The Secret Ingredient (Love Around the Corner)

by Lynn Rae

  “Without further ado, Nate Garner, the next big thing on Edible Television!”

  For the most part the group of friends went silent as Becky pressed the right buttons, and Julia Child’s cheerful face framed by a seventies kitchen disappeared to be replaced by Nate smiling at everyone as he cracked eggs one-handed and made a perfect omelet. June couldn’t help but wish she’d edited in a longer sequence of his hands close up. There was a fade out to Nate pouring her a drink and the grin on his face as he slid it toward the camera, toward her, and her heart contracted again. She looked away from the screen when the butcher-shop scene started, sure she didn’t want any reminders of their time together. Keeping her eyes on the wall as the video concluded, June couldn’t work up a smile as the people gathered around, clapped, and whistled. The big man, who was now seated next to Heather, called out for a speech, and Nate shook his head even as Becky encouraged him.

  “Come on, when you get on that show you’re going to have to talk in front of millions of viewers. We can’t be that bad.”

  “Yeah, but a lot of you have seen me naked.” Nate joked back to lots of laughter and pointing fingers. Heather smiled lazily, and June wanted to float away up the stairs and out the door into the cool evening air.

  “I’ve bleached my mind of all sightings of your bare behind when we were little. This video is better than I ever expected, and that’s saying a lot, because I know exactly how dorky you are,” Becky said as she poked at her brother’s ribs. He jerked away and told her to keep her hands to herself.

  “The only reason you have a chance at this, a small chance, but a chance nonetheless, is due to the work of June Sinclair. You made my brother look like he knows what he’s doing and that takes skill.”

  June snapped out of her funk when Becky’s hand circled around her shoulders to urge her forward. June didn’t allow her peripheral vision to pick up much of Nate’s expression as he nodded and clapped. Becky joined in along with a few other people she didn’t know. Heather crossed her arms.

  June murmured thanks to Becky and edged away from the attention. Now that the video had been shown, she could ease out of there and head home for a well-deserved bath and full immersion in the latest Wilton Barnhardt novel. Heather rose from her seat and went to Nate, her back to June as she pulled at his arm so she could whisper in his ear. Feeling as low as the basement floor, June made her excuses to Becky and inched around the crowd now gathering around the bar for more food, drink, and conversation.

  She was up the stairs as quickly as possible without running. Becky’s large home had an open plan, so no need to remember how to get out since the front door was visible. Forcing herself to straighten her shoulders, she made her way to the front door and struggled with the heavy metal knob. The door wouldn’t open, and she paused for a moment, considering if there was a lock she was missing.

  “Stuck?”

  Nate’s voice behind her startled her, and she half turned to look at him, her hand still pulling futilely on the door handle. He stood about four feet away, his thick arms crossed over his chest, and a very displeased look on his face. Rather than say anything, she turned back to the door and tugged again. The muscles in her back twitched with her efforts, or maybe it was because she knew he was still staring at her.

  “Why are you leaving?”

  “Time to go.”

  “Right, it’s written on your calendar. Why didn’t you call me back?”

  Was he serious? June stopped struggling with the door and turned to face him, nerves roiling in her belly. He walked toward her until he was only a couple of feet away, and with a deep sigh he uncrossed his arms and peered at her. She finally met his gaze and told herself there wasn’t any hurt or confusion in his expression. “Why would I call you back? The video was done, and you and Heather worked your thing out, so my role was over.”

  Nate bobbled his head back as his eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  June knew how things worked, although why this little scene needed to play out was beyond her. “You don’t need me around anymore, so be glad I’m making this easy on everyone, or trying to make it easy, if I could just get out of this damned door.”

  “Stop it, June.” Nate reached around her, and he flipped some unseen bolt with a click. He didn’t move his hand, and she tried to inch away as she looked anywhere else but him. “My sister keeps it locked so Kayla can’t wander out.”

  “Of course. Very smart.” June lost her will to talk, too miserable for more.

  “What did you mean when you said Heather and I worked our thing out? Did she say something to you?” He narrowed his eyes, and June watched his thick eyelashes. This conversation was humiliating.

  “No.”

  “Then what are you talking about?” There was a note of frustration in his voice, which irritated her already uneasy emotions. She knew her hands were shaking and clenched them together.

  “Nate, why are you here? Go back down and hang out with your friends.” A sudden thought filled her with dread. Surely he wasn’t that manipulative. She never would have pegged him as such, but her experience over the last twenty-four hours made her doubt her assessment of his character. “I don’t want to be set up for another scene with your girlfriend to get all upset.”

  Nate scowled and shook his head. Leaning her way, he propped his other hand up on the door at her side. Now, she was trapped between two bulging biceps. “She did talk to you. What did she say?”

  Enough. She wasn’t in high school, and she wasn’t going to participate in their sick little pseudo-triangle so Nate and Heather could have great makeup sex after fighting over her. As if there was anything to fight over.

  “Good-night.”

  “No. Talk to me.”

  With a huff, she turned away from him and pulled at the doorknob again, bracing her foot against the frame and wrenching it open. Nate wasn’t holding it closed like she’d anticipated, so the door flew open, and she stumbled back into him. He was so big and solid he didn’t even loose his footing at her impact. His arms wrapped around her, and her whole body flared with heat.

  “Let me go. I want to leave.”

  “Then I’m coming with you.” Nate released her and made good on his assertion as he followed her down the sidewalk. June sped up and reached for her keys, desperate to get in her car and lock the doors around her. She triggered the key fob and reached for the driver’s side handle, pulling the door open as quickly as she could. As she took her seat, her small hatchback shook on its suspension as Nate folded himself into the passenger seat and closed his door. He turned to her and quirked an eyebrow. She wanted to scream or cry.

  “Get out of my car. Go back to your party.”

  “Stop ordering me around. You don’t have that camera on me anymore, so I don’t have to do what you say.” There was a note of anger in his voice, and June’s racing heart sped up even more. He wasn’t angry enough to…? No, he wouldn’t hurt her, would he? She shook her head. She’d been wrong about him before.

  “June—” He reached out one hand, and she flinched back. Nate’s frown deepened as he pulled his arm back hard enough to bark his elbow on the window. “Did you think I was going to…I wasn’t going to hit you. What kind of a man do you think I am?”

  “I thought I knew. I was wrong.” June tried to take a deep breath and sound fierce, but she only managed to half sob and squeak. The car was too small, he was taking all the space inside, and she shook as she tried to insert the key in the ignition. She could sense his frustration and it had panicked her.

  “Jeez, what the hell did I do?”

  “I have to explain this to you?”

  “Obviously, since I don’t have a clue what you’ve been talking about for the last five minutes.”

  She couldn’t look at him anymore, so she closed her eyes and held tight to the steering wheel. “You and Heather.”

  “Right. Me and Heather.”

  His befuddled tone made her face him and stare. N
erves fired through her in cold pulses, and she breathed as deeply as she could. There was no good way to put this, so she just had to plunge in. “You used me to get things going with her. I don’t know what your deal is with her, but I didn’t appreciate being the spark firing up your relationship.”

  Nate blinked, his face held with masklike rigidity. June waited for a response. Her hands were shaking again, and she clutched them on her thighs as her face flared hot with embarrassment. He should just get out of the car now and go back to his party and back to his pretty girlfriend.

  “Is that what Heather said to you?”

  “I told you, I never spoke with her. I figured it out all on my own. She was peeved that night you made eggs, and then I was at your place when she just conveniently dropped by and got upset. And tonight, voilà, you’re together in front of everyone.”

  “When you put it like that, it does sound pretty bad.” Nate exhaled and leaned his head back as far as he could. He awkwardly stretched his arms and legs in the close confines of her car and then rubbed his hands in his hair.

  “Okay. I’m not really sure what to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything but good-night. I wish you luck with your audition.” June was proud of the professional and courteous tone she’d managed to use even though she felt like crying.

  “Nope. I’m not saying good-night. I know that much,” Nate muttered as he stared at the top of the car. “Are you going to drive, or are we just sitting here for the next hour or so?”

  June’s brain wobbled. “I’m going home.”

  Nate flung his hand out at the road. “Then do that.”

  “Not with you here. You need to get out before I can go.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s your party in there, it’s your girl—”

  “Stop it right there. Heather is not my girlfriend. Never was, never will be.”

  “But she was at your place…she was with you tonight.” Touching you and marking her territory for everyone to see, June added to herself, not liking this new, catty facet to her character.

  “Not my girlfriend. I already told you I wasn’t seeing anyone, remember?” Nate watched her now, a definite frown on his face. Why was he angry with her? She was the one who’d been wronged.

  “I remember, but—”

  “Come on, start ’er up, or we’re getting in my truck and going to my place.”

  June shook her head, her earlier misery replaced by confusion. “Why?”

  “Because I want to talk with you, and there’s no way I’m doing that back there with the peanut gallery. And Heather.” Nate let out a gust of pent up breath. “She’s a whole other story. But you need to understand,” Nate leaned her way and captured her gaze with an intent look, “I’m not involved with her, despite how it must have looked. She’s my friend. That’s all.”

  Evidently satisfied by her lack of argument, Nate reached over and tapped at the key in the ignition. “Are you driving, or am I?”

  “I guess I am since my keys are in the ignition,” June acquiesced, and without spending a lot of time thinking about the ramifications, she started the car and pulled away from the curb, away from the party, and toward the unknown.

  They reached her apartment without speaking to each other, June’s nerves jangling with each silent second. What did he want to say that he couldn’t while they’d been sitting outside his sister’s house? She wondered if he expected her to drive him back there to pick up his truck whenever they were done talking about whatever he wanted to talk about.

  She got out, and he exited the car with a few grumbles about how confined he’d been. June paused at her door. He hadn’t come inside when he’d picked her up before, and she felt a moment of anxiety over what her place looked like. She couldn’t remember if she’d tidied up before she’d left that evening.

  Nate drew close behind her, and she struggled with her key, turning it the wrong way a couple of times before she remembered the right rotation. Once the door was open, she stepped inside and invited him over the threshold with a gesture.

  He stepped into her small living area and glanced at her paintings and curvy furniture and then he stared at her. She was so filled with insecurity she didn’t know what she should do next. Invite him to sit? Offer a drink? Drop her bag and shoes by the door and collapse on the sofa while declaring she was tired and wanted a foot massage?

  “What now?”

  “Do you want me to take my shoes off?” Nate’s sincere question, following so close on her own thoughts of a massage, made her huff out an awkward laugh. He raised his eyebrows.

  “I was just thinking I wanted a…never mind. Take your shoes off if you like.” She turned away from him and pulled off her sneakers, tossing them in a basket by her door, and then went to her galley kitchen to get them some water. It was basic courtesy, and it gave her a little breathing room. As she got out glasses, she heard, what she presumed, were Nate’s shoes dropping on the floor, and she wondered how long a conversation he planned on having.

  As she turned around, she found he was standing by the counter watching her, and she reflexively handed him the glass. “It’s just water. Nothing fancy. Unless you want something else. I have tea and orange juice.”

  Nate took a sip of water and put it down on the counter, and then folded his arms over his broad chest. “I’m guessing you didn’t call me back the other night because you thought Heather and I were getting, ah, friendly.”

  He grimaced and rolled his shoulders.

  June nodded agreement and took a drink of her water. Her mouth had grown dry, and there seemed to be some sort of lump in her throat. A desperate little voice inside her head warned her to watch out and not be lured in again.

  “She’s going through a lot, and she needed to talk.” Nate lowered his head and moved the glass around on the counter. “No, that’s not quite true. She came to me because she’s turning thirty, and she thinks she needs to settle down.”

  “With you.” Now it all made sense. Perhaps in a way, June’s new presence in their world had upset Heather’s balance. Judging from Nate’s discomfort, he’d been blindsided.

  “With me, and that’s just so weird. I guess it threw me for a loop, and then when you ran out and I couldn’t get a hold of you, I didn’t know what to do.” He studied her and stepped closer. The narrow space between her stove and the counter seemed even smaller once he was in front of her, blocking her view of everything but him.

  “You don’t have to do anything for me,” June assured him with a wonky smile. She felt odd, sort of light-headed. Perhaps she had low blood sugar since she’d been too upset to eat much earlier. “Why is it weird that Heather would be interested in you?”

  Nate edged closer and lowered one hand to the counter near her hip, the other tapped the stovetop on her other side. “Gas range, that’s good. Heather. Right. It’s weird because she’s a buddy. It’s like Tiny came on to me.”

  June shifted and tilted her head back so she could see his face. Still a little dizzy, so it was probably a good thing to be wedged in so safely between the cabinets and Nate’s big, solid body. If she fainted, she wouldn’t have anywhere to go. Marshaling her erratic thoughts, she concentrated on the topic at hand. Heather. Told she was a buddy. “Ouch.”

  “Did you hurt yourself?” Nate’s brows furrowed, and he glanced at her arms before picking up one of her hands to inspect it.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Why did you flinch?” He didn’t let go; in fact, he curled his hand around hers and pulled it, and her, closer to him. She drew in an inadequate breath and watched him. His quiet voice and single-minded attention made her thoughts fluttery, and she was beginning to understand he’d come here not just to talk.

  “Because it hurts to be rejected. Heather’s probably very upset you just disappeared.”

  “Probably. I don’t think what I told her has quite sunk in yet. She was putting on the pressure earlier.”

  “Yeah,
I imagine it’s very difficult when a pretty woman is rubbing herself all over you.”

  Nate’s mouth curled in a lopsided grin, and there it was, that dimple that did her in. He squeezed her hand, and she felt calluses on his fingers. “I didn’t like it at all. Didn’t you notice me moving away constantly?”

  “No, just her touching you.”

  “It did nothing for me.”

  June gave him the best skeptical look she could muster under the extremely disorienting circumstances. Nate’s gaze drifted from her eyes to her mouth, and then to her neck. He flattened the hand he was holding and pulled her arm around his side, pressing her palm to his firm back. “Now, that’s doing something for me.”

  A hot combination of surprise and lust bubbled in her veins, and she knew she made a startled noise. If only she could figure out how to flirt back, this would be going much more smoothly. Being the older, more experienced one meant she should have some skills. She could only manage to slide her hand along the hard, flat muscle of his back as he circled another arm around her waist. “Happy to help.”

  “I thought you didn’t call me back because you didn’t like kissing me.” Nate whispered as he leaned close enough to bump his nose to hers. June’s eyes felt like they might cross, so she closed her lids to maintain her balance. The warmth from his body melted over her.

  “But I did.”

  “You did what?”

  “I did like kissing you.”

  “Thanks. You want to again?”

  “Sure, if you have a minute.”

  “More than a minute, Jonesy.”

  His mouth settled over hers, and as soon as she tasted the faint spice of him her body quivered, and she dug her fingers into him so she wouldn’t fall over. After a few seconds of his lips moving against hers, she asked for more. Tilting against him, she slid her hands up into his hair, that thick, wayward hair she’d wanted to tug ever since she’d first seen him. Nate tightened his hold on her and pushed her against the counter with his hips. She kissed his upper lip, his lower lip, and as he relaxed his mouth open, she licked them, hoping he wasn’t going to stick his tongue down her throat and ruin the moment.