Not in a million years could he explain it either.
“What are you talking about Kenny?” his mother asked.
Now he knew exactly how a deer felt when staring into the high beams of a half-ton pickup. And words weren’t exactly lining up on the tip of his tongue to form a response.
“Nothing, pumpkin,” Kenny said, resting his hand over hers, with a conspiratorial wink at Ethan. “It’s a joke…a guy thing.”
Pumpkin? Ethan wanted to gag. Or choke the sadistic bastard holding his mother’s hand. Either one would do.
“Oh.” His mother smiled and went back to picking apart her cinnamon bun. “Why do you think it’s Ethan’s fault? She didn’t say a word to any of us.”
“Did you see her face when the topic of she and your son getting a house together came up and Casanova over here recommended the radishes?”
Ethan’s face heated when he remembered his ridiculous attempts to get Jill away from the table before she let his mother and her friend know they were having a week-long one-night stand. “She was uncomfortable talking about our relationship.”
“No, she was uncomfortable that the mention of a future with her made you jump out of your chair like your ass was on fire.”
He took a deep breath. Better to be thought a dog than a heartless creep. “We don’t… It was just supposed to be a vacation fling. We were attracted to each other, but we’re very different people. It was just a…fling.”
To his everlasting amazement, his mother laughed and shook her head. “Sometimes I think that’s how the best ones start.”
“Mother!”
“Your father and I were total strangers when we met at the party of a mutual friend. We were playing some silly game and we were dared to, uh, spend five minutes locked in a closet together. We were married six months later.”
That certainly wasn’t the version his father had told him. But he’d think about it later. No, on second thought, he’d never think about it ever again.
“What should I do?” Ethan asked, and for some reason he looked to Kenny instead of his mother.
The older man shrugged. “Your mother’s the first lady I’ve ever truly set my cap for, so I don’t have a lot of experience here. But if it was just a fling for you, then let her go. She’ll get over you. If it was more, then don’t let her get on that bus.”
They were all silent for several minutes. Ethan stared down into his coffee cup, already feeling the cold void Jill’s absence left. He couldn’t imagine going through even a single day of the rest of his life without her making things…interesting.
He pushed back his chair and started making his way out of the restaurant. His mother caught up with him just as he hit the hallway.
“Ethan! What is the matter with you?”
“I’ve got to go,” he said, slowing so she wouldn’t have to run along beside him.
“I know you don’t really like Kenny, but he didn’t mean you any harm. He was trying to help.”
It took a moment for Ethan’s brain to process her words, intent as he was on the excruciatingly long walk through the hotel corridors.
“It wasn’t him, Mom. I’ve got to try to catch Jill before she gets on that bus.”
“Oh.” She smiled and tucked her arm under his. “I thought you walked out because you don’t like Kenny.”
Damn right he didn’t like that widow-chasing gigolo plumber. “It’s not that I don’t like him. He seems like a decent enough guy. But you just met him and it’s been like thirty-five years since you dated!”
“Oh, Ethan,” She sighed, and it had a tone he remembered well from childhood. He was on his mother’s last nerve and if he wasn’t a grown man, she’d be swatting his ass all the way to his room.
“For goodness sake, child, we’re just enjoying each other’s company! Do you want me to spend the rest of my life alone, crying myself to sleep? That’s if I even can sleep in the horrible silence after three and a half decades of listening to your father snore. I can’t martyr myself to make you happy, Ethan.”
They were almost to the lobby, but Ethan stopped. He just stood there feeling like shmuck. A pretty juvenile shmuck at that.
‘‘I don’t want you to be unhappy, and I know Dad wouldn’t want you to be alone. I just really miss him.”
“So do I and spending time with Kenny doesn’t change that.”
The lobby and the front doors beckoned, but he couldn’t leave his mother like this. Hopefully buses to New Hampshire were few and far between. ‘‘I know I’ve been acting like a child—”
‘‘Because you are my child.”
“—but I’ll do better.”
She smiled and touched his cheek. ‘‘It seems to me you have your own love life to worry about now.”
No kidding. And he still had no idea what he was going to do about it.
“Go get her, honey.”
Ethan kissed her cheek and, when she’d walked away, stepped into the lobby. He’d have the desk clerk call a cab and hope like hell the driver could get him to the bus station on time. But first he patted his back pocket to make sure he had his wallet. If he ended up chasing the damn woman all the way up the eastern seaboard, he’d need the money.
* * * * *
Sitting on a dirty countertop in a bus station bathroom, Jill sniffled into a wad of brown, scratchy paper towel. Some vacation.
Every time she thought of Ethan and the sweetly contented smile on his sleeping face, the tears started all over again. It was going to take a long time to get over the man. And somehow, she didn’t think forever would be long enough.
Half a dozen deep breaths later she forced herself to look in the mirror. Great. Red eyes, red nose and red blotches of cheap paper towel burn on her cheeks.
“What the hell am I doing?”
“I don’t know,” said a voice from within a stall and Jill almost fell off the counter. “But when you’re done could you pass some toilet paper under the door?”
“I thought I was alone.”
“Obviously. I have a shy bladder. So until you figure it out and go off to fix whatever your problem is, I can’t pee.”
“I can’t fix it,” Jill said mournfully. Taking a full roll from another stall, she passed it under the other woman’s door.
“Thanks. Why not?”
“There’s this guy—”
“There always is.”
“—and I’m in love with him. And the sex is amazing. You wouldn’t even believe it.”
“Probably not. So he dumped you?”
Jill sniffed and perched back on the countertop. “No. I snuck out while he was sleeping.”
The voice behind the stall door sighed. “Was he about to dump you?”
“I don’t know.” She buried her face in a fresh handful of paper towel. It was a good thing it wasn’t one of those air-dryer-only bathrooms or she’d be windblown as hell.
“He said it was just for fun,” she continued between sniffles, “but I think maybe he’s falling in love with me, too.”
A disgusted sigh this time. “So I’m sitting here getting a bladder infection why?”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Jill slid to her feet, embarrassed by her selfishness. “I’ll just go so you can, uh… I’ll just go.”
“Wait! You can’t go without explaining why you ran away from a guy who’s great in the sack and might actually be in love with you.”
“But your—”
“I’ll buy some cranberry juice. It’s like turning off a soap opera halfway through.”
Great. As Jill’s World Turns. “Do you want me to put my fingers in my ears and hum for a few minutes?”
“My bladder will still know you’re here. Now hurry up before somebody else comes in.”
“Ethan wants a Fifties woman. Apron, pantyhose, perfect kids and all that.”
“And you’re not that.”
“No, I—”
“But he’s falling in love with you anyway?”
“I think so,
but—”
“So you’re in love with a man who’s in love with you and the sex is great, but you’re crying in a bus station bathroom?”
Jill scowled at the shredded paper towel. “Insane, huh?”
The silence spoke volumes, so she said, “There’s an old saying in my family. ‘When the going gets tough, Jill gets going—in the other direction’.”
“We have an expression in my family, too—’if it ain’t broke, don’t throw it away’.”
“Really?”
‘‘No, but it sounded kinder than ‘you’re a dumbass’.”
Oprah, she wasn’t. Jill twisted the paper in her hands, trying to figure out how she’d screwed up so badly yet again. Maybe she had pissed off a Gypsy as a child. She didn’t remember meeting any, but she’d gone to a few carnivals when she was young.
“Look,” the woman said, “just because he thinks he wants Mrs. Cleaver, doesn’t mean he does. Why else would he be falling in love with you?”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“At least you’ll know.”
But how could she do it? What if he laughed at her, or gave her one of those humiliatingly scornful looks? She knew the rules when she went into the game. But sometimes he looked at her and she felt there was so much more he wanted to say. It was a crap shoot.
But Ethan Cooper was certainly worth stepping up to the table and rolling the dice for. Even having her love thrown back in her face was better than spending the rest of her life wondering if he’d loved her, after all.
She wasn’t going to run this time. She was going back to fight for him, even if it meant getting her heart broken.
“You’re right.” Jill slid down off the counter and grabbed her bags. ‘‘I’m going back and I’m going to tell him I love him.”
Jill pulled open the door, then paused. An unmistakable tinkling sound came through the stall door, followed by a near rapturous sigh of relief.
“Thank you!” she called, then she started to jog toward the station’s exit sign.
Twenty minutes later, she was not quite jogging through the front entrance of the hotel. If he’d already left for one of the parks, she’d never find him. And she wasn’t sure her courage would hold up until closing.
She scoped out the elevators, looking for one already on the ground floor. There was one just sliding open. Before she could take a single step toward it, a man came out of nowhere and plowed into her. She stumbled backwards a few steps, the obscenities gathering on her lips.
‘‘Jill!”
It was Ethan. The Fates had passed up a chance to kick her while she was down? Must be her lucky day.
He grabbed the suitcase out of her hand. ‘‘Why the hell did you sneak out of my bed?”
All activity in the hotel lobby came to a screeching halt and the guy who’d stepped into the elevator had the audacity to hit the door open button.
“Ethan, I…Because I love you.”
“That’s the worst damn reason I’ve ever heard!”
Jill blinked. This wasn’t at all going right. She knew going in there was a possibility she was doing nothing but humiliating herself, but she hadn’t expected it to be in public.
Ethan crossed his arms. “Hold on. You what?”
“I love you. I think….I’m pretty sure…probably. Definitely.”
His face softened, and she held her breath. He was either really pleased, or trying to come up with way to soften the impending blow. “So why sneak out in the middle of the night? Why were you going home?”
“Because love wasn’t part of the deal and I didn’t want to hang around for the rejection.”
“Why did you come back?”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. This was hard. Really hard.
“Because I love you and maybe you don’t love me because we haven’t known each other very long and you don’t seem like the type to believe in love at first sight which is okay but I couldn’t leave without at least telling you that because I always run away and this time—”
Ethan grabbed her by the back of the head and covered her mouth with his, cutting her off her tumble of words. She sucked in a breath through her nose and tried not to think about how hard her heart was beating in her chest. It would be just like the Fates to strike her down with a massive coronary on the verge of a possible happily ever after.
He kissed her with force, and a wickedly delicious shudder ran down her spine. Then somebody coughed, and he broke it off.
“You were babbling, sunshine.”
Jill could feel the stupid grin on her face, but couldn’t stop. “If I babble some more will you kiss me again, because you know I babble when I’m nervous but maybe if—”
He laughed and kissed her again—just a quick one this time. “Let’s go.”
He pulled her back to the elevator, where the rubbernecker was still holding the door open.
“Out,” Ethan ordered, and Jill felt a little thrill of pleasure at his tone. Sometimes he did the Me, Tarzan thing really well. The guy frowned, but stepped out of the elevator.
As soon as the doors slid closed, Ethan backed her against the wall of the car, pressing the length of his body to hers. “You were right.”
‘‘About what?” she asked, but she didn’t really care. He was hard and the heat of cock against her thigh was distracting as hell.
His hand slid up her thigh, under her shorts, until he hooked the elastic of her panties with the tip of his finger. “I don’t believe in love at first sight.”
“Oh.” Fucking a woman in an elevator certainly gave new meaning to “let her down easy.” She braced her hands against his shoulders, ready to push him away.
‘‘It was more like love at second sight.” He kissed her again, slow and sweet, and she sighed as he nipped at her bottom lip. Their breath mingled and his finger still toyed with the edging of her undies. Damn herself for wearing them, anyway.
“So,” she whispered against his lips, “just so we’re clear this is a mutual thing then?”
The elevator stopped and Ethan withdrew his hand from her shorts as the doors slid open. A frazzled, sunburned couple half-hidden by the burden of theme-park shopping bags fought to fit through the opening.
“I’m a doctor, “ Ethan said in an urgent tone. “I think this woman might have contracted a rare, communicable disease.”
The couple fled, bags bouncing, and Ethan hit the door close button while Jill tried her best not to laugh. The elevator began its agonizingly slow ascent once again.
“So, where were we?” Ethan whispered into her neck.
“Your hand was—”
“I love you,” he interrupted. “That’s where we were. I love you and I have a feeling I’ll spend a lot of time in the future wondering where we are and how the hell we got there, but as long as you’re with me, who cares, and there’s no reason I can’t move to New Hampshire and we don’t have to have kids until you’re ready and—”
Jill threw her arms around his neck and gave him a fast, passionate kiss of her own. “You were babbling.”
His hand crept back toward the hem of her shorts. “What do you think would happen if we hit the stop button?”
She shuddered when his finger brushed ever so slightly over her clit. “They’ll probably call the fire department. Let’s find out.”
“They might call the police.”
“I dare you to do it.”
Ethan grinned wickedly and Jill’s heart seemed to skip a beat. She was going to spend the rest of her life with this man.
He ran his tongue over her bottom lip and she moaned against his mouth. “On three. One…”
He slid his finger over the thin, wet fabric of her panties. “Two…”
“Three.”
Epilogue
Six months later
He looked like James Bond without the shaken martini. When Jill took her first step down the aisle, he smiled and she had to rethink that. No actor playing 007 had ever looked as hot in a tux a
s Ethan Cooper.
She counted to herself as she took each step, bringing her feet together each time as she’d been instructed. Don’t strangle the bouquet. Keep my chin up. And don’t let my heel catch in the hem of my satin gown.
Finally, after what seemed like the longest walk of her life, Jill reached the altar and hung a left. As she turned, the organ player launched into ”The Wedding March” and the bride appeared in the doorway.
Debra Cooper looked radiant in her simple ivory gown and she had eyes only for her groom. Kenny stood next to Ethan, looking nervous as hell except for the goofy grin lighting up his face. The Justice of the Peace cleared his throat, Ethan winked at his mother and Jill concentrated on not falling off her high-heeled shoes.
A few vows, a reception line, a cake demolition and several trips to the cash bar later, Jill finally managed to corner Ethan in an alcove under the stair of the bed and breakfast. She collapsed against him, exhausted from a week of pre-wedding insanity.
“Tired, sunshine?” he asked with his mouth resting in her hair.
“Mmmhmmm. How are you doing?”
“Good. Mom seems happy, and Kenny’s a great guy.”
Jill sighed and nodded against his chest. “And they love the rocking chairs you refinished for them.”
They swayed silently to the music coming from the reception room for a few moments, before Ethan nuzzled her neck. “Can I ask you something?”
She lifted her head. “Yes, it’s definitely time to sneak off to our room and have sex.”
He laughed and lifted her off her feet. He made a show of staggering toward the stairs, and she clutched his neck. The first thing she noticed when he opened the door was the scent. The heavy, sensual scent of dozens of roses washed over Jill as Ethan set her down gently on the bed.
“What country is this?” she asked, utterly confused.
He frowned and wrinkled his nose. She had to admit he’d overdone the number of blossoms by quite a bit. “It’s not really a country.”
Jill lifted an eyebrow, waiting patiently. The game had begun months ago. Concentrating on their work left them little time or money for travel, so they saw the world in bed. They staged their desired destinations and tried to stay within the theme, with a varying degree of results. Antarctica, for one, had been a disaster. “So where is it? This one’s your fantasy.”
Twice Upon a Roadtrip Page 14
