by Gina Wilkins
The cabin seemed unusually quiet now that he was here alone. Usually he welcomed the tranquility. Tonight, though, the silence seemed almost oppressive. He thought about turning on music to listen to while he ate a can of chili he found in the pantry, but decided to dial in the television satellite instead. For some reason, country music didn’t seem like a good choice tonight.
After eating, he cleaned the kitchen and carried the trash out to the plastic bin on the back porch. He opened the animal-proof lid, then froze when he saw the muddy, ruined green sneakers atop the other refuse.
He told himself to leave them alone, to bury them beneath the kitchen waste. Instead, he found himself cradling one of the small shoes in both hands, gazing down at it with a scowl. He’d promised to replace them, so it only made sense for him to check the size.
He was not prepared for the surge of hot blood that coursed straight to his groin. It wasn’t the shoe that aroused him, but the wave of memories.
“Your toes are funny.”
A girlish giggle, followed by “What’s funny about my toes?”
“They’re so tiny. You have teeny, tiny toes.”
“I know. Stubby toes. I hate them.”
“No. They’re perfect. Funny, but perfect.”
Naked and lazy, they had sprawled on a tumbled bed, bathed in candlelight. He’d proceeded to show her just how erotic funny little toes could be. And when her laughter had dissolved into low moans of need, he’d surged up her body to pay thorough homage to the rest of her.
Brought back to the present by the screech of an owl in search of dinner, he shifted his weight, preparing for a long, uncomfortably restless night ahead.
Something told him his dreams, if he slept, would be very disturbing that night.
* * *
Jenny opened her apartment door Sunday afternoon to find her friend Stevie standing on the other side, a bottle of wine in one hand, a familiar bakery box in the other. Her artificially blond hair brushed into a riot of curls, Stevie made a striking picture with her long-lashed, sapphire-blue eyes and generous, full-lipped mouth. She was the type of woman who turned heads wherever she went, a reaction she found more amusing than disconcerting. She was gregarious, energetic, generous to a fault and fiercely loyal. Jenny had several good friends, but Stevie was as close as she’d ever had to a sister.
“Moscato. Fruit tarts.” Stevie held up each in turn. “I provide the treats, you spill the beans. I want to know everything about the night you just spent with Gavin Locke.”
Though she rolled her eyes, Jenny motioned her friend into her living room. “I didn’t spend the night with Gavin. Well, I did, but not... You know what I mean.”
Stevie laughed musically and set the goodies on the kitchen bar. “I nearly dropped my phone when I saw your text saying Gavin was there at the cabin.”
They’d talked briefly by phone earlier, so Stevie knew the basic details about how the mix-up had occurred, but she’d said she wanted the play-by-play in person. Truth be told, Jenny wasn’t unhappy that her friend had come by. Sure, she could be tackling some of the paperwork she’d planned to complete that weekend, but it could wait. She reached into the cabinet for wineglasses. “You know where the plates are.”
As at home in Jenny’s place as she was in her own, Stevie was already serving the little tarts topped with glistening fruit. They carried the plates and glasses into the living room, where they kicked off their shoes and settled onto the couch.
“Have you told your mom and grandmother yet? About Gavin, I mean,” Stevie asked, diving right into the conversation.
Jenny popped a glazed blueberry into her mouth, chewed and swallowed before she admitted, “No. They had a luncheon with their Sunday school class today. I didn’t want to mention Gavin on the phone, so I just told them I came home early. I figured I’d tell them the whole story when I see them.” Usually she had dinner with them on Sunday nights, but since they weren’t expecting her to be in town this evening, they’d made plans with friends. She was seeing them tomorrow.
“Your grandmother’s going to totally lose it when she hears Gavin’s name,” Stevie predicted with some relish. “Especially when she hears you spent a night with him.”
“Stop saying that. We spent a night in the same cabin. We didn’t spend the night together.”
Stevie waved a hand. “Figure of speech.”
“But an important distinction nonetheless.” She certainly wasn’t going to mention that she’d literally fallen into bed with Gavin when she’d arrived at the cabin.
“Maybe it would be easier if you don’t tell them he was there.”
Jenny shrugged in resignation. “Mom’s going to ask about my weekend. She worried about me being there alone, and I know she’ll ask how I weathered the storm. You know how she likes to hear all about my life. I don’t want to lie to her. Even though they’ll probably fuss, it just seems easier to tell them what happened. It wasn’t my fault or Gavin’s, so I’ll just make it a funny-thing-happened story.” At least, she would try to keep it that light and breezy, hoping to make it sound like no big deal that she’d run into him again.
“What was it like you when first saw him again? Did he look different? Does he look a lot older? Did he get, like, fat and bald?”
“He looks pretty much like he did, just a little older. More mature. Not fat. And he still has all his hair.”
“He was always hot, in a sort of rough-cut way.”
“You’d probably say the same about him now.”
“Nice. So, he was surprised to see you, I guess?”
“Yes, he was. And he was embarrassed by his leasing company’s error.” She could so clearly picture him all tousled and grumpy and sleepy when she’d barged in on him. The image made her throat close. She set the plate aside and reached hastily for her wineglass.
“And you really had no idea he owns the place now?”
Stevie already knew the answer to that question, but Jenny shook her head and replied, anyway. “Of course not. I thought it was still just a vacation cabin, maybe owned now by the leasing company I contacted. I wasn’t even entirely certain it was the one I’d visited before, though the photos and directions on the internet looked familiar.”
“So Gavin didn’t even cross your mind when you rented the place.”
“Only in passing. I remembered what a good time I had with his family there. Maybe I wondered where he was these days, how he was doing—but I certainly never expected to get stuck in the cabin with him.”
Stevie scrutinized a strawberry half. “So he’s still single.”
“Well, he’s not married.”
“Has he ever been?”
Jenny ran a fingertip around the rim of her glass. “I don’t know. It didn’t come up.”
“So I guess you told him about Thad?”
“Yes, of course. As I was leaving,” she added.
“As you were leaving? Seriously? What did you talk about until then?”
“Mostly about the storm and the damage it did. He told me a little of what’s going on with his family. His sister has two little boys now, and I could tell he’s crazy about them. Then his friends showed up and there wasn’t a lot of time for personal talk. Um, Avery was with them. Did I mention that?”
“No, you just said some of his friends came to help clear the road.” Stevie eyed her speculatively. “How’s Avery?”
“He looks pretty much the same, too. Maybe his temples are a little higher, but he’s still got red hair.”
“How’d he act toward you?”
“Let’s just say I’m still not his favorite person. He wasn’t actively hostile...” Well, with the exception of the one low dig she saw no need to mention now. “But he wasn’t overly friendly, either.”
“He was always kind of a jerk.”<
br />
Jenny bit her lip. She hadn’t forgotten an unfortunate attempt at a double date when she and Gavin, who had been a new couple at the time, had invited their friends to join them in an unsuccessful bid at matchmaking. Avery and Stevie had not hit it off, to say the least. As she recalled, they’d argued about whether Nickelback “sucked”—Stevie liked their music; Avery hated it. A petty disagreement, but it had quickly escalated until they were hardly speaking by the end of the evening.
It was after that night when Avery had turned cool toward Jenny. She’d never known whether he’d blamed her for setting him up on an unsuccessful date, if he just didn’t like her or maybe if he’d thought from the start that her relationship with Gavin had been ill-fated. Nor did she know why he disliked her now. Surely he didn’t believe she still had any power to hurt Gavin.
“Had to be weird sleeping in the same house with Gavin again.”
“I didn’t sleep much,” Jenny agreed, candid with Stevie in a way she didn’t feel comfortable being with most other people. “Weird is pretty much an understatement for the way it felt to be there with him.”
“I guess it brought back a lot of memories.”
“Yes.”
Stevie nodded thoughtfully. “It would be strange for me to spend the night with one of my exes. Though it’s not like my past relationships were as epic as yours with Gavin. It took you a long time to get over him. For months you couldn’t even talk about him. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to suddenly be alone with him again.”
Jenny squirmed a little on the couch and protested, “Come on, Stevie, there’s no need to be so dramatic about it. It was a college romance, not a tragic love story. Yes, I was hurt when it ended, but obviously I got over it. I’ve dated since. Now I’m in a serious relationship with someone else. It’s not as if I’ve spent the past ten years pining over Gavin.”
“Hmph.” Without pausing to expand on the enigmatic murmur, Stevie asked, “Did you tell Gavin you and I are still friends?”
“Your name came up. He asked if you were still dating the drummer.”
“Who? Oh, him.” Stevie laughed and shook her head. “I’d almost forgotten about him.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’d figured.”
“Sticks was seriously cute. But sooo dumb.”
“I remember.”
Setting aside her plate, Stevie drew her bare feet beneath her and nestled back into the sofa with her wineglass cradled in her hands. “So what did Thad say? About Gavin being there, I mean. I assume you feel the need to tell him, too, since you’re planning to tell the family.”
Slowly swirling the liquid in her own glass, Jenny cleared her throat. “I haven’t told him yet. I will, of course. It just wasn’t the sort of thing to mention during a phone call. I figured I’d wait until he gets home so I can assure him face-to-face that it was all a perfectly innocent mix-up.”
“Do you think he’ll be mad?”
She chose her answering words carefully. “He won’t like it, of course, but I doubt he’ll be angry. Thad understands that mistakes happen. This particular mix-up was certainly awkward and unexpected, but he knows he can trust me. He’ll be civil about it.”
“Civil,” Stevie murmured. “Yes, Thad is certainly civil.”
Jenny frowned. “You make that sound like a criticism.”
“Do I? Huh.” Stevie sipped her wine, then asked, “So, I’m the only one you’ve told about your weekend adventure?”
Though she was tempted to press her friend to explain exactly why she was acting so oddly about Thad, Jenny decided to let it go. “I haven’t really talked to anyone yet, other than you. Technically, I’m still on vacation.”
“You are, aren’t you? Want to go see a movie or something tonight? It’s been forever since I’ve been to a movie. We’ll find one with hunky guys who take off their shirts and blow things up—no sappy love stories.”
Jenny set aside her glass. “I like the sound of that.”
For one thing, there would be no need for conversation during a movie. Not to mention that she occasionally enjoyed watching hunky, shirtless men blow stuff up. Thad had never quite understood that, telling her it seemed out of character for her. The films weren’t to his taste, but she’d told herself she was content to share those outings with Stevie while she and Thad confined their movie dates to more cerebral offerings. Most of which she also appreciated. She particularly enjoyed the lively discussions that followed over coffee or wine. It was just that every once in a while, she liked to turn off her brain and simply be entertained for a couple hours. And why not?
They decided to have dinner before the movie. They chose a popular, inexpensive Southwestern restaurant not far from the theater. Jenny kept an eye on the time, and she excused herself from the table they had just claimed when her phone buzzed quietly. She’d warned Stevie that Thad would call at six. Splashing hot sauce onto her burrito, Stevie waved her off good-naturedly, telling her there was no need to hurry with the call.
She took the call outside. It was hot and there was no shade from the still-blazing, early-evening sun, but these calls never lasted long. “Hi, Thad.”
“I was beginning to wonder if you’d answer. Is everything all right?”
“Stevie and I are at a restaurant and I wanted to move outside to take the call.”
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner.”
“It’s okay. We’re just having burritos before we see a movie.”
Thad’s cultured laugh sounded quietly in her ear. “An adventure film, I’m sure.”
She smiled. “Well, of course. It is Stevie.”
A big “dually” pickup truck with chrome pipes and pounding bass passed in the parking lot. She waited until the noise had abated before asking politely, “What are your plans for the evening?”
“Another client meeting and then a dinner with some local associates. Oh, and I believe there’s a celebrity on the guest list.” He named several prominent national politicians, then an actor whose name she recognized immediately, which wasn’t surprising. Thad was, after all, in LA representing one of his corporate clients.
“He’s a friend of one of the senators,” he explained. “I don’t think I’ve seen any of his films, but I looked him up online so I won’t sound completely disconnected from popular entertainment.”
“You should have asked me,” she quipped. “I think I’ve seen all his movies.”
“Of course you have.” He laughed again. “Once you start attending all these events with me, I’ll depend on you to keep me up-to-date. I know you’ll want to continue to make time for your girls’ nights with Stevie because you enjoy her company so much, so I’ll shamelessly pump you for details about the action films I miss.”
He was obviously taking for granted that her answer to his pending proposal would be yes. And why shouldn’t he be? They were obviously a well-suited couple; even the activities they didn’t share in common complemented each other. It went without saying that it might be harder to make time for these girls’ nights after the wedding, but Thad was making it clear he’d never deliberately interfere with the longtime friendship.
Theirs wasn’t, perhaps, an “epic love affair,” to use Stevie’s words. But she and Thad were comfortable together. She could make that be enough.
Two squealing adolescents streaked down the sidewalk, shoving their way past her with insincerely muttered apologies. An ambulance shrieked by on the street, the decibel level making her wince. The parking lot smelled of exhaust, warm asphalt and fried foods. She pictured Thad in his five-star hotel surrounded by quiet elegance, and then imagined herself there beside him, choosing jewelry to enhance a little black dress rather than the cool cotton top and cropped pants she wore now.
Roused from her mental drifting, she blinked when he sp
oke again. “I’ll let you get back to Stevie. Have fun. Love ya, Jenny.”
“You, too.” She lowered her phone to her side, stood for a moment staring at the traffic moving in front of her, then turned abruptly to go back inside.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sliding into her seat across the little plastic table from Stevie. “I’m muting my phone for the rest of our evening. Anyone who needs me can leave a voice message or send me a text.”
Stevie sipped from a straw, then set the paper cup of soda aside. “How’s Thad?”
Stevie used almost exactly the same tone whenever she spoke of Thad. Always polite, not quite cool but not really warm, either. Perhaps that warmth would come with time. But even if Stevie and Thad were never close, their careful courtesy was certainly better than the resentment Avery had always exhibited toward herself when she’d dated Gavin.
“Thad’s fine. He’s having dinner with a few names you’d know tonight.” She listed the ones she remembered, including the actor, and watched Stevie nod in recognition.
“Cool. So, Thad’s really working the political connections, huh?”
“He’s certainly drawn in that direction.”
“Does it bother him that you’ve never been all that interested in politics?”
“I’ve always been active in the community,” Jenny countered quickly. “You know how many organizations I’ve been involved with. Not political exactly, but civic-minded. I like the idea of helping Thad make a difference with whatever talents I have to contribute.”
“Mmm.”
Jenny figured if Stevie bit her lip any harder, it would start to bleed. She focused on her meal and changed the subject. “How’s your burrito?”
“It’s good. So, Gavin’s still a cop, huh? I guess it’s worked out well for him.”
“Gavin was at the cabin to recuperate from being shot in the shoulder,” Jenny said bluntly, if not entirely accurately. “If you call that working out...”
Stevie flinched dramatically. She knew all too well the fears that had come between Jenny and Gavin all those years ago. “Oh, crap. You didn’t mention that. Is he okay?”