Free Wrecked (Stories of Serendipity #8): #8 by Anne Conley Page A

sprinted towards the greenhouse. They probably wouldn’t go back there, as it was too small for a wheel chair to fit in between the plants. She managed to get inside, hopefully without being seen running full-tilt across the yard. If they were walking slowly, they wouldn’t have seen her.
    Hands on her knees, Renae took in gulps of air, trying to calm her racing heart. If sprinting across a yard did this to her, she really needed to start working out. The idea flitted across her racing mind as a possibility of an alone time activity as she immediately ducked down further out of sight.
    He was here. She needed to talk to him, and all of her reasons for not calling him fled her mind like remnants of a dream upon waking. She couldn’t remember why she hadn’t called him to tell him he was a father. Now wasn’t the time, she hadn’t seen him in a month, hadn’t returned his calls. She couldn’t just throw it at him out of the blue now. That would be awkward. Who was she kidding? It would be awkward anyway.
    She was sitting cross-legged on the ground behind a bench of tomato plants, still trying to calm her ragged breathing when she heard the greenhouse door open.
    “Renae? I saw you come in here.” His smooth deep voice washed over her, sending prickly goose bumps over her flesh, even inside the warmth of the greenhouse. She inhaled sharply, attempting to hold her breath. “I heard that.” His tone of voice was mocking as if he were laughing at her. “Come on out,” he coaxed. “It can’t be too hard to find you in here.” She heard boot steps crunching on the pea gravel Jessie had covered the ground with as he walked further into the greenhouse, coming closer to her hiding spot. “Why are you hiding?” His delicious voice was close now, and childishly, she put her face between her knees in an ‘I can’t see you, so you can’t see me’ move.
    She heard a rustling next to her and looked over to find him sitting cross-legged beside her, his blue eyes piercing her with questions. He didn’t say anything else, just watched her.
    Renae was trapped. She felt stupid for hiding from him in the first place. It was a cowardly move, an attempt to not have to face him, to talk to him. Even now, with him two feet away from her, his body heat reached over and caressed her skin, making it difficult to think, much less say anything, certainly not anything meaningful.
    “I thought you went back to Houston.” She didn’t mean for it to, but her voice sounded accusatory, and Jason flinched.
    “Is that why you didn’t call me back?” He rubbed his hands on his thighs, and Renae’s eyes were drawn to the motion, watching the denim material cling to the muscles there. “Dad had more problems than I realized, and I stayed. I’m working on some things for him, trying to get his shop back in shape and figuring out what to do with him. I’ll be here a while.”
    How long would a while be? A month? A year? What was she supposed to say to that?
    “I’m sorry your dad’s not doing well.” Her fingers idly traced patterns in the pea gravel floor while she avoided his eyes.
    “Yeah, me too. I’m also sorry you never called me back. I had a great time with you that night.”
    “About that…” Renae found herself fidgeting with the hem of her own t-shirt. “I’m afraid you got the wrong impression of me. I don’t typically go out and do stuff like that. I’m not—”
    “You don’t go out and have a good time? You don’t like meeting interesting people who you connect with?” She looked up at him then, and the edges if his eyes crinkled with mirth.
    Heat flamed her face. “It’s not that, it’s just… I don’t sleep with people I’ve just met. I don’t know what happened that night, and I’m sorry, I just can’t do it like that again.”
    Jason reached out like he wanted to touch her, but stopped himself and Renae found she wanted to be touched. Ached for it. A pent up breath she didn’t know she was