“That can’t be right. I mean, I pull it back for work and the gym, and I wear it up for dressy events, but…I never let my hair down?” She looked startled and disturbed by the discovery.
“Hey, don’t get me wrong, it looks great up, too. You just took me by surprise.”
“If anyone took someone by surprise here, it was you.”
Surprise wasn’t the only thing she’d felt, and they both knew it. She’d been as hungry for him as he was for her, but that way lay madness.
She pivoted and began walking back toward the building, her tone as brisk and purposeful as her stride. “Everything go okay today? Dad didn’t demand to know your intentions or anything, did he?”
“No. I’m sure he knows you can take care of yourself. He did ask whether we first met at the office or the apartment complex. I told him you picked me up for a one-night stand at a bar.”
Her aqua eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.
“The office. I told him the office and that I love working with you. You’re the most talented draftsperson I know. Besides me, of course.”
A smile flirted at the corner of her mouth. “You think I’m talented?”
“You know you are.” He held the door open for her. “You’re the best. C, K and M is lucky to have you.”
“Thanks.” She sighed. “A girl likes to hear that every once in a while. This way—the room we rented is down on the left. So what did you guys do?”
“Played poker. I made thirty-six bucks. Your friend Charlie is the only politician I’ve ever met who can’t bluff. Then your dad showed me some pictures, told me stories about you, about how a lot of your classmates went to the small college in the next county. Said that at seventeen you were ready to leave home and take on the world, that they tried to talk you into staying closer for a year or two, but you have a stubborn streak that makes mules look indecisive.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, hurt in her gaze. “Are they still angry that I left?”
“I didn’t get the impression that they were ever angry,” he said, “just worried about you and reluctant to let go.”
Did she really think her father had said anything derogatory about her? Even the mule comment had been made with paternal pride.
Piper took a deep breath. “With Mom, Dad and Daphne, I’ve always…I mean, the three of them… Come on, I told Mandy I’d help set up, and we’re not getting anything done out here in the hall.”
He followed, thinking about how ironic life could be. As he’d been shuffled from one home to the next, he’d stopped reaching out to people, stopped letting others reach him. He’d decided it would just be less painful to accept not fitting in. Was it possible that even with her close-knit family, Piper had felt like an outsider, too? Given their very different pasts, he’d never expected to have that in common with her. Didn’t she know how much they cared about her?
Shaking his head, he stepped through the doorway and discovered a room decorated with balloons and crepe paper wedding bells. A garish papier-mâché stork the size of a condor hung from the ceiling, looking as though it might swoop down and attack guests.
Despite all his male instincts prompting him to flee, Josh forced his feet forward into the spacious rectangular room. At the center were several round tables. Against one wall were two tables piled with presents, and in the opposite wall was a small doorway that must lead to a private kitchen. Women of various ages entered and exited every few minutes, piling food on a large table positioned right outside the door.
Piper hurried in that direction, saying her help was needed, and left him to fend for himself. She must really trust him if she didn’t think he’d make a run for it as soon as her back was turned.
Blaine and a few other men sat huddled around one of the round tables, and Josh expelled a sigh of relief as he ambled in their direction. Fellow Martians on a Venusian planet. Pulling out the chair next to Blaine, he introduced himself to the others. Name tags sat in the center of the table, but none of the other guys wore a baby-bottle-shaped adhesive badge, and Josh didn’t plan to be the first.
He was so relieved to be around other men that he didn’t even mind too much when Charlie finished carrying a cooler for Mrs. Jamieson and joined them at the table. No guy—not even the irritating mayor—deserved to be cut adrift in this bastion of estrogen. Besides, as long as Charlie was hanging out with them, he wasn’t in the kitchen, trying to corner Piper.
Blaine, who had just introduced Mandy’s fiancé, asked Josh, “Have you and Piper RSVPed to the wedding yet? I was thinking that you two could stay with Daph and me instead of at a hotel. Unless you don’t want twin newborns underfoot, which we would understand.”
Josh gave a noncommittal smile, unbalanced by a sense of loss at never seeing these people again. Mrs. Jamieson and her great cooking, Blaine and Daphne who had warmly accepted him, Mr. Jamieson who called him “son.” If his fictional relationship with Piper had actually been real, then…
He ground his teeth. Hadn’t he learned long ago to stop wanting relationships? A family? Love?
If you don’t want it, you can’t be hurt when you don’t get it. A sound outlook, but it was damn near impossible not to want Piper.
Piper stood at the lace-covered buffet table. All the guests had arrived, and people were filling their plates with food. She breathed in the sweet, tangy smell of pineapple from the fruit salad and the zesty aroma of horseradish from the shrimp cocktail. But her stomach was still doing somersaults from that kiss in the parking lot, and she wasn’t sure she could eat anything.
Darting her gaze toward a smaller table, she watched as Josh poured them both glasses of iced tea. How was it that she’d known him for so long, yet felt as though she were seeing him for the first time? She studied his profile with admiration, her knees slightly weakened by the sight of his strong jaw and teasing smile as he responded to something one of her cousins was saying. His dark hair, though not messy, was unruly above his face, as if he’d been running his hands through it. Or maybe she’d tousled it herself while they were kissing.
She shook her head, trying to forget what had happened. Yeah, right. With enough effort, she might be able to put it temporarily out of her mind, but for how long? Especially now that she knew with an unwanted certainty that their kiss last night had been anything but a fluke. She’d tried to convince herself during sleepless hours early this morning that the spontaneous combustion between them probably couldn’t be duplicated a second time. But the way he’d kissed her in the parking lot had left her hot and wanting more.
Fantasies haunted her. Josh kissing her, undressing her, sharing her bed back at the hotel. It would never happen, she assured herself. But here, away from her no-men life in Houston, away from the women Josh had dated…for a second, it seemed almost possible.
Wishful thinking, prompted by hormones. She wasn’t going to kid herself that a couple of steamy kisses had changed anything. Maybe if she were a different type of person, she could allow herself a weekend fling. But how could she bare herself so intimately—literally—to him, then just pretend nothing had happened when she saw him at the office on Monday? She wasn’t risking their friendship, or her job, on something so brief, even if she knew the sex would be nothing short of fantastic. Somehow, though, looking around at the happy people around her—Daphne grinning at Blaine; a couple from Piper’s high school class who had married after graduation but still acted like honeymooners—it was tough to remember why relationships were such bad things.
“If it isn’t the Pied Piper,” a voice behind her boomed. “Still short, I see.”
She spun around. “Hey, Uncle Joe. Still bald, I see.”
Mandy’s father crushed her in a hug that must’ve looked to the casual observer like a mutation of the Heimlich maneuver. “I always did like you, girl. Spunky and smart. Your dad tells me you’re doing pretty well for yourself up in the big city. We’re all proud of you.”
This was news to Piper. “I thought I was the spinster blight on
the Jamieson good name?”
Before her uncle could answer, Josh reached her side, balancing a small paper plate filled with food, and two plastic cups. Piper took one of the drinks and introduced her uncle.
“Piper’s mom has told us a lot about you. Pleased to meet you,” Joe said, slapping Josh on the back so heartily that he lurched forward. “Let me give you two a tip—if you decide to tie the knot, elope. If there’s one thing my daughters have taught me, it’s how complicated weddings are.”
Elope? Wedding? For a second, Piper’s head swam. The idea of Josh settling down with anyone was unimaginable, much less settling down with her.
Oblivious to the mental chaos he’d caused her, her uncle glanced across the room. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’m just going to go check on your grandmother, see if she and her friend need a ride back to the nursing home when this is over.”
Josh made a teasing observation about Nana’s adhering to the couples theme and bringing an octogenarian suitor with her, but Piper barely heard him.
“Piper?”
She started, Josh’s questioning tone interrupting the blurred, soft-focus matrimonial images that still filled her head—the traditional garter worn beneath her gown, Josh slowly rolling it down her leg, trailing his fingers against her skin…. “He was just making conversation,” she said quickly.
“Hmm?”
“My uncle. The elopement advice. It was just small talk. Believe me, I didn’t say anything to make my family think we were headed for the altar.”
“I didn’t think you did.” He examined her closely. “You seem horrified by the idea. Completely appalling, huh?”
She bit her lip. If she admitted that at odd times today she’d secretly found the idea appealing, he’d walk straight out the door and hitchhike back to Houston.
“Yeah, well, you know. I’m not one for romance.”
“Right.” After a moment, he added, “We definitely see eye-to-eye there.”
Once all the guests were seated and eating, Mandy and Daphne went to the front of the room with their husbands, who wore matching pained expressions. Clearly the “couples shower” concept had not been devised by men. As friends and relatives ate, Mandy unwrapped the usual bridal presents—towels and small home appliances. Then Daphne took her turn, pulling tiny baby clothes out of gift bags.
When the last package had been opened, Piper leaned closer to Josh, trying not to think about how warm and inviting his scent was as she whispered, “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not participate in the who-can-make-the-best-wedding-veil-out-of-toilet-paper games.”
“That’s really what women do at bridal showers?” he asked, a half smile on his face.
“In mixed company, anyway. If it were just us girls, we might still make the veils, but we’d probably also have a few drinks and encourage the bride with bawdy sex stories.”
His eyes widened, but his surprised expression was almost instantly replaced with one of prurient interest. “So what’s your favorite bawdy sex story?”
“Um…” Currently, the only thing that came to mind in connection with sex was the man staring back at her. “Never mind that. Let’s volunteer for dish duty and escape to the kitchen while everyone else is engaged in the diapering-the-baby-doll relay or whatever.”
“Sounds good to me.” He stood first, pulling her chair back for her.
How many times had Josh reached past her to open her car door, or stood by as she locked her apartment? She’d noticed how tall he was on those occasions—hard not to, when he was teasing her about her own height—but this weekend she was aware of his body in a whole new way. The heat that emanated from him when he stood close, the width of his shoulders, the leisurely confidence he moved with, neither hurried nor self-conscious….
“Piper, we’re kitchen-bound, right?” His tone was puzzled, and he obviously wondered why she wasn’t following through on her own plan.
“R-right.” They were off to wash casserole plates and punch glasses, and she wasn’t going to dwell on the last time they’d done dishes together, when they’d ended up kissing. There was nothing intrinsically sexy about liquid detergent, no reason to think the incident would be repeated. Unfortunately.
Later, as she took her frustration out on a large plastic bowl coated with remnants of nacho cheese, Piper realized she needn’t have worried about the sexual tension that would arise when they were alone. Josh kept himself busy loading things into the cooler at the opposite end of the kitchen or retrieving empty serving plates off the buffet table. Then Stella appeared, holding the blender Mandy had received and explaining that most of the older guests were leaving and the remaining younger ones wanted margaritas.
She mixed the first batch, delivered them and returned to make more. With her cousin’s intermittent presence as unlikely chaperon, Piper managed to quit fixating on Josh long enough to finish the small pile of dishes near the sink. Finally, they were done, but Piper was in no hurry to return to the land of happy coupledom in the other room and the uncertainty it had filled her with earlier.
Option B was to stay here with Josh. Stella had left the kitchen after making her last batch of margaritas. Piper had turned one down, figuring the drink would only jumble her thoughts further. Now, however, she was reconsidering.
Josh seemed to be enjoying his. Clearly content to be away from the shower festivities, he was leaning against the industrial-strength refrigerator behind him. Next to a very sturdy counter, she couldn’t help noticing—one that would easily accommodate two people’s weight and withstand vigorous activity.
She swallowed, wondering when she’d developed this strange countertop fetish.
Her gulp attracted his attention. He lowered the glass and met her eyes, the corner of his mouth quirked up in the sexy half grin she knew so well. “If I didn’t know this weekend was a pretense, I’d never guess the look on your face was an act.”
No chance in hell she was going to ask “What look?” because she knew he’d tell her. Instead, she turned the tables on him. “Just like no one would have guessed that kiss in the parking lot was an act?” She’d meant it to be a statement, not a question.
“Are you asking me if it was real?” He set his glass down and took a step closer to her. “Did you want it to be?”
Yes. No! Maybe—in a different reality. “I think we should get back out there.”
“It was your idea to come in here.”
“Well, yes, but not to be completely antisocial, just to escape the standard games.”
“And is this another escape attempt?” He punctuated his question with an eyebrow raised in challenge.
“Escape from what, you?” She willed herself to laugh, to smile at least—anything to make light of his uncomfortably accurate insight. But she couldn’t.
“Yeah, me.” Stopping directly in front of her, Josh folded his arms over his chest. His stance should have relieved her, since it meant he had no immediate plans to reach for her, but she didn’t feel relief. She felt like a firecracker with a fuse slowly burning down to the detonation point.
How did the man project so much untamed sensuality simply by standing there?
She forced a soft laugh. “You make it sound as if I should be scared of you.” When it was really her own actions she feared. “But you’re, um, perfectly harmless.”
Yeah, Josh is to harmless as lion is to fluffy kitten. Any chance he hadn’t noticed the quaver in her tone and the blush she could feel in her face? She braced herself for him to mention those very things, but instead he sighed.
“Well, you’re right about me not harming you, anyway.” His voice softened. “I would never want to do anything that could end up hurting you, Piper.”
“I know you wouldn’t.”
Affection knotted her chest, a deep tenderness that was more disconcerting than the rampant lust. The lust she could try to attribute to months of abstinence. The wellspring of emotion wasn’t as easily waved away.
He g
azed at her with searing intensity, then turned to grab his margarita. “Maybe I needed the reminder myself.”
As he gulped the frozen drink, Piper envied him the icy coldness and the tequila. She could use both.
Lowering the glass, he suggested, “Let’s get out of here.”
She followed him to safety, pondering the way he’d unexpectedly backed down. After two years of teasing her outrageously, pouncing on opportunities for innuendo, he’d let her off the hook just now. Why? Because he’d glimpsed her nervousness and was protecting her?
Or was it because their teasing had become so real that he needed to protect himself?
She had the impression that the more superficial and less genuine his relationships, the more comfortable he stayed. Instead of being relieved that they’d dodged a metaphorical bullet—or at least the mistake of getting hot and heavy among the pots and pans—she felt inexplicably sad.
Out in the main room, four couples along with Charlie and Stella remained, seated around two tables that had been pushed together. At the other end of the room, Piper’s mom and aunt picked up wrapping paper and ribbon and exchanged gossip. Piper and Josh sat with the twosomes.
Daphne smiled. “Welcome back, sis. You’re just in time.”
“For what?”
Her sister pushed a large bag across the table to Mandy, who sat in her fiancé’s lap. “We wanted to wait until it was just close friends, but we have a few presents left for Mandy and Donald. For the honeymoon,” she added with a wink.
There was good-natured laughter as Donald extracted a pack of condoms with the words Just Married on them. Mandy retrieved the next item—a heart-shaped bottle of flavored body lotion.
“Hey!” Josh swiveled his head toward Piper. “You told me this morning we couldn’t get any flavored body lotion here.”
Piper felt the blood drain from her face. She imagined she was as pale as Josh had suddenly gone. Clearly, he hadn’t thought before speaking. And now that all speculative gazes were locked on the two of them, he wasn’t speaking at all.
Charlie reddened and said it had been nice seeing everyone, but he had to go. Stella offered to walk him out.
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