“Hi,” Bailey said as she took a seat opposite. “I’m Bailey Voss and this is Larissa Owens. Thanks for meeting us.”
“You’re welcome.”
Bailey glanced at the small table between them. “We need coffee. I’m thinking a latte. What about you, Shelby?”
“Sure. A latte would be nice. Thank you.”
Larissa nodded her agreement and Bailey went off to place the orders. There was no one else in line, so she was back in a matter of a minute or so.
She sat down and sighed. “Patience is bringing over pastries with the order. That will be fine for those of you who are annoyingly skinny, but I don’t need the temptation.”
Larissa shook her head. “Yeah, right. Who wouldn’t want those curves of yours?” If she had Bailey’s figure, she would have a much easier time of getting Jack’s attention.
Bailey smiled. “If only that were true.” She looked at Shelby. “So, you’re wondering who we are and why we’re here.”
“A little,” Shelby admitted.
“We want to welcome you to Fool’s Gold. You’re new here. I moved here only a few years ago, so I know what it’s like to be a stranger in a small town where it seems like everyone knows everyone else.”
“That would be tough,” Larissa said, thinking when she’d moved to Fool’s Gold in the spring, she’d been with her Score family. So she didn’t have to feel by herself. But Shelby might not know anyone.
Shelby glanced between them. “I’m doing okay. I have a job at the bakery.”
Patience, the owner of Brew-haha walked up with a large tray. She put down three lattes and a plate of pastries. “You work for Amber, right? You’re the new baker? That’s great.” She pointed at the pastries. “I’ve been eating too many of those. You’re doing a really good job and you need to stop. I mean it.”
Shelby smiled. “Thanks. I like my job. Amber is really easy to work for.”
“She’s just lovely,” Patience said. “All right, I’ll leave you three to your afternoon treats. Yell if you need anything.”
Each of them took a latte. Shelby ignored the pastries, but Larissa reached for the cheese-and-blueberry one and took a bite.
“Heaven,” she said when she’d chewed and swallowed. “One of yours?”
Shelby nodded.
Bailey eyed the high-calorie snack before pushing the plate away. “So, Shelby, how are you enjoying the town?”
“It’s fine.”
Larissa sensed the other woman wasn’t comfortable with their meeting. “Have you been to any of the festivals? They’re pretty fun. I loved the books festival. I met several of my favorite authors and got books signed as birthday and Christmas gifts for family. I grew up in Los Angeles. Killer weather, but there’s not much of a small-town feel.”
“Fool’s Gold would be a change,” Shelby said. “I’m from Colorado. I’m used to smaller towns but nothing like this.”
“Fool’s Gold is unique,” Bailey said.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Bailey glanced at Larissa, her expression desperate. Larissa struggled for something to say.
“Um, Bailey works for Mayor Marsha,” she blurted. “She’s the longest-serving mayor in California, by the way. She knows your brother.”
Shelby turned her attention to Bailey. “When did she meet Kip?”
“Earlier this year. Right after his accident. She was in New Zealand.” Bailey paused. “I’m not sure exactly how she met him, what with him being in a hospital and all.”
Shelby’s wariness faded. “Then it was her!”
“What was her?”
“The old lady my brother told me about. After...” She swallowed. “My mom died a couple of months ago. She had cancer and it wasn’t unexpected, but it was still hard.”
Larissa instinctively reached for Shelby’s hand. Bailey was already touching her arm.
“I’m sorry,” Bailey said. “About your mom. When you lose a family member, it’s awful.” She swallowed. “I lost my husband last year.”
“Then you know,” Shelby said quietly. “Thank you both for meeting me. I’m sorry if I seem a little standoffish. It’s just things were hard with my mom and my dad...well, there’s no need to talk about him.” She managed a slight smile. “Let’s just say that right after Kip’s accident, two men showed up out of nowhere and took care of me and my mom.”
“Do you know their names?” Larissa asked, wondering if there was a town connection.
“Ford and Angel.”
“Those are our guys,” Bailey said. “They’re both at the bodyguard school. Interesting that they came and found you.” She looked at Larissa. “It has to be Mayor Marsha.”
Larissa nodded. “Everyone says she knows things there’s no way to know. It’s kind of mystical. I like it.”
Shelby nodded. “Me, too. I owe her.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to get back to work, but it was great to meet you both. Maybe we could do this again.”
“I’d like that,” Larissa said.
Bailey nodded. “Very much.”
They exchanged cell numbers and Shelby left. Bailey grabbed one of the pastries and took a bite.
“That was a challenge,” she said when she’d swallowed. “I thought she was going to bolt when we first sat down.”
“She was wary,” Larissa said. “She’s dealing with something and I think it’s more than what happened to her mom.” There had been something in her eyes. Something Larissa sometimes saw when she talked to parents of a child in need of a transplant that didn’t look as if it was going to happen. Hopelessness.
Bailey finished the pastry and licked her fingers. “Thanks for coming with me. I would have totally blown it on my own.”
“No, you wouldn’t have. You would have done great.”
“I wish. So what’s new with you? Ready to admit you’re in love with Jack?”
Larissa felt her mouth drop open. “How did you know?”
Bailey stared at her. “What? You are? I was kidding. You’re in love with Jack? When did that happen? When did you two start dating? Why am I always the last to know?”
“We’re not dating. We’re friends.”
Bailey sagged back in her seat. “What? You said you’re in love with him. Start at the beginning and speak slowly. I need to catch up.”
“When we talked about it before, I said my mother was insane. No way I was in love with him,” Larissa said.
“Only you are.”
“I didn’t know it.”
“Apparently not. So this revelation came over time?”
Larissa nodded. “I mean, it’s Jack. He’s good-looking and sweet. He’s always there for me and he supports my causes. We hang out all the time. And he has a body.”
“Which you’ve seen and touched.” Bailey pressed her lips together. “I can see how it happened. You were minding your own business and the man sucked you in. Now what? Do you declare your undying devotion and beg to be taken?”
“Sort of.”
“Wow. Impressive.”
Larissa smiled. “Don’t be impressed. What I mean is I’m going to figure out how to fall out of love with Jack and that involves sex.”
Bailey put down her latte. “I always thought I was one of the brighter bulbs in the chandelier. I guess that’s not true. Where does the sex fit in?”
“Jack isn’t going to fall for me. He’s emotionally unavailable. So there’s no happy ending with him. If I want a normal romantic life, it needs to be with someone else. Only how does a normal guy compete with Jack?”
“That would be tough. So how does having sex with Jack help?”
“It removes the mystery. I’ll see him for who he is and let the fantasy go.”
Bailey looked doubtful. “Or you�
�ll bond with him and fall even deeper in love.”
Something Larissa hadn’t thought of. “I think if I focus on his flaws, I’ll be fine.”
“You do realize if you’re wrong, you’re digging a pit you’ll never crawl out of.”
Larissa brushed away the information. “I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so. I’m assuming there’s a plan.”
“There is.”
Bailey raised her eyebrows expectantly. “And it is what?”
“I’m going to seduce him.”
* * *
JACK CARRIED THE bags of takeout carefully. He had burritos, along with chips and salsa and guacamole from Margaritaville and he knew better than to risk anything spilling. The women in his life were serious about their chips and guacamole.
Larissa’s call requesting he bring over dinner had come in the late afternoon. Percy was going to hang with Kenny for the evening. The former receiver was going to explain basic U.S. history using a couple of comic books he’d found on the subject. Percy’s reading was improving every day but there was no way he was ready to tackle an actual high-school-level textbook on the subject.
Sam was already working with the teen on his math skills. Percy had a good grasp of basic concepts. Algebra came easy to him. Sam had actually looked gleeful when he’d mentioned taking Percy through introductory calculus. The man did love his numbers, which was good for the company and their individual financial portfolios.
Jack climbed the stairs to Larissa’s second-floor apartment, knocked once and let himself inside.
“It’s me,” he called as he walked into the kitchen and set the food on the counter. Dyna strolled up to greet him.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Jack picked up the cat. She instantly relaxed in his arms and began to purr. He rubbed her face. Big blue eyes stared back at him.
“Hi, Jack.”
He turned, prepared to offer Larissa a greeting. But the words got stuck in his throat. Or maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t breathe that made speaking impossible.
She stood in the center of her living room. That was okay. People stood in living rooms all the time. He knew that. The difference wasn’t the where, it was the what the hell. As in what the hell was she wearing?
Instead of her usual yoga pants and a T-shirt, or even jeans, she had on some kind of silky robe. The bottom barely covered her butt and just kissed her thighs. Her hair was long and a little curly and if he didn’t know better he would say she was wearing makeup.
The combination was unbelievable sexy. Wanting hit him like a linebacker and nearly knocked him senseless. Or maybe it was the lack of air that killed the last few surviving brain cells. He wasn’t sure.
He drew in a breath and carefully lowered Dyna to the floor. When he straightened, Larissa was still standing there in that damn robe.
“Am I, ah, early?” he asked, knowing it was just a matter of seconds before the blood pulsing through his body settled uncomfortably in his groin and his desire would be there for the world to see.
Dammit all to hell, why did she have to be so beautiful? And sexy?
Larissa stared at him coolly. “You’re not early.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulders. The movement caused the robe to shimmer around her and her breasts to move in such a way that he was reasonably confident she wasn’t wearing a bra.
He swore silently and looked around desperately for a distraction. All he saw was the cat.
“I’ll brush Dyna while you finish getting dressed,” he mumbled, grabbing the unsuspecting feline and pulling her back into his arms. “I saw her brush in the kitchen.”
With that, he stumbled away.
He hid in the tiny space, hoping Larissa would assume his moronic behavior was about low blood sugar or because of too many hits to the head. Anything but the truth, he thought desperately. He had to get a grip.
He held on to Dyna, petting her while she purred and thinking about baseball and the changes they were making in the Mercedes CLS and how global warming meant there would be vineyards in Alaska in the next ten years. Anything to distract him from his need to follow Larissa into her bedroom, peel that robe from her body and make love with her for the next five or six hours.
He wanted to touch her all over—first with his hands and then with his mouth. He wanted to explore every inch of her, he wanted to know what she sounded like when she got close and how her breathing changed when she came. He wanted—
Stop it! He sucked in a breath and reminded himself that he worked with Larissa. She was his friend. He wasn’t going to screw that up by having sex with her. Talk about stupid. He wasn’t some love-struck kid. He could control himself.
Slowly his heart rate returned to normal. He was breathing easier and the pounding need faded enough to be manageable. After a couple more minutes, he risked going back into the living room. Larissa was gone. He set down the cat before returning to the kitchen. He’d planned to have a beer with his dinner, but after what he’d just been through, he was going to need something a whole lot stronger.
* * *
LARISSA PUSHED THE beans and rice around on her plate. She’d managed to eat enough of her burrito to keep Jack from asking questions. It wasn’t that she wasn’t hungry, it was that swallowing past the lump of stupid in her throat made it difficult to get anything down.
Her attempt at seduction had been a total disaster. Instead of being overwhelmed by desire, Jack had simply assumed she wasn’t dressed yet. Oh, right. Because she had a whole wardrobe of silk robes to pull on at a moment’s notice. Jeez. Until today she hadn’t owned even one.
She only half listened to Jack going on and on about how the guys were planning to get Percy ready for his GED. Not that she wasn’t interested in all that. She was. But hadn’t he noticed she was trying to get him into bed?
There was an obvious answer. No. He hadn’t noticed. He didn’t know she’d just spent ninety-eight dollars on a stupid robe she would never wear again. Nor had he noticed she’d curled her hair. That wasn’t something she did very often. Jack was supposed to be so smooth with the ladies. Where was that smoothness now?
“You okay?” he asked.
She forced herself to smile. “Of course. So is there a lot of science on the test?”
Jack said something about downloading a sample test and getting information on what students were required to know. But what she was actually thinking was she probably shouldn’t be blaming Jack for not getting what she was trying to do. The more likely culprit was herself.
What did she know about seducing men? In a word—nothing. Sure, she’d dated some, but she’d mostly avoided relationships. They were never what she wanted them to be. Never as fulfilling, never as exciting. She knew there were a lot of reasons. By holding herself back emotionally, she never had a real connection with the guy in question. Without the connection, she couldn’t care enough to make the relationship worthwhile. Rooted in the middle of that mess was her guilt about being the reason her parents had had to get married. She probably needed intensive therapy, but she knew that was never going to happen.
“You’re not seeing anyone,” she said, interrupting Jack.
He put down his fork. “You mean like dating?”
“Uh-huh. You haven’t had a woman in a while.”
His shoulders tensed slightly as his gaze avoided hers. “We moved to a small town. Finding women to date is going to be challenging here.”
“You’ll have to import them.”
“I guess I will. I have names.”
Great. She’d been joking and he was serious. How was she supposed to get him into bed when he wouldn’t even notice her as a woman? She’d been practically naked and he’d been more interested in brushing the cat than having his way with her. Maybe she needed to take some kind of remedial cl
ass.
She picked up her bottle of beer and took a sip. All right—she would accept that her plan had a big flaw and deal with it tomorrow. She’d already wasted enough of a perfectly good evening and meal. Time to return to normal.
She reached for a chip. “I met Shelby Gilmore today.”
Jack looked confused. “Should I know the name?”
“She’s Kipling Gilmore’s sister.”
“The skier.”
“The Olympic gold medalist.” She tilted her head and grinned. “So in the superstar athlete hierarchy, does a Super Bowl ring trump an Olympic gold medal? I’m thinking not.”
“Your support is so heartening.”
“But it’s true. Kipling got those two gold medals on his own. You got your ring from being part of a team. And didn’t Sam kick the winning field goal?”
“Making me practically the water boy?” Jack asked dryly.
“Something like that.”
“Again, I revel in your awe of me.”
“It’s not about me,” she said, digging her fork into the beans. “It’s a town thing. I mean we have you and Raoul and Josh Golden. What if Kipling moves here? You guys can start a club. Once-famous athletes. OFA. You could have matching jackets and a secret handshake.”
“Or I could find a new masseuse.”
She chewed and swallowed the beans. “Cheap talk. You would be lost without me and you know it. I’m the one who keeps your fascia happy. And happy fasciae mean a happy body.”
“Truer words,” he murmured, then took a bite.
The banter continued. Larissa took comfort in the fact that even if Jack wasn’t hot for her body, he was still her friend. Which made him a nice guy. Which meant being in love with him made even more sense. He was sexy, he was smart and he was kind. How could anyone resist him?
She sighed. At this rate, she was never going to get over him. She needed a new plan. Maybe she would talk to Taryn in the morning and get her input on ways to seduce Jack.
They finished dinner and settled on the sofa to watch a movie. Dyna curled up between them and did a quick wash before falling asleep. At nearly eleven, Larissa walked Jack to the door.
Until We Touch Page 16