by Jo Leigh
“No, not here to work. Jesus, man, you’ve got two and a half months left on your lease, and now you’re unpacking?”
“Yeah, well, I’m trying to— You know what? I don’t have to explain myself to you. Is that beer cold, or do you want one from the fridge?”
“Colder the better.” Antwan handed him the six-pack. “And you’d better start explaining yourself to me. You’ve been an asshole for days. You left early because of what Walt said, and you never give a damn about anything that bagga mouth has to say. I know it’s because of Jenna, and I’m betting you’ve done something stupid.”
“Stupid?” He popped the top on Antwan’s beer and put it on the counter. “I’m not. I’m doing the right thing for once. It just sucks, that’s all.”
“Explain to me what the right thing is.”
“Letting her get on with her life. The life she deserves with someone who isn’t me.”
“You do know she likes you, yes? A lot?”
“That’s not good enough. I told you who she wants. A suit. Who works five days a week, and isn’t called in the middle of the night to go chasing tornadoes. And I’m still pissed as hell that you told her about that weather-scan app. She didn’t need to know it existed.”
“Why not? It’s your job.”
“It scared her.”
Antwan was walking down the line of boxes, reading the contents’ lists. “That makes sense. It’s dangerous work. Why wouldn’t she be scared?”
“Stop it. You know as well as I do that she would never be happy with me. And I’d be so worried about her, I’d probably end up getting myself killed. It was easy with Faith. She didn’t make a big deal out of the storm chasing.”
Antwan smiled, and if it wasn’t the most condescending smile in the world, it was close. “Faith didn’t love you.”
“Neither does Jenna.”
“Oh?”
“Come on, Antwan. Don’t. I like her too much to play games now. She’s never been shy about what she’s looking for in a husband, and I don’t cut it.”
“A husband? That’s very optimistic.”
“Does optimistic mean something else in Jamaica? I just said, I’m not—”
“I heard what you said. Now hear me. I saw exactly what Jenna wants every time she looked at you. She thought she wanted that other man. The one who kissed Faith. But that didn’t turn out the way she planned. So maybe what she thinks she wants isn’t what she needs.”
“What the hell are you talking about? She told me she wants someone who loves her. Who couldn’t stop thinking about her. Who wouldn’t shut up about her.”
“Is that all?”
“No. She wants someone steady. Someone she can always count on. Who knows to run from the storms, not toward them.”
Antwan nodded. “Right. Look, I don’t know. I’m not married. I’m not good at my own relationships, but bredda, I can see with both eyes. Faith was a nice girl, but not for you. Jenna. She’s for you, Rick.”
“Yeah, well, she might be, but we’ll never know. She’s on a date right now with her perfect man.”
Antwan laughed. “The stories you tell yourself are gold, my friend. Nothing to do with reality, but that’s never stopped you.”
“If you’re going to help me unpack, great. If not? Go home.”
Antwan put his half-finished beer on the counter, smiled and left.
Rick got back to work. He was glad that self-righteous dick he worked with had gone. Thought again about how he was doing the right thing by letting Jenna go. About ten minutes to midnight, it occurred to him that she’d be spitting mad at him for making decisions for her.
About ten minutes after midnight, he made one decision for himself. But it was one hell of a decision.
* * *
FOR THE FIRST time since she’d started teaching, Jenna was counting down the days for school to end. It was the end of April. Another three weeks to go before she could store her briefcase for a couple of months. And while it was still too soon to plant, she could start preparing for the garden.
She slid open the glass door and stepped out onto her balcony. Of course it immediately reminded her of Rick’s town house and his little backyard, and that she hadn’t heard from him in two days. Not even a text. She’d almost had to sit on her hands not to send one herself.
Staring down at the raised box, she realized she’d come out without her work gloves. She stooped down, anyway, and shoved her fingers through the soil. The dirt was cold and so was she. This wouldn’t be the soothing experience she’d been hoping for.
Truth was, she was exhausted from her tangled thoughts. Every time she knew without a doubt she needed to break things off with Rick, she immediately knew without a doubt that she loved him and was willing to do whatever it took to make it work with him.
Back inside, she thought about cleaning out the fridge, but that wouldn’t help get her mind off Rick.
Although, the pros were definitely ahead of the cons, and maybe if she wrote them down, it would help her see—
Her doorbell rang. Couldn’t be Ally. She looked through the peephole. Blinked. Then looked through it again. With a pulse of about three thousand beats per second, she opened the door. The door in Boston, where she lived, far, far away from Norman, Oklahoma.
“Hey,” Rick said.
He was in jeans and a T-shirt, wearing the leather jacket she liked so much, and of course, his Nikes. A carry-on bag was next to him.
“What are you doing here? Is Boston going to have a tornado?”
He grinned. Shook his head. “No, Boston’s safe. I hope I’m not intruding, showing up like this. I would have called, but I was afraid I’d chicken out.”
“Well, then, you’d better come in.”
He picked up his case and walked inside, doing a full sweep of her tiny, boxlike apartment.
“Do you want something to eat? Or drink?”
“Not yet, but thanks.”
“Want to sit down?” she asked, and she could hear the tremor in her voice. This could be monumentally bad. Or something else, but she’d better be prepared for monumentally bad.
“Sorry I didn’t bring chocolates. I should have. Knowing how much you like them.”
Jenna blinked again. Wondered if she should sit. Probably. Because she could barely breathe.
“First of all,” he said, looking more uncomfortable than she’d ever seen him, “I wanted you to know that I finished unpacking. Every last box.”
“Congratulations,” she said, starting to think this might be a dream. A weird one at that.
“But I also want to tell you that I remember a lot of things you said. Like how you wanted someone who loved you. Who couldn’t shut up about you. Who, damn it, what was the third—”
“Who couldn’t stop thinking about me.”
He grinned. “Yeah, that’s the one. But you also want someone who’s steady. Who you can count on.”
“Rick, are you—”
“Please, wait. I need to get this out before... Anyway. You also wanted to have the upper hand. And you do. You really do. Because I love you so much. It’s actually kind of scary. You remember when you asked how was I going to top being swept away by a tornado? The answer is you, Jenna.”
“What?”
He took her hand and walked her over to her couch, where they both sat down. “I’ve been looking in the rearview mirror for twenty years. Watching that old tornado. I don’t want to anymore. Not when I can look ahead and see a future with you.”
“But—”
“Nope, not done yet. That picture of me running from that EF 5? I don’t keep it there because I’m proud of it. It embarrasses me that I was so stupid, but I keep it there as a reminder that I was really lucky. By all rights, I should have been killed by th
at monster. And I’m finally listening to my own advice.
“I can’t promise I’ll never go out chasing again, but the reason would have to be damn good. I’ve trained too many people to think I’m the only one who can storm-chase right. And I can’t promise I won’t get home late during the season, but I’ll try not to. Because, damn it, Jenna. I love you. I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’t shut up about you.”
Bewildered by his confession, and shaking from head to toe, she said, “My turn?”
He nodded, looking so scared that she had to let him know the truth right off. “I love you, too. And the man I fell in love with is a storm chaser, among other things. I can’t ask you to give that up for me. I don’t want you to resent me or anything. I’ll bear it. I’ll be scared to death, but you can’t help who you love, and for me, that’s you.”
“Thank God,” he said. “Not the part about me chasing storms. I want you much more than that. I— Shit. I mean, wait.”
He hurried over to his carry-on and opened it up. He took two wrapped boxes from on top of his clothes and gave them to her.
Jenna unwrapped the first one. Guerlain body milk. The second one was the Hermès. “The smart apartment.”
He nodded. “I changed my mind about Ladyhawke. It was totally a romance. Even with the magic at the end. We had ours in the beginning, that’s all.”
She pretty much climbed into his lap, she wanted to kiss him so much. He kissed her back, held her so tight, she’d never fall. He was almost right. Their magic wasn’t just in the beginning.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THIS KISS by Debbi Rawlins.
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This Kiss
Debbi Rawlins
1
“GOTCHA!” SOPHIE MICHAELS grinned when she saw the motel’s address on the computer screen. After a quick sip of morning coffee, she sent the file to her partner, Lola, who was sitting in the next office.
The rush from getting her man lasted barely a minute. Sophie sank back in her chair and sighed. Lately, the thrill of success was fleeting and not all that sweet.
Locating the deadbeat dad was rewarding because, well...he had three kids to support. But if he was going to jump bail anyway, couldn’t he have done a better job of covering his tracks? For God’s sake, a fourth grader could’ve found him.
After four years the job was finally getting to her. Too much sitting at the computer. Too much of the same old thing every day. Skip traces, lame excuses, shaken or resigned parents putting up collateral for their wayward children or, almost as frequently, the roles being reversed. Here in Wattsville, Wyoming, nothing much exciting happened. Oh, they had bank robberies occasionally and liquor store holdups, but those types of criminals tended to be really stupid and that made her job boring.
Sophie sighed. Working in the bail bond business wouldn’t be forever. Mostly she’d signed on to help Lola get the company off the ground. Sophie looked on her cousin more like a sister. And Lola didn’t mind that Sophie was sticking around only until she’d figured out what to do with her life.
Rolling her chair away from her dinged-up metal desk, Sophie dropped her chin to her chest and stretched her neck to the side. Feeling the strain of muscles that had been worked too hard earlier at the gym, she tried not to whimper. At least not loud enough for Lola to hear.
The front door to the reception area squeaked open and she glanced at the clock. “Oh, come on,” she muttered. How could it be only eight-fifteen? It felt like noon.
They were expecting Mandy, the third member of their team, to return from Jackson Hole sometime this morning. But in case it was a potential client, Sophie got up. When she heard Hawk’s voice, she promptly sat back down. And wished her door was closed. Hawk was Lola’s sleazy boyfriend of three months. Sophie didn’t like him, but so far she’d kept her mouth shut.
Lola hadn’t had much luck with men in the past, but two people had never been less suited to each other. Hawk wasn’t very bright, was sometimes crude and was under the delusion that riding a Harley and wearing black leather made him a badass.
He was a poser, no doubt in Sophie’s mind. She knew something about desperately pretending to be someone you weren’t just to fit in. A tiny bit of sympathy for him stopped her from telling Lola that his real name was Floyd and he was a high school dropout.
Sophie smiled. The idiot didn’t get that she was really, really good with computers. And she knew a whole lot more about him than she’d let on.
Which she’d keep to herself. Unless Floyd kept pissing her off. She wasn’t the quiet, naive young girl she used to be in high school. Unlike Floyd aka Hawk, she had put a great deal of effort into transforming herself.
“Hey, Shorty,” Hawk said, lounging against her office door frame. “Missed you at the gym this morning.”
She hated the nickname, which he knew. Anyway, five-four wasn’t that short. She gave his tall, lanky body a once-over. “Like you’ve ever seen the inside of a gym.”
He laughed. “Gotta admit, you’re looking pretty buff,” he said, pushing back his straggly hair and eyeing her legs.
“Lola’s in her office.”
“I know. She’s busy.”
“So am I.” Resisting the urge to tug down the hem of her bike shorts, Sophie swiveled in her chair so that her legs were under the desk, her gaze on the monitor.
“You guys working on something big?”
She noticed that line 2 was lit. Lola was on the phone. “Why are you still here?”
“Chillax, Shorty. Just making conversation while I wait for the old lady.”
The front door opened again and Hawk glanced over his shoulder. His look of dread made Sophie smile. It had to be Mandy. She’d been working as a bounty hunter in Colorado before Lola hired her two years ago, and she could be intimidating at times. Plus, she didn’t like Hawk any more than Sophie did. Only, Mandy wasn’t as circumspect.
A whoop came from Lola’s office. “Okay, ladies, we’ve got a live one. Mandy, are you here?”
Sophie leaped out of her chair and barreled past Hawk, who had enough smarts to get out of her way. “Somebody jumped bail?”
“Oh yeah.” Lola walked out of her office waving a piece of paper. “You’ll never guess who.”
The waiting area was small, with two chairs, a ficus that was alive only because Lola remembered to water it and a rack of magazines, where Mandy stood, tall, beefed-up and calm as could be. She wasn’t the excitable type. “Ethan Styles,” she said, and dropped her duffel bag.
Lola shoved back her long red hair and sighed. “How did you know?”
“Ethan Styles,” Sophie murmured under her breath. She must’ve heard wrong. If his name was on the list of bonds they’d posted, she would’ve noticed. She knew him...sort of... “Who did you say?”
Lola’s concerned gaze found Sophie. “I’m pretty sure you remember Ethan.”
“The rodeo guy, right?” Hawk moved to the circle and sidled up to Lola when Sophie and Mandy gave him butt-out glares. “He’s that hotshot bull rider.”
Lola nodded and looked at Mandy. “You just get back from Jac
kson Hole?”
“An hour ago,” Mandy said with a curious glance at Sophie. “I turned Jergens over to Deputy Martin.”
Sophie couldn’t seem to slow down her brain. Too many memories of Ethan revolved like a slide show on speed. She hadn’t seen him up close since high school. She’d gone to a few rodeos just to see him, but only from the bleachers and it had been a while. Sometimes she watched him on TV, but not often. She wasn’t a kid anymore and there was only so much daydreaming a woman could do without feeling like a dope.
“You get any sleep yet?” Lola asked Mandy, who just smiled.
“I hate to send you out again, but I got a tip that Styles might be headed for northwest Montana. A town called Blackfoot Falls.”
“No shit. Pretty boy has an outstanding warrant?” Hawk laughed. “What did he get locked up for? Screwing somebody’s wife?”
The expression on Lola’s face hinted that Hawk might not be far off the mark.
It wouldn’t surprise Sophie if he was in trouble because of a woman. Half the girls in school had had the hots for him. Even now he left female fans across the country panting, but so what? Lola was mistaken if she thought Ethan’s reputation with the ladies bothered Sophie. He didn’t faze her. Not anymore.
“Why didn’t he pay his own bail? Between his winnings and endorsement deals, he has to have money,” Sophie said, mostly thinking out loud.
Lola shrugged. “He wouldn’t be the first pro athlete to blow his cash on stupid things,” she said. “We have the pink slip for his motor coach as collateral, so I had no problem with posting. I have to say, though, I’m surprised he skipped. He’s not due in court until Monday, but he wasn’t supposed to leave the state.”
“I’ll do it.” Sophie squared her shoulders when they all stared at her. “I’ll go after him.”
Lola shook her head. “Not a good idea, Soph.”
“You’ve never worked in the field.” Mandy’s quiet reminder somehow felt like a betrayal.