I ignored her request and read the words aloud. “Tall. Employed. Early to mid-twenties. Charlie-Hunnum-Jax-Teller-esque. Sexy. Good kisser. Charismatic. Bad boy with a heart of gold.” Looking up at Harmony and Destiny, I asked only half joking, “Why are you two making a list about me?”
“You wish!” Harmony grabbed the notebook back.
Destiny shrugged. “Actually, you almost did make the cut.”
“The cut?” I asked.
Harmony spun towards her friend. “Why would you tell him that? Like his ego’s not bigger’n Dallas already!”
Destiny’s eyes widened, and she slapped her hand over her mouth, mumbling behind it, “It’s these stupid pregnancy hormones. I have no filter. I didn’t mean to tell him.”
“Hello.” I waved my hand between the two of them. “I’m right here. Tell him what? What cut?”
Destiny gave Harmony a look like she hadn’t meant to let the cat out of the bag. “Um…the cut for…um…” Her eyes shot to my sister for help.
Harmony just sighed and crossed her arms.
After several moments of looking back and forth between Harmony and me, uncertainty etched in her face, Destiny finally completed her thought. “For potential suitors.”
“Suitors?” I repeated because I hadn’t heard that expression…well, ever in real life, only in old movies.
My sister let out a forced laugh. “That’s one way to put it.”
“I think you need to take another look at that list, because I meet every one of those oddly specific criteria.”
“Oddly specific?” Destiny tilted to her head to the side.
“Charlie-Hunnum-Jax-Teller-esque.” I’d been told more than once that I reminded people of the lead actor on Sons of Anarchy. I didn’t see it, but that didn’t take away the fact that other people did.
“Well, you didn’t read the whole list, and unfortunately you don’t meet a very crucial qualifying factor. Sorry, Charlie.” Harmony snorted at her joke and sounded anything but sorry as she spun on her heels and headed back around to the front of the house.
Destiny followed quickly behind.
As the two of them went, I tried to figure out what she could have possibly been talking about. I wanted to kick my own ass for not having kept the list out of my grabby sister’s reach until I could commit it to memory.
Thankfully, it hadn’t been a total waste, because even though I didn’t know the one trait I did not possess, I did know the ones I did.
Tall. Check.
Employed. Check.
Early to midtwenties. Twenty-four in a few weeks.
Charlie-Hunnum-Jax-Teller-esque. Apparently.
Good kisser. Never had any complaints. In fact, the girls of Wishing Well High had started a private Facebook page our senior year that was basically Yelp reviews of the guys at school. I had five out of five stars out of twenty glowing reviews for my lip-locking skills.
Sexy, charismatic bad boy with a heart of gold. Not to toot my own horn, but toot toot.
I smiled as I kicked a rock across the ground on the way to my truck. The final missing component really didn’t matter because nine out of ten ain’t bad.
Chapter 5
Cara
“When life gives you lemons, squeeze them into your sweet tea.”
~ Dolly Briggs
“Hey. Where are the other two angels?” Mrs. Patterson hollered as I spread my blanket out on a prime viewing location on the grass.
Growing up, Destiny, Harmony, and I had nicknamed ourselves Charlie’s Angels. I couldn’t count the number of photos we had of us in their iconic pose.
Lifting my head, I called out, “They’re on their way!”
The movie wasn’t going to start for another hour or so, but I’d volunteered to come down early to save our seats. Tonight, they were showing one of our favorite movies as kids: Ghost.
I’d spoken to Destiny earlier when she’d been fighting a serious bout of afternoon morning sickness. She was determined to fight through it and come tonight, 7UP and crackers in hand. Harmony was seeing her Dr. Hottie again today. They still hadn’t sealed the deal, because the last three times she’d seen him, he’d gotten emergency pages and had to go into work. But she insisted that not even the promise of breaking her dry spell would keep her from seeing Patrick Swayze on the big screen.
Well, technically, it was the side of the courthouse, but it was big.
After plopping down on my blanket, I reached inside my bag of treats. Normally, I waited until the movie started before I indulged, but I was a nervous eater and my nerves had been working overtime since I’d spoken to Peter—who Harmony had set me up with—this afternoon.
The girls had both decided to take a shot at setting up dates for me, and Harmony’s pick was up first.
I’d suggested waiting until Friday because that was a “traditional” date night. But he’d seemed more than a little eager to see me before then. Which was fine. Good, even. Harmony had briefly dated Peter’s brother Roger a few years ago. That relationship had burned hot and bright and fizzled out just as quickly as it had been ignited. However, Harmony had stayed friends with Peter, who she’d said was smarter, funnier, and better looking than his brother. He’d just been a little young for Harmony. She preferred older guys.
Evidently, when you’d grown up in a house filled with boys, dating them didn’t seem that appealing. She’d always dated men at least four to ten years older than she was. Destiny had dated guys around her age before marrying JJ in a whirlwind romance over a decade in the making that had come to fruition in one month’s time.
In stark contrast to my friends, my personal dating experience was limited to going out for ice cream with someone I’d met sophomore year in college. That had been enough to sour me on the experience entirely.
His name was Drew, and we’d been lab partners. It all happened very casually. As we were leaving Bio on a particularly hot September day, he’d asked if I was in the mood for ice cream.
What girl would say no to that?
Things had been going well. He was funny and cute. Blond hair and dark-blue eyes that reminded me of deep ocean water. He’d walked me back to my dorm, and when he went in for a kiss, my scar caught his attention and he asked what it was. That was all it had taken for me to clam up like an oyster shell. In the blink of an eye, I’d scurried inside, slamming the door in his cute and confused face.
I then proceeded to spend the afternoon crying. Devastated. Following the disastrous incident, I avoided him for the rest of the semester. I would sit in the back of the lecture hall, right next to the door, so that I could make a hasty escape when class was over.
He never really pushed the issue and gave me my space. Which I couldn’t blame him for. I was just some weird girl who had freaked out when he’d asked about a scar he’d seen.
Looking back, I could see the incident for what it was. I obviously hadn’t been ready for any kind of relationship if I hadn’t even been able to answer a simple question about the evidence of my port. That was three years ago, almost to the day, and sadly, I still wasn’t sure how much more equipped I was to handle the same question.
A voice shattered my walk down memory lane. “Well hello there, young lady!”
The sun was setting, so I shielded my eyes to look up. “Hi, Sheriff Reed, Mrs. Reed. How you folks doing?”
“We’re doin’ just fine. I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you on your good news!” Mrs. Reed enthused. “When I heard that you are out of the woods, I let out a holler so loud I scared the livestock. I can’t tell you how many nights our Bible study held you up in prayer, Cara. Your folks must be over the moon.”
“Oh yeah, thanks! Yes, they are so happy.” I smiled brightly.
My parents had sounded relieved when Colton and I had called them right after my last doctor’s appointment. Neither was very effusive, but I knew they were happy. As much as I’d wished sometimes that they had more emotion when it came to my diagnosis, I cou
ldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like to have a child go through what I had. So I tried not to let it bother me that they’d seemed to take it in stride. They’d remained strong and stayed in Texas until I’d graduated college. They’d always supported me and been there when I’d needed them. That was what was important.
“Boy, I bet you were just tickled pink when the doctors gave you the clean bill of health.” Mrs. Reed beamed.
“I sure was!” I attempted to put as much enthusiasm as I could behind my words.
“Hudson said you and the girls celebrated the news.” Sheriff Reed gave me a knowing look.
“We did.” I nodded, trying not to be embarrassed over what might’ve gotten back to the sheriff.
This conversation was the perfect example of what living in a small town was like. On the one hand, you had a woman holding you up in prayer during Bible study. And, on the flip side, the news that you “celebrated” reached the ears of respected elders who were pillars of the town.
“All right. Well, we better go find a seat, Jasper.” Mrs. Reed wrapped her fingers around her husband’s arm. “You tell your folks we said hello.”
“I’ll do that.”
As the couple walked away, Sheriff Reed whispered something in his wife’s ear, and she smiled, blushed, and playfully swatted at his arm before snuggling up against his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but feel envious at what the two of them shared. They were coming up on their thirtieth wedding anniversary, and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. My parents had been together almost as long, but they were much more reserved than the sheriff and Mrs. Reed.
As a girl, I remembered watching Sheriff Reed take any chance he could to dance with his wife. Whether it was at the Briggs’ Annual Third of July party or one of the many festivals in town, if music was playing and Loretta Reed was within reach, he was spinning her around, making the world their dance floor. I wasn’t sure why I’d always thought that was so romantic. Maybe it was the look on Mrs. Reed’s face or the way Sheriff Reed seemed totally smitten, like he was the luckiest man in the world, when she was in his arms.
Whatever it was, I’d always wanted what they had. Part of me (a large part!) wished that I could just skip straight ahead to the good stuff. Where the foundation of friendship, trust, and love was already established. Unfortunately, that’s not how it worked.
And that was the reason I was going out with Peter. It was the first step towards my happily-ever-after. Just because I wanted to throw up every time I thought about it didn’t mean I shouldn’t go through with it. If I didn’t, then I had no chance at getting what the sheriff and Mrs. Reed shared. They made it look effortless, but I was sure it had been built on the years they’d been together. Thirty years together and raising three boys had to have cemented what was already there.
Glancing around, I saw the grassy area was filling up fast. It was mid-September and Movies in the Park ended when the weather got too cold. It looked like the whole town had come out tonight while they still had the chance. Everyone, that is, but the two people I was waiting on.
Checking my phone, I saw that I’d missed a Snapchat Destiny had sent to both Harmony and me. Pressing play, I watched my friend, who looked as white as the sheets she was lying on—which was saying something for a redhead—apologize as she explained that she didn’t think she would make it on time, but she still planned to come. In the background, JJ said that that wasn’t going to happen and his wife was staying in bed tonight.
Her face, pale as it was, lit up at her husband’s voice. I loved seeing my best friend so in love. She’d waited for her happily-ever-after since she was four years old. No one deserved happiness more than Destiny, so I was over the moon that JJ had finally removed his head from his butt and seen what was right in front of him.
Pressing record, I posted an answering message where I told Destiny that JJ was right and she needed to stay home and rest. No sooner had I sent it to Harmony and Destiny than Harmony’s icon popped up, showing that she too had recorded a video for our group. I smiled as I started it, thinking that her video would probably have the same content mine did.
But, instead of Harmony’s video mirroring mine, it mirrored Destiny’s. Harmony was lying on a couch I didn’t recognize—probably Dr. Hottie’s—and she looked green. She explained that they’d gone out for seafood and she had partaken in oysters that were not setting well on her stomach, so she didn’t think she was going anywhere except the bathroom for the next twenty-four hours.
I quickly sent a video expressing my sympathy and offering my help. She was fifteen minutes away and wouldn’t feel up to driving herself home. I had already begun gathering my food when my phone dinged with a message from Harmony. She was assuring me that she was fine where she was and she was in the capable hands of a medical professional.
Setting my phone down, I weighed my options. I could stay at the park and watch Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze’s tragic love story, or I could head home and spend Saturday night in front of the TV, binge-watching something on Netflix.
Stay or go?
I still hadn’t made up my mind when I heard a very familiar voice behind me. A voice I had gone to great lengths over the past two weeks to avoid. A voice that gave me more chills than John Travolta in Grease. A voice that made my heart expand and my panties wet with one word.
“Hey, carrot cake. Is this seat taken?”
Apparently, it was a rhetorical question, because Trace sat beside me on the blanket without waiting for permission.
“I was saving that for Harmony and Destiny,” I snapped.
The second the words left my lips, I wanted to slap my palm to my forehead. Not only were Harmony and Destiny not coming, but even if they were, there was still plenty of room for Trace.
With a wink, he promised, “No worries, darlin’. I’ll just keep you company till they get here.”
My first instinct was to explain that I was leaving, but since I’d just announced that I was saving the seats for my two best friends, that wasn’t going to work. Then I thought about pretending that I wasn’t feeling well, just like Destiny and Harmony, but there was no way I could do that with my history. If word got around that I’d left the show because I hadn’t been feeling well, the entire town would think I might be having a relapse. I couldn’t put the community that had supported and loved me through that just because I was being a big chicken.
So, fighting every urge I had to get up and run, just like I had every time I’d seen Trace the past couple of weeks, I turned and tried to sound as casual and unaffected as I could. “Cool.”
The smile that spread on his face had heat exploding through me like fireworks on the Fourth.
Yeah…this was so not cool.
Chapter 6
Trace
“About as welcome as a porcupine at a nudist colony.”
~ Dolly Briggs
One thing was for sure: I wasn’t paranoid. There was no doubt that Cara wanted to be anywhere but sitting beside me on this blanket. Her body language could not have been any clearer.
I knew she didn’t need this spot for her friends. Cara had no idea that I’d been a couple of feet back on a blanket of my own and overheard the messages she’d exchanged with Harmony and Destiny. The second she had started to gather her things, I’d made my move.
Shocked. That’s what she’d been when I’d sidled up next to her. So shocked that her knee-jerk response had been to lie. I was no relationship expert, but I was pretty sure there was no way that was a good sign of things to come. I needed to get to the bottom of this.
“Haven’t seen you around much lately,” I commented.
“Yeah…I’ve been, just, um, kind of… I mean, really busy.” Cara’s leg bounced up and down as she stammered through her response.
I’d known Cara all of her life and seen her in a lot of different situations. I’d witnessed her waiting on calls from physicians with blood cell counts to seeing who the bachelor gave h
is final rose to. Whenever she was uncertain of an outcome, her legs either jiggled or bounced. Her upper body was still and composed, but her lower half broadcasted that her nerves were popping like bubbles floating through a field of cacti.
Other people who didn’t know Cara as well as I did might have thought she was fidgety or even keeping time to music playing in her head. But I knew the truth. She was nervous. The question was: Why?
I was trying to concentrate on discovering what was going on between us. Until I uncovered that truth, I couldn’t tell her how I felt. I mean, how could I lay out how I’d felt about her for years, if she couldn’t even sit next to me? The problem was that my mind knew that but my body had other ideas.
I might have only caught the movement because I’d first noticed the sexy lines of her golden legs stretched out before her. I found so much about Cara to be innately and effortlessly sexy. Her eyes. Her lips. Her smile. Her laugh. Her neck. But her legs? Damn, they topped the list.
Clearing my throat, I tore my gaze away from the slope of the inner thigh I’d touched just two weeks ago. “Things busy at work?”
“What?” Her gaze sliced towards me, and her brow furrowed.
“You said you were busy,” I reminded her.
“Oh, right. Yeah.” She nodded a little bit too enthusiastically, as a light blush appeared on her cheek. “I’ve been busy at work.”
I wanted to mention that, if she had been Pinocchio, her nose would have been the length of a football field, but I didn’t see the point. I knew Cara. And just like I knew she was nervous with me sitting next to her, I also knew she wasn’t normally a liar, which meant there must’ve been a reason for her less-than-truthful behavior around me lately.
“What are you working on?”
This conversation was not going well, but I pushed forward, ignoring that her body language was making it clear she was as happy sitting next to me as she would be next to an outhouse on a windy day.
Convincing Cara (Wishing Well, Texas Book 2) Page 4
