Payson awoke with an unshakable grin the nextmorning. Must be her Irish genes to thank, as she’d never had ahangover in her life. She also hadn’t been drunk like that sincecollege. She woke up remembering an incredibly delicious dream—thatshe’d been lovingly kissed and tucked into bed by a sexy spy wholoved her. Hard to let go of such a pleasant fantasy.
Looking down, she realized she was neatlytucked in the blankets, nude aside from her lacy bra and matchingthong. Must have had more beer than she’d realized. She never sleptin such delicate undies; damn uncomfortable. Nor did she remembergetting to bed. Hopping in the shower, she wracked her brain tryingto remember what had happened last night, but nothing came toher.
Letting her breezy mood guide her, Paysondecided to follow through on her resolution. Hmm. In a spectacularlightbulb moment, Payson laughed at her brilliance and picked upthe phone. “Good morning, friend.”
The annoyed groan from the other end couldn’truin her mood this morning. “Why are you so perky? Didn’t youfinish off as many beers as I did?” Maddy’s voice croaked throughthe other end, surly and downright whiny.
“Oh, yeah… you’ve never seen me drunk. Idon’t get hungover. I think it’s genetic; my sisters have anincredible tolerance too. Anyway, I want to thank your brother forall the hard work he’s put into my storage room lately. I have asurprise planned for him. Would you mind watching the shop for themorning? I’ll be back around lunchtime.” Voice hopeful, Payson knewMaddy wouldn’t refuse Payson if it meant bringing Ronan out of hisshell a bit.
A loud, indelicate belch echoed over theline. “Fine. But you owe me.”
With a squeal of delight, Payson thanked herfriend. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Hey, I have your keys for some reason. Wantto come by and pick them up on your way out?”
After a few frantic moments of figuring outwhere her purse had gone, she found the bag by the front door andsearched its depths. Huh, not there. “That’s weird. Why do you havemy keys?”
“You were afraid you would lose them, so youmade me put them in my pocket. Which, by the way, really hurt in mytight jeans. You owe me double.”
“Since you already have the keys, I guess youcan let yourself into the shop. Huh. I guess I have more than a fewholes in my memory from last night.” And that’s why it was stupidof her to drink so much.
She really hoped she didn’t do anything thatshe should be regretting. Beer, conversation, nachos… she alsorecalled miserably blowing it at billiards. Nope, nothing else.
Now to drag Ronan out of bed. Better not callfirst; he could come up with any old reason to avoid her.Especially if she’d done something to seriously embarrass herselflast night. Not wanting to risk his rejection, she headed straightover after a quick shower. For good measure, she grabbed breakfastsandwiches and coffee from the shop across the street to bribe himwith food.
Looking at the state of the roads, she wasnot about to take her sporty rear-wheel drive straight up the snowyhill to Ronan’s place. The morning was gorgeous anyway, so sheindulged in a walk up the hill, marveling at the white blanket thathad covered town.
The coffees had sadly gone cold by the timeshe arrived, but it was worth the rare quiet of the snowy morningwalk. Not a soul in sight, the snow still untouched, she feltmarvelously alone. Lingering flakes still fell from the sky,teasing at tapering off or picking up, but it wasn’t telling whichjust yet.
She stomped the snow off her shoes and wentto ring the doorbell. From the corner of her eye, she saw theblinds moving in a window next door. This must be the notoriousMiss Hanson. She ducked out of sight when she realized she’d beencaught… the ancient woman was awfully spry. Payson waved politelybefore ringing Ronan’s doorbell.
…
Fucking doorbell. Not again. Did no one inthis town respect anyone else’s privacy? Between his voyeuristicelderly neighbor, his family, and even the dang high school gleeclub, his doorbell rang nearly every damn morning.
Resigned to this new complete lack ofsolitude, in stark contrast to his prior life, he rolled out ofbed. Tossing on an easy pair of sweats and an old t-shirt, heheaded for the door. If they had the balls to interrupt hismorning, they were stuck seeing his delightful morning self, unkeptmass of hair, and potentially a lingering bit of morning wood. Ok,maybe that was going too far, especially if it was the glee clubagain; they might not be so gleeful anymore.
After the snog with Payson last night, thenmoronically tucking her in and having to see her in that painfullydelicate matching bra and panty set, he’d been hard all damn night.Before reaching the door, he stopped to think about baseball,calming matters a bit before scaring the intruder. After all, itcould be his mother... well, that took care of the matter quiteeffectively.
Disabling the alarm, he swung open the door.A delectable sight filled the doorway. Looking bright as a springtulip, Payson stood there with a bag of food and coffees for themboth. Dressed in skinny jeans that hugged every curve, paired withfancy leather hiking boots and a sporty hooded sweatshirt under aheavy winter coat, she looked ready for anything. Her hopefulexpression, waiting for him to invite her in, was more than hecould handle.
He wasn’t a complete asshole. With a gruffhello, he waved her inside. She breezed past him, a chipper smilepasted to her face.
“How are you so pleasant and wide awake soearly this morning? You were so trashed last night.” He griped ashe hobbled his way behind her into the kitchen.Make yourself athome, he thought.
Grin even wider in response to his grumbling,she poured their coffees into mugs and zapped each in the microwavefor a minute. “Sorry, the coffees got cold on the way over. I don’tget hungover. Never have. Hope I never do,” she was nearly hummingwith cheer. It was almost contagious… almost.
“Here,” she held his coffee out ininvitation. If he refused, maybe she’d go home and leave him alone.Her pouty lip was near quivering in anticipation of his refusal.Not intentionally, and she would be humiliated if he implied shewas nervous, but clearly, she was worried he would reject her peaceoffering.
“Thanks,” he accepted the re-heated coffee,attempting a smile. His mind flashed to last night. Her lipspressed against his, hands roaming across his body, thosespectacular breasts pressed up against him so he could feel everysubtle curve. “Payson, what do you remember from last night?”
She looked up, collecting her thoughts.“Everything… Right up until billiards.” Tearing into her breakfastsandwich, she looked so damn sweet. “You’re not going to ask whyI’m here?”
Well, he had been thinking she was eitherhere to apologize or… who knows, something to acknowledge lastnight. Either thelet’s pretend it didn’t happenspeech, orthelet’s have sexmove. Honestly, he was accepting ofeither option at this point. Her complete lack of memory left himremembering the sensual embrace alone… it was disappointing.
“I figured you’d eventually get around totelling me what you’re up to this morning.”
“Well, you’re awfully surly. Which, I’m sureyou are aware of. I don’t want to pry, but I’m gathering that youhaven’t really felt like yourself since you’ve been back inSeaview. I just thought…” Wow, she really could babble when she wasnervous. “I remember Maddy telling me you enjoyed baseball. I don’tknow much else that you enjoy since you never talk about yourself,so I thought maybe you’d like to come with me to the rec center.Not much going on there this time of year, but they have some funindoor activities, like batting cages, an arcade, and laser tag. Ithought you might enjoy hitting some balls?”
