Penalty Clause Read Free Page B

with her that her marriage didn’t last. She even wondered if her inexperience in the bedroom before she married Jake had left her ill equipped to please him and keep him satisfied. Her head told her that was foolish. Jake was the one at fault for his behavior. In her head, she knew that. Her heart just had trouble believing it.
    Jill sat down on the rocker on the back porch and watched the snowfall and found herself thinking about the boy who used to visit his grandmother next door. She wondered where Andrew Weston had ended up. Though Andrew had been three years younger than her the last summer she’d spent here, Andrew’s attention had been hard to miss.
    Though flattering, his fifteen years to her eighteen stopped the adulation from going any further. Despite that, even then, Jill knew Andrew would grow up to be more than just good looking someday.
    Jill felt a shiver of excitement rush through her as she tried to imagine a grown up Andrew Weston paying that kind of attention to her. What had only been flattering in a cute, kid-next-door kind of way back then might be downright exciting now.
    With a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold, Jill called Rev, smiling as she watched her dog race back to her. She’d give anything to be as happy as that big, dumb dog. They walked back in the house together where Jill headed off for a restless night's sleep. Her dreams that night were heated and racy, filled with a grown up version of the boy next door, doing more than watching her as she lay by the swimming pool.
     

Chapter Four
    Andrew poured his coffee and walked over to the window of the carriage house to see how much snow had stuck to the ground the night before. He scratched his face as he went. He was sleeping in later while on leave from the office and had let the scruff on his chin grow longer.
    The snow had just dusted the ground and was already meltin g away in the mid-morning sun. But, Andrew was treated to another sight that was more welcoming than snow. Jill Walsh was back in her grandparents’ backyard. Andrew watched as she stretched up toward a tree limb. She hung what looked like a saltlick in a small metal frame mounted on the tree. Jill’s dog ran in circles around her as she walked across the huge backyard toward another tree. Andrew could make out one of the metal frames on that tree as well.
    Andrew laughed to himself as he watched her. Most people thought of the deer as pests that ate the flowers and shrubs but she was encouraging them to come visit her.
    What the hell? Might as well go say hey to pretty Jillie Walsh.
    Andrew drew a pair of threadbare jeans up over his hips and tossed a well-worn Yale sweatshirt over his t-shirt, then threw his feet into a pair of duck boots. He trotted downstairs without bothering to tie the laces of the boots. His grandmother’s yard connected with the Walsh’s by a fence in the main areas but toward the back, where the yards became more wooded, the fence ended and the two yards were open to one another. Andrew trotted around the back end of the fence and headed toward Jill.
    Before he reached her, Andrew was greeted by Jill’s dog, who ran up to Andrew as if the two of them were old friends. The dog jumped up with both paws on Andrew’s chest to land kisses on Andrew’s face.
    “Hey, boy,” Andrew said. He buried his hands in the curly fur to give the dog a good scratch before heading toward Jill.
    Jill was headed back toward the house so Andrew called out to her as he fell into an easy jog. “Jill! Welcome back.”
    Andrew watched as Jill turned toward him and squinted against the glare of the morning sun. She hesitated before returning his greeting. The dog ran back and forth between Jill and Andrew, bouncing as if he couldn’t wait for them to meet up in the middle.
    “Andrew? Wow, is that really you?” Jill asked.
    “Yeah. I heard you were back in town. Saw you out here and thought I’d say hi before breakfast,” Andrew explained as he