That Thing You Do (A Crystal Lake Novel Book 2) Read online

  He collapsed against her and pulled her into his arms, turning them both onto their sides. For a long time, the two of them lay like that, Nate behind Molly, her body tucked into his as if it belonged there. She couldn’t think of one thing to say, because how did a person describe what had just happened? How did you put into words that your body had transcended time and space and ended up somewhere in a pleasure zone you hadn’t known existed?

  “Is it always like that?” Molly didn’t know she’d spoken aloud until Nate kissed her shoulder.

  “Trust me, darlin’, it’s hardly ever like that.”

  She grinned into the pillow, glad he couldn’t see her face, and after a while, his grip loosened. He slipped from the bed, and she rolled over so she could watch him. Because she could literally spend hours just watching naked Nate.

  “Where are you going?” she whispered, afraid he was going to leave. Afraid he was invoking rule number three.

  “Kitchen,” he said gruffly before leaning down and pressing his lips against her neck. “I figure we need food.”

  “I’m not hungry,” she replied, a slow smile curving her lips.

  Nate turned and headed for her bedroom door, while she drank in the hottest ass she’d ever seen. Men and hockey created the best butts imaginable.

  “You will be, Molly.” He looked over his shoulder and winked.

  Molly sank back into the pillows and pulled the blankets up over her body. They smelled like Nate and sex. She shivered, whether from cold or shock or sex, she didn’t know. The only thing she did know was that there would be a hell of a lot more of what just happened, that Nate was here and, from the looks of it, not going anywhere, and she wasn’t going to think about tomorrow or consequence or any of that stuff.

  At least, not until she had to.

  Chapter Twelve

  Nate strolled into his parents’ place Wednesday morning just after eight, whistling some tune he had no name for, but one that had been stuck in his head since he woke up with Molly in his arms. His dad’s truck was gone and his mother was nowhere to be seen, so he made himself a coffee before checking his email. The steak house fiasco was still in full swing, and he scheduled a conference call for later in afternoon, hoping to somehow defuse the situation before it escalated. He called his client and advised him to delete all evidence of his newfound love of vegan food, which wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. Turned out the guy had been trying to impress a new lady friend who loved cows. Nate told him to stop thinking with his dick and use his head.

  You really couldn’t make this stuff up.

  Nate promised him he’d do what he could to fix things and, in the meantime, told the guy to stay off social media entirely and delete any and all incriminating posts. Not that it mattered much. Once that stuff was out there, there was no getting it back.

  He rummaged through the fridge, his stomach growling with hunger. Aside from the fact he and Molly had gotten maybe two hours of sleep, there was no food in her house. Not the kind he liked, anyway. Who the hell existed on yogurt and berries? Nate needed a sixteen-ounce steak after the workout he’d put in.

  He grinned to himself, a self-satisfied kind of thing, because he’d brought Molly to the edge more times than he could remember, and the best part was that he’d been right there with her. He’d known going in the sex would be good. Hell, he’d never had bad sex. But what they’d shared last night was next-level stuff. If he was being honest, it was the best sex he’d ever had—and he’d had some damn good partners. Less than an hour after he left her place, he already looked forward to seeing her tonight. And he had plans for the woman. The kind of plans that took all night.

  “You look like the cat who ate the proverbial mouse.”

  His mother walked into the kitchen and patted him on the shoulder as she grabbed a mug from the cupboard. She wore a simple blue dress with the gold chain and cross she never took off, and her silver-blonde hair was up in a loose bun. She’d taken the time to put on makeup and wore low heels instead of, say, her Birks.

  “You volunteering at the hospital today?”

  “I am. I’m excited because we have two new babies to cuddle.”

  “Is that what you do there?” Surprised, Nate yanked his head around. “Cuddle babies?”

  “It’s my most favorite thing in the world. We’ve got two sick babies who need all the extra love and care they can get, and I’m more than happy to give it.”

  “That’s great, Mom. I didn’t know that was a thing.”

  “Well, that’s because you know nothing about babies.” She sighed and leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee for a few seconds. “Sometimes I think I’ll never have my own grandbabies to hold. Beck seems to have no interest in dating or meeting anyone new. And you…you’re no closer to settling down than you were five years ago.” He saw the look in her eyes and gave her five seconds to ask the question that was burning inside her. In the end, she took three.

  “So where did you get to last night? Beck said you didn’t stay at his place.”

  Nate took his time to answer. On one hand, he’d promised to keep what happened between him and Molly on the down low. On the other, he hated lying to his mother. In fact, he sucked at it—she always knew. He decided the best thing to do was to try his best to outmaneuver a woman who was a pro at getting the information she wanted.

  “The boys and I went to the Coach House after our tux fittings.”

  “Oh, right. How did that go?” She asked the question lightly, but Nate knew she was biding her time. She was like a cat waiting to pounce.

  “Mike and Cheetos were a problem, but other than that, everything’s ready for Saturday.”

  “Was the Coach House busy? I think Tuesday’s are wing night.”

  “That’s Monday night, but, yeah, it was busy.”

  “Did you close the place?”

  His mother wasn’t making this easy on him, and he was starting to get annoyed. The woman meant well, but she seemed to forget he wasn’t a seventeen-year-old kid sneaking in the back door after partying all night on the beach.

  Nate shook his head, “Nope,” and got to his feet. Keep it simple, he thought.

  “Where’d you go after? Zach’s?”

  Maybe it was the hunger or maybe he’d been staying at his parents’ too long. Whatever it was, Nate’s short fuse exploded, and he threw his hands up in the air. “Jesus, Mom. Why don’t you just ask what it is that you want to ask?”

  She gave him a look and then set her mug down. “All right. What woman did you spend the night with?”

  “Well, first off, if I did spend the night with someone, how is that your business?

  “Don’t get cheeky with me, Nathan James Jacobs. I’m merely asking a question. You can choose to answer it or not.”

  There was no not answering with his mother. Sometimes he thought she spent too much time poking her nose into his and Beck’s business because she had too much time on her hands. She’d given up her job at the local Realtor’s a few years back, and this is what he and his brother had had to deal with ever since.

  “Why do you think I spent the night with a lady?” he asked.

  “Because Leanne Bruno saw you at the pharmacy, and she said you were buying condoms.”

  He frowned. “You’ve got friends spying on me in the pharmacy?” Had his mother officially lost it?

  “Of course not.” She rinsed out her mug. “She just happened to be looking for antifungal cream and saw you.”

  “I don’t know what disturbs me more. The fact that antifungal cream is located in the same aisle they stock the condoms, or that she saw me there and decided she needed to call you and let you know.”

  “She’s the scheduler at the hospital.”

  “What the hell does that have to do with me and condoms?” He was irritated and didn’t bother to hide it.

  “Lower your voice, Nathan. There’s no nefarious plan. She called to schedule my baby-cuddling session. The fact she s
aw you buying condoms didn’t come up until I asked her about her daughter, Delia.”

  His mouth might have fallen open. “Why would Delia Bruno make her mother think about me and condoms?”

  “Because Delia has had a crush on you since fourth grade.”

  His mother had, in fact, lost her mind, and he didn’t have time to deal with this crap any longer.

  “Well, the good news is that I practice safe sex. So that’s a win, isn’t it?” Which, now that he thought about it, he hadn’t done the night before. Not the first time or the second. Definitely not the fourth. Shit. Molly hadn’t said a thing to him about protection, and he’d been focused on other things. So focused that he’d done something he hadn’t since he was a horny sixteen-year-old holed up in his buddy’s boathouse with Julia Davis. Back then, for his troubles, he’d waded through a pregnancy scare and ever since had always used protection.

  Until last night.

  “What was that?” His mother had said something, but for the life of him, he didn’t know what it was. Thank God her phone rang, because when she picked up, he ignored the finger in the air that told him to hold on. He made his escape and jogged up to his room, making sure he was in the shower when she left.

  Nate pulled on a faded T-shirt that belonged to his father, a pair of shorts he found at the back of the closet in his old bedroom, and slipped into a pair of work boots from the mudroom. Beck was ripping out a deck, and he’d promised to help. A couple hours of good, hard physical labor would go a long way in clearing his head and alleviating the stress his mom caused. He knew she wasn’t done with the questions, and even though she was so far off base, he was still floored.

  Delia Bruno. Really? She was a nice girl and all, but she was nothing like Molly.

  With a smile, he grabbed his phone on the way out and was just about to send Molly an emoji when he stopped cold. Aside from the fact it was too much, and that Molly would probably take one look at it and roll her eyes, since when had he ever sent anyone an emoji?

  Nate pocketed his cell, hopped into his truck, and headed for the south side of town. The McBrides had a place at the bend, just where River Road became rural. An old farmhouse, the land had been sold off piece by piece over the years and new development had sprung up around it. It was set back from the road a couple hundred feet, and he pulled up behind his brother’s truck. Nate found him out back, already working up a sweat.

  He picked up the second crowbar and got to work.

  It took them a good solid day to rip out the deck and clear away all the old lumber. By the time they got back to Beck’s, it was close to four, and Nate barely had time to have a beer with his brother before showering and heading back out again. He’d told Molly he’d meet her at her place for five thirty.

  Nate took a good long draw from the cold bottle in his hand and swiped at the corner of his mouth as he sank into one of the Adirondack chairs set up on Beck’s boathouse dock. His brother’s property was amazing. Set up high on a bluff that overlooked the lake, it boasted two acres of land with nearly five hundred feet of shoreline. The house was a cabin built in the 1800s, and it needed a lot of work, as in it needed to be ripped back to the original frame. But the boathouse was new and sported three lifts, room for a couple of Seadogs, and living space overtop. At the moment, it was where Beck laid his head as he slowly worked on the cabin.

  The two men sat without uttering a word, enjoying the beauty and silence. Not one boat dotted the lake, and when a loon sang its mournful tune, Nate got shivers.

  “I miss this place,” he murmured, eyes on the water.

  “Yeah?” Beck looked at him questioningly. “Ever thought about coming back?”

  Nate shook his head. “Not permanently. I like New York City, and that’s where my job is. I can’t imagine doing what I do way the hell out here.” A hint of a smile ghosted his mouth when he thought of Molly. “I think I’ll try to make it back more often, though.”

  “Glad to hear it. Mom needs someone else’s business to poke her nose into. She’s always up in my stuff.”

  Nate chuckled. “I know what you mean. She’s been on me about who I’m spending time with like I have to report in or something. I think she forgets we’re not kids anymore.”

  “Yeah.” Beck cleared his throat. “About that.”

  Nate glanced at his brother. He didn’t like the sound of this.

  “I was out at the Manchester place last night. Had some tools in the shed that I needed for today. I saw your truck at Molly’s.”

  Instantly on the defense, Nate sat up. “And that concerns you because?”

  “Concerns a bit heavy-handed. I’m Just wondering what you’re doing there at three in the morning is all.”

  “Why the hell were you getting tools at three a.m.?”

  “I couldn’t sleep.” Beck’s gaze slid from Nate’s, and he shrugged. “I just found it a little odd is all.”

  Nate sighed and slid back in his chair. “It’s not what you think.”

  “You don’t know what I think.”

  “You want to enlighten me, then?”

  Beck finished his beer and tossed it into the bin between their chairs. “Molly’s not the kind of woman you fool around with, Nate. She doesn’t hook up with random guys, and she sure as shit doesn’t do casual.”

  “First off, I’m not some random guy. And secondly, since when did you become an expert on Molly Malone?”

  Beck glared at him. “I’ve known her since you guys were kids. You two aren’t wired the same. She’s either all in or she’s not. And let’s face it, you’re the kind of guy who thinks a relationship is spending a week in Mexico with some bikini model and coming home to a lingerie model.”

  “Well, shit, Beck. I had no idea you were so invested in the women I have sex with. Look. Minka just happened to be in Mexico when I was, and she knew the drill. So did Eve. The thing between us wasn’t serious, and I was upfront about it. I’ve never lied to a woman before. When I got back to the city, Eve didn’t ask any questions, and from what I could tell, she didn’t care as long as we carried on the way we’d done before I left. I wasn’t in a relationship with either woman. Hell, I’ve never been in a damn relationship. Ever.”

  “My point exactly.”

  Pissed, Nathan hopped to his feet and walked the length of the dock. Clouds were beginning to form in the distance, and he smelled rain on the wind. In a few weeks, the leaves would start to turn, and the entire area would be ablaze with the colors of fall.

  He’d be back in the city when it happened. Screwing women like Minka or Eve and living the life he’d carved out for himself. A life he enjoyed the hell out of, or at least he used to. But from where he was standing now, it seemed kind of empty.

  “Shit,” he muttered to himself.

  Beck joined him, and they stood in silence for a good long while. When Beck spoke, his voice was so low, Nate strained to hear him. “You’re both adults. I get that, and yeah, what the two of you do together is no one’s business but yours. But this is Molly, Nate. She’s not like the women you’re used to. She’s not coming out of this okay unless you’re on the same page. I’m just saying make sure you’re on the same page.”

  “We’ve got it covered,” he said slowly, thinking of all the rules she’d set in place. “We know what we’re doing.” Molly was driving this train. She’d jump off if it got too complicated. He turned and headed toward the path that led up to the house, where his truck was parked. “Thanks for the beer.”

  “When did you know?” Nate asked before he got into this truck. Beck stood a few feet away.

  “Know what?”

  “When did you know Cate was the one?”

  The bleak look in Beck’s eyes made Nate wish he’d never asked the question. He knew why his brother wasn’t sleeping. Working at the house Cate grew up in had to be hard. Being around her parents had to be hard, and damn but the memories had to be excruciating. Even after all this time.

  “The truth is I di
dn’t know until she was gone. Until I forgot how to breathe. Until I was left in a world where she no longer existed. That’s something I’m still working on.”

  “Would you…if you knew how things would play out. That she’d be gone and you’d be here alone. Would you have ended it before it started?”

  Beck slowly shook his head and then turned around. “Not a chance.”

  Nate watched his brother until he disappeared down the hill that led to the boathouse. The guy was broken, and maybe he’d be that way for the rest of his life. That was some kind of love. Some kind of commitment.

  The weird thing was? If it was Molly and he was Beck, Nate was pretty damn sure his answer would be the same.

  So what in hell did that mean?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Molly pretty much floated through her day with a smile on her face, which apparently wasn’t something she normally did, because Lainey commented on it more than once and so did her brother. She didn’t bother with a response; she didn’t have one that was appropriate. It wasn’t as if she could tell her brother that she’d had more orgasms than she could count or that she hurt in places that hadn’t been used in a good long while.

  It was the kind of hurt that felt wonderful. The kind that put a smile on your face. The kind that had her buzzing and thinking about things she shouldn’t be thinking about at work. Like Nate inside her and how his face changed when he was about to come. Or how his tongue drove her crazy, how he groaned when she took the long length of him into her mouth.

  Hell, they’d done things she’d only read about in the romance novels her mother favored, and she couldn’t wait to do it all over again.

  Luckily, she didn’t have a lot of time to ponder all those distracting inappropriate things, because the clinic was busy as hell and her brother was hungover. Why bother coming in if all you were going to do was complain about how much your head hurt? Honestly, she couldn’t wait for all this wedding stuff to be over. They were booked solid because Zach was golfing with his groomsmen on Thursday and she was headed out for a wine and brewery tour with Jess and the other girls in the wedding party. It was the last hurrah for her soon-to-be sister-in-law, and while Molly could think of a lot of other things she’d rather be doing, a part of her was glad she’d agreed to go.