Barking Up the Wrong Tree

by Jenn McKinlay

  “All right,” Emma said. She glanced around the room. “All in favor of helping James, raise your hands.”

  Mac and Gavin did so without hesitation, Brad and Emma followed, Sam raised his hand but it was at half-mast as if he still wasn’t sure, Jillian nodded slowly and raised her hand. That left just Zach and Gina.

  Gina glanced up from her manicure and stared at James with brown eyes so like Carly’s it made his heart hurt.

  “Why?” she asked.

  James raised his eyebrows. “Why what?”

  “Why do you love her?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” James said. “I just do.”

  “Oh, well, I’m sold,” Zach said. He clenched a fist and James was pretty sure his beat down had arrived. “Carly’s my best friend—we’re kindred spirits, she and I. I get her. Do you?”

  James turned and faced Zach so that they were squared off. He was vaguely aware of the rest of their group slowly lowering their hands and leaning forward as if getting ready to jump in and separate the two men if warranted.

  Was Zach in love with Carly? James hadn’t thought so. They’d always seemed to have a brother-sister thing going. But really, could he blame Zach for being in love with her? Carly was amazing. Who wouldn’t fall in love with her?

  “Yeah, I get her,” he said. “I get that she’s scared and vulnerable and lost. I get that someone she once trusted used her and crushed her spirit, and that I unwittingly have done the same stupid thing.

  “If I could take it all back and start from the beginning and spare her all of the garbage she went through, I would. But I can’t, so now I have to fix this—I have to fix us—because honestly, I let her slip away once, and it was hard, but if I lose her again, well, I just don’t think there’s going to be any coming back from that for me.”

  The two men stared at each other and Zach unclenched his fist and slowly raised his hand in the air. James studied the guy in front of him. With his shaggy surfer dude hair and YOLO attitude, he seemed like a perpetual child, but James got the distinct feeling that there was a hell of lot more to Zach’s backstory than that.

  Now there was only one person left to convince. He turned to Gina and met her dubious gaze. Fine, if she wanted him to break it down for her, he would.

  “Why do I love your sister? Here’s the highlights reel. I love that she walks into every room like she owns it, I love that she can’t dance for shit, and I love that she gets a little WTF line in between her eyes when I say something stupid. I love that she secretly adores a parrot that swears like a pimp and lets Saul sneak up onto her bed, pretending she doesn’t see him, and I love that it was her kindness to a neighbor that got her stuck with those two.”

  Gina opened her mouth to speak, but James held up his hand, stopping her.

  “Wait, I’m on a roll. I love that her smile is like sunshine and can light up the darkest day. I love that the sound of her laugh makes my spine vibrate when she chuckles low and deep. I love that spaghetti and meatballs is her favorite food, and I love that she enjoys her food. I love that she is fiercely protective of her family and friends, loving them with all that she has and all that she is. But mostly, what I love about Carly is the way she makes me feel when I am with her. She makes me feel like my life means something, that it’s worth something, because she makes me the best version of myself—you know, when I’m not being an idiot. She makes me want to be a better man for her for the rest of our lives together.”

  James was winded when he stopped. He could feel everyone staring at him and he knew he couldn’t have exposed himself more if he’d pulled his pants down. To his dismay, Gina still didn’t raise her hand. She took two steps toward him and he wondered if she was going to take a swing at him. Instead, she threw her arms about his middle and hugged him tight.

  “Excellent! You have my vote,” she said. Then she laughed and added, “Okay, peeps, let’s help this loser win my sister back.”

  • • •

  Carly dashed into The Grind. She was not having a great day. She had overslept and was late for her shift at Making Whoopie. Given that this was her last week, she’d wanted to help Jillian as much as possible to alleviate her guilt about leaving her friend to go to work at Penmans.

  Instead of calling to discuss the job offer, Carly had driven to Portland the day before and had a one-on-one meeting with the head of the purchasing department, Lydia Husser. She had gently but firmly insisted that she wanted the job, but only on her own merit. To her surprise, Lydia had been incredibly impressed and had assured her that after her interview Carly had been her first pick for the position and now she was even more certain. Pops’s recommendation had just reinforced Lydia’s own instincts about Carly.

  Feeling a renewed sense of herself and her career, Carly had returned home to Bluff Point victorious. Her Maine crew had taken her out to celebrate but halfway through the evening, Carly couldn’t help but feel that something, or rather someone, was missing. James.

  She had cut the evening short and gone home to snuggle Saul and Ike, eat a half of a pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and try to put the man out of her mind. She should have known that in a town this size, it wouldn’t be that easy.

  She had no makeup on and her hair was in a mangy snarl on the top of her head. Her laundry had piled up, leaving her no choice but to wear one of her frumpiest outfits: overlarge jean overalls on top of a bulky sweater, which made her feel as sexy as a pair of dirty sweat socks. And she wasn’t sleeping because she missed sex—not James, just sex, on that she was very clear.

  “Gina,” she called to her sister. “I need a pu—”

  “Here you go, one extra-large pumpkin spice.” Gina put a to-go cup of coffee in front of her and Carly smiled at her.

  “Well, hey, that was fast. Thanks, sis.” She opened her wallet but Gina shook her head at her.

  “It’s already paid for.”

  “What? Oh, that’s so sweet, but you don’t have to do that,” Carly said.

  “I didn’t,” Gina said.

  Carly frowned. “Then who?”

  Gina tipped her head in the direction of a table at the back. Carly swiveled around and there he was. James. Her heart felt like a fist knocking on her ribcage. He glanced up and met her gaze and her heart started banging triple time.

  The weather had gotten colder over the past few days and he had a scarf the same shade of gray as his eyes draped casually around his neck. His hair was mussed and he looked tired, but still he smiled at her as if the sight of her was what he’d been waiting for all morning. His lips curled up just a little bit more on the right, making her sigh. He was so freaking adorable, it hurt.

  Carly whipped her head back toward Gina. “I can’t take coffee from him. We’re apart, as in not together, as in he should not be doing stuff like buying me coffee.”

  Gina shrugged. “Maybe it’s just a peace offering.”

  Carly glanced at the cup in her hands. Okay, that made sense. Did she have to thank him? Probably. Maybe she could just yell it across the coffee shop on her way out. Yeah, that would work.

  “Okay, then,” she said. She glanced at her sister. “See you at home?”

  Gina nodded and Carly spun back toward the door. She strode across the room, dodging other customers. When she got to the door, she lifted her cup in James’s direction and yelled, “Thanks!”

  He winked in return and she tripped over her feet as she rushed out the door. A wink. What did that mean? That wasn’t like a return wave or a shout of “You’re welcome.” No, there was something decidedly calculating about his wink. What was James Sinclair up to?

  By mid-afternoon, Carly had her suspicions. The flowers began arriving as soon as she got to work, each bouquet being delivered by one of her friends. It started with Mac and the flowers kept coming, arriving every hour on the hour, brought in by Gavin, Brad, Sam, Emma, Gina, Zac
h, Aunt Charlotte, Aunt Sarah. Even Mr. Petrovski, the postmaster, dropped of a bunch, and Jillian produced the final bouquet from her office when they were getting ready to close.

  Lush bouquets of wildflowers, fragrant garden roses, and even her favorite, hydrangea, all filled the petite shop. The cards tucked into each bunch of flowers were addressed to her and read Happy Anniversary, but they didn’t say who they were from. There were eleven bouquets in total. Eleven bouquets for the eleven years since the first night they’d met.

  Carly would have had to be made of stone not to feel touched by the gesture. She knew James was trying to tell her that had things been different, had they met under better circumstances, then they likely would be celebrating an eleventh anniversary. It was a lovely thought; she’d give him that.

  “James isn’t going to be brushed off as easily as you thought,” Jillian said as they locked up. “He wants you back, and we’re all hoping you give him another chance.”

  Carly surveyed the bouquets. She had put one on each table in the shop and a few on the counters. They really were stunning.

  “I appreciate that you guys want a happy ending, but I’m pretty sure that’s not in the cards for me and James,” Carly said. “In fact, I’m going to make sure of it.”

  They stepped outside as soon as Jillian hit the activate button on the alarm. Carly stood in the dark, stamping her feet while Jillian locked the door.

  Jillian frowned at her. “What are you thinking?”

  “Nothing,” Carly said. “At least nothing that I wouldn’t be thinking if this was any other evening.”

  “Oh, no. You’re going on a man hunt, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe.” Carly shrugged. She had run home at lunch to change her clothes and put on some makeup. As each bouquet had arrived, she’d realized she needed to put some serious distance between her and James and the best way to do that was to get back in the game. “Come on, the crew is waiting at Marty’s Pub, which, come to think of it, is a great place to pick up guys. Let’s go.”

  As Jillian dragged her feet, Carly looped her arm through her friend’s, pulling her toward the pub.

  Parker Barton was as easy a pickup as Carly had ever had. She had smiled at him from across the room, he made a beeline for her, and Carly had been unable to make a move without the scrawny, beanie-wearing millennial by her side ever since.

  She finally sent him to the bar just to get a break from his eagerness. She watched as he tripped over his overly long pointy-toed shoes while crossing the room. After James’s muscular build, sleeping with this guy was going to be like snuggling a pencil. She sighed.

  While she waited for Parker to return, she sat with her friends. Gina, Jillian, Emma, and Mac were holding the fort while the boys were playing darts.

  “How goes the conquest?” Jillian asked.

  “He’ll do,” she said. “Although, I don’t know. He seems . . .”

  “Underdeveloped?” Mac offered.

  “A poseur?” Emma suggested.

  “He sort of has an underfed Ashton Kutcher thing going,” Gina said. “Maybe it’s just the beanie.”

  “I don’t know, he kind of reminds me of Alexander Skarsgård,” Jillian said. “You know, without the muscles, if I tip my head to the side and squint.”

  “Oh, I see that,” Mac agreed. “It’s the cheekbones—no, the full lips.”

  “Really?” Carly asked. “I was thinking he more resembled Jesse Eisenberg, you know, total nerd boy.”

  They all looked at Parker again.

  “Yeah, he’s pretty geeky,” Jillian said. “But in a very pretty way.”

  Carly dropped her head to her chest. A few months ago, heck, a few weeks ago, Parker would have been just fine to take home. Now he was more like yesterday’s Kung Pao chicken, a congealed mess in the bottom of a plastic container she was afraid to reheat. She just wasn’t interested.

  “So?” Emma asked. “Are you going to tap that?”

  Carly waffled. “No. Maybe. Should I?”

  “Why not?” Gina asked. “You’re single.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But what?” Mac asked. “He’s totally into you. I bet you could take him home now if you wanted, you know, for a little rec sex.”

  Carly blinked. She could. She knew she could. Why then was every single cell in her body rejecting this idea? Weird!

  “You know, you don’t want to take too much time finding a new boy toy,” Gina said. “You’ll end up in a dry spell and it could go on for months; trust me, I know this to be true. So, why not do a little palate cleansing?”

  “You did not just say that,” Carly said. “A man is not a sorbet.”

  Gina shrugged.

  “She’s right. You’re in a small town now. It could be a while before another boffable man comes along,” Jillian chimed in. “You don’t want to let your pilot light go out.”

  “Agreed. If it does you’ll just end up fuckstrated: sort of like being hangry but it’s over sex instead of food,” Mac said.

  They all laughed; well, everyone but Carly. She was finding nothing funny about this conversation.

  “Seriously? Since you all did a round at floral delivery today, I thought you were all Team James.”

  “We are,” Mac said.

  “This is reverse psychology,” Emma added.

  “Is it working?” Gina asked.

  “No, and it would serve you all right if I did take Parker home and to hell with James!” Carly snapped. At the wide-eyed looks on their faces, she got a sick feeling in her stomach. “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”

  “To where with who?”

  Carly whipped around and sure enough there was James, looking as yummy as ever. Damn it. How long had he been there? What had he heard?

  “Nowhere with no one,” she said.

  “Really?” he asked. “Because it sounded like you were trying to decide whether or not to make a move on the swizzle stick over there.”

  Carly heard one of the girls (Gina!) snort behind her but she refused to acknowledge her.

  “So, are you thinking you’re going to date him?” he asked. He sounded very calm about her hooking up with another guy given that he had sent her eleven bouquets today. Eleven!

  “I don’t date, as you know. I’m more of a smash and dash kind of girl,” she said.

  “Is that so?” He studied her for a moment and then reached up and smoothed the frown line between her eyebrows with his thumb. Carly shivered.

  “What do you want, James?” she asked.

  “I thought the flowers would be a clue,” he said. “You. I just want you. I’m sorry I wasn’t straight with you from the start. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I just felt like we got this amazing second chance and I didn’t want you to go back to New York before we really gave it a go. I want us to be together however you want us to be. Even if it’s just one-night stands that you want, you can have them, so long as they’re all with me.”

  Carly stared at him, feeling like her brain had flatlined. She could not wrap her head around what he was saying. Heck, she could barely process the fact that he was here, with her, within reach.

  “How could we possibly work after everything that’s happened?” she asked.

  “We should play to our strength,” he said.

  “We have a strength?”

  “Yep, and it’s not our ability to talk,” he said.

  Then he leaned down and kissed her. It was a swift possessive press of his lips against hers and it hit Carly like a lightning bolt. Before he could back up, she grabbed him by the front of his jacket, pulling him flush against her as she opened her mouth beneath his and deepened the kiss. He responded by locking his arms about her and plundering her mouth with his. Still, it wasn’t enough, it was never enough.

  Self-preservation and a lack of
oxygen made her jerk back and put some distance between them. Over his shoulder, she saw Parker leaving the bar, looking decidedly grumpy. So there went her night’s entertainment. She felt curiously relieved.

  “You were right, what you said before,” James said. “You weren’t broken; you were protecting yourself. I get it. I had no right to say that, just like I had no right to think you needed me to fix you. You don’t need fixing. You’re perfect just the way you are.”

  It hurt. It was a physical ache in her chest to hear him say the words she wanted to believe so very badly. And that was the problem. She wanted it, him, too much. She’d been the same way with Preston, only seeing what she wanted to see and not really seeing the truth. And the truth was that James would always view her as someone who needed fixing no matter how much he denied it.

  “James, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I really do, but I think it’s best if we just let it go. Maybe in time we can be friends, real friends.”

  He stared at her, looking frustrated. “Do you kiss all of your friends like that?”

  Okay, she had to concede that point—or did she?

  “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Jillian and I make out like that every time we see each other.”

  “Carly,” he said her name in that deliciously reproving way he had and she felt her face get hot with a blush. Damn it.

  “What?” she asked. “You know friendship is more than I offer most men I’ve slept with.”

  “Ah, but there’s the problem,” he said. He reached up and tucked a stray hank of hair behind her ear. “I’m not most men and I have no interest in being just friends, which is why I’ve made up my mind.”

  “About?”

  “I’m going to woo you.”

  Chapter 35

  “Woo me?” Carly made a scoffing noise, even as she felt as if her insides had just burst into flame.

  “That’s right,” he said. “You know, you were my girlfriend for reals for just twenty-four hours, which is hardly enough time to romance you like I planned, so I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow evening for our first official date.”