by Lee McKenzie
“What are you wearing?” he asked. “That fragrance?”
“French lilac. Do you like it?”
“I do.”
“Good answer.”
He put her wineglass in her hand, picked up his, touched his to hers. Then, from the top of one cupcake he plucked a cherry by its stem, but instead of eating it himself, he offered it to her.
Their gazes met and connected. She opened her mouth and accepted it, closing her teeth around the sweet fleshy fruit as he gently tugged the stem away.
“Mmmm,” she murmured, chewing it slowly, washing it down with another sip of wine. Then she licked her lips, and he was a goner.
He kissed her, losing himself in the taste of the wine and her, and she kissed him back with a hunger that had nothing to do with dessert. He had planned to invite her to swim with him, hoping she would accept, hoping even more that she hadn’t brought a swimsuit with her. Now he had only one thing on his mind.
He pulled back a little, reconnected with her deep green gaze and gradually became aware of hundreds of tiny white lights twinkling in the backyard shrubbery. It was magical.
Kristi was smiling. “Pretty, isn’t it? Sam put the lights on a timer.”
It was magical. So was she. “Stay the night?” he asked.
The answer he needed to hear came in the form of a kiss, and he was happier than he had been in a very long time.
Chapter Thirteen
Kristi woke to the sound of running water. As she rolled onto her back and stretched, she drowsily thought how unusual it was for Jenna to be the first one up. Wait a minute…
Her eyes snapped open and she stared at the ceiling. Nate’s ceiling. Nate’s bedroom ceiling. She was alone in the bed and the shower was running in the en suite.
She held up the covers, took a quick look underneath and hastily pulled them down again. She was naked.
“Of course you’re naked.” Now wide-awake, she had a vivid recollection of Nate undressing her last night, of her returning the favor, of tumbling in his bed together.
How much had she had to drink? Two glasses of wine? Three? No, she was sure it was only two. Not enough to blame her impulsive behavior on being tipsy. And now she was in his bed without a stitch on and he could appear any minute and they’d be naked together, in broad daylight.
No way. She flung the sheet away, leaped out of bed and grabbed her clothes. She’d slept with a man she’d met a week and a half ago, and on their first real date.
Way to set an example, Mom.
What had she been thinking? And where was her underwear?
Screw it. Braless, she wriggled into her dress and zipped it up. On the other side of the bed she found her panties and pulled them on. From the back of a chair across the room, one bra strap peeked from beneath the shirt Nate had been wearing last night. She snagged the undergarment and ran, barefoot and silent, down the hall.
In the family room she found her shoes where she’d kicked them off as she and Nate had stumbled in from the patio, with only one thing and one destination in mind. Her handbag was on the kitchen counter where she’d left it. She grabbed it and stuffed her bra inside.
She was halfway to the front door when she remembered Hercules. Where’s your head? His travel bag was in the family room and so was he, curled up next to Gemmy’s head, sound asleep.
“Come on, boy,” she whispered. Ignoring his whimpers, she whisked him into the bag and zipped it shut. “Sorry, Herc. We have to get out of here.”
From the foyer she listened for sounds coming from down the hallway. Relieved to hear the shower still running, she slipped out the front door. She hated herself for taking the coward’s way out, but she couldn’t face him. Not this morning, maybe not ever. She was not the kind of woman who slept with a guy on the first date. Correction, she didn’t used to be.
* * *
NATE CRANKED OFF the shower. He hadn’t had the heart to disturb Kristi, she’d been sleeping so soundly, but as he dried himself off he contemplated how he would wake her after he slid back under the covers. There were a lot of options, and he liked every single one of them.
Or maybe she’d be awake by now, waiting for him. He fastened the towel around his waist but stopped in the doorway, taking in the rumpled sheets and empty bed. No sign of her clothes, either. Hmm. She must have gone into the kitchen, maybe to make coffee. Without bothering to swap the towel for his robe, he went to find her.
Several minutes later, reality slowly sank in. Kristi was gone. While he was in the shower, she’d taken her dog and snuck out. A quick check outside confirmed that her van was gone, too.
What the hell?
Last night had been amazing. At least, for him it had. It had been their first real date, and thanks to the previous fake ones, there had been none of those awkward first-date moments. Their conversation felt natural, comfortable, and by the time they got to dessert they were both ready to take things to the next level. He was damn sure of that. They couldn’t get out of their clothes and into bed fast enough. This morning apparently the reverse had also been true, for her at least.
What the hell? he thought again.
Sure, he was a little out of practice, but sex was one of those things you never forgot. Like riding a bicycle. There was solid scientific evidence to prove how those memories were stored in various parts of the brain, and how the brain retrieved them.
“Seriously? You’ve just been dumped in the worst possible way by the hottest, sexiest woman you’ve ever met, and all you can think about is some stupid scientific theory?”
And it wasn’t an everyday, garden-variety dumping. He’d been dumped by the woman he was in love with, dammit.
He prided himself on being a practical man. A week ago, he’d have said love at first sight only happened in the movies, not real life, but the truth was he’d fallen for her that first day. She’d breezed through his front door, tripping on his kids’ boots and spilling his dog’s water bowl, and blazed a trail straight into his heart.
Straight into his heart. “Geez, when did you turn into a poet?”
Since last night, maybe. And now that the shock…and, let’s face it, the hurt…of her unexplained departure had sunk in, he was damn sure that his performance in bed wasn’t the reason she’d bolted this morning. No way she’d faked those orgasms, he thought smugly. Not a chance. Last night had been every bit as good for her as it had for him. He and Kristi were compatible in and out of bed, so it had to be something else.
Maybe Jenna was in some kind of trouble and she’d had to rush off to help her. No, that didn’t make sense. She would have said something before she left.
As he filled the coffeepot with water and scooped grounds into the basket, he systematically reviewed the conversations they’d had since she’d started the transformation on his house.
She resented her family’s matchmaking attempts as much as he did his, and together they’d found a solution to put a stop to it.
Her ex was a deadbeat, but they’d established that Nate wasn’t.
She was anxious about having “the talk” with Jenna because she didn’t want her daughter to make the same mistakes she had.
None of those unexplained her unexpected departure.
Then he remembered something Jenna had said, that she saw stuff and heard stuff, and had figured out that her mother avoided relationships because she wanted to set a good example for her daughter.
Was that it? It was okay
to have dinner with him, but spending the night would send the wrong message? Jenna would never know she’d stayed if Kristi didn’t tell her.
He grabbed a mug from the cupboard and set it on the counter, waiting for the machine to beep, and picked up the phone. There was only one way to find out. Ask her.
After five rings, her cheerful, upbeat greeting told him she was busy, apologized for not being able to take his call and invited him to leave a message.
“Kristi, it’s Nate. Can we talk? Call me, okay?” He forced himself to hang up before he started to ramble.
“Busy my ass.”
He poured coffee into his mug and carried it into the family room. Gemmy heaved herself up from her bed and ambled across the room to greet him. He opened the patio door for her.
“Go on. I’ll take you for a walk after I get dressed.” If Kristi had still been sleeping when he got out of the shower, he would have walked both dogs. Her little Yorkie and his huge Saint Bernard made an odd-looking couple, and their mutual infatuation was a humorous reminder that opposites attract.
Not unlike he and Kristi—the boring academic and the beautiful, spontaneous interior decorator. And yet there was common ground, including single-parenthood and challenges with their extended families. Jenna seemed fond of the twins, Molly and Martha adored her, the dogs were smitten with each other. He’d be the first to admit that he didn’t always pick up on these things, but even he could see they were good together. Why couldn’t she?
Maybe he should try calling her again.
“Yeah, right. Because your number showing up repeatedly on her phone isn’t going to look desperate.” And definitely more loser than deadbeat.
He needed a better plan, but first he needed to get dressed and take Gemmy for a walk. That would give him a chance to think this through and figure out a way to convince Kristi that taking a chance on him was the right thing to do.
On the way to his bedroom, he stopped and looked into his office. Since she’d worked her magic in there, it was his favorite room in the house, and for as long as he lived here it would be a productive place to work. She had taken it from chaos to calm, and the room was organized and comfortable. It was as if she knew him better than he knew himself.
Five minutes later, as Nate was standing in the foyer, clipping the leash to Gemmy’s collar, the doorbell rang. Kristi? Oh, yes. Please let it be her. He flung the door open and felt his smile fade. It was his mother-in-law, dropping off the girls an hour early.
“Alice, I wasn’t expecting you. I was just going to walk the dog.”
“Daddy!”
“Good morning, girls.” He knelt and drew them in for a hug. “I missed you. Did you have fun?”
“Yup. Now we’re going to build LEGO.”
Molly pulled away, but Martha stayed close, with her head against his shoulder and her thumb in her mouth.
“Are you going to play with LEGO, too?” he asked.
She nodded and let her sister take her by the hand. He watched them disappear down the hall, each dragging a Hello Kitty backpack behind her. Then he stood and faced the woman at the door, who had yet to say a word, or even crack a smile. “Would you like to come in?”
She stepped in and closed the door, giving Gemmy a wide berth, not out of fear but because she simply didn’t like dogs. She was carrying two clear plastic garment bags and the contents appeared to be dresses—one pale yellow, the other light purple. Dresses that Molly and Martha would have no occasion to wear, unless…
He didn’t like the direction that thought was taking.
“Thanks for having the girls. Sounds like they had a good time.”
Alice thrust the garment bags at him. “These are the girls’ pageant dresses. They needed something for the evening-wear portion and I knew they wouldn’t have anything suitable, so I took them shopping.”
Nate stuck his hands in his pockets and stood his ground. He was having one of the crappiest mornings on record, and now this. “We’ve already discussed this, Alice. My daughters will not be entering a beauty pageant.”
Her steely gaze didn’t waiver. “You seem to forget that they’re my granddaughters, and with Heather gone, they’re all I have.”
His temper was about to boil over when he remembered what Kristi said after he apologized for losing it over the girls playing with makeup.
Don’t let this be about the pageant. Make it about your family—you and your daughters. She needs to know that you’re open to her suggestions, but that in the end, you’re the one who makes the decisions about what’s best for them.
Kristi was right. He needed to put his foot down, once and for all, and he needed to do it now.
“Alice, you and Fred are an important part of the girls’ lives, but you are not their parents. I am. I’m open to suggestions but I make the decisions, and I’ve decided there will be no pageant.”
“But the girls want to do this, especially Molly. And Martha needs to get over her shyness—”
He hated to be rude, but this woman needed to learn how to take no for an answer. “I’ve already said no but you didn’t seem to hear it, so let me say it again. No. The girls will not be in a pageant. And in the future, you will not discuss these things with my daughters until you’ve talked to me first.”
He was on a roll now, and there was no stopping. “Molly’d never heard of these beauty pageants until you told her about them. And Martha’s shyness is not a flaw, it’s who she is. If you could accept that, then maybe you wouldn’t feel the need to turn her into someone she’s not.” He stopped before he said like you tried to do with your daughter.
For the first time in all the years he’d known Alice, she was speechless. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she managed to sputter, “Well, I never…”
No doubt that was true. She’d never heard these things, because no one had ever had the balls to say them. If not for Kristi, he might never have, either.
Gemmy, leash still attached to her collar, nudged the garment bags with her nose.
“For heaven’s sake, get your dog under control,” Alice said, jumping back a step and staring with disgust at the dog drool on her shoe.
Well placed, Gemmy. Nate tugged on the leash, lowering his head to pat the dog’s back so Alice couldn’t see his smile. “Sorry about that.”
Without another word, Alice swung around and huffed out the door. She was furious, Nate got that, but she would come around. In the past, he would have felt like an ungrateful jerk but for the first time in what felt like forever, he was in control. Even Kristi’s departure felt less about him, probably because it wasn’t. He hoped she would have a change of heart but if she didn’t, he would find a way to change it for her.
* * *
INSTEAD OF CRAWLING into bed and having a good cry when she got home from Nate’s—and she’d been so tempted—Kristi forced herself to keep busy. After a quick shower, she pulled on a T-shirt and pair of yoga pants, went into the kitchen and hauled out her baking supplies.
A long time ago, she had figured out what she needed to do to ensure that her life didn’t become a blueprint for Jenna’s. She’d made the right decision, she was convinced of that. Last night she’d had a lapse in judgment, had let her feelings and Nate’s hotness get the better of her, but she wasn’t going down that road. Not now. The timing just wasn’t right.
She was taking the second batch of cupcakes out of the oven when Jenna arrived home from her sl
eepover.
“Mom? I’m home.” The front door slammed and a moment later Jenna appeared in the kitchen. “Wow, that’s a lot of cupcakes. Is something wrong?”
“Of course not. Why?”
“’Cause when you’re upset, you bake.”
Jenna knew her too well. “I’m not upset,” she said, hoping she sounded more convincing than she felt. “I’m going to put these in the freezer so they’re ready for Aunt Wanda’s barbecue.”
Jenna leaned on elbows on the counter and studied her from the opposite side of the peninsula. “How was your date?”
Kristi avoided eye contact as she carefully removed the cupcakes from the pan and set them on a rack to cool. “It was fine.”
“Did you and Nate have a fight?”
“No, of course not.” Time to change the subject. “How was the party?”
“Awesome. Abbie’s so lucky, her parents gave her an iPhone.” She paused for effect, then continued, “After everybody left, we spent ages figuring out how it works and getting a bunch of apps set up and texting our friends.”
“That’s nice.” Kristi turned off the oven and started to wash her baking dishes, fully expecting yet another explanation of how badly Jenna needed a new phone.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” her daughter asked instead.
“I’m fine, sweetie. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
Jenna yawned. “I’m going back to bed. We stayed up super late, and Abbie’s mom made French toast for breakfast so we had to get up early.”
Ordinarily Kristi would insist she stay awake and go to bed early tonight, but if Jenna went back to bed now, she would stop asking questions.
“I told Abbie she could come with us to Nate’s tomorrow. Now that the pool’s done, we can go for a swim.”
Kristi snapped. “Jenna, you can’t just invite people over there.”
“But Nate said—”
“No buts. You should have asked me and I would have told you it’s not appropriate for you to invite your friends to my client’s home.”
