by Natalie Ann
Like Amanda was.
“They’re mine. Amanda gave them to me.”
“Amanda? Who is that?”
“Amanda Moore. The house I was at yesterday.”
Bode started to laugh. “Oh my God, it was a granny, wasn’t it? She brought you in and sat you at the table and gave you cookies and coffee, didn’t she?”
“You’re half right,” he admitted.
“No coffee?” Bode asked.
He decided to play with his brother and not answer the question. “She has three roommates. All women.”
“Sure it isn’t a house of lesbians?”
He narrowed his eyes not wanting to go there. He should have realized that would have opened up a can of worms. Worms that normally ended up on his desk full of dirt getting all over everything.
“One of the roommates is Hunter’s fiancée, Kayla.”
“Funny coincidence. She won’t be there much longer. Were you okay knowing there were roommates there? I know how you get about those things.”
“It was fine. The house was immaculate. Not a speck of dust to be found. Everything looked kept up well. She said there were no problems. I even wondered if she was buttering me up with the cookies to hit me with her complaints.”
“And you probably said it to her, didn’t you?”
“I might have.”
“What did she say?”
“She was surprised. She said if there was a problem she knew anything under the amount in the lease was her responsibility. She was capable of fixing or calling someone.”
“Interesting. You like self-sufficient women. And she bakes. I’ve never known you to be the cougar type but we all should try something.”
He just smiled. Bode was right, he did like self-sufficient women, but he had a hard time finding one. “I went on a visit, that was it.”
His phone rang and he reached for it to see his mother calling. He sent it to voicemail. “She won’t give up.”
“Mom?” Bode asked.
“Yeah.”
“Have you talked to her since she stopped here last week looking for you?”
“No, but I talked to Dad and that’s the same thing in my mind. They know I’m not lying in some ditch bloody and broken.”
Bode grinned. “There aren’t too many ditches on Amore Island. But yeah, if you talked to Dad that might be enough. Or maybe not if she’s calling you.”
“I’ll have to answer at some point. I’m sure I don’t want to know what she wants.”
“She probably knows a friend of a friend’s daughter that she’d like you to meet.”
Drew let out a breath. “You can only go so long avoiding it by just getting out of a relationship,” he said to his brother. “It’s been two months. She’ll start on you soon.”
“I’ll start on him soon is right,” their mother said when she walked into his office. Son of a bitch. “You’ve been avoiding me, Drew. Why is that?”
“I’ve been busy. I talked to Dad on Saturday. He never said you needed to speak to me.”
“And he wouldn’t,” his mother said, laying her hand on Bode’s shoulder from behind. Bode stood up fast. “Have a seat, Mom. I’ve got work to do.”
“Coward,” he said.
“You betcha,” Bode said and then left.
His mother grinned at him. “I don’t know why you two boys avoid me so much. I’m nothing but nice to you.”
“We love you, Mom,” he said. “You know we do. What we don’t love is how you keep trying to set us up.”
“Come on. You’re thirty-two, Drew. Bode is thirty-four. You both should be in relationships at the very least. I want some grandchildren. At your age I had all three of you. I would have had more if I could have.”
His mother had wanted a basketball team full of kids. Or at least one daughter. She would have gotten that wish had she not miscarried his little sister. There’d been no more pregnancies after that.
“Times are different,” he said. “You don’t want any of us to settle down with just anyone, do you? The divorce rate is low in our family. I want to make sure it stays that way.”
“How long did it take you to come up with that reason?”
His shoulders dropped. She knew her boys too well. “It is partially the truth.”
When the time came, he wanted to make sure it was the right woman. And not someone his mother thought was perfect for him. She was all about finding women like her.
Not that his mother wasn’t a wonderful person, but he had no desire to be married to someone like her though.
“I understand. You’ll know when you find the right woman. Just like I knew your father was the one. He says it too.”
He’d heard the story enough from his mother he could say it in his sleep. His father never argued over it, but Drew often wondered how much of it was true.
“He still says you’re the love of his life. But I think you hypnotized him to say that with a trigger.”
She laughed, her face looking even younger. She didn’t look even close to her fifty-eight years. She barely looked forty to him.
“I don’t know where you come up with these things. But you always wanted to be the cute one.”
“I am the cute one,” he said. “Bode is the hard one with no personality.”
“That isn’t very nice and you know it. Bode is just antisocial and serious.”
“Coy is the nerd,” he said.
“Coy is not a nerd. He is smart, but that doesn’t make him a nerd,” she said, clucking her tongue.
“Oh, that’s right. He’s the crossdresser.”
“Andrew Michael. You’re never going to let him live it down. He was five and you put him in one of your cousin’s dresses. He had nothing to do with that.”
He started to laugh. “He wanted to try it on. Did you notice he ran out to show you? He wasn’t upset over it either.”
She rolled her eyes. “Bode later admitted that he threatened him if he didn’t do it. That he’d take all his matchbox cars and throw them in the ocean.”
“Coy always was gullible.”
“You two ganged up on him. It’s no wonder he didn’t want anything to do with the business and went on his own.”
“We weren’t that bad,” he said.
Sure, Bode and he had picked on Coy a lot. He came four years after Drew. He’d always been the baby and then more so once his mother realized Coy would be her last child.
“No, you weren’t. You should be happy he’s laid back enough that it rolled off his shoulders.”
“Whatever,” he said with a big grin. “So what is it that you want to ask me to do or who you want me to meet?”
“What makes you think it’s that?”
“Isn’t it?” he asked.
“Maybe I just want you to come to dinner one night. I haven’t seen you in a while. Is that so wrong to want to have dinner with my son?”
“Just me or all the boys?” he asked, getting suspicious.
“Just you,” she said.
“You and Dad and me?” he asked. “No one else?”
She started to fidget in the chair. “Well, a friend of mine is in town this week visiting. I thought you might like to meet Debra. She came to the island with me all those years ago when I met your father. It was her idea to come here and I’ll be in her debt until the day I’m no longer on this earth.”
He rolled his eyes. “So just Dad, you, me, and Debra?”
“She is married, so Dave will be with her.”
“Dad, you, me, Debra, and Dave. Anyone else?” he asked, onto her game now.
“Fine. Her daughter Caroline. She’s really nice.”
“Is she single?” he asked.
“You’ll come,” she said, surprised.
“I didn’t say that. I asked if she was single.”
“Yes.”
“Then no.”
“Drew.”
“No,” he said again. “When are you going to stop doing this? I want to find my o
wn woman.”
“Then why haven’t you? Why haven’t any of you?”
“It doesn’t happen like you think it does,” he argued.
“You’re still holding onto what happened with Cassandra and you are struggling to move past it. That is why I push so much. Maybe one of the women I put in front of you will be it. One day you’re going to run into a woman and know she’s the one for you.”
He wasn’t going to say a word about Amanda and was shocked she even popped into his head. He didn’t believe in love at first sight. He didn’t care about the myths and legends of the island. Not that much.
“That day won’t be the dinner at your house.”
“You need a date for the clinic fundraiser.”
“I don’t need a date. A lot of us go alone,” he argued.
“The committee decided we were going to auction off some of the single Bond men.”
“Oh hell no,” he said.
“Yes. You just said you’d be going alone, so that means you’re single. Your name is going on the list.” She pulled her phone out of her purse.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m texting some of the committee members that I’ve got one of my sons for sure. You will not tell your brothers about this either. They can deal with it on their own.”
“I met someone,” he said.
She stopped typing and looked up. “When? What’s her name? Why haven’t you said anything until now?”
“Because it’s new.” He wasn’t lying. “We are testing the waters. But if you put me up on that stage it will ruin anything that we might just be getting started.”
“You better not be lying to me, Drew. I want a name.”
Shit. “Amanda,” he said before he could stop himself.
“The fundraiser is in three weeks. I expect this Amanda to be there with you. The invitations are going out today.”
“Kind of last minute to decide to auction off some men. Which I have to say is pretty sexist. Why not auction off some of the single women in the family?”
“You know what? That’s a great idea. I’ll go make a list. There are plenty of single women in the family. Even Ava. She works at the clinic, she should definitely be one of them.”
“Or not,” he said, wishing that he hadn’t put his cousins on the spot. He should have kept his mouth shut. He didn’t think his mother would think it was that great of an idea. He should have realized she’d be all for anyone finding their soulmate any way they could.
“You’re right. Maybe not her. But Hailey or Grace.”
He started to laugh. “Good luck with those two. They’d chew a man up and spit him out. Especially one that paid to go on a date with them.”
“You’d be surprised. But thanks for the suggestions. And remember. You better show up with Amanda.”
His mother walked out the door and he wanted to call Bode but then decided to take his mother’s warning to heart. He’d escaped that by the skin of his teeth.
Until he realized somehow he was going to have to get Amanda to go to this event with him.
6
Special Reason
“Amanda, do you have time to fit a guy in for a haircut soon?”
“What?” she asked, turning to look at Stacy who normally sat at the front desk to greet people. Most of the stylists arranged their own schedules and Amanda packed hers when she could so she wasn’t sitting around. She very rarely had openings of more than thirty minutes.
“There is this really hot guy up front,” Stacy whispered. “He asked for you and if you were here and then if you could fit him in for a haircut today.”
“Oh.” She looked at the clock then down at the client in her chair that she just finished cutting. The color was already looking great even with her hair wet. “I’ll be another twenty minutes or so. I’ve got about thirty minutes before my next appointment after that. I guess so. There goes my lunch.”
Brenda, her client, laughed. “Sweetie, you always forgo food for a hot guy.”
She laughed. “I suppose you’re right. Did you get his name?”
“No,” Stacy said. “I didn’t ask. He said he could come back if today didn’t work.”
“Even better,” Brenda said. “Accommodating. Hot and considerate. Grab him when he comes back here too.”
Amanda smiled. “He could be married. I’d know if I had his name,” she said. “Stacy, tell him I’ll be about twenty minutes and I can fit him in.”
When Stacy was gone, Brenda said, “Just blow dry it out. You don’t have to straighten or curl it. I’m good. I just want to see the color more than anything. And I want to see this guy.”
“I don’t let anyone walk out of here not looking great and you know it,” she said. She took pride in her work. It was all she had.
She’d wanted to be a stylist all along. In high school she went to the Vo Tech program mornings to get her training and license. By the time she graduated from high school she was ready to work full time. Not the career her parents wanted for her, but she didn’t care.
Like she’d thought back then, she had her life all planned out. Just because Randall was going to Harvard and his family had more money than she’d ever know what to do with didn’t mean she wanted to live off of him.
Her plan was to work while he was in college, then when he graduated from Harvard law and came back home to work in the family firm that had been around for generations, she was going to open her own salon and make her mark.
None of it ever happened though.
She still had her career. But she was working for someone else. Someday she’d open her place up but for now life was just simpler this way.
And simple was what she needed more than anything, allowing her to move again if she had the urge.
By the time she was done with drying Brenda’s hair, then putting the gel in and artfully arranging it, she hadn’t needed to even pull out the curling iron.
“This is fabulous,” Brenda said. “I don’t know how you do this with a blow dryer and a brush. I couldn’t even if I tried.”
“I couldn’t do this on my own hair either. It’s easier when you stand behind someone to do it. The color looks great.”
“It’s so shiny. I love this shade of brown with all the highlights on the end. You’re the best, Amanda.”
“Thanks.”
Brenda stood up and grabbed her purse, handed over a fifty-dollar bill as the tip. She loved working on the island. The women here tipped no less than twenty percent at all times. And most of her clients had colors rather than cuts. “I’m going to put the color on my card if that is okay, but I like to give you cash for the tip.”
“Whatever works for you,” she said, picking up her phone to complete the transaction. Technology was wonderful and it made it so much easier for clients to pay her directly now rather than go through the shop and then back to her.
“I’m walking up with you,” Brenda said. “I need to see this guy.”
“You’re married,” she reminded her forty-something customer who had a second home on the island.
“So? That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a nice-looking man now and again.”
They walked up together, Amanda stopping in her tracks when she saw who was sitting there making eye contact with her. “Drew,” she said. “This is a surprise.”
He stood up when she heard Brenda whisper, “Damn, you go, girl.” Then said louder. “Thanks, Amanda. Wonderful as always. Such a doll, this girl is.”
She rolled her eyes as Brenda walked out, Drew coming forward. “I hope it was okay to drop in like this. I need a trim and remembered you said you worked here.”
“Not a problem. You lucked out that I’ve got thirty minutes before my next appointment. Follow me back.”
She took a deep breath when she turned around. Holy cow. Yeah, he was just as smoking now as he was when he knocked on the door of the house he owned last week.
Here she thought she’d never see him again and no
w she’d be running her hands through his hair. Talk about a lucky day.
He sat in the chair and she put a smock over him. “So what are you looking to do?”
He had short hair on the sides and back, but a bit longer on the top. “I just need the back and sides trimmed, the top a bit too.”
“Who do you normally go to?” she asked when she pulled out the clippers. “They couldn’t get you in?”
“I don’t have a special person,” he said back. “I just go over to the strip mall and walk in.”
She nodded her head wondering why he changed that today. She figured someone like him would have a barber or a stylist they saw all the time. Guess she didn’t know as much about him as she figured.
He was in jeans today and a nice button-down shirt with shoes. Pretty much the same attire as he had on when he was at her house last week. It seemed no one really dressed up much anymore.
“I feel there is a special reason you came to see me though. Did you want more cookies?”
He laughed and man, oh man, his face transformed and softened even more. There was a look of humor in his eyes and something more that she couldn’t put her finger on.
“I’d love more cookies. I ate too many of them that night and thought I was going to get sick.” She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Sugar high,” he said. “The cookies were great and I wouldn’t even share them with Bode the next day. He was pissed. When I left the office and came back two were missing so I know he snuck in and grabbed them.”
“Do you often not share with your brother?”
“Not if I can help it,” he said back.
“So, what is the real reason you came in today?”
She wasn’t easily fooled or manipulated. She knew there was more going on than needing a haircut.
“Well, I do need a haircut, but there is something else. I’m not sure how to say this or even bring it up. So, if you’ve got a few minutes I guess I’ll start with some background information.”
“You’ve got thirty minutes,” she said. “Well, twenty-five now. Are you someone that drags a story out?”
“I like you,” he said. “You’re funny but sweet, just like your client said. I know you want the punch line, but you won’t come out and specifically say that either.”
