The Summer I Saved You (The Summer #2)(26)

And then he yawns, and reality intrudes. He was asleep and we woke him up with our fighting. Why must every humiliating incident I suffer have an audience, and why is that audience always him?

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I guess we woke you.”

He shrugs. "My window was open, and he was being such a dick that I thought you might need some backup. I couldn’t find my shorts, so it took me a minute.”

I try to ignore the image that comes to my head unbidden—of him before he added the shorts. Was he naked? In very fitted briefs? My mind is capable of diving into the gutter at even the worst of moments, it seems.

“I hope you’ve got a good lawyer,” Caleb says.

“I do,” I reply, though I’m not sure it’s true—Darryl left me a message saying he was ‘really busy right now’ and would have his associate, Sharon, take over. She’s done absolutely nothing.

“Seriously, Lucie…that guy is unhinged. I don’t know how you ever thought he was going to provide you your fairy tale.”

“I didn’t.” I came back here once the house was legally mine, hoping to see you, and met Jeremy instead. “I went through most of college with my friends telling me I was too picky, so I decided to see if they were right and got pregnant almost immediately by accident.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

"No, I’m sorry. You must feel like you're living next to the set of a trashy reality show.”

“Believe me, Kate and I have been the interesting neighbors more often than I’d like.” He sees the sympathy in my gaze and shakes his head. “It wasn’t just the drugs, and to be honest, it was pretty entertaining at times. Kate’s probably the smartest person I know. I used to enjoy listening to her tell off neighbors whose yard signs offended her.”

It shouldn’t bother me to hear the admiration in his voice, but it does. "You must really love her to be willing to wait like that."

He pushes a hand through his hair again, and infinite muscles in his stomach ripple in response. “I’m not waiting, actually. I had my friend Harrison—he’s a lawyer—file for divorce.”

My mouth falls open. “You did? What led to that?”

“He’s been on me about it for a while. I realized I was going to—” His eyes are wary as they meet mine. “For all my failures, I’ve never cheated on anyone. I wanted that to remain true.”

In other words, Caleb wants to get laid. The idea of Caleb sexually deprived and eager makes a muscle in my core clamp down so hard it almost hurts. I think of what it would be like, slowly undressing as he watches, and that muscle tightens further.

We’re both single, so none of what I’m picturing is impossible, but I’m the opposite of what he wants. If he just escaped a committed relationship—the one that convinced him he didn’t ever want to be in one again—he sure isn’t interested in a single mom with two kids.

“If you’re a free man, shouldn’t you be off living out your single bachelor fantasies?”

“I’m not entirely free yet. We have to prove we’ve tried to reach Kate first, but…” He raises a brow. “Single bachelor fantasies?”

I grin. “You look like a threesome-with-supermodels-type, if I had to guess.”

That dimple of his flashes in the moonlight, and the muscle low in my belly spasms again. “I’m pretty sure every guy is a threesome-with-supermodels-type if he can make that happen.”

I wave a dismissive hand at him. “Look at you. Obviously, you can make it happen.”

A half-smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “So you think all I need to do to get a threesome with supermodels is ask for it?”

I groan. “Shut up. You already know you can get pretty much anyone you want.”

He regards me quietly. “But not you, because you’re holding out for the fairy tale.”

He’s offered this up as if it’s a statement, but I almost sense that it’s...a question.

Would I? Sleeping with Caleb wouldn’t necessarily rule out waiting on the fairy tale. The two things could, in theory, occur simultaneously. It could happen right here and now, me sitting on this step with my legs spread wide.

Yes, yes I would. I’d do it without question if that was something he was open to.

He huffs out a low laugh. “You have no poker face, Lucie.”

I blink out of my reverie. I wonder if he knows I was trying to figure out how we could have sex on my cement front steps. But I’m not what he wants and he’s not what I want either, if he’s got no interest in a family. Plus he’s my boss. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. “I’m definitely still holding out for the fairy tale,” I reply. “But I’ll stop telling the neighbors you buried your wife in the backyard.”

He grins. “Thanks. You’ve been making it really hard to lure their supermodel daughters over.”

I laugh and climb to my feet, only realizing how very little I’m wearing as his gaze slides over me. My pajamas cover more than a bathing suit but feel like less. Especially after the conversation we just had.

"Thanks. For coming to my rescue.”

"Any time," he says, keeping his eyes carefully trained above my neck.