I lowered myself to the ground and just lay there for a second, chest to the concrete, breathing deeply. Toby was talking to my cat like she’d know what sanguine meant when I wasn’t entirely sure what sanguine meant, and shit, I really, really, really needed to stop thinking about him.
Clearly, the run had done jack shit. I was just glad he’d be leaving the island soon. And once he was safely on a flight back north, with his weird visit to the island just a blip in my memory banks, I’d spend some serious time meditating and cleansing my chakras, reminding myself of exactly what I wanted.
My energy must have gotten blocked by loneliness or anxiety or something. I’d been trying so hard to manifest my soul mate that I’d manifested this crazy attraction… to the wrong guy. I hadn’t even known a person could do that, but trust me to be the first idiot to manage it. I looked down at my naked wrist and wished, for the first time in a long time, that I had someone who could actually guide me in these things.
I thought about staying outside and avoiding Toby for the rest of the morning, or until he left Whispering Key, whichever took longer. But then I heard the fridge door slam, the crinkle of a wrapper, and more muttering.
“Wrap burrito in paper towel and microwave two minutes? Hmm. Don’t paper towels catch fire in the microwave? Oh, well! Instructions are instructions, right?”
I was a tiny bit concerned that he was asking the cat, and I was even more concerned that Marjorie would somehow answer him.
Preventing Toby from burning down the pool house probably fell under the heading of “Responsible House-sitting,” didn’t it? I groaned. So much for avoiding him.
Still, after I stood, I took a second to lift my arms up to the sky in a Sun Salutation before folding into a forward bend, letting each of the vertebrae in my back obediently pop back into alignment. I breathed deeply into the stretch and tried to let go of my frustrations, expanding my consciousness. I was profoundly grateful to—
“Holy Christina Aguilera. Could you just turn, like, forty-five degrees to your left and repeat that move?”
I spun around so fast I almost fell over.
Toby peered out the window at me, his gaze focused unapologetically on the rear of my shorts, and the air temperature on Whispering Key immediately shot up twenty degrees.
“Uh, hey. Good morning.” I ran a hand through my hair.
“Great morning, and even better now,” Toby said with a leer that made me blush. “My, don’t you look all hot and sweaty.”
I cleared my throat and fought the urge to cover my damp, naked chest. “I… I ran.”
Toby grinned like I was being adorable. “So your note said,” he agreed. “Your breakfast will be ready in a minute and forty-five seconds. Come on in.”
“My breakfast?” I blinked, but Toby’s face was gone from the window, and I heard the teakettle whistle, so I headed for the door because I couldn’t think of a single excuse not to.
I toed my shoes off inside the door and turned toward the little kitchen area separated from the living room by a bar and three barstools. In the kitchen, Toby did a little dance and sang a song I couldn’t hear under his breath as he got out the tea, shaking his ass from side to side.
I wasn’t sure how a person could look sexier in clothes than they did naked, but something about the way his cropped jean shorts that showed off his sleek, toned thighs and his sleeveless, cropped, black Calvin Klein T-shirt showed off leanly muscled arms and abs just highlighted everything I knew he was hiding. His dark hair was tousled and shower damp, begging to be touched.
I curled my hands into fists.
Then I headed for the back hall closet where my shit was stacked and grabbed the box labeled “Crystals.”
“Hey! Where’d you go?” Toby demanded as I carried the box back to the kitchen.
I didn’t answer. I rummaged through the box of carefully wrapped stones, found the one I wanted immediately, unwrapped the soft cotton cloth around it, and set it on the counter. The rock was a large chunk of deep green and amber variscite I’d gotten at a flea market a few years back and hardly ever used except to cleanse it and charge it and make sure it was attuned to me.
“Pretty,” Toby remarked as I shifted the rest of the box onto an empty stool and took a seat. “What’s it do?”
“Every living and nonliving thing in the universe has energy. The things you draw into yourself can change your energy for better or worse. This stone calms the mind and helps you think logically,” I said gruffly.
I’d actually tried to talk myself out of buying the stone, since I was almost always calm, and logical thought wasn’t really my go-to, but some impulse had made me buy it, and now I knew why. If there were ever a time for some rational thought, it was today.
“Oh, cool. I need some fucking calm,” Toby said, unconsciously echoing my thoughts. He grabbed the stone off the counter before I could stop him and examined it closely. “What are these brown—? Uh, Beale? Why are you looking at me like I just boiled your bunny? Oh! Oh, shit.” Toby set the rock down carefully and held his hands up, big brown eyes wide. “My bad. Is it bad manners to handle another guy’s stones without permission? Did I just fuck up your juju?”
I exhaled a shaky breath and fought the urge to visualize him handling my stones.
“No,” I lied. “No, of course not. Don’t be silly. It’s fine. You’re fine. The whole thing is just… fine.”
“Fine.” Toby’s brow creased. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Yes. Yes! Great.” I felt my cheeks flush, which was apparently their default state when Toby was around. If he didn’t leave soon, I’d probably have a stroke. Then a horrible thought occurred to me. “Why do you ask? Did you sleep well? Did anything… disturb you?” Like me, lying on you like you were my personal mattress topper, please say no?
“What?” Toby’s face went carefully blank in a guilty-ish sort of way. “No. I slept perfectly! Wonderfully. Deeply. Platonically.” He cleared his throat. “Definitely at no time did I wake up to find I’d crossed the middle of the bed and curled around your half-naked person like you were the only source of heat in a cold and unforgiving universe, with my naked dick lying on your thigh like a lizard sunning itself on a rock, so you can get that thought right out of your head, mister.”
“Oh.” I blinked at the visual and squirmed slightly on my seat as my own naked dick pressed against my shorts. I debated the benefit of more push-ups. “Okay. Good.”
“Because if I had done such a thing, which I obviously didn’t, I’d have scurried back to my own side of the bed immediately. Immediately.”
“Right,” I choked out. “Same.”
“Good. Great. So that settles that.” Toby turned around and busied himself pouring water into mugs while the microwave continued to hum. “But, I’m glad you slept well, because I did want to talk to you about—”
Oh, shit. Was this the part where he called me on the cuddling?
Before he could finish his sentence—and honestly, that was probably for the best—a sound like machine-gun fire emitted from the microwave.
Toby screamed, spun, and ducked. “Oh my God! The microwave is shooting at us!”