Jill Shalvis - Just Try Me…

He smiled, effectively but silently admitting that yeah, he’d been looking at her.

A breeze blew that stubborn strand of hair across her eyes, and she impatiently shoved it free, then with another long, adorably befuddled glance, turned forward again. Then her fair coloring gave her away when the skin on her neck pinkened.

He was in midgroan over that when from behind him, Michelle screeched.

JACK RAN TO HIS WIFE. By the time he got to her, Michelle was dancing around in circles, waving her hands. At her scream, his heart had jumped in his throat, but she looked okay to him. “Michelle? What’s the matter?”

“Did you see it?” she cried, practically crawling up his body. He liked that part. A lot.

“It just ran across my feet. A rat, a huge rat!”

“Not a rat,” Lily said, coming up to them.

Michelle pulled her face from where she’d plastered it against Jack’s throat. “Well it wasn’t a squirrel!”

“Probably just a marmot.”

“Oh, my God! A marmot?” She looked at Jack, panicked. “A marmot!” She turned back to Lily. “What’s a marmot?”

“They’re harmless. He’s probably scurrying around, snacking on leaves and bark.”

“He was fat.”

“And happy with it, I’m sure. Don’t worry, he doesn’t eat much.”

Jack laughed, and Michelle shoved free of him. “It’s so not funny.”

“A little bit it is.”

They all started walking again.

“Jack,” Michelle said after a few minutes. “Are you tired?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Jack sighed. “Remember when you said I was getting a spare tire around my middle?”

Michelle swiped at her forehead, panting for breath. “I was just kidding.”

“You were?” Perplexed, he glanced at her. Would he never understand her? “I didn’t know that. I started running.”

She blinked. “Is that where you go before the crack of dawn? Running?”

“I always tell you where I’m going.” Always. He’d made sure of it. “Where did you think I was?”

Michelle gnawed on her lower lip.

“Michelle.”

She rolled her eyes and turned away.

Oh, no she didn’t. He grabbed her hand, tugging her around, shocked. “You thought I was cheating on you. Jesus. That’s flattering.”

“With Theresa.”

“The maid? She’s like eighteen!”

Michelle jerked a shoulder and swiped her forehead again.

Jack couldn’t believe it. “I would never…”

“Okay.”

He watched her trying to catch her breath. “Look, why don’t I lighten your pack a little?”

“I’m fine.”

“I thought your Pilates classes were helping you.”

“I, um, haven’t really been taking Pilates classes.”

Jack’s heart stopped again. “So what have you been doing? Or is this one of those things I don’t want to hear until we’re in divorce court?”

“Shopping,” she admitted. “I haven’t been cheating on you either. I’ve been shopping.”

“Shopping.” He chewed on that a moment. “But we’re on a tight budget. Which means…” Ah, hell. “You’ve been using daddy’s money again, when we agreed we wouldn’t.”

“Isn’t that better than what you thought I might be doing?”

Jack sighed, and gave up. But why the hell was he so filled with tension and resentment if neither of them had been cheating?

THE DAY WARMED. As they continued along, insects began to buzz. The dew dried and fallen pine needles crunched more loudly beneath their feet. Lily was hurting, but no more than she’d be at home, after physical therapy.

She had no idea how she’d feel tomorrow, which did not loosen her knot of nerves.

Looking back, she watched as Rose picked a wildflower, and tucked it behind her ear, smiling at Rock.

Rock smiled back, and then she picked him a wildflower, too, making him blush.

Lily glanced at Jared, just a quick look, and he caught her. Damn it.

But she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d like to tuck a wildflower behind her ear and claim her as his. Or if he’d rather take the flower and run it over her body, and then follow that path with his mouth…

She had no idea where these thoughts were coming from. No idea at all.

Okay, she knew. But that didn’t mean she had to give in. “Almost time for lunch,” she announced.

“Don’t suppose we can radio for take-out,” Rose joked. “Maybe some Thai?”

“Don’t worry,” Lily promised with a laugh. “I’ve got a lovely, luxurious lunch planned. No one is going to be hungry.”

Jared’s gaze met hers, and held.

She knew just how hungry he was, and exactly what he was hungry for.

Oh, boy.

AFTER LUNCH, they took up the hike again. Jared eyed the view as they came out of a rocky canyon, a sheer rock on their left, a drop-off on their right, the river winding below.

“I’d swear we’ve gone two hundred miles,” Rose puffed. “Jared?”

He pulled out his PDA, glanced at Lily, who rolled her eyes. Damn, she was cute. “Four point six,” he said.

“Or that,” Rose muttered.

Once again they heard water falling, a different waterfall this time. “Almost there,” Lily promised them, and then they cleared past the trees and paused at the heart-stopping, magnificent view.

The water fell down thirty feet or so, splashing with loud, wet grandeur into a large natural pool. The pool was surrounded by rocks, over which the water spilled, creating a second, smaller fall dropping into the river they’d walked along to get up here.

“Can we swim?” Jack asked.

“Not here. It’s much safer from below, which we’ll get to in the morning. Keep drinking everyone, no dehydration today.”

“Okay, I get it now,” Michelle said on a huffing laugh. “This is why Daddy wanted us to come on this trip. He wanted to kill us to save him the attorney fees for our divorce.”

“We haven’t decided to divorce yet,” Jack said, then hesitated. “Not that I know of, anyway.”

Michelle lifted a shoulder. “You’ve been so upset with me, I figured it’s only a matter of time.”

Jack’s face went carefully blank. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

“Fine, but switch places with me,” Michelle said. “You walk in front so you won’t be tempted to push me off the falls into the river.”

“You know,” Jack said thoughtfully. “That idea hadn’t occurred to me.”

“Oh,” Michelle said.

“-until now.”

“Oh.”

Rose smiled over at Rock. “Maybe you want to switch places too, sugar, and give me a better view.”

Rock passed her. “Is that better?”

Rose eyed his ass. “Waaay better.”

Jared watch Rock finally get it, and blush beet red. The trail was flat now, and he easily managed to stay right behind Lily. He figured he had the best view of all, and he enjoyed it until a squirrel popped out of a tree and screeched at him for getting too close, nearly giving him a coronary.

Lily looked back and smiled. “You’re being scolded.”

“Too close to his home?”

“Bingo.”

Jared looked at the tree the squirrel had vanished into. “He’s got a nice home.”

“Gorgeous here, isn’t it?” She took it all in and smiled with pleasure. “I almost forget, until I come back here.”

“From…?”

“Oh. Well, I have an apartment in San Francisco, though until recently I spent most of my time as a wildland firefighter in Montana.”

Yeah, he could see her as a firefighter, all sharp and toned and tough. “Sounds exciting.”

“Was,” she said, and rubbed her thighs.

It was a motion he’d seen her do before, and he doubted it was a nervous gesture. The trail widened enough that he could move to her side. “Something happen?”