by A. J. Wynter
“I didn’t take you for a country fan,” she whispered into his ear.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Lauren.” He slowly led her around the dance floor, the music and the other two-steppers disappearing into a sea of colors around them. Lauren lost all sense of time, and she could feel every tense muscle in her body as Baxter led her around the dance floor. She was not only hyperaware of every breath that she took but every one that he took as well. She couldn’t bring herself to look up at his face. When the music stopped, so did Baxter, and Lauren didn’t know if she was still lost in her time-lapse world, but she swore that he held her body against his, her hand in his, for longer than was socially acceptable. She cleared her throat and stepped away. The familiar chords of The Beatles’ Yesterday rang out and without saying a word, Baxter pulled her back into him. This time she didn’t resist. He held her hand in his, but this time it was against his chest. Again, the crowd melted away, but this time, instead of turning into a mass of colors and movement, they just disappeared. It was just her and Baxter lightly rocking and swaying under the twinkling lights. Lauren closed her eyes and let her body respond to his. The trembling had disappeared from her hands, and the steam from his breath warmed her cheek. Her eyes snapped open when she felt a smatter of cold on her forehead, she looked up and saw snowflakes swirling down through the twinkling lights, some landing on her eyelashes. That’s when she let herself look at him. His eyes were closed, and he was humming lightly. She didn’t know whether it was the alcohol or snow globe magic, but she did something she had only done once before, and she listened to her heart. She rose up onto her tiptoes, the movement causing Baxter to open his eyes, so she let hers meet his before she brushed her lips along his jawbone, letting them linger, just lightly brushing his earlobe. To anyone watching, it would’ve looked like she was whispering in his ear, but she wasn’t saying a word. Then she let her lips do what they wanted to do, and she kissed the smooth spot between his jawbone and his earlobe. She felt his chest jerk with a sharp inhale as her lips met his skin. When she lowered her heels and let her eyes meet his, she noticed that, like hers, they were glistening. He tightened his grip on her waist and she let her cheek rest on his chest, not a word was exchanged, and for the rest of that song, Lauren melted into Baxter’s chest.
When the music stopped, Lauren stepped back from the warmth of Baxter’s chest and blinked hard. What had she done? They shifted away from each other and clapped politely with the rest of the crowd.
“Wait here,” Baxter whispered to her. “I’ll be right back.”
Lauren watched as Baxter disappeared into the crowd ahead of her.
“What was that?” a voice whispered from behind her. She took a deep breath and turned to face her sister.
“I-I-I...” Lauren momentarily seemed to have lost the ability to form complete sentences. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Looked awfully cozy to me,” Charlotte said. “Where did he go?”
“I’m not sure.” Lauren scanned the crowd for any sign of Baxter’s blue hat.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Charlotte asked. Her eyes were wide as they searched Lauren’s.
Lauren shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as if she was trying to erase those moments with Baxter from her brain. “What AM I doing?” she said, more to herself than to Charlotte. “I have to go.”
“Where are you going?” Charlotte shouted as Lauren pushed and stumbled her way off the dance floor. Her breaths started coming faster and the crowd seemed to be closing in on her. She needed to get out of there. She recognized the feeling; it was the same one she had had right before she fainted. She hurried out of the party until she found somewhere quiet, somewhere she could think. She slumped down on one of the swings in the kids’ play area. She took a deep breath in and then exhaled it slowly. Why did Baxter have this power over her?
Dancing with him had taken her back in time. That’s exactly how it happened ten years ago. She was delivering extra towels and had expected to find an empty room, but instead found a handsome man playing acoustic guitar. She couldn’t quite remember how things had progressed, but he played for her, listened to music together, then they danced and she had kissed his jaw, just like she had only minutes before. Only ten years ago, he had kissed her back. Tonight, he seemed shocked and then ran away. She didn’t want to tell him the truth – that they had made a baby that night. Big fat tears rolled down her face as she realized she had feelings for Baxter. She didn’t know if they were old feelings that had been bottled up inside her, or if they were new and fresh. They were likely a combination of the two, but it didn’t matter. If she didn’t want to tell him about Tabitha, nothing like the magic of tonight could ever happen again.
BAXTER TOUCHED THE spot on his jaw where her lips had been. He hadn’t imagined it; she had definitely kissed him. He made his way through the crowd to where he had left Lauren standing, but in her place, he saw Charlotte.
“Where’s Lauren?” he asked. He glanced around, his eyes searching the crowd for any sign of her puffy coat.
“She ran off,” Charlotte said. “Where did you go?” she asked.
“I was just...” Baxter had gone up to request a song, any song that featured a saxophone. “Shit. Where did she go?” Baxter stood on his toes, looking over the top of Charlotte’s head. “Did she go back to the table?”
“Baxter,” she grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Don’t play stupid with me,” she whispered and pulled him out of the crowd. “She’s not just some small-town girl for you to have a little fun with again.”
“Again?” Baxter snapped his head around to face Charlotte, her grip tightened on his arm. “How do you know...” He stared at Charlotte. How could Charlotte know what had happened? That could only mean one thing. That Lauren knew who he was. “She knows,” he whispered.
Charlotte put her hands on her hips. “That you’re the Brock from nine, or ten years ago? Yeah, she knows.”
“I have to find her.” Baxter couldn’t believe it. “Why didn’t she say anything?” His mind was racing, he needed to find Lauren, now more than ever.
“Why didn’t you?” Charlotte folded her arms across her chest. “Lauren just figured it out, but I’m guessing you knew all along.”
Baxter held onto Charlotte’s arm and led her out of the beer garden. “How could I not?” he whispered once they were far enough away from the noise. “I knew it was her the second I saw her.” The tough woman’s eyes softened. “I was going to tell her. I swear.” He wasn’t lying. Holding Lauren in his arms had felt like the most natural thing in the world. He wanted her there again, and if he was being truthful, he wanted her there forever.
“Mmhmm.” Charlotte pursed her lips. “Sure you were.”
“I didn’t think that she remembered me. And even if she did, the development...” his voice trailed off.
“She remembered a tree planter named Brock. I’m guessing you look a little different than you did back then.” It was true. Even when Baxter saw pictures of himself from those days it felt like he was looking at a stranger. “I told you my real name the other day when you were driving your daughter to school.” The pieces were starting to fall into place.
“Right,” Charlotte said. “But you two, even if you have a history. Do you really think it’s a good idea to be getting all cozy? It’s her job to stop your project. To ruin everything for you.”
“You think I haven’t thought about all that?” Baxter said.
“Well then, what are you doing?”
I think I’m falling in love with your sister, is what he wanted to say. “Charlotte. Tell me where she went.”
“She’s probably at the kids’ park. That’s where she used to go when she needed to think.”
“Where is that?”
“Promise me you won’t hurt her.”
“I won’t hurt her,” Baxter said but wonde
red if he could keep that promise.
“Over there, just past the ax-throwing stuff.” Charlotte pointed to the corner of the community center building.
“Thanks.” Baxter jogged off.
“Remember that promise,” Charlotte shouted. Baxter raised his hand in acknowledgment but didn’t turn. His boots crunched on freshly fallen snow and he was laser-focused on his mission, to find Lauren Bunkman and tell her that he had never forgotten her.
THE SWING SET CREAKED and Lauren’s feet left long tracks in the snow as they dragged below her. She could hear the music from the dance but couldn’t bring herself to go back to say goodbye to her friends. She rested her cheek against the cold chain and tried to make sense of what was happening to her. Of all the men in the world, why was the one who made her heart race, the one who made her body tingle, the one that made her want to fall into his bed and arms forever, why was it him? What cruel world made the one man who ever meant anything to her, be the man sent to ruin her and her town.
She heard footsteps approaching from behind and sighed, she knew that Charlotte would follow her.
“Char, I just want to be alone,” she said. She kept her gaze on the piles of snow on the front of her boots.
The throat that cleared behind Lauren was low and masculine. She gripped the chains and turned to see Baxter standing behind her. “I can go,” he stated, pointing in the direction of the party.
“I thought you were my sister,” Lauren said.
Baxter bridged the gap between them and took a seat on the swing next to her. “Lauren, I will leave you alone. I promise. There’s just, there’s something that I think we need to get out in the open.”
“What’s that?”
Baxter pushed the swing so that he was swinging at the same slow pace as Lauren. “We can’t keep pretending that we don’t know each other.”
Lauren dug her foot into the ground, stopping the motion of her swing and turned to face Baxter. “I didn’t think that you remembered.”
“How could I forget?” Baxter stood up and walked in front of Lauren, holding onto the chains of her swing, his hands above hers. He was so close she could’ve reached out and touched him. “Lauren, that was the best night of my life. I never once stopped thinking about you.”
Lauren looked up at Baxter. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She assumed that she had just been one in a long line of women. Baxter pulled off his glove and cupped her face in his hand, his thumb rubbing her cheek. She held onto his wrist and looked into his eyes, his body shielding her from the soft snowflakes falling from the sky.
“Baxter, Brock, I...”
“Just shut up and let me kiss you.” Baxter’s lips were on hers before Lauren could finish her sentence. He threw his other glove into the snow and grabbed her face with his other hand. There was an urgency in his kiss, but the softness of his lips surprised her, and she moaned into his mouth. She knew it was wrong, but never having been kissed with such want as if he was a diver and she was his air, she let herself fully go. She held on to him tightly as the kiss turned from one of urgency into one of indulgence, puffs of steam from their raspy breaths swirled together as their lips slowly reacquainted themselves with each other. The rush and tightness in Lauren’s belly tingled lower and she involuntarily arched her back in an attempt to press her hips closer to his. When it actually pushed her body further away, she stood up, her lips never leaving his. “Brock,” Lauren gasped into his mouth. “What are we doing?”
“I love it when you call me Brock,” he growled. He picked her up, and she gripped her thighs around his waist, hooking her boots behind his back. This time it was she who was thirsty. She kissed Baxter like he was the last glass of water on Earth.
Lauren didn’t know when her brain stopped working and her body took over, but when Baxter picked her up and walked her backward until she was pressed against the cold brick wall of the community center building, all her rational thoughts disappeared into the snowy night.
She rested her head against the wall as Baxter nipped along her collarbone. His fingers pressed into her ass as she laced her fingers together behind his neck. She leaned in and kissed his lips, arching her back while grinding against his body and he pushed back. She could feel his hardness through his jeans, and she moaned into his ear.
“You’re so fucking sexy.” He looked her in the eyes and kissed her as their bodies writhed against each other. Lauren glanced over Baxter’s shoulder, ensuring that no one from the party had found their way to the back on the building. She slid her hands in between their bodies and fumbled with the button on the top of his jeans. In truth, she wanted nothing more than for Baxter to pull down her jeans, free his cock and fuck her up against the wall. But the last time she had let her body control her life, she ended up with a baby in her belly. And with that thought, all reason returned. She patted the undone button on his jeans and pressed her face into his neck. “Let me down,” she whispered. Baxter nodded and held her gaze as he gently lowered her so that she could stand on her own two feet.
“We can’t,” she sighed.
“I know,” he whispered, his breath tickling her neck.
“It’s not that I don’t want to.”
Baxter shifted and buttoned up his jeans. “Same. But it shouldn’t be here.” He kissed her jawbone.
“No, Baxter. It can’t happen at all. And you know that I’m right.”
Baxter sighed and stepped back from her. “Lauren, you are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met. I will wait for you.”
“Wait for me?” Lauren was confused.
Baxter blew on his hands, rubbed them together and then shoved them into his pockets. “Yeah, until the development is done.”
Lauren took one step back from Baxter, she would’ve taken two, but was met with the brick wall. “You’re assuming that you will win.”
Baxter sighed and looked up at the sky. “That’s not what I meant.”
Lauren folded her arms across her chest. “Then, what did you mean?”
Baxter reached out and pulled one of Lauren’s forearms from their defensive position and held her hand. She kept the other hand tucked tightly against her side. “I just mean, that I will wait for when you and I aren’t on opposite sides anymore.”
He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb.
“No, Baxter. Just stop.” Lauren yanked her hand out of his grip.
“Lauren...” He tilted his head, waiting.
“No. Listen to me. If I win, there’s no reason for you to stay here. You win, I probably lose my job, the town will hate me, and I will have no reason to stay here.”
Baxter pursed his lips. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“Yes. It has to be exactly that way.”
“Are you sure we couldn’t just...”
“Fuck?” Lauren growled. “What, bang as we did ten years ago, and then forget it ever happened?”
“Whoa.” Baxter stepped back and raised his hands like Lauren had a gun pointed at him. “No, that’s not what I meant at all.”
“I have to go.” Lauren stepped around him and walked away.
“Wait, Lauren,” he shouted. “Come back.”
Chapter 19
THERE WAS NO WAY HE was letting her get away like that. He jogged up behind her, grimacing as his rock-hard erection pressed against the zipper of his pants. He grabbed her arm. “Lauren.”
His heart sank when he saw that her eyes were welling with tears. He hated seeing women cry. He had grown up with a cheating bastard father and while she had tried to hide her tears from him, he saw his mom cry more than any woman ever should.
“Can we talk about this?”
Her chest rose high with her visible sigh. “I don’t know what there is to talk about.”
“Is there somewhere we can go? Somewhere that’s not freezing?” He blew on his hands; his fingertips were starting to go white.
“That’s your own fault. You threw your gloves on the ground.”
He jerked his head up and caught the slight upturn of her lips. “The whole town is here and everything is closed, but...” she began, tilting her head and looked upward, a move he recognized, she did it when she was thinking, “There’s a small chance that the G-Spot is open.”
“Excuse me?” He couldn’t believe that she had said that with a straight face.
She laughed and shook her head. “The G-Spot is the gas station. There’s a small diner in there that’s open late.”
“That’s the best name ever,” he chuckled. Baxter reached up and wiped the wetness from under her eye. “Lauren, we may be professional enemies, but I never want to be the reason that tears fall from these eyes. Ever. Please, let’s go to this spot that may or may not exist and figure out a way that you and I can co-exist in this small town.”
She hesitated. He reached out and squeezed her hand, resolving any internal debate that she seemed to be having. “Okay,” she said and squeezed back.
“I’ll call my driver,” he said. He couldn’t believe that she had agreed. He punched in Al’s contact information.
“And Baxter.”
He diverted his attention to her while the phone rang in his ear. “Yeah?”
“It definitely exists.”
LAUREN WATCHED BAXTER slide into the booth that had been in the general store’s diner since the fifties. If she had seen him in the wild, she wouldn’t have given him a second glance. Not because he wasn’t attractive, it was the opposite; he was too good looking. Like one of those cake show cakes that you wouldn’t dare cut into because it looked better than it tasted. That’s what he was. Fondant, with a smattering of cocky.
“Lauren, how are ya?” Muriel ambled over to the table, a pot of coffee in her hand.
