Rainy Day Friends Read online

  Taking a deep breath, she stripped out of her top and skirt. When she looked up, she found Mark suddenly at the water’s edge, the water lapping at his calves. His eyes were dark, very dark, and she pointed at him. “Don’t take this the wrong way.”

  “Is there a wrong way to take it when a beautiful woman strips out of her clothes?” he asked without a smile, although it was in his voice. “I’m taking it that you’re planning a swim.”

  “Actually, I’m planning on kicking your ass at boogie boarding,” she said. “And that is all.”

  His mouth quirked. “Duly noted.”

  “Your pants are ringing,” she murmured as his phone went off.

  He came all the way out of the waves, water sluicing off his extremely fit body. A few drops clung stubbornly to all those lean muscles and she had to admit, she’d have done the same thing if she were one of those drops of water.

  He bent to his pants to fish out his phone. “Yes,” he said into it. “I can hear you.”

  Even in only the moonlight, his eyes seemed to gleam as he stared at Lanie in a way that suddenly made her want to forget boogie boarding in lieu of something else entirely.

  Not going to fall for him, she reminded herself sternly, no matter how grounded and real and charismatic he seemed. It would only bring heartache.

  “I haven’t forgotten the family meeting,” he said into the phone. He listened to whoever was on the other end of the phone for a few long minutes and then, eyes still on Lanie as she bent to pick up the second board, he said, “Start without me, I’m going to be late.” He paused as Lanie strode past him into the water and added “Very late” before tossing his phone back onto his pants. “Winner picks dessert,” he said.

  Sounded fair. Especially since she was going to win.

  SHE BARELY BEAT him, a fact Mark attributed to several things. One, he was beyond exhausted from all the extra shifts he’d been taking on in the name of saving for the house he wanted to build for himself and the girls. And two, the bright moonlight cast the air around them a pale blue, not black, which meant he could see everything, and what he could see at every turn was Lanie.

  Wet.

  Laughing.

  And swimming like she’d been born in the water. She took his breath away, and that was when the water was up to her chin. When she jumped high and dove with a wild abandon into oncoming waves he caught glimpses of that long, curvy, glorious body that had nearly done him in when she’d been standing on the shore.

  Good Christ, he was a dead man.

  “That’s five to five,” she informed him loftily, gliding up beside him, lifting her hands to push her hair from her face. They were counting strikes by whoever fell first. “Tiebreaker?” she asked.

  “Hell yeah,” he said and they both turned to face the waves.

  She flashed him a mischievous grin and dove into the water. Her undies had ridden up, and her bra had gone completely sheer. She looked like some sort of ocean goddess and he found himself just staring after her before remembering that this was the tiebreaker. He made a quick, sloppy attempt to catch her, his gaze held and locked by the smooth way she held on to her board, her body moving in sync with the water and . . .

  He took a wave right in the face, which pummeled him, sending him somersaulting across the water.

  When he righted himself and shook his head to clear it, she was standing there, water lapping at her feet, grinning.

  “Claiming my spoils,” she said. “I pick cookies.”

  Chapter 8

  The struggle between wanting to be invited but not wanting to actually go . . .

  Mark drove Lanie to the grocery store because by the time they dried off and got into the truck, it was nearly midnight and the bakery was long closed. He’d wanted to get her home and in a hot shower to warm up first, but she’d accused him of reneging on a bet, so here they were, cookie shopping.

  He watched as she stood there considering her choices very seriously. She’d pulled her clothes back on and then a jacket of his that he’d given her from his backseat. Her hair had been twisted and piled wet on top of her head, held there by some mysterious woman magic.

  Her teeth were chattering.

  And damn if he didn’t want to warm her in the one way that would heat them both up. But he had a rule. He’d picked badly with his wife and was in no hurry to love again. He meant what he’d told Alyssa—he wouldn’t even consider trying until the girls were grown.

  But lust was different. And there was lust with Lanie, lots of it.

  She shivered again and he shook his head. “Just pick one.”

  This had her looking up at him incredulously. All of her makeup had washed off in the ocean and she could’ve passed for a teenager, which made him feel like a complete perv, since all he could think about was how she’d looked in her sheer bra and those eye-popping DayGlo pink undies that had done some amazing things for her first-class ass.

  “I can’t just pick one,” she said. “Picking out the right cookies takes a minute. Dessert doesn’t go to the stomach, dessert goes to the heart.”

  He was baffled. “You’re freezing, and cookies are cookies.”

  “I beg your pardon, but you are dead wrong. There’re things to consider here. For instance, do I want double fudge, chocolate chip, or maybe lemon—”

  He reached past her and grabbed one of each, adding several other boxes as well. Five in total, all different, and dumped them into the cart.

  “Seriously?” she asked.

  “Just covering all the bases. Let’s go.”

  A stoner standing in front of the chips display shook his head at Mark. “Dude. It takes balls of steel to get between a woman and her cookies.”

  Lanie went hands on hips. “Why does having ‘balls’ equate to toughness?”

  The stoner blinked. “Uh . . .”

  “And in the same vein,” she said, “why does the word ‘pussy’ equate to weakness, when even the slightest flick to a guy’s ‘balls of steel’ sends him to his knees—but vaginas can push out an entire human being?”

  Both men just stared at her. Stoner Dude covered his crotch with his hands. “Man, you’re harsh. You’re harshing my buzz.”

  Mark took Lanie by the hand, pushing the cart with the other. Since her fingers were ice, he tucked them into his pocket. “You’re frozen.”

  “But at least I have cookies,” she said happily, and he had to laugh.

  At the cash register, he paid and once they were in his truck, he cranked the heater on high, aiming all the vents at her.

  “You ever going to tell me what tonight’s about?” she asked after they’d been driving a few minutes. “I mean, I wasn’t even sure we liked each other.”

  “I like you,” he said. He liked how quietly smart she was, how creative too. She’d come from what sounded like a hell of a beginning and she’d made something of herself.

  On her own.

  He admired that. He also really liked watching her with Sam and Sierra. She didn’t treat them like babies. She didn’t patronize and she didn’t try to be something she wasn’t. She spoke to them like they were people. She was a whole lot nicer and kinder to them than anyone had asked her to be, but she wasn’t putting on an act. When she was with them, he could see her real self, and he knew it was because she felt safe enough with them to let her guard down.

  He couldn’t help but want to see more of that Lanie, but she didn’t like him as much as she did the twins, although he thought maybe that was changing a little bit. It was probably a good thing she was a temp. Two months total with three weeks already down. He didn’t see her sticking around after the job was done, and that meant they had an expiration date.

  A comfort zone in which to explore their chemistry within their own boundaries.

  He drove past the turnoff for the winery, up a narrow, windy road, and parked at the end of it.

  Lanie stared through the windshield at the woods in front of them. “I’m finally dry and warm and