Rocket Man

by Melanie Greene

  “Does it have caffeine?”

  “I can offer you either black or green tea in addition to a wide selection of herbals and tisanes.”

  “You are wonderful, you know that? But also, I’m glad you’re not a vegetarian.”

  “I was for a while.”

  “Of course you were.”

  She nudged his upper arm. “Hey, be nice. It’s far better for the planet.”

  “I know, I know. But I’m unrepentant. Besides, this place has a great carving station.”

  “What place?”

  “The brunch place.”

  “But even if I was a vegetarian still I wouldn’t mind if you ate meat.” She pulled out tea mugs. “Especially if it was local and grass-fed and supported a small farmer.”

  “Well, you should at least try their bacon, no matter where the pig grew up. When you’re ready, we can just swing by my place and I’ll run in to change, then you can see what I mean.”

  Serena froze and stared at Dillon. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, reading the box of breakfast blend tea, and appeared to be perfectly relaxed and calm and not even some time-travel version of himself. The same guy she’d only spent one night with, and he wanted her to go to his family birthday brunch?

  She hadn’t answered, and he finally looked up at her. “We should take your car, though, since Maisy was in mine. I’ll get it detailed or something, do you think that will take care of it?”

  “Uh, yes, I—well, probably it wouldn’t matter. Unless she was curled up on the passenger seat.”

  “No, she was in her carrier on the floor.”

  “So that’s not the problem.”

  He put down the box and straightened. “There’s a problem?”

  “No. Not a problem,” she moved over to kiss him. Same amount of stubble, even, so definitely not a time-travel version of Dillon. “You want me to go to brunch with you?”

  “God, sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed you were free. Do you have plans?”

  She shook her head. “No plans. But, Dillon, your sister is taking you out for your birthday. That’s not something I should go to.”

  “I’ll text her, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. They’d like to meet you at last.”

  Serena was working hard to keep her face placid. “At last?”

  A little flush spread across Dillon's cheekbones and Serena couldn’t resist touching him. Again. Some more. “Apparently I talk about you a lot. So when I took the cat back to them, Justin—that’s my brother-in-law, I’ve told you that?” She nodded. He spoke often of his family, and Serena wasn’t unhappy, but was distinctly freaked out, to find that he talked to them of her in return. “Yeah, so Justin said that they’d been wondering when you and I were going to get together.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wow.”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “But wait a minute. You talked to them on the Sunday?”

  Dillon nodded.

  “After the—well, before we knew about the cat thing?”

  He nodded again.

  “So...what did you tell them about me?”

  Dillon turned so he could wrap his arms lightly around Serena’s waist. “I said you were sexy and I wanted you to be my sexy lover and, of course, I wanted to sex you up in my sex cave.”

  “Attic.”

  “Right, no basements, because your realtor won’t allow it.”

  “Right.”

  “But I don’t think ‘sex attic’ sounds as good. It has a touch of Rochester, yes, but also a little taste of decaying grandmothers, which is just not sexy.”

  Once again, Dillon had taken the light teasing path away from her impulse to freak out. So maybe he got that he was going fast, or maybe he had a well-tuned sense about when he was about to presume too much. Either way, Serena was glad. She’d far rather joke and stay in his embrace than get serious and put space between them. Of course, if he would just proceed with a little more caution to begin with, give them a chance to see what was happening before dragging her off to meet the relatives, that would be even better.

  Dillon wasn’t a fan of the tea, but gamely took a few sips before packing up his bag. Serena walked him to the door. He was kicking himself about the brunch thing, but he wasn’t going to let the rest of the weekend go by without seeing her.

  “You busy tonight?”

  She shook her head, but still looked a little wary. On the other hand, her hand was on his ass, so she was bound to be a little willing.

  “Can I take you to dinner?”

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  He didn’t want his relief to show in his smile, but he was sure it did. “I’ll pick you up around seven?”

  She had a yoga class that didn’t end until six, though, so they pushed it back a little. He wasn’t going to suggest any changes to her routine, not on purpose, anyway. Apparently Serena wasn’t as comfortable with spontaneity in her daily life as she was in bed. Garden bed or mattress bed, either one. He grinned at her and leaned down for another kiss.

  “Dillon?”

  “Yeah?” It was going to be hard to leave her doorway if he couldn’t make himself stop touching her.

  Smiling, she tugged lightly on the strap of his messenger bag. “Bring the toothbrush back tonight.”

  Oh, it was going to be hard, indeed, he thought, as he took in Serena’s sun-dappled face and raised a brow. “I already left it here.” Nine hours and counting until he got to touch her again.

  Hot damn.

  Serena’s idiot grin faded as she closed the door and headed into her bathroom to check. Yep. There, in one of the mason jars she’d decorated with gem-hued acrylics and wired to the wall beside her over-sink mirror, her bright red toothbrush nestled up against his plain white one. She sighed and walked out, rubbing her neck again. On the one hand, she was shaken up by his presumption. On the other, well, it would be churlish and not very self-serving to pitch a hissy about it, when it was an indication that she was going to be licking his naked torso by the end of the day. And one thing those button-downs he always wore hid was the fact that Dillon’s naked torso was delicious.

  Lost in thought, Serena almost jumped out of her skin when her cell rang. She’d dropped it on her entry bench with everything else in her rush to start crafting the package for Dillon’s present after work yesterday, and hadn’t thought about it since.

  It was Natalie. “Yo,” Serena said. Chirped, really. But maybe Natalie wouldn’t comment on it—she wasn’t a cynic like Gillian.

  “Well, I guess I know why you haven’t called back.”

  Serena pulled back the phone and looked at the list of missed calls while she hedged. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” All three of them had called around seven yesterday, and Natalie twice since then.

  “You wore the earrings, is what I’m talking about. That ‘yo’ was the ‘yo’ of a woman whose come-hither was heeded.”

  “Did y’all get together last night or something?”

  “Haven’t checked your email, either, I see. This makes something like twenty hours that you’ve been ignoring us. We could all be hospitalized or something, and where would you be? In bed with the Cat Man is where.”

  “Is anyone hospitalized?”

  “Not this time.”

  “Because I have a landline, too, you know. You could always call it in an emergency.”

  “Listen to little Miss Misdirection. What was the sex like?”

  “Superb.”

  Natalie was grim. “I knew it.”

  “Is there a reason that’s bad news? And I didn’t wear the earrings at work. He just came over and we had dinner and then he stayed the night. No earrings necessary.” Though the skirt probably hadn’t hurt. She bit her lip and wondered if she should wear the orange skirt tonight.

  “Smug. Nice. Did you call him on the photo thing?”

  “We talked some stuff out.”

  “Including how he was a passive-aggressive coward?”

  “Natali
e, look, there’s no need for that. We’re not negotiating a contract here, we’re just sleeping together. Dating. We talked about what happened, and then we made sweet, sweet love, and now he’s visiting his sister and I’m considering a nap before we go out again tonight. Be happy for me.”

  Natalie's tone softened just a tiny bit. “Okay, I’m happy. Even though you’re the only one of us having sex now, I’m happy for you.”

  “Hang on, what? What happened to Chris?”

  “Chris moved.”

  “What do you mean, Chris moved? How could he move? Where? Why?”

  Natalie sighed. “Yeah, there’s no good answer to that. I went by yesterday so we could catch an early movie, and the place was empty. Cleaned out. Nada. So I called his cell, and it was disconnected. So I went home, and there was a note in my mailbox.”

  Serena had to sit down. Chris had been nothing if not predictable, or at least as predictable as his flight schedule would allow. Gillian tended to be snippy and call him ‘safe,’ but Natalie had been so content with him. “What did it say?”

  “Oh,” Natalie sighed, “essentially, that he was sorry for the short notice, but he had to disappear, and he hoped I had a nice life.”

  “You’re shitting me.”

  “I wish. So that’s why we got together last night.”

  “Natalie, I’m so sorry. This is crazy. It doesn’t fit.”

  “Yeah, well, Gill promised to make me a voodoo doll and arrange a ritual burning of the crap he left in my house, so that’ll be fun.”

  Serena laughed. “Count me in. What did Rachel say?”

  “Rachel's theory is that the child support enforcement people caught up with him.”

  “Chris has kids?”

  “Not that I know about. But, and I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, a lot of Rachel's theories can be traced directly to her situation with Sergei.”

  “You don’t say.”

  “Shocker, I know. Hey, now that Chris bailed, can I take up smoking again?”

  “Not if you want to spend any time around me.”

  “You’ll be too busy with your sweet, sweet lover to care.”

  “Oh, Natalie. I’m really sorry about all this. I’m sorry I missed the bitch session last night, and I’m especially sorry about Chris. I mean, I hope he’s not in danger or anything, but even if he is, this is no way to treat you.”

  “Yeah. Well.”

  “Do you want to get together? I can cancel dinner with Dillon.”

  Another big sigh. “No. Have your dinner-which-is-code-for-more-sex. I have an open house all afternoon and two more tomorrow. Maybe I’ll sell something and go buy a gorgeous handbag to celebrate.”

  “Okay, call me if you change your mind. I promise to pick up.”

  “As long as you’re not in the middle of anything naughty.”

  “Me?” Serena thought of her new neighbors, and hoped no one else was outside last night. “Nonsense.”

  Natalie barked out a laugh that was only a little bitter. “Okay, that’s enough from you.”

  After Serena disconnected the call, she went through voice mail and email for a bit and washed up everything from the previous night’s dinner. She wasn’t normally one to leave crumbs lying around, but Dillon had been quite the distraction. Fortunately her mint plants were practically indestructible, and seemed none the worse for wear. She snagged some peppermint to add to her water bottle, and just about got goose bumps when she crushed the leaves, releasing the scent.

  She took the water and a small plate of munchies into her office so she could burn a CD for Natalie of ass-kicking empowered woman songs, and spent a happy hour collaging a cover for the jewel case. Jeanne d'Arc, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Queen Victoria, Harriet Tubman, Marie Curie, and Aretha Franklin all boogied together with Boudica and Natalie herself. It was a little goofy, sure, but not as goofy as a voodoo doll, and if it lifted Natalie's spirits, then she’d done her job. She would drop it at her house before yoga.

  But first, she needed to store up some stamina for the night ahead. It was time for a nap.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Tobias, baby-dude, come here,” Dillon said, snugging the wide-awake and wide-eyed little guy to him before leaning down for hugs from Justin and Shannon.

  “We’ve been supplanted,” Justin told his wife.

  “You bet you have. I told you how all my hopes and dreams for the future are pinned on this guy,” Dillon said, but his expression must have given him away.

  “Why do I think you’ve considered alternate retirement plans?”

  “My lips are sealed.”

  “Right,” Shannon said, then turned to direct the host in the complicated logistics of placing them so that they were far enough from the crowds but close enough to the buffet, and how to set the chair that Toby’s carrier would rest on. The men stood back and watched.

  “First time out with him?”

  Justin nodded.

  “He’s okay around all these people, though, right?”

  Justin shrugged. “I thought it was a little early for public outings, but Shannon insisted. She says you love this place, plus they have your precious shortcake, and even her baby’s well-being seems to take back seat to her baby brother’s well-being.”

  Dillon groaned. “I know you’re kidding, but that is way too close to the bone. Shades of the dismal days.” Granted, those were mostly dismal because their parents had just died. Poor Shannon had been the one dealing with most of the interminable fallout—guardianship of him, transfer of ownership for the house and other inheritances to a trust, plus the settlement from the truck driver’s insurance company. The paperwork for that, and everything the courts required to prosecute the guy. Rearranging her school schedule and getting out of her lease so she could live at home with him. She’d barely gotten into her twenties, and she never complained about any of it. And through it all, all she ever asked of him was for him to see the therapist and to, just occasionally, be happy.

  It was about the hardest thing she could have asked of him.

  That was the thing with that god-awful surprise party. She hadn’t wanted him to mope about his first birthday without their parents, so she’d gone all out on the bash. And he’d been so clammed up for so long that it wasn’t like she could’ve known he no longer got along with his seventh-grade lab partner. Or with lots of people, really. Being the local orphan hadn’t been the kind of notoriety that he craved, and definitely not on his damn birthday, everyone full of sympathy and fake elaborate good wishes until he’d sought refuge behind the garage to get away from it all.

  Justin had found him out there. He didn’t scold or anything. He just told Dillon that Shannon had spent hours trying to perfect their mom’s pineapple upside-down cake. After she’d thrown out two failed attempts, Justin had persuaded her to stop, but she was sure it would ruin Dillon’s birthday, not having his favorite cake. Since Dillon wasn’t a total asshole, he’d followed Justin back inside, and when Shannon brought out the strawberry shortcake, he’d made like it was his new favorite. They’d had it every year since.

  Justin squeezed his arm. “Hey. It’s okay. She still worries sometimes, but I think most of the time she never thinks of you at all.”

  “Thanks. That makes me feel a million times better,” Dillon laughed. The funny thing was, it kind of did. Shannon deserved a life where she could think only about herself. Where she could revel in the love and security of Justin and Toby and the cat, and go days without making a decision more momentous than what flavor yogurt to buy.

  Dillon reached an arm around Justin and just held him a minute. Some days he forgot to thank the universe for sending a man like this to Shannon—and to him—when they so desperately needed him.

  Justin seemed to understand his train of thought. He reached up and kissed Dillon's cheek. “Gah. You need to shave.”

  “Serena didn’t mind.” Still half-stuck down memory lane, he hadn’t thought before answering.

&
nbsp; Justin plucked Tobias from his arms, locked him into the carrier, and told Shannon all sing-song and superior, “Dillon has a girlfriend. Told you he would.”

  “No!”

  “Yes! They were making kissy-kissy face, and she likes it when he doesn’t shave.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Okay, sure. No problem. You tell us everything, and I won’t say a word,” Justin replied, grinning across the table at him.

  Shannon leaned in to hear every word, and no matter how many times he disappeared to the omelet station and the carving station and every other station where there was a line to keep him away from their prying, they managed to drag a good bit of info out of him before the brunch was over. He even offered to change Toby at one point, but Justin shook his head and went himself, while Shannon pinned him in place with her best big sister look.

  “So you really like this woman?” she asked with a smile that said she knew what the answer was.

  He gave up—there was no hope of holding anything back from her. Especially given how fondly he looked back over the past several hours with Serena. “She’s amazing,” he said. “I want you to meet her. I mean, I asked her to come here today, but that was too fast, I know.”

  “Dillon!”

  “I know. I said I know. But, Shan. You’ll love her.”

  “But you invited her to brunch?”

  “I didn’t think you’d mind.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “It’s not that I mind. I wouldn’t mind, I’d like to meet her. But you don’t just spring ‘birthday brunch with my family’ on someone you just met.”

  “I met her in January.”

  “You know what I mean. Just got together with, romantically.”

  “Well, she offered me breakfast. It seemed like it would be rude to just say ‘no’ instead of inviting her to eat with me.”

  Shannon just looked at him. Finally Dillon admitted, “Okay, that’s not why. I mean, it might have been part of it, but, yeah, I just wanted her to be with me more. To meet you guys. Let’s face it, she’s going to meet you eventually.”

  “I’m sure she will, sweetie, but you can’t just drag her off to meet us the first morning you’re together. I mean, ease up a little. Next you’ll be making reservations at a drive-up Vegas chapel.”