All of Me

by Jennifer Bernard

  Wiping away that stupid tear, she plucked out her phone. She should call Mayor Trent and let her know what Burwell Brown had said. But her finger wavered over the list of phone numbers, somehow, on their own, finding Caleb’s.

  Caleb, with whom she’d talked on the phone nearly every day for the past week. Caleb, who spoke like a grown man, not a spoiled boy. Caleb, who only had to answer the phone to send excited tingles shooting to her belly.

  He was probably busy pitching, or working out, or on the team bus, and she’d have to leave a message. Still, she stared at his number, longing to hear his voice. Talking to him made her feel good, that’s all there was to it. It honestly seemed as if they’d developed a real friendship. Friendship, nothing more, even though they sometimes strayed into flirtation. Well, more than sometimes. Still, this was just a project. Business. Save Our Slugs. It was safe. Perfectly safe.

  She pressed his number.

  “I was just thinking about you,” he answered in that deep, rugged, sexy voice—the voice of a man who knew how to spin a girl around a dance floor and make her melt in his arms.

  “Really?” she said faintly. The slugs. Focus on the slugs. “I have good news.”

  “Great. You can tell me over dinner. We just pulled up to the stadium.”

  “Oh. Well . . . uh . . .” Dinner sounded too much like a date. And someone might see them; she didn’t want word getting back to Hamilton. She had to keep this safe. Focus on the slugs. “How about if I show you the slugs’ habitat?”

  “The slugs’ habitat,” he repeated.

  “Sure. You probably want to know all about the slugs, since you’re going to be dedicating yourself to their survival.”

  “Good point. All right. You’re on. Bring on the slug habitat. Where should I meet you?”

  “Can you go now? I’ll pick you up.”

  “Sure thing.” He still sounded a little bemused. The corners of her mouth quivered.

  “Oh, and make sure to bring swimming trunks.”

  A pause. “Does that mean you’ll bring a bikini?’

  “I guess you’ll find out. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  She grinned as she ended the call. It was her turn to tease the unflappable Caleb Hart.

  Swimming trunks. Now that was more like it. If the slugs’ habitat included a girl in a swimsuit, he was all for it.

  At the stadium, the usual gathering of wives, girlfriends, and baseball groupies waited in the parking lot. As Caleb scanned the crowd, he got a shock. Bingo stood off to the side, hands in his pockets, a jaunty smile on his face.

  He nearly fell off the bus in his rush to get over there. “What are you doing here?” Grabbing Bingo’s elbow, he spun him around toward the parking lot. “I told you to stay away from the ballpark.”

  “I missed you, son. I thought we could go grab a bite.”

  “How did you even get here?”

  “Took the number seven bus, then walked a mile.”

  “Bingo . . .” He checked back over his shoulder, but the team was already dispersing and no one was paying any attention to him. “Nice thought, but I have plans. You should have called.”

  “You never answer my calls.”

  “It’s a road trip. I’ve been busy.”

  “When you’re home you’re busy, when you’re away you’re busy.” Bingo pulled his sad face, and for a moment Caleb got tugged in. His father must be lonely. He didn’t know anyone in Kilby. Then he hardened his heart. It was a damn good thing Bingo didn’t know anyone in Kilby, or he’d get up to his old tricks. And he’d warned Bingo that he couldn’t babysit him; he’d offered him a place to live rent-free while he looked for a job. That was as far as it went.

  “Yeah, well, I’m trying to revive my goddamn baseball career. It takes a lot of my attention.”

  “But . . . I could help. If we talked more, maybe I could understand more about baseball, and—”

  “I really appreciate the thought. I do. But you should have called first. I’ll see you back at—”

  “Hi Caleb.” He spun around. Sadie stood right behind him, out of breath, as if she’d dashed across the parking lot looking for him. With her bright eyes and smile, her presence felt like a fresh breeze in the desert. “I was afraid I’d missed you.”

  “Nope. Still here.” He gave her a tense smile, trying to think of a way he could avoid introducing her to Bingo.

  Too late. Bingo stuck out his hand. “Hi there, pretty girl. I’m Bingo, Caleb’s father.”

  “Bingo,” Sadie repeated with a faint smile. “I like that. I’m Sadie.” She glanced in Caleb’s direction. “Should we do this another time? The slugs can wait. They’re not going anywhere very fast.”

  “No. This is the perfect time. We don’t want them to go extinct on us, do we?” He dug out his car keys and tossed them to his dad. “You can drive the Jeep back. I’ll see you later.”

  Bingo’s crestfallen expression made him want to scream. He wished he could block it from Sadie’s sight, because a soft-hearted thing like her would be guaranteed to fall for it.

  Sure enough, “I promise I won’t keep him long,” she assured Bingo.

  Caleb hustled her away, guiding her so quickly across the lot that she nearly stumbled.

  “What the heck?” she protested.

  “I missed you. We haven’t talked in nearly a full day. I need my Sadie fix.”

  Despite her skeptical snort, she allowed him to drag her to her Corolla. Caleb had to push the passenger seat all the way back, and even so, his knees pressed against the dashboard. For a while they drove in silence.

  “Want to tell me why you needed rescuing from your father?” Sadie asked as they cruised through town.

  “Nope.”

  She shot him a narrow-eyed look but didn’t pursue it.

  “And by the way, it’s damn good to see you, Sadie.” She had no idea how good. After all their phone conversations, they’d gotten sort of cozy with each other, but being with her was about a thousand times better. She looked like a long-legged tomboy in denim cutoffs and a tight red T-shirt. He turned the full force of his widest grin on her, and saw her creamy cheeks turn pink.

  “I gotta tell you, I really like the way you wear the color red,” he told her. “Like those cowboy boots the first day I saw you.”

  “I can’t believe you remember my boots.”

  “I remember everything. I told you.”

  She colored even more, until she practically matched her shirt.

  Oh yeah, rattling Sadie was the best possible way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

  After about a fifteen minute drive, at the outskirts of town she pulled onto a gravel road that wound through a grove of tender-leaved river birches. The big Texas sky arching overhead, and a few late season bluebells scattered along the roadside, made Caleb feel, for the first time in a while, that he could take a deep, free breath. Soon the road petered out at the shore of a small, brownish lake.

  “Slug home base?” he asked Sadie.

  “This is it. One of the few remaining spots you can find horn-toed slugs. Of course, most people come here to fish. If only slugs were more fun to fish for,” she added thoughtfully. “That’s the problem with slugs. They don’t really do much. And you wouldn’t exactly call them cute.”

  “That’s why you’re bringing in the ballplayers.” He winked. “According to the girls, we’re a bunch of cutie patooties.”

  She rolled her eyes and got out of the car. He followed, strolling to the shore, where gentle little waves pitter-pattered against the muddy margin. Slimy, neon-green algae coated the gravel, and a stench of rotting vegetation wafted toward them. Caleb gazed at the unappetizing shoreline. “Uh . . . you were joking about the swimming trunks, weren’t you?”

  “What? Too icky for the big strong ballplayer?” Her eyes danced.

  He looked from her to the murky lake, which looked more unappealing by the second.

  She burst out laughing. “Sorry to get your hopes up.
Believe it or not, you can swim in this lake. But unless you grew up here, it’s probably too gross for you. Anyway, the slugs live along the shore, not in the water.”

  He gazed at the lake. Damn. He’d really been looking forward to that bikini. A devil’s impulse seized him. “Well, it’s just as well that I don’t have any swimming trunks.”

  She quirked an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

  “I prefer skinny-dipping.” And he ripped off his Catfish T-shirt in one smooth movement. The warm air felt good against his bare chest.

  “What?” Her gasp was loud enough to wake up a few doves roosting in the river birches. He laughed and put his hands to the waistband of his jeans.

  Chapter 7

  “YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS.” Her voice came out kind of breathless—no surprise, since she suddenly had a hard time drawing a breath.

  “Serious as a clambake.” Caleb unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down his thighs. His incredibly muscular, powerful, golden-haired thighs. Underneath, he wore gray briefs that nestled against the taut muscles of his rear like a needy girlfriend. “But you don’t have to watch.”

  He winked at her, or at least she imagined he did. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his body long enough to find out. Lord almighty, those chest and arm muscles, tightening and stretching under all that tan, firm skin. And what about that ridge of pure iron that ran down his side, from his underarm to his hip. What was that called?

  “Turn away, and I’ll be underwater before you know it.”

  “Okay,” she squeaked. It was rude to stare. But what were you supposed to do when someone started taking off his clothes right in front of you? Someone who looked like a Greek sculpture stepping out of his jeans? Since he was turned to the side, she couldn’t really get a good look at the front of his . . . Good grief, what was she doing? She spun around so she was staring at the trunk of a river birch instead of the underwear of a Catfish pitcher.

  She heard a few squishy footfalls, then a big splash and a “Whoop-whoop.”

  “You should come in,” he called out to her. “It’s refreshing, in a putrid kind of way. You sure it’s safe?”

  Peeking over her shoulder, Sadie saw him backstroking through the brown lake water as if it were the pristine Caribbean ocean.

  “Now you ask me? Yeah, it’s safe. It gets tested all the time because so many people fish here.” She stepped closer to the edge, then bent to take her sneakers off before they got too muddy.

  “Come on, Sadie. Live a little,” he called. “Come swimming with me.”

  “Are you really naked?”

  “Come and find out,” he teased. He shook his wet hair away from his eyes, which shone with a wild blue light. “I dare you.”

  “I haven’t swum here since junior high.”

  “Why should kids get all the fun? Come on.” He splashed water at her, and she jumped back, nearly tripping over his pile of clothes, which, she noticed right away, didn’t include his briefs. He must still be wearing those, the sneaky bastard.

  “You tricked me,” she called. “You’re going to pay for that. Turn around!”

  “Nope.” Eyes glittering, he kept his gaze fixed on her. “Scaredy-cat.”

  “Fine, but I’m keeping my underwear on too.”

  “I’ll take whatever I can get.”

  Oh, that deep, teasing note in his voice was so . . . irresistible. Just to check, she pulled out the waistband of her cutoffs. If she was wearing her backup underwear, the ripped pair she’d been vowing to throw out, no way was she stripping down. Fortunately, she’d put on her favorite light blue boy-cut panties.

  Before she could lose her nerve, she unsnapped her cutoffs and stripped them off. Caleb gave a wolf whistle from his spot in the lake. “Keep going,” he called. “You don’t want to get that shirt all wet, do you?”

  She made a face at him, then teasingly pulled off her tank top. Her bra didn’t match her panties, but at least it wasn’t a total disgrace. It actually fit, with no loose straps, and it even pushed her boobs together for a little cleavage.

  “Ah yeah,” Caleb catcalled. “You make slug-hunting look gooood. Anything else?” he added hopefully.

  “No! Now scoot over.”

  “Oh no. I’m a gentleman, I’m all about helping the ladies out. May I?” He waded to shore, water streaming off him, his briefs clinging to every impressive inch of his middle section. She made herself stare higher, at his broad chest and those magnificent shoulder muscles.

  He held out his hand with a bow. Like a duchess, she laid her hand in his. Bad move. Next thing she knew, she was being whisked through the air and spun into the deliciously cool water.

  The two of them splashed in, getting all tangled up together. Caleb’s firm grip on her never wavered, and she clung to his mighty shoulders, spluttering and coughing to get the water out of her eyes.

  “Sorry about that,” he murmured in her ear. “Slipped on the mud.”

  “Yeah right.”

  “Or maybe it was a slug.” He had her scooped against his hard chest as if she were a babe in arms. Against her hip, she felt the nudge of something rising from his midsection.

  She laughed up at him. “There’s either a fish poking me, or, um . . .”

  “That would be an ‘or . . . um.’ ” He grinned at her. “What do you expect when you strip off all your clothes and jump into my arms?”

  Strip off all her clothes . . . Good Lord, she’d just stripped down to her underwear in front of a man for the first time since the Hamilton Disaster. And she hadn’t thought about that stupid tape once.

  Caleb made her lose her head, plain and simple.

  She rested her forehead against his chest, amazed all over again by the firmness of his toughened muscles. The heat of his body contrasted with the cool water in the most heavenly way. “Maybe I didn’t think this all the way through.”

  “Are you telling me a dumb baseball player got the better of a brilliant future law student? Nah.” He bent his head so he could nuzzle her hair. “You smell nice. Like water lilies.”

  She smelled hot man, mixed with lake water and sun-baked mesquite. Somehow they’d drifted away from the gravelly edge, so the stench of mud wasn’t as prominent. She felt so dreamy and secure, held tight in Caleb’s arms as they floated aimlessly in the lake.

  “I used to come here with my father when he was in town,” she told him. “We’d bring a little rowboat and cast a line. Sit for hours, just drifting and fishing. I never got bored. I thought it was heaven.” She tilted her head back so it rested on his shoulder. “You like to fish?”

  “Never really fished much. But I must be a natural, because I caught myself a nice one.” He grinned down at her, the light reflected off the lake water turning his eyes a soft, clear blue. Sun glinted in his hair, spangled with crystal drops of water. He really was a remarkably beautiful man. Everything seemed to still while she soaked in the details of his powerful physique, his rawboned handsomeness, the flash of vulnerability in his eyes.

  She could really lose herself in him. Completely and utterly. Never before had she felt anything close to that.

  “Dream on,” she told him, and flipped out of his arms. She dove under the surface, letting the slide of water through her hair and across her body wash away the effects of that alarming moment.

  She’d always loved to swim, and it took only a few moments to put distance between herself and Caleb. But he wasn’t a professional athlete for nothing, and within moments he was splashing in her wake.

  She dove deeper, down to the muddy bottom, then veered in a different direction. When she surfaced, he was swimming the opposite way. She let out a hoot of laughter. “Where are you going, Catfish?”

  “Nice move, Sadie. But I don’t give up easy.” He spun around and butterfly stroked after her, churning the surface with his wheeling arms. After a taunting laugh, she filled her lungs with air and slipped underwater again, swimming this way and that, like a fish. Much as she loved to sw
im, she hadn’t done it in years, except when she swam laps in the on-campus pool. But this was an entirely different kind of swimming, free and wild. In her delight at being in the water, she lost track of Caleb’s location, and when she surfaced, gasping, he was only a few strokes away.

  Shrieking with breathless laughter, she flung herself backward, as if onto a watery couch. He grabbed an ankle, and she flipped to her stomach, kicking hard. But it was no use; she felt herself being inexorably pulled toward him, his wonderfully big hands reeling her in.

  And then there she was, snuggled against his chest again. It rose and fell with his rapid breaths. “There, that’s better,” he said with satisfaction, the words rumbling against her ear. “I kinda like this whole fishing thing.”

  “No fair, I got distracted,” she protested, turning her body in the circle of his arms so she could see his face. Water streamed from his hair, down his neck to his wide shoulders. His eyelashes clung together, so his eyes looked bluer than ever. “I’d forgotten how much I love swimming in this lake.”

  “It’s starting to grow on me too. Or at least something is. Hope it’s not that green stuff.”

  She giggled, and then, as a grin split his face, started laughing. As he watched her something shifted in his expression. His goofy smile vanished, replaced by an intent, hungry look. His head lowered, eyes glittering. The rest of the world receded, so only his face remained, coming closer and closer to hers, his mouth reaching for her . . .

  Oh wow. He was going to kiss her.

  And then he was kissing her. His lips burned against hers, sending pure shock throughout her body. Kisses didn’t feel like that. They didn’t turn your lips to fire, they didn’t liquefy your lungs so you could barely breathe. They didn’t make you dizzy.

  She pulled away with a gasp, still in his embrace, their faces close enough so she felt his quickened breathing. Caleb looked just as stunned as she felt, his eyes gone dark and gray as a hurricane. For a long moment the two of them just stared at each other, poised on the edge of the unknown. Water lapped against her hips, and a breath of air kissed her shoulder. Everywhere her body touched Caleb’s, heat seared.