The Last Single Garrett

by Brenda Harlen

  “Because I’d rather your nieces not go home at the end of the summer and tell their mom that Uncle Josh was sleeping in Tristyn’s bed.”

  “Better than Emily telling her that we had an orgy,” he teased.

  Tristyn shook her head. “I think she’s finally forgotten that word.”

  “You better hope so,” he said. “Because I won’t hesitate to lay the blame for that one at your feet.”

  “I would never have said it if you hadn’t baited me with your comments about three females keeping you up,” she reminded him.

  “Lately it’s only been one female keeping me up,” he commented, reaching across the console to take her hand and link their fingers together. “And I’m going to miss her tonight.”

  It was hardly a declaration of undying love, but the sincerity in his tone tugged at her heart. “I’ll be thinking of you trying not to fall off your sofa while I’m stretched out between the crisp, cool sheets of my own bed...naked,” she teased, attempting to lighten the tenor of their conversation.

  “You’re a cruel woman,” he said. Then, curiously, “You really do sleep in the nude?”

  “I really do,” she confirmed.

  “Damn, I’m going to miss you tonight,” he said. “Unless—”

  “No,” she said.

  “You don’t even know what I was going to say,” he protested.

  “Yes, I do. And yes, I have a three-bedroom house, but there are only beds in two of them and there would be a lot of questions from a lot of people if your truck was parked outside my house overnight.”

  He sighed, because that was a truth he couldn’t deny.

  When they got back to his condo, where Tristyn had left her car parked, he felt like he should kiss her goodbye. Except that this wasn’t really goodbye, only a temporary break in their schedule. After six days in Charisma, they would pack up again and head toward Tennessee.

  He didn’t make any plans to see her during those six days, because he suspected that after five weeks away, her family would claim every minute of her time. Besides, it was only six days, and he decided spending that time apart would provide him with the perfect opportunity to get his head on straight again. Because some of the crazy thoughts and outrageous ideas that had nudged at his mind recently proved to Josh that his head was skewed.

  Crazy thoughts of a future with Tristyn, not just for the last few weeks of summer, but always. The outrageous idea that she might actually want him, not just for now, but forever.

  Yeah, a few days apart from Tristyn would definitely help him get his head on straight.

  Really good sex could become addictive, and that’s what he’d shared with Tristyn over the past two-and-a-half weeks. Sure, they also shared a lot of common interests. And maybe he even enjoyed talking to her about topics on which they disagreed, because she challenged his opinions and ideas and listened when he challenged hers. Plus, living in close proximity to someone for a period of time was bound to create a feeling of connection. Add in the fact that he’d known not just Tristyn but her whole family a long time, and a guy could be forgiven for thinking he might fit into that close-knit circle.

  None of that was cause for panic—was it?

  Chapter Seventeen

  When Tristyn told her sisters that she would be home on Saturday, Lauryn and Jordyn immediately cleared their schedules, left the children in the care of their grandparents and booked an afternoon at the spa. After seaweed wraps and hot stone massages, the sisters reunited in the pedicure room.

  “So...five weeks on the road with Josh and you both came back alive,” Jordyn mused, as their feet were soaking in adjacent tubs of bubbling scented water.

  “There were a few moments, especially in the beginning, when I wasn’t sure we would,” she admitted.

  “What changed?” Lauryn asked.

  “We learned to...coexist.”

  Jordyn snorted. “Is that what the kids are calling it now?”

  Tristyn felt a smile tug at her lips. “And yes, having lots of scorching-hot sex probably helped ease some of the tension, too.”

  Lauryn grinned. “Good for you.”

  “It’s been amazing,” she admitted.

  “So why are you chewing on your bottom lip like you do when you’re worried about something?” Jordyn asked.

  “Because it’s been amazing,” she said again. “So amazing I almost wish this summer would never end.”

  “You’ve fallen in love with him,” Jordyn realized.

  “No,” she immediately denied. “Maybe.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know.”

  “You do know,” Lauryn said gently. “You’re just scared.”

  “There are days—or at least brief moments—when I wish I’d never agreed to go on this road trip.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Because being with Josh, helping to take care of his nieces and spending time with him—in and out of the bedroom—it’s almost felt like we were a family.”

  “Why is that a bad thing?” Jordyn asked.

  “Because this time that we’ve had together is like an alternate reality—definitely a fantasy. And I know that. But, every once in a while, I find myself wishing that the fantasy could become reality.”

  “Of course it can,” Lauryn insisted.

  But Tristyn shook her head. “If there’s one thing Josh isn’t, it’s a family man.”

  “Well, he’s done a pretty good imitation over the past few weeks,” Jordyn pointed out.

  “He is great with his nieces,” she agreed. “Because they’re his nieces and he knows that, as soon as his sister comes back from Spain, they’ll go back to Seattle with their mom again.”

  “And then his life will feel empty and lonely and he’ll finally realize that he wants a family of his own, but only if you agree to be the mother of his children.”

  Tristyn smiled at the fanciful picture her sister was painting, but she shook her head again. “Not likely. Besides, we talked about this, in the beginning, and we both agreed that whatever happened between us while we were away would end when we got back to Charisma.”

  “So when this road trip is over, you’ll go back to working at GSR, seeing him every day, and you won’t want to jump his bones?” Jordyn asked skeptically.

  “I can’t promise that I won’t want to,” she acknowledged. “Only that I won’t actually do it.”

  Her sisters exchanged looks.

  “She won’t last a week,” Lauryn declared.

  “Five days, tops,” Jordyn voted.

  Tristyn rolled her eyes. “Thank you both for your overwhelming confidence and support.”

  “We do have confidence in you,” Lauryn assured her.

  “Which is why we’re confident you won’t give up on the only man you’ve ever loved,” Jordyn added.

  * * *

  After Tristyn said goodbye to her sisters and left the spa, she impulsively stopped at the grocery store and picked up what she needed to make the chicken-and-broccoli casserole that had been a big hit with Josh and the girls. She didn’t expect a woman to answer when she knocked on the door of his condo, and she was so surprised that it took her a minute to recognize the woman as his sister.

  “Lucy—when did you get back?”

  “Just a few hours ago,” she said.

  “Does this mean your project in Madrid is finished?”

  Lucy nodded. “I had to burn the midnight oil every day, but I didn’t want to be away from the girls any longer than absolutely necessary. And I’m jet-lagged, so I’ve forgotten my manners,” she apologized, opening the door wider. “Please, come in.”

  “I don’t want to intrude on your reunion,” Tristyn said.

  “It’s not much of a reunion right now,” Lucy
said, tugging on Tristyn’s arm to draw her inside. “Josh popped out for a minute and the girls are playing with the castanets I brought back for them.”

  She could hear them now, although the sound—not quite of a caliber that could be called music—was distant and muted.

  “The instruments seemed like a good idea when I was in Spain—not so much now that the girls are clicking away with them,” she admitted. “Which is why Josh shut them in the bedroom.”

  Tristyn smiled. “They must have been so thrilled to see you.”

  “I think they were,” Lucy agreed. “And thank you for helping Josh with the girls while I was away.”

  “It was a pleasure.”

  Lucy chuckled. “I’m sure it was at times—and other times, not so much.”

  “My sisters and cousins all have kids,” Tristyn told her. “So I was prepared for almost anything—except the tooth fairy fiasco.”

  “Which, I understand, you handled very creatively.”

  “Well, tweeting seemed a little less dangerous than your brother’s idea of sending smoke signals.”

  “Ohmygod—he didn’t actually suggest that?”

  “He did.”

  “I think he learned how to send smoke signals in Boy Scouts, about twenty years ago.”

  “He really was a Boy Scout?” Tristyn asked dubiously.

  Lucy nodded. “He really was.”

  “Well, that former Boy Scout was really great with your daughters.”

  “I knew he would be. Although he did warn me that he thinks my middle child might have a future as a stripper due to her penchant of taking off her clothes wherever and whenever.”

  “It only happened three—or maybe four—times,” Tristyn said, smiling a little at the memory of how shocked and embarrassed he was each of those times. “He’s going to miss them when you go back to Washington.”

  “And they’ll miss him, too,” Josh’s sister acknowledged. “Which is why we’ve already decided to come and visit more often.”

  “That’s great,” Tristyn said. “Are you planning to stay for a few days now?”

  “I’m eager to get home and get the girls settled back into their normal routines, but we might hang out for a while first.”

  “Speaking of routines, I really should...” Her words trailed away when Josh walked through the door with three flat boxes in his hands.

  His lips curved when he saw her standing just inside the doorway. “Tristyn—hi.”

  “I’m just on my way out,” she told him.

  “Why?”

  “Because I didn’t realize Lucy was back.”

  “And I’m going to go tell the girls that dinner is here,” Lucy said, slipping out of the room.

  “I should have called to tell you,” he said. “But I thought you were probably busy with your family and enjoying a much-needed break from all of us.”

  “I had breakfast with my parents, then spent the afternoon with my sisters, but they both had other plans for dinner, so I picked up a few groceries and took a chance that you guys might be hungry, too.”

  “You’ve spent the past five weeks with us—you know we’re always hungry.”

  “But you obviously had a different dinner plan.”

  “Stay and eat with us,” he urged. “There’s more than enough pizza to go around.”

  Tristyn shook her head. “Thanks, but your sister’s been away for a long time and I’m sure you have a lot to catch up on.”

  He touched a hand to her arm. “I’ll give you a call later.”

  “Sure,” she agreed. But she knew it would be foolish to count on it.

  She took her groceries home and cooked the chicken and broccoli, anyway. She even opened the bottle of wine she found in the fridge and drank two glasses while she was cooking, then a third while she picked unenthusiastically at her meal.

  Since Jordyn had married Marco, Tristyn had lived alone in the house they used to share, and she was generally content with her own company. But after spending the past five weeks with Josh and his nieces in the RV, her house seemed too big and too empty.

  Which was crazy, especially considering that she’d been so excited about coming home and having a little bit of breathing room. But now that Lucy was back, it was the end of the road for her and Josh—literally. She blinked away the tears that stung her eyes. She absolutely would not cry over the end of a relationship that was never intended to be anything more than a summer fling.

  But she hadn’t expected it to end so soon.

  And she hadn’t expected to miss Josh so much already.

  * * *

  Tristyn had just finished putting her dishes in the dishwasher when the doorbell rang. Wiping her hands on a towel, she went to peek through the sidelight, her heart immediately pounding harder and faster when she saw Josh standing on her porch. She drew in a long, deep breath and turned the knob.

  “There’s a distinct shortage of beds in my condo, especially with Lucy there now, too,” he said, in lieu of a greeting.

  “And you thought I’d take pity on you and let you share mine?” she guessed.

  “Actually, I hoped that you wouldn’t want to sleep without me—because I don’t want to sleep without you.”

  How was a woman supposed to resist a man who told her exactly what she wanted to hear?

  Tristyn didn’t know that she could, but she felt compelled to at least make an effort to protect her heart. “This is a violation of the rule,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, I was hoping you might consider another minor amendment,” he said.

  And then he kissed her, and the illusion of any resistance melted away under the seductive pressure of his mouth on hers.

  She’d lost count of the number of times they’d made love over the past two-and-a-half weeks, but somehow, this felt different. Being on the road with Josh had supported the illusion that this wasn’t real, that whatever feelings she had for him were a product of the situation and circumstances. Allowing Josh to be here, in her house, in her bed, made her feel more exposed and vulnerable.

  Twelve years earlier, she’d been a naive and innocent girl with a huge crush on her cousin’s best friend. She was neither naive nor innocent anymore. She’d had a handful of lovers and she wasn’t ashamed of the fact, because she’d never fallen into bed with a man without at least feeling some affection for him. But she’d never made love with a man she loved...until now.

  * * *

  When Tristyn woke up in the morning, he was gone.

  She couldn’t deny that she was disappointed, but she understood that he needed to get back to his own place, to spend some time with his sister and the girls before Lucy headed back to Seattle with her family.

  She took a quick shower, then headed to the kitchen for a much-needed cup of coffee—and found Josh standing at her stove, cooking eggs.

  “You’re still here.”

  He looked up from the pan, his brows raised. “Did you think I’d leave without saying goodbye?”

  “I had no expectations,” she said.

  “Sometimes I think that’s the problem,” he said.

  She poured a mug of the coffee he’d already brewed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Did you really expect that we would spend the better part of the summer together and then just go our separate ways?”

  “That was the agreement.”

  “Screw the agreement,” he said. “I’m not ready for this to end.”

  They were almost the words she wanted to hear him say, and probably the closest to a declaration of affection that she would get from him. Unfortunately, they weren’t enough to change her mind.

  They were good together—on so many levels. She knew their connection was about more than just sex; she also knew
that they ultimately wanted different things. She wanted to get married and have a family someday—and Josh didn’t. He’d been clear about that from the beginning.

  So when he said he wasn’t ready for their relationship to be over, she knew he wasn’t thinking of a forever-after future for them together but a few more weeks—maybe even a couple months. And Tristyn couldn’t do it. Because the more time she spent with Josh, the more completely she would fall in love, and she needed to get over him so she could move on with her life.

  “Being with you over the last few weeks has been...amazing,” she admitted. “But it was easy when we were on the road.”

  He divided the eggs onto two plates, added a couple slices of toast to each. “Were we on the same trip? Because there are a lot of words I might use to describe the last five of weeks, and easy isn’t one of them.”

  She smiled at that. “The you and me part was easy,” she amended. “Once you stopped acting like an idiot, I mean.”

  He smiled, clearly unoffended by her remark, as he set her plate in front of her. “It can still be easy.”

  But Tristyn shook her head. “Not here. Not in a town where I have not just my parents and sisters, but aunts, uncles and cousins ready to offer commentary on everything I do. And especially not with both of us working at GSR.”

  “You think your family would disapprove of our relationship?”

  “No, Josh. I think my family would read too much into the relationship, and when we eventually parted ways, it would be awkward for everyone.”

  “How do you know that we’d eventually part ways?”

  She pushed her eggs around on her plate. “Because you told me—in clear and unequivocal terms—that you’re not looking to settle down.”

  He was quiet for a minute before he finally said, “Maybe that could change.”

  A tentative blossom of hope bloomed in her heart as she bit into a piece of toast, because she knew he was trying to make this work for her. And from a man who had eschewed personal commitment for so long, his words were a major concession. If he’d said, “My feelings have changed,” she would have thrown all the rules out the window and gone for it. But “could change” was too much like a consolation prize—and it wasn’t enough. Giving him her heart in the hope that he might someday reciprocate her feelings was too big a risk.