong hands gripped her legs as long fingers slid higher, stopping just under the frayed edge of her very short cutoffs.
A nervous chuckle rattled in her chest. “Yeah, about that …”
Jackson dropped his head in defeat.
“I fear you have these expectations, given your past and all, so …”
Two perfectly-arched brows looked up at her. “Expectations?”
“Yes, like um…” she rolled her eyes to the ceiling “…say you lived by the ocean and then someone showed you their pond. You wouldn’t be impressed.”
He shrugged a single shoulder. “I might be.”
Ryn shook her head in defiance. “No. There’s just no way you could be.”
“The ocean is big, but it’s also very dangerous—sharks, jellyfish, tsunamis, pirates. Maybe I don’t want the massive crashing waves and the fear of being pulled under by the tide, feeling lost at sea. Maybe I want the serenity of a pond and the way it reflects the beauty of everything around it.”
“Maybe you’re crazy.” Pressing her palms to his cheeks, she grinned.
His eyes homed in on her lips, sending her heart into a frenzy, waking all the butterflies in her tummy. She felt so alive.
“Ryn,” he whispered a second before his lips brushed hers. “Let me swim in your pond.”
She laughed. It didn’t matter that his thumbs were half an inch from her wet panties. It didn’t matter that his lips were sealed to hers. It didn’t even matter that his tongue teased the tip of hers. She laughed.
Jackson sighed while sitting back on his heels, head bowed again.
With a quick hand she covered her mouth, hiding her smile and stifling her giggles. “I’m so sorry.” The sound of her laughter abated though it still shook her whole body. “But you did not just ask to ‘swim in my pond.’ Did you?”
Scrubbing his hands over his face, he grumbled something indecipherable. Standing with one swift motion, he walked toward her door.
“Don’t leave! I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Give me another chance.” Once again she chased after him.
His long legs made quick strides to his car.
“Where are you going?” she called, throwing open the screen door.
“I’m going to figure out a way to be with you and keep my testicles.”
Chapter Fifteen
A chilly burst of air breezed past Jackson when he opened the back door to their townhouse. The smell of burnt popcorn hung like fog as he pulled his T-shirt up to cover his nose. Every window in the place was open to its max. It felt like an arctic gust whipping through their house.
Jillian sat perched on the counter, legs criss-crossed, with a heavy red hoodie shielding her from the temperature that read fifty-five degrees on the thermostat. She poked around her bowl of popcorn, tossing five black kernels in the sink for every one brown piece she deemed edible.
He needed some guy friends. Stat. The women in his life were hell-bent on testing his last bit of patience.
“Want some?” Jillian looked up from the bowl.
“What do you think?”
She shrugged. “Damn bag got away from me. I set it to five minutes, but I go by the time between pops and—”
“I don’t care.” He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.
Sliding her fingernail between her teeth to free a hull, she watched him guzzle the contents all at once. After tossing it in the recycle bin, he fetched another one.
“Someone’s grumpy. I am too, but you go first.”
Catching his breath after the marathon beer chug, he glared at her. “New rule. If I leave my phone behind you don’t answer it. And if you ever discuss my testicles with someone again, I will make your life a living hell. Got it?”