by Natalie Ann
“No worries there with me. I like to eat too much. We all eat. Anyone who doesn’t is just putting up a front. Why play those types of games or pretend something we know isn’t true? Guess what? We all fart and stink up the bathroom too. It drives me insane when people pretend otherwise.”
There she was being blunt again and making him laugh. How he missed this in his life!
“That’s good to know. So giggling. I’m not a fan of giggling either,” he said.
“Same here,” she said
“I don’t giggle,” he said.
“I didn’t mean you. I mean women who giggle. It has its place, but most times it just gets on my nerves.”
“Your turn. I just gave you two things. What else don’t you like in a man?” he asked.
“Okay. This could be fun. Let me see. A man that doesn’t shower. I can’t tell you how many men I’ve dated that don’t shower each morning before they leave the house.”
“Eww,” he said. “I shower right after I get up and usually before I go to bed.”
“Exactly,” she said. “I shower when I wake up to just help me wake up. And I have to shower when I come home every night. I’m around sick people, so I want to make sure when I climb in my bed at night I’ve washed off as much of the germs as I can.”
“It’s amazing to me the number of people who don’t shower before they leave the house in the morning. Or work out and don’t shower after,” he said. “I dated this woman that wanted to meet up after her yoga classes and not only had she not showered at the gym after, but she showed up in her workout clothes. It drove me insane that she spritzed body spray on and thought that was good enough.”
“That’s nasty. Okay, so we’ve got some dislikes in common. What are things you like?” she asked him.
“Honesty,” he said, holding her stare.
“Same goes.”
He felt his face flush. “I’ve never lied to you, Dena.”
“I’m not saying you did. I just think you weren’t always as forthcoming as I thought you were. At least based on some of our conversations now that I’m thinking of it. The question is, will you be more forthcoming going forward?”
“Yes,” he said with no hesitation at all.
“Would you like another drink or dessert?” the waitress asked when she walked over to start clearing their plates.
“I wouldn’t mind something sweet if you want to share with me,” Dena said to him.
“Go ahead and pick. I’ll eat just about anything.”
“We’ll take the raspberry cheesecake and two forks,” Dena said.
“Coming right up,” the waitress said.
“You always wanted chocolate,” he said.
“And you didn’t. I’m compromising,” she said, winking at him.
Once their dessert was done and dinner paid for, they bundled back up in their winter garb and made their way back to his SUV.
He pulled into the driveway of her apartment and put it in park. “So do I get asked in for coffee, or are we done with our first date?”
“I suppose I could spare a cup of coffee for you,” she said.
“You don’t have to sound so excited over it.”
“You said you liked honesty, so that’s what I’m giving you.”
But she sashayed right by him with a big grin on her face. He followed behind, the urge to slap her ass like he so often did squashed like an ant at one of the many picnics she’d prepared for them when they were younger. He stomped the snow off his boots and removed his jacket to hang it up.
They were in her kitchen while she turned the coffee pot on and got two cups out. He made himself at home on a bar stool.
“I’m sure the couch is much more comfortable after those chairs we sat in.”
“This is fine,” he said, not wanting to focus on the pain his body was feeling. He didn’t want sympathy from anyone. He’d spent the afternoon doing his stretches and rehab and thought he was feeling pretty good. Too bad the cold made his bones feel brittle.
“I can see the truth in your eyes. Be honest with me, Matt. I’m not stupid and can spot when someone is in pain.”
“I’m stiff and sore, nothing more than that.”
“I’ll buy it. Do you take anything for it?” she asked.
“Not really. Heat or ice if needed. A few Motrin if it’s too much. I don’t want to be dependent on anything.”
“If the pain in your back gets to be too much, have you thought of Botox therapy?”
“For my back?” he asked, laughing. “My back looks as young as it can.”
She smiled, prepared both of their cups of coffee and carried them into the living room, forcing him to follow.
“Botox freezes the muscles and helps with the pain. It’s used for migraines too.”
“Oh,” he said.
“It’s not addicting. Not like you think. Just something to keep in mind if it’s ever a problem,” she said.
“Not sure where I’d get anything like that around here if I needed it.” Not that he’d consider it.
“Max can do it. He’s got a few patients who come to him for it. He’s pretty talented and not just set in doing plastic surgery.”
Matt shrugged. “So what things do you do there?”
“At my job?” she asked. He nodded, so she continued. “I assist in surgeries as needed, care for the patients after their surgeries. I’ve got my own patients that I do Botox, fillers, chemical peels, and other laser type treatments on. It’s not all about surgeries in the office for us girls. The list of things we can do is extensive and would bore you.”
He was looking at her face closely. “Do you do any of those treatments thingys on yourself? Or Botox?”
She laughed. “Does it look like anything on my face isn’t real or is accentuated?”
“This is one of those questions that is meant to set a man up, isn’t it?”
“You started it. Just answer it,” she said, grinning at him.
He really couldn’t see where there was anything that looked all that different to him other than she was still stunning. “No.”
“We’re good at what we do,” she said. Which meant she did have things done, but he was smart enough to not ask what.
They chatted for another twenty minutes, finished their coffees and he knew that he was pressing his luck at this time trying to stay even longer.
“I probably should get home now and let you relax.”
“I had fun tonight,” she said, standing up and walking to the door with him. “Surprisingly.”
He went with his gut and pulled her in for a hug, then laid his lips to hers. Just a soft kiss. A gentle one. He’d always been gentle with her, not fast, not aggressive, never anything other than tender. He’d just always wanted to treasure her.
She returned his kiss, then pushed back a little, fisted her fingers in his shirt and yanked him forward, kissing him with all the pent-up energy he’d always wanted unleashed with her years ago.
Her mouth opened under his. Their tongues dueled and the minute he was ready to yank her in harder, she stepped back and grinned. “I don’t need to be treated with kid gloves anymore.”
“You just wanted to give me something to make my mind wander tonight, didn’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
Determined to Do
“You did what?” Amber asked her on Monday morning. “You kissed Matt? Don’t leave a detail out.”
Dena should have figured Amber would react that way when she got to work earlier and filled her in. “Why do you want to know about the kiss and not the rest of the date?”
“Because the kiss means more and you know it. Was it the same or better? I know it won’t be worse because if it was you would have texted me after he left and you didn’t.”
Damn Amber for being right. “In some ways the same, in some ways better.”
“Do tell,” Amber said, rubbing her hands together.
“Can we wait until Rene shows up? Or she�
�s going to make me say it again.”
“Rene is at the ER with Max. They got called in this morning. Max sent me a quick text to say they’d be in later and to take any of Rene’s appointments.”
Dena looked around the office the three girls shared. No one else was in the building yet. “Fine. Just being in his arms again brought back so many memories. So many feelings from before. And then it brought back the anger.”
“Did you kick him in the balls? I would have just to get it out of my system.”
Dena laughed. Amber was always blunt like that. “I was tempted, but then I’d have to fix him up and honestly I’m not sure how bad his condition is.”
“Oh yeah. Let’s table the kiss for the moment. What happened to him?”
“He died, Amber.”
“What!”
“You heard me.” She told Amber the story of Matt’s accident and injuries, leaving nothing out.
“I may have been mad at him for what he did to you, but that’s really sad. Is he going to heal a hundred percent?”
“We didn’t get that far. He’s stubborn enough to. Strong enough for it. I can see he’s determined to do a lot of things while he is here. One is to get better.”
“To get you back, it sounds like,” Amber said, “is the other thing he is determined to do.”
“He mentioned that a few times.”
“So go back to the kiss then. What was better about it?”
“He’s an adult now. He’s had practice. I’ve had practice and other partners. When you’re just with one person you don’t know any different.”
“And over the years you found yourself comparing people to him?” Amber asked, wiggling her eyebrows.
“I have. Some measured up, some didn’t. There is something about your first.”
“Matt was your first kiss?”
“No,” Dena said. “First love. The kiss means more when it’s the first love though.”
“You’re not wrong. Especially with the way things ended with you two. So move on to the date. Where and what did you do?”
“We went to dinner. Nothing fancy, but better than we’ve ever had before. I was thinking about that this weekend. That we were so young and poor. We never went anywhere other than the movies or had fast food. Well, that’s wrong. We went out twice. Both of our proms, we went to dinner before but still nothing extremely expensive.”
“Ah, the prom. Is that when you lost your virginity with him?”
“No,” Dena said, pushing thoughts of that first time from her head. If she was remembering that on Saturday night after Matt left she wasn’t going to admit it to Amber. There were too many other things she needed to focus on.
“So what did you talk about on your date?”
“Just life. Not even that much of it in terms of what we’ve been doing. We talked about dating other people. What we liked or didn’t like in someone.”
“Really? That’s interesting. Did you tell him how you hated a man that didn’t shower before he left the house?”
“I did,” Dena said, laughing. “He has the same pet peeve.”
“What else?”
“He asked if he had a shot with me and I told him I didn’t know the answer to that, but that I was going to at least try to figure it out. That I didn’t want to look back and regret not having a chance at this. That I needed closure, good or bad.”
“What was his response to that?”
“He understood, but I knew he wasn’t thrilled with it.”
“So then he just left after you kissed? No communication at all on Sunday?”
“He texted me. We exchanged numbers. It wasn’t a long conversation, just him thanking me for a good time and that he was looking forward to it again.”
Amber was grinning wide now. “And when is that going to be?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think maybe I need a dinner party. Let Matt meet Cole and Zach.”
“Not happening. Though he probably remembers Cole from school. Matt’s stepfather was a state trooper; I think he might have been Cole’s father’s boss at one point too. At least for a short period of time.”
“Okay, so if he knows Cole, then he knows what he is like. But if anyone could get him to talk it’s Zach.”
“Your husband would just get on his nerves. No, no dinner parties just yet.”
“So you’re trying to protect Matt already?” Amber asked, smirking.
“I don’t know what I’m trying to do. I guess I need to figure that out on my own too. But I appreciate you wanting to help.”
“I can help a girl out when the time comes.”
“I’ll hold you to it for all the times I’ve filled in for you on call so you could have some time with Zach while he was in town. Speaking of which, when is he due back?”
“In a few days. He and Nick had to go meet with some guy in California. I’m sure they won’t want to come back to the cold but too damn bad. They left their women and kids here and we want them home.”
Nick Buchanan was the owner of NB Innovations and Zach was his Chief Operations Officer. Nick also lived in Lake Placid where he relocated to be with his now wife, Mallory, and they had a one-year-old son, Blake.
Amber and Zach were raising Zach’s younger half brother right now, so Amber had a teen in the house herself. Seth was a senior and Amber found herself an instant Mom, though she’d been around foster kids her whole life and got along with everyone. It was working for Amber.
“Patients will be here soon, so let’s figure out what is going on for the day,” Dena said, ready to end this conversation at the moment.
She’d done a good job distracting herself throughout the day, went home and took a shower, then made some dinner. She was just sitting down to eat when her phone went off.
There weren’t any words there, just a picture. One of a big fat chocolate cookie with chocolate chunks in it. She watched as she saw there was more typing going on and then the words popped up on the screen: Cheesecake for me, cookie for you?
She smiled. Part of her wanted to grab her jacket and go get it. See Matt again. But the other part knew that she couldn’t fall into the old ways of before. She couldn’t drop everything for him like she did when they were younger or like she was tempted to do now.
They were different people. Mistakes had been made and they had to work through them. Teasing the other with dessert was fun and flirty, but it wasn’t going to answer anything. It wasn’t going to solve any problems.
How about a rain check? she typed back.
It will be stale by tomorrow. Or maybe it will be gone.
Her fingers started to move over the keyboard. It’s a chance I’m willing to take...or you could buy some more.
Deal.
She put her phone down and went back to her dinner, knowing playtime was over and that she’d have to see how long it’d be before she said she was ready for date two.
Just because she wanted to run there now, didn’t mean it was smart. And if there was one thing she was going to make sure of this time—it was being smart.
No Part of It
Two days later, Ava, the receptionist, called her up front. “What’s up, Ava?” she asked the grinning twenty-something.
“You’ve got a delivery.”
Dena frowned, looked at the box on the desk and wondered what it could be. When she thought of deliveries, flowers came to mind. Not that she’d ever been sent flowers at work before. “What is it?”
“By the name on the box, something yummy. The question is, are you going to share them?”
Dena looked down at the logo on the box of a local bakery. Oh man. She reached forward and lifted the lid, then saw six huge triple chocolate cookies bigger than the size of her palm. The same cookie that Matt sent her a picture of. He was playing lowball.
“I’ll have to think about it,” she said, grinning to herself, and walked back to her office.
“What do you have there?” Amber asked when she open
ed the door. Dena lifted the lid and showed the delicious temptations inside. “Oh man. Bonus points for your favorite. And enough for you to share. You are going to share, right? I mean if Rene sees them you’re toast if she can’t have one.”
“If I see what?” Rene asked, walking in the room. “What’s in there?” she asked, rushing over to reach for the box.
Dena turned her body away. “A treat for me. But I suppose I could be persuaded to share. Ava asked too.”
Amber snorted. “Screw Ava. We’re your girls.”
Dena laughed and pulled one out and then passed the box to her two best friends. “That’s mean and that’s not me. I’ll bring her one in a minute.”
“These are awesome,” Rene said around a mouthful. “Much better than my turkey sandwich. So what did you do for Matt to send you these?”
“I didn’t say they were from Matt,” Dena argued and then groaned over the second bite. Chocolate mouth orgasm came to mind.
These really were her favorite cookies and she was shocked he’d remembered that. That the first time they’d gone to this bakery their sophomore year in high school, she’d devoured two of them in the shop. Then she went home and tried to bake them without much success. Whenever she was feeling down or upset, Matt would surprise her with one of these cookies.
“Please,” Amber said. “You aren’t dating anyone right now and even when you were, no one ever sent you anything. Not like Zach is always bringing us food.”
“I love your husband,” Rene said. “But I’ve known Zach much longer and have always loved him, still, he’s my favorite almost brother.”
Dena smiled. Zach and Rene’s brother, Nick, had been best friends for years. Even though Zach was married to Amber, Rene had her own special relationship bond with Zach Monroe. It amazed her how Nick, Rene, and Zach were all from Richmond, Virginia, and yet ended up in Lake Placid.
Of course Nick and Rene’s grandmother lived here and they’d spent a lot of time here as kids themselves.
Some people had no problem adapting to this area, yet Matt wanted no part of it.
She had to keep telling herself to stop thinking that way. That he was trying, or so he said. She was just not sure she believed it for the long term—and that was what she wanted. Short term was done in her mind.
