It Began with a Crush (The Cherry Sisters)

by Darcy, Lilian

  Yes, it felt that strong.

  Then it was his turn, hard on the end of her own release.

  She loved that. It meant she had time for him. They had time for each other. He’d devoted himself to her, and now it was her time to give back. She widened her legs, squeezed him harder, gripped his backside and pulled him tighter against her, and he was beautiful about it. Just beautiful. She wouldn’t ever have thought to describe a man that way before, but he was. A long, shuddery groan, a tightening of every muscle, her name under his breath…and finally stillness.

  It felt too good to be real. She had to keep touching him to make sure it really was. She had to say his name and nestle against him and breathe in his fresh, musky smell. Just so she was really sure.

  Chapter Ten

  Again, maybe?

  Mary Jane was asleep right now, but Joe couldn’t help wondering what would happen if he woke her up. And he couldn’t help imagining how he would do it.

  Sneakily, he thought.

  He had his arm flung across her stomach, high enough that he could feel the nudge of her breasts. He loved that, the tease and promise of ju-u-s-t touching them. They were so nice. She was nice all over. Fabulous all over. Soft and responsive and—

  Definitely, he’d do it sneakily. He’d begin by just brushing his forearm lightly back and forth against those two lovely weights of womanhood. Then he might use the ball of his thumb on a nipple. Or maybe softly cup his hand in her crotch and feel her begin to melt before she was even awake. He would press his mouth into her neck, which was so warm and fragrant in sleep. Her whole body was warm and fragrant.

  The evening had chilled down and they were both wrapped beneath the covers. The bed smelled of her—her shampoo and soap and femaleness, all sweet and delicious. Strands of her hair tickled his face. Maybe he should start with her hair, brush it away, lean in and whisper a kiss across her lips then watch what it did to her sleeping mouth. Would she go chasing it?

  So many ways to do this.

  All of them good.

  It had been so long!

  But it was after midnight, and he should go home. He hadn’t specifically said to Dad that he’d be out this late, but he’d hinted at an openended evening.

  Don’t wait up, Dad. Or worry.

  All the same, one or other of the girls occasionally still woke in the night. They’d had some bad nightmares over the years, coming at unpredictable intervals, lessening as time went on but still inclined to ambush a good night’s sleep occasionally.

  Grandad wouldn’t be the same as Dad, if Holly or Maddie was crying and still in the grip of it, fearing the Bad Man or the Bad Place. Both of these figured often in their nightmares and Joe hated to think the Bad Man and the Bad Place might be one of their mother’s boyfriends and the various sordid little apartments she’d skipped out on when she owed rent.

  Surely they’d been too young to remember any of that, but still he worried about it.

  He needed to go home.

  Mary Jane woke up when he was partway dressed, and he stopped with his hand on his fly when he saw her looking at him through the half-dark, her face scrunched against the light he’d turned on in the hallway. “Joe?”

  “Sorry. The girls. They wake up sometimes, and I don’t want Dad to be disturbed.”

  “Of course.”

  “I’m really sorry.”

  “No, of course you have to go. Give—give them a hug for me if they wake up. Or in the morning.”

  “I will.” He wouldn’t.

  Here’s a hug from Mary Jane.

  He didn’t want questions from them.

  Not yet.

  Not when he didn’t know where this was going. Mary Jane had said she wanted babies, but taking on two seven-year-old kids who weren’t hers was very different. The girls were part of the deal. If her interest in them didn’t extend to more than casually thinking they were sweet and cute, then this relationship wouldn’t get very far.

  Too soon to think about that.

  She lay there under the covers and watched him finish dressing, and there was a little moment where they shared a grin, because she was looking with intent, and he liked it and was embarrassed about it at the same time. It was odd how almost shy he felt. Shy and young and made new.

  Weird.

  Good.

  “See something you like?” he couldn’t help asking. It sounded brasher than the way he actually felt.

  “All of it,” she said.

  “If I could see more of you, I’d like all of that, too.”

  At this, she just smiled, and it was the smile that drew him back to the bed. He lay beside her on top of the covers and buried his face in the thick, puffy comforter right at her breasts, while she tried to hug him with her arms trapped underneath. “Hell, Mary Jane,” he whispered. “Can’t even tell you how much more of this I want, as soon as we can.”

  “Yes, please,” she said.

  Whew! So they were clear, and they agreed, and he didn’t need to know how she really felt about the girls quite yet. After all, she’d said and done all the right things so far.

  *

  The Richardsons took a break from their horses over the weekend, and gave Lucy the weekend free, also. She came into the office on Saturday morning to ask Mary Jane about the local bus service and various attractions and activities, because she wanted to explore the area like a young woman fancy-free, instead of a nanny with children in tow.

  Mary Jane told her about trips up Prospect Mountain and discount passes for the theme park, and about the best bars for someone who didn’t want to be hit with sleazy pickup lines all night.

  A little later, Phil Richardson came in to ask about boating on the lake. Was it too late to order one of the picnic hampers from the restaurant? And could she recommend which islands they should dock at for exploring and lunch?

  Technically, it was too late to order a picnic hamper. The deadline for those, each day, was supposed to be when the office closed the previous night. But with the Richardsons extending themselves so willingly to make the arrangement with Joe’s girls work out well, Mary Jane was more than prepared to be flexible herself.

  “Of course it’s not too late,” she told Phil. “Not for you guys, anyhow. Do you have our brochure with the options?”

  “Studied it in detail already. We’d like the family basket.”

  “Safest option,” Mary Jane agreed. “But we’ll add a couple of extra adult treats, don’t worry!”

  “Might just grab a few more of your brochures while I’m in here.”

  “Go right ahead. That’s what they’re here for.”

  “Those Capelli girls are little characters, aren’t they?” he said as he browsed.

  She had to will the blush away from her face. Their dad was a character, too. A big, gorgeous character who wouldn’t leave her mind free for much else, today—just memories from last night, and hopes for what they would plan when he called. “They are,” she agreed, not daring to say much more than this.

  “We’re enjoying having them around. Jess and Si have grown up with horses and ponies since they were babies and take it all for granted a bit. Holly and Maddie are so wide-eyed and keen, it makes our two appreciate what they’ve got.”

  “Their dad was a little worried they might get overexcited and not behave.”

  “They’ve been fine, so far. Well, ask Lucy, of course, but she hasn’t said anything to us, and Jess and Si seem to like them. They had a ball playing in the sand Thursday afternoon, apparently.”

  “I’m so glad,” Mary Jane said. “Joe really wants it to work.”

  “Yes. He seems like a good bloke.” Phil took his handful of brochures and left the office, flapping them in her direction as a casual goodbye.

  His attitude to Joe had been casual, also, and Mary Jane felt an absurd urge to tell him more. About Joe’s struggle for full custody, about the part-time law degree, about the way he’d turned his back on his star-studded ambitions and found othe
r passions and priorities, about—

  Well, everything, crazy and irrational though this was.

  Her heart was melting today. Exploding. Bouncing. Full.

  He called at noon, when the office was quiet and Mary Jane was catching up on the bookkeeping and bills. “I don’t think we can make it work today,” he said over the phone, reluctance coloring his voice. “Dad has the girls until one, when I’m closing the garage. After that, he’ll need a break, but I have to put in some exam prep, so I’m parking them in front of a movie or two. If I can get four hours, I’ll be happy, and after that I really need to spend some decent time with them.”

  “It’s fine, Joe.”

  “Thought I’d take them for mini golf and pizza.”

  “I could come for mini golf and pizza, too…” She wished the words unsaid as soon as they were out.

  But he jumped at them. “I was hoping you’d say that. Didn’t want to come out and ask.”

  “You should have.”

  “You’re right. It’s nice when we’re honest.”

  “It is. Anyhow, doesn’t matter because I offered.”

  “You did. Do you mean it?”

  “Of course I do.”

  So they settled the plan, and then Mary Jane remembered that Nickie had arranged for tonight off, and Lee wasn’t planning on being here, either. Call back and cancel Joe?

  She picked up the phone and called Lee, instead. “Can I ask a favor?”

  Lee whistled again when she heard what it was.

  “Lee, you really have to stop doing that.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Whistling when I mention Joe Capelli.”

  “I disagree. I think whistling is entirely appropriate.”

  “Are you whistling because I have a date, or because it’s Joe.”

  “Because it’s Joe, mainly. And because this time last week we hadn’t seen him in about seventeen years. Not surprised you have a date with him, though.”

  “No?”

  “What single man in his thirties wouldn’t want to date someone like you? You’re smart, you’re—”

  Mary Jane cut her off. She’d heard it before. “I’d have to check the latest census data to give you a statistic on your claim. What single man? Probably several million of them.” She knew what Lee’s list of her attributes would have been. Smart, funny, attractive, caring. She’d not only heard it before—from her sisters and from the friends, married and single, that she didn’t manage to catch up with often enough—she’d said it to herself a hundred times, on the days when she resolved to make only positive affirmations about herself.

  I am smart, funny, attractive, caring.

  “Listen, Mary Jane,” Lee was saying, “Alex Stewart not wanting to marry you six, ten, twelve years ago makes him a jerk, it doesn’t make you an unwanted harpie.”

  Mary Jane suppressed her usual inner cringe at one of her happily in love and pregnant younger sisters giving her the relationship pep talk. Go, sister, go, sister, go, go, go. They meant well. She knew they did. “I know,” she said, cheery and offhand.

  “Yeah, do you?”

  “You haven’t answered my question, Lee.”

  “What question was that, again?”

  “Whether you can possibly staff the office this evening, so I can do the mini golf and pizza plan with Joe and his girls.”

  “Oh, right, sorry. Got sidetracked.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “Let me check with Mac.” She covered the phone with her hand, and Mary Jane heard some muffled sounds. The consultation didn’t take long. “Yep, I can staff the office.”

  “You sure?”

  “I was sure from the moment you asked. I would love it if you have something important happening with Joe and his girls. But I have to remember to share the decision-making with Mac now.”

  “Thanks, then, and thanks to Mac, too.”

  “No problem, Mary Jane. I’ll see you at five.”

  So Mary Jane spent four hours on the Spruce Bay finances, while Joe spent four hours on the New York bar exam, and Lee arrived twenty minutes ahead of him to take over in the office so that Mary Jane could freshen up. His minivan swung into the parking area just as she was ready, and she raced down so that he didn’t come inside because she didn’t want Lee trying any helpful matchmaking activity if she and Joe came face-to-face. That could get embarrassing.

  “You’re out of breath,” he told her when she jumped into the passenger seat.

  “Ran downstairs.”

  “Yeah?”

  “For my health.”

  “Right.”

  “Okay, truth is that I didn’t want my sister raising my blood pressure.”

  “She can do that?”

  “She can be a little blunt.” She left unsaid the reasons for Lee’s possible bluntness, and the girls provided a distraction from the backseat.

  “We don’t know which mini golf to go to, Mary Jane.”

  “Depends if you want splashy water or tricky holes,” she answered at once.

  “Nice summary,” Joe said.

  “Guests are always asking and that’s pretty much what the choice boils down to.”

  There was a very atmospheric consultation in the backseat as Joe wound his way up the drive. Some whispered words, some sounds and movements that seemed to weigh the pros and cons of each option.

  While this was taking place, he asked her, “Which do you personally prefer?”

  “Haven’t played mini golf for about six years. But it depends on my mood and the weather. Splashy water works great when it’s hot.”

  “I think they went to one of the splashy water places with Dad. Tricky holes sound like more of a competitive challenge. And you haven’t played in six years, you say…”

  “Is that code for you saying you’ll beat me into the ground, since I’m out of practice, if they choose tricky holes?”

  “Not at all, Mary Jane.” His indignant tone was very innocent. “How could you even think that?”

  Finally, an announcement came in unison from the girls. “Tricky holes!”

  “E-e-x-cellent,” Joe said in an evil voice.

  He did beat her. All three of them beat her, although Maddie and Holly were permitted to cheat a little to achieve their equal second-place finish. Mary Jane didn’t mind coming last. She couldn’t really take the competitive element seriously at all. She was too busy thinking how sweet and fun and precious this was, how like a family they were—like all the other families playing mini golf.

  Children being encouraged or growing frustrated. Moms laughing. Dads letting their kids almost beat them but not quite. Holes-in-one earned from flukish strokes. Maddening near-misses that earned groans of sympathy from the other family members watching. Amused glances exchanged by adults over the heads of the children when they did something cute. When it happened between Mary Jane and Joe, her heart beat faster every time.

  If I could have this in my life…

  She wanted it so much it hurt with a fresh, painful intensity, and she had to pull herself back, remind herself that this was only their second date, and it was only five days since she’d brought her car into Joe’s garage. She had to stay in the moment, enjoy this for what it was, not keep hoping that it was a promise of things to come.

  The moment. Stay in the moment, Mary Jane.

  Holly and Maddie skipped energetically around.

  “Shall I get your ball for you, Daddy?”

  “Quick, it’s going to roll under the fence!”

  “No, it’s my turn!”

  “How did you get your ball to do that, Holly!”

  “Can we have ice cream?”

  Joe told them no, about the ice cream. “We’ll have dessert after pizza, and that’s enough of a sweet treat for one day, because the pizza place we’re going to has huge desserts.”

  They were all hungry by the time they reached the eighteenth hole. The colorful balls disappeared down it one by one and didn’t come back, and
the girls solemnly returned their clubs, reaching up to place them on the ledge at the little kiosk out front. “But we didn’t win a free game,” they told the young man staffing the window.

  “No? No hole in one on the volcano?” he said.

  “A hole in twelve,” Holly answered.

  “A hole in sixteen!” Maddie came in, as if it was a competition for the highest number.

  “A hole in twenty bazillion!” Holly shrieked.

  “Sixty-five gazillion million trillion!”

  “That’s enough, girls!” Joe said, wincing.

  Then they piled back in the minivan and headed south on Route 9N for their meal.

  It was as much of a family celebration as the mini golf, and another struggle for Mary Jane. She didn’t want to hold herself back from the girls, because then they might decide they didn’t like her. And anyhow, it wasn’t honest. Joe had said he liked the honesty between them, and she hated being cool and distant with kids.

  But if she was too warm with them, what would Joe think? That she was auditioning to be their new mom? Trying to impress him with her maternal attributes?

  Behind these questions, she could once again hear Lee and Daisy like a cheer squad.

  Go, Mary Jane! You’re smart, funny, attractive, caring…

  Why did she have to analyze and second-guess everything like this?

  She made a massive effort and turned off the voices of doubt in her head. The girls were absorbed in their chocolate banana splits, after their slices of leftover pizza had been boxed to take home, while she and Joe weren’t having dessert but still had a glass of wine each to finish. “Want me to test you for the bar exam?” she asked him, scrambling for a topic that wasn’t too personal, and one that didn’t involve the girls.

  “You mean now?”

  “Is it a dumb idea?” She leaned over the table and twisted a little, giving her shoulder to Holly, who was seated beside her.

  “No, it’s not. I’m not sure that you could exactly test me, but I can talk you through some of the sample essay questions I’ve been doing, and you can tell me what you think of my arguments.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  “Might be really boring.”

  “Pick a case that’s not boring. A really juicy dispute between neighbors over encroaching tree roots, or something.”