The Homecoming Queen Gets Her Man by Shirley Jump

Author:Shirley Jump
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

He really needed to start thinking before he opened his mouth. In the military, Jack had never made a move without calculating the odds and weighing the risks and rewards. On tour, his mind was a constant whir of assessment of the buildings, people and routes around him. The mantle of leadership had sat heavy on his shoulders, coloring every thought, every choice.

But when Meri stood in front of him, with that lilt in her smile and that sparkle in her eyes, all coherent thought went out the window. His wants and needs became very simple. Make her smile more. Hear her laugh. And most of all, find a way to make her stay.

He was clearly a masochist. Because every time he saw Meri, he thought of Eli, and when he thought of Eli—

Jack wanted to crawl into a dark, cold cave. The guilt, the regret, piled on his chest until he felt as if he was swimming through a thick soup, trying to find his way to the surface before the weight of the water dragged him down again.

Then Meri would smile at him and it was like the sun parting the clouds. The darkness would ebb, the panther would step into the shadows and he had a peek again at the life he could have. If only.

“Okay, how do we do this again?” Meri stood on the dock, looking unsure and nervous, still wearing that ridiculous vest. It was kinda cute, he thought, and only accented the cleavage beneath her tank top and the long peachy length of her legs under her denim shorts.

“You just step off and into the boat. I’ll keep it steady.” From his seat at the stern of the skiff, he gripped the edge of the dock, then nodded toward her. “Trust me, Meri.”

Trust me. Such a loaded statement. For a second, he wanted to tell her not to trust him, that he wasn’t a man anyone should rely on. But then he reminded himself it was just fishing. A couple hours puttering around the lake in a boat. Nothing more.

She placed a tentative foot on the bottom of the skiff, lifted her other foot, then let out a little squeal when the boat rocked. He reached his free hand up to catch hers. She gripped him tight, then regained her balance and lowered her body to the bench seat. “That’s harder than it looks.”

“Harder than pirouetting around a stage in five-inch heels?”

“You liked those heels quite a lot, if I remember right.”

Holy hell, yes, he’d liked those heels she wore when they’d been teenagers. Meri had been the only girl he knew in Stone Gap who wore sky-high heels that made her long legs look five miles longer and accented every inch of her curves. Too bad heels weren’t appropriate footwear for fishing.

He pushed off from the dock, then pulled the cord on the outboard motor and slowly guided the skiff from the shore to the center of the lake. “I liked those heels only because they made you as tall as me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.