One Hit Wonderful

by Murray, Hannah

  “It’s a chemical in the cocoa bean, it messes up their nervous systems.”

  “Really?” He tossed another hunk of bread to Beau. “How do you know that?”

  She didn’t answer, she was too busy listening to the message on her phone with a growing sense of unease.

  “Lily?”

  She looked up as Nate stepped in front of her, concern stamped on his features.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure.” At a loss, she looked at the phone. “That was Max.”

  “Max, your friend’s ex-fiancé?” She nodded. “What did he want?”

  “He wants to talk to Bridget,” she said, frowning. “He sounds weird.”

  “Weird how?”

  “Pissed off,” she realized, looking up from her phone. “Not at me, not really, but ticked that he hasn’t been able to reach her.”

  “He’s been trying to call her?”

  “Yeah, she said he’s been trying to reach her on her cell. He doesn’t know where she is, or I’m sure he’d be trying her at the hotel in Hawaii.”

  “What did the message say?”

  “That he wants to talk to Bridget, and it’s urgent, and he’ll call me back later.” She shook her head as though to clear it. “It’s really nothing, but it doesn’t feel right.”

  He held out a hand. “Can I listen?”

  She handed him the phone. “Sure. Just hit the pound key to replay the message.”

  He did so, watching her as he listened. “He’s not threatening you outright, but I don’t really like his tone.”

  She shrugged. “Neither do I, but he’s a jerk. He always sounds like that. He knows I’ll never tell him where Bridget is.”

  “Was he ever violent with her?”

  “Oh no,” she said, surprised. “I mean, he’s got a temper, and the two of them used to get into these crazy screaming matches, but he never crossed the line to abuse. Bridget would never put up with that, and she’d have told me if he ever did.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  He handed back the phone. “You should save the message, just in case.”

  She blinked. “In case what?”

  “It establishes a pattern, in case he becomes threatening.”

  She laughed at that. “Oh, he won’t,” she assured him. “No, he’s never done anything without his father tugging on his leash, and as big a jerk as Mr. Carelli is, he’s old world. He’s got some pretty firm ideas on how to treat women, and he’d never put up with his son being violent that way.”

  “Humor me,” he said, his voice as implacable as his expression, and she shrugged again.

  “It’s a waste of voicemail space,” she told him, but hit the key sequence to save the message.

  “Thanks.” He dropped a kiss on her mouth. “Do me another favor?”

  “Sure.” She reached up to hook her hands behind his head where she could toy with his hair.

  “If he calls you again, will you tell me?”

  “He probably won’t,” she assured him.

  “If he does, I want you to let me know.”

  She smiled quizzically. “Why?”

  “It’s a good idea for someone else to know what’s going on,” he told her. “And since we’re dating now—”

  “Is that what we’re doing?” she asked, amused.

  He quirked a brow. “We had dinner and sex. What else would you call it?”

  She chuckled. “Usually the dinner comes before the sex.”

  “It did,” he told her. “We had pizza a week ago, remember?”

  “So we did.” She smiled up at him. “Well, since we’re dating and I’m going to let you know if Max ever calls me again—”

  “Thank you.”

  “Would it be appropriate of me to ask you for a favor?”

  “Of course,” he whispered. His hands slid around her to glide down her back. He cupped her ass, lifting her to her toes to push his pelvis into hers, and she realized she wasn’t the only one who’d caught a second wind.

  She dipped her tongue in the corners of his mouth, delicately, before taking his lower lip between her teeth. “Take me back to bed,” she whispered.

  “I still smell like wet dog,” he murmured, his tongue coming out to tangle with hers.

  “So take me to shower then to bed.”

  He grinned, dimples flashing in that way that made her want to jump his bones. “Done,” he said, and they practically ran down the hall to the bathroom.

  Chapter Nine

  “So you’re dating now?” Charles slurped his Quervo Gold margarita and reached for her chips and guacamole.

  Lily slapped his hand away. “Apparently. We had food and sex. According to him, that’s dating.”

  “Ah.” Charles held up a finger. “Only if you do it more than once. Otherwise, it’s a one-night stand.”

  “Well, he asked me to have dinner with him tonight while we were in the shower this morning.”

  Charles sighed. “I miss shower sex. Gary isn’t into it.”

  “Who’s Gary?”

  “My new boyfriend.”

  Lily scooped up guacamole. “When did this happen?”

  “Sunday. He’s the new Pilates instructor at my gym.” He snuck a chip while she was sipping her beer. “He likes pasta with pesto, oaky chardonnay and watching Sex and the City on DVD.”

  “True love,” she remarked dryly.

  “Hey,” he pointed a finger at her. “I don’t make fun of you boffing the pop star.”

  “Former pop star,” she corrected.

  “Still.” He polished off his margarita and signaled the waiter for another. “I could probably sell this to the tabloids.”

  Lily snorted. “Sure. I think Britney lost custody of her kids again, and word is Tom and Katie are having triplets. I’m sure the former boy bander and I will make the front page.”

  “I’m holding it in reserve for a slow news week.” He sent the waiter a flirty smile when he delivered the fresh drink. “Thank you, darling.”

  The waiter sniffed. “Pig,” he spat, and turned on his heel to stalk off.

  Charles turned back to Lily with wounded eyes. “Well, that seemed overly harsh.”

  Lily grinned. “You dated that guy three months ago for a week and a half then stopped returning his phone calls instead of being honest enough to tell him you wanted out.”

  “Oh.” Charles narrowed his eyes at the waiter’s back. “Oh yeah.” He looked back at his drink. “I probably shouldn’t drink this, should I?”

  “I wouldn’t.”

  He pushed the drink aside. “Waste of perfectly good Quervo. So where are you and Mr. Gorgeous going for dinner?”

  “Mr. Gorgeous?” She grinned at him. “I’m telling him you called him that.”

  “Hey, if you think it would make him swing my way, go for it.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’s straight.”

  “The good ones always are,” he mourned.

  “What about Gary?”

  “He likes pesto and oakey chardonnay.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not going to last long. How come all your relationships come with predetermined expiration dates?”

  “Because the gay scene in this town is dullsville, that’s why.”

  “I thought it was because you’re a man whore.”

  “That too.” He reached for her chips again. “So. Where are you going for dinner?”

  “We’re not.” She drained the rest of her ice tea. “He’s cooking for me.”

  “He cooks?” Charles swallowed the food in his mouth and shook his head. “You have all the luck.”

  “He cooks one dish, and he says he’s going to cook it for me now so my expectations of him will be realistic for the rest of our relationship.”

  Charles opened his mouth to reply but stopped as his cell phone chirped. He pulled it off the clip on his belt to look at it. “This is getting old.”

  Lily leaned forward, curious. “What is?”
<
br />   He turned the phone so she could see the caller ID display. “Carelli Property Management,” she read, and frowned. “Why would my old apartment complex be calling you?”

  “They’re not,” he told her, and silenced the ringer before putting the phone away. “Max is.”

  “What?”

  “He started calling last week, gave me some line of bullshit about how he’s worried for Bridget, he needs to talk to her.” He shook his head.

  “Did you tell him where she is?”

  “I didn’t have to, he already knows.” He caught the look on her face. “I mean, he knows she went to Hawaii—hell, that wouldn’t be hard to figure out, Lil.”

  “No, I guess not. What’d he say?”

  “That she moved hotels, she’s not answering her cell phone, and could I please tell him where she is because he’s very worried about her.”

  “He’s so full of shit,” she muttered.

  “No kidding. I told him I didn’t know anything, and that if she wasn’t answering her cell it might be a good indication that she didn’t want to talk to his dumb ass.”

  Despite her concern, Lily laughed at that. “Did you really? I bet he hated that.”

  Charles grinned. “Oh, he did. He tried to cover it, because he was still trying to sweet talk me into spilling something on Bridge. He got a lot snarkier when he realized it wasn’t working.”

  “He’s called me a couple of times too, singing the same song.” She shook her head. “I wonder what he’s after?”

  “Whatever it is, he’s not going to get it.” Charles tossed his napkin on his plate. “I gotta go back to work.”

  “Hey, you’re sticking me with the check?”

  “You’re buying, to make up for laughing at me last week.”

  “I thought I was getting you tickets to that stupid concert for that!”

  “You’re doing both,” he told her as he got up, and pointed a finger. “And if you call it stupid again, I’ll make you get backstage passes and take pictures of me with all the singers.”

  She forced a grim smile. “Have a wretched day, dear.”

  He laughed, tossing her a wave over his shoulder as he walked away.

  She got the check, noting that she hadn’t been charged for the second margarita. “He must have spit in it,” she murmured, and added a generous tip for the jilted waiter.

  The restaurant was only a short walk from the hotel, and she took her time getting back, enjoying the summer sun. The heat felt good after the overly conditioned air in the restaurant, seeping into her skin through the thin silk of her blouse. She idly thought that if it was a few degrees cooler it would be perfect picnic weather, and wondered if she could tempt Nate into joining her in the park on her next afternoon off.

  She was smiling as she strolled into the hotel. “Hi, Katie. How’s it going?”

  The clerk had her head bent to the reservations computer. “Just fine, Ms. Michaels,” she said. She looked up absently, still clicking away on the keyboard, then did a double take.

  “What?” Lily asked, checking her blouse for signs of spilled guacamole.

  “You look great.” Katie leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Who is he?”

  Lily looked around, wondering who the heck Katie was talking about. “Who is who?”

  “Whoever put that look on your face.” If possible, Katie’s voice went even lower. “You look really good today, Ms. Michaels.”

  “Um…thanks?”

  “I mean, really good. And really relaxed, if you get me.”

  The light dawned, and Lily started to laugh. “What, am I wearing a sign?”

  “Nah. You just look really, really relaxed.” Katie grinned, and waggled her eyebrows. “Besides, a courier just dropped off a package for you. A present, with a big red bow on it.”

  “Really?”

  “I put it in your office.” Katie trailed behind Lily as she darted behind the check-in desk to her office. “So, is he cute or what?”

  Lily saw the package on her desk and grinned. “He’s adorable,” she said, crossing to the desk. She plucked the card from under the red velvet bow and tore it open. “In case dinner is a disaster,” she read. She looked at Katie. “I wonder what that means?”

  “Open it,” Katie encouraged, practically bouncing in her penny loafers.

  Since it was what she wanted to do anyway, Lily slipped off the bow and peeled away the wrapping. Flipping open the top of the box, she started into it for a moment then burst out laughing.

  “What?” Katie asked, trying to peer into the box.

  Lily pulled out the pink bottle, holding it up with a grin.

  Katie frowned. “What kind of present is a bottle of Pepto Bismol?”

  “It’s kind of an inside joke,” Lily explained, grinning like a fool at the economy-sized bottle.

  “If you say so,” Katie said doubtfully. She turned to go back to the front desk, mumbling, “I’d rather have flowers.”

  Lily set the bottle of Pepto on the corner of her desk, reaching for the phone as it rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Lily?”

  “Bridget.” Lily sat down, swiveling the desk chair around so her back was to the door. “Are you okay?”

  “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”

  Lily frowned at the strained tone. “Now who’s the big fat liar?”

  Bridget laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m a little blue.”

  “Is it because Max has been bothering you?”

  “What?”

  “He’s been calling Charles,” Lily explained hurriedly at the shrill tone of her friend’s voice. “And me, a couple of times. Charles said he couldn’t find you, that you’d checked out of the hotel.”

  “I had to,” Bridget explained, irritation plain. “He kept calling day and night, and sending flowers to my room. He even bribed a desk clerk to ignore the Do Not Disturb I had on my phone and put him through in the middle of the night.”

  “Honey, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. He called you again?”

  “Last night,” Lily explained. “I missed the call, but he left a message. He says he just wants to get in touch with you, but he sounds to me like he wants something. What does he say when he calls you?”

  “His messages say the same thing, that he wants to get together to talk, all calm and reasonable. But the one time I answered the phone—you know how I am about phones that ring in the middle of the night.”

  “Yeah, it’s always bad news.”

  “Right. So even though I knew I’d put the Do Not Disturb on, I answered it. And he wasn’t so calm and reasonable. He started yelling at me, some bullshit about how I owe him.”

  “Owe him what?”

  “I don’t know, I hung up on him.”

  Lily grinned. “Doesn’t he hate that?”

  “Oh, like the plague.” Satisfaction was ripe in her voice. “I unplugged the phone and the next morning I checked out of the hotel.”

  “So which hotel are you in now?” Lily grabbed a pencil.

  “I’m not sure I should tell you.”

  “What? Why?”

  “If I don’t tell you, and Max asks, you won’t have to lie.”

  Lily dropped the pencil. “You think I’m afraid of lying to Max?”

  “No, it’s just—”

  The mild concern she was feeling earlier suddenly coalesced into something much sharper, more urgent. “Bridget, what’s going on? Is he threatening you?”

  Bridget sighed heavily. “Not really. I just don’t like the tone of his messages. The only time he was ever sweet was when he wanted something from me.”

  “And he’s being sweet?”

  “Except for last night, he’s acting like spun sugar,” Bridget said dryly. “Look, I just want to stay gone for a while.”

  “You can’t avoid him forever.”

  “I know. I just want to avoid him for the time being.”

  “I can understand that. But you have to tell me
where you’re staying.”

  “Lil.”

  “Bridge,” Lily countered, her voice as implacable as Bridget’s was wheedling. “I swear, I’ll only tell Charles, and neither one of us will tell Max. Trust me.”

  Her friend’s sigh came across the line as both resigned and exasperated. “Fine. I’m at the Hawaii Prince on Waikiki.”

  Lily grabbed the pencil and jotted down the number Bridget rattled off. “Fancy,” she commented.

  “I’m spending every last bit I got from the jewelry I sold,” Bridget told her.

  “That’ll learn him,” Lily said dryly, and Bridget laughed.

  “I miss you,” she said. “Why don’t you take some of that vacation time you’ve got coming to you and fly down here for a holiday? You could take a surfing lesson.”

  “Are you kidding?” Lily tore off the page with the hotel information on it and tucked it into her purse for safekeeping. “I can’t even run outside without tripping over a crack in the sidewalk. I’d kill myself if I tried to learn how to surf.”

  “Trust me, it’s so worth it. It’s an amazing workout, you know?”

  “That is not a selling point,” Lily pointed out dryly.

  “Okay, then how about the instructors are all crazy hot and put their hands all the hell over you while they’re showing what to do? Aaaaaand…if you’re clumsy—”

  “Which I am.”

  “Which you are…they put their hands on you even more. For safety.”

  Lily laughed. “I can almost hear your eyebrows wiggling as you say that.”

  “Hey, I’m very serious about safety.”

  “I bet you are.”

  “So what do you say? Come down and hang with me, and we can drink and flirt and be single girls together again.”

  “I’d love to, Bridge,” Lily sighed regretfully. “But I can’t. There’s too much going on here right now.”

  “At the hotel?”

  “Ah…yeah.”

  “Oh no, I heard that.”

  “Heard what?”

  “That hesitation in your voice. Things aren’t busy at the hotel, so that means they’re busy at home. Which means…you’re sleeping with the musician!”

  Lily shook her head, not really surprised. “At least you didn’t call him the boy bander, like Charles does.”

  “He’s just jealous. How was he?”