Jealous in July (Spring River Valley Book 7) (7 page)

“Are you relaxed?”

“
I’m so relaxed I’m a wet noodle. Tell me what’s wrong with me and fix me.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you. Well, nothing serious. You’ve been in love with Riley for…ever. Do you still feel the same way about him or not?”

“I…don’t know. He… I felt awful today when he said he’d been on a blind date a few months ago. I felt like he was cheating on me, then I realized he has no idea how I feel about him. He can’t see it. He can’t conceive of it. I should have just come out and said something, but Chase was there, and it seemed wrong to offer myself up to Riley on a silver platter with him sitting there.”

“Isn’t he supposed to be helping you? He’s the one who told you Riley really is interested.”

“And the more I look for it, the less I see it. Riley…is adorable. He’s brilliant. He’s lonely. He’s driven…he’s dedicated, he’s sexy, he’s—”

“Perfect on a million levels. I get it. But there’s a but coming.”

“But he’s utterly and completely clueless.”

“Most men are,” Sam whispered. Then she giggled
, and the giggle turned into a screech.

“Stop making out with Aiden for a second.” Brenda rolled her eyes. “I’m desperate here.”

“Sorry. Go away. I’ll be right there… Sorry, not you, Brenda. Aiden.”

“Chase will be here any minute.”

“So it’s too late to back out and sit home feeling bad about Riley. Go out and have a good time. See how you feel tomorrow. Right now, your relationship with Riley has only one person in it. You. So you’re in control of it.”

Brenda whimpered. She’d wanted Sam to tell her that love would prevail and that she should stick to her guns and see this through with Riley and not give in to the weird twinges she’d been having every time she saw Chase or heard his voice. She wanted her friend to give her permission to keep the status quo and not make any decision she might regret.

“Call me later. Let me know how the date went.”

“Ugh. Okay…
You were no help, you know.”

“You wouldn’t answer any of my questions. Are you still in love with Riley or not?”

A week ago the answer to that question would have been elementary. Now? “Chase just pulled up. I have to go.”

“I’ll take that as my answer,” Sam said knowingly before she hung up.

Brenda growled at the phone and plopped it back into its cradle. She grabbed her purse and headed for the door, her thoughts twirling around that one pointed question.
Am I still in love with Riley? Was I ever?

“Paddleboats?” Brenda slowed her pace down the weathered planks of the narrow boardwalk leading to the river basin inlet at the north end of the county park. At the end of what was indeed a very short pier sat a small hut from which a group of teenage workers rented wide Plexiglas boats shaped like swans and sharks and alligators. On the calm waters of the protected inlet, couples and families drifted lazily, finding some respite from the early evening humidity in the gentle breeze off the water.

“It’s good exercise,” Chase replied with a shrug. He hurried ahead of her and had paid for a swan-shaped boat by the time she reached the end of the pier. One of the teenage boys smiled shyly at her and handed her a
faded yellow life vest. Bewildered at the idea that a date with Chase could go from high-octane romance at Taverna Fiora to this, she slipped the somewhat musty-smelling contraption over her head and fastened the plastic belts.

Chase had donned his own vest and climbed into the boat. One of the boys handed him
a two-ended paddle, which he secured to hooks on the side of the boat. He offered Brenda his hand and helped her climb into the teetering vessel and settle in the passenger side. Still speechless, she put her feet on the narrow pedals and waited for Chase to settle into his side.

Two of the boys pushed the boat away from the peer. “Come on, pedal,” Chase urged. “I want to beat that family over there to the picnic beach.”

Brenda stared at him for a second, trying to decide if he’d lost his mind. She hadn’t been in a paddleboat since she was ten years old. This was either crazily charming or just plain crazy.

“What? Trust me
—by the time we get back to the pier, you’ll be too tired to remember you had a bad day.” He smirked, and something in the vicinity of her navel tensed up. With the breeze ruffling his hair and the golden hues of the setting sun turning his eyes to fire, he had a certain appeal she was sure she’d never noticed before.

He started pedaling and paddling, causing the boat to drift in a lazy half circle. “We’ll never get anywhere if you don’t pedal.”

Lost in contemplation of his lean muscles as he swung the paddle forward, she had to drag her attention back to the task at hand. “Okay…but I used to be pretty good at this, so you’d better be able to keep up with me.”

He focused his gaze on their objective, but a wicked smile lingered at the corner of his mouth. “Now we’re in business,” he muttered before the boat shot forward under their combined power.

*

“Pump harder,” Brenda commanded after half an hour of steady pedaling.

Chase glanced sidelong at her, that sexy gleam in his eye making her stomach flutter once again. He clamped a hand on her knee. “No,
you
slow down. We’re almost there, and we’re going to overshoot the bank.”

“It looked a lot closer from the pier. I’m exhausted
, and I want to land this thing and take a break.”

“All right, then ease up a little, tiger. I’ve got this.” His hand lingered on her skin for a moment, during which Brenda had to concentrate hard on keeping her breathing steady. During their sail across the inlet toward a secluded beachhead set with a couple of ancient picnic tables, she hadn’t been able to take her eyes of
f Chase. The play of corded biceps and the faint sheen of sweat on his jaw and his throat fascinated her. She was used to seeing him in a suit, his eyes often hidden behind his glasses, his nose buried in paperwork. Tonight he was a different person. Sure it was only a silly paddle, but he wielded it like a weapon, steady and sure, piercing the glassy surface of the water as they churned in unison to keep the boat moving. Every now and then he uttered a husky command under his breath and her heart skipped. She imagined it was the scent of testosterone making her a little lightheaded.

How come she’d never noticed how sexy he was?

She wanted to stop pedaling and clamp her hand over his on her knee, slide it up her thigh, and hope he could feel the tremor she’d been battling for the last half hour now, but the more rational side of her brain told her if she didn’t rest, her legs would turn to jelly from the exertion.

“
Look,” she said, finally finding her voice. “We have to go to the right, so you have to slow down, and I have to speed up. Paddle on that side a couple of times, and we can coast right up to the—aagh!”

Her instructions ended in a strangled scream as
a flying object of prehistoric size zoomed at her head, silvery wings buzzing. She flailed at it and reared up, trying to escape the slavering jaws of a bug from hell.

“Brenda
—don’t stand up…” Chase grabbed for her, but the giant bat-like monster buzzed near her head, its wildly beating wings tangling in her hair. She swatted at it just as the boat tipped. Before she could lean the other way to compensate, cold dark water came up to swallow her.

“Bren
—!” Chase tossed the paddle and threw himself out of the boat, landing, just as she had, in water that was barely two feet deep. The boat righted itself and began drifting away.

Embarrassed now, Brenda flung herself after it and caught the swan’s tail. The vessel was surprising
ly light with no one in it, and she was able to send it careening toward the shallow bank where it beached itself.

Chase had regained his feet and stood, dripping, clutching the paddle, brows lowered over smoldering eyes.

“I can’t believe you did that,” he said. “Haven’t you ever been in a boat before?”

“Sure I have.”
She casually wrung water out of her shirt, careful to keep her gaze off of the sleek lines of his abdominals now visible through his soaking wet T-shirt.

“Did
anyone ever tell you never to stand up?” He eyed her sidelong, no hint of malice in his tone despite being soaking wet and partially covered with mud.

“Did you see that bug? It was six inches long.”

“And harmless.”

“Beside the point. It startled me.”

“Being dumped into the water startled me.”

“Well, I apologize. At least I saved the boat.” She stomped past him toward the river bank, pr
aying there were no more dragonflies buzzing around and nothing worse lurking in the dark water.

With an exasperated sigh, he followed her
, and when she plopped down on the dry grass at the water’s edge, he tossed the paddle on the ground and lowered himself next to her.

She held his intense gaze for a second, her heart thundering. He looked marginally angry, though his voice was even and calm. For some reason the dark look in his eyes turned her on.
She tried to ignore the suddenly heavy feeling in her lower belly and judiciously crossed her arms over her own soggy shirt to hide her hardened nipples.

Chase
wiped water from his face, and the edge left his voice. “Yeah, I suppose. Thanks for that…which you wouldn’t have had to do if you hadn’t toppled us out of it.” He hauled himself up from the ground, then slapped a mosquito from the side of his neck. “We’d better get back to the pier. All wet like this, we’re nothing but bug bait.”

He held out his hand
, and she slipped her slightly muddy fingers into his. He tugged, and she tried to brace her sneakers on the river bank, but the wet soles lost traction and she ended up spread-eagled, straddling his left leg.

He lost his balance and fell on top of her, managing to knock the air out of her lungs. Gasping now, she lay beneath him, shocked by the solid weight of him. Chase pushed at the mud, trying to scramble off her. “Sorry, are you okay?”

Brenda nodded. She braced her hands on his chest and was about to push him off, when she caught his gaze. Those beguiling golden brown eyes of his had darkened, and his gaze seemed fixed on her lips. Everything stopped for a split second, but before Brenda could process the moment, he’d gotten up and hauled her to her feet. She slipped again, and he caught her, and this time his lips touched hers.

Her thoughts blanked. The itchy mud and the sticky heat disappeared. The embarrassment of toppling the boat and soaking them both faded
, and all she knew was strong arms around her waist, warm lips on hers, and the taste of him, sweet and salty, invading her senses.

How long had it been since she’d felt this? Not the wanting of something distant that she could only imagine, but the having…hard muscles under her trembling hands, a possessive grip pulling her hips against the bulge in a pair of tight
jeans? She made a sound at the back of her throat, one of surrender maybe, or utter confusion, and a moment later, he tangled his hands in her hair and thrust his tongue against hers.

“Chase…
Chase…” She whispered his name when he let her up for air. She put her hands on his face and let her fingers tease the damp hair at the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop myself. I understand how you
—”

“Chase.” She silenced him with a kiss, soft, meaningful, a gentle pull that completely divorced her thoughts from her actions. She refused to think again until this night was over. “Take me home and take me to bed.”

*

The
paddleboat ride back to the pier took forever. Chase thought his legs would fall off before the stupid little boat pulled up to the rental dock. He hastily tossed the paddle to the boat boys along with a couple of bills from his wallet as a tip, then he took Brenda’s hand and tugged her back along the aging wooden planks to the small parking area.

“You know you just gave
them two twenties, right?” she muttered as she skipped along behind him.

“If I didn’t need my driver’s license, I’d have given
them my whole wallet.” This was no time for small talk, and yes, he’d probably miss those twenties later, but who cared? Brenda wanted him, and he wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip by. He glanced back at her as they reached his car, and she was smiling, a sinful gleam in her eye that had him biting his lip to keep from losing his cool right there in the parking lot. This was too good to be true, but he didn’t care. After tonight, he was determined that Brenda would never have another thought about Riley Thayer.

He struggled to keep it under the speed limit all the way across town to her apartment, but each time he noticed her squirming in the passenger seat, his desire for her
ratcheted up another notch. “Sit still,” he commanded. “I can’t stop looking at your legs.”

She giggled. “Sorry. I’m…anxious.”