CHAPTER ELEVEN

It wasn’t a dream. Hilly was here. In his house. And she smelled divine. Somewhere between a patch of sunshine in a stand of pine trees, and muted campfire smoke. Cisco would dream about that scent tonight, no doubt.

He placed his sandwich and her salad on his kitchen table. “Come on in,” he told her, seeing her lingering in the doorway after she’d returned from her car. He strode over and relieved her of the assortment of sodas she cradled along with a few bags of chips. He also snagged his prescription from where it sat precariously atop the bottles.

“I should probably begin taking these pills,” he said, juggling things as he backed away.

Hilly scowled. “You haven’t started your antibiotics yet? I figured they must have given you a few at the hospital to tide you over. You need to down one right now, Cisco. A possible infection is nothing to mess around with.”

A smile edged across his face. Normally, he didn’t like it when someone other than his matriarch tried to mother him, but from Hilly, it was damned cute.

“Yes, boss,” he smirked, and made a huge point of putting the soda in the fridge and the chips on the counter before turning to the cupboard on his left and giving her a running commentary. “I’m now getting a glass.” He turned on the spigot. “I’m filling it with water. I’m opening the bag, and… Dammit.”

“What?” Hilly tracked closer to where he stood at the sink. “Are you hurting? Do you need help with something?”

“No. But…the pharmacy used a childproof cap,” he gave a big, fake groan, pulling the bottle out of the bag. “I freaking hate these things.”

Hilly laughed. It was a joyous sound, and one he wouldn’t mind hearing a lot. Which is what he’d aimed for.

In truth, if he attempted it, it would only take Cisco a few seconds to remove the offending lid, but to keep her chuckling, he handed it over into her beckoning hands with an amused grumble. “Whoever invented those things will probably find him or herself in Hell when they die, tasked with opening these stupid things non-stop for eternity.”

“It’s not that tough,” Hilly giggled, and had the thing undone in a flash before she tipped the bottle sideways and shook one pill out into her hand. “Here.”

Cisco took it and purposely made his eyes go wide for a second time. “Cripes. These are awfully big.” He tried to maintain a straight face. “I don’t suppose you could crush it up for me?”

Hilly looked at him askance. “You’ve got to be⁠—?”

Cisco couldn’t keep the pretense going any longer. He cracked up. “Yes. I am kidding. But you should have seen your reaction.”

Hilly cuffed him gently and playfully on the arm. “Jerk. It’s a good thing you’re injured, or I would have smacked you good for that one.”

“Oh, yeah?” he continued to joke. “You think you could get the drop on me and take me out?”

Hilly raised a brow. “Maybe. I’ve attended my share of self-defense courses, you know,” she revealed. “And in my advanced class, I even managed to take down the instructor in our final session.”

Cisco gave a low whistle before popping the pill in his mouth, instantly swallowing it down. “Huh. We might have to do a little sparring on the mats, then,” he told her, visions of having his hands all over her lovely body suddenly dancing in his head.

She clearly wasn’t picturing that as she gave a mock gag. “Ewww. Tell me you did not just choke that thing down, dry?”

Cisco snorted, and held up his glass before proceeding to chug the entire thing. “There. Is that better?”

“It is.” She visibly shuddered, then grumbled. “That’s just gross. I bet you lick popsicle sticks and suck on those damned wooden spoons they put in Hoodsies, too.”

“And you don’t?” He taunted. “Yumm. That’s the best part, getting lastsies off the spoon or stick when the rest is gone.”

Hilly huffed playfully. “Again, gross. The moisture is leaching out of my mouth just thinking about it. For you, sir, it’ll be mandatory King Cones at camp. Nothing with a stick, you got it?”

“I can live with that,” he snickered. “I’ve never tried a King Cone, but anything that’s ice cream is good enough for me. And I’d hate to skeeve you out by sucking on something you don’t like.”

Shit.

Had those words actually come out of his mouth? Because now he had visions of feasting on what he knew would be cherry-red tipped breasts beneath Hilly’s camp T-shirt

By the blush moving up her fair face, Cisco knew that’s exactly where Hilly’s mind had gone, too.

He cleared his throat. “You know what I think?”

She shook her head mutely, clearly flustered.

“I think we ought to sit down and eat before our mouths get us into trouble.”

Fuck! There he went again. Now all he could do was look at Hilly’s lips as she worried the bottom bow with her teeth. Cisco couldn’t help himself. He reached over and gently tugged it free from being chewed.

Hilly dragged in a gasp because…

Right.

Maybe she’d felt it too. The bit of electricity that had passed between them. Cisco couldn’t recall ever getting that kind of sensation from a simple, innocent touch before. And since it wasn’t generally in him to beat around the bush if his head went somewhere, or to avoid a potentially awkward confrontation, he wasn’t going to let this incident go unmentioned.

“I like you, Hilly. I won’t lie. And I just…felt something when I brushed my finger over your lip. If there’s any chance that interest might be reciprocated, would you consider possibly going out with me sometime?”

Hilly blinked, as if her brain had just snapped back on-line, and she took a single step backward.

Cisco wanted to groan. That didn’t bode well.

“I, uh, don’t think it would be appropriate,” she told him primly, except she couldn’t quite hide the spurt of interest that had briefly flooded her eyes before she’d managed to drown it. “We’re going to be working together, after all.”

“You have a non-fraternization policy at camp?” Cisco prodded, knowing full well there was no such thing. Hadn’t she mentioned something about her counselors hooking up?

“No. I don’t. But still⁠—”

Cisco cut her off. “Then please don’t say no without giving it some thought. Just consider the possibility, okay?” He mentally crossed his fingers that she’d agree.

Her shoulders fell as she let out a sigh. “Okay. But before you get too vested in making me your latest conquest simply because I’m the nearest available female, I should let you know there’ll be two other eligible women at camp, a blonde and a brunette. One is a nurse, the other a psychologist, and they’re both very beautiful.”

Why did it look like it cost her a lot to say that? And why was she pushing him off onto other ladies when he was making his interest in her pretty clear? Did he come across as that much of a dog? It was a bit insulting that she’d think so little of him…and herself, as well.

Still, he refused to take offense. There was something big holding Hilly back from acting on what he’d offered, and he didn’t want to spook her. If she needed deniability for some reason, he’d let her get away with her deflection. For now.

“Just to let you know,” he told her succinctly, even though it wasn’t exactly the truth before he’d met her, “I’m partial to redheads, but I’ll keep an open mind where your colleagues are concerned.”

She should look happy at his easy acquiescence, but instead, her pretty mouth pinched, and the freckles on her nose stood out as she scrunched it up.

“Great,” she nodded, but it looked forced. “Now we should eat. I need to get back in time to do a last-minute run through of everything before my campers arrive tomorrow.”

Cisco figured that was an excuse. He’d only known Hilly for a few hours, total, but he already understood enough about her that she would have had everything ready to go for days. He’d let her off the hook. Sort of. He’d simply use the time he had to double up on his charm and see if she could eventually be worn down enough to give him a shot.

He couldn’t quite figure out why he was still interested in pursuing her when—despite saying she’d think about it—she looked like she wouldn’t be budging. Cisco had never been hurting for dates, and normally if someone rebuffed him, he took it good-naturedly and moved on. But Hilly… There was something compelling about her that checked all his boxes, and not only in a “get-her-naked” kind of way. There was an aura about her that felt comforting and familiar, like he’d met her in a previous life and liked what he remembered. Which was crazy. He was certain he’d never laid eyes on Hilly before he’d met her at camp.