The Heart - Kate Stewart Page 0,24

at Jamie, who was blocking his path to freedom. Jamie, seeming to snap out of her daze, gave Jack a huge tooth-filled smile as she did what she could to keep him from leaving.

“Would you like a drink?”

“No, thank you. I’m working today.” He turned to me, his blue-gray eyes swallowing me whole in my bikini. “How about that ride... later?”

“Okay,” I said without hesitation. “Thanks for coming by, Jack.”

He gave me a knowing grin. “Nice to meet you, ladies,” he offered, making a quick move to get out of the den full of hungry women, myself included.

After Jack disappeared from sight, Jamie turned to me expectantly at the exact moment as Jules. I shrugged, grabbed our empty glasses, and walked into my kitchen as they followed close on my heels.

“You two just made total asses of yourselves,” I scorned as I replenished the glasses with ice.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man that fucking hot in my life,” Jamie said, looking back in the direction Jack left. “Seriously, you guys could have warned me... you know given a bird call... something!”

I shook the bottle of mix as I scorned her. “Uh huh, well, your flirting was shameless. What about Bart?”

“Oh God,” she said animatedly as she braced herself on the counter. “He works out naked.”

I rolled my eyes as she continued. “Just hear me out. I was fine with it at first... but... okay, but... have you ever seen a man do naked jumping jacks? Things were just flying everywhere! Seriously, ladies, no... just no.”

“You could ask him to cover up,” I said through a laugh.

“I will never get that picture out of my head,” she groaned. “It’s like there are no normal men out there anymore. Why do the ones I pick have to have the strangest habits? I’m on hiatus as of this moment. One month.”

Jules remained quiet but entertained as she looked at Jamie then me for an explanation, her olive skin darkened by the second from our short time in the sun.

Before she could give me any verbal grief, I came clean. “He’s a contractor, lives in New Orleans, and he’s installing all the medical equipment for the center.”

“You didn’t say a word,” Jules said, sizing me up as I poured our drinks.

“Because there’s nothing to tell. He took me for a ride last night on his motorcycle. It stayed PG.” I was lying, but I didn’t know any woman who would openly admit she was so hard up she’d had an orgasm on the back of a Harley. I looked between them. “Look, make your play if you want. We’re just friends.”

“No you aren’t,” Jules said, taking her drink. “At least he’s not interested in just friendship with you.”

“I hate to admit it,” Jamie said, tapping a manicured nail against the side of her glass, “but she’s right. He was looking at you like he wanted to tear your ass apart.” A small amount of pride swelled within me. I knew my attraction to Jack was sexual, because honestly I had nothing to go on other than small conversation, but I loved that the girls picked up on it.

Jamie took a long drink of her spiked tea and gave me a wink. “I’m seriously depressed I can’t have him.”

Jamie wasn’t far away from Jules in the looks department. She too was a dark haired beauty but with soft brown eyes and was much taller. She looked like a million bucks in her flowered swimsuit cover up, and I had to admit, as I noted her shiny, raven hair, and curvy figure, that it impressed me that other than friendly pleasantries, Jack hadn’t paid neither of my beautiful friends any attention. The pride within me swelled a little bigger as I became more excited about our ride later. I knew without a doubt that I wanted Jack to kiss me and let my thoughts wander for a brief moment as a smile crept across my face.

“Good lord, he’s going to break the seal,” Jamie said, grinning at me after she read my thoughts.

“Finally,” they both said in unison, chuckling at each other.

“I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not in the business of denying the obvious. He is good looking,” I said, leading them back to the deck, fresh drinks in hand. “But I still don’t know if I’m ready to take that leap.”

We lay side-by-side, sipping our drinks as the girls grilled me more on Jack.

“I just met him. Seriously, I don’t know much.”

“Well, I