Dirt: A Sexy Small Town Romance (Copperwood Book 1) (15 page)

Shane pressed his lips against mine once more. Before I had time to fasten my seatbelt, Shane was sliding behind the steering wheel and starting the car. I glanced over at him, taking in his tanned skin and broad chest.

Images of the two of us naked and against the wall of the lake house danced into my mind and I crossed my legs, fidgeting with the inappropriate sensations invading my body. “When did you get a tattoo?”

He smiled and reached over the console to take my hand in his. “That’s a story for another time, baby.” He squeezed his hand around my fingers. “I’ll tell you all about it someday though. I promise.”

I didn’t pull my hand away from his, instead, I twisted my fingers around his. I didn’t want to let him go and didn’t care if he knew it or not. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Shane, I don’t think I can handle any more surprises today.” I didn’t care if it was a good surprise or a bad surprise, I didn’t want to face anything unknown after everything I had faced.

“I have a present for you, and it’s no fun if I tell you what it is before you open it.”

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and considered his words. He was right, of course. If I knew what a present was before I got it, it took away the excitement and enjoyment of receiving it. It was still a fun present, but lacked any of the extra excitement that came with the unknown.

I needed to make a leap of faith. Was I willing to have faith in Shane? Enough to put aside any doubts lurking in my subconscious. I was grateful for Shane letting me work it out, he didn’t try to persuade me or beg me, instead he remained silent while we drove.

One of the downsides of living in a small town was that I knew where everything was. It was difficult not to guess where we were headed. When Shane turned down the road leading out of town, I decided to make a leap of faith.

“Okay.”

Shane snapped his head towards me for a moment before he returned his attention to driving. “Okay?”

“Okay to everything.” I leaned back in the seat, curling closer to Shane, as if I could find a way to move next to him even though the console stood in our way.

Shane turned down the driveway and pulled up in front of the lake house. I leaned forward in the seat, unable to resist the urge to get closer to the representation of all of the unfulfilled dreams of a little girl.

Shane untangled our fingers and turned the car off. He looked over at me for a moment before getting out of the car. He probably wanted to open the door for me, but I couldn’t stop myself. The draw of the house was too much to fight, almost more than my attraction to Shane.

I stepped in front of the car and Shane reached for my hand, pulling me into his side before wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“I know I’m not a prince, Mya.” He turned his head and brushed his lips against the top of my head.

He remembered.

I couldn’t find any words. I was scared that if I said anything, I’d start crying.

Shane pulled me closer to him and guided me towards the house. When we stepped up onto the porch, a giant red balloon greeted me at the front door. A postcard flapped against the wooden slats. Someone had tied it to the balloon keeping it from blowing away.

I bent down and picked it up, tearing it from the ribbon. On one side, someone had written my name in big bold letters. I flipped it over and read the rest of the message. ‘Wanna play house?’

I held the card against my chest. I never wanted to let it go. He remembered everything. I looked at Shane. I smiled at him and nodded my head. I couldn’t stop the tears this time and I didn’t want to.

He remembered.

It might have taken him twenty years, but he was willing to give me what I wanted.

Shane opened the door and held it for me, waiting for me to walk inside.

“Are you sure this is okay?”

“I know the owner.” Shane stepped in behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me back against his chest.

“You do?”

“Yep.” His lips brushed against the side of my neck.

We all knew who owned the big houses on the lakes. We saw them in town during the summers, but none of us actually knew them. We didn’t exactly play in the same social circles.

“How do you know the owners?” I turned around in his arms and faced him.

“Well it’s really only one owner right now, but I’m hoping for there to be two.”

Shane stepped away from me and took my hand, leading me through the house until we ended up in the kitchen. He set me down in a chair at the table and moved around the room like he knew where everything was, but that was impossible.

I watched him pull steaks, the same steaks I bought from the grocery store, out of the fridge. One that didn’t make any kind of rumbling noises when you opened the door.

The pieces started falling into place. “Shane?”

He looked up from seasoning the steaks and smiled at me. “Yes?”

“Are you the owner?”

“We needed a place to play house.”

It was barely six o’clock. Shane dropped me off at my house just over six hours ago and it was only five hours ago that my life took a nose dive into the abyss of usual disappointment. At some point after I saw him with Alene, Shane bought a house.

“Shane? What happened with Alene?” I needed to know.

“It’s not my story to tell, baby. But I promise you, it’s over and done with and there’s no reason for me to spend any more time with her again.” He walked away from the steaks and knelt down in front of me. “I was helping her fix a mistake she made. That’s all. I promise.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were meeting with her today?” I reached down and took his hands in mine. I didn’t want him to think I didn’t trust him, but I needed to know.

Shane took a breath and pressed his head against our clasped hands. “I didn’t think she’d tell you about it.”

“But she did, Shane. She gloated about all the time she spent with you. It was like she showed up at the grocery store just to remind me that she was spending time with you.” The hurt from her words resurfaced before I could stop it.

“Yeah, well she’s a bitch. But I promise you. No more Alene. Just you and me, baby. Just you and me and this house.” He looked up at me, his blue eyes so dark they appeared black. “I wanna play house with you, Mya. Just you.”

“No more secrets?”

“No more secrets that are mine. But I can’t make that promise for others. It’s what I do, Mya. I dig up people’s secrets and it’s not for me to tell them.” He stood up so quickly and picked me up, sitting back down and settling me in his lap before I realized what he was doing. “I told you my biggest secret this morning, Mya. I trust you with my secrets.”

I pulled his arms around my waist and held him close to me. “No more Alene?”

“No more Alene.”

I turned around in his lap until I straddled his thighs and pressed myself closer to him. I can feel his arousal pressing against me and I grin at him, pleased to know I was the one to cause it. He holds my face still and presses his lips against mine, our tongues moving against one another in an easy dance. One I am not anxious to see end any time soon.

Shane groaned into my mouth and I felt it rumble through his chest. I couldn’t help myself and pressed up against him. I wanted a replay of what happened earlier in the house, but Shane had other ideas. He pulled away from me, holding me just far enough away to keep me from teasing him more.

“We have guests coming, Mya.” He lifted me up in his arms when he stood up and walked back over to the counter with me. He set me down at the counter and slid the trey of vegetables towards me. “You can help getting dinner ready. Consider it practice for when you start playing house with me.”

I pulled the cutting board closer to me and started slicing the vegetables. We moved around the kitchen in such an easy manner I wondered if I was dreaming. It was the only explanation for everything. I finally couldn’t stand it and reached out to pinch Shane’s arm.

He jumped and rubbed his arm, looking at me. “What was that for?”

“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”

“You’re supposed to pinch yourself, not someone else.” He swatted my bottom with a dishtowel before wrapping it around my waist and pulling me against him. “But I promise you, you aren’t dreaming.”

I looked up at Shane and focused on his smile. His full lips begged me to kiss him, but when I stretched towards his mouth, the doorbell rang. I glance over my shoulder towards the front hallway.

“Our guests are here.” Shane spun away from me headed to the front door.

I wanted to follow after him, but I wasn’t ready to share what I was feeling with anyone else. I heard the familiar sounds of my friends’ voices and then my father’s voice sounding his approval.

I opened the fridge door, looking to see what else Shane bothered to stock it with. Of course, he planned for everything. I pulled out five bottles of beer, perfectly chilled. I set them on the counter and opened them in preparation for our guests.

I looked towards the doorway and smiled. It might have taken Shane Crawford twenty years to agree to play house with me, but I had a feeling it was going to be well–worth the wait.

Epilogue

6 months later

S
hane pulled open the center desk drawer and stared at the small turquoise box. He picked it up and looked out his office window, watching Mya walk across the yard to the small barn they built shortly after moving into the house. For the time being, they were using it as a brewery and when Mya wasn’t working at the bar, she was working with the vats perfecting the different beers she planned on offering at Pick’s.

He glanced down at the contracts, waiting for both of their signatures. Shane wanted her to quit working at the bar and focus on her hobby, it wasn’t like she needed to work anymore. But Mya refused, so Shane did the second best thing. He called Jack and made arrangements to buy the bar. If Mya was going to tend bar, she was going to tend her own bar.

But the bar would have to wait. Shane looked back out the window. He couldn’t help the broad smile from crossing his lips. She tramped around the yard and barn in shorts, knee–high wellies, and one of his old sweaters. As usual, her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she wore a large straw hat. Not exactly the epitome of high fashion, but Shane thought it was the sexiest thing he ever saw on a woman.

“When are you going to make an honest woman out of my daughter?” Rich Sydony leaned against the open doorway, but didn’t walk into the office.

Mya and Shane convinced him to move into the lake house with them. It took them a few months, but he finally relented. The house was large enough for the three of them to live together without getting underfoot and Mya worried when her dad was living on his own.

Shane dropped the small box back into the drawer and closed it. “I’m working on it.” He leaned back in his desk chair and crossed his arms behind his neck. He nodded to one of the chairs across from him.

Rich stepped into the office and took the seat. “She can be stubborn. But then, that’s not such a bad thing since she waited ten years for you.”

Shane looked back out the window. When the architect came in, he wanted the barn placed back behind the trees, out of the line of sight of the house. Shane refused. He wanted to be able to look out the window at any time and see Mya if she wasn’t in the house with him.

“I promise I won’t make her wait another ten years, Sir.” Shane looked back at Rich. “I’m thinking something closer to ten days. I’m just waiting on a few things.”

Rich nodded his head towards the unlabeled file sitting on Shane’s desk. “Find anything yet?”

Shane sat up in the chair and scratched at the whiskers on his cheek. One of the luxuries of working from home in a small town meant he didn’t have to dress professionally. It also meant he didn’t have to shave often and from the way Mya rubbed her cheek up against his whiskers, Shane tended to forget to shave a lot.

“Nothing.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Nope. Everyone has something hidden away, but not her. She’s clean. Too clean. And everything about her history is like it’s been written.” Shane rested his hand on the file and tapped his fingers against it.

Rich looked down at the file and pulled his lips between his teeth. “Son, are you sure you want to be digging here?”

“She’s Mya’s best friend and from the way she and Mike are dancing around one another, she’s going to be my best friend’s girlfriend soon enough. I am sure I should be digging.”

Rich stood up from the chair and shook his head. “Fine, but a word of advice. Propose to her and marry her before she finds out you’re digging around her friend because it’s going to take more than just a house for her to forgive you.” He walked out of the office, stopping just outside the door. “I’m heading to town, need anything?”

Shane had returned to staring out the window at Mya. “Steve has a package for me. Can you pick it up?”

“Sure.”

Shane heard the front door close and smiled to himself while he returned to the work on his desk. He found that he rather enjoyed playing house with Mya and wondered why he was so set against it when he was younger.

A soft feminine cough pulled him away from his work and he looked up in time to see the dark green wellies bounce against the back of her knees. Shane pushed the chair back from the desk and Mya walked around until she was standing between his legs.

Shane rested his hands on her hips and pulled her down until she was straddling his leap. She had taken the hat off when she came into the house, but her hair was still pulled back.

“I have about thirty minutes to spare before I have to get ready for work.”

Shane brushed his thumbs over her hips and pulled her closer to him. “Thirty minutes?”

She nodded her head and wiggled in his lap until she settled against him. Shane’s arms came around her and pulled her close against his hard chest. Even through the clothing, their arousal was obvious to the other.