Sea Breeze 03 While It Lasts (7 page)

             
“You can’t be a very good cowhand if you’re scared of the cows.”

             
I let out a sigh, “Well, damn there went my future plans.”

             
What looked like the
tugging’s
of a smile played on her lips but vanished just as quickly.
The playful glint in her eyes disappeared as well. What had I done to put her back in a bad mood? I liked the Eva I’d just gotten a glimpse of
,
not this sad snarky one that had reappeared.

             
“We’re not engaged. Jeremy and I a
re friends. Very good friends.”

             
Confused,
I dropped my eyes to the ring on her left hand just to make sure I hadn’t imagined
seeing
it. The diamond was still there professing to the world that she was an
engaged
woman. Who the hell was she engaged to? The only guy I’d seen her with was Jeremy.

“You wear that ring for fun?” I asked
jokingly
in hopes of getting the fun Eva back
but instead
her face fell.

“No. I don’t wear it for fun. I’m not engaged to Jeremy.
I’m engaged to his brother.”

Eva

             
I’m engaged to his brother?
Why had I said it like I was still engaged to Josh? He was going to find out the truth.  I’d darted away so fast that he couldn’t ask me any
more questions but he would ask someone.  Not that I thought he was real
ly
curious about me but because he was confused. I didn’t want him curious about Josh. I didn’t want him to know about everything that had happened.

             
I wanted him to still look at me with that appreciative sexy gleam in his eyes. The gleam I would continue to ignore. I liked having someone look at me with something other than sympathy. Once he knew
,
those sexy smirks and strip
teases he did outside for my benefit would all end. He’d feel bad for poor Eva.

             
Until he’d shown up, I hadn’t realized that everyone looked at me differently.
They were careful with me. Cage didn’t look at me like I was breakable.
Ten
months ago
,
I hadn’t been ready for someone to look at me differently. I’d wanted them to remem
ber Josh when they saw me. N
ow I needed someone, anyone
,
to just see me. Not the tragedy. Just me.

             
Cage didn’t know my past. He didn’t know the pain I’d suffered. He didn’t measure every word he spoke to me and he didn’t hold back punches.
He treated me like he did everyone else.
With him, I felt normal again. It was
about
time I felt like a human again.

             
The screen door slammed behind me and I jumped.

             
“Damn Charles North thinks he can just go on up to my hunting camp whenever he damn well pleases with a bunch of
banker
friends of his,” Daddy grumbled as he walked into the kitchen.

             
Charles North was my mother’s sister’s husband. My mother had passed away when I was seven so I never really got to know her sister or her sister’s husband. All I di
d know was that my dad was not
a fan. My Aunt Kim only ever called when she wanted something. She acted like Daddy owed her something because my momma
was killed in a car accident
. Daddy hadn’t been driving but that didn’t seem to make a difference to my aunt.
She still blamed him.

             
“What happened?” I asked
,
reaching into the cabinet to get him a glass.

He took it from my hand and went about pouring himself some lemonade.

             
“Your Aunt Kim called and informed me that Charles would be going fishing up at the camp this weekend. He was brin
g
ing friends with him. No one asked me. They just took it upon themselves to make these plans. Well, I told Josiah that he could take Jeremy up to the camp this weekend and they could go fishing. I am not changing that.” Daddy shook his head and took a really long swig of the lemonade.

             
“You going up there?” I asked
as he finished his drink and se
t it on the table in front of him.

             
“Yeah, got to.
I’ll head out in the morning. Cage knows what to do out there and then he will be gone on Sunday. That’s his day off. He already told me he had a ride back to the beach for the day.”

             
Cage would be gone all day Sunday? I wouldn’t have to worry about him getting too hot outside
so I should b
e relieved but I wasn’t
.  I didn’t want him to go.
I’d be left alone out here all by myself.

             
“Okay,” I managed to
reply.

             
“I’m
gonna
go into town and get some more barb wire for the fence. Damn bull keeps tearing up that piece of the fence down by the lake. Guess he wants out to take a swim,” Dad grumbled as he headed for the door.

             
I waited until I heard Daddy’s truck leave the drive before heading outside. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was doing. It was a spur o
f the moment decision. Cage had walked into the barn just a few minutes ago. I’d watched him from the kitchen window.

             
I headed to the barn.

             
Opening the door
,
I stepped inside and had to squint to see clearly. The only light streaming into the barn was from the cracks in the roof, so it was dark compared to the
bright sunshine
. The familiar smell of hay and wood hit me as I turned to see if Cage was still in here. I’d had my back to the window when Daddy had been in the kitchen so it was possible he’d left and I’d missed him.

             
“Looking for something?” Cage asked from behind me.

             
I turned around to face him and almost swallowed my tongue when my eyes met his naked chest. I’d admired it from afar but never up close. It was better up close.

             
“An engaged lady shouldn’t be looking at another ma
n like she wants to take a lick.” T
he teasing tone in his voice told me he didn’t really mind my gawking at him at all. He was enjoying it.

             
“Who said I wanted to take a lick?” I replied
,
surprised at my own response. Was that flirting I had just done?
I wasn’t sure I’d ever flirted.

             
Cage ran a hand through his hair and let out a short deep laugh. “Maybe we ought to change t
he subject.” Cage was nervous. Had my comment
just made him nervous?

             
“You brought up the licking Cage, not me.” I waited to see how he’d react this time. 

             
“Yeah, I guess I did,” he drawled and took a step toward me. Okay
,
so maybe I hadn’t made him nervous. Guys like Cage probably didn’t get nervous.  “If you really want to talk about licking, I’ll happily oblige.”

             
Oh, my. Now, I was nervous.  Cage rea
ched out and took my left hand
in his. The warmth from his callused
palm
made my entire body tingle. “Only problem with talking about licking with you is that it gives me ideas. I start thinking about things I shouldn’t be thinking about.
Things that will only torment me
‘
cause I’ll never know just how sweet you taste.
I may be a lot of things Eva
, might even
be a fe
w of them names you called me b
ut
I’m not
gonna
touch what belongs to another man.”

             
I opened my mouth to say something and stopped when Cage lifted my left hand to his mouth and kissed my ring finger. Then his tongue darted out
and
just barely
skimmed
the top of my hand
. H
e grinned wickedly.

             
At some point
,
I’d stopped breathing. When my lungs started burning I to
ok a deep breath and Cage let my
hand fall back to my side. “Sorry, I had to take one small taste.” Then he winked at me
and turned toward the door.

             
I stood silently as he walked back outside into the summer heat.

Cage

             
I drove as far away from that damn barn as I could get. When the lak
e
came into view, I pulled over and
jumped out of the truck
.
Then I
started for the water. I needed to cool the fuck off.  I’d wanted to stop Eva from anymore of her flirty little remarks and damned if I hadn’t just screwed myself. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

             
I started unbuttoning my jeans.

             
“Hey, if you plan on stripping
give me time to get gone first.
” I spun around to see Jeremy walking over fr
om his side of the fence. Not exactly
who
I wanted to see at the moment. My head was all kinds of screwed up over his future sister-in-law.

             
“It’s hot,” I replied. The annoyance in my tone was unavoidable. I was pissed.
I had no reason to be but I was. Why hadn’t I just banged
Becca
Lynn and took the edge off? It would have given me physical relief and pissed Eva off. If she went back to hating me then she’d stop
hunting me down and saying shit
she had no business saying.

             
“Yeah, it is. We don’t get much of that gulf breeze out here like y’all do down on the coast.”

             
I wasn’t in the mood to talk about the weather.

             
“You working?” I asked before I told him to run the fuck off so I could strip.

             
“Nah, I’m done.
Going fishing with my dad this weekend.
T
hought I’d come down here and
c
heck out the fence line before we headed out.

             
Just his dad?
He’d never mentioned his brother. Not once. That was odd.

             
“Your brother going too?”

             
Jeremy’s easy smile vanished.  “Uh, no.”

             
“He not
live
around here? I’ve never seen him at Eva’s.”

             
Jeremy stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and his frown deepened. “What do you know about my brother?”

             
“Nothing except he’s
engaged to Eva.” What was the deal here?
Why the weirdness about his brother? It was a simple question.

             
“Eva
tell
you that?” Jeremy asked still frowning.

             
“Yeah.”

             
Jeremy let out a deep sigh and shook his head. Something was way off here.

             
“I really shouldn’t tell you this because it’s Eva’s story to tell.
Still,
you at least ne
ed to know the truth. Eva was engaged to my brother.”

             
They broke it off?
Except, s
he was still wearing the ring. Was she mentally off? Was that what I was missing here?

             
“Cage, my brother is dead.”

             
That had not been what I was expecting.
I had almost been convince
d Eva was a little unstable.
I sure wasn’t expecting to hear she was wearing the ring her dead fiancé gave her.

             
“He was in the army. 
About eighteen months ago, a bomb near Baghdad.
Him along with four other soldiers.
He’d proposed to Eva on his last leave.”