“Hmm?”
“What are you doing?”
“Sweetheart, if you don’t know, I must not be doing it right.”
“But why?”
“Because I woke up this morning with you on my mind.”
She stared into the depths of his eyes and swallowed hard at the desire she saw there. “Oh.”
He laughed. “Oh, indeed.”
The door opened just then and Harley and Gabe came in, already bickering. They fell silent the instant they spotted Emma in Matt’s arms.
“Well, will you look at that?” Gabe muttered.
“About time,” Harley said.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Gabe said.
Matt winked at Emma. “Guess I’d better get to work. I’m pretty sure the bacon’s burning.”
Emma blinked and sniffed the air. Sure enough, she could smell it. Matt was already heading off to handle the problem, which left her to face Gabe and Harley and their knowing smirks.
She picked up two mugs and the pot of coffee and headed their way. “One word and this can be on top of you, instead of in your cups, okay?”
“My lips are zipped,” Gabe said, still smirking.
“Mine, too,” Harley agreed. “Long as you know that we approve.”
“There is nothing for you to approve of,” Emma said. “What you saw, or think you saw, was nothing.”
“Whatever you say,” Gabe said, giving Harley a sharp poke in the ribs.
“Yeah, Emma, whatever you say.”
She gave the two old busybodies a satisfied look, then marched back behind the counter and tried to catch her breath. It took everything in her to keep from touching a finger to her lips, where she could still feel the sensation of Matt’s mouth, warm and gentle against hers. She’d always thought of Winter Cove as a boring little place where nothing happened, but all of a sudden that image was changing. Her life, at least, was getting damned complicated.
12
Matt wasn’t sure what had gotten into him that morning. Okay, he’d awakened fully aroused with Emma very much on his mind, but that wasn’t an entirely new experience. Never before had he gone over to Flamingo Diner and kissed her just because he felt like it. He wouldn’t have dared to as long as Don was alive. Was he taking advantage of his friend’s death in a way that was totally inappropriate? Maybe.
He had to admit, though, that he had no regrets. Emma hadn’t exactly kissed him back, but she hadn’t slapped him silly, either. He wouldn’t have blamed her if she had. Instead, though, he’d managed to put some color into her too pale cheeks. Maybe tonight, after dinner at Cori’s, he’d see what he could do about bringing that color back. He recalled her claim of having once been attracted to bad boys. Perhaps it was time he showed her that he had a dangerous side of his own.
Assuming she gave him the chance. He glanced toward the passenger seat and noted that Emma was staring straight ahead, her spine so rigid it looked as if she had a yardstick running up her back. She looked unyielding and pretty much as if she were biting her tongue. He figured holding in all that anger couldn’t be healthy.
“Okay, go ahead and spit it out,” he said.
She scowled at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re still ticked off about that kiss this morning.” He studied her intently. “Or are you only upset that Gabe and Harley walked in before it could go any further?”
“Go to hell,” she retorted.
Matt laughed. “There you go, Emma,” he said approvingly. “Say what’s on your mind.”
“Okay, then, why did you kiss me this morning and then go running off before I had a chance to tell you what a pig I thought you were? What gave you the right to come into my place of business and kiss me where anyone could see? You know how people in this town love to talk. Gabe and Harley won’t keep their mouths shut. You know they won’t.”
“So? It was a kiss, Emma, a tiny little peck at that. I didn’t have you sprawled across the counter.”
A riot of color bloomed in her cheeks. “Thank heaven for that.”
“I’m not saying there won’t come a day when I go for that,” he warned her, his gaze steady. “I’ve decided I’ve been patient long enough. I’m going after what I want and what I want is you.”
She stared at him with obvious shock. “Don’t you dare even think about it,” she said heatedly. “Matt, nothing can happen between us.”
Irritated by her certainty, he pulled off the highway, cut the engine and turned to look at her, barely managing to keep a tight rein on his temper. “Because you don’t want it to, or because you do?”
She opened her mouth to reply, then snapped it shut again.
He stroked a finger down her cheek, felt the quick rise of heat, saw the shudder that washed over her. “Tell the truth, Emma.”
Frowning, she met his gaze. “Okay, you’re right. Maybe I am attracted to you, but I don’t want to be, and you shouldn’t want me to be, either,” she insisted. “Everything’s such a mess. I’m not thinking straight. Why start something when it’s doomed?”
“How about because we’re two consenting adults, who are perfectly capable of keeping things in perspective? I’ve wanted you for a long time, Emma. Since we were teenagers, in fact. And now I think you want me. The signs are there, in the way you look at me, in the way you touch me.” He looked into her eyes. “Tell the truth, am I misreading anything?”
She regarded him miserably. “No.”
Relief flooded through him, despite how obviously unhappy she was about her feelings for him. “Okay, then.”
“Matt, I need you to be my friend,” she said plaintively.
He regarded her with surprise. “This doesn’t change anything,” he reassured her. “I will always be your friend. That’s a given.”
“No, that’s impossible. Sex always changes things between a man and a woman.”
“Not with us,” he insisted. “I’m not going to stop being your friend, not ever. And I’m not going to rush you about the rest. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. I’m just giving you fair warning about where my head is.”
She gave him a familiar wry look. “As if your head has anything at all to do with this.”
He grinned. “Yeah, well, I did consult it.”
“And?”
“It didn’t have anything important to add to the discussion.”
She laughed then, breaking the sizzling tension between them. But when he touched her again, just a light stroke of his knuckle along her jaw, the laughter died and the tension came back.
“Fair warning, okay?” he said.
She nodded slowly. “Fair warning.”
“Now I’d better get to Cori’s before dinner gets cold. I hear pregnant women lose their sense of humor somewhere around the third trimester.”
“Aren’t you being a little sexist?” Emma asked.
“I’m being a lot sexist,” Matt conceded. “But some things are fact, and that’s one of them. You’ll see one of these days.”
She regarded him with a startled look, as if the prospect of having a child had never once occurred to her.
“You are planning to have children, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I guess I’ve been so busy I haven’t given it much thought,” she admitted.
“Then you’re obviously not involved with anyone who’s making you think about happily-ever-after,” Matt said, barely able to contain the note of glee threatening to creep into his voice. He didn’t want her to hear him gloating.
“No, I’m not.” She ventured a glance in his direction. “What about you? Do you want kids?”
“Three or four, at least,” he said, surprising himself. He’d always figured he was lousy father material given his own father’s lack of skill in that department. But since Emma had come home, he’d begun to dream. He was pretty sure he was willing to risk it, since any kids would have her to make up for his shortcomings. And he had had Don as an example for a lot of
years. Until recently, he would have said that could make up for any bad traits he’d inherited from his own father.
He grinned at her suddenly wary expression. “Don’t look so panicked. Maybe we should both remain noncommittal until we get through this evening. I hear Cori’s first two kids are spoiled brats.”
Emma regarded him with obvious surprise. “This isn’t her first?”
“Nope, her third. And because she and her husband both work, they tend to give the kids whatever they want to make up for the lack of attention.”
“Do you see much of them?”
“Not really.”
“Then how do you know all this?”
He hesitated, trying to decide if he should admit that there had been a brief time when he and Jennifer Sawyer had spent time with the Fletchers. He doubted Cori would bring it up. She was too eagerly pursuing this little matchmaking plan. He concluded that bringing it up himself would only muddy the waters between them. He settled for another part of the truth. “They used to come in Flamingo Diner every Sunday morning. The kids ran wild, while Cori made a pretense of trying to contain them.”
“What about her husband?”
“He read the paper and ignored them.”
“They haven’t been in recently,” Emma said.
“Because the last time they were there, one of the regulars told them they should leave the kids at home unless they could keep them under control. They left in a huff.”
“I’m amazed Mama didn’t step in and try to smooth things over,” Emma said.
“If you ask me, your mother’s the one behind the suggestion. It was Jolie who made it, and she didn’t look one bit sorry after the words left her mouth. She even took a little bow when the cheers went up after Cori and her family took off and peace once again reigned.”
“I had no idea,” Emma murmured. “Maybe we’d better check the food for arsenic tonight.”
Matt grinned. “Only if she offers you a doggie bag to take home to your mother.”
After what Matt had told her to expect, Emma was pleasantly surprised by Cori’s family. The children were on their best behavior, offering polite responses to questions and behaving with impeccable manners at the dinner table.
After the meal, Emma followed Cori into the kitchen to help with the dishes.
“The food was wonderful,” she told her old friend. “You’ve become a fabulous cook.”
“At least I have a more diverse repertoire than the hot dogs and hamburgers I used to specialize in for all our parties back in high school.”
“You seem really happy.”
Cori smiled, her hand resting on her huge belly. “I am. I love my husband and lately I actually love my kids. I owe your mom and Jolie for that. I kept trying to pretend that they weren’t turning into little hellions, but Jolie called me on it. I haven’t taken ’em out to eat in public since, and we’ve been working on the behavior problems. They’re both hyperactive, but I don’t want to resort to medicine to keep them under control.”
“They were angels tonight, so whatever you’ve been doing has worked.”
“We still have good days and bad, but they’re really good kids at heart. Maybe if I weren’t working, it would help, but I love working for Jennifer, or at least I did until lately, and we need the money. I’ve just stopped using that as a cop-out for not spending time with the kids. The truth was, I didn’t enjoy it, so I didn’t do it, and things went from bad to worse. Now I’m working hard to make sure they know I love them.”
She looked Emma in the eye. “Enough about me. What’s going on with you and Matt?”
“We’re friends,” Emma said.
“A good place to start,” Cori said, grinning as if she didn’t believe for a second that that’s all it was. “But there’s enough electricity in the air when you two are in a room to light all of Winter Cove during the holidays, and you do know how we love to decorate around here.”
“I can’t think about any of that right now,” Emma said, repeating what she’d told Matt in the car.
“Maybe it shouldn’t be about thinking.”
Cori’s words echoed in Emma’s head as she and Matt drove home a short time later. It wasn’t the first time she’d been reminded that Matt could make her feel alive. Would it be so wrong to let him? Would it be so terrible to spend a few hours in the arms of a man who made her feel attractive and sexy and desirable?
She’d been reminded all too vividly lately that life could be short and unpredictable.
“I can practically hear the wheels turning in your head,” Matt said, glancing at her as he pulled to a stop in front of her house. “What’s on your mind?”
“Cori said something earlier, something that made me take a fresh look at things.”
“Oh?”
“She said I think too much.”
“About?”
“You and me.”
“I see,” he said softly. He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “Anytime you want to stop thinking, just say the word. My place is only a few miles away.”
Was that what she wanted? To go home with Matt? She’d never slept with a man simply for the pleasure of it. In fact, the pitiful truth was, she’d slept with only two men, because she’d always believed that making love should be reserved for someone who truly meant something. Ironically, Matt probably meant more to her than either of the men she’d convinced herself she loved. He’d been in her life longer, too, and in recent weeks he’d proved himself to be steady and dependable, unlike either of the lousy choices she’d made in the past.
If she had to think this hard, though, could it possibly be right? Both of her prior relationships had developed out of some sort of spontaneous combustion the first time she’d met the men. She might not have slept with them right away, but she’d known it was inevitable from the first instant she’d looked into their eyes.
When she looked into Matt’s eyes, she felt a kind of longing, a sense that there was something wonderful awaiting them. It was quieter, less intense, but it held the promise that it would last, rather than burning itself out.
In the end, maybe that was what scared her the most, the possibility that she and Matt might find something so deep, so irresistible that she would never escape Winter Cove again.
She lifted her gaze to meet Matt’s. “I wish this were easier.”
“It would be, if you’d turn off your brain,” he teased. “Then again, I don’t want you to do something you’ll wind up regretting. I’m a patient man, and you’re worth waiting for.” He released the hand he’d been holding and put both of his hands on the steering wheel, as if to prevent himself from reaching for her.
“I should go in,” she said. “There’s a light on in her room, so Mama’s probably waiting up.”
Matt nodded. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
Even as she protested, he was around the car and opening her door. He took her hand to help her out, then pulled her toward him.
“One last thing,” he murmured, covering her mouth with his.
Emma let herself drift into the kiss, let it take over her senses. If the kiss in the diner had riled her, this one overwhelmed her. Matt definitely knew how to take a simple good-night kiss and turn it into something spectacular, she thought in the one instant before her senses scrambled and her mind shut down completely.
When he pulled away eventually, she was thoroughly shaken. He rubbed a thumb across her lower lip, sending sweet little waves of desire washing over her.
He put his hand at the base of her spine and steered her toward the front door on unsteady legs.
“Good night, Emma.”
Still dazed, she merely nodded.
“See you in the morning.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Lock the door when you go inside.”
“Uh, sure.”
He laughed, looking downright pleased with the fact that he’d rendered her all but speechless.
Emma stepped into the foye
r at last, then watched as Matt strode back to his car, whistling an annoyingly cheery little tune.
So much for quiet longing, she thought as he drove away. Once he put his mind to it, Matt’s kisses packed enough heat to spontaneously combust and burn down everything between here and Orlando. If she didn’t watch her step, she was going to go up in flames, too.
When she heard the car, Rosa went to the bedroom window hoping to see Jeff coming home at last. Instead, she caught a glimpse of Matt kissing her daughter as if there were no tomorrow. She couldn’t help grinning, even as she felt a vague trace of envy that Emma was just starting out on a romantic adventure, while her own days of romance were over.
Matt was a good man, and he’d been in love with Emma forever. Nothing would please her more than to see the two of them finally together, especially if it would keep Emma here in Winter Cove. She knew this was the last place Emma wanted to be, but she’d never really given it a chance as an adult. Maybe Matt could strip the blinders off and make her daughter see all that the town had to offer.
If only that had happened sooner, she thought as she listened to Emma start up the stairs. Maybe having Emma home again would have been enough to give Don a reason for living. She, Jeff and Andy hadn’t been enough, but his daughter had always held a special place in his heart.
Emma tapped lightly on Rosa’s door. “Mama, are you still awake?”
“Come in,” she called out, moving away from the window, so Emma wouldn’t guess how much she’d seen. She noted the flushed cheeks and bright eyes, though. They would have been a dead giveaway, even if she’d missed the actual kiss. “Did you have a good time?”
“I really enjoyed Cori and her kids,” Emma said.
Rosa raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Emma laughed. “You probably wouldn’t recognize them now. Apparently, Cori took Jolie’s criticism to heart. They both behaved like little angels all during dinner.”
“And here I’d given up on miracles,” Rosa said.
“I told her to bring them back to the diner next Sunday. Maybe you can come by and see for yourself.”
Flamingo Diner Page 15
