Just One Day

by Sharla Lovelace

  My heart warmed at this stranger who was willing to do battle for me for absolutely no reason. I chuckled. “No, nothing like that. He just—” I looked from one set of eyes to the other. “Proposed.”

  Jarvis’s head bobbed back a little in surprise, and May bit back a laugh by snatching up her cup.

  “Say what?” Jarvis asked, squinting and leaning forward.

  I sighed. “I know, it’s stupid.”

  “Well, how long have you dated him?” he asked. Or demanded, really. I had to laugh.

  “Two years,” I said. “Yesterday.”

  “Well, honey, what are you waiting for?” he said. “Social security?”

  “Jarvis!” May exclaimed, wiping her mouth. “It’s not our business.”

  “No, it’s okay,” I said, feeling the heat of embarrassment rush up to my scalp. “I know it sounds crazy. I should know by now whether I want to marry him. We basically live together anyway.” I blew out a breath. “It’s just—I don’t know.”

  “Does he have a job?” May asked, her voice low.

  “Oh yeah, he’s a bank executive, he’s successful,” I said, wincing a little as I remembered what Jarvis said about banks. “He’s good-looking, driven, cultured, sweet, funny sometimes—”

  “You must be a hard sell, girl,” Jarvis said.

  “Do you love him?” May said.

  I looked her in the eye. “What?”

  “You’ve just described a nice, fancy car, honey,” she said, leaning in.

  “I never had a sweet and funny car,” Jarvis interjected.

  She rolled her eyes. “Ignore him. What do you talk about? What do you do together? What dreams do you share?”

  I stared at her as I realized I’d just done the same thing that Brad had done in his proposal.

  “We—” What did we do? “He—hates breakfast,” I said on a whisper, almost to myself.

  May sat back and regarded me with a studied look. “You know, there’s a lake about an hour from here,” she said. “I don’t know if there’s a hotel nearby, but I remember it being so nice.”

  Yeah, I remembered it being nice, too. For different reasons.

  “Oh, here we go,” Jarvis said, shaking his head at his coffee cup. May elbowed him in the ribs and he groaned as he winked at me. “Careful, woman, you might break me.”

  “I’ll break you, all right,” she said, her voice soft even when she was playing. “I just don’t see why we can’t still go see the place. I used to love going there.”

  “Feel free,” Jarvis countered. She gave him a look and he laughed. “Nothing to do there now. We have stuff here.”

  “You used to love going out there, too.”

  He nodded big. “Yes, I did. When I had my boat. After I sold it to Jesse there wasn’t a point.”

  “We don’t need a boat, you old fool,” she countered.

  “We live in the woods, May,” he said, turning his whole body to look at her like elderly people sometimes do when their joints don’t work right. “Without a boat, it’s just going to see more woods.”

  “Oh, you and that boat,” she said, smiling at me. “It was old, like you. It needed to be retired, not sold.”

  “Nah,” Jarvis said, his mouth set as he toyed with a spoon. “That old boat was something else.” He looked up at me. “Been through another owner before me, and still has life left in it.”

  “Oh, I get it,” I said, holding up a hand. “My dad had a boat like that. My mom sold it when he died, but Lord he loved that thing.”

  “See,” Jarvis said, nudging her in return.

  “Yep,” I said. “Loved it so much, the boat and I had the same nickname.”

  May laughed. “Oh my goodness, what was that?”

  “Beauty,” I said. I dabbed bacon in the egg juices and savored the union. When I looked back up, May was smiling at me, and Jarvis took hold of her hand. I was hit with the repeated thought that I so wanted to be them one day.

  “Say what?” Jarvis said, leaning forward.

  “Beauty,” I repeated, and he sat back, regarding me.

  “How’d that come about?” he asked, more focus in his eyes than before.

  “Not sure which was first, really,” I said, smiling at the memory. “It was stenciled in italics on the back of his boat since I can remember, so I don’t know who was named for whom.” I laughed and took a sip of coffee. “Knowing my dad, the boat was probably first.”

  “That’s pretty special,” May said.

  “Told you,” he said to her, almost privately. “I knew there was something special today.”

  She smiled tolerantly and patted his hand. “I meant having that with her dad.”

  I nodded. “He’d always say that we both had a natural beauty that any man should appreciate. That anyone could paint up a boat or a person with sparkle and make them shine, but a real man would love us just as we were, buck naked.” At May’s singsongy laugh, I looked up and blushed. “Yeah, my dad had a way with words.”

  Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I felt it in my toes as even the windows rattled.

  “Oh dear, Andie, you’d better go get you someplace to stay before this storm hits,” May said, looking out the window. “This is going to be a bad one.”

  “Electricity in this one, I told her,” Jarvis said. “Ever since she got here, the air’s been crackling.”

  I smiled, and wiped my mouth. “Well, crackling or not, I was thinking of sitting here till it passes.” One glance out the window at the heavy darkness bearing down cemented that theory. “That doesn’t look like something I want to be driving through.”

  A look passed between them, and then May gave me a different smile that I didn’t understand.

  “Glad to hear it,” she said. “Maybe you’ll get to meet Jesse.”

  “No maybe about it,” Jarvis said, looking over my head with a feisty grin. “Here he comes.”

  “Good morning,” rolled a warm, deep voice from behind me to my right, making me jump. “How’s everything this morning? I had to come meet the woman who put my cook to work today.”

  May chuckled and smiled at the approaching man, while I repressed a groan. I really wasn’t up for meeting people, and I should have just ordered toast. But I couldn’t shovel it in fast enough. Nothing—ever—had tasted that good. And the bacon melted in my mouth. I hadn’t even made it to the eggs yet. Brad was an idiot.

  “This is Jesse,” Jarvis whispered, as though I needed another warning.

  I swiped my hands on my water glass and wiped them quickly on my napkin, hoping nothing was sticky, and held out a hand as I looked up.

  “Hi, Andie—” I began, but the sound stuck in my throat as the recognition flashed through the man’s eyes. I felt it rocket through my body. It might have been twenty-two years, but there was no mistaking who he was. Mr. Hot Sex on the Beach.

  Chapter Four

  Oh, dear God.

  Something close to a smile, or amusement, spread through his face while my mouth went on vacation. “Fremont,” he finished for me.

  He remembered my name. Holy shit. My thoughts became strikingly clear, bouncing off each other like balls in a pinball machine. Like the annoyingly female thoughts of the state of my appearance. And that he recognized me and was standing there looking at me like—that.

  “Montgomery,” I managed, keeping my hands off my face and hair by sheer power of will. “Wow. It’s been a long time.”

  “Yes, it has.”

  As his gaze bored into me, clearly replaying a few things, my mind did another photo trip. Things not in the photo album.

  “So, you two know each other, evidently?” May said, her voice startling me back to reality.

  Her eyes met mine, all wise and knowing. My God, was it that obvious? Thunder rattled the building again, and Jarvis raised an eyebrow.

  “I think maybe I had it backwards,” Jarvis said. “Think maybe the electricity’s in here, not out there.”

  He looked good. Too da
mn good. Standing there in his worn-out jeans and open button-down shirt over a T-shirt, it didn’t seem fair. He should have been fat. Fat and bald with bloodshot eyes and yellow teeth.

  I laughed, attempting savvy confidence, as the moments ticked by awkwardly. As his gaze left me to motion to the little blonde waitress, I fantasized about beating my head on the table. Really? Why was I so stupid over a guy I knew for only twenty-four hours twenty years earlier? Was I twelve? Hell, the way my insides went all twittery, you’d think we had something major. But in my defense, it was one of the most intense days of my life. Like falling in love on speed. And waking up alone the next morning had been harsher than any hangover I’d ever had before or since.

  “Macy, you need to close out your tips and go ahead home, okay?” the man I now knew as Jesse said over his shoulder to the young waitress as he walked away, behind the bar. “We’ve got some really nasty weather on the way.”

  “Yeah, we need to go, too,” May said, sitting up a little straighter.

  Jarvis turned to his suddenly antsy wife. “Everything will be fine, woman. Finish your coffee, we’ve got nothing but time.”

  May reluctantly picked her cup back up. “We don’t need to be out in an electrical storm, Jarvis. Andie, are you sure you’re staying put?”

  I looked outside with dread, and then turned to see Jesse talking to customers in another booth. “Yes, ma’am.”

  My original plan to read quietly while the storm passed didn’t seem as great in the new light of Jesse Montgomery. But then again, I was a big girl. I could be mature and hold a civil conversation and do what I was there to do. Which was not to spend my precious hours strolling down memory lane. A big white clock on the wall mocked me, telling me another hour had passed and I was no closer to a resolution than I was back at the condo.

  “I might just stay here till it passes,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “Assuming he doesn’t shut everything down.”

  “Well,” Jarvis said, scooting out of the booth. “We’re going to go ahead and go, I guess. May’s getting antsy.”

  “Good idea,” I said, getting up with them. “Thank you so much for letting me sit with you.”

  “Oh, honey, we enjoyed the company,” she said. “We don’t get much anymore.”

  Jarvis stopped just short of me and gave me a wink, his old blue eyes sparkling. “It was a special day after all, Andie. We got to meet you.”

  My body went warm. “Aw, thank you, Jarvis. You made my day a little better, too.”

  They shuffled past me and pushed out the door, a gust of wind swirling in and toppling some plastic table signs nearby. Jesse came back around the bar to right them and pull the door shut.

  “Jesus, this is bad,” I heard him mutter.

  I took some deep breaths for courage, got out my wallet so I wouldn’t have to fumble in the abyss of my bag, and approached the counter, where Jesse’s back awaited me.

  “Hey, can I go ahead and pay?”

  Jesse turned around and I cursed the infantile little flip my stomach did. God, he still had an effect on me. What the hell was that about?

  “Sure.”

  “Do you know how bad the weather’s supposed to get?” I asked, for the sake of conversation.

  He shook his head. “News last night just said we’d get some rain.”

  “Well, maybe you can check on the Internet.”

  He met my eyes, looking—what—amused? “Don’t have Internet,” he said.

  I chuckled. “What, here at the diner? Or at all?”

  “At all,” he said. “Don’t even have a cell phone.”

  I scoffed. “Seriously? How do you communicate with people?”

  He smiled down at me, and I pressed my fingertips hard into the counter to feel the pain instead of my heart slamming against my ribs. God, I was such a girl.

  Turning to point at a landline phone attached to the wall, he said, “With that.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Wow.”

  “Yeah, I’m old school that way.”

  I nodded, scoping out a far side wall booth I could disappear into without drawing much attention. I really didn’t want to have to leave, but—I didn’t want to continue these awkward conversations, either.

  There was a pause as he punched in my bill. “So, what are you doing now, Fremont?”

  At the sound of my name used like that again, tingles went down my spine.

  “I’m an accountant,” I said, shrugging as if to apologize for it. That was silly, it was nothing to be ashamed of. “I work from home, it’s not a bad gig. Pays the bills.”

  He nodded. “Married? Kids?”

  A chuckle rose up from my chest. “Divorced and a daughter in college. Jump right to it there.”

  “Sorry,” he said, raking fingers through his much shorter dark hair. “I tend to be a little abrupt lately.”

  “And you?” I responded. “Family?”

  He dropped his gaze back to the receipt and his face went all business again. “No.”

  I suddenly remembered the comment about him losing his wife. Damn it, Andie, way to go.

  “So, what brings you this way?” he asked, changing the subject.

  Escape. Terror. Being a big chicken shit.

  “Just getting away for the day. Might go to the lake,” I added, using May’s idea so I would sound more grounded. And then, remembering that my last adventure there was with him, I stared at the counter.

  “Just for one day?”

  I met his look instantly, and wanted to throw something at him for being so smug.

  “That’s cute, Montgomery,” I said, as I signed the slip and pushed it back across the counter.

  “Sorry.”

  “Yeah,” I said, not looking at him as I turned away. Men were pigs.

  “Hang on,” he said, glancing around the diner. “I didn’t mean anything by that.” At my look, he raised a hand. “I promise.”

  I shook my head, trying to appear that I didn’t care. Which I didn’t. Not really. “Whatever,” I said with a little shrug.

  “Just—” he began, running a register tape as he pulled in a deep breath and let it go slowly. His expression looked conflicted, as if he were measuring what he wanted to say. “If you’re going that direction, it’s not gonna be good. Why don’t you—stick around?” He tore off the tape and met my eyes. “Just till it’s over.”

  The words bounced around, echoing in my head, and I couldn’t look away. My mouth went dry, my toes tingled, and everything from my neck up lit up like a match. I just nodded and headed to the booth I’d already earmarked.

  Jesus. I threw my bag into the seat and slid in, resting my face in my hands. I felt clammy and shaky, even. It was insane. I was a grown woman, with more than a few old flames in my wake. Some were even hotter than he was, but nothing matched what I’d experienced with him. Not even in my marriage.