Pretty Face

by Hunter, Sable

He’d rented a table saw and set it up outside. Mainly to avoid a pile-up of sawdust on the floor and in the air, but also to avoid his pretty little client while he tried to get a handle on how she made him feel. Sage had avoided him last night and to say he was teed off about it was putting it mildly. How could she ignore him like this? After all they’d meant to one another, he just didn’t understand it.

  But he loved her, and you gave people you loved the benefit of the doubt.

  When he stepped near a window, he could smell something out of this world. It was spicy enough to make his nose twitch and he bet it’d taste as good as it smelled.

  About eleven the front door opened. “I have to go to class in a little over an hour. Would you like to knock off early and have lunch? I made jambalaya.” The way she said the last word was meant to tease—she used a lilt to her voice that made him take notice. God, sometimes she sounded just like Sage. This Louisiana accent must be prevalent.

  “You bet, I’m hungry.”

  He dusted himself off and went inside to the dining table. She had already filled a plate with a meat filled rice dish and crusty bread for him. Hunter tried not to notice, but Cody was cute in a slim skirt, a frilly white blouse and high heels. When she bent over to turn off the slow cooker, he almost groaned. God, how much he’d love to trace the curve of her ass with his palms.

  What kind of man was he? He was cheating on the woman he loved as sure as shooting. But what was he to do? He was only human. Clearing his throat, he sat down, calming himself. Sage had promised to see him and he had to have faith.

  “Tell me about your life in Colorado,” she spoke, joining him at the table, her voice carefully modulated, her face expressionless. Since she’d thrown herself at him yesterday and he’d run like a scalded tomcat, Cody had made a vow to keep her hands, lips, and emotions to herself. After he’d gone yesterday, she’d thrown herself on the bed and cried like a baby.

  “Not much to tell.” He was being truthful. “My life pretty much consists of work and sleep. I have a few friends that I have a beer with occasionally, but my girlfriend is here. Most of my free time was spent with her online.”

  Cody wished she hadn’t asked. “My life isn’t as exciting as yours, I’m afraid. My two best friends live in other parts of the state. Teaching takes up quite a bit of time, as does my lab work. I enjoy that most of all, I think.”

  He took another bike. “Damn, this is good. I love the sausage.”

  “Andouille.” She explained primly.

  “Tell me what you’re working on in the lab.”

  Cody was surprised. He seemed relaxed with her, like he’d made some type of decision to stop worrying. She hoped that was the case. “How much do you know about quantum mechanics, wormholes and the theory of relativity?”

  “Only what I learned in the movie Interstellar,” he admitted with a grin.

  “Well, you’re close,” Cody said, evoking a look of delight from Hunter. “Time travel isn’t happening anytime soon, maybe not in our lifetime, but we’re drawing closer. Even Stephen Hawking has changed his tune about it.”

  Hunter didn’t need the details, but he was curious. “If time travel was feasible, I think I would return to the old west days. What would you do, Cody?”

  Cody’s face grew serious. She fingered her scar. “That’s easy, I’d turn back time and not do some things that have hurt people I love.” She was talking about him. If she had to do it over again, she would do things differently.

  Hunter wasn’t tempted to ask for details. He could understand having regrets, he had a few of his own. A few more bites and he’d cleaned his plate.

  “Would you like more?” She held the bowl of jambalaya out toward him.

  “No, but if you have extra, I’d like to take some home with me.” Cody’s cooking beat take-out any day. “What I do need is to you use your phone. I left my cell at the motel this morning and I need to call the hardware store and get them to order the flooring you’ve picked out. We’ll be needing it before you know it.”

  “Sure, there’s one at the small desk by the media center in the living room. Feel free to use it. I’ll be in my office.” Gratefully, she made her escape. Sage had avoided him yesterday. She needed to decide what she was going to do. Cody could feel her time was running out.

  Hunter went to the kitchen and found the materials listing. She’d selected hardwood, a beautiful golden oak. Settling down at the desk, he called the hardware store and was immediately put on hold. “Crap,” he mused. He hated to wait. As he sat there, his eye wandered over the books and DVDs Cody had collected. Smiling, he leaned forward. She read Cormac McCarthy, Michael Connelly, and Toni Morrison. Those were some of Sage’s favorite authors. He’d finally broken down and read Beloved, just because she’d asked him to. It was haunting, just like she said. The DVDs were even more interesting. Cody had a large number of movies, but all were the same genre. There wasn’t an action movie or a rom-com in the bunch. All of them were scary movies, thrillers, and some horror. Just like Sage. How odd. No wonder he seemed to be attracted to Cody, she reminded him of Sage on more than one level.

  “Hello, may I help you?” Mr. Treadaway came on the line.

  Hunter gave him the order and was given some delivery and payment information for Cody. “Hold on, I have to find a pen.” Opening the top drawer, he saw a pen and reached for it. There was a yellow sticky note right on top that contained two numbers—one was 782 and the other was 16. The numbers looked familiar. Shaking his head, Hunter wondered if he was going crazy. Everything seemed to contain a hidden message and he just couldn’t manage to make out what it said.

  “Got it.” Mr. Treadaway gave him the info and Hunter stood. As he did so, a folder caught his attention. The Right One. Frowning, he picked it up. This sounded like Sage’s company. Sure enough, when he began to read, it was a dating service. The same one whose website he’d poured over with Sage. Had Cody signed up to find a date? And there was a photo in the side pocket. He knew he was snooping, but he pulled it out and there was Cody with two other women. A lot of The Right One information was scattered on a table in front of them. Apparently Cody had gone to some type of seminar sponsored by TRO. An odd uncomfortable feeling welled up in his chest. He didn’t like to think of Cody dating. Almost immediately he quashed the idea. He had no business feeling anything for Cody other than maybe friendship.

  He was in love with Sage.

  If he could ever find her…

  * * *

  The afternoon passed quickly. Cody drove to campus, taught her class, and returned. Everywhere she looked, there were signs that Mardi Gras was drawing near. The whole state of Louisiana celebrated the holiday. There was a time when Cody was in the middle of every party and every parade. Now, she kept to herself. Today she’d come home and prepared for the next day’s class before exhaustion got the better of her. When she’d put the finishing touch on the next day’s lecture, Cody closed her computer, folded her hands on top of the lid, and stared at the wide blue expanse of wall in front of her face.

  Hunter hadn’t tried to contact her since last night. For the longest, he’d always left a message for her every morning—rain or shine—and now nothing. She ought to be glad, ought to be relieved.

  She wasn’t.

  Even though the damn man was in the next room, Cody missed him desperately.

  In fact…she did something she hadn’t done in a while.

  She opened the computer, logged into Facebook, and opened his message box.

  Sage: I hope you had a good day at work. If you want to, I’d like to talk to you later. Like we used to. I need you, Hunter.

  Right after she hit enter, a spasm of guilt spiked through her belly. She was doing it again. Leading him on. God, she was so weak where he was concerned. He was like a drug to her system.

  “Cody?”

  The sudden noise behind her, Hunter saying her name, caused her to slam the lid, quickly hiding the evidence of Sage Donovan. Whirling around
, she stared at him, her eyes wide, her chest heaving. “Hunter!”

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.” He looked innocently surprised. “What were you doing?”

  She blushed furiously and said nothing.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Uh-uh,” she was stammering like an idiot. “I wasn’t doing anything.”

  “Look.” He held up his hands. “It’s okay. I understand. Women have just as much right to have a good time, to look for love, in all the wrong places,” he actually sang the last five words, “as men do.”

  Cody’s mouth fell open. He knew. “You know?” He knew about Sage. “Hunter…” She felt her face flame like a Roman candle. “I can explain.”

  Hunter smiled. “You don’t have to. I saw the folder.”

  “The folder.” She repeated. What folder?

  “You’ve signed up for The Right One dating service. My friend, Sage, owns The Right One, that’s why the familiar logo caught my eye. What a coincidence, right?”

  Like puzzle pieces, Cody tried to assimilate the data he was feeding her. He didn’t know she was Sage. He thought she’d joined a dating service and when he’d walked in just now, Hunter thought she’d been embarrassed because she was looking at men’s dating profiles.

  But most important of all—he called Sage his friend, not his girlfriend.

  Big difference. Huge difference.

  “Oh, the dating service.” She nodded her head and smiled weakly. “Yea, that is a coincidence. And yes, I have the forms, but I’ve never activated my account.”

  Hunter nodded his head, like he didn’t believe her, but he wasn’t going to push it. “I came in here to tell you the flooring is ordered and we put the total on your account.” He handed her a slip of paper with the amount written on it.

  “Okay, but I have to tell you, I’m not using the dating service.” For some reason it was imperative that he believe her.

  Hunter could tell he was getting to her. She looked like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. “Cody, I saw the photo of you and two other women at some dating conference The Right One hosted. You were turned a little bit away from the camera, but I could tell it was you.” Nobody else he’d ever seen had a cuter turned up nose or sweeter rose bud lips.

  With a couple of jerking movements, she moved her chair completely around. For the moment her scar was forgotten. The photo he was speaking about was of her, Marnie, and Trinity at one of their planning meetings at Willow Bend, a picture Lacy had taken. Since Sage had confided to Hunter that she owned part of TRO, Cody had to wiggle around the truth, but this much was flat fact. “I do have the papers, but I haven’t filled them out for myself. I won’t. I don’t date. Period.”

  She’d been talking so fast, he’d had to concentrate to keep up. Instead of being mad that he’d snooped in her things, she was still trying to convince him that she wasn’t interested in meeting a man. “You don’t date? Why?”

  Cody looked disappointed in him. She dropped her head. “Don’t patronize me.” Her voice was weak. She realized she was tired and discussing this with Hunter hurt more than she’d ever thought possible. “This is why.” She touched her scar. “Obviously this is why.”

  He was about to argue with her, but a knock on the door prevented him from getting the first word out of his mouth.

  “Excuse me,” she said politely. Cody waited for him to proceed her down the hall. “Let me see who’s at the door. I’ll be right back with you.”

  Hunter felt like a jerk. He hadn’t liked it when he found the dating application, then he’d proceeded to tease her about it. But her sad answer had jerked the rug out from under him. Didn’t she realize how pretty she was?

  At the front door, Cody was in shock. Talk about bad timing!

  “Aren’t you going to let us in?” Marnie and Trinity stood there looking smug. “Didn’t you miss us?”

  “Like a hole in the head,” she snarled, stepped out on the front porch, and pulled the door behind her. “Listen and listen good, I have to talk fast. Hunter is inside.” She had to hold her hands up to shush the pair. “He doesn’t know I’m Sage. He’s renovating my kitchen and he can’t know we own TRO. You can meet him, but you have to act like he’s my contractor. Only!” She emphasized. “And you can’t embarrass me in any way, shape, form or fashion. Got it?”

  “Totally,” Marnie answered. There was a mischievous look in her eyes that Cody didn’t like.

  “I mean it, you two.” Cody was stern, her face white with strain.

  “Okay, honey, we got it.” Trinity hugged her. “Lead on, I for one can’t wait to meet this paragon of a man.”

  Slowly, she opened the door and backed into the house, almost tripping over Hunter.

  “Sorry, easy.” Hunter caught her, his hands on her shoulders, his hard hot body molded to her back.

  Cody moved away from him like he’d burned her. Trinity and Marnie were watching the two of them with great interest. “Hunter, these are my friends, Trinity and Marnie. You saw them in that photo. We all attended the same dating seminar. Girls, this is Hunter Reed. He’s renovating my kitchen. He’s visiting Louisiana for a few weeks from Colorado.”

  She exhaled. The introduction had taken a lot out of her.

  Marnie turned on the charm. “Well, hello, good-looking. It sure is a pleasure to meet you.” She twisted and turned, and Cody wanted to slap the crap out of her.

  “Don’t mind her,” Trinity injected. “She’s retarded. But it is good to meet you.”

  Hunter shook both their hands. “It’s nice to meet both of you.” He looked from one woman to the next. It was obvious he was missing something, but for the life of him he didn’t know what it was. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you ladies to your visiting. My work day is over. Cody, if I could see you in the kitchen for just a minute to show you something, then I’ll be on my way.”

  Cody nodded. “Sure.” She looked pointedly at her friends. “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be right with you.”

  Hunter waited for her in the kitchen. He needed to apologize. When she joined him, he was almost tongue-tied. Cody glanced around, noting his progress. “It’s looking good. Now that you’ve got some of the frames built and the doors assembled, it will go up fast. Won’t it?”

  “Yea,” Hunter agreed. “Look, Cody, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Not happening. She stepped away from him. “Don’t worry about it for a second. I tend to say more about almost anything than I should.” Pasting a smile on her face, she looked over his right shoulder, not at him. “Comes from lecturing people for a living, I guess.”

  “No, it was—”

  “Please, let’s just forget it.” She went to the refrigerator. “Here, take the rest of the jambalaya home. I’ll have to take those two out for dinner, that’s one of the reasons they come. We go to a little Italian restaurant, their favorite. This will go to waste.”

  Hunter took it. “Thanks. Okay, well, I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  Cody’s breath hitched in her throat. She was so confused. This was getting more and more complicated. Sage seemed farther and farther away. “Have a good night, Hunter.”

  Gathering his tools, Hunter headed for the door. “Cody, for what it’s worth, you have no reason not to date. There’s a man out there who’s going to think you’re perfect just the way you are. It would be a crime if you didn’t find one another.”

  Somehow she managed to keep from dissolving into a puddle of self-pity. Watching the man she loved walk out the door while he gave her a dating pep-talk was almost more than she could handle. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She stood still until he shut the screen and moved around the corner of the house by the window. Cody moved to look out of it, watching him climb in his truck and back out of the driveway. She watched until he disappeared down the street and then she began to cry.

  “Hey, Cody, don’t cry.” Marnie had slipped into the kitchen. Cody turned int
o her arms.

  “I can’t help it, I’ve made a mess. A total mess.” She let her friend lead her back into the living room where Trinity was picking up and cleaning up. Her friend practiced good-housekeeping when she was upset. “Trinity, just leave it. The whole house is in disarray.”

  “Come on, let’s sit down and talk.” Marnie led them to the couch and recliner that sat in front of the fireplace. “Just sit still, I’ll fix coffee. Trinity, get Cody something to blow her nose on.”

  Cody sat there while her friends scooted around, doing little things to make her feel better. “I’m so glad you two came,” she hiccupped. “I feel like I’m in the twilight zone.”

  Marnie brought a tray and set it on the coffee table. “I can imagine trying to be two different people at the same time is exhausting.”

  Trinity hit Marnie with a sofa pillow. “Be nice.”

  Cody wiped her face, then poured them all a mug of strong java. “No, she’s right. I created this monster and I have to see it through. One way or the other, I have to finish it, come clean, beg his forgiveness and say goodbye.”

  “Now wait.” Marnie cuddled up on the end of the couch with her feet tucked under her. “Let me get this straight. Hunter just showed up one day? How did he get here and how did he end up renovating your kitchen?”

  “Yea,” Trinity said. “I’m sorta curious about that myself.”

  Cody took a deep breath and explained. “We were playing one day and like he has before, he poured out his feelings and begged to see me. I gave him the usual runaround, and he shocked the stuffing out of me when he up and announced he had already bought a ticket and was coming to Louisiana—hell or high water.”

  Trinity almost choked on her coffee. “Oh, my Lord, what did you do?”

  “Honestly, I debated whether to get on a slow boat to China or face the music.” She ran a finger around the rim of the cup. “I faced the music. I went to the airport ready to meet him. I thought he’d halfway recognize me because I did send him some old photos from college. Of course, they were before my stepbrother redesigned my face.”