Jill Shalvis - Out of This World

“Everything’s not okay, is it?” he murmured.

And much as I wanted to pretend it was, or at least to make fun of his plaid boxers, I slowly shook my head.

“Let’s get inside,” he said. Then, so briefly I might have imagined it, he stroked my jaw. “Get you dry, hopefully fed with something other than that pasta sauce Marilee’s working on, because trust me, yeesh.” He paused, waiting for another smile, but I couldn’t muster one, not even for him.

“We’ll figure it all out from there,” he said very quietly, still holding onto me. “Okay?”

I’d always prided myself on my independence. Having him comfort me still felt foreign. So I have no idea why suddenly I wanted to put my head on his shoulder and cry.

Silly. I’d never lacked for much in my life-well, except money-but maybe, as I was discovering, having a bit more warm-and-fuzzy in my life wasn’t a bad thing.

“A few cookies, and I’ll be fine. Good as new,” I said.

“Atta girl.”

We entered the back door of the inn, clomping into the kitchen with our wet clothes. The room glowed from candles and the lit woodstove, each causing flickering shadows to dance in the dark corners.

I purposely didn’t look in the corners.

Marilee stood at the woodstove in black leggings, sheepskin boots and a long white sweater. Beneath she wore some damn expensive-looking lingerie, which I tried like hell not to notice.

She was stirring her large pot, frowning into it so fiercely, I wondered if she’d just taken a taste and discovered how bad it was.

She glanced up when we came in, her eyes widening at the sight of us drenched, probably still looking a little wigged out and, in some of our cases, still smoking. But her gaze kept returning to Kel-specifically, to his bare chest. “My God,” she murmured. “What happened?”

“Lightning,” I said.

In the dimly lit room, she exchanged a long look with Axel. “We don’t have lightning here,” she said.

“Yeah, so I’ve heard.” I’d just made up that incredible strobe of electricity. “ You saw it, right?” I asked Kellan.

He nodded. “Saw it. Heard it.”

Axel opened a long, narrow closet and pulled out two sweatshirts. He handed one to me and one to Kellan.

“They got lost,” Axel told Marilee, and mimed the motion of smoking.

“We have not been smoking!” I said, exasperated, pulling on the borrowed gear, both relieved because Kel was now covered and Marilee could stop staring at him, and disappointed because that meant I had to stop staring, too. “And we did get lost.”

“The woods around here are tricky,” Marilee said. “They close in on you if you don’t know where you’re going. Next time, take a two-way radio with you. I can talk you in. I know this whole area like the back of my hand.”

“It was no problem,” Axel said. “Our faithful guide brought ’em back.”

Marilee looked confused. “Who?”

Axel frowned. “Me, of course. I’m the guide around here, not you.”

“Ah.” Marilee’s lips twitched. “Right.”

Axel scowled. “I am.”

Marilee swatted lightly at one of the tassels on his hat, sending it swaying. “Okay.”

Still scowling, Axel leaned over her shoulder and peered into the pot. “What the hell is that?”

“Dinner.”

Axel grabbed a spoon and took a tentative taste. With a shudder, he made a horrendous face. “Jesus, woman!” He tossed the spoon into the sink. “What did I ever do to you?”

I peeked at Kellan, who was struggling to bite back a sympathetic smile.

“It’s fine,” Marilee said defensively, hunching her shoulders as she stirred with much more aggression than necessary, making a few splatters, while Axel choked dramatically.

“Fine? Fine for what?” he asked, grabbing a towel and swiping his tongue on it. “Poison?”

Marilee huffed. “Kellan liked it just fine, didn’t you, Kellan?”

Axel swiveled toward Kellan in disbelief. “Dude?”

Kellan winced, and Axel sighed. “Yeah, I know.” He turned to Marilee again. “Look, you know you’re off-the-charts hot, right?”

Marilee lifted a shoulder, looking slightly mollified at the compliment.

“Yeah, well, you should also know it makes men stupid,” Axel said. “They say things they don’t mean.”

Marilee glanced speculatively at Kel, then back at Axel. “Do you?”

Axel scratched his head.

“Axel Leon Hanson, do you say things you don’t mean?”

When he didn’t answer, she pointed at him with her wooden spoon, then poked him with it in the chest, leaving a red sauce stain right in the middle of his Grateful Dead T-shirt that even in the barely lit room we could all plainly see. “Talking to you, dude. ”

Axel sighed again. “Now why did you have to go and ruin my shirt?” He pulled at the material, which came away from his chest with a wet suction sound. “And I don’t say things I don’t mean. You know that.”

She stared at him. “So when you said I can’t cook worth a damn…”

“Yeah, I meant it.”

At her shocked, hurt expression, he grimaced, then put his hands on her arms. “But I think you’re amazing outdoors. Does that count? I love the way you can name all the trees and flowers and shit. And then there’s how you always know where you’re going. You never get lost.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Maybe.” Axel headed toward the, table and without a care, began to empty his pockets. Penknife, loose change, fish hook, nail, gum…

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Unloading.”

“Whoa. Stop right there, bud.”

He arched a brow, smiling at her-that contagious smile-but Marilee resisted like a champ.

Instead, she pointed at him with the wooden spoon again, her expression fierce, like a den mother, like a housekeeper at the end of her rope. “When we have guests, you’re not supposed to treat this place like it’s your house.”

“Oh. Yeah. Forgot, sorry.” Reversing his progress with a bit of a sheepish smile, he scooped everything back into his pockets. “See? All cleaned up now.”

“Yeah, I see. I see that you forgot to wipe your boots again.”

He looked at the floor and winced.

So had I, because we’d all tracked in some mud.

“We have guests?” I asked.

“Oh.” Marilee shot Axel one of her long looks, which made me very curious and very uneasy at the same time. “I meant you two, of course.”

Axel moved to the refrigerator, and my gaze followed. I realized I could see right through it, to all the food on the inside, which made my mouth water.

No, I was not going to get distracted by food, no matter how much I was starving.

“Don’t open that,” Marilee said to Axel. “We don’t know how long the power’ll be out.”

“They’re hungry.” Ignoring her command, he began filling his arms with bread, butter, apples, oranges, cheese and crackers.

My stomach growled loudly.

“Food first, and then a change?” Kellan asked me.

“What are you going to change?” Axel asked, craning his neck toward us.

Marilee shoved him, and he pulled his lower lip into his mouth.

“I meant her clothes,” Kellan said, watching the exchange with as much curiosity as I was. “She needs to change her clothes.”

“Right. Her clothes.” Axel smacked his forehead. “That’s what I meant, too, dude.”

Marilee glanced at him with some sort of warning in her gaze, and he just lifted a shoulder. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Slow sometimes, is all.”

Marilee began to slice up the cheese and apples, using choppy gestures that had me seriously concerned for her fingers, at least until Axel pushed her aside and took over, utilizing the knife like a culinary chef, his movements so fast that his hands blurred.