sp; “I’m good, Lily.”
“Can I help you in?” She just wanted to touch him again. I don’t like her.
“You know what? Since Daphne and I are both soaking wet, we should just take the same boat. The water will pool up in the bottom and there’s no sense in the two of you getting all wet, too. I’m not certain how many sets of extra clothes the volunteers collected to bring.”
I looked at Carla. She was trying to suppress a smile. I gave her a warning look. Then, I looked at the woman in Jace’s boat. She wasn’t smiling. That made me smile. I’m a terrible person. She was thinking Jace wanted to be with me. I was hoping for the same.
“That sounds like a smart idea,” Carla said. She stood up and while Jace held onto the other boat, she stepped into it.
He looked at his “friend” then and said, “We’ll see you ladies on the other side.”
She smiled, but it looked forced. Carla started paddling. She was still grinning. For a girl who told me I should give up on the priest, she sure was happy to give us room to be together. Jace helped me up into the canoe and then I grabbed his arm and helped pull him in, as well.
For a few seconds, we just sat there looking at each other. Finally I said, “Thank you for saving me.” My teeth were chattering together. I was cold, but I was also nervous.
Jace grinned. “You’re welcome. I’m sure you would have been okay. It’s hard to move around in these life jackets sometimes, but they’ll keep you bobbing down the harbor all day.”
“I appreciate it anyways,” I said, picking up the oars. “I didn’t really want to bob down the harbor all day.” He was giving me a strange look. I realized he was looking at the oars in my hands.
“I don’t think so.” He was grinning.
“You don’t think so, what?” He didn’t want me to row the boat. Man, you make one mistake...
“I’ll row, thanks. Not that I don’t trust you…”
I laughed. “Seriously?” He didn’t answer me with words. Instead, he reached over and plucked the oars out of my hands with a grin and began to row.
After a bit, just to break the awkward silence I said, “I’m sorry you got all soaking wet.”
“It’s really okay, Daphne. The church has a big wicker basket full of donated clothes that they told me we take to all of our functions, just in case. We can grab some of those and hang these up to dry while we have lunch. It’ll be fine.”
I was right on the verge of asking him about his friend. Thankfully, I caught myself. That would have been way too familiar. We had a one-night stand that really, really, never should have happened. I have to stop this and get him out of my head.
I shivered again as I watched him rowing the boat in his wet t-shirt and jeans. The t-shirt clung to his chest and abs, and his biceps flexed and tensed as he rowed us to shore and I was reminded of the way they’d tensed and flexed when he held himself up over me and…
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jace
“Jace!” Lily was waving at me from shore as we rowed in. Daphne’s friend Carla was standing next to her and looking at Lily like she was crazy. Lily was waving like she hadn’t seen me in weeks. It had literally only been minutes. I guessed that’s why she was getting the look from Carla.
I waved back as I waded out of the boat into the water and started to pull it the rest of the way up to shore. Suddenly, Daphne was beside me.
“You should have stayed in the boat. I would have done this.”
She smiled. She has a beautiful smile. I’d made myself keep my eyes trained on her face the whole time. They really wanted to go to her chest. That tight, little t-shirt was soaked and clinging to her body. The water was cold, so her nipples were hard and pressing hard against her bra and t-shirt so that if I looked right at them, I could almost visualize the entire outline.
Look at her face, Jace. That didn’t help a lot. Her pretty blonde hair was wet and stuck to her face in places. I was incredibly tempted to reach over and tuck one of those long strands behind her ear.
Temptation was killing me. I wished the Lord would tell me what He expected me to do already, so we could move on.
We got the canoe up out of the water and suddenly, Lily was also by my side. “Are you okay?” she asked me.
She was touching my arm again, rubbing her hand up and down. I took a step away. What part of “You’re hitting on a priest in front of the entire congregation” was hard for her?
I smiled as I stepped away to ease it a bit and I said, “I’m fine, Lily. I really am. Daphne and I need to go find some dry things and change. Can you do me a favor?”
“Of course.” She glanced at Daphne with a smug look. Can women sense competition or am I that obvious when I look at Daphne?