Loves Me, Loves Me Knot Read Online Free PDF Page B

Jenna had liked it all. She’d enjoyed tickling her fingers over the slightly stubbled curve of his skull just as much as running them through the long, silky strands when they’d reached halfway down his back.
    What she hadn’t liked were the changes to Gage’s personality. The distance that seemed to grow between them more and more each time he returned home after being away.
    Gage cleared his throat, drawing her attention back to the present.
    “You going to let me in, or have you changed your mind about letting the house flood?”
    It took a second for Jenna’s snookered brain to sendthe message to her limbs that she needed to move, especially with the way the deep timbre of his words turned her spine to jelly. But finally she stepped back, pulling the door with her, and waved him inside.
    “Sorry,” she said, having to lick her lips and swallow to clear the squeak from her voice. “I’m just tired, I guess. I didn’t expect to still be up this late or to have to deal with household emergencies.”
    As stories went, it wasn’t exactly a
New York Times
bestseller, but it was the best Jenna could do on the fly, with a roiling mass of nerves wiggling around in her belly. She just wasn’t as good at this sort of thing as Grace and Ronnie . . . or as good as Grace and Ronnie assumed she would be, at any rate.
    “Can I take your jacket?” she asked.
    He set the dented red metal toolbox in his hand on a bench just inside the front door, and while he shrugged out of the mammoth black leather coat, Jenna ran to the kitchen and grabbed one of the bottles of Corona from the fridge that Grace had so carefully spiked. She gave it a little swirl and twisted off the cap on her way back into the other room.
    Having been in Jenna’s aunt’s house many times before, Gage didn’t need her to show him around and had already hung his jacket on one of the wooden dowels running along the wall above the matching bench by the time she returned.
    “Here,” she said, thrusting the cold bottle toward him in what was not the smoothest motion in recorded history.
    Gads, she hoped he didn’t figure out what was going on . . . or that she’d had one or two—maybe six—drinks too many with her so-called dinner. Let himchalk up her odd behavior to the discomfort of having to call her ex-husband in the middle of the night to help with some supposed plumbing problems. Or even to simply being alone with him again after their less-than-amicable breakup and two years of avoiding each other as much as possible given their mutual social circles.
    Gage’s warm, slightly wary brown eyes took in the beer in her hand before moving back up to her face.
    “I thought you might appreciate a little compensation for coming all the way out here in the middle of the night. I know it’s not your favorite brand, but . . .”
    She shrugged one slim shoulder, hoping he’d buy what she was selling, because Lord knew she didn’t have a clue what else to say to convince him to accept the offering.
    Thankfully, he lifted the pressure by reaching out for the bottle and taking a quick first swig. A small wave of relief washed over her as she mentally checked that step off her list. If she could just keep him drinking, then this plan might actually have a shot at working.
    “So where’s this leak?” he asked, picking up his toolbox. The hand holding the beer lowered to thigh level at his side and he clutched the neck between two fingers.
    Realizing there wasn’t much chance of getting him to imbibe more of the doped Corona right this minute, she dragged her gaze up from his strong, tanned hand to his equally strong, tanned face . . . and slurped up her tongue long enough to tilt her head and turn for the stairs.
    “This way.” She spun around to lead him in the opposite direction . . . and nearly did a three-sixty as theroom whirled around her and her feet failed to stop when they should have. Catching herself, she took a second to regain