“He seemed to know his own customers.” He unlocked and opened his front door, then held it open. He couldn’t believe he’d shut it on her earlier.
“She’ll be disappointed that I abandoned her,” Kat fussed. “I’m not being much of a friend.”
“I could point out that she left you sitting alone at the bar, an easy target for any guy who wanted to hit on you.”
She giggled. “But to Celia that’s the point of going to a bar in the first place, so she wouldn’t see anything wrong with hitting the dance floor with half the men in the place.”
“The only thing she’s disappointed in is that you won your bet.”
Still, she hesitated. “This is where I tell you that the whole bet thing happened because Celia wanted to get me to go clubbing with her. She challenged me and I stupidly agreed that if I didn’t see you naked, then I’d go party with her.”
“So you both won?”
She grinned. “For sure I won.” She placed her palm on his cheek. “Wow, did I win.”
“So, this was just between the two of you?”
“Of course. I was saying how gorgeous you were and admiring your butt, and—”
“My butt?” He interrupted with a bark of laughter. He laughed partly because of the idea two women liked what they saw enough to comment and partly from relief that he wasn’t the laughingstock of the whole complex. He liked his life private. He’d suffered enough gossip and innuendo from neighbors when he was a kid.
“Spend the night, Kat. Spend the whole weekend with me.” He wanted more but figured he should go slow.
Her smile lit her face and his too. “I’d like that.”
He held out his hand and she took it. He tugged and she hopped into the house, face split in a grin that took his breath.
“You’re all dressed up,” he said, deciding the best thing to do was not rush her into bed. They’d already proven they were good there. What he wanted to show her now was that they were good outside of bed too. “Let’s go out for a late dinner.”
“Good idea; I didn’t eat much earlier,” she said on a soft breath.
There she was again, the shy young woman she first seemed. “You look so pretty and fresh,” he said, sliding a tendril of hair behind her ear.
“That’s hard to believe after making your SUV rock, but sweet of you to say.” Her cheeks went pink and she nodded. He was way past being tongue-tied and awkward. Tonight he would finally unravel the mystery of the sexy girl next door.
Gulls squawked overhead and put on a fine show of dive-bombing some hapless tourists who’d made the mistake of offering a sleeve of take-out fries. After scattering the remaining fries as a distraction, they ran for their car, ducking and waving their hands overhead.
“Looks like a scene from that old thriller by Hitchcock,” he said.
Kat chuckled and dipped a fry into a splotch of ketchup. “I love his movies. So tense, such great suspense.”
“He was a master.” He did another check mark in the air with his finger. “Check, she likes the same movies I do.”
“So, how about Bette Davis movies?”
“Some, especially the horror thrillers she did when she got older.”
“She was fearless in her roles, even when she was young and beautiful.” She grinned. “Check! Remember to drag him through the classic movie section of the video store.”
“You don’t have to drag me anywhere. I can’t think of anything better than snuggling in with you on a rainy night, with a cold beer and hot pizza watching any old movie you want to see. I’ll be looking at you anyway.”
She went pink in the cheeks. Her unique shade of pink. A color he grew more and more fond of seeing.
“When you blush, the color of your skin is unlike any blush I’ve ever seen. Instead of blotches of red, the pink is evenly distributed and makes you glow.” It was the most beautiful thing about her, he decided. Keeping that glow on her face was a new desire and stacked up strongly against all the other desire she created.
“I’m glad we came here,” she said, leaning her shoulder against his for a brief touch. “It’s good to talk with you.”
I like you was what he heard. “It’s good to talk with you.” They almost hadn’t made it in time to order. The cook was about to close up when they’d arrived breathless after running along the pier in a race he let her win.
“I thought at first I should take you somewhere fancy. The kind of restaurant with prices on my menu and not yours.”
She shook her head. “That’s not my kind of restaurant.”
“Then I thought at least a steakhouse. She deserves a sit-down meal with a good waiter and better wine.”
“Then how did we end up at a fish shack on the end of a pier?” She grinned around a ketchup-covered fry.
“I’ve been less than my usual suave and debonair self around you.”
She chuckled. “Suave?”
He looked at his feet, then speared another piece of beer-battered fish. “You make me lose my ability to walk and think at the same time. So, I figured it was time you see the real me instead of the nerd I probably look like.” He chewed the fish. Swallowed. “I’m happy eating at a fish shack on a late night.”
“So am I.”
Relief. If she hadn’t liked the real Taye, he’d have gotten out before he got in any deeper. “I’ll take you out for a real meal next time. I’ll get reservations and we’ll have a great night. Dancing, the whole deal.”
“A date? That’ll be new.” She dropped her plastic fork and picked another fry out of her paper sleeve with her fingers. “Dating’s a foreign concept for me. I’ve never been on one. Not a ‘pick you up at eight’ date.”
Hard as it was to believe that a woman who looked like Kat wasn’t dating, he knew it was true. He’d been tuned to every sound from her side of their common wall for months. He apologized again for his bizarre behavior at his front door. “I don’t know what I was thinking. But you just might be the scariest woman I’ve ever run across.”
“I scare you?”
“In a way. I got tongue-tied around you for months; I still trip, fall, drop stuff. You saw me yesterday with that package and my briefcase and travel mug. I felt like a juggler on crack.”
She chuckled at his description.
But he had to finish. “When I talk to you every pint of blood in my body goes south, leaving me floundering. It’s the weirdest sensation.” He couldn’t explain it any better than that.
She patted his knee and he felt the same rush of blood he always felt at her touch. “I’ve only ever seen you as sweet and kind. I like that you deadhead flowers, that you still get care packages from your mom and that you teach school. A good education is the foundation for a satisfying career.”
A sentiment he more than agreed with. He lived it.
Here was the last piece of the puzzle. He had the complete picture now. Kat Hardee was everything he wanted. It was even more important now that he move carefully.
“So if you didn’t go on dates with your ex, what kind of time did you spend with him?”
“I was a high school bride. Mostly we roamed the streets of Bellevue looking for a party or someplace to park. Sex in the backseat of his dad’s Mercury was about as close to a date as we got. And the sex wasn’t even all that hot,” she said, plopping her chin into her hand. “Mostly it was over way too quickly.”
“Oh,” he said. “Check! No more sex in the car.”
She leaned her shoulder against his again and nudged him hard. “Not that our backseat sex wasn’t hot. It was.” She patted his hand.
“You don’t sound bitter about your marriage or your ex.” Which as a very good thing. He wasn’t a guy who liked dissecting old business. Once this was out of the way, he wouldn’t ask again. “What happened?”
“My husband went to college, while I worked to pay for it. He promised that when he landed a good job, it would be my turn. But by then, he was tired of being broke and didn’t want to pay
for me. And I wanted an education more than anything.”
“He dumped you rather than give you time for college?”
“Quick as he could. We had no assets and no property to divide, so a divorce was easy. I just wanted to be free to finally go to school.”
His old man went from one wife to the next, so infidelity was the first thing he thought of when it came to divorce; this was a new twist. One he’d never considered; get a good woman to pay your way then dump her. A guy like that had real class. He snorted. What a loser. “You’re in college now, though.”
“Thanks to sex toys!”
He laughed with her. “A lot of women would be bitter after getting the shaft like that.” He was proud of her for hanging in on her own.
She was proud too. He saw it in her gaze. “Bitterness is a wasted emotion. Besides, I pushed for marriage when we were too young, convinced that sex was only supposed to happen in a committed relationship. He was too young, I was pushy. Needy, I guess.” She shrugged.
“And now what do you think about sex?” The question was lighthearted until he saw her expression.
She eyed him appraisingly and he caught a glimpse of Celia lurking in her thoughts. Heaven help him! “I’ve had the best sex of my life with you and we’re not committed to anything but this moment.”
Shit.
Kat held her breath, letting the comment hang between them, foolish in her need to hear that maybe she’d guessed correctly for once in her life. Maybe Taye wanted more than some good times between them. The silence stretched while she waited, then let the hope die. She’d left herself wide open. It was her own fault if she took a hit. Again.
He glanced away, across the pier, then tossed a fry out to a scavenging gull. The bird snatched it and skittered away, gulping the fry whole.
No wonder she didn’t date much. She was so rusty she creaked. She pulled her thoughts to order and gave him the out he seemed to want. “With a full load of classes and a job that keeps me out more nights than not, a steady man would be an inconvenience.”
“Why are you available tonight?” His voice was definitely more cool than it had been earlier.
“Fridays aren’t a good night for my kind of party. Seems as if it should be, but most people have other plans. Married women are busy with their families. Single women are on dates or out clubbing.”
“You must have lean times in the year.”
“January’s tough. All the big parties happen before the holidays, but since it’s just me, I manage.”
“Tell me about the bet you made with Celia.”
“It was stupid.”
“Telling me about it was stupid.” He must have felt betrayed knowing he was the subject of a bet.
Time to clear the air. “I never should have mentioned you to Celia in the first place. Once she saw I was interested in you she wouldn’t let up. Made me think you were hers for the picking.” And that had forced her hand.
He snorted. “Not likely. I’ll never be attracted to Celia. She’s not my kind of woman.”
“I’m glad.” She popped her last fry into her mouth while he chewed his last piece of fish. “So what kind of woman do you like?”
“Faithful ones. I want a woman who sees life the same way I do. My old man was a son of a bitch and flaunted his affairs. Took my mom too long to walk away.”
“That must have been rough.” Did he equate Celia’s easygoing sexuality with the women his father ran around with?
“For a long time I thought I’d be just like him, but eventually I realized what I want.”
Her heart stilled while she held her breath. “And what’s that?”
“Mostly I want peace. The kind of peace in a family that comes from fidelity and trust. The dramas I grew up with are behind me and that’s where they’ll stay.” He spoke firmly and with conviction. He’d put a great deal of thought into his answer. He cleared his throat.
“Peace sounds like a good thing to want,” she said. Without prompting, she went on to explain her own dreams. “I want my education, a career, my own business someday. But I’d like a stable family life too. I want someone I can depend on.”
The fish shack cook slammed the wooden flaps down over his order window as he shut down for the night. The noise made Kat jump and the encroaching gulls take a few steps back.
Taye wiped at his mouth with a paper napkin and stood. He held out a hand for her.
“Greasy,” she said, wiping her mouth with a paper napkin. “But delicious.”
Taye looked about to speak when her cell phone rang. He frowned at the interruption. “It’s late for a call. Could it be business?”
“Not at this time of night.” She dug the phone out of her purse and answered it. “Hello? Kat Hardee speaking.”
“Hi, Kat, could you come get me?” The feminine voice was shaky rather than slurred.
“Celia? Where are you?” There was no music in the background, just a lot of yelling and metallic clattering sounds. It wasn’t the bar, but she couldn’t place the noises.
“I’m in the hospital emergency department. I’m in no shape to drive and I don’t have my purse so I can’t call a cab.”
“What happened?” Then she realized she was wasting time with questions. “Never mind. I’ll be right there.”
Taye watched, a concerned expression flitting over his features. He’d take her wherever she needed to go. She could count on him.
“You hang on,” she said into the phone. “We’re not far away.” She flipped the phone closed and dumped her trash in the bin. “We’ve got to hurry,” she said, and broke into a run back down the pier.
Taye ran beside her. “What happened, did she say?”
“No. She needs me to pick her up from Emergency. She’s got no money and she can’t drive.” She looked at him. “If something awful’s happened to her I’ll never forgive myself.”
“She was drinking, that’s why she can’t drive. She can’t be seriously hurt. We saw her two hours ago.”
But anything could happen in two hours, she thought. She felt a tug on her arm and he slowed them both to a walk. “If she’d been involved in anything serious there’s no way a hospital would release her this quickly. So logic says whatever happened is minor.”
She calmed a little, but her heart still thudded. “You’re right. I panicked. I always panic with hospitals.”
“You’ll feel better when you see her for yourself.”
Grateful for his calm and reason, she steadied her nerves. “All she needs is a lift home,” she said as her pulse returned to a more normal pace. “That’s all she asked for.”
In spite of what he’d said, all kinds of scenarios raced through Taye’s head as he hurried to the hospital. Kat sat tense and silent beside him. Blessedly, she hadn’t started pointing fingers at him. Yet.
He’d been the one to separate the women tonight. If she didn’t blame him already, she would soon. “I’m sorry, Kat. You were right, we should have stayed at Harry’s or got Celia out of there.”
“We shouldn’t have left her alone. What if?” Her eyes, when they turned to his, were moist and tearful. “What if the wrong type of guy got hold of her?”
“She’d kick his ass. Besides Celia’s too smart to be in the wrong place with the wrong guy.” He hoped, but one of the rowdies she’d been dancing and flirting with might have got the idea she was up for anything. Even rough sex. But what did he know? Celia might like all kinds of rough.
Still, two hours was too damn short a time to be heading home if anything serious had happened. But then, if it hadn’t been serious she’d still be waiting for someone to attend to her.
“Any chance she’s fine and she took someone else in for attention?”
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t have her purse with her,” Kat said, turning her face to the side passenger window. “She may have been mugged in the parking lot.”
“I doubt it. There were a lot of people coming and going, and the bartender said the
regulars were a good bunch. There are lots of reasons she’d be at a hospital without her purse.”
Kat nodded and lapsed into silence again. A too-short silence. “I should have asked more questions, but the clattering and banging made it hard to hear. Celia’s voice was low. She sounded tired. I didn’t want to aggravate her.”
“There’s the hospital, I’ll let you out at the emergency entrance, then go park.”
“Thanks.” She jumped out as soon as he pulled to a stop.
By the time Taye parked and found the women, he’d calmed down again.
Celia sat in the waiting area with a square white dressing on her forehead near her scalp line. She was holding her head. Kat squatted on her haunches, hand on her friend’s shoulder. A blood-spattered shoulder.
Taye jogged over. “What happened? How are you?” She looked like a truck had run over her face.
Kat looked up at him while Celia covered her head with her hands to hide the bandage along her hairline. In spite of looking like an accident victim, she was still vain enough to worry what he’d think. “She tripped getting into a car, split her scalp open on the door and got dropped off here. Her purse must still be where she dropped it.”
“Where’s the guy she was with? Did he go back for her purse?”
“Married,” Celia said. She shook her head. “Ow! Remind me not to do that, will you?”
A married man. Figured. It wasn’t enough that she was free and easy with her body, she had to mess with marriages too.
“Don’t look at her that way, Taye; the guy wasn’t looking to hook up, he was just seeing her home safely. She sent him away as soon as she could.” Kat’s expression was defensive.
He backed down and schooled his features into bland disinterest. He’d had enough of people of both sexes who felt marriage was only a stepping stone to be trampled in their pursuit of selfish pleasure. “Can you stand and walk? Or should I get a wheelchair?” he asked Celia, his voice flat with impatient displeasure.
He was stuck with the situation for now.
“I can walk, it’s just a few stitches.”
Kat clucked and supported Celia on one side as they shuffled out of the hospital.
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