by Hope Ramsay
“We can’t,” he said. “I’ve got to get to work soon and Colty here has a date.” He gave Colton a playful slap on the back.
“A date?” Sara echoed. Her gaze wandered over to Colton, who suddenly seemed to find the grass really fascinating.
Just then a pretty blonde walked up, threw her arms around him, and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “There you are,” she said. “It’s so crowded I was afraid I’d never find you.”
Well, Colton certainly hadn’t wasted any time fretting over Sara’s rejection, had he? She recognized the woman as Everly Peterson, from their high school class. She’d moved to New York to become an actress. Evie had told her she’d returned last year divorced from her plastic surgeon husband, but with boobs three times their previous size. Sara didn’t like to make judgments about anybody, especially since high school had been a long time ago. Everly had come back to run the town’s little nonprofit theater. Maybe she’d changed and wasn’t the attention-seeking drama queen she’d been back then.
“Oh, cute kids!” Everly said, tugging down her already low-cut T-shirt so it showcased her boobs. She checked out Julia and Michael, who were currently running around Rafe’s legs as he pretended to be a monster, growling and moaning and tickling them as they passed. “They yours, Sara?”
“My sister’s. I promised them cotton candy before the fireworks start.” With that she turned to Kaitlyn and Gabby. “Want anything from the concessions?”
“Oh, I’d love some cotton candy!” Everly said.
“No problem,” Colton said. “Sara, I’m happy to get your stuff too.”
“No thanks,” she said. She could get the kids their cotton candy herself, thank you very much. He went off, and she grabbed her purse from the blanket.
“Hurry up,” Gabby said. “Fireworks are going to start any minute.”
Of course she ended up in the line right behind Colton. She tapped her foot anxiously against the grass. There was no reason to be angry. She was going to be calm and dignified about this. Everly was beautiful in a way Sara would never be. More importantly, Everly was Colton’s type of woman—beautiful and buxom. She even had this giddy little laugh. Clearly she was fun.
In line, three separate people said hi to Colton. An elderly woman thanked him for hauling her Christmas tree down from the attic for her Christmas-in-July celebration, a father thanked him for talking to his son after he’d gotten caught spray painting graffiti under the bridge, and Mr. Langotti, who owned one of the cafés downtown, thanked him for keeping an eye on his house when he’d been on vacation the week before.
It appeared everyone in the entire town was in love with him. Finally the last person left. Sara poked Colton in the back.
“Nice night for a date,” Sara said. She knew full well she sounded catty but couldn’t seem to help herself.
“It is,” he replied, though he didn’t turn around.
“Leave it to you to date the prettiest girl in town.” Again with the catty. She needed to just keep her mouth shut.
“Not only is she pretty, she knows how to have fun too.”
Ouch. “My pie must’ve not been very tasty, because it only took you twenty-four hours to get over it.” Why couldn’t she stop?
Finally he turned to look at her, and his gaze was steely. “A pie is just a pie, sweetheart.”
And with that he turned back to the concession counter and handed her a Coke and two cotton candies. She took them, mollified and confused. His expression was business as usual. “Thank you,” she said. “You didn’t have to—”
“I wanted to.”
Why did he always have to do something nice? She wanted—no, needed—to stay pissed at him. She tasted the Coke. Diet. “How did you know I drink diet?”
He shrugged. “Good guess.” His gaze seared through her, leaving a burning trail of heat in its path. It burned through her insides and bloomed on her face in a crimson blush. “I’ve got to get back to Everly,” Colton said. “Enjoy the fireworks.”
He turned to walk back to his date, leaving her alone. The brief walk back to the blanket didn’t improve her mood. She gave the kids a couple pulls of the cotton candy, even ate a bite herself, but she couldn’t relax. The excitement she’d felt about bringing the kids here had faded.
“What’s wrong?” Gabby asked her while Kaitlyn entertained the kids.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just waiting for the fireworks to start.” She sneaked a glance over at Colton and Everly, who of course had chosen to sit about ten feet away. She could see them chatting and Everly playfully pushing his shoulder. A time or two she heard his laugh, deep and sonorous. Everly must be very clever to get him to laugh like that. Sara didn’t think anyone had ever laughed that way with her. And she wondered if anyone ever would. “Just that Everly’s acting like the Eveready sex bunny.”
“Sara! That’s not like you.”
“Well, maybe I’m not feeling like myself tonight. Am I fun?”
“Right now you’re not, but you can be. You’ve got feelings for Colton, don’t you?”
“No! Of course not. Why would I have feelings for him?”
“Because he’s a nice guy. And because he might have feelings for you too.”
“Colton doesn’t do relationships. I’d be humiliated all over again, and the whole town would start gossiping. I could never subject myself to that again, believe me.”
“You’re scared!” Gabby wagged her index finger at Sara. “That’s why you’re running from your feelings.”
“I made him a pie and he kissed me. But then I shut him down. And that was just last night and look who he’s with today. End of story.”
“You probably hurt his feelings.”
She snorted. “I doubt it. If I did, he certainly recovered quickly.”
The fireworks had begun, lighting up the sky with bursts of white light and loud rat-a-tatting noises that Sara felt reverberate clear through her chest. It had always been a fantasy of hers to watch fireworks with someone who kissed her as the boom-boom-boom of the explosions filled the night sky. Tagg had hated fireworks, so they’d rarely gone, plus he hated showing affection in public. Oh well, guess she was going to have to wait for another Fourth for a man who could make her see stars. Because she’d totally blown it this year.
She tried to take joy in her niece and nephew, but Michael was a little frightened and kept holding his hands over his ears. Sara tried to hold his ears for him and make a joke, but he wasn’t buying it.
“I haveta pee,” he said. Evie had warned her that he meant what he said. But where was she going to take him? The public bathroom was quite a hike away.
“Auntie Sara,” he said more urgently. “I haveta pee now.”
“C’mon, I’ll take you,” she said, scooping him up and heading to the back of the crowd. A patch of woods surrounded the baseball field, and in high school kids used to go in there to make out and smoke weed. She just hoped no one was in there now doing that or other worse things she didn’t want to see. She walked about a foot into the woods and said, “Pee on that big rock.”
He lifted his little face. “Outside?”
“Yeah. Um, Spider-Man pees outside when he has to, and this is an emergency.” He liked Spider-Man as well as Barbies, didn’t he?
“A ’mergency,” he said, grinning. Then pulled down his pants and got the deed done.
“That was awesome!” she said as she carried him back to the field. “Don’t tell your mom, though, OK?”
“I’m telling,” he said, grinning and wrapping his little hand around her neck. His mother’s son all the way.
On the way back to the blanket, Sara couldn’t help but notice Colton and Everly again, but this time she did a double take because Everly was leaning over on the blanket, cleavage in plain view, feeding him cotton candy.
“Aunt Sara, why did you stop?” Michael asked.
Sara shook her head. “Oh, sorry, Mikey,” she murmured. The intensity of her unkind, murderous feelings
for Everly shocked her so much she’d stopped walking. And those same feelings bubbled up for Colton. How could he let Everly feed him cotton candy when yesterday he’d eaten Sara’s pie?
She became aware Michael was tugging on her shorts. “What is it, sweetie?” she asked.
“You stopped again.”
She scooped Michael up and kissed him and carried him through the crowd back to their blanket, forcing herself to stay in the moment. But in the back of her brain, something niggled. The overt jealousy she felt at seeing Colton with another woman appeared to be above and beyond what she’d feel for someone she was merely attracted to. She couldn’t possibly have real feelings for Colton.
Or could she?
Chapter 13
Well, Sara had certainly acted jealous about Colton’s date. And he had to admit that made him really…happy. He’d enjoyed sticking it to her too, and had taken a perverse pleasure in seeing her all riled up. Could it be possible she was interested in him, even after that just-friends speech?
“Colt, why are you chuckling to yourself?” Everly asked, scooting up close to him on their blanket. Instinctively, he leaned away from her overpowering perfume. He’d gone along with her feeding him cotton candy because he’d seen Sara walking toward them with Michael, and dammit, he wanted to make her jealous, but now that the fireworks were almost over he just wanted to go home.
He shook his head, as if it were easy to shake thoughts of Sara out of it. “I’m just thinking what a nice evening it is.” He was spending way too much time thinking about Sara. Maybe he was losing it, because since when did he prefer someone who’d rejected him over a beautiful woman who was right next to him? Everly was close and getting closer. He could tell from the looks she was telegraphing him, from the way she kept showing him her cleavage, from her subtle little touches, that she’d be more than delighted to join him in bed tonight. Trouble was, he just couldn’t work up the excitement for it—for her.
Geez. Ruined by a smart, pretty type A woman who’d turned him on by baking him a birthday pie. Maybe he really was losing it.
Everly linked her arm through his. Fireworks lit up the sky, booming and bursting.
But Colton barely noticed—the fireworks or Everly. He was thinking of how cute Sara looked in shorts and a T-shirt, her hair up in a ponytail. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her holding her nephew and pointing up at the sky. The little boy was leaning back against her and watching the display with a look of awe, and Sara was laughing.
His eyes wandered in her direction, only to find she was looking right back at him. So she was staring at him. Interesting. Maybe she was running scared. She’d spent a lot of years with Tagg and had been through a lot this past year. Maybe she was a little nervous about jumping into something.
“It is a beautiful night,” Everly said after the fireworks ended. “And it doesn’t have to end.” She gave him a pointed look meant to telegraph her meaning.
“Gee, thanks, Everly, it’s been a lot of fun, but I’ve got to get home. Early day tomorrow, you know?”
Colton drove Everly home, then parked his cruiser at the station and walked the short distance downtown. The shops were lit up. One or two people walked their dog, and there were a few stragglers from the fireworks, but the place was pretty dead. He kept walking to the bridge.
The angel statue greeted him as it had every day since he’d moved here.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said to the angels. “She told me to get lost. Well, not in those words, but she friend-zoned me.” He leaned over the bridge to look at the falls cascading over the rocks. The green was mostly deserted now.
“I’m the one that friend-zones people,” he mumbled. “I’m the one who likes to date around. This is a good thing.” Except even though Everly was beautiful and willing, he had no desire to go out with her. There was no challenge there. What was wrong with him?
Sara was able to raise his blood pressure like no other woman, that was for sure. And admittedly, he did sometimes take a perverse pleasure in baiting her, in watching her outrage rise in a pretty blush up her face. “I don’t know why I do it,” he told the angels. “In fact, I don’t know why I’m attracted to someone I can’t help sparring with half the time.”
He had to let this go. But as he stood there on the bridge, the memory of that early spring evening came to him, with the blossoms blowing across the bridge, their sweet scent intoxicating and heady. He’d shared one hell of a kiss with Sara that evening. A kiss so full of promise that he could barely sleep the entire week.
That attraction was still there, regardless of her years with Tagg, regardless of the fact that their date had never happened. It buzzed between them like bugs around a flame, and there was no denying it. Until he saw it through, he would always have questions that nagged at him. That kiss hadn’t been the end of something. It had been a beginning.
* * *
In a small town like Angel Falls, the fireworks display didn’t last that long. Thank God, because Sara had a splitting headache. Julia was tired and whiny, her small hand literally stuck to Sara’s like syrup on a pancake, and Michael had fallen asleep, his head wobbling a little on Gabby’s shoulder. Kaitlyn had taken off with Steve to have a big relationship talk, so Sara and Gabby headed with the kids toward home.
“Remind me of why we decided to walk again?” Gabby asked, adjusting Michael’s dead-to-the-world weight in her arms.
Sara peeled her hand carefully away from Julia’s. It made a sound like a zipper unzipping. “Oh my gosh, Julia, here, sweetie, stick to Aunt Gabby for a bit while I take Michael.” She chuckled, but Julia just responded with an “I’m tired” and rubbed her eyes, getting more sticky stuff on her face, which was already coated with a sparkly layer of cotton candy sugar.
Sara traded glances with Gabby. She saw the glint of desperation plain as day. Gabby pointed to the picnic bench on the far edge of the park, which stood on the grass a few feet ahead. It would be their last pit stop before hauling the kids another half a mile home. Which wasn’t that much, but it now seemed as impossible as a trip on foot across the Sahara with no water.
“Why is it children weigh twice as much when asleep than awake?” Gabby said as they sat. A soft snore emanated from Julia, whose mouth had dropped open in a soft little O.
Sara laughed. “I don’t know, but I’m sorry I’ve been such a pill tonight.”
Gabby patted her on the knee. “I forgive you. If it’s any consolation, Colton kept looking over at you.”
Sara shook her head. “I doubt Colton was looking at me when he had Everly to ogle.”
“Oh my God, Sara. That man wants to do you, and you drove him into the arms of that horrible woman.”
Sara rolled her eyes. “I didn’t drive him into anybody’s arms. I mean, it took him less than twenty-four hours to find someone else! Who does that?”
“An angry alpha male? Who maybe wanted to make you a little jealous? Or who wanted to try and forget you, but of course he can’t because he’s fallen deeply in love with you. Or maybe he’s always been.”
“My God, Gabby, you should write romance novels. Really.”
“I’m just saying, I personally wouldn’t write him off just because you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared!”
“Come on, Sara. I mean, if that were me, I’d be a little nervous too of someone whose nickname is the Revolver.”
“I’ve only been with Tagg.”
“Having only been with one person isn’t the problem here. The trouble is, he wasn’t the right person. And you’ve hinted to me before that maybe the sex with Tagg wasn’t that great. A man like Colton has got to know what he’s doing in bed. Maybe it would be…you know, a little fun to find out?”
“Gabby!” She looked down to check that the little ones were still asleep.
Her sister raised her brows in a Well, I’m just sayin’ expression.
Sex with Tagg had been pleasantly predictable at its best…and, t
o be honest, generally lacking. She’d always covered up those feelings, thinking that that was the way it went when you were with someone for a long time, or blamed it on her own lack of experience. Thought that maybe if she tried new things, read Cosmo more, whatever, the sex would be better. After all, that’s who she was at her core. Try Harder Sara. Out to please. Out to win everyone’s approval.
“Thank you for being my sister,” Sara said. “And I’m sorry everything’s been about me lately. I was shocked when you announced your engagement. I felt bad. Like I’d been so wrapped up in my own troubles, I never even saw that coming.”
“You didn’t see it coming because I didn’t see it coming. It had nothing to do with the fact that you just moved, started a new job, and are understandably stressed.”
Sara picked her words carefully. “Are you happy with him?”
Gabby sighed and adjusted Julia’s head on her shoulder. “What’s happiness? If happiness is having a family one day, then yes, I’m happy, because I want that more than anything.”
Oh God, that was not the right answer. “Gabby, you’re young. You’re talking like this is your last shot at marriage and a family.”
“Let’s get real, Sara. I’m twenty-nine, I have a job I dislike, and time is ticking away. I know Malcolm’s not perfect, but he’s smart, adventurous, and he’s got a great job. Not to mention he’s cute. Sometimes we don’t get exactly what we want. We have to make do, or we miss out entirely.”
“It’s not like you to compromise for something so important. You’re the romantic of the family.”
“Maybe for once I’m a realist.”
She tapped her sister’s shin with her foot. “Don’t settle, Gabs. I almost did. If Tagg hadn’t been stupid, who knows how long I would’ve kept telling myself I loved him, trying to make it work, despite knowing in my gut there had to be more? I thought Tagg leaving me was awful, but now I see it in an entirely different light. It’s a second chance for me.”
A second chance with Colton. Which she’d blown.
Suddenly Sara began to laugh.