Summer's End (Wildflowers #5) - Jill Sanders Page 0,12
standard work truck and, when she glanced in the back seat, she noticed the box of tools on the floor.
“Sorry, work truck smell.” He shrugged.
“It smells good, like you.” She smiled. “Like tools and wood shavings.”
He chuckled. “Then you’ll love my place. When I left this morning, I didn’t know I was going to have company later.” He started driving.
“You should see my room. I share it with Hannah. She’s a typical type A personality and, well, I’m not.” She shrugged.
He chuckled. “Elle has talked about the five of you for years. I can’t remember a time she didn’t brag about her Wildflower friends.” He glanced at her.
“Elle saved all of us,” she admitted.
“Oh?” he asked as he parked in front of the trailer and shut off the truck.
“We were all lost and broken in our own ways.”
“That’s not how she tells it.” He turned to her and brushed his thumb down the side of her face. “The way she tells it, her friends are the ones who saved her. She’d been in a dark place. You know what happened to her mother?”
Aubrey nodded slightly. “Her father murdered her mother. We didn’t know about it for a few years after we met her.”
“She’d been bullied, that first year she moved in with Joe.” He shook his head and looked off into the darkness. “Kids can be so mean. I tried to stop most of it, but her self-esteem took a major hit. Then she met you four.” He smiled. “And she seemed to blossom.”
She thought of her own past and the horrors she’d come from. Still, everything she’d been through paled in comparison to what Elle had lived through. Knowing that your father had killed your mother out of rage must have been way worse than having a father who didn’t feel anything at all.
“Hungry?” Aiden asked, breaking into her thoughts.
“Starved.”
Chapter 4
Sitting across his kitchen table eating leftovers with Aubrey made the trailer feel more like a home. He’d moved into the place almost two weeks ago and had yet to have a single person over. Not even his best friend Brett had stopped by yet.
Then again, he’d been so busy working, he hadn’t had time to come up for air. Nor had he wanted to. Until he’d spotted Aubrey, that is.
Then it was all he could think of. Taking time with her. Being with her. His libido had kicked into full gear the moment she’d flirted back with him.
They talked about the plans for the camp as they ate. She mentioned school and the subject turned to what classes they’d taken.
He was interested in seeing some of the art that she mentioned she had done.
“I’d like to see some of the plans you’ve made up for the cabins. Elle mentioned you had a few already done?”
He nodded. “They’re over here.” He stood up, taking his beer with him, and moved over to his work area, which was basically the entire living room. He had a sofa and a flat-screen, but he also had a large desk and the computer system he worked on nightly.
She followed him over, taking her glass of wine with her.
He pulled out the printed plans that he’d submitted to the city just yesterday.
“These will be the first two we build. Of course, we won’t start until after we’ve finished with the old remodels.”
She glanced over the drawings, and he could see that she grew excited about them. “These are amazing. You designed them yourself?”
“Yeah.” He set his beer down and then took her glass of wine from her and set it down. She stepped easily into his arms. He allowed her to reach up and place her soft lips over his. Something told him that she wanted to drive and, the way she was making him feel, he figured he’d lean back and enjoy the ride.
When she pressed her body against his, a soft moan escaped her lips. A deeper one emanated from her when his hands reached under her shirt and played with her soft skin just above her jean shorts.
“I want to see you naked,” she said as she nibbled on his ear.
“God, yes,” he growled out, and he started backing her towards the bedroom.
He met her urgency, her passion, her fire with his own. His skin burned for her; his fingers itched to roam over that porcelain skin of hers.
She peeled off his shirt then tugged on the pants he’d pulled on after their swim.