The Substitute (16 page)

Dammit.
He’d been so busy thinking about Megan he hadn’t paid attention to which rooms they’d gone into. It wasn’t like he could check out the office now anyway. Both Grams and Kevin were up here and awake, and could catch him at any moment. He needed to wait until everyone was asleep.

A sudden wave of exhaustion overtook him, catching him by surprise. Although he was still partially resistant to his brother’s impending arrival, he had to admit that part of him was relieved Noah would be jumping on board. The clumsy way his brother had lost the plans notwithstanding, Noah was an expert at subterfuge. Although Josh was loath to admit it, he needed him. He only hoped he came up with a plausible explanation for showing up. Maybe he should come up with a backup plan. Just in case.

But he still had tonight, even if he couldn’t do anything for at least a half an hour, which left him unsure of how to pass the time. Since he was so tired, he decided to lie down on the bed and rest, maybe check his emails on his phone.

But Megan was in the bed.

He knew he should sleep on the floor—he could grab a pillow and use the blanket he’d seen in the bathroom closet. But he sank down onto the edge of the bed instead, then laid down on his side, facing her. Her hands lay on her pillow, in front of her face, and she wore a serene look that tugged at something deep in his heart.

She shifted, releasing a soft murmur in her sleep, and he resisted the urge to reach out and take her hand in his. Josh closed his eyes and breathed in her soft floral scent. It reminded him of summer and happier times before his father’s death. Back before his life became so serious and his brother became a self-centered dick. While their father’s death had made Josh more determined than ever to join the family business, Noah had resisted the responsibility. And although he’d done a respectable job of holding it together until Josh graduated and joined full time, Noah had been irresponsible in every other conceivable way since. If Noah were an employee, Josh would have fired him years ago.

He figured he’d lie on the bed for half an hour, then sneak out to investigate, but drowsiness overtook him. Too many sleepless nights spent worrying about his employees’ futures had caught up with him. When he closed his eyes, he promised himself it would just be for a minute, yet when he woke up, Megan had rolled the opposite direction and the room was somewhat bright.

Oh, shit.
It was morning.

He groped around the bed for his cell phone, eventually finding it down by his knees. When he saw the time, relief washed over him. 6:45. Time to get up and start working on the real purpose for his presence here.

Megan rolled over and faced him, her eyes still closed, her hands buried under her pillow. He watched her for several seconds, resisting the urge to brush the stray strands of hair from her cheek. She’d kicked the covers partially off as she turned and her bare legs were bent, her nightgown riding up to the curve of her ass, showing him the lacy underwear he’d gotten an eyeful of the night before. Memories of touching her and kissing her washed through him, making him hard. If he woke her up by kissing her, how would she respond?

No.

It took every ounce of restraint he possessed to keep from touching her.

He carefully slid off the bed and grabbed his bag, taking it into the bathroom so he could change. After closing the bathroom door as quietly as possible, he pulled on a pair of jeans and a cotton button-down shirt. He slipped out of the bathroom and then out of Megan’s room into the hall, standing still as he listened for any noise. The question was, which room was the one he wanted?

It was still early enough that everyone was likely sleeping, so he stood in the second floor hallway and took stock. There were four doors: two on Megan’s side of the hall and two on the opposite wall. Megan’s bathroom shared a bathroom with another bedroom, which had to be the other door on her side. That meant the two doors on the opposite side were either both bedrooms, or one was a bathroom. One thing was sure: one of the rooms housed Bart’s home office. He only hoped it wasn’t currently being used as a guest room.

He moved to the door opposite Megan’s and pressed his ear to the door. The light snoring he heard told him everything he needed to know. Now his odds were fifty-fifty.

When pressed his ear to the door of the room next to the occupied room, he didn’t hear anything. Ditto for the room at the end of the hall. Someone was sleeping in one of the rooms, but which one? Since he hadn’t heard anyone using the bathroom attached to Megan’s room last night, he decided the most likely room for Gram was the one attached to Kevin’s. Which left the door at the end of the hall.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the doorknob and turned it slowly, pushing the door gently when he felt it unlatch. He swung the door open and instantly panicked.

Megan’s grandmother was stark naked next to the bed, with her hands and feet on the floor and her saggy butt up in the air, giving him a view he would—unfortunately—never forget.

Josh’s brain told him “Retreat! Retreat!” but his feet refused to move.

“Josh!” Gram’s face appeared between her ankles. “Good morning!”

“Sorry!” he sputtered out. “I was looking for a bathroom.”

“This isn’t it, but come do yoga with me.”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Uh… I’m not really a yoga fan.” He started to back up and ran into the doorjamb.

“That’s probably because you haven’t tried it
au naturel
.”

He cringed. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not it.”

“Come on. Don’t be a prude.”

He opened his eyes and turned his gaze to the opposite side of the room. “I…can’t… I told Megan…I’d get her some coffee.”

Gram laughed. “That girl’s like her mother. She doesn’t believe in gettin’ up before eight a.m. I have a hard time believing she’s up.”

Josh was pretty sure Megan wouldn’t care to be compared to her mother. “Well, we both went to bed early…”

“What kind of positions are you kids trying these days? Back when Nicole was younger, her father and I were quite fond of the Kama Sutra. It helped us keep flexible.”

Josh nodded, still not looking at her. His face felt like it was on fire. “Yes, ma’am. I’m sure it would.”

“Well?”

“What?” Oh, Lord. Did she really expect him to answer?

“What positions are you kids using?”

Was she referring to the younger generation in general or to his and Megan’s presumed sex life in particular? Either way, he had no desire to discuss sex of any sort with Megan’s naked grandmother.

“Are you sexually repressed, Joshua?”

“
What?
No!”

“Then why don’t you strip off your clothes and join me?”

“Megan’s coffee…” he stammered.

“Sexual repression is a very bad thing. My daughter is the most repressed person I know and look how she turned out. I told Bart she’d be an easier person for all of us to live with if he’d just put his foot down once in a while.”

Gram struggled to get upright and Josh hovered on indecision. He knew he should offer the octogenarian his help…but she was naked. And the image had already burned holes in his retinas. He had no desire to add to the damage.

Thankfully, she grabbed ahold of the bed and pulled herself to an upright position on her own.

“Well, I better get going…”

She stood in front of him in all her Lady Godiva glory. “How do you keep that firm patootie, young man? Do you do squats? Or do you lift weights at the gym?”

He started to cough. “Excuse me?” Oh, God. Was she coming on to him?

“I’ve enrolled in an art class—sketching nudes. I’d like to sketch your backside.”

“Uh…I…” He stepped backward. “I’ll need to check with Megan on that.”

“And if she says yes?”

“I’ll let you know.” He managed to stumble into the hall and shut the door behind him. He rushed for Megan’s room, heading straight for the bathroom and turning on the water. He splashed his face over and over in a desperate attempt to wash away the sight of Megan’s grandmother’s full womanhood staring him in the face. He groaned and washed faster.

“Josh?” Megan asked, standing in the doorway, her voice husky with sleep.

He continued to douse his face. “I just saw the most horrifying thing I can even imagine.”

She stiffened. “What?”

“Your grandmother. In a downward dog yoga position. In the nude.”

Megan chuckled. “Oh, dear. Mom had mentioned that Gram was going through a nudist phase, but I didn’t know she’d combined it with yoga.”

He stood upright, water dripping everywhere, and she handed him a towel. He covered his face with it, then pulled it down to look at Megan. He was thankful she was acting normal, as if he hadn’t so abruptly curtailed their night together. He wasn’t sure he could handle her dejection. His hold on his self-control with her was tenuous at best. He would probably do something he’d later regret.

She looked up at him, expecting some kind of response.

He dabbed at his neck with the towel. “She wanted me to do yoga with her in her room.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Did you?”

“No!”

“It could have been interesting,” she teased. “Have you ever tried yoga in the nude?”

He shook his head, trying to suppress the image of her grandmother that popped back into his head. “I’ve seen and heard things that have most likely scarred me for life.”

She leaned her shoulder into the doorjamb, giggling. “Poor baby. What were you doing in Gram’s room before seven in the morning, anyway?” She grinned, looking like she was up to trouble. “Did you go sleep with Gram last night?”

Horror rushed through his head. He wouldn’t put it past the woman to attempt to demonstrate some of her Kama Sutra positions. But the biggest problem at the moment was explaining to Megan why he opened her grandmother’s door.

“I was looking for a bathroom.”

Her head jutted back in surprise. “Why? You could have just used this one.”

“You were still asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“All the bathrooms upstairs are attached to bedrooms.”

“Yeah,” he said dryly. “I found that out the hard way. I thought there might be another one.”

“Did you get changed in Gram’s room?” she asked with a smirk, taking in his wet dress shirt and jeans.

“I got dressed in here, but I didn’t want to shave or shower and disturb you.”

She moved toward him and lifted a hand to his chin, running her thumb over the stubble. “Your scruff gives you a rugged look. It will give my mother a fit.” She looked up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I think you should keep it.”

His breath stuck in his chest at her touch, as he registered how close she stood to him, how warm her finger was against his face. He kept his hands at his sides even though everything in him was screaming to pull her closer and kiss her until she begged him to do more. “And what about you?” he forced out.

She stilled, her fingertips still splayed on his face. “What about me?” she whispered.

“What do you think of it?”

“I like it.”

She was like a magnet. Not touching her would be like fighting the laws of physics. Impossible. One hand landed on her waist as the other slid across her cheek, digging into her dark, thick hair.

“There you are,” Gram said, her voice coming from behind Megan. “Did you manage to get Megan’s coffee?”

Josh took one look at her and cringed. Oh, God. She was still naked.

Megan broke free of his hold and spun around, gasping. “Gram! Put some clothes on!”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that? I came into this world without a stitch of clothes on and I plan to leave it the same way.”

Megan chased after her. “Well, you’re not going anywhere today, so get dressed.”

“If I’m not leaving the house, all the more reason to go nude!” Gram insisted. “I tried to go into the Price Chopper grocery store this way, and based on the screaming and panic, you would have thought terrorists were attacking.”

“I wasn’t talking about running errands. What I meant is that you’re not, God forbid, going to be meeting your maker any time soon.”

“Don’t you worry, Megan. Your mother made me promise not to keel over before your wedding. She wouldn’t want anything to ruin her carefully laid plans.”

Josh regained his senses and cautiously followed Megan out of the bathroom. The older woman was now wearing a skimpy robe and Megan was tying the sash around her waist.

“I’m thinking about relocating to somewhere that appreciates the human form.”

“Is that so?” Megan asked, working on the knot.

“I’m considering Panama or Belize.”

“I’d definitely check out Belize,” Josh said, “The tax laws are more favorable to Americans there.”

Gram looked interested in his suggestion. “Do they have any nudist communes?”

He crossed his arms. “You know, I’ve never checked. How about I look it up today and get back to you?”

Her grandmother beamed. “Maybe you kids would like to go with me.”

Megan glanced over her shoulder at him, giving him a look of mock terror.

“I think we’d just cramp your style, Gram,” Josh said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one to hold you back. You want to do naked yoga with people who will appreciate the beauty of it. As you’ve already noticed, I’m too much of a prude to count myself among them.”

She nodded, deep in thought. “You’re probably right.” She turned to Megan. “Never let this one get away, Megan Nicole Vandemeer. He’s a catch.”

Megan’s smile fell. “I’ll try my best, Gram.”

“But loosen him up a bit first.” She winked and gave them a mischievous grin, then left the room.

Megan shut the door behind her. “You know we’ll probably find her naked in the kitchen later, but she’ll have a devil of a time working that knot loose.” Her words were funny, but her tone was flat and humorless.

Josh wanted to answer, but he couldn’t form a response.

She moved over to her suitcase. “I’m going to take a shower. Do you need to do anything in the bathroom first?”

He studied her back as she grabbed clothes out of the case and stood. “No,” he finally managed to say. She started to walk past him. “Megan, wait.”