Mia stripped off the dress and underwear, such as it was, and quickly rinsed off in the shower. She wished she had something other than a white top and more sexy underwear to change into, but she’d been going with a theme.
Mia hung her wet clothes over the shower rod and moved her bag out of the way. In doing so, she noticed posters propped against the wall by the bed.
Did he have an extra one of the Cowboy Surfer? After this was all over, maybe he’d autograph it and she could take it back to the office.
Mia set the light on the dresser and quickly flipped through the cardboard sleeves protecting the posters, stopping when she found some smaller, matted photographs. Pulling them out, she flipped the first one over.
And her jaw slackened. Nudes. It was the Cowboy Surfer without the jeans. Some in color, some in black and white and all exquisitely retouched and matted.
Most of the pictures were taken in moonlight, glorious studies of the male form in light and shadow. Glorious studies of Kevin’s form. And it was a very fine form. Mia traced the line of his thigh and the curve of his buttocks. She could almost feel his skin beneath her finger. She needed to feel his skin beneath her finger.
Forget the Cowboy Surfer. Give her extras of these, especially the one of him looking across his shoulder directly at the camera. As though looking directly at her. She wanted to lose herself in that picture. She wanted to put it on her bedroom wall and talk to it every night. If the Chamber of Commerce had used this image for the tourism campaign, hordes of women would have immediately headed to Surfside.
Reluctantly, Mia put the pictures back and leaned the posters against the wall the way she’d found them. Then she went back downstairs where she tried to act nonchalant.
She found Kevin grabbing food from a large refrigerator and piling it on the stainless table as fast as he could. He glanced at her without breaking his rhythm.
In just that brief moment, his eyes swept over her, and she had no doubt that he was comparing her appearance now with the wet-T-shirt-contest-winning outfit she’d worn earlier.
So much for nonchalance. Her face and throat grew hot. She knew he was thinking of her naked, so she thought of him naked, which didn’t help, but was very enjoyable.
Closing the door to the fridge, Kevin cleared his throat. “If you’ll unwrap this stuff, I’ll get cleaned up. There are aprons on the hook in the closet.”
Mia immediately opened the closet door so she’d have an excuse to turn away from him as he walked by her. She faced the closet until she heard him reach the top of the stairs.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled. She was going to have to get over herself. In addition to his other sterling qualities, Kevin was clearly a gentleman. She’d carry on as though nothing had happened.
All right then. Aprons. They were bibbed style in either khaki or a sea green with “Kevin’s Patio” printed on them in golden orange. She chose sea green since khaki wasn’t one of her colors. Not that it mattered.
As Mia tied the apron behind her back she assessed the workspace, and then arranged the sandwich materials into the most efficient order. After that, she folded the carryout boxes so they’d be ready for the sandwiches, and positioned the plastic-utensil and condiment packs next to the boxes.
She wasn’t sure how Kevin wanted everything put together, but noticed that the brisket was only partially sliced. She eyed the thickness of the slices and was cutting the rest to match when Kevin came back down the stairs.
He looked the same only dry. However, Mia knew exactly what was hiding beneath the loose-fitting Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts.
“Hey, good work.” Hands on hips, he surveyed the kitchen. “But I should have told you to use plastic gloves.”
“Oh, it never occurred to me. Can we still use the meat? I did wash my hands. I know enough to do that.”
He held out a box of plastic gloves. “Under other circumstances, it might be a health-code violation, but since I’m donating this stuff, it’ll be okay.”
Donating. Why didn’t he just put on the halo and be done with it?
“Now, if any of the meat dropped on the floor, that’s another thing. There’s no three-second rule. Lorrie from the animal shelter comes by for scraps.”
Mia slipped on the gloves. “And I’ll bet there’s always enough meat to justify her trip, right?”
“We can get a little clumsy.” Smiling, he regarded her setup on the table. “What’s going on here?”
“I figured we’d have an assembly line. One person does bread, one person does fillings. Then we bag and box.”
“Huh.” He studied it a few more moments. “I never thought about setting up like this.”
“It’s what I do,” Mia said. “I identify the scope of the job, estimate how much time it will take, and then figure out the most efficient and cost-effective way of accomplishing the task with the available resources.” Relax. Don’t lecture.
“Okay, then.” He glanced up, barely made eye contact and gestured to the bread. “You do bread and I’ll do meat.”
“Both mustard and mayo? Some with just one?”
“Barbeque sauce goes on the brisket sandwiches. Nuts. I forgot to get it out. At this rate, I’m not going to have any cold air left.” Still without looking her way, he opened the fridge and brought out a container and set it near her. “And make sure you spread all the way to the edges. People complain if you don’t.”
“Really.”
“Yeah.” He cut up the rest of the brisket.
“So I guess we’re doing brisket first.” Mia split open the buns and slathered them with sauce. When she finished, she walked behind Kevin to get the onions and pickles. “Does anything else go in the sandwiches?”
“No. And only put onions in half of them. We’ll mark the boxes.” He worked quickly, but so did she.
“Let me show you how to wrap them,” he said.
Setting the sandwich in the middle of a square of white paper that was shiny on one side, he folded the corners in. “Got it?”
“Yes.” It wasn’t rocket science.
Mia folded one sandwich. Midway through the second one she stopped. They were being so carefully polite. And the stilted conversation and the no eye contact was killing her.
“What?” Kevin asked.
“Look at me.”
He did briefly and immediately went back to wrapping sandwiches. “Something wrong?”
“Yes! You’ve seen me naked. Or close enough.”
That got his attention.
“I saw myself in the mirror, so I know. And it’s making everything weird with me wondering if my dress was really that transparent and you—”
“Yes.”
She drew a breath. “And you were wondering if I knew. So I know. Now.” She exhaled. “Sorry about that.”
“There’s no need to apologize.”
And right there, with that little sliver of a grin, she knew Kevin had liked what he’d seen, which pleased her way more than it should. “There might be. I saw the posters in your room. And the pictures.”
He said nothing.
“The matted ones. Of you. Naked. At the—”
“I know the ones.” He studiously worked with the sandwiches.
Was he embarrassed? “The pictures are great,” she told him. “They’re really beautiful, which is a strange thing to say about a man, but they truly are. You’re very…”
He’d turned his head to look at her with exactly the same angle and expression as in the photo upstairs. Picture Kevin, who made her insides quiver, merged with Real Kevin, who made her want to push the food off the table while he ripped off his clothes. And then ripped off her clothes.
Not a good idea to let him know that. “So what I’m saying is that we’ve both seen each other naked or the next best thing—”
“There is no next best thing to naked.” He gazed steadily at her, lips curved in the barest of smiles while his hands wrapped white paper around the sandwiches. “Want me to prove
it?”
Oh, yes. Yes, please. She flashed to the matted pictures and got goosebumps. All that smooth, taut skin pressed against her body…She focused on the man standing about a foot away from her and got goosebumps on goosebumps. “No.” Liar. “I believe you.” Oh, so very true.
“You sure?”
Regrettably. “Uh-huh.”
“Okay, then.”
Blindly, Mia stared at the sandwich in front of her and finished wrapping it. She’d been worried about Kevin not making eye contact out of awkwardness. But after that sizzler, it occured to her that a little eye contact went a long way. “Um, I’ll start putting mustard on the white bread.” And keep my eyes to myself.
They worked in silence for a couple of minutes before Kevin asked, “What’s going on at the beach house this weekend?”
“Nothing. I was supposed to meet Jonathan Black there. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
The whole atmosphere in the kitchen changed. “Oh, you’re one of those.”
Mia didn’t pretend to misunderstand. She stopped spreading mustard on the bread and turned toward him. “I am not ‘one of those.’ I have gone out of my way not to be ‘one of those.’”
“It’s none of my business.” Kevin carried the turkey breast over to the automatic slicer and fit it against the blades.
“No, it’s not. But I don’t want you getting the wrong idea.”
Kevin pushed the turkey against the blades and thin slices of turkey fell into a pan. “Why do you care what I think?”
“Because…” Without considering, she blurted out the truth. “Because you seem to be a great guy and I couldn’t stand it if you thought I was just another of Jonathan’s disposable women.” She was surprised at how much Kevin’s opinion mattered.
“How are you different from the others?” He carried the turkey back to the table. “Because you’re in love?”
“No, I’m not in love with him! That would be stupid.”
Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Are you saying this was supposed to be a business meeting or that you’re just friends? Because you sure weren’t wearing platonic underwear.”
Mia took a moment to get past the underwear jab. “I told Jonathan I wouldn’t get involved with him unless he was serious and willing to give our relationship a chance to develop. I asked for time and exclusivity. Then, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll go our separate ways. Inviting me here shows that he’s serious.”
“So you’re exclusive for the weekend and afterwards, he brings you here for my Sunday Brunch on the Beach, where he orders freshly squeezed orange juice, black coffee, a huevo-ranchero omelet made with two yolks and three whites and a whole-wheat-flour tortilla. I won’t need to memorize your order because you’ll never be back. Jonathan will, how did you put it? Decide it’s not working out and you’ll go your separate ways.”
Mia blinked.
“Except for the short hair, you’re just like the others.”
“I…I’m not.” She felt a little sick. “Anyway, I’m not falling in love with him until he’s in love with me.”
Kevin reached across her for more bread. She’d gotten behind with the mustard and mayo. “My guess is that you’ve never been in love.”
“I have, but why do you think I haven’t?”
“Because you think you can turn love off and on like a switch.”
“I do not!” She set down the mustard jar. “But I do think a person can be smart about love. Avoid the people you shouldn’t fall in love with and hang around the people you should.”
Kevin gave a crack of laughter. “You don’t believe that love can just suddenly appear and whomp you upside the head?”
“Maybe.”
“’Cause that’s what happened to me. One minute I’m minding my own business at Texas Tech and the next…pow. There she was.”
“She hit you?”
Kevin chuckled and pointed to the mayonnaise. Mia started slathering it on the bread. “We were crazy in love, but she was from Colorado and I was from here. First we tried it her way and lived in Colorado, but I hated the cold and the snow and the thin air. That’s not real air in Colorado.” He inhaled the warm, humid, salty air in the kitchen. “Now this is air. When you breathe this, you know you’re breathing.”
“Or possibly smothering underneath a wet blanket. So you were married?” she asked in a casual I’m-just-making-conversation way.
He nodded. “We tried living here for a time, too. And she hated it as much as I hated Colorado.”
“You split up?” She’d stopped spreading again and he gestured for her to hurry up.
“Yeah. We were fighting all the time. My one regret is that we let it go on too long. Put us both off relationships for a time.”
“Do you still love her?” Mia looked at him as she asked so she could see his face.
“Do I still love her?” He looked off into the distance. “I hate her less. I guess you could say that the man I was back then still loves the woman she was at the beginning. But time and a whole lot of drama brought out the worst in us. So no. We’re done.”
Mia stepped around him and started wrapping the turkey sandwiches. “But I’ll bet that the next time love ‘whomps you upside the head’ you’ll make sure you both can live in the same place before you get involved.”
“Well, sure.”
“Which is my point. You’ll be smarter about love.”
“Ha.” He glanced at her. “I see what you’re saying, but I don’t know if I agree. Now you…” He tilted his head and studied her. “I think you’ve been burned.”
“More like scorched. I sat out a semester of college to follow my idealistic boyfriend to Paraguay. We lived with local families—not the same ones—and volunteered building a school.”
“Good for you.”
“Don’t give me any credit.” Mia shook her head. “I only did it to be with him. He made it sound so romantic and noble. But I barely knew any Spanish and my carpentry skills are even worse. And the boyfriend turned out to be really great with the concepts but not so much with the practicalities.”
“Was he a whiner?”
“He was oblivious.” Mia rolled her eyes. “Way too much ‘our cause is worthy so our needs will be met’ attitude. I hated being there and after three weeks, I hated him. But I stuck it out and when we left, there was a bright, shiny new school that the villagers were living in because it was so much better than their homes.”
Kevin started laughing. “It’s not funny, but that’s so typical.”
Mia laughed, too. “Even worse, he never got it. He never figured out that food and supplies hadn’t magically appeared.”
Kevin grinned at her. “What did you do? ’Cause I know you did something.”
“Bartered building materials for a twice-weekly food delivery.”
“I would have done the same thing.”
“You wouldn’t have had to. I can tell you’re the type who would have checked on the details before signing up.”
“True.”
Ready to change the subject, she gestured to the pile of sandwiches. “We should package these and get them out of the way.”
“You’re right. They need to be in the ice chest. Come on over here and I’ll show you how to box them up. I’ve got potato salad and coleslaw to go with them.” He lifted the lid on a large rolling cooler and showed her the little foam cups.
“Since you know exactly how you want the boxes packed, you do that and I’ll close them up and mark the contents. We can work faster that way.”
“Sounds like a plan.” He flashed her a smile.
It was a nothing smile, a throwaway.
But it warmed her in a way that Jonathan’s smile never had. And probably never would.
4
“HEY, CHARLIE.” KEVIN rolled an ice chest into the shelter in Freeport, Surfside’s slightly larger neighbor to the north. “You’ve got customers, I see.” Kevin indicated the cots and a few families milling around.
&nbs
p; “Mostly tourists from rentals.” Charlie nodded toward the chest. “Got any brisket in there?”
“For you, I’ve got a moldy cheese sandwich.”
Charlie laughed as Mia rolled a catering cart toward them. When he saw her, Charlie immediately perked up, straightening his posture and, if Kevin wasn’t mistaken, sucking in his gut.
As for Kevin, he almost almost could look at her without thinking of her in that wet white dress, the one that outlined a body he’d be dreaming about for weeks.
“Who’s this?”
“That’s the stray I picked up.”
Mia heard him and held out her hand. “I’m Mia Weiss.”
“Charlie. I vouched for him.” Charlie jerked his thumb toward Kevin. “Glad to see you’re okay.”
“I know. It was stupid to be out driving. I’ve been trying to make up for it.” She pulled the cart against the wall and surveyed the people trying to get settled.
Charlie raised his eyebrows at Kevin.
Charlie had a tendency to matchmake. Kevin gave him a warning look. Not that he wouldn’t mind hooking up with Mia, but they’d both gone the wrong way down the Road of Love before and neither was looking for a detour to nowhere.
“She helped me pack the food,” he told Charlie.
“Then it’ll probably be done right this time.”
Mia heard and smiled at Charlie. She wore a white top and shorts and plastic-jelly sandals, but they looked dressier on her than on anybody else in the room. Kevin couldn’t figure out how she did that, but anyone seeing her would know she didn’t live around here.
“You want to see something done right then stick around,” he said to Charlie. “Mia, I’m going to introduce you to Susan.” Kevin raised his arm to attract the attention of a woman with her gray-streaked hair in a short ponytail.
She breezed over. “Thanks for the food, Kevin. The volunteers always appreciate it.”
“It would only go to waste otherwise. I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” He drew Mia over to them, lightly touching the small of her back.
His Little Black Book Page 10