Riley tipped the seat forward and climbed in.
Liam followed, shutting the door behind him. “Now, I believe I had a bet to win.” He shifted to crawl toward her and bumped his head, then a knee. “Damn it. I wasn’t this tall in high school.”
She swallowed back a laugh at his look of consternation. “Ah, I’m not the first girl you’ve had back here.”
“You’re the first woman I’ve had back here.”
“Nice save, Boy Scout.”
“And, to be clear, I’ve never gotten past second base in this car.”
“I can see why. There’s not any room to maneuver.”
“I could send your mom on an all expenses paid trip to…I don’t know. Somewhere.”
She stiffened, shoving at him. “No.”
He smiled, trying to put her at ease. “I was just—”
“I mean it, Liam. I know you have this need to fix things, and I appreciate it. God knows, I don’t know where I’d be right now without that. But this is not yours to fix. Leave it alone.”
“Yes ma’am.” He shifted around again. “The quilt is still in the trunk. We’re alone in the woods. We could absolutely have more room.”
“Oh no. You hear those cicadas and crickets? We are very definitely not alone in the woods. Not the kind of alone I would require for the kind of activities we both have in mind. There is nothing sexy about bugs or snakes or anything else that’s out there.”
“So I’m hearing that you’re never going to want to go camping.”
“I’m fine with camping. So long as there is a tent. And sleeping bags. And a gallon of mosquito repellent.”
Liam sighed and pressed a kiss to her throat before finally just sitting on the bench seat. “Just as well. When I make love to you, I want it to be in a bed, where I can take my time about it.”
Riley felt her body coil with need and longing. She wanted that. Oh God, how she wanted that with him. She slid into his lap to straddle him, her knees bracketing his hips. “You should know I fully support that plan at the earliest possible opportunity. In the meantime—” She shimmied against the evidence of his arousal. “—I expect we can at least manage second base to take the edge off.”
She gripped the hem of her dress and lifted it up and off.
“God bless America.”
Chapter 11
Riley watched the ServPro technicians roll the dehumidifiers and fans out the front door of the pharmacy. “Good riddance.”
Ruby lifted her hands to God. “Amen. I ain’t gonna know what to do with myself without all that noise rumblin’ through here.”
“Don’t get rid of your earplugs yet,” Liam told her. “I’ll be making plenty of noise fixing the damage.”
Ruby winced.
“I’ll be doing as much as I can after hours to keep from disrupting business any more than I have to.” He turned to Riley. “You need to be deciding on a new wall color. Once the new sheetrock is in, the whole room will need repainting.”
“Oh can we please have something other than some shade of antique white?” Jessie begged.
“There are flooring decisions to be made, too. These original wood floors aren’t salvageable. You and Mom need to decide ASAP if you want to go with more wood, laminate, tile, or what so we can get it ordered over at the hardware store. If there are any changes you want to make to the place, now’s the time to do it while we’re about to have it all torn up anyway.”
“Decisions, decisions.” Riley was getting damned tired of making them. “I just want everything dealt with as quickly as humanly possible.”
“It’ll look worse before it gets better. But it will get better. Promise.” He chucked her softly under the chin.
“I trust you.” And she did.