Cross My Heart (A Contemporary Romance Novel)

briefly and opened them again. Smooth male skin, broad shoulders, and a powerful back tapering down to a taut waist, where his jeans rode low on his hips.
    Then he turned around and came back towards them.
    She’d known that his upper body was strong and defined, but seeing him like this, bare-skinned, was…wow. His abs were ripped, and it was impossible for the eye not to be drawn downward, following the V of his hipbones below the waistband of his jeans.
    Without thinking she flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head and leaned forward a little.
    “He works out a lot,” Claire said conversationally.
    Jenna froze. Then she put her sunglasses back on and cleared her throat.
    “Does he?” she asked, leaning back in the lounge chair and trying to sound unconcerned. She couldn’t believe she’d ogled the man in front of his daughter.
    “Yeah. There’s a gym at the hospital where he works. He can bench press, like, a million pounds.”
    She could believe it. But it was definitely time to change the subject.
    Luckily, she spotted her other neighbor coming across the lawn with a girl about Claire’s age.
    “Hi, there!” Mrs. Washington called out over the noise of the lawn mower. “I’ve got my granddaughter, Ellie, with me this week, and we wondered if Claire might like to come to the mall with us. We were planning to do a little shopping and then see a movie.”
    Jenna glanced at Claire. “What do you think?”
    “What movie are you going to see?” she asked. Jenna went into the kitchen for two more glasses, and by the time she came out Claire and the other girl were talking eagerly about a romantic comedy that had come out last week.
    “We’ve both already seen it but we totally want to see it again,” Claire said, turning to Jenna.
    Jenna poured out lemonade and handed glasses to the newcomers. “Why don’t you go check with your dad?”
    Claire ran to go talk to him, and Mrs. Washington put a hand over her eyes to watch them. “I don’t suppose you can send that man over to my house when you’re done with him?”
    “Your lawn looks perfect,” Jenna said in surprise.
    “Yes, but I could use a little eye candy. I may be sixty-five, but I’m not dead.”
    Jenna laughed, and Ellie groaned. “Grandma! Don’t say anything like that in front of Claire. You’ll embarrass me.”
    “Sorry, Ella Mae. I promise I’ll behave.”
    Claire came back, and the answer was yes. The three of them walked back to Mrs. Washington’s house, Claire and Ellie talking a mile a minute, and Jenna was left with hot sun, cold lemonade, and the delectable sight of Michael Stone mowing her lawn. And this time she could enjoy the view without worrying about the teenage girl sitting next to her.
    He finished half an hour later and turned off the mower. In the sudden quiet, Jenna could hear herself take a deep breath as he came across the lawn towards her. She hadn’t felt this kind of raw animal attraction since Derek, and that had been five years ago.
    And she wasn’t sure even that could compare with this.
    His torso was just…godlike. His brown hair was falling over his forehead. He was holding his white tee shirt in one hand, and as he stepped from the lawn to the patio he started to pull it on over his head.
    “Hold on,” she said. “Let me have that for a second, would you?”
    He looked surprised. “Sure,” he said, coming up beside her and handing her the shirt. It was warm and dry from the sun and smelled like new mown grass and clean male skin. She rolled it up and tucked it behind her neck, using it as a pillow as she reclined back on the lounge chair and grinned up at him.
    “I could have given you that, instead,” he said, pointing at the cushion on one of the patio chairs.
    “Sure, but this way I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’ve got a comfy headrest, and I’m keeping you shirtless.”
    She told herself there was no harm in a little flirting. She’d been clear last night she wasn’t in the market for a relationship. But as Michael sat down in the chair beside her and poured himself a glass of lemonade, she realized she wanted to do more than flirt with this man. A lot more.
    Then he looked back at her. “The least you could do is return the favor.”
    She raised an eyebrow. “You expect me to go shirtless? Dream on, my friend.”
    He grinned at her. “Okay, maybe not completely shirtless. But you could show me the tattoo on your back.”
    She pretended to think about it,