He trailed, very lightly, a fingertip over her breast. “Cancel the class and we’ll go up now.”
“It’s a shame I’m a responsible woman—and one who barely has time to take a shower.”
“Oh yeah, the obligatory shower. I could use one.”
“Doubling up would only lead to shower sex.”
“Damn straight.”
“Which, while fun, I have no time for. Besides, you and Jaws can’t do the next class. It risks overtraining. But you could—” She broke off when the dogs announced visitors. “Oh hell, oh shit!” Scrambling, she grabbed her shirt, her pants, bundled them in front of her as she hunched toward the window.
“It’s James, and oh God, Lori. It’s James and Lori and I’m naked in the living room on a Sunday afternoon.” She glanced back. “And you’re naked on the floor.”
She looked so sexily flustered, a little wild in the eye and pink from her toes to her hairline.
Delicious, he thought. He could’ve lapped her up like ice cream. “I like it here.”
“No! No! Get up!” She waved her hands, dropped her shirt, grabbed it again. “Up, get something on. Go... go tell them I’ll be out in five minutes.”
“Because you’re taking an after-sex shower?”
“Just... get your pants on!” Still hunched, she sprinted for the stairs.
Grinning—she looked even more interesting running naked—he tugged on his pants, tossed on his shirt and, grabbing his socks and boots, strolled out onto the porch.
James and Lori stopped greeting the dogs. James’s eyes narrowed. Lori flushed.
“She’ll be out in a couple minutes.” Simon sat to put on his socks and boots. Jaws instantly made a lunge for a boot. Simon swung it out of reach, said, “Cut it out.”
“Nice-looking dog. How’s his training coming?”
“It’s coming. We just took in a class.”
James’s eyes stayed narrowed. “Is that what you just did?”
Simon laced up his boot, smiled coolly. “Among other things. Is that a problem for you?”
Lori patted frantically at James’s arm. “We just dropped by to see if Fiona wanted to grab some dinner after her classes. You could join us.”
“Thanks, but I’ve got to get on. See you around.” He walked to his truck. Jaws danced in place, obviously torn, then ran after Simon, leaped into the cab of the truck.
“I don’t know about this,” James muttered.
“It’s not our business—exactly.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon, practically. It’s daylight.”
“Prude.” Lori elbowed him and laughed.
“I’m not a prude, but—”
“People make love in the daylight, James. Plus I like knowing he’s around, spending time with her. Didn’t you say we should come by just to check on her?”
“Yeah, but we’re her friends.”
“I think Fee and Simon are pretty friendly. Just a wild guess. I’m sorry if you’re jealous, but—”
“I’m not.” Genuinely surprised, he stopped scowling after Simon and turned to her.
“I know you and Fee are close,” Lori began, lowering her lashes.
“Wow. No. Not that way.”
The lashes lifted again. “At all?”
“At all, as in never. Jeez, do people actually think... ?”
“Oh, I don’t know about people. I guess I just thought you were, or had been or maybe hoped to.” She managed an embarrassed laugh. “I’ll shut up now.”
“Listen, Fee and I are... we’re like family. I don’t think about her that way. I don’t think that way.” He paused until she looked at him, looked in his eyes. “About Fee.”
“Maybe you think that way about somebody else?”
“All the time.”
“Oh.” She laughed again. “Thank God.”
He started to touch her; she started to let him. And Fiona rushed out of the house.
“Hey! Hi. It’s my day for pals. Did Simon leave?”
James let out a long breath. “Yeah, he said he had to go.”
“Sorry,” Lori put in. “Lousy timing.”
“Actually, it could’ve been worse. Or much more embarrassing for all. Let’s just close the door on all that. So.” She offered a big, bright smile. “What are you two up to?”
Thirteen
“Organic milk.” Fiona unloaded the items she’d picked up for Sylvia. “Free-range eggs, goat cheese, lentils, brown rice and one shiny eggplant. Mmm, yummy.”
“I shudder to think what you’ve got in the car.”
“Besides Bogart? You’re better off not knowing.”
“Fat, salt, starch and sugar.”
“Maybe, but also a couple of very pretty apples. And look what I got for you,” she said to Oreo, “because you’re so cute.”
She pulled out a squeaky toy, gave it a squeeze and sent the little dog into a quiver of delight. “Sylvia,” she said when she offered the toy, and Oreo pranced off with it. “I’m having an affair.” With a laugh she turned two quick circles. “I’m closing in on thirty, and I’ve never been able to say that before. I’m having a hot, steamy, crazy affair.”
With the one shiny eggplant in her hand, Sylvia smiled. “It’s certainly giving you a relaxed, happy glow.”
“Is it?” Fiona laid her hands on her own cheeks. “Well, I am relaxed and happy. You know it was never an affair with Greg. It was friendship and a crush and a relationship one after another, or altogether. But a slow build. And this? This has been pow! Explosive.”
She leaned on the kitchen counter, grinned. “I’m having scorching, no-strings sex, and it’s fabulous.”
“Do you want to keep it that way?” Sylvia gave Fiona’s hair, loose today, swinging, a quick stroke. “The no strings?”
“I’m not thinking about that yet.” Fiona lifted her shoulders, let them fall in a kind of internal hug. “I like this phase of not thinking about it.”
“Exciting. A little dangerous. Unpredictable.”
“Yes! And that’s all so unlike me. No plans, no checklist.”
“And all glow.”
“If it keeps up, I may turn radioactive.” Charged, she broke a sprig of glossy green grapes from the bunch in the bowl on the counter and began popping them into her mouth. “I’ve been training Jaws one-on-one. Over a week now, which means either I go over there or Simon brings the dog to me. And we don’t always... There isn’t always time, but there’s always heat.”
“Don’t you ever go out? I mean, wouldn’t you like to go have dinner or catch a movie?”
“I don’t know. That all seems...” She whisked a hand through the air. “Outside right now. Maybe we will, or maybe it’ll burn off. But right now, I feel so involved, so excited, so—cliché time—alive. I’m a walking buzz. Did you ever have one? A hot, steamy affair?”
“Yes, I did.” After tucking the eggs away, Sylvia closed the refrigerator. “With your father.”
Fiona patted a hand to her throat as a grape threatened to lodge. “ Seriously?”
“I think we both decided it was just sex, just a fast, exciting ride—during that no-thinking phase.”
“Hold on a minute, because I want to hear this but I don’t want to get a picture in my head. That’s too weird. Okay, okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut, nodded. “No video. You and Dad.”
Sylvia licked her fingertip, made a hissing sound. “Scorching. I was managing Island Arts in those days. I have many, many fond memories of the stockroom.”
“I must say... wow. Dad in the stockroom.”
“Exciting, a little dangerous, unpredictable.”
“Like you,” Fiona murmured. “Not so much like him—or my perception of him.”
“We were like teenagers.” She sighed, smiled. “God, he made me feel that way. Of course, I was much too unconventional to consider marriage, so I imagined we’d just continue as we were, until we stopped. And then, I don’t know, Fee, how or when or why, not specifically, but then I couldn’t imagine my life without him. Thank God he felt the same.”
“He was so nervous the first time he took me to meet you. I know I was young, but I knew he loved you because he was so nervous.”
“He loved us both. We were lucky. Still, when he asked me to marry him, I thought, Oh no, absolutely not. Marriage? Just a piece of paper, just an empty ritual. I thought absolutely not, but I said yes—and stunned myself. My heart,” she murmured, laying her hand over it. “My heart wouldn’t say no.”