I’ve thought about that statement a great deal over the years.
“I saw the Kelly girls next door,” my father said, passing me the bowl of potatoes. It looked like Mom had put cheddar cheese in them this week. “I heard the oldest is engaged. We got an invitation to her engagement party.”
Luke and I had received invitations also. The party was at a swanky hotel in the downtown area that had recently been refurbished.
“Shelby is engaged,” I replied, after swallowing down a bite of roast chicken. “To some guy named Brad. Not sure of his last name.”
It was on the invitation but I’d forgotten. Mia would know off the top of her head.
“Such a lovely girl,” my mother said, pushing the platter of chicken closer to me and Luke. She’d made enough for an army. “And her sister too. I can’t believe Mia is still single. You need to find a nice girl like her, Josh. She’s such a sweet person.”
My mom had never seen Mia when she was pissed. I had and it wasn’t pretty. She wasn’t so damn sweet then. She had that legendary redheaded temper.
“Mia’s going to help Josh with his new game,” Luke piped up, a shit eating grin on his face. “They’re seeing each other this afternoon.”
Rachel elbowed her husband and I gave him a kick under the table. Luke was bored and had decided to stir up trouble. Asshole.
“It’s just business,” I replied, although my mother’s face had lit up at Luke’s words. He shouldn’t raise her hopes like that. “It’s not a date.”
Luke dumped more chicken on his plate. “That’s true. Mia probably already has a boyfriend. She hasn’t had much time for Josh lately.”
My brother was about to get a fork stuck in his arm. He was at it again.
Annoyed, I scooped up a forkful of peas. “I don’t think she has a boyfriend.”
“A pretty girl like Mia?” my mother said with a frown. “I’m sure she does. But if she doesn’t, you should ask her out.”
Those peas lodged in my throat. “What? No. No, I’m not going to ask her on a date.”
My mom seemed perplexed by how adamant I was. “Why not? You like her, don’t you? Do you think she’s attractive?”
“Of course, I like Mia.” I sighed, not wanting to discuss my love life with my parents. I wasn’t sixteen anymore. Hell, I hadn’t discussed it even then. Our last conversation about my love life consisted of my old man pressing a pack of condoms in my hand and telling me that no meant no. “But it’s not like that between us. We’re friends. Besides I’m dating someone, Mom. Trisha. She’s a corporate attorney.”
Beautiful, smart, successful, and she wasn’t looking for a serious relationship. Trisha was perfect. Mia, on the other hand, was the type of girl you married. You didn’t fuck her and then forget to call the next day. You picked out china, flatware, and minivans with Mia.
“You should bring Trisha for Sunday dinner then.”
There was no way I was going to do that. Inviting a woman here to meet my parents carried all sorts of serious connotations that I wasn’t willing to even think about.
“Maybe I’ll do that.”
Luke snorted but I kicked him again under the table. It was all his fault this whole conversation had started to begin with. I didn’t even know why he was acting like an ass about Mia. She was one of my best friends but that didn’t mean I wanted to shag her. I didn’t think about her like that.
Except now that Luke had brought it up, I couldn’t help but wonder… Did she have a boyfriend? Was he even good enough for her?
I highly doubted it.
* * *
Mia
I showed up at Josh’s front door with my shiny new fall out of love with Josh plan. It was so simple I don’t know why I had never thought about it before. All I had to do was concentrate on all of Josh’s worst qualities. All the ways he wasn’t even close to perfect. Already I had a few items on the list.
He was annoying when he wanted something. I’d always called it persistence but semantics were everything. From now on I was calling it pushy and self-centered.
He was a workaholic. Once again names were important. I used to say that he was hard working and ambitious but now I was going to describe it as a dog eat dog mentality that made him selfish with his time for family and friends.
I was so happy with the first two items on my list that I hadn’t properly prepared myself for all his good qualities when he opened his front door. Damn him, he looked good. Really, really good. He’d thrown on a faded pair of denims and a blue cable knit sweater as the weather had turned much colder today. It looked like we might have an early winter this year.
At least that’s what my dad had said at lunch today and he was a regular reader of the Farmer’s Almanac for the last half century or so. He also believed that wooly worms could predict the weather. All you need to do is look at the reddish-brown bands on them. Narrow meant a harsh winter and wider meant a milder one.
“You made it,” Josh said, stepping back so I could cross the threshold and giving me a dazzling smile. It really should be illegal to be that handsome. “And you’re only ten minutes late. I think that’s a record for you.”
He was always giving me crap about my punctuality. No one knew better than I did that I was late all the time. I was the one rushing around, after all.
“Bite me.”
I quickly catalogued that his reminding me about being late was sort of petty. Another poor trait for my list. This was going to be so easy. I’d be out of love with him by dinnertime. I should have done this years ago.
Josh just laughed and took my coat, hanging it in the foyer closet. Another strike against him. He was fussy. I would have simply draped the darn thing over a chair.
“I hope you’re ready to work. I have lots of ideas but I don’t know what to do with them.”
I had to admit that was a good trait. Josh always had lots of amazingly creative ideas. He was full to the brim with them and he’d once joked that he was going to have to live to be two hundred to be able to use them all.
“Let me see what you’ve have.”
As usual, he’d placed his storyline out on the long wall of his television-slash-game room. He’d painted an entire twelve-foot wall with white board paint so he could lay out a story line easily, adding and erasing as needed. From what I could see, this one looked much more sparse than what I’d witnessed in the past.
I’d been to Josh’s home about a million times so I knew it as well as my own. When he’d purchased the three bedroom, three bath ranch in a brand-new subdivision on the outskirts of town, I’d thought that perhaps he was thinking about proposing to his latest girlfriend. That idea was thrown out of the window when he’d asked me to help him pick out the furniture. No woman was going to want a sofa picked out by another female. He and I had spent several weekends strolling through furniture showrooms and home centers selecting dining sets, throw pillows, and even art for the walls.
He liked simple, clean lines. The furniture was mission style and the decor was all done in beige and blue. The couch was overstuffed and I knew for a fact that Josh liked to nap there on Saturday afternoons.
“I’ll get you a soda while you look at it,” Josh said before rummaging in the refrigerator. His home had an open floor plan and the only thing that separated the kitchen from the game room was a gigantic marble island. All the appliances were stainless steel because hey, why not? “Root beer okay?”
What did this man have against caffeine? I should have brought my own legal stimulant.
“Whatever you have is fine.”
He buried his head in the fridge for a moment. “I know you’re cursing me right now.”
Actually, I’m thrilled. Another item to add to my list. This was like shooting fish in a barrel, although I’m not sure why anyone would ever do something like that. Didn’t make much sense.
“You’d be wrong. I love root beer.”
He poured the foamy liquid over ice. “I have brownies with icin
g for dessert.”
“Did you make them?”
I already knew the answer.
“I bought them, it’s almost the same thing.”
“It’s not even close. Did you get them at the good bakery or the grocery store?”
He gave me that smile again, reaching out to brush a strand of hair off my cheek with his finger. The wind had turned my curls into a rat’s nest. “The bakery, of course. I stopped after Sunday dinner. Nothing is too good for you.”
He had charm in spades. For a creative geek, he was surprisingly extroverted. Okay, that was another good quality. I grudgingly added it to the pro side of the list. Wait…when had I started a pro side? Spending any time with Josh was a slippery slope. One minute I was fine and then…bam! I was sloppy in love again.
This might be harder than I thought.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mia
After we’d fixed Josh’s story draft, he’d made cheeseburgers for dinner. He was a decent chef and the entire kitchen smelled heavenly. I was starving and my stomach gurgled in anticipation as we sat down at the island to eat. Just like always, right next to each other.
While we ate, we chatted about his new game. I could tell he was excited. It was a good idea and once I’d cleaned up all his historical inaccuracies it had really come together. He’d clearly watched too many gangster movies and he didn’t even know how Prohibition actually came about. Once I’d given him the background, he’d practically jumped around the room, drawing out ideas and making notes. I didn’t play video games but I always made an exception for Josh’s. Or at least I tried to. I sucked at games in general.
Josh pushed his plate away and patted his stomach. He’d eaten every single bite of his burger and fries. He wouldn’t gain an ounce, either. That alone should make me hate his guts.
“I couldn’t have done this without you, Mia. Thank you.”
“I know. You’re welcome.”
Chuckling, he stood to clear our plates. “And you’re modest, too. Seriously, Luke was tearing his hair out as the deadline approached and you weren’t returning my calls. He was so rattled that he thought you might have a serious boyfriend.”
I didn’t like the tone in which Josh said that. As if it was so impossible that I could attract a man. I had, indeed, had men that adored me. None currently, of course, but that wasn’t the point.
“But you didn’t think that?”
I sounded miffed and he must have picked up on it because he was intently rinsing the dishes before placing them in the dishwasher. Normally he would have let the plates hang out in the sink.
“That wasn’t my first thought but of course it was a possibility.” He dropped their silverware into the plastic basket. I watched his hands, fascinated as always by his long fingers. I’d imagined too many times what those digits could do. “Do you?”
Was he interested? Was he…jealous? Doubtful, but he certainly had seemed put out that I hadn’t jumped on his text messages like a dog on a bone.
“Am I what?”
I sure as hell wasn’t going to make this easy for him.
He finally had to look at me since the dishes were all done. “Dating someone.”
I wasn’t at the moment, but he didn’t need to know that. In fact, the less he knew about my personal romantic life the better. I didn’t want him to know just how pathetic I had been lately.
“Are you?” I asked, jonesing for time to come up with a witty answer.
He shrugged as if it was a foregone conclusion. “Yes, her name is Trisha.”
Ah, the infamous Trisha from the text yesterday.
I hadn’t really thought this through. By asking him, I’d opened myself up to having to answer his question. Shit. I need to come up with an answer lickety-split.
“I don’t know if I would call it dating.”
There. A vague, noncommittal answer. Maybe he’d let me leave it at that.
He frowned, wiping down the island with a dishtowel. “Then what would you call it?”
A little story. A fib. A lie, perhaps.
“I’m keeping things casual.”
I sounded like a guy, which I actually kind of liked. I smiled triumphantly, daring him to ask me more personal questions about my love life. I was pretty sure Josh wouldn’t want to tread anywhere near that statement.
“Casual,” he repeated, nodding his head. “That’s probably wise. You’re still young. No sense getting tied down at your age.”
Jesus, Mary, and the camel, he acted like I was a teenager. I was over thirty, and in some cultures a withered up old maid.
Thank the gods, I wasn’t in any of those cultures.
He wasn’t done talking, though.
“You know, just don’t believe everything a guy tells you.”
I’d learned that at ten when Billy Darden had one of his friends tell me he liked me but I found him kissing Marcy Edelman behind the swings at recess.
“Are you trying to say that all men are pigs?”
“All men are…focused. You just need to be careful. It’s fine to date around but don’t…”
Focused on getting laid. He didn’t seem to be able to end his sentence so I did it for him.
“But don’t sleep around?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, he looked uncomfortable. He ought to, trying to give me romance advice like he was my uncle. Or the health teacher in high school.
“Well…yeah.”
“Gosh, Dad, are you saying that boys won’t respect me? Or marry me? And move me into a little house with a white picket fence with two kids and a dog? Gee whiz, I guess I should give up that part time job as a pole dancer on the edge of town.”
His brows shot up to his hairline and then he burst into laughter. We were both holding our sides and I had a few tears leak out of my eyes.
“A pole dancer on the edge of town?” Josh was laughing so hard he could barely get the words out. “Where did you come up with that?”
“Didn’t you hear? They put a tittie bar out by the highway. Our little town is growing up.” I lightly smacked his forehead with the heel of my palm. “You need to get out more.”
“Tittie bar,” he sighed, shaking his head. “I’ve always hated that word.”
I wagged a finger under his nose. He could be so uptight sometimes. I put it down to growing up in a house with only a brother and no sisters. “What would you rather I call them? Boobs? Breasts? Fun bags? Tatas? Bazongas? It’s a topless bar, okay? The twins are free, if you get my drift. I just want to know how a red blooded American male had no idea a nudie bar opened up within a twenty-mile radius.”
I, on the other hand, had grown up with an older sister and we’d talked about everything. Most especially boobs.
“I’ve been busy.” His eyes narrowed. “Where did you hear about it?”
Did he actually think that I’d filled out an application? My boobs were still up and firm but I wasn’t the greatest dancer.
“Shelby,” I answered promptly. “She wants to go out and interview all the dancers to find out if they all hate their dad.”
“She thinks they hate their dad?”
“She thinks everyone hates their dad, or their mother.”
He seemed to ponder my answer and then came around the island, placing both hands on the back of my barstool and turning me so that I was facing the pool table. I caught a whiff of his body wash and the room spun for a moment. He smelled so incredibly good. He always had.
Dammit, I knew what was next. That stupid table was Josh’s pride and joy. Somehow I was always getting roped into a game of eight ball.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, and I mean it.”
I did mean it. I was terrible at games. All of them. He just wanted to win and I was an easy target.
“Please?”
“No.”
“With sugar on top?”
“No.”
“With brownies and fudge icing on top?”
I could feel my will to resist weakening. He knew me far too well.
“There better be chocolate chips.”
“There will be.”
Another item to add to my list. He was a sneaky bastard, too. How come I wasn’t out of love with him yet? This wasn’t working like I’d planned.
CHAPTER SIX
Josh
About halfway through dinner I’d realized just how much I’d missed Mia these last several weeks. She was always fun and easy to be around. She wasn’t the demanding type always complaining about it being too hot or too cold. She did get cranky when she was hungry but it was actually kind of cute to see her grump around until she was fed.
She was also brilliant when it came to helping me with my historical story lines and this time was no exception. Within two hours she’d managed to help me whip the game into shape and I could definitely finish without issue. I’d make that deadline after all.
Mia was, however, a terrible pool player. She didn’t have a competitive bone in her body either, which didn’t help. If she had, she’d have been driven to get better at some point in her life, but at the rate she was going she would get her ass kicked by everyone on the planet.
“You suck at this.”
She gave me a sour look as she bent over the edge of the table to make her shot. The tip of the cue stick hit at an awkward angle, sending the ball skittering across the green felt table in the opposite direction of the intended target. Mia straightened and sighed as the ball smacked into one of mine, sending it directly into the nearby pocket.
Tempt Him Page 3
