“I thought you hated Delphi.”
“I hate her ice queen routine. I like her a lot when she’s being herself. We went for a ride, had a little kiss. The end.” He cracked open a beer and pulled back a seat at the table, wanting to change the subject. “We ready to play now everyone’s finally here?”
“Not so fast,” Joel said. “What do you mean Delphi isn’t always an ice queen? Anyone else here ever see that?” he looked at Harrison, the half-brother to Joel’s wife, Sage.
Harrison picked up a pack of cards and started shuffling. “She puts on a pretty good front, doesn’t she? She’s just really private.”
Vince snorted. “That’s a delicate way of putting it. Good thing you’re marrying Rosemary. Maybe some of your tact will rub off on her.”
Harrison appeared unruffled.
Gage slumped into the chair beside Jeremy. “Dude. Seriously, you can’t start dating Delphi. You swore you weren’t interested any more than I was in Jonquil. I refuse to go out with the last bride to make a nice pretty circle for the girls.”
“I’m not dating Delphi,” Jeremy said in aggravation. Then added. “Yet. Chill. It was just a bike ride.”
“You haven’t been dating much lately,” Gage said, sliding into a nearby chair. “You sure you haven’t been secretly jonesing for her?”
Jeremy was surprised to realize Gage was right. He hadn’t dated much at all since… finding out Delphi had been married.
“And there was, apparently, some serious lip lock,” Vince held up his hands when Jeremy scowled at him. “What? I can’t help it if Rosemary met us at the door when I dropped off Cami. She was full of details about your little adventure. And she’s afraid you’ll break Delphi’s heart or something. I think she used the word delicate.”
Jeremy snorted. “She already gave me that routine and I know exactly how delicate Delphi is.” When that was met with looks of incredulity from the other guys he rolled his eyes. “Get your heads out of the gutter. It was just a ride on the bike and some kissing. That’s all. Sure, she’s got her issues, who doesn’t? And it’s not like she’s desperately looking for love or anything.” She didn’t seem to be burning through the local dating scene. He wondered how long her husband had been dead and made a mental note to look for an obituary or something on line. Then he wondered if thinking about her at all was just a big mistake.
“Still,” Blake began.
“Still nothing,” Jeremy countered. “Rosemary already threatened me, and personally, I’d be more worried about what Delphi would do to me if I hurt her than what the rest of you would come up with.”
“True enough.” Joel tossed over his ten-dollar entry fee into the night’s activities and Gage passed over his chips.
The others followed suit while Harrison dealt the cards. “Five card stud. I’m starting with a five.” He tossed in the poker chip that was worth a nickel and the game was on.
Jeremy smiled at their super low stakes, but it seemed somehow wrong to change their habit now that they actually had money to lose.
His mind drifted back to Delphi and what she and the girls were up to. He kind of wished he could be a bird on the windowsill in that home.
Boxes, ribbons, treats and thank you cards were piled on the kitchen counter, waiting for dinner to end and the dining table was set and loaded with food by the time the others started to arrive. Delphi noticed the way Rosemary went out to greet Cami when Vince dropped her off. And that they stayed on the porch for several minutes. Cami’s eyes snapped directly on Delphi the moment she walked in the door. Thankfully she kept her thoughts to herself, though Delphi didn’t expect that to last long.
They dished up plates of food and then Delphi explained the plan for the gift boxes. As soon as she finished, Rosemary lifted a hand. “Point of order.”
“This isn’t an official meeting,” Lana chided her.
“That’s okay, it got everyone’s attention, didn’t it?” The blond pushed her long straight hair behind her shoulder. “As long as we’re all together someone in this room needs to explain how they came to be kissing on Jeremy not half an hour ago.” Her eyes zeroed in on Delphi.
Mortified to be the center of attention for five half-sisters and one nosy little niece, Delphi did her best to appear unruffled. “He tripped and fell on my lips. It was an accident.”
Laughter cropped up from several of the sisters. Jonquil had been taking a sip of her water and spit it across the table. She started coughing, drawing all attention to herself. Futilely, Delphi hoped everyone would forget the discussion.
“He fell on your lips? Because it didn’t look like that to me.” Jonquil’s voice was croaky when she finally spoke.
“I have to second that,” Rosemary agreed. “They both seemed very involved in the smoochies. If we hadn’t interrupted, I have the feeling they would have had all of the neighbors peeking through window curtains at them before they finished.”
“If old man Jasper can’t keep his attention on his television, that’s hardly my problem.” Delphi filled her mouth with penne and stabbed at a broccoli spear on her plate. She had been feeling guilty about that kiss since she got back inside.
“I thought you guys hated each other,” Cami said.
“Oh, no,” Sage answered, a smile on her face. “They just wouldn’t admit that they are attracted to each other. They’ll be a perfect couple, don’t you think? I’ve known it from the first.” Her dark, knowing eyes seemed to look right through Delphi.
“Great. Glad to have your seal of approval.” Delphi wanted the attention off herself. Now. “How’s the baby, Lana? And Sage, how’s your bun in the oven?” Lana was eight months pregnant and Sage was barely starting her second trimester, but the babies were usually a great way to redirect the discussion when it focused on a topic Delphi didn’t want to cover. Which was often since they were always fishing for more details about her life—details she was not interested in sharing. Discussing their pregnancies sometimes gave her a twinge of pain from remembering the miscarriage she had suffered after Fallon’s death. This gave the maneuver a masochistic edge.. Still, it was better than answering their questions.
It didn’t work this time.
“Have you been seeing each other on the side and we just didn’t know?” Lana asked.
“Of course not. I was working on my bike. He stopped to help. He offered to take me on a ride with him, since my tire’s flat. His bike seduced me. I said yes, we drove, he snapped some pictures for the newspaper, we came back. I was still under the spell of his bike so when he kissed me, I let him. I’ve snapped out of it now. End of story.”
“I saw you through the window,” Cleo said. Rosemary’s daughter was entirely too perceptive for a kid her age. “You liked it. He’s cute and he’s really nice. You should marry him.”
Delphi moved back a few inches on reflex, freaked out by the suggestion. She and Jeremy were just friends, of a sort. They were not getting married. She wasn’t going to get involved with someone here. And especially not Jeremy. Needing a second to think away from the teasing, Delphi pushed away from the table. “Excuse me.” She went down the stairs to her room and closed herself in.
What had happened with Jeremy had her all tied up in knots. She’d dated several guys since Fallon’s death—it had been eight years now, after all. But no one in that time had made her heart pound until she could hear it thrumming in her eardrums, or made heat streak through her. He wasn’t Fallon. Jeremy would never be that sweet, unselfish boy she had fallen for so desperately and loved with her whole heart.
She had held to the memory of their sweet, perfect love with an iron grip, never letting a single finger loosen. But after her afternoon with Jeremy, letting herself go—just for a little while—and giving into that delicious kiss, she wondered if she’d been letting go longer than she thought. It confused her, but it didn’t change the attraction she felt this afternoon. She glanced at the twig she’d picked up and then set next to the stone people she’d
brought with her. It was nearly as twisted as she felt.
She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the tears back. She was not going back out there with a blotchy face. It was bad enough she’d let the others get to her in the first place. But she hadn’t been ready to deal with the teasing so soon.
There was a knock at her door and Delphi checked herself in the mirror. She was a trifle paler than usual, but otherwise looked fine. “Who is it?” she asked, grabbing her blush brush.
“We’re sorry. We’ll let it drop. Come back up and finish your dinner.” It was Jonquil.
Delphi didn’t say anything as she finished with the blush and applied a coat of maroon lipstick that made her mouth pop. Well armored, she opened the bedroom door with false confidence. “Let’s go then.”
Jonquil looked at her in surprise. “You’re not mad?”
Delphi breezed up the stairs. “Oh, I want the subject dropped, but I only needed a minute to freshen up. We have a lot to do tonight. The wedding is just around the bend and since the time table was short, we can’t afford to waste a moment.” She acted as though she hadn’t almost had a come-apart in her room. She picked up her plate again and returned to her spot in the family room. “I need to finish my penne. Who made it anyway?”
“Me,” Jonquil said a little confused.
“It’s terrific.” Delphi stabbed at another bite with her fork and focused on what had to be done. “So, center pieces.” She was ready to put it behind her. If the kiss popped back in her head several times during the evening, she didn’t dwell on it.
Much.
Jeremy’s dad lived across town. Sunday dinner usually consisted of pizza delivery and beer, but if he stayed at his own place, Jeremy figured he’d just have to cook for himself. Pizza was almost always a great alternative to actual cooking.
The house was the same one his parents had bought when they were newlyweds, a small clapboard that they had barely been able to afford on his dad’s income. They had brought two sons into the world there and lost one to a freak storm. Jeremy’s mom had died of cancer over a decade ago and his father continued to exist between the four walls, but sometimes Jeremy thought that was all he did—exist.
The outside reflected that. The paint was faded and peeling. The roof needed to be re-shingled, and several of the windows had turned foggy from condensation and needed to be replaced. Jeremy had talked to his dad about some needed maintenance several times, but Al kept putting it off and generally objected to his son taking time to do the work for him. Jeremy knew it couldn’t be put off any longer though and made a mental note to see if Gage and Vince could squeeze in time to help him do the roof, if his father wouldn’t do anything about it. His schedule was packed with spring and summer weddings so they’d have to do it a little at a time.
He pushed the thought from his head as he opened the door and called out, “Hey, Dad. I made it.” The place was vacuumed, not too dusty and the kitchen was in decent condition, even if the faucet dripped a steady beat in the background.
“Good. Food should be here in a few minutes.” Al Litster came through the living room, with the old furniture and carpet that had been there since Jeremy was a kid. He was in his late fifties with graying hair and a bit of a paunch despite his active work for the Forest Service. His face was wrinkled from years of working in the sun and wind and he wore a pair of fraying blue jeans and an old shirt with a stain on the sleeve. When Jeremy tried to convince him to buy some new clothes, he said he never left the house when he wasn’t dressed for work, so what was the point?
The point was that his father ought to get out and do things, but Jeremy was hard pressed to convince him of that. “How was your week?” Jeremy asked.
“Good. Fine. Getting the campsites up to snuff for summer traffic. We already have some people staying with us, you know?”
It was still a bit cold for Jeremy’s taste, but he couldn’t blame people for wanting to get out after the long winter. “Good. Here’s to a busy season.” He took the beer his father offered and cracked it open. “I noticed you lost some more shingles over the winter. You’re bound to have leaks. Thought about what color you’re going to replace them with?”
Al shook his head. “It’ll last another year, at least. No need to fuss, boy.”
Jeremy ground his teeth together. He didn’t like being called “boy” and wondered if his father did it to put him in his place. Except Jeremy figured his place was making sure his dad had a decent roof over his head. “I was thinking brown. You’ll need to repaint sometime soonish and the house would look good in a tan. It would make the flowers pop.” His mother had planted a load of perennials in the flowerbeds, which had managed to survive his father’s neglect.
“You should worry about your own place and leave this one to me.” Al turned away, picking his easy chair in front of the television. “The Nuggets are having a rough season, but I have a good feeling about this game.”
Jeremy ran a hand through his hair in frustration. It was always the same. It’ll be fine for another year and a change of subject. He wanted to see his father move on. Jeremy missed his mom—all of the time—but it wasn’t healthy to go on like this for so long. It had been almost fifteen years.
He slid into the chair beside his father and his mind detoured to Delphi and of the night he’d seen her in that hotel in Denver. There had been grief in her eyes when she talked about losing her husband. And she hadn’t told him much. Had it been recent, or had she been grasping onto the grief, holding it close for all of this time like his father?
She was a few years younger than him, so she couldn’t have been a widow for that long. Not unless she was married right out of high school. He considered that possibility, but it didn’t play. She didn’t seem the least impulsive, despite the motorcycle—or that hot, all-too-short kiss in her driveway. The kiss had been haunting his mind ever since; he really wanted to get his hands on her and try again. Without the audience to get in the way.
He thought of the back-off signals she’d sent him for the past few months and wondered why she’d done that, when the kiss said she was far from indifferent from him. She thought he was a player. And maybe, he admitted to himself, he did tend to date a lot of women, but he never made promises he couldn’t keep or let things get more serious than an interesting evening if he didn’t think it had real potential—and it had been years since any woman had seemed worth the risk of getting hurt.
His father stood and moved into the kitchen, drawing Jeremy’s attention. “Hey, Dad. Have you been out lately?”
“Sure, I went bowling with the guys a few nights ago.” He dipped his hand into a bag of sour cream and onion chips.
“No, I meant with a woman. You know, on a real date?” Jeremy couldn’t remember his father ever going out, but it could have happened.
Al shot him a dirty look. “Why would I go out on a date? I’m an old man, settled in my ways. What woman would have me?”
“There are plenty of single women your age out there. You keep saying how much you loved being married. Why haven’t you ever tested the waters again?” Jeremy might not be looking for marriage, but that didn’t mean swearing off of all relationships.
“You’re one to talk. Are you dating anyone?” Al countered.
Jeremy wondered how to answer. One motorcycle ride did not a relationship make, but he hadn’t exactly been able to get her off his mind, either. “There’s someone. I wouldn’t say we were serious, but I hope to see her again.” He was tempted to ask about dating someone who had lost a spouse, about why his father hadn’t dated again and if there was any correlation, but how much could he say, really? He’d promised Delphi he wouldn’t tell anyone else about her marital status, and word could get around somehow if he shared that detail with his father. He settled instead for changing the subject, and fishing for the information he wanted at the same time. “Why haven’t you dated anyone since Mom died?”
Al’s brows lifted. “This is a serious topic for you.�
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“I can be serious sometimes.” It still annoyed Jeremy that his father still thought of him as the devil-may-care youth who didn’t want to settle down. He hadn’t been that person in years—he was running a successful business, wasn’t he? “I’d really like to understand. I don’t get why you haven’t at least found someone to keep you company.”
Al stared down at the chip in his hand. “She was everything to me. I guess I can’t imagine anyone else ever taking her place. And I couldn’t settle for less.” He looked up at his son. “You’ll understand when you meet the right person. She’ll be your life and you’ll do anything to be with her.”
Jeremy nodded. “Maybe if you gave someone a chance, you’d find that what you could have with someone else would be enough. Different doesn’t always mean worse.”
“Mind your own business, boy. I’m happy as I am.” Somehow the words sounded both sad and irritated at the same time.
The doorbell rang and Al went to the door to pay for the pizza.
Jeremy wondered if Delphi felt the same way as Al. Was that why she never dated? Was she still so in love with Fallon that she wouldn’t give anyone else a chance? She sure hadn’t kissed like someone who wanted nothing to do with another relationship. And did it matter when he wasn’t looking for anything long term? The thought unsettled him, but he focused on his father, who was bringing in the pizza. Maybe another date or two with Delphi would dislodge her from his mind, make it so he could move on as he invariably did once he got to know women too well.
As long as they both knew the score, it might be just what they both needed to break out of their relationship doldrums. And if his mind kept straying back to the way she’d spoke about her husband, that didn’t mean anything. Did it?
Delphi smiled when she picked up the voice mail from Mike’s Bikes informing her that her motorcycle tire had arrived. She was anxious to get out on her own and feel the wind in her face, so she cut out from work a few minutes early to get to the repair shop before they closed for the night.
Wild Hearts (The DiCarlo Brides) Page 5