“Now what are you going to wear?”

“I’ve got my boxers on. I’m good.”

I laughed. A good hearty laugh, a laugh like I hadn’t laughed in a long time. And it felt so good.

“All right, Jonah. Lead me to your pool.”

We walked down the carpeted hallway, through the kitchen, to a lovely little family area complete with bar. Two gorgeous French doors opened out onto the redwood patio.

And a huge yard. A panting golden retriever ran up to us.

“Hey, girl,” Jonah said, petting the dog on the head. “Meet a good friend of mine. Melanie, this is Lucy.”

Lucy licked my hand. She was beautiful. “I didn’t know you had a dog.”

“Oh, yeah. All three of us do. We love animals around here.”

A cobblestone walkway led to his pool. Lucy walked next to me, her soft fur brushing my leg. A light breeze was blowing, but I wasn’t chilly. Still, I thought it might be a little too cold for swimming.

As if reading my mind, Jonah said, “Dip your toe in. You’ll see. It’s a great temperature.”

I did as he suggested, and sure enough, the water was pleasantly warm.

“I swim every morning, even in the dead of winter if I can get out here. As long as we’re not snowed in, I swim.”

“You mean the water doesn’t freeze?”

“When it gets really cold, I cover the pool at night, but remember, it’s heated. So, no, the water doesn’t freeze.”

I didn’t even want to think about the electric bill…but Jonah Steel wasn’t the kind of man who had to worry about bills.

“I keep my hot tub up and running year-round as well. And Melanie, there is nothing like sitting in a hot tub, with a martini, while snow is falling around you.”

I created a visual in my mind as I looked over at the hot tub sunken into the ground next to Jonah’s pool. Would I ever sit in the hot tub during a snowfall with Jonah?

Right then, I wanted to more than anything in the world.

“So you feel like a swim?”

“I’m not a great swimmer,” I said. “I mean, I know enough not to drown, but I won’t win any medals. I mostly just splash around a little.”

“That’s absolutely fine. Here, let me help you.” He untied the oversize silk robe at my waist, shoved it over my shoulders, and set it neatly on a nearby chaise longue.

“So is the water to your liking?”

“Yeah, feels great.”

He licked his lips, grinning. “Good.” And he pushed me into the water.

Chapter Twenty–Seven

 

 

Jonah

I hoped I hadn’t gone too far, but within a few seconds, Melanie’s blond head bobbed up, and she had a smile on her face.

I wondered, then, when was the last time she’d had any fun. Real honest to goodness fun.

And I wondered if it had been before or after I had.

We were both severely lacking in fun in our lives.

I’d make today about fun. I’d set aside the guilt that normally ruled my life and concentrate on Melanie and having fun with her. We could both use it.

I removed my boxers quickly and dived in. When I came up, Melanie was treading water, still smiling.

She moved to the pool’s edge and looked to the blue sky. “I can’t tell you how good this feels. It’s been ages since I’ve been swimming.”

“Yeah, there’s something about the water. It just seems to erase the stress away.”

“What kind of swimming do you do? You said you swim every day.”

“I do some laps. I know most of the strokes. It’s pretty much what I do for exercise, although I also get a lot of exercise around the ranch. Most days I’m out on the pastures, walking around and checking things out.”

“Well, you look great. Obviously you’re getting your exercise,” she said.

I stared at her soft body. “I could say the same for you. What do you do for exercise?”

“Not a lot. Although I walk almost everywhere I go in the city. My office, my loft, the places where I shop—they’re all within mere blocks of each other.”

“Urban living at its finest,” I said. “Not that I know anything about that.”

“No, you’re rural all the way. What was it like growing up here?”

“That’s a loaded question.”

“I didn’t mean to bring up anything bad.”

“No, it’s okay,” I said. “I tend to forget how great it really was. I was only thirteen when Talon got taken, and life after that was…different. It was a cloud that always hovered over us. I never understood why my parents wouldn’t allow us to talk about it. They truly swept it under the rug.”

“Yeah, Talon and I have talked about that.”

“Do you have any insight?”

“No, we really haven’t gone into any detail about why your parents did what they did. There are still a lot of unanswered questions.”

“You know,” I said, “when I look back, I wonder why they didn’t try to find those guys then. Especially since Larry Wade was my mother’s half-brother. I get that he was family, and that the other guys were after him for letting Talon go. But why would my parents not pursue it? Especially after what he did to their son—my brother? And those other children. Including Luke Walker—” I shook my head. “I forgot. They didn’t know what happened to Luke Walker. Talon never told anyone. He only recently told Ryan and me.”

“Talon has his own reasons for keeping quiet.”

“Yeah, and they’re not too hard to figure out, I don’t think. What happened to him was probably very humiliating. He tried to block it from his mind. I’m sure I would’ve done the same.”

“People deal with things in different ways.” Melanie sighed. “The way Talon was feeling afterward contributed to that, and add to that the fact that your parents were complicit in keeping the whole thing under wraps. It’s amazing that he got the help he needed. But I’m so glad he did.”

“I’m so glad too.”

“You know, Jonah, what happened to Talon didn’t just happen to Talon. It happened to you, too. And your brother. And your mother and father. I don’t particularly condone how your parents handled it, but I do feel confident in saying that they thought it was best at the time, and they felt they had their reasons.”