“Spill it.” I wouldn’t let her off the hook.
“I think I’ve had too much wine.”
That did make me laugh. Wine was our life, and I’d been around her often enough when she, or I, or both of us had tipped the wine scales. “Not even close. Spill.”
With her wine glass cupped in both hands between her legs, Thayle in pink and white surrounded by white pillows—thank God I took that shower—the woman looked like a princess. But not one who needed to be saved. Thayle could save herself, and had.
“Last summer—” She stopped. “No, I can’t.”
As if I’d let her back out now. “If it helps, I’ll tell you something embarrassing too.”
She looked skeptical. Taking a sip of wine and peering over the glass at me, she continued. “Okay. Last summer, just after I started at Grado, I’d come in on a Tuesday to sit down with Min and go over things. I’d practically grown up on the estate, and knew every inch of it, but she insisted on a tour. Said I would look at it differently as an employee. We were down by your cabins when Cos spotted us from his porch. He called to Min, asked her if he could talk to her for a sec, so I wandered down to the water.”
My brother Marco and I have long lived next door to Cosimo in lakefront cottages on the estate, and I was remembering now what had happened when I’d come home that day.
I already had an inkling of where she was going with this.
“You stripped down to nothing and jumped into the lake,” she said.
I flushed, recalling that day. “It was hotter than hell that day. I remember being in the vines, coming back to the house and seeing the water. Knowing we were closed, with no one nearby...”
I imagined Thayle standing on the bank, watching me.
“Obviously I didn’t see you,” I said.
“Well, I saw you.” She laughed. But it wasn’t Thayle’s typical laugh. She was nervous, despite the wine. Despite our familiarity.
There were so many ways to respond to her, but none of them appropriate. I landed on, “So the towel was nothing—is that what you’re saying?”
“Exactly.”
Our eyes locked. Heat flooded me. I’d become so good at hiding my feelings from her that it honestly shocked me to my core how quickly I’d just let my guard down.
Neither of us moved. Or said a word.
Did you like what you saw?
Why didn’t you look away?
I wish I’d known you were there.
I didn’t say any of those things, though. The second I did, everything would be ruined. I would’ve been the creepy older brother. The harassing boss. She would’ve told Min, who would’ve promptly killed me, and I’d have deserved it.
She looked away and finished her wine. I did the same, lying right through my teeth: “You must be as tired as me?” I was the exact opposite of tired, but I was certain I’d just made her uncomfortable. This had to stop. “Do you want the bathroom first?”
“Sure?”
I tried not to watch her walk by me. I pretended her freshly showered scent didn’t waft back to me, triggering a very naked vision of her. I had no idea what had just happened between us, but something had. I wasn’t about to act on it, though. No way was I opening that envelope. It wasn’t my place.
If she did, on the other hand...
I was afraid to finish the thought. Better to do exactly what I’d suggested and get my ass to bed.
TEN
thayle
He was gone.