by Diann Hunt
“Oh, I don’t know. He just acts uncomfortable around me.”
“That’s just C. J. His mind is always on the next adventure. He’s restless.”
“Maybe. But I always feel a little weird around him.”
“Guys aren’t supposed to have intuition or things like that,” Carly said.
Scott laughed. “You’re right. Probably got my signals crossed when you were around.”
“Well, don’t listen to me. That will get you into trouble for sure.”
She explained what happened over dinner with C. J. “Why would I say such a thing, Scott? You know me. I’m not usually that temperamental.”
“Give yourself a break. You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
They enjoyed a moment of comfortable silence. “You know what I miss?” he asked.
“What?”
“How the four of us would get together for dinner and a movie on Friday nights.”
His comment stirred up memories of happier times. “I know. I miss that too.”
“Hard to believe they’re gone,” he said. The loneliness in his voice was palpable. “Are you still nervous about Jake coming into town?”
“Yeah, I’ll be glad to get the initial meeting out of the way. I’m tired of worrying about what he’ll think of me.”
“It’s more important what you think of you.”
“Oh, Dr. Phil, I see you’ve joined us.”
“You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, okay. It’s quiet at your house tonight,” Carly said, hearing nothing on his end but his breathing.
“I’m still at the office.”
“Oh sure, make me look bad. I’m off having a swinging time in Smitten and you’re still working.”
“You’re alone in your hotel room on a Friday night at nine thirty. I wouldn’t exactly call that having a swinging time.”
“Good point. And thank you for pointing that out.”
He laughed.
“Why are you still working?”
“Oh, finishing up some things. Listen, I’ll let you go. Just wanted to check in on you. Oh, get this, Magnolia brought me down a snack a little while ago.”
“Was it burned?”
“Still sizzling when she brought it to me.”
Carly laughed. “What was it?”
“She said it was apple crisp. I agree with her on the crisp part, but I didn’t find an apple anywhere.”
“I can’t believe she made a dessert with sugar. What evils!”
“She used honey or something in it, she said. All I could taste were the charred remains. But at least she gave me a salad first. By the way, what are those long, thready, grassy things?”
Carly laughed. “Alfalfa sprouts?”
“That would be it.”
“Yuck. I’d rather go hungry. So did you eat it?”
“Every string.”
“And?”
“I’m still alive. Well, listen, I’d better go. Talk to you on Monday.”
“Okay, see ya, Scott.”
They hung up and Carly got ready for bed. Scott’s phone call had improved her mood at least, and she was thankful for that. She didn’t like to go to bed mad—she was afraid her frown line would deepen while she slept.
Spotting the brochure on her stand, she picked it up and glanced through it again. It was probably silly for her to carry it around with her, but it kept her sights on her goal. If only she could have the surgery and be ready when Jake showed up. She sighed. At least she had lost five pounds. That was good. On the other hand, she was still twenty pounds heavier than the picture he had of her. One look at her and he might run.
In the opposite direction.
nine
They had decided to go to the spa. Rita opted for a facial while Carly opted for a special bath in mineral water. A good long soak should take the edge off her attitude—at least she was hoping it would.
First, they were taken to a room decorated in soothing colors to wait for their treatment. There they could get a hot drink and lounge in comfortable chairs. Water trickled softly down a wall fountain while quiet, relaxing music wafted around the cozy room.
“Want anything to drink?” Carly asked while edging her way toward the teapot.
Rita settled into her seat. “No, thanks.”
Carly reached for a cup and heard someone step into the room. “We’re ready for you now.”
When Carly turned to see the woman, she momentarily lost her voice.
“Oh, uh, hi, how are you?” Amber said.
“Amber. Hi. I didn’t know you worked here too.” Carly couldn’t deny she felt hurt. They were friends at work, so why hadn’t she mentioned this?
A pretty shade of pink fanned her cheeks. “Yeah, on the weekends.”
Which would explain why she was never available in a crunch to help Carly on Saturdays. “I see.”
“I hope you don’t mind.” She hung her head. “I know I should have told you, but I hated to admit that I needed more hours—that I could count on—and I knew, well, that the Mocha Day Spa wasn’t always busy enough to justify my being there.”
“Well, sure, I mean, there’s no confidentiality paper between us or anything. You’re free to work where you will.” Another reason why Carly needed to build the business—so she could afford a decent wage and offer more hours.
Amber took Rita to her room, then walked Carly a little farther to another room.
“Here you go,” she said, taking Carly into a lamp-lit room with a claw-foot tub. “I’ve already drawn your bath for you.”
Carly could smell the minerals in the room when she entered. Perhaps it worked along the same principal as the garlic poultice their grandparents used to ward off infections. Rose petals were sprinkled over the water, and Carly watched them to see if they would disintegrate in the sulfur. She figured if the rose petals made it, she could too.
“Carly, I—”
Carly put her hand on Amber’s arm. “It’s all right. Really. I understand.”
Amber relaxed. “Thanks.” She turned and left Carly in the room.
Disrobing, Carly slipped into the smooth mineral water and felt herself instantly relax. It was like bathing in cream. Her scrambled thoughts of Jake, her diet, C. J.’s spending, and how to make their spa more successful began to untangle and drift away with the rose petals. There would be time to think of those things later. Right now, a calming bath had her name on it . . .
“So how was your bath?” Rita asked when they met in the front lobby after their treatments.
“Heavenly. How about your facial?”
“I’ll never be the same.”
“Okay, you owe me lunch.” They paid their bills and left the spa.
“Why do I owe you lunch?”
“Because you liked their facials better than ours.”
“How do you know that?”
“You said you’ll never be the same. A little something you’ve failed to mention after one of my spa treatments.”
“They didn’t pluck my eyebrows without warning.”
“A person makes one mistake . . .”
Rita looked at Carly point-blank. “Lunch is on me.”
“Okay, so what can I do to beef up our spa?” Carly asked once they were seated with their full plates from the buffet line.
“You’re kidding, right? Your spa is the best place in town. It’s doing a great business. What are you worried about?”
“See, that’s just it. It seems as though we have a lot of guests come through, but I can tell by Scott’s grunts and groans while he’s working on the taxes that things aren’t so great.”
“Is there a way to cut expenses?”
“If there is and still provide a quality spa, I haven’t discovered it.”
“Maybe you should talk to another spa director, get some ideas.” Rita dug into her mashed potatoes smothered with gravy.
Carly’s fork hovered over a lettuce le
af as she longingly watched Rita bite into her potatoes.
“How are my two best girls?” C. J. asked, approaching the table with a plate of food in hand. Happily, he didn’t seem to hold Carly’s comment from yesterday against her.
“Well, you finally decided to join us,” Rita said with a slight sneer. “What time did you get in? I suppose you found a poker game. How much did you lose?”
Did Carly want to hear this discussion? No.
C. J. held up his hand. “I got in around two, and I won us a little money,” he said with a slight bow before sitting down.
He was smiling.
Rita wasn’t.
Obviously, they hadn’t talked yet today.
“C. J.—”
“Now, Rita, don’t. Let’s just enjoy our meal together.” The look on his face said the discussion was over, and they would do well to leave it there.
They did. For now.
“So, C. J., have you heard any more from Jake?” Carly asked nonchalantly before spearing a piece of broccoli.
C. J. grinned. “Yeah. He’s looking forward to getting here as much as I am for him to come.” He took a drink from his glass of water. “I’m surprised, really.”
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Because he was seeing this woman, and boy, was she hot,” he said, outlining a woman with curves.
Why was it always about the curves? He was seeing someone? Why would he be writing to Carly? Was she stupid? Again? Nausea coiled in her stomach.
Carly saw Rita twitch.
“Ow,” C. J. said, turning to Rita. “What’d you do that for?” He frowned while rubbing his knee.
Rita looked as though she hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. Her eyes flitted to Carly and back to him.
C. J. was confused. Not unusual. “Well, Carly doesn’t care.” Then he blinked as though he’d realized how his comment about the curves might affect Carly. Her brother was quick. She’d give him that. “Oh, well, I mean, that’s no big deal. Carly is Carly. It doesn’t matter if—” Another thwack against his knee caused water to jostle in the glasses.
“Stop it, will ya?” he groused.
“It’s all right, Rita.” They had enough problems without worrying about her love life.
“Well, he should be more sensitive.” Rita shot C. J. a mad look.
“Hey, sis, I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“No problem. So tell me about Jake’s girlfriend. He still seeing her?” Carly didn’t take a bite this time, because depending on what he said, she could choke.
“I guess not or he wouldn’t be coming here. He didn’t answer my question when I asked him in the last e-mail what happened to her.” He laughed and shook his head. “That guy has always had a way with women.” He took an ambitious bite of mashed potatoes and swallowed. Lifting his glass, he paused before bringing it to his lips. “If I know Jake, it won’t take him long to hook up with someone else.”
That’s what Carly was afraid of—especially if that someone else wasn’t her. She felt like a total idiot. How could she have thought Jake Mitchell would ever be interested in her?
“Hey, how about we meet for dinner and go shopping?” Rita asked when Carly answered her work phone.
“Didn’t we just do that on Saturday? Smitten? Anything ring a bell?”
Rita laughed. “See, you got me started and now I can’t stop.”
“I don’t know, Rita. I can’t eat anything and nothing looks good on me.”
“Oh, hogwash. I’ll pick you up in twenty minutes.” She hung up. That was Rita. She was pretty laid back until her protective side kicked in.
“I’m calling it a day, Scott. Don’t work too late.” Carly grabbed her purse. It had been a long Monday and the trip over the weekend to Smitten hadn’t helped all that much once she’d heard about Jake’s former girlfriend.
“I’ve just got a few more things to do. I’ll lock up when I leave,” he said.
Magnolia was at some committee meeting, so Carly left her a note, fed Pinkie and filled her water bowl, then headed down to Rita’s car.
“Oh, those are cute jeans,” Rita said when Carly hopped in the car.
“Coldwater Creek. I love their jeans.”
“I can tell you’ve lost weight.”
“Five pounds, Rita. Scott has lost like fifteen or something crazy like that. I just want to tweak his skinny little bones. It’s not fair how the pounds seem to slide off men while women work just as hard and get little results.”
Rita laughed. “Five pounds is still good.”
“If only I could put it in the right place.” Carly shifted her bra to make sure her insert was level.
“That’s a nervous habit, you know.”
“What?”
“Checking your insert.”
“Well, sometimes it feels lopsided.”
“It’s not lopsided. It’s fine.”
“Whatever.”
Rita was getting on Carly’s nerves. What did Rita know about inserts, feeling lopsided, all that? What did anybody know? Only other women who had been through it could understand. Maybe she should give the support group another try.
She knew she should be thankful she was alive. Instead, all she could think of was what was missing in her life.
At the restaurant they placed their orders and sipped on their drinks while waiting for the food.
“So what’s my brother up to tonight?”
“Poker night with the guys.” Rita gave Carly a knowing glance. “I just couldn’t stay home and watch.”
“It’s at your house?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, at least you can keep an eye on things there.”
“He doesn’t like me in the same room. Says it makes him nervous. And of course I don’t want to do that or he might lose.”
“Hopefully, he won’t let it get out of hand.”
“It’s already out of hand.” Rita sighed. “But somehow we manage. I’m hoping it’s a phase. Midlife or something. It’s gotten progressively worse over the last year. Now he seems consumed with it.”
Carly had noticed but didn’t say anything.
“I try to hide it. We both do. He can’t seem to stop himself.”
“You know, C. J. has always struggled with trying to impress people. I don’t know why. Dad was a hard worker, and C. J. could never relate to that. I think Dad was a little hard on him. Though I was younger, I always felt protective of C. J.”
“I remember that.”
“But then maybe Dad could see those tendencies in my brother. I used to think C. J. mismanaged his money as a sort of rebellion against Dad. But now with Dad gone, why would he still do it?”
“Who knows? Maybe still trying to prove himself. You know, strike it rich in an I’ll-show-you type of way.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it’s not that at all. Maybe it’s just who he is and he’ll always struggle with that,” Carly said.
“Oh, that’s encouraging.”
“Sorry.” Carly smiled ruefully. Sometimes she thought C. J. just needed to grow up. One minute she needed to protect him and the next minute she wanted to give him a swift kick in his backside. Why couldn’t she be the little sister for once and let him protect her?
“So, any more news from Jake?” Rita took a bite out of her stuffed burrito. Carly had no clue how the girl stayed so thin.
“I think he’s supposed to be here on Friday.” Carly dipped into her taco salad, minus the fattening dressing, wishing all the while she was eating Rita’s burrito.
“Oh, that soon?”
“Yes. And I’m only five pounds lighter and one boob short.”
“You’re so funny. Your insert does a fine job of making you appear normal. Well, your body anyway. It can’t really help your brain.”
“Hey.”
Rita laughed. “I’m just kidding.”
Carly pouted. “I just wish I had taken care of business when it all happened.”
“When Gary walked
out, you couldn’t think through the next hour, let alone make a decision as big as reconstructive surgery.”
“I know.” Saying nothing of the fact she had no insurance.
Carly poured more boring salad dressing over her salad. She broke off a bite of the tortilla shell. She didn’t care if it cost her five pounds or not, she was going to eat at least some of it.
“You ought to buy a cute little black number for this weekend—especially since you’re going to see Jake for the first time in a long time.”
Carly imagined herself thin and whole, decked out in a slinky black dress, matching jewelry, and perky heels. Jake’s eyes lighting up the moment he saw her. She put down the tortilla shell. “You’re right. I do need something. Black is slimming, but I want some color near my face.”
The idea of getting something new perked her attitude. This was just what she needed, something that would “wow” Jake when he saw her.
“What’s the plan? Do you think he’ll call when he gets into town?” Rita asked before taking a bite of rice.
“He said he would. One of the girls at work is giving me a mani-pedi. I’m also getting my hair colored and trimmed.”
“My goodness, you’re going all out.”
No need to tell her about the gray hair sneaking in. They’d be gone soon. Besides, Carly was thankful she had hair.
“I want to look my very best when he sees me for the first time in years.”
They shopped awhile and finally decided on a flirty red silk dress with strappy red shoes. By the time they headed out of the last store, Carly was feeling pretty good about things. After Rita dropped her off, she put her clothes away and tugged on her sweats. An invigorating run this evening would do her a world of good. She had to work off the extra chips she’d snacked on at dinner.
Jogging past the daylilies and budding roses, she started to feel energized. This workout thing was becoming a habit for her, and she was noticing a difference in her stamina. When she arrived at a nearby park, she stopped at a bench long enough to catch her breath.
“Caught ya.” Scott’s hands came over her shoulders and caused her to jump.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was still at the office when you left, and I was going to ask you to jog with me. I saw you run by, so I grabbed my sweats, changed, and finally caught up with you. By the way, you’re getting faster.”