by Sonia Parin
“This doesn’t add up.”
“What?”
“He doesn’t strike me as a glutton.”
“You’re speaking in tongues.”
Jimmy rolled his eyes. “According to you, he’s with Claire Muldoon. And that threatening death glare he gave me says he’s staking a claim on you. There are guys who do that. They’re with someone but are interested in someone else...” he rolled his eyes again, “It’s like casting a net and claiming all the fish in the sea as your own. That makes a person a relationship glutton. Wanting every woman they see for themselves.”
Eddie shook her head. “So?”
“Are you sure he’s taken?” Jimmy tapped his chin. “There’s something oddly monogamous about him. I can smell the idiosyncrasy a mile away.” Jimmy topped up their wine glasses and sat up. “Time to roll up my sleeves. Let’s analyze this. Take the attraction out of the equation.”
She nodded. “He’d be a great gay friend, like you. And I think I could call him after months of not seeing him and pick up the conversation from where we left off.”
“Now, let’s pretend there is no Claire in the picture. Step right inside the fantasy, what do you see.”
“Months of joy. Him leaving after—” she snatched her glass of wine and took a big gulp. “I do not have abandonment issues.”
“Put away the scowl. Everyone has issues. You’ve had a couple of relationships that didn’t end well, your mother—” He took a sip of his drink. “Sorry. Actually, no, I’m not. If my mother had abandoned me days after my birth I’d probably spend a lifetime on the therapist’s couch and second guess every decision I made.”
“You’d milk it for all it was worth.” She tried to smile but her lips wouldn’t respond.
“And you haven’t, which begs the question. Why?”
She tried to speak, but the words piled up in her throat and refused to budge. What could she say? Did she have abandonment issues? If she didn’t, how could she justify the slip of the tongue remark? “My mother had issues. Not me.” She lifted her chin. “As for thinking Theo would eventually leave, I’m being practical. A guy like him would get restless in a small town.” Besides, he was taken.
“And a girl like you would feel out of her element in New York or London. And if everyone relied on commonsense to guide their decisions, we’d all be single.”
“Am I supposed to throw caution to the wind and...”
Jimmy shook his head. “You don’t need me to tell you to be deliberately reckless. A little bird tells me you’ve been doing that all by yourself, plotting your own downfall and chasing after a heartbreak...”
She picked up the menu and pretended to read through it. “Flippant remarks are not written in stone.”
“Good. I’d hate to see you go through life believing you’re cursed by a silly adage. The worst thing a person can do is become a cliché. And FYI, he hasn’t stopped looking this way.”
“We should order now. Otherwise, I’m going to start nibbling the table.” Although, the thought of food made her stomach shrink back in horror.
“Look who just walked in.”
“I’m afraid to.”
“Joyce. And she’s really embracing the whole vintage look. It suits her. Love the dress, love the shoes, love the bag.”
“You didn’t say that about me.”
“Your day will come. I live in hope.” Jimmy laughed. “She just threw the guy in the safari jacket a killer scowl. Looks like you’ve been holding back.”
“Good luck trying to get her to admit to anything. Even I can see there’s something happening between those two. Whenever they’re in the same room I feel like a third wheel in a steam room.”
“Mind if I join you?” Joyce asked.
“Please do. You can be witness to Jimmy slapping some sense into me.”
Joyce pulled out a chair and sat down with a huff. “Maybe Jimmy can focus on me for a bit. My mail order date had a thousand and one questions. Should I be worried about him wanting to meet my parents? And no, I haven’t told him about my parents. He wanted to know what type of flowers my mother likes and what color dress I’ll be wearing to the wedding. He wants to make sure his tie doesn’t clash. I’m having second thoughts about him.”
“Is making an impression part of the agreement?” Jimmy asked.
“We’re still brainstorming our roles. I don’t want anyone else to know I special ordered him at the last minute so the story is that we met last year when I went to Melbourne on a coffee scouting trip and we’ve been keeping in touch ever since. He happens to have some free time, but not enough to go overseas on holidays, so he’s decided to come here and spend a week with me.”
“You have my nod of approval. I’m impressed and thoroughly convinced,” Jimmy said.
“I’m a novice. While I think we’ll pull it off, maybe I should sleep on it another night. Now, what did I miss?”
“Jimmy can do the honors. I’m going to... powder my nose.” Eddie rose to her feet and called on her willpower to keep her gaze averted from Theo.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Joyce asked.
“Thanks, but I just need to stand in front of the mirror and wag my finger under my nose.”
* * *
“I’m afraid I did something rather stupid,” Joyce confided.
“And now you’re afraid to face the consequences?” Jimmy asked.
“Due to circumstances beyond my control, I’ve been a little short tempered and I might have spoken out of turn.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “In fact, I might have seeded an idea and... my interference might now be the cause of Eddie’s heartbreak... one way or the other.”
Jimmy nodded as if he’d understood everything she’d said. “Now can you decode that for me?”
“If the person heeds my advice, he’ll break Eddie’s heart. If he ignores me, he’ll break Eddie’s heart because she would have missed out on her chance... because of me,” she gulped in a breath. “Any advice?”
“Run for your life.”
“Be serious. Here comes Eddie. Do I tell her?”
* * *
“All’s well,” Eddie said as she sat down. “Tomorrow, I have an appointment with a wine sales rep. If his facebook profile is anything to go by, he’s single, fun to be with, and good looking. Mitch has been grumbling about not wanting to visit a local brewery, so I can take that off his plate. I’ve heard glowing reports about the owner. In other words, I’m moving on. I might even schedule a trip to Melbourne, do the rounds of local restaurants, and get some fresh ideas. Our menu needs revamping. I’m putting myself out there...”
“You got all this from a visit to the rest room?”
“Finding myself attracted to the wrong person was unfortunate, but I’ve been coping. In fact, I’ve been doing quite well. Now I need to give myself a final push and get on with things. Time should take care of the rest.”
Joyce cleared her throat. “Eddie—”
Eddie raised her hand. “Nope. No more excuses, no more delaying the inevitable. And no more talk about a third disastrous relationship, either. That sort of thinking only made things worse for me. From now on, I’ll take things as they come and make the best of them. Stay tuned for more updates. And don’t look so surprised, Joyce. I got over Adam quickly enough. Theo should be a cinch. It never got beyond the fantasy, so—”
“Theo’s not Ben’s father and he’s not with Claire...”
Chapter Thirteen
Theo strode into The Gloriana and sent his gaze on a discreet lay of the land survey.
Matthew Faydon stood behind the counter, pouring a draft beer as he talked to one of the customers, his shirtsleeves rolled up to his elbows, his face showing a five o’clock shadow.
Theo wasn’t surprised to see Mitch Faydon standing by the pool table deep in conversation with a woman, eyes twinkling, his smile on playful mode.
Instead of standing like a sentinel, Markus Faydon sat by the fire on one of the lea
ther club chairs, his long legs stretched out, his fingers steepled under his chin, his perpetual scowl in place.
Unlike the first time he’d walked into The Gloriana, the hum of conversation continued uninterrupted. That didn’t mean his presence had gone unnoticed. Eyes had flickered his way. The Faydon brothers had him in their sights. Theo didn’t have a hope in hell of flying under the radar.
Trying to be as casual as possible, Theo strode up to the bar and set his hands on the counter. From the corner of his eyes, he caught a flash of red. Eddie was in her office.
It’s now or never, he thought. Drawing in a deep breath, he eased it out on a slow exhale and pushed away from the counter. He had to talk some sense into Eddie, talk her out of having a third disastrous relationship.
She couldn’t rush into something like that. What if she ended up scarring herself emotionally? What if it all backfired on her? What if she became a diehard cynic and vowed never to have anything to do with another man again? A third negative strike on the relationship stakes wouldn’t guarantee her life would then turn into a bed of roses.
He glanced at Markus and would swear the man gave him the ‘in your shoes, I’d think twice about it’ look.
Theo ignored him. What would he do? Jump to his feet and block his way? Growl and scowl until Theo beat a swift retreat, tail between his legs?
With the ease of blind confidence and raw determination, he strode toward the small office down the hallway. Eddie sat on the edge of her desk, her attention focused on her thumb as if it held the answers to all of life’s mysteries.
“Am I interrupting?” It seemed only polite to ask.
She looked up, her eyes heavy with concern. Theo wondered if she’d been pondering the darker side of her life or the drudgery of some mundane task she’d been burdened with. Noticing the spreadsheet on her computer screen, he decided to go with the latter.
She pushed off the desk and then eased back onto it and gave him a slow shake of her head. While her lips parted, she didn’t speak.
Theo could tell she had a thousand thoughts hollering in her mind, the loudest one probably telling her to brace herself and proceed with caution.
He had plenty of thoughts issuing the same warnings but he raised a halting hand to the ones telling him to go slow. All of a sudden, he wanted to go fast and furious. To stake his claim. To brand Eddie as his so he’d never again have to walk into a restaurant and find her having dinner with another man.
What if he was too late?
What if she had already picked the man to break her heart?
She still didn’t say anything but Theo interpreted the slight lift of her lips as a welcome sign. He didn’t need any more encouragement...
He could start with an admission. Tell her he knew about her ridiculous belief—
Way to go, Theo. Start by belittling her. She’ll love you for it.
Maybe he could ease into it, in a roundabout way make a passing remark. He’d have to do it without pointing fingers, directly at Joyce, and betraying her confidence. Somehow, he had to get the message across to her. She deserved more than a token fling.
Clearly, he hadn’t thought this through. In fact, everything he’d planned on saying dissolved when he got closer to Eddie. Moving to a primitive beat that seemed to be drumming a single-minded tune narrowed his options to what he wanted to do instead of what he needed to say.
His hands followed the prompt of days before when he’d first seen Eddie wearing a dress, and caressed their way along her thighs pushing back the hem of her dress, drawing a soft groan from her. He could live on her scent alone. It smelled of radiance, of romping around in the sunshine and something else...
A heady combination of sultriness. It seemed to thicken the air in the small office. Pheromones, he thought. His. Hers. Having a private party of their own.
His fingertips drew circles on her thighs, his eyes danced around her face absorbing the happiness he saw sparkling in her eyes. But from one moment to the next, her joy turned into a fierce scowl. She slapped her hands against his and tried to push them away.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a half growl, half whimper tone suggesting she couldn’t quite decide how she felt about interrupting his seduction.
He didn’t want to miss a beat. Yet Theo realized he’d skipped past a step or two. He should at least have said hello or...
“I’m not with Claire. Ben’s not my son,” it occurred to say, his throat clogged with frustration as he waited out the next few moments, his sanity, his raison d’être, hanging in the balance.
He knew the precise moment when the words registered in her mind. Eddie tilted her head back and gazed at him from lowered eyes that now brimmed with a blaze of wanting and needing more from him. Theo’s leashed need to touch her and kiss her broke free and careered out of control.
Standing close enough for the heat of his mouth to mingle with hers fired up an overwhelming need to push down his trousers and do what came naturally right there in her office, even with the threat of raging repercussions from her brothers hanging over him.
Before his voice of reason could intrude, the hunger pulsing through him urged him to plunge headlong into a ravaging assault on her mouth.
Kissing Eddie felt like a symphonic opera playing in perfect tune. A gathering of senses, all responding, all rising to a crescendo…
Nipping her bottom lip, he drew back long enough to say, “I’m not with Claire. Ben’s not my son,” only to realize he’d already told her that.
Her eyes shone and filled with amusement, which gave way to determination. With a soft groan, she pulled him toward her, claiming his mouth with ravenous hunger and a demand for more.
Theo savored the taste of triumph. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. Then he realized something significant. Every part of his body clamored for the touch of her skin. His entire body begged to get naked with Eddie. Nothing he’d ever experienced compared to this moment.
He’d had his share of affairs. If he measured his experiences against what he felt right that minute, he’d have to admit he’d only ever felt sparks of pleasure, fractions of a whole that had always fallen short of taking full form. This was something entirely different. And he was only kissing her...
Being with Eddie promised to be more than a mere slice of heaven or a single firecracker brightening the sky. Sex with Eddie held the promise of a full fireworks’ display, like the New Year’s Eve extravaganza from Sydney that even he watched from the other side of the world, fulfilling and satisfying on all levels.
A rumble of frustration rose inside him.
Theo pulled back and took a moment to explain to the rest of his body that being in the right place at the right time would work out better for everyone concerned.
“Dinner.”
Her brows pushed down in confusion. “What about dinner?” she asked, her voice crisp and sharp, as if she’d hurried to get the words out before she drifted away in a haze of pleasure.
He drew in a long breath. “A minute.”
“Theo?”
Another breath followed. Sharper. More intense. He lifted a finger. “Give me a minute.”
She sat back, her eyes skipping across his face. “Theo?”
“Give me a minute,” he insisted. He needed to get his body under control, but it rebelled. It wanted more. Now. Not later.
“Crap, I broke you. My brothers always told me to play nice with my toys but within days my dolls lost eyes and arms and hair—”
Theo chuckled. “You didn’t break me. You reduced me to monosyllables.”
She sighed with apparent relief. “That’s an improvement. This time you managed a whole sentence.”
“Go ahead and laugh.”
She took his hand and pressed it against her heart. “I felt it too,” she said in a husky murmur.
* * *
It took all his willpower to walk away from Eddie.
Tonight.
Tonight he’d have her all t
o himself. They’d sit down and have a civilized conversation. Although, after the way he’d jumped her, sounding like a concerned older brother, or even a friend watching out for her wellbeing, would be out of the question. According to Joyce, Eddie was determined to have a dead-end relationship. She’d made up her mind. And he’d be a fool to think he could sit down and talk. He was geared for action now. Maybe he could convince her to abandon her plans and just enjoy a moment out of time together. They could work something out...
A happy tune whistled in his head. He strode back toward the bar, looked up, and met Mitch’s gaze. Twirling his cue stick, Mitch shook his head and stretched his lips into a grin.
The hairs on the back of Theo’s head stood up. This isn’t going to turn out well, Theo thought. He took a step toward the exit, and then stopped.
Mitch set his cue stick down on the pool table and, in a few easy strides, he cut the distance between them. Everything else happened in slow motion.
“I got this,” Mitch said giving his brother Matthew a nod, and giving Theo a narrow window of opportunity. A fighting chance. It was long enough for Theo to engage his reflexes. The blow he knew was coming could be deflected. In fact, Theo could have Mitch lying on his back with only two easy moves but he instinctively knew Mitch wouldn’t take it lying down. He’d get up again. And he’d keep getting up until he made his point. In the end, Theo settled for a compromise.
Mitch gave him a toothpaste commercial smile, drew his fist back, and delivered his message.
The impact took a few seconds to register sending shock waves through his body. Theo gave his jaw a tentative brush. In a minute, it would hurt. A lot. There’d be a bruise but some ice would help stave off the worst of the pain. It could have been worse. Luckily, he had many years of experience hanging around stuntmen and had picked up a trick or two, which only worked so long as one could read the direction of the blow.
“No hard feelings?” Mitch asked.
