A Date with Desire

by Heather McGovern

  Anna shifted on her feet and Dev finally lifted his chin enough to look at her. Her eyes shone as she pinched her lips tight.

  “That’s . . .” Miller cleared his throat. “That means a lot, actually.”

  Dev’s gaze spun back to him. It did?

  “I appreciate you coming in here and finally talking to me.”

  He took his hands from his pockets and nodded, wishing he knew how to follow up with something more.

  Miller scratched the side of his face before settling his hands near his belt. “You know, I got some money, a couple of years back. A cashier’s check showed up in our post office box. The exact same amount as our insurance claim for the damage you did. Always figured it was your brother, but when I asked him about it, he looked at me like I was crazy.”

  Dev wanted to run. Possibly vomit. Anything but stand here and do this. Yet he had to. This was what people did when they gave a shit. They didn’t drink their problems away, they didn’t throw fits. They stood up and faced reality.

  “It was you,” Miller said.

  He wasn’t asking, and Dev couldn’t answer. It’d taken him almost a year to save up the money, but he had. And he didn’t want to talk about it.

  “You were a kid back then, I realize that. We all mess up, every single one of us, and sometimes it takes a long time to grow up. But I think you have, and . . . I accept your apology.”

  He studied Miller, but there was no anger or bitterness. Just a man who looked satisfied, a trace of hope lighting his face. Dev fought not to slump under the weight of relief.

  “There is something you can do though, to make up for breaking into my place all those years ago.”

  “Of course. Name it. I’d be happy to.”

  “Pull off bringing the Blueberry Festival back, like I heard you’re trying to do.”

  Anna’s mouth fell open, but she quickly closed it. “How did—” She looked at Dev, then Mr. Miller. “How did you know we were trying to bring back the festival?”

  Miller laughed, because to locals like the two of them, the how was obvious.

  “I got a call about an hour ago from Della Maldonado. She told me you two were going around, seeing who’d be interested in the festival starting up again, because she knows I always loved that festival. I’ve done some of my best business then, because summer is prime fishing and tourist time. I never did understand why they canceled the thing.”

  Dev didn’t either, especially now that he saw how excited the locals were at the prospect of its return, and all the promising income.

  Given Crawford’s less than enthusiastic response to Honeywilde’s offer to help, and what the businesses said they were being charged, he got the feeling that canceling the festival had nothing to do with good business sense and everything to do with covering the tourism office’s ass.

  “I’m going to do everything I can to bring it back,” he promised, and some of the pressure left his chest.

  “Good. See that you do.”

  Miller left and reappeared with his checkbook, his daughter studying them all.

  “Jake always said that you guys getting busted in that church was what scared him straight.” Miller glanced up from his writing.

  Dev cringed. One bomb of truth from his past was enough. Anna didn’t need to get hit with another one.

  “Good. Tell him I said hello.” Dev tried changing the direction of the conversation.

  Mr. Miller stopped writing. “He finally fessed up that breaking into that old church was actually his idea. Just you were the one ballsy or crazy enough to go through with it.”

  Crazy sounded about right. Crazy. Careless. At seventeen, he’d lost most regard for his well-being. If his own parents didn’t give a damn, why should he?

  He remembered thinking to hell with it. Not like he was going to get in much trouble back home. Maybe if he got sent to juvie, his parents would pull their heads out of their asses. Realize they had four kids who needed them.

  He wouldn’t justify his actions as a cry for help. There’d been no crying because by then he was furious.

  Mad that Trevor was always so quiet. Angry that Sophie still tried to please their folks by trying to be perfect. Pissed off beyond reason that Roark up and left them and went to college.

  The knot was back in his chest.

  He’d made his apologies, and now he wanted to get the hell out of there. He shot a glance at Anna, finding her wide-eyed again. Shell-shocked.

  Who wouldn’t be?

  “Did you know they fixed that place up last year? Some contemporary church meets there.”

  Dev did know, but he did his best not to think about that place or how he’d trashed it.

  Miller went back to writing his check, and Dev silently willed him to stop talking—thank god.

  “Anything else I can do to help, just yell.” He passed over the check.

  “I will. Thank you.” Dev shook the man’s hand and got the hell out of Miller’s store, the weight of their past a little lighter, but the weight of Anna’s stare twice as heavy.

  Chapter 14

  She couldn’t stop staring.

  Dev kept his eyes on the road, but he had to know she watched him.

  “What?” he finally asked, after ten minutes of driving in silence.

  “You broke into a church?”

  He didn’t look at her, but the sound he made was pained, gruff. After a few minutes of silence, he pulled to the side of the road again, this time into a gravel parking lot, right outside of town.

  “I didn’t want you to hear about that. It’s—” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit. I screwed up a lot as a kid, okay? That’s it.”

  But that wasn’t it.

  The set to his jaw as he’d apologized to Miller, the slight tremor in his voice as he’d powered through, the moment was unlike anything Anna ever witnessed.

  There was no that’s it, like their interaction was a simple moment, Dev’s past something he could shrug away.

  Sure, he attempted to shrug it away all the time. Every time the topic came up.

  Obviously he didn’t want to talk about his past, no matter how much she itched to know.

  She had no right to be so curious. Whatever he’d done, whatever he’d gone through, a woman he’d only know a few days had no business prying. But still, she wanted to know more. She wanted to know Dev.

  “Do you . . . do you want to talk about it?”

  “No.” He stared straight ahead, his answer quick and certain.

  “Okay.”

  “I . . . sorry.” His chin fell. “That came across rude. I just don’t want to relive it and, trust me, you don’t want to hear it.”

  Wrong. But she wouldn’t push. Not today anyway.

  “Then what if we talk about all this money sitting in my lap?” She lifted the bag and gave him a smile.

  Please make it wipe the heavy frown from his face.

  Dev twisted his grip on the steering wheel, working his jaw. “That part was pretty good, huh?”

  She turned in her seat. “That part is wonderful. We have almost eight hundred dollars in deposits, and you’re going to make this festival happen.”

  Today was a triumph. And, while some of the news was shocking, she’d learned a little more about Dev. If most of his past was shocking, if he was a screwup like he claimed, the man sitting beside her now wasn’t.

  Dev tried, and he cared; enough to lead this festival, enough to listen to her, and enough to feel bad about whatever he’d done years ago.

  “I still have to get my brother to agree, and then I need to figure out the rest of the details.” Dev squinted out the window. “All in a little over a month.”

  “You’ll do it. After today, any trace of doubt I had is gone. This is going to be great. For everyone.”

  He glanced over, eyes wide before he blinked. “Your faith is . . . I appreciate it. I appreciate everything you’ve done. I mean that.”

  “You’re welcome. We should cel
ebrate.” Something to lift the mood. They’d been successful; that deserved smiles and laughs and . . . other things.

  “I have the perfect way to celebrate.”

  She bet he did.

  “Tubin’.”

  That was not the other thing she had in mind.

  She flopped her head back on the seat. “Tubing. Are you sure?”

  “Never been surer. After all that, I need the fresh air. The rush. It’s tubing or white-water rafting.”

  “What about a candlelit meal?”

  “We’ll do that too, promise. But right now, I have to get out and away from . . .” He waved his hands, indicating what might be the whole world. “This. And it’s your turn to do some vacationing. We can swing by Honeywilde, change, and be gone in ten minutes.”

  She made a big show of rolling her eyes and groaning, but she was still smiling. “Fine. What does one change into for tubing?”

  With a cagey shrug, he put the SUV in drive and pulled out of the lot. “Doesn’t matter, really. Old tennis shoes or sandals that strap. Bathing suit or T-shirt with cutoffs. Bathing suit under cutoffs.”

  “Cut offs? I’m afraid I don’t own any cut offs.”

  “Cut. Offs.” Devlin mimicked her clipped speech. “What about shorts? You brought some, right? Somewhere in your two suitcases.”

  This time she rolled her eyes for real. Plenty of wonderful things were packed in her suitcases; things that flattered and complimented her figure.

  Shorts were the kind of thing no one saw her in. Not with her thighs. She wore them around the cabin and that was it.

  “I might have some old jeans.”

  “You cannot wear jeans tubin’. It’s shorts or a bathing suit.”

  The self-control it took her not to huff and pout ought to be admired by somebody. A bathing suit while tubing was worse. Shorts it’d have to be.

  God help her. If the river didn’t kill her, the embarrassment would.

  * * *

  Her black one-piece and a pair of black shorts were all she could pull together to go “tubin’.”

  She supposed the outfit was decent enough for the activity. And if Dev could face Mr. Miller, she could face leaving the house in shorts.

  Dev pulled up to her cabin and hopped out, waving at her to hurry into the SUV before anyone saw him there.

  With her purse in one hand and sunglasses in the other, she rushed down the stairs, not meeting his gaze.

  But when he climbed into the driver side, Dev made a noise that could only be described politely, as a grunt.

  “What, uh?” She dared to look over.

  Lust. Unabashed and bold, written all over his face. “Damn. You should wear shorts more often.”

  “My legs are huge.” She crossed her arms over her thighs, flames taking over her neck.

  “Your legs are hot as hell.” He shooed her arms away.

  “I’m glad you think so, because you’re going to get a whole bunch of them today. Try not to let the whiteness blind you.”

  His chuckle was dark, naughty. “That won’t be what blinds me.”

  They managed to make their way to the “put in” spot without her neck burning up completely.

  “All you need is yourself and sunglasses, and I brought sunscreen in case you don’t have any.” Dev put her bag in the back and locked it up. “Trevor used to work the river in the summers and he’d come home fried to a crisp. Easy to forget you’re baking when the water is cold.”

  “How cold are we talking?”

  “Eh, it’s almost June, so not bad right now. Better in August, but still tolerable.”

  Tolerably cold water did not sound like fun, especially to someone as cold-natured as her. This whole tubing thing in general was extremely questionable—from her big white legs, the backwoods location, gravel parking lot, to the hairy bearded fellows running the little shack that held all the banana-yellow tubes.

  Then Dev reached behind his head and tugged his shirt off.

  He kept doing that, and it kept getting better. Tubing was now the best activity she’d ever participated in.

  “I’ll spray your back and then you spray mine?” he asked.

  “Uh-huh.” Her head bobbing in a nonstop nod, she turned around.

  The first blast of sunscreen hit her, cold and wet, and she jumped, but his hands were warm and strong, rubbing in the lotion with the same capable touch of his massage.

  She let her head fall forward, a little hum of appreciation escaping.

  Behind her, Dev snickered. “You better stop that,” he whispered, smoothing his hands down her arms. “Noises like that will wind up with us in the backseat again, and here we have an audience.”

  She peeked through her hair at the bearded trio, already checking them out.

  “Here.” Dev stuck the can in her hand. “My turn.”

  He turned and she sprayed, rubbing the layer of sunscreen in, even though the can expressly stated “no rubbing required.”

  What did that can know about anything?

  The smooth skin of Dev’s back held the same golden color as the rest of him. The tan of someone who worked outside but took precautions, and probably darkened evenly and beautifully by the lake in the summer.

  Meanwhile she was white as a sheet, and would only ever burn, peel, and start again.

  Somewhere around his shoulders, she got lost in the fascinating firm roll of muscle, until Dev turned and took the can from her. “I think that’s good. Beard-boys over there are starting to stare.”

  He led the way to said boys, all three of them smiling like salesmen. Salesmen who’d moved to the mountains, lost their razors, and tossed out their scissors.

  “Y’all picked a great afternoon for tubing,” the tallest one said.

  “Counting on it.” Dev paid the guy and grabbed two bright yellow tubes. He started toward the stairs that led out to the riverbank, leaving Anna to smile and wave awkwardly as she passed the river guides.

  “Don’t mind them,” Dev said as they neared the water. “They’re harmless. Just admiring the view and too young to know how to be smooth about it.”

  “What view?”

  “The view of you.”

  Her neck warmed, tiny hot feet dancing their way across her skin, but she didn’t bother fanning or trying to hide the flush. Dev liked it, and he knew compliments brought the color on. That’s probably why he did it.

  “Here’s the deal. Keep your shoes on, because of river rocks. I’ll tether our tubes together, and take them out toward the middle. All you have to do is hop on.”

  All she had to do? Walk out into a raging river, almost waist deep, and hoist herself up onto a big yellow tube. Without looking a fool.

  And okay, maybe the river wasn’t raging, but the water was no lazy river either.

  Dev stepped into the water, with a little shiver.

  Not a good sign.

  He kept going until he neared the midpoint, and waved her toward him.

  Taking a moment, she said a silent prayer.

  Don’t fall off the tube, don’t drown, don’t die, don’t accidentally flash a boob at a stranger while falling off the tube and trying not to drown.

  Stepping into the river was like stepping into an ice bucket. Anna let go with a yelp and a string of muttered almost-profanity.

  Devlin, already in the water up to his calves, laughed.

  “Not helpful,” she yelled.

  “It is not that cold.”

  “It is exactly that cold.”

  “If you keep moving around, you’ll get used to it.”

  “Why can’t we get on the tubes over here?”

  “If you sit in shallow water you won’t go anywhere.”

  Not going anywhere sounded great.

  “Your butt will drag the bottom.”

  That did not sound great.

  Dev bounced in the deeper water as though the best things in life were found downriver. He slapped the yellow tubes down, kept them from getting swept away
with one hand, and waved her over with the other.

  If he was this excited, surely there was good reason. She could have a little faith and give this a try.

  Maybe.

  Dev was laughing again.

  “You’re having way too much fun with this.”

  “You will too if you’ll come on.”

  Doubtful, she gritted her teeth and edged deeper, one millimeter at a time.

  “It’s going to be August at this rate.”

  “Shush. You said I’d enjoy this. I’m not enjoying it yet. I will go as slowly as I want.”

  “You will enjoy it when we’re actually tubing. All you’re doing is torturing yourself with the slowest river entry known to man.”

  He pretended to nod off as she finally made it to his side. She was tempted to splash him, but she wasn’t willing to suffer through any possible retaliation.

  Dev opened his eyes. “Oh, you made it. Good for you.”

  “Smart aleck,” she mumbled.

  “Move your legs like you’re running in place.” He demonstrated and she stared at him like the crazy person he was. “If you don’t want to be cold, you have to do this.”

  “Fine.” She ran in place, feeling like a doofus, but slowly her limbs went from cool numbness to tingling with energy.

  “I tethered our tubes together. Go ahead and hop on,” Dev instructed.

  She kept running. “Say again.”

  “I tied our tubes together since this is your first time.”

  That part, she understood. Hopping was what she had questions about. Girls with hips and butts and thighs her size didn’t simply hop up on things. She’d make a show of herself for sure.

  “Hop on up. I’ll hold the tube, I promise.”

  Still she hesitated, but Dev looked so sincere. Reflecting a crystal clear need to be relied upon, his eyes alone were enough to make her set pride aside and go for it.

  “Okay. Here we go.” She announced the launch to herself as much as him. “I’m hopping.”

  A hand on either side of the tube, she half hopped, half fell onto the tube. “I’m hopping. Oh my god, so much hopping.” Wriggling and bouncing around, she got turned over, butt centered in the tube, legs dangling over the side.

  The display had to be something akin to a sea lion waddling across the beach and stumbling into an inner tube, but when she looked up, Devlin’s smile was not one of humor.