Page 97 of Irresistibly Wicked

“What are you doing here?” Her voice was edged with disbelief, but her lips twitched like she was holding back a smile.

“I just joined the gym.” He held up the membership papers.

Her eyes widened. “You joined this gym?”

“Yup. We said we were going to work out together.” He folded the papers and put them in his back pocket.

“Right, but don’t you have church tonight?”

“Yes, but I wanted to bring you this before I went.” He reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small canvas pouch. Curiosity rose in her eyes as he handed it to her.

She opened the pouch and turned it over. The delicate gold bracelet with the triangular charm slid into her hand, and her breath caught. “Is this…?” Voice full of hope, she turned the charm over, her dark eyes glassing over at the sight of Cap’s inscription. “Zander,” she whispered. “How did you find it?”

“I called every pawn shop on the Cape.” He took the bracelet from her palm, and as he secured it around her wrist, he said, “I thought I was too late. But this morning I remembered you and Brian had lived in Wareham. I figured if he knew a drug dealer there, it was worth a shot calling local pawn shops, and that’s where I found it.”

She threw her arms around him, hugging him tight. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

He’d carried a knot in his chest ever since she’d told him about her missing bracelet, and it hadn’t loosened until he’d had it in his hand. “I think I do.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

THE SOUND OF the ocean floated in through the open windows as Shauna spread a tarp over the kitchen island, singing along to Tate McRae’s “Greedy.” It turned out that she was wrong a few weeks ago when she had lunch with the girls. The kitchen hadn’t been almost ready to paint. The following weekend, she and Zander had decided to open the ceiling and stain the rafters. It was a huge, messy job, but it was finally done, and their hard work had paid off. The cathedral ceiling changed the feel of the entire cottage. They’d looked beyond the surface and found a hidden treasure. She’d found the same in Zander. A bestie that always had her back, a lover who made her feel impossibly sexy, and a confidant who listened without judgment when missing Brian got too heavy or the skeletons of her past rattled her chains.

She carried the kitchen stools into the living room, excited to paint with Zander when he got home from the store. Kitty was sunning herself in the miniature screened-in porch they’d built her off a window in the living room. The patio idea hadn’t worked, since the windows were above ground level. Zander promised he’d outfit Kitty’s porch with removable glass for the winter. Shauna felt a pang of sadness knowing she’d no longer be living there in the winter, but she refused to let herself get lost in that. They were almost halfway through their time together, which meant they still had several more weeks.

A knock at the front door drew her from her thoughts.

She glanced out the front window and saw Reba’s car. Happiness bubbled up inside her, and she hurried to the door. She’d seen Reba and the rest of Zander’s family at Brennan’s birthday party a few weeks ago, and they’d had brunch with the family last weekend.

“Hi, Reba.”

Reba flashed a warm smile. Her floral perfume drifting in with the breeze had already become comfortingly familiar. “Hi, sweetheart.” She held up a large tote bag. “Preacher had a hankering for shepherd’s pie, so naturally I made extras for all of our kiddos.”

“Lucky us. Come in.”

As Reba stepped inside, her gaze swept over the living room and dining room, and her eyes lit in surprise. “You have drywall in the dining room.”

“I know. Can you believe it? Zander put it up in the evenings while I was at work.” She’d been shocked to come home the mornings after her shifts and see how much he’d done. The dining room drywall wasn’t finished, the living room was still only framed in, and they hadn’t yet decided what to do about the fireplace, but the cottage felt a lot homier.

“My son has lived with framing for so long, I was beginning to wonder if he’d ever get around to working on it.” Reba looked across the room, and her brows knitted. “Tell me Zander didn’t build a screened-in porch for his cat.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you,” Shauna said carefully.

Reba laughed. “Where did he get that crazy idea?”

“That would be my fault. I saw a cat patio and thought Kitty would like it. We couldn’t make the catio work, so we built the screened-in porch. I know it seems silly, but look how happy she is lying in the sun and fresh air.”

“You and Zan are two peas in a pod. She does look happy, and so does Zander lately, which makes this mama’s heart very happy. Where is my boy?”

“He went to the paint store. We started painting the kitchen last night and got halfway through one wall when we realized we chose the wrong color. Light gray didn’t go well. We thought it might look better once it dried, but this morning we both hated it.” Shauna was proud of the work they’d done in the kitchen. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

As they walked further into the living room, the kitchen came into view, and Reba gasped. “You opened the ceiling.”

“Isn’t it beautiful? The morning after Brennan’s birthday party, we were having breakfast and looking through pictures for inspiration for the fireplace, and one of the pictures had exposed rafters and a slanted ceiling like Zander’s. We looked at each other, then we both looked up at the ceiling and said, Let’s do it. It was a hard, messy job. We tore off the sheetrock, and we had to fill in the screw holes and fix a few things before staining the rafters, but it was worth it. Although I think the stain is what threw off the paint color.”

Reba set the canvas bag on the counter, studying her. “And you helped him do all of that?”

“Mm-hm. Like I said, it wasn’t easy, but it was fun.” As were the massages and sexy times we enjoyed afterward.