Besides, she owed creepy guys less than nothing, so she shouldn’t even be listening.
“Coffee’s ready.” She handed him the cup, which she thought was pretty darn nice of her since she wanted to pour its contents down his pants.
A step back while she threw away the filter and grounds and took deep breaths.
Okay. Okay. She was fine now. Totally fine. She wasn’t going to stay longer—Zac had just been asking, and everything was okay.
“This is excellent coffee.” He took another sip, clearly savoring it the way an expert would. “Perfect balance, just the right acidity. Nice bite.”
“Thank you.” Chris couldn’t help smiling. She was proud of her ability. Eva had a great palate, but she preferred the business and customer side of the trade. Chris was like their father—a serious coffee geek. Apparently so was Zac.
“Think about it.”
He’d lost her. “About what?”
“Asking your sister if she wants to stay in New York longer.”
“Don’t you want her back?”
“Sure. But you need to be in California.”
She bristled. “What does that mean?”
“Like roasting a bean darker to smooth down the acidity.” His grin took away the offense, but Chris resorted to outrage anyway. Safer when he was being so intense, so close, and she was feeling so weirdly off balance around him. Yet again. “Like making sure you don’t overextract an espresso.”
“So you’re saying I’m harsh?” She scowled at him. “Bitter?”
“And quite honestly—” his smile became devilish, his eyes warmed “—I want to get to know you better.”
Chris took in a breath that didn’t seem to want to come back out. “Because you might marry my sister someday.”
“Hmm.” His eyebrow quirked. “What do you think?”
“I think you are messing with me.” She stepped back from the counter, turned away from his magnetic presence with the excuse of refilling the kettle and setting it back on the burner.
The most annoying man on earth. Thank goodness she was getting out of this place in less than two weeks.
An odd darkness settled in her stomach at the notion. And it bothered her that she’d thought of leaving as an escape, as if she was running away more than returning to where she belonged.
“Yo, Chris. How’s it going? Hey, Zac, my man!” The sound of Gus’s voice was predictably followed by the slap of a high five.
Chris turned, smiling, grateful for the interruption. Gus was so...Gus.
“Hey, there.” She was glad Zac had stepped back from the counter, giving her a little more room to breathe again. Or maybe it was Gus who’d brought the air back into the shop. He was looking wildly sexy as usual in shorts and a T-shirt, dark hair curling and still wet from the surf. “How was the competition?”
“I am the man!” He lifted both arms over his head, face glowing. “Third place!”
“Nice job!” Chris applauded.
“Way to go.” Zac lifted his hand. Slap. These guys needed something else to do with themselves.
“Thanks. I’m stoked. Next time I’ll do better. I need to land a sponsor.”
“Coffee and treats on the house.” She gestured to the glass case. “What do you want, Gus?”
“No caffeine.” He shook his head, scattering droplets, and shoved his hair back with his hands. “I’m into natural highs from sunshine and waves.”
“Juice? Muffin? Cookie?”
“Organic? Sugar-free? Whole grain?”
Chris cracked up. “Okay, okay. I’d offer you a Slow Pour T-shirt, but I can’t fill you in on factory conditions or worker wages...”
“Glass of water would be good.” He turned behind him, searching. “My friend and most fabulous mentor Bodie Banks is coming any second. He had to stop in for more sunscreen.”
“Bodie’s here?” Zac was smiling approval. “It will be good to see him.”
Bodie and Gus. They sounded more like ranch hands than surfers. “So what’s next for you, Gus?”
“Yeah, so listen, Chris.” He glanced uneasily at Zac and stepped up close to the counter. Immediately, Zac took the hint and went back to his table. “I totally owe you dinner.” Gus’s eyes were dark and earnest, and so beautiful it was like having her own personal movie star. Even better, the eyes didn’t make her feel as though her identity was dissolving. They were just really hot. Though this close—he suddenly looked so boyish. She’d placed him around twenty-five, just a couple of years younger, but... “Just you and me. Inside, in a restaurant. Some place romantic. I swear I won’t go near a surfboard the whole evening.”
“Before I answer, one question.” She grinned at him. “How old are you?”
“Aw, come on.” He stepped away from the counter in disgust.
“What?” She giggled. “How old?”
“Younger than you think.”
“Fourteen? Fifteen?”
He snorted dismissively. “Yeah, right. I’m twenty-three. I will be soon, I mean.”
“You’re twenty-two?”
Zac looked up. Smirking.
Good God. She’d practically be a cougar.
“But I’m... I mean, it’s not like we’re going to get married, right?”
“You’re right.” She looked up into those movie-star eyes and smiled, still able to see Zac’s smirk in her peripheral vision. So Gus didn’t mind older women, huh? She wasn’t sure how she felt about the age difference. But she was sure about one thing. It would hurt no one to have dinner with the kid and see what happened.
“I’d love to have dinner with you, Gus.”
“Awesome!” He lifted his hand for a high five. She didn’t move.
“Hey, this is the place.” The deep voice came from the entrance, behind Gus.
“Bodie!” Zac turned, this time with his hand up confidently. Slap.
Coming into the shop was the sexiest man Chris had ever seen—besides Gus. And Zac.
Bodie was powerfully built, in his thirties, with one of those craggy ultramasculine faces that wasn’t necessarily handsome but didn’t need to be. A Daniel Craig or Clive Owen face.
His eyes met hers, and he stopped in the entrance to the shop, hands on his hips, his friend Gus apparently forgotten, and stared at her with as much interest as she was staring at him.
It was suddenly difficult to breathe.
In her peripheral vision she saw Zac standing abruptly, closing his laptop.
Okay. Chris needed to think about this. She’d wanted to have some kind of wild adventure while she was here in California. Right now she was standing in her sister’s coffee shop alone with three of the sexiest men alive, all of whom appeared to find her attractive, which had never, ever happened to her in New York or anywhere else in her whole entire life.
And she was planning to leave?
11
AMES PUSHED BACK the chair in his condo office. He was tired, frustrated by an afternoon of fruitless calling, and he missed Eva. Missed her! It was as if they were in a serious relationship instead of just having a fling.
Yeah, guess what.
He still wasn’t sure how it had happened. He’d just been going along, enjoying her craziness, her color and her spirit. Then somewhere along the way part of her had sneaked inside him. Or maybe part of her had awakened the part of him that remembered how to enjoy itself. Either way, Ames had begun to change. He’d become impatient with the long hours he put into his job, the months of constant travel, the restrictive attitudes about how to look or behave. He’d started thinking about how much he missed playing basketball and baseball, how he’d like to start going to more concerts and plays—after all, he lived in the cultural center of the country, if not the world—speaking from a New Yorker’s perspective, of course. He’d like to read more, and yeah, maybe relax a little.
Preferably with an exuberant, beautiful woman at his side. Naked some of the time. Or a lot of the time.
His past relationships s
eemed bland and shallow next to this vibrant, exciting woman who’d taken one look and realized what Ames had lost and how he could get it back. Who’d taken on that job with a determination that never veered over the line into an attempt to control him. His infatuation with Chris seemed so middle school now, his determination to win her arrogant and shortsighted, more about his own ego than who she was or what they could bring to each other.
And yet...he and Eva had been having fun in a bubble. He hadn’t met her friends, and she hadn’t met his, or interacted with his colleagues. The Boyce client dinner was a week and a half away, the Saturday before she went back to California, and he had yet to answer battle-ax Delores’s increasingly annoyed emails and calls as to whether he was bringing a date.
Ames still had to get over or come to terms with his issues about Eva’s appearance. He also still had to come to terms with being someone who cared that much about appearance. He wasn’t sure he liked that about himself.
Round and round and round he goes, where he—
“You’ve got chicken gumbo on the stove, and I am gone.” Jean stared suspiciously into his office, working to control a smile. “What, daydreaming again? Whatsa matter with you—you in love or something? Get back to work!”
“Jean.” He closed a client file and stood, drawing his hands down his face. “I’m closing shop.”
“Already?” She stared at her enormous black watch. “It’s only five. That’s when normal people knock off.”
“Maybe I’m getting normal.”
She smirked at him. “Anyone coming over to keep you company tonight?”
“No.” He acted surprised. “Should there be?”
Jean threw up her hands. “No, of course not. You should be alone every night with your balls shriveling and turning blue.”
“Ooh.” He cringed. “Thanks for that image.”
“You call her right now and invite her over for gumbo or I swear you’ll die alone. I’m outta here. You take care, Ames.”
“Thanks, Jean. See you Thursday.”
“Only if I live that long...” She stalked out of the office. A few seconds later, the front door closed behind her.
Ames walked into his living room. Then his bedroom. Then the kitchen.
Maybe he should call Eva.
He looked into the refrigerator, pulled out a beer, popped off the top and took a swig.
No. Nothing had been said, but he was pretty sure they both needed a night off after yesterday’s intensity after hours at NYEspresso. Certainly he did. Today felt like some kind of crossroads. Either he had to decide he couldn’t get serious with a woman who lived across the country and who wouldn’t blend into the rarefied environments that were inevitably part of his life, or decide he could. Pull back or move forward.
Which?
Back in his living room, he gazed out at the terrace, perfect for hanging out on summer evenings, big enough for entertaining. He’d done very little of either, always on the road or sitting at his desk.
Where had those plans gone? When was the moment he’d been sucked in over his head for the job, both in amount of time and attitude? How had he let so much slip through his fingers? How much more of his life would he have missed out on if he hadn’t met Eva?
Maybe he should call her.
He took another swig of beer, paralyzed by indecision.
No. No. Not tonight.
* * *
EVA LET HERSELF into her apartment. She was tired. Work had been exciting today; the changes to the decor had gotten lots of talk, at least. She thought maybe a few people had lingered longer than normal, but one day wasn’t nearly enough to compile meaningful statistics.
After work, she’d wanted nothing more than to show up at Ames’s condo with dinner or some other offering and distract him from whatever he was doing in a thoroughly naughty and fabulous manner.
But.
She was under the impression they both needed a break after yesterday. She sure did. Their relationship had been so easy and energizing when she’d been in the lead, dragging him around to play mini golf, shaking up his life, changing his routine, interrupting his shower....
Now she was the one shaken up and changing. Now her life plan was in danger of being interrupted.
“Yes! Oh, my God, I loved that show! She was amazing, wasn’t she?” Natalie’s voice emerged from her bedroom as Eva went past. A male voice mumbled unintelligibly on the other end. Eva glanced in to nod and say hi.
Oh, my gosh!
She stopped on the other side of the door, dying to backtrack and peek in again.
Natalie had been draped over her bed on her stomach, bare feet waving in the air, phone pressed to her ear, cheeks flushed, eyes shining.
And she was smiling.
“Sure, no problem. Yes, I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye!” The sound of a phone dropping onto the bed. “Hey, Eva! You can stop eavesdropping now.”
D’oh! Eva stepped back into view. “Sorry. Just being nosy.”
“No kidding.” Natalie frowned, trying unsuccessfully to look her usual sour self.
“Well, then.” Eva folded her arms. “You might as well tell me who that was.”
She shrugged and climbed off the bed. “Tom. We were making arrangements for tomorrow.”
“Oh?”
Natalie narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”
“The Norah Jones concert’s not until Friday...”
“So?”
“So nothing.” Eva smiled sweetly. “See ya.”
She pretended to move on, then peeked quickly into the room again. Natalie had thrown herself on the bed, on her back this time, and was staring dreamily up at the ceiling. Her face collapsed into a scowl and she covered her face with her hands. Then something made her giggle and she was back to dreamy again.
“Ha!”
Natalie shrieked. “Jeez, you nearly gave me a heart attack. What is your problem?”
“You like this guy.” Eva pointed accusingly. “And you don’t know what to do about it.”
“What makes you think that?”
“He’s not your type.” She drew air quotes around the word. “Because he’s no one you could ever see yourself getting serious about, and then he turns out to speak your language and be incredibly sweet and wonderful and you’re completely turned upside down.”
Natalie was looking at Eva as if she’d shed her human skin and was showing alien. “What have you been smoking?”
“Well?” Eva refused to buy the cold-bitch act this time. “Am I right?”
“Humph. Possibly.” She couldn’t hide a smile. “But I am taking the man to my salon, and then shopping for decent glasses and clothes. I am not going to be seen with him looking like...he looks.”
Eva’s turn to roll her eyes, while dismay jabbed her. That hit a little close to home. Though at least Ames had been seen in public with her several times and hadn’t yet suggested she restyle her hair and shop at Brooks Brothers. “That is so deep!”
Natalie giggled. “Leave me alone. This is all your fault.”
“I know. I’m really sorry I caused you any happiness.” Natalie and Tom, score one for Eva! Her phone rang. She grinned and continued toward her bedroom to answer it.
“Hey, Chris. How’s things going out in sunny California?”
“Great! I’m loving it here.”
“Yeah?” She felt a little sick. Her sister better not be that high on anything having to do with Gus. “How did the second date with Gus go? Fabulous? Stupendous? He dazzled you with his intellect? He astounded you with his brilliant—”
“Stop. Now. Poor Gus. And no, our second date hasn’t happened yet. He keeps coming up with excuses.” She sounded exasperated. “I think I terrify him.”
“I’m sure you do. You have a brain.” Eva couldn’t stop smiling. “So can I say it yet?”
“No, you can’t say it.”
“Aw, c’mon, I earned it.”
“Okay, okay, you told me so. He is not a ro
cket scientist. But he is still absolutely delicious to look at. Now your turn—what’s going on with Ames? Can I say it yet?”
“Nope. You can’t.”
“Really?” Chris gasped. “Well, but...you guys aren’t actually dating, are you? I mean, you’re just hanging around, right?”
She sounded so incredulous Eva burst out laughing. “Yes! We are dating!”
“I can’t believe it.”
“It’s true. He’s great.”
“Jeez, never in a million years would I— Wait.” Her voice grew suspicious. “Did he invite you to the big client dinner?”
A twinge. “No.”
“Eva—”
“No, it’s fine. I don’t blame him, seriously. Can you see me there?” She forced a laugh. “Really, we’re just having a great time playing and being goofy and, I don’t know, just having fun.”
“Goofy? Fun? Ames Cooke? Are you sure you have the right guy?”
“I’m sure, Chris.” The words suddenly hit her in a different way, and they felt true and honest from deep down. Eva sat with a thump on the bed. This had started as another fun romp with a handsome guy, but it had turned on her. She had developed serious feelings for him.
Now what? If he was really falling for her, as he said, would he invite her to this dinner and all the others like it, or keep her hidden? Would he be like Natalie with Tom and try to turn her into what he really wanted?
“Eva?” Chris sounded worried. “You’re acting weird. Are you okay? What’s really happening?”
Eva stared at the wall opposite her bed, all of four feet away. She was suddenly terribly homesick for the relaxed, open spaces of California. She could breathe there. She was at peace.
“I think I’m falling in love with him.”
* * *
MAYBE HE SHOULD call just to see how—
Ames’s phone rang. He yanked the device out of his pocket so hard he nearly let go of it, which would have sent it halfway across the room.
It wasn’t Eva. It was the battle-ax. He could not ignore her any longer.
“Well, hello, Ames. I’m so glad you remembered how to answer your phone.”
He didn’t bother making excuses. “I know. I owe you an RSVP.”
“Really, take your time.”
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