Microsoft Word - Starter Boyfriend.doc

by Lana Jovanovic

  “I might have done it once or twice,” Colton answered as he looked at himself in the vanity mirror. “But we mostly looked at our dads’ or older brothers’ dirty magazines.” Zoe laughed. Colton switched the phone to his other ear and picked up the towel on the floor so he could mop his sweaty face and damp hair.

  “How are you?” She asked after a moment.

  “Good,” Colton said quickly. The longer he stretched out the conversation, the harder it was going to be for him to not ask her out for the next night. He had to bite the bullet and get it over with, no matter how much he was dreading it. “I was calling about tomorrow….”

  “Right,” Zoe said instantly.

  “I… I need to postpone,” Colton winced as he said the words. He waited to hear her explode with anger or worse, cry. Not that he was really expecting her to do such things so early in to their friendship, but Cara had hated when he switched things up and canceled last minute. She always made a big deal about it and it had always been a task to get back into her good graces. Colton needed to give a good excuse to why he couldn’t go out with Zoe, but nothing in his head seemed plausible or genuine, so he lied.

  “I… lost track of my calendar when I said I was available tomorrow, I’m not. I’ve got a few big landscaping jobs coming up and I need to go to the locations to figure things out.

  Do you mind if we hold off our second date for a few days?”

  “Of course not,” Zoe said. Colton didn’t hear any disappointment in her voice, which allowed him to relax a little. No screaming fits, no pouting—she really was perfect. “I completely understand; it’s really no big deal. Minnie always tells me how busy you are.” Colton felt the muscles along his shoulders relax a little more. “Yeah, I get swamped from time to time, especially in the spring and summer—landscaping and weddings occupy my every waking hour sometimes. Thanks for understanding, Zoe. I had a great time last night, a really great time.”

  “Me too, I took my foam finger to work.” She sounded pleased with herself and Colton was happy that she’d done that. Maybe she was thinking about him just as much as he had been her. Maybe she stared at the finger in the same way that he thumbed through the baseball program, thinking about every cute little thing she had done during each inning.

  “Poked anyone in the eye with it, yet?” He grinned as her laughter floated into his ear.

  Suddenly regretted canceling on her; he wanted to be there with her at that exact moment.

  He wanted to find ways to hold her hand and to make her laugh.

  Standing, he began to pace again; sweat beads formed along the small of his back making him long for another shower. A colder one. There was no reason why he should feel so besotted with this woman. He blamed it on the fact that he hadn’t been with anyone in a really long time. He hated reducing things down to sex and horniness, but that’s all this was. He was just horny like he had been throughout college—that’s all.

  “No, I didn’t poke anyone,” Zoe was saying with an exasperated sigh that ended with a smile. It was funny how you could hear such things, but Colton knew that she was smiling. He could almost see her getting comfortable somewhere in her little Manhattan apartment. Curling her body close to the phone so she didn’t have to speak loud and be overheard by his sister and hers. She seemed relaxed and comfortable as she continued the conversation. “So you’re really busy with work?”

  “Yeah,” Colton answered. “Busy as I usually am—I’m sorry about breaking out date for tomorrow.”

  “We’d never really set anything in stone,” Zoe pointed out. “I’ve been meaning to take Paige to the Central Park Zoo, so maybe we’ll do that tomorrow or Saturday. It’s no big deal, honestly.”

  “Good,” Colton murmured. “Well, I should let you get back to the girls—I’ll call you in a few days and we’ll set something up.”

  “Okay, thanks for calling!”

  “Yeah, no problem,” Colton responded. He said goodnight, hung up the phone, and slowly returned to his throne.

  He sat there thinking about Zoe for some time, an hour maybe, and felt embarrassed by his behavior. Canceling for no good reason really wasn’t like him, but what he had felt and was feeling for Zoe was unsettling. He just needed a little time to work things out in his head. He didn’t want to come on too strong and scare her off, and he definitely needed to get sex off out his brain. Not that he was thinking about having sex with Zoe, because he wasn’t, not really. He just wanted to kiss her and feel her skin against his palm and fingers. He wanted to touch her hair, which smelled of soft Asian spices, and pull her into his arms like he had at the restaurant.

  She was so small to him—small and yet, not. She fit against him nicely, curvy and warm, and—

  “Shit,” Colton dropped the phone onto the vanity and rubbed his face.

  He couldn’t think about all of this now, he needed to find something else to occupy his mind. Plants usually worked—he’d get a jump start on those landscaping projects, which he did have, only they weren’t set to begin until May. But since it was late and he wasn’t willing on driving back to the shop to work, Colton settled on scotch and sports highlights on ESPN. But after an hour or so, when he was flipping through channels on the TV and his mind had a spare moment to think, all her heard was sound of Zoe’s laughter and all he remembered was the way she had felt against tucked him.

  When he went to bed that night he decided that finding new ways to avoid Zoe Rayne and Paige’s contract would become his number one priority.

  A week slowly passed and his forced solitude did nothing to cure Colton of his problem.

  He hated that he hadn’t talked to Zoe in seven days, especially when he told her that he would. He didn’t want to be like all of the other guys around—saying they’d call, but lying about it. He just couldn’t bring himself to dial the number, not when he couldn’t yet define what he was feeling. It wasn’t horniness or lust; sure, they were on his mind, but he wanted more than that, which was what scared him the most.

  So he didn’t call her. Avoidance seemed like a key plan. It was easy to avoid Zoe since they didn’t work on the same sides of the island. Avoiding Minnie, however, was different matter.

  “Why have you called her?”

  Colton didn’t need to look up from the clip board he was holding. He had heard Minnie enter his workroom by the scuff of her man boots on the floor, and the fact that she sighed so heavily she could have knocked over the Three Little Pigs’ brick house.

  “I’ve been swamped,” he answered, blinking a few times so that the order form he was looking at was no longer blurred. He tried to focus on what he had been doing, organizing order sheets, but found that impossible now that his sister was breathing down his neck.

  “How are you Minnie?”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t have a simple phone conversation, Colt,” Minnie came up beside him and looked at the clip board. “You’re doing the Lockhart wedding today?”

  “Yeah,” he tucked the clipboard under his arm, bent to kiss her forehead, and then headed out back to his delivery van, which was stuffed with table centerpieces and large wedding arrangements. The wedding reception was being held Central Park. It had rained badly for three days in a row, so Colton was shocked that the bride wanted to hold it there, but she had no weather back up plan besides a few large tents. He was due to deliver the last of the flowers within the hour. “I’ve gotta get these out there now, Minnie, so—”

  “So, call her up!” Minnie cried. “Talk about your day and how swamped you are—

  though I know you’re not, wedding aside. Didn’t you have a good time at the game and at O’Shea’s last week?”

  “I had a great time,” Colton countered. He tried to keep his face averted from his sister because she’d see right through him. She’d figure it all out, if he let her. “Zoe’s great—

  very funny and sweet.”

  Minnie followed him, attaching herself like a leech as he inspected the contents of hi
s van before closing the back doors. “And the problem is?”

  Colton didn’t answer; he wasn’t sure what to say. He walked back into the work room and set the clipboard down on one of his work tables. He probably should have just left for Central Park, but he wouldn’t put it past his sister to climb into the passenger’s seat and harass him the entire way there. It would be harder to hide from her then.

  “What’s the problem?” Minnie repeated.

  The problem wasn’t with Zoe. The bells for the main shop chimed overhead and he glanced up at the little intercom and then looked over at the closed door and waited. He stared at the door long enough to tip Minnie off. She groaned and threw herself across his work table. Colton watched with annoyance as she knocked her forehead lightly against the counter top before moaning his name.

  “Please tell me this isn’t about Cara!” She pushed herself up and looked at him with desperate eyes.

  Colton felt himself bristle. “It’s not about Cara.”

  “Bullshit!”

  “It’s not!” He shouted back. He regretted his tone, but his frustration level wouldn’t allow him to apologize to his sister. This wasn’t about Cara. “I don’t know what it is, Minnie. I had a great time with Zoe and I just don’t want to rush things. And what does it matter anyway? I have two months!”

  “Yeah,” Minnie stammered, “But why not talk on the phone in between dates—how else are you going to become friends?”

  “What if I don’t want to be her friend?” he asked as he picked up the clipboard.

  “Why wouldn’t you want to be her friend?” Minnie asked as she followed him back out to the van. “She’s great—she’s perfect!”

  “I don’t expect you to understand—look, I’m going to ask her out again, I am, I just need to do it on my terms, Minnie. I thought you weren’t going to butt in anymore.”

  “I’m not, but she looks so… so sad whenever I ask her if you’ve called!” Colton turned around and looked down at his sister for the first time since she had arrived. He felt instantly uncomfortable under her scrutiny, but he didn’t look away.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She looks sad that you haven’t called her—she thinks she might have done something wrong.” Colton crossed his arms and stared at the nothingness just above Minnie’s head.

  “I mean, she’s not crying over it or anything, but she said she had a great time with you.

  She’s the patient one, but I’m not. I can still tell that she’s upset. I mean friends call one another.”

  “I know, I know,” he sighed. “I’ll call her tonight.”

  “Why don’t you call her now?” Minnie offered her cell phone to him. He stepped back from it and turned toward the truck. “Colt, what’s going on with you—this isn’t about Cara is it?”

  “No,” he answered. Not entirely, anyway. “I have two months, right?”

  “Yes, and you’ve wasted a week!” Minnie cried. “Come on, you can tell me what’s going on.”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” Colton said as he pulled open the driver’s door. “I liked Zoe a lot and I’m going to call her tonight to set up a date.”

  “You liked her a lot,” Minnie repeated, putting too much emphasis on a lot. Colton felt his face flush and knew he was probably blushing like a fool, so he climbed into the van fully intending on slamming the door shut behind him, but Minnie jumped forward and pinned herself between him and freedom. “Colton!” She tickled his side playfully. “Oh my gosh you really liked her and now you’re scared! Oh….” She cooed the last ‘oh’ and made him cringe with embarrassment. He put his palm on her forehead and began pushing her away so he could close the door. “You like her that much, Colt? Really? Oh, it’s okay! It’s fantastic! Don’t be scared.”

  “I’m not scared, I’ve been busy,” he said firmly. “Now back off—I need to go.”

  “Okay,” Minnie jumped back a little too quickly and waved goodbye to him. Colton watched as she flipped opened her cell phone as she walked back toward the shop door.

  He watched her fingers as they flew over the keypad and cursed. Launching himself out of the van, he caught her in three huge steps. Snatching the phone from her hand, he turned it so he could see the screen and the start of her text message to Zoe: He’s SO into you! He’s just scared.

  “Absolutely not!” He shouted as he erased the message. He jerked his arm out of her reach and bore down on her so quickly she shrank back against the wall of the building and held her hands up in surrender. “You have got to stay out of this, Minnie, or I swear I’ll—”

  “Okay, okay!” she exclaimed and she wrenched her phone out of his big hand. “I promise I won’t tell Zoe about our talk. I won’t tell her anything about what you told me.”

  “I didn’t tell you anything—you’re making assumptions. I don’t want you to discuss your theories or assumptions about what I’m feeling, got it? I will call Zoe tonight.”

  “Okay,” Minnie nodded. “I promise, Colton.”

  He didn’t believe her, but there was little he could do about it then. If he didn’t get going he would be late getting to Central Park, and the four o’clock traffic wasn’t going to help the situation. If he was late, he was positive that he’d catch hell from the bride’s mother, Mrs. Lockhart, who had already grilled him once for not using fresh enough flowers during the reception dinner.

  Colton was just pulling the last box of center pieces from the back of his van when Mrs.

  Lockhart approached him. He had gotten to the park fifteen minutes late, but thankfully the future mother-in-law to some poor fool, and one of Manhattan’s elite, had been tied up with other wedding business to notice his tardiness.

  “Mr. Philips, the flowers are absolutely beautiful!” She beamed as she wrapped both arms around his bicep and held on. “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me, darling, they’re absolutely fabulous.”

  “I’m glad you like them—I told my suppliers that I needed the freshest cuts for your daughter’s wedding. How are things? I’m sure the rain the past few days didn’t help.”

  “God no, it’s dreadful around here—muddy puddles everywhere. Everything is so sodden and gloomy, but,” her hands caressed his arm, “your flowers have certainly perked up quite a few people.”

  “I’m glad,” Colton wanted to pull away, but he wasn’t sure if he should. It was hard to determine the right course of action when dealing with a powerful woman who could spread the word about his business if she liked his services. Not that Colton was going to do any servicing for this woman besides bringing her expensive flower arrangements.

  “Let me get these inside for you, Mrs. Lockhart.”

  She released him with a nod and followed him into the tent. They were immediately swarmed by people working under the wedding coordinator who took the arrangements and dispersed leaving Colton with an empty box and a doe-eyed Mrs. Lockhart. He smiled hesitantly and then gestured that he was heading back out—she followed, lingering behind him, which made him feel like a slice of meat. He could feel her gaze burning into his ass.

  Tossing the box into the back of the van, he picked up his clipboard and located her invoice. When he turned around, he found her only a few inches from him, her eyes not so innocently gazing at the front of his pants.

  “Here’s the invoice,” he handed her the slip of paper and she took it daintily between two fingers. A woman appeared out of no where and handed Mrs. Lockhart an envelope while taking the invoice at the same time. The envelope was when passed to him.

  “Payment,” Mrs. Lockhart explained.

  “Oh… thanks,” He hadn’t been expecting payment up front, but he was glad to have it.

  He wouldn’t have to deal with her again, unless she ordered flowers or a landscaping job.

  “Well, congratulations on the upcoming nuptials!”

  “Why don’t you come to the wedding, Mr. Philips?” Mrs. Lockhart said as her fingers wound around on his arm again. “You could bring a date or com
e alone.” He didn’t like how she stressed the last word—hell this woman was only a few years younger than his own mother. He opened his mouth to respond when an excited squeal of laughter pulled his attention in the other direction. Along the stone path, two girls dressed in hot pink rain boots, garbage-bag-like ponchos, and large plastic lined rain hats raced forward to a big puddle of water. The younger of the two hit the water first, sending a muddy spew across the clean stone wall. Soon the two of them were in the water, jumping up and down like maniacs squealing with laughter as they were splashed with muddy water.

  “God, they’re getting mud everywhere!” Mrs. Lockhart anguished. “Molly… MOLLY!” The woman who had brought the check was about twenty feet away, talking with a caterer; she came running the instant she was summoned. “Call the police, we’ve rented this section of the park—they’re trespassing.”

  “The p-police?” Molly stammered as she looked over at the two girls playing. “Maybe if I talk to them again?”

  “No, call the police,” Mrs. Lockhart said. “They had their chance to stay away and were fairly warned earlier. The police Molly—call them now!”

  “O-okay,” Molly pulled out her cell phone and began dialing

  “Wait,” Colton put his hand on the assistant’s shoulder. “Let me scare them off for you.

  No need to call the police in—they’re just kids.” He put his clipboard and the check into the van and closed the door. “Two seconds—” he called over his shoulder as he ran forward.

  The girls were kicking water at one another and jumping as high as they could to make huge splashes with the bright boots. Water shot everywhere and even hit the top of his boots. “Ladies!” he called loudly so they’d hear him over their laughter. The shorter of the two whipped around and looked at him.

  “HI!” She cried happily. Colton’s smile slipped away when she pushed the brim of her hat up until it swung back and hung from a string around her neck and revealed that troll-red hair that he was so familiar with.