Love So Unexpected (The Lawson Brothers Book 6) by Marquita Valentine

dipping?”
    His blue eyes turned dark. “Sometimes a body gets too hot and dusty not to.”
    That was so not what she needed to hear, because all she could imagine now was his bare body in the sun, the water rolling off him as he marched out of the pond and came to her.
    Instead of replying, she got out of the truck and walked around. Caleb joined her, yet still kept his distance. She didn’t like that at all. A piece of fruit had never been as forbidden to a woman as Caleb Lawson.
    Unable to take it any longer, she blurted, “Is there a reason you haven’t asked me to dinner again?”
    His brows drew together. “You asked me out, remember? I was waiting on the day and time.”
    “I what? Oh ... make you dinner.” Wincing, she rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t think of that. Honestly, I’m not sure how I’d go about it. I can’t entertain you in your parents’ home.”
    He rubbed a thumb across his bottom lip. “What about my home?”
    “You have a home?”
    “I don’t live with the cows, honey.”
    Why did he make the endearment sound so good while making her sound so silly? Normally, she’d tell a man off for calling her that. “Didn’t think you did.”
    She hadn’t thought of where he lived at all. Mostly, she assumed he lived in the apartment on the second floor of the barn. Dinah had mentioned it in passing while they were searching for an extra water hose.
    “You did.”
    “Maybe I thought you lived in the barn,” she admitted, sitting down on the fallen log.
    After a beat or two, he came to stand beside her. “Mind if I join you?”
    “You don’t have to ask,” she replied, but she patted the space beside her anyway.
    He sat, the nearness of him pure pleasure to her senses. “I know.”
    “But you did anyway.”
    “A gentleman is always considerate of others.” He leaned over a little and picked up a few rocks, then sent them skipping one by one across the surface of the pond. “Any luck with the job search?”
    “No, but that’s totally due to a lack of trying.” She picked up her own rock and chucked it at the water. “It’s hard to balance paying back your parents and finding time to go in search of one. The truck helps.”
    He handed her a pebble. “Try this one. Light and smoother. Flick it with your wrist at an angle.”
    She turned the small rock over and over in her hand. “Are you trying to distract me.”
    “And if I were?” He turned to her, his mouth so close she could kiss him, if she wanted. Oh good Lord, she wanted to, so badly.
    You can’t.
    Why not? His mouth is entirely kissable.
    Because Caleb is never leaving this farm, and you have other plans.
    At the last minute, she drew back. A glimmer of disappointment flashed in his eyes.
    “Then I’d say you’re doing a good job of it, but I really have to find a job, Caleb. I need to start saving again so I can pay your parents back and get down to Roswell,” she reminded them both. She needed the constant reminder.
    Jessamine was already becoming too much like home to her.
    He stretched out his legs in front of them. “Why are you in such a hurry? If my parents couldn’t afford to have you stay with them, then my mother wouldn’t have brought you home.”
    She gave him a skeptical look. “Yes, they would have, and you know it.”
    Holding up his hands in surrender, he smiled. “You got me there, but the thing is, they can afford it. Take your time, Sofia. Enjoy life while you’re here.”
    “You’re saying that because you want me to cook dinner for you.” She elbowed him lightly in the side.
    “I am a transparent man.” He bit the side of his lip, then tilted his head. “I’m glad you’re here, even if it’s just a temporary thing.”
    “You say temporary like it’s a bad word or something,” she said and laughed.
    His hot gaze ran over her. “In this case it is.”
    Caleb inwardly punched himself. Judging by the look on Sofia’s face, he shouldn’t have admitted how much he wanted her to