That Thing You Do (Crystal Lake 2)

Molly decided to ignore that little slice of her heart that did care. The slice that said she was treading on dangerous ground and if her friends knew, they’d tell her. Zach would tell her. She pushed it aside and took Nate’s hand.

There was no turning back now.

Chapter Sixteen

Molly’s fridge was pathetic. Nate stared at its contents long enough that his vision blurred and then grabbed the egg carton that housed only three eggs, one lonely red pepper that was a little too soft, a chunk of cheese that needed mold scraped off it, and milk that was a week old. He was hoping it wasn’t sour. There was no butter, the bread was stale, but at least the girl had coffee and cream.

He could have opened that fridge door and stared into a black hole for all he cared. The sun was out, the birds were singing, and Nathan was as happy as a pig in shit.

He got busy preparing the best omelettes he could muster with the contents he had and made a mental note of all the things she needed to stock up to fill her fridge and cupboards. Lord knew Molly needed some help, because he had no idea what she fueled her body with. It sure as hell wasn’t home-cooked food.

He whistled as he worked, and his mind wandered back to those hours spent in Molly’s bed. He thought the sex before had been mind-blowing, but as it turned out, mind-blowing was the bottom of the barrel in this house. Holy hell, last night had been a grand slam out of the park. She had no inhibitions and responded to his touch in such a way, it made his body hard thinking about it. She was fresh and real and didn’t play games or make those fake noises a lot of women do, the ones that sounded as if they were shooting porn in some rented mansion on the beach. Seriously, what was with that shit? Guys knew fake noises from the real ones.

Or at least, Nathan did, he thought.

With Molly, there was nothing but the very real attraction between the two of them, and for the life of him, Nathan couldn’t believe this had simmered beneath the surface for years. Untapped and unacknowledged.

Sex was hot and exciting again, and it wasn’t just because it was new. It was because of Molly.

He set the heat on low and scooped up his cell from the kitchen table. He’d turned it on when he came downstairs, and it had been buzzing like crazy a few minutes earlier. He quickly scrolled through his messages and saw that his boss, Tucker Simon, had called the night before. Nate had muted his cell so he wouldn’t be disturbed by Zach or Jess or any of the gang, but he hadn’t figured on Tuck wanting to get hold of him.

Shit. What had he missed? Nathan couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken more than a few days off, and when he did go away for an extended period of time, he always worked. But this trip had been different. When he saw the number of unopened emails, text messages, and missed calls, it took the shine off what had been, so far, a relaxed morning. Stress snuck up on him and his body tightened. Tuck probably wanted an update on the steak house situation and Nate was more than happy to tell his boss he’d defused the matter from the golf course—the steak house was happy, and his client had a new appreciation for the power of social media.

Tucker used to call New York City his home base but had moved to the Keys with his wife, Abby, and they’d just welcomed a set of twins a few months back. Normally, Tuck flew to New York every few weeks for meetings, but he’d been absent since the birth of the twins, and Nathan couldn’t take a guess as to how busy that would be. Nate was Tucker’s go-to guy and ran the New York office, while Tucker worked from home.

He picked up on the first ring.

“Tuck, how are things?”

“About as hectic as you can imagine.” There was a muffled voice in the background, but after a few seconds, it got quiet. “Seriously, all these kids do is eat, poop, and pee. I gotta hand it to Abby, though, she’s handling it like a champ.”

“Good to hear. I can’t wait to meet them.”

“That’s kind of what I was calling about. Looks like we’re hunkered down here for a while. I don’t know when I’ll make it back to the city. The majority of my clients are fine doing business over the phone or coming out here to Florida. But I’ve got the Mason kid in New York for training camp, and his parents need a face-to-face.”

“The new rookie for the Rangers?”

“Yep. I need you to hand-hold him and his parents through these first few weeks. Probably the year. I can’t commit the time. Abby needs me here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.”

“When are you back in the city?”

Nathan rubbed his jaw, eyes on a large blue jay preening on a branch just beyond the kitchen window. His flight home was scheduled for Sunday morning, but he’d been thinking of pushing back to Monday or even Tuesday. He wasn’t ready to leave just yet.

“The wedding’s Saturday,” he said.

“Good. So you can be back Sunday? I was supposed to meet with the kid and his parents. They’ve just started training camp, and, like I said, they’re small-town folks and nervous about everything. Can you cover it? Take them to dinner and put a clamp on any of the anxiety they have?”

Fuck.

“Sure. No problem.”

“Thanks. I appreciate this. Any news on Link Major?”

“No,” Nate replied. “He’s incognito at the moment.”

“Okay. I know you’re on it. It would be great to lock that guy down. Look, I’ll be in touch next week. I gotta run before Abby loses her mind. When the wife isn’t happy, no one is.”