“The inn didn’t come with an operating account, unfortunately,” Maddie explained. “Just a big fat mortgage payment, so money’s a problem.”

Jax’s eyes flicked to Tara, then back to Maddie, and once again she wondered what she was missing.

“So you’re going to sell?” he asked.

“Hopefully,” Tara said.

“Hopefully not,” Maddie said.

Jax nodded as if this made perfect sense. “I’ll walk the property and work up a bid.”

“And I’m off to shower.” Tara turned back at the door. “Sugar, tell me you left me some hot water so I’m not forced to head to Alpine and bathe outside like a cretin.”

“Alpine?” Maddie asked. “What’s that?”

“There’s a natural hot springs about three miles up the road,” Jax said. “The locals think of it as their own personal hot tub.”

Maddie looked at Tara. “How do you know about the hot springs?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“No,” she said, but Tara was gone. Alone with Jax, she pointed to his clipboard. “Better put a new water heater in that bid.”

“All right.”

The kitchen seemed even smaller now that it was just the two of them. She moved to the slightly larger living room and was extremely aware that he followed. “I don’t think we’ll waste any money in here,” she said. “Just the inn.” She reached up to shove her too-long bangs out of her face and realized what she’d done when she caught him staring at her right eye, at the scar on the outside of it that she knew was still looking fresh. Before she could turn away, he was there, right there, and gently—God, so gently it nearly broke something inside of her—brushed the hair from her face and stared at the mark.

For the longest heartbeat in history, he didn’t say anything, but the muscles in his jaw bunched. From his fingers, so carefully light on her, she felt the tension grip his entire body. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Another agonizing beat pulsed around them before he let go of her, allowing her bangs to fall over her forehead again.

He let out a long breath and eyed their Charlie Brown Christmas tree. When he spoke, his voice was low but normal. “You have an eyelash curler on your tree.”

Grateful, so damn grateful that he wasn’t going to push, she let out a breath, too. “We improvised.”

He took in the pictures of their teen crushes and shook his head, not smiling but letting go of some of the tension racking him.

“You don’t like?”

“Actually, I do like,” he said, and when she glanced over at him, she found him looking directly at her.

“I meant the tree.”

He just picked up his leather jacket from its perch by the front door, the one he’d given her to wear last night. Once again he held it open for her, then nudged her outside ahead of him.

The morning was clear and crisp, and the trees and ground glittered with frost. The sun was so bright it hurt her eyes and head, and also her teeth, which made no sense.

“Hangovers are a bitch,” Jax said and dropped his sunglasses onto her nose.

He walked away before she could thank him, so she closed her mouth and pushed up the glasses a little, grateful for the dark lenses. She tried to remember the last time anyone had done such a thing for her without anything expected in return—and couldn’t.

“Also going on the list,” he said when she’d run to catch up with his long-legged stride. “Making sure no more trees are in danger of killing you in the next wind storm. We’ll chop that up for firewood.”

She stared at the massive tree bisecting the yard. “Where I come from, firewood comes in a small bundle at the grocery store, and you set it in your fireplace to give off ambience.”

“Trust me, ambience is the last thing you’ll want this tree to give you. It’s going to keep your fingers and feet warm.”

She hugged his jacket to her and not because it smelled heavenly. Okay, because it smelled heavenly. And did he never get cold? She looked at him in that slightly oversized hoodie and sexy jeans and boots, carrying that clipboard. She wished she had a clipboard. Instead, she pulled out her Blackberry to make notes, too. “Do I need to call a tree guy?”

“I can do it. Those two trees there…” He pointed across the yard to the left of the marina building. “They’re going to need to be seriously cut back. I’m sure there’s others.”

They walked the rest of the property and outlined all the obvious problems. There were many. After discussing them in detail over the next half hour, they were back in the center of the yard, next to the fallen tree.

“So,” he said. “Your sisters want out.”

“Yesterday,” she agreed.

“I think your mom hoped you three would stick around and take care of this place the way she always intended to. You know how she was.”

“Actually, I don’t,” she said. “I didn’t know her very well. I was raised by my father in Los Angeles. She sent postcards from wherever the Grateful Dead were playing, and we had the occasional whirlwind visit. But she never mentioned this place, not once.” She realized how detached that sounded and just how much she’d revealed about their lack of a relationship, and it both embarrassed and saddened her. Having bared herself enough for one day, she turned away.

“Some kids might resent their parent in this situation,” he said quietly.

“There’s some of that.”

She felt a big, warm hand settle at her back, and he led her to his Jeep. The huge brown dog in the passenger seat sat up and gave a single, joyous woof!

Jax opened the door and the lab mix leapt out, all long, gawky limbs and happy tongue. Two huge front paws hit Maddie in the chest, making her stagger back.

Jax’s hands settled on her arms from behind, steadying her. Leaning over her shoulder, he gave the dog a friendly push. “Down, you big lug. You okay?” He turned Maddie around to face him, eyeing the two dusty paw prints on her chest.

She backed away and brushed herself off before he got any notions about helping. “She’s very pretty.”

“Pretty something, anyway.” He sent the dog a look of affection. “I just haven’t decided on what. Izzy, sit,” he directed, and the dog promptly sat on his foot, looking up at him in clear hero worship.

Maddie bent for a stick and threw it. Izzy craned her neck, took in the stick’s flight through the air, and yawned.

“She’s not much for chasing sticks,” Jax said dryly. “She’ll chase her tail, though, all day long. She’s a rescue. She didn’t get the Labrador handbook.”

Izzy nudged her head to Jax’s thigh, and Jax crouched to give her a hug and a full-body rub, and Maddie felt a moment of jealousy as Izzy slid bonelessly to the ground in clear ecstasy, groaning loudly.

“She likes that,” Maddie managed.

“I have a way with my hands.”

She bit her lower lip to keep the words “show me” inside.

He laughed again, soft and sexy, as he straightened and apparently read her mind. “We don’t have chemistry, remember?”

She closed her eyes. “Okay, here’s the thing. We have some chemistry,” she allowed.

“Some? Or supernova?”

“Supernova. But,” she said to his knowing grin. Good Lord, he needed to stop doing that. “I really did give up men.”

“Forever?”

“My gut says yes, but that might be PMS talking. Let’s just say I’m giving up men for a very long time.”

“You going to try out women?”

He was teasing her. She pushed him back a step, knowing damn well he only went because it suited him. No one pushed him around unless he wanted to go—something she wished she could say about herself. “I’m trying to say I’m not cut out for this, for the casual-sex thing.”

“But you’ve given up men,” he pointed out, still teasing her. “Sounds like there’s going to be no sex, period.”

“None.”

He merely arched a brow. “Aren’t you going to miss it?”

“No.”

“Not at all?”

“Not even a little.”

He shot her a look of blatant disbelief. “How is that even possible, not missing sex? That’s like saying you wouldn’t miss having a cold beer on a hot summer night or the sound of the ocean pounding the surf while you run, or… air in your lungs.”

She had to laugh at his adamancy. “Maybe sex isn’t all that important to me.”

“Then you’ve been doing it wrong.”

His voice dripped with innuendo, and her body tightened involuntarily while the meaning behind his words thrummed through her veins. It was a foregone conclusion that the man knew how to use his muscular body and talented hands to make a living. She figured it wasn’t a stretch to imagine he could also use those things to make a woman very happy.

“Still with me?” he murmured.

A warm flush spread through her body, and she lost her ability to speak.

His mouth was serious, but his eyes were laughing. With a quick playful tug on a lock of her wild hair, he walked off, heading toward the inn in that long-limbed, confident stride of his.

She stared after him, a little flummoxed by the funny something still happening very low in her belly, something she was pretty sure meant her body was not on board with the giving-up-men thing.

Not even close.

Chapter 9

“If you’re going through hell…

keep moving.”

PHOEBE TRAEGER

By the time Maddie gathered her wits enough to follow Jax to the inn, he’d opened the front door. “Did your mom have a set of blueprints for this place?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It looks like she kept all paperwork in the office in the marina. We could check there.”

“You’ll need it for the escrow contract, because anyone who buys this place is going to need to make sure the entire property passes inspection and is up to code. It’s probably got more violations than you can count, and that’ll all have to be dealt with at the building department. But I think Phoebe dated Ed for awhile, and he works there. He’ll help you through it.”

She paused, a little dizzy at his knowledge and the educated, professional way he spoke. Her first impression of him had been Hot Biker. Her second impression had been Hot Biker Who Could Kiss.

Now she was seeing yet another side. She asked the question she’d been dying to ask. ”You liked her. My mom.”

“Yes. You resemble her, you know.” He took his time letting his gaze run over her, leaving her breathless. “It’s in the eyes,” he said. “She could see right through a person, right to their soul, and know.”

“Know what?”

“What they were made of.”

She’d had a knot in her chest since Phoebe’s death, a thick ball of grief and regret, and it tightened now. “I don’t have that ability. I’m actually a terrible judge of character.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Your mom was fun and a little flighty, but she had substance where it counted. She had heart.”

“Yeah, well, the flightiness was self-induced.”

A little smile crossed his face. “No doubt.”

Given the fondness in his tone, she figured he’d known Phoebe well. Certainly better than she had, and the ball tightened a little more. “So what about you?”

“What about me?”

“I know next to nothing about you. Tell me something.”

He shrugged. “Not much to tell. I was born and raised here. My mom died of a stroke a few years back. No siblings.”

“Except for Ford and Sawyer,” she said.

“Except for them.”

“What about your dad?”

“He’s in Seattle.”

There was something there, something in his voice that had her taking a closer look at him, but his face was calm. “You’ve always been a carpenter?” she asked.

“No. I went away to college, then stayed away for several years after that. I’ve been back five years now. Boring story.”

She doubted that, but he took himself and his clipboard inside the inn, and she and Izzy followed. The dog sniffed at every corner as Jax and Maddie went through room by room. He showed her what could be done to update and modernize, sometimes stopping to sketch things out for her as he talked, his love of a challenge shining through.

Maddie had enjoyed her job, sometimes, and it’d fulfilled her. But she’d never loved it. It was fascinating to watch him. He was fascinating.

They finished the main floor and headed up the stairs, while Izzy slept in the sole sun spot on the kitchen floor, snoring like a buzz saw. Jax made suggestions for the bedrooms and bathrooms. At some point, he’d gone out for his tool belt. There was something disturbingly sexy about the way it sat low on his hips, framing everything. She did her best not to notice, but he sure had a very nice… everything.

Together they crawled through the attic space, looking for the source of a roof leak they’d discovered in the last bathroom. Jax was out in front, braving the spiderwebs. Maddie was behind him, working really hard at not looking at his butt.

And failing spectacularly.

So when he unexpectedly twisted around, holding out his hand for the clipboard she was now holding, he caught her staring at him.

“I, um—You have a streak of dirt,” she said.