Secrets of the Tulip Sisters

He pulled her against him so that her head rested on his shoulder. He settled his hand on her hip.

“I’ve always thought you were sexy as hell,” he admitted. “From the first day you showed up at JML to play keyboard. It was cold and raining and you had on a blue sweater the exact color of your eyes. I couldn’t figure out where to look first. Your face or your chest.”

She raised her head and stared at him. “You were looking at my boobs?”

He grinned. “Every chance I got. Still do.”

“I never noticed.”

“I try to be subtle.”

“You’re successful.” She liked this game. “Then what?”

“Then I told myself you were my daughter’s friend and way too young for me and I tried to stop looking. Then you and I became friends and it was nice. I didn’t want to screw that up.”

“How would we screw it up?”

“Helen, I’m going to be fifty soon. I’m sixteen years older than you. We live in a small town where everyone knows everything. I didn’t want to mess with that. Plus, I wasn’t sure how you felt about me.”

She was going to ignore the messing up part—that wouldn’t be fun to talk about, but the rest of it was nice to hear. He ran his hand from her shoulder to hip, then back again.

“Sixteen years isn’t that much difference,” she told him. “The Kelly thing is complicated. She doesn’t know I have the hots for you and it’s not like she and I were friends in high school, so you didn’t know me when I was a kid. I had no idea if you saw me as anything but a friend and I couldn’t stand the humiliation of her knowing her father had rejected me.”

“Only a fool would reject you.”

She thought of Troy, but decided not to mention her past. Or Jeff’s.

“Why did it take you two days to get back to me?” she asked. “I thought you were thinking of fifty ways to tell me no.”

“I was thinking it through. This is a big step for me.” He shifted so he could look into her eyes. “Helen, I’ve never gotten involved with anyone in town. If this ends badly, we’re both going to be sorry. We can’t escape each other. You get that, right?”

A sensible conversation, but not one she wanted to have. “I know.”

“You’re okay with that?”

She nodded.

“Good. I am, too.” He lightly kissed her. “I’m not seeing anyone else. I hope you’re not, either.”

He was being serious, but his words made her laugh. “Oh, my God. When would I be seeing anyone? I believe this all started because I was complaining about my lack of seeing someone. Which, by the way, wasn’t me interested in dating. It was me trying to get you to ask me out. Either I’m not very good at hinting or you’re totally oblivious. I’m going with the latter.”

“Probably the right decision. So we’re in this? You and me? We’re together, exclusively?”

It was an awful lot like him asking her to be his girlfriend. Her breath caught and she nodded. “I’m in.”

“Me, too. Do you want to tell anyone or keep it quiet for a while?”

By anyone she was pretty sure he meant Kelly and Olivia.

While she knew that telling her best friend was inevitable, she mostly didn’t want to have to deal with that. Not yet. Not when everything was new and sexy and fun. She just wanted to be with Jeff, at least for now.

“Can it just be us until we figure it out?” she asked. “I’m not saying forever, but a few weeks?” Mostly because she had no idea how Kelly would take it. Would her friend be happy for her or too caught up in the ick factor of Helen and Jeff being an item?

His expression turned stern. “You want me to lie to my children?”

Well, crap, when he put it like that...

One corner of his mouth turned up. “Of course we’ll keep it between us for now. This is the fun part, Helen. I want what you want.”

Oh, please, oh, please, let that be true, she thought.

He kissed the top of her head. “Want to order in pizza?”

She was weak from their lovemaking. Every cell in her body had been pleasured and she knew she was going to hurt in happy places that hadn’t seen action in forever. He was a thoughtful, sexy lover who knew how to push all her buttons. If they were this in tune after a single afternoon, imagine where they would be in a month or two when they’d really started exploring each other. The possibilities were incredible.

“You want to stay for dinner?” she asked.

“If it’s all right with you.”

It was more than all right. It was magical.

She smiled. “Can we get extra cheese? You need to keep up your strength.”

“Sure, but we both know that’s not the part you want to keep up.”

She was still laughing when he pushed inside of her.





17

Olivia knew it was time to get things straight in her mind and her life. If she didn’t like where she was with her job, she needed to change that. If she didn’t like where things were with Ryan, she had to change that, as well. Fixing her job was going to be the more complicated of the two—what with her not being in Phoenix at the moment, but the Ryan problem could be solved with a simple conversation.

With that in mind, she drove to GB Micro Housing and parked by the main entrance. She was very aware that any conversation she had with Ryan was going to be strange and complicated. While technically he’d invited her to visit him, his invitation had been casual at best. The fact that she’d jumped on it as an excuse to return home was her own problem. Still, they’d been an item and she’d once thought he was her reason for living, so she needed to get clear on them.

Not that she wanted him to break up with Autumn for her. That wouldn’t speak well of him at all. And if she started going out with him after that, then she was stupid and deserved whatever happened to her.

“Self-awareness sucks,” she muttered as she walked into the warehouse and looked around.

The showroom—put away for the volunteer weekend—was back in place. She could hear the sounds of construction and smiled as she thought briefly about offering her services. After all, she installed a kitchen sink with the best of them. She glanced down at her summer dress and heels. Not that she was dressed appropriately, but still. Maybe they were hiring.

Leo, the shop foreman, saw her come in. “Olivia, nice to see you.”

They’d met on the volunteer day. Leo had been in charge of the volunteers. He’d likened it to herding cats.

“Happy to have your trained crew back?” she asked with a smile.

“I don’t know. My Saturday folks have a lot more enthusiasm. What can I do for you?”

“I’d like to talk to Ryan if that’s all right. Only for a second.” Because it was the middle of the workday and hey, he had a job to do.

Leo grimaced. “He’s not here. He called in sick.” His tone made it clear that he assumed Ryan was lying.

“I didn’t know. Sorry to bother you.”

“No bother. We’re just finishing a house. Why don’t you come see what we can do when we have more than a day?”