With a quick hand she covered her mouth, hiding her smile and stifling her giggles. “I’m so sorry.” The sound of her laughter abated though it still shook her whole body. “But you did not just ask to ‘swim in my pond.’ Did you?”

Scrubbing his hands over his face, he grumbled something indecipherable. Standing with one swift motion, he walked toward her door.

“Don’t leave! I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Give me another chance.” Once again she chased after him.

His long legs made quick strides to his car.

“Where are you going?” she called, throwing open the screen door.

“I’m going to figure out a way to be with you and keep my testicles.”

Chapter Fifteen

A chilly burst of air breezed past Jackson when he opened the back door to their townhouse. The smell of burnt popcorn hung like fog as he pulled his T-shirt up to cover his nose. Every window in the place was open to its max. It felt like an arctic gust whipping through their house.

Jillian sat perched on the counter, legs criss-crossed, with a heavy red hoodie shielding her from the temperature that read fifty-five degrees on the thermostat. She poked around her bowl of popcorn, tossing five black kernels in the sink for every one brown piece she deemed edible.

He needed some guy friends. Stat. The women in his life were hell-bent on testing his last bit of patience.

“Want some?” Jillian looked up from the bowl.

“What do you think?”

She shrugged. “Damn bag got away from me. I set it to five minutes, but I go by the time between pops and—”

“I don’t care.” He grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.

Sliding her fingernail between her teeth to free a hull, she watched him guzzle the contents all at once. After tossing it in the recycle bin, he fetched another one.

“Someone’s grumpy. I am too, but you go first.”

Catching his breath after the marathon beer chug, he glared at her. “New rule. If I leave my phone behind you don’t answer it. And if you ever discuss my testicles with someone again, I will make your life a living hell. Got it?”

Wrinkling her nose, she lifted her shoulders. “Sorry. I was just trying to help. I take it, it didn’t go so well?”

Finishing his second bottle, he tossed it then rested his hands on his hips. “Let’s see … after I called her bluff on the devious little ruse you plotted, things went good … really good. Then they went not so good, then really good again … then bad … really, really bad.”

Dumping the remaining charred pieces of popcorn into the trash, she brushed off her hands. “Lucky for you, I have the patience to deal with your code talk. The first good?”

“She asked to see my tattoos. All of them.”

“Sex?” Jillian perked up.

“Not even close.”

“You completely stripped for her and it didn’t end in sex?” Jillian’s jaw dropped. “Has that ever happened to you before?”

“Never.”

“ED?”

“Fuck you.”

She chuckled. “The not so good?”

“She laughed. Apparently it brought back some childhood memory for her.”

“That’s odd. So what was the really good again?”

He smirked. “She got all insecure on me, comparing other women I’ve been with to the ocean and herself to a pond. I told her I prefer ponds. There was some kissing that felt like it was going somewhere then …”

“Then?”

“Then she laughed again, really hard.”

“Why?”

“Because of something I said. God!” He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and shook his head. “I know better than to chat it up, but she’s different, so I thought I needed to say something. Something romantic. Something profound.”

“Aaand?”

With a grimace, he looked at Jillian. “I asked her to … let me swim in her pond.”

Sister dearest bit back her laughter and just nodded, but tears welled in her eyes. “Well … I’m not sure how romantic or profound it was.” She snorted a little laugh that had to escape. “But, you could have said worse things. You could have asked to dock your vessel in her canal. That is … if you wanted to stay with the nautical theme of the evening.”

Another snort of laughter.

“Downstairs. It’s cold as fuck in here and I need to warm up. Kicking your ass should light a nice fire in my belly.”

“Wait.” The laughter evaporated and what she had to say dissolved her smile. “I need to show you something.” Retrieving her phone from the pocket of her hoodie, she held it up.

Colossians 3:5-6

Jackson read it then inspected the phone. “This is your new phone?”

A nod.

He Googled it because he wasn’t sure of the exact verses, but he knew it had something to do with sin.

“Mortify therefore your members which upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:”

Jillian snatched her phone back. “You and your King James Version.” She did her own Google search. “Put to death therefore what is earthly to you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.” Jackson grabbed her phone away.

“Maybe … maybe we should go in.”

Jackson’s focus shifted from the phone to his sister. “Go in?”

“Back to G.A.I.L until this gets figured out. Or maybe we should request a new location, new identities. Omaha isn’t exactly some small town. Obviously our identities have been compromised. Now we’re just being taunted.”

“First, we are not being taunted. You are. Second, why were you not suggesting relocation and all this after the first two messages? Could it have had anything to do with you having a reason to stay? But now AJ’s gone so you want to just up and leave?”

“I’m just saying … it’s a new phone and I’m still getting these cryptic messages.”

“Who have you given your new number to?”

Jillian shrugged. “I don’t know … AJ, Dodge and Lilith, Cage, a few people with Lascivio, mowing man Bill.”

“AJ—”

“Oh for the love of Pete! Stop it. AJ. Loves. Me. He’s not stalking me. Why would he move back to Portland? Isn’t it a little hard to stalk someone from halfway across the country?”

“Then it’s Lilith. She lied to you about being deaf. I’m sure she’s lying to you about keeping your past a secret. I should have removed her. Listening to your womanly intuition about her was a big mistake. It’s clear after today that all women are fucking head cases.”

Jillian gave her customary eye roll. “You’re so delusional. I think your case of blue balls has affected your brain.”

He tossed her phone to her. “I’m not leaving. Now I have a reason to stay.”

“You’re staying for a woman who can’t stop laughing at you long enough to have sex with you?”

Someone begged for a beating. “If I wanted to have sex with her … we would have sex.” He held his scowl even though what he’d just said registered a second too late. Of course Jillian didn’t waste a single moment before jumping all over it.

“So … even today, when you were standing in front of her naked, you didn’t really want to have sex with her?”

“That’s not how I meant it. I don’t want just sex with her. I want more. The more is getting in the way. It’s turned sex into a delicate situation.”

“It’s turned you into a pussy.”

“Fu—”

“I know … fuck me. But seriously. She’s forty. I bet she’s dying to have a shit load of meaningless sex with a hot guy while her hips can still thrust without fracturing. You’re trying to court her. You know what happens in those old movies where the well-mannered, high-society guy tries to be a gentleman and court the lady?”