State of Shock

by Allison B Hanson

  “Thank you, these will come in handy.” Riley put the coupons in her bag and gave the woman a hug. As she gathered Luca’s things to go home, the anger and frustration she’d felt all afternoon faded away. She might not be rich, but as she drove home listening to Luca tell her about the kitty next door, she felt lucky. Whatever struggles she was faced with, she had the love of the little boy in the backseat. She would make it through anything for him.

  * * *

  Sam stepped into the small jewelry shop late the next morning. There were two women behind the counter. A cute blonde was smiling at him in greeting, while the other woman was older with a sour expression.

  He silently hoped for the blonde.

  “I’ll go check the back stock. You have things out here?” the older woman asked. The short girl nodded and turned back to Sam. It was going to be a good day.

  Sam’s father had blessed him with dimples which he found came in handy when charming the ladies. He’d been told his caramel skin and muddy green eyes made him look exotic. Using all his assets had been drilled into him during basic training, so he flashed the blonde a smile, hoping for the best.

  “Can I help you?” the girl asked, sounding friendly enough. He wasn’t sure what to expect after Lexi’s vague comment.

  “I’m looking for Riley.” He was surprised to see her shoulders fall as she closed her eyes and let her head fall forward.

  With a sigh, she tilted her head to look up at him. “Are you serving me papers or something?” She eyed the box in his hand nervously.

  “No. I actually need a special piece of jewelry made. My friend’s wife said maybe you could help.”

  “Oh! I’m so sorry. Okay.” The smile was back. “What is it you were looking for? Something for your wife?” Her gaze brushed up and down his body and he grinned as he did the same thing to her. Although his trip was somewhat shorter since she was probably only five feet tall.

  “No. My niece. She’s graduating from high school and I want to give her something special. At least until her mother will let me help her with a car.”

  “Rich uncle. Why couldn’t I have one of those?” she joked.

  “Not rich.” It was best not to make things sound too appealing.

  “So what’s in the box?” She rubbed her palms together excitedly.

  “Mementos.” He opened the lid and watched her frown. “Okay, maybe it’s more like trash. They’re things I picked up for her when I was overseas.”

  “Military?”

  “Yes. Marines.”

  “And what were you thinking you wanted to do with it?” She tilted her head and a single blonde curl fell against her cheek.

  He fought the urge to push it back as an excuse to touch her cheek. Her skin looked soft. Why was he thinking about her skin? He never even considered the softness of a girl’s skin before. Other than the size of their rack, and how well they filled out their jeans, he didn’t normally care about the rest.

  She had plenty of other nice features besides soft skin. Her chest was nicely proportioned and from what he’d seen of her ass, it was cute. Soft skin? What was wrong with him? Maybe it was the estrogen from all the jewelry.

  “Uh. I’m not quite sure. Maybe you could find something in here that would make a nice necklace?” He shrugged as he held up the piece of broken china. “Or maybe not.”

  “Can I borrow the whole box?” she asked, still studying the contents.

  “Sure.”

  “You don’t seem to have any expectations, so is it safe to say you’d be happy with whatever I came up with?”

  “It would be safe to say that, yes.” He nodded with a smile.

  She gave him a form to fill out his information. “Give me a few days and I’ll give you a call when I’m done.”

  “All right. Thanks.” He stepped back. “I have complete faith in you.”

  She laughed as she picked up a stick from the box. “It’s not like I could make this stuff look worse.” She smiled and he couldn’t help but notice she had a dimple on her left cheek. He’d never seen what women saw in his dimples before, but now he had a clue.

  * * *

  Riley didn’t know why she wanted to do a great job for Sam. He was cute, yes. But he wasn’t the kind of guy who went for the short girl with a two-year-old.

  Regardless, there was something sweet about a big tough guy wanting to do something special for his niece for her graduation.

  She’d taken the box home to work on in the evenings after Luca went to sleep. As she worked she wondered where the things in the box came from, what he must have felt being in a strange place, carrying a gun, and hoping he would make it home someday. Had he been scared when he picked up this rock? Had it been sunset when he scooped up this sand? Looking through the scattered collection of his life in the military gave her an intimate connection with the stranger with the cute smile.

  It only took two days to finish. When the project was done she called and left a message to tell him it was ready.

  Sam came in the next day. He smiled his dimpled smile and rubbed his palms together. “I’m kind of excited to see which one you picked,” he said as he came closer to the counter.

  “Actually,” she said as she opened a box and pushed it over to him. “I used a lot of them.”

  He picked up the charm bracelet and studied it with a smile. “Wow. This is perfect.”

  She was pretty proud of it herself. She’d filled glass beads with the different specimens of sand. The broken piece of china was polished and hanging from a link. She wound gold wire around a stone to hold it in place, turning it into a charm. She’d even added a few colored beads to give it some splash.

  “Do you think she’ll wear it?” Riley asked, hoping he was pleased.

  “Hell, yes. She’s going to love it. Thank you so much.” He didn’t even ask how much it cost, he simply held out his credit card.

  “The total is forty-eight sixty-four,” she said and he pulled the card back before she had a chance to take it. Was it too much?

  “That can’t be right. It has to be more.” He pointed at the bracelet. “This is amazing.”

  She smiled, happy he didn’t think he was being ripped off. “No, that’s it. Just some wire, a link bracelet, and a few beads.”

  “What about your time?”

  “It didn’t take much time.” She didn’t want to admit she’d taken it home. It seemed too personal.

  His shoulders relaxed and with a frown he held the card out again. “Are you sure? I would pay more.”

  “It’s fine. Maybe you’ll stop in again for a gift for your wife.”

  “I don’t have a wife.” He looked around the store nervously.

  “Really?” She smiled at him, not even trying to hide the fact she had done that intentionally. Why was she fishing? She couldn’t act on it. She had responsibilities.

  “If you won’t let me pay you for your time, would you consider letting me take you out to dinner on Saturday night?” He cocked his head to the side and flashed those dimples.

  How could she say no to that face? It didn’t matter that she couldn’t come up with an answer, because she didn’t want to say no. Luca was spending the weekend with his dad. She had the weekend off from the hotel and was going out with the girls on Friday night. But Saturday was wide open. She’d planned to take a relaxing bath, but maybe Sam would be up for something more relaxing. She shivered at the uninvited thoughts that inspired. What had gotten into her?

  “I would like that,” she said before she had a chance to chicken out.

  “Great.” He was holding out his phone so she could enter her number and address when a garbage truck lost its grip on the Dumpster across the street. It fell to the pavement with a loud clang.

  Before she knew what was happening she was on the floor behind the counter with Sam’s weight crushing her. His caramel skin was almost pasty white as he used his own body to protect her from . . . a loud sound.

  Okay, it might have been
more heroic if there was actual danger involved, but she was still impressed. She had visions of Evan cowering behind her.

  “Customers aren’t allowed back here,” she managed to squeak out with the last of her breath.

  “I’m sorry. I guess old habits run deep.” He jumped up and held out his hand to assist her to her feet.

  “Reacting to loud noises, or jumping women when they least expect it?”

  “You’ll have to wait to see,” he said as he brushed her off. “Sorry.”

  She noticed how bad his hand was shaking when he held out his phone again. It was pretty obvious the noise had startled him, and now he seemed embarrassed by his reaction.

  “I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve had a guy lying on top of me behind the counter. Pauline frowns on it.” She waved her hand as if it was no big deal.

  To be perfectly honest, it was the most action she’d seen in a very long time. Dating had been problematic with a baby not to mention her unrelenting hatred of all males. It had taken a while to get over Evan’s betrayal.

  Sam’s body was hard and warm. She kind of wished there had been danger so he would have stayed on top of her a little longer. Again a shiver ran up her spine at the visual. She’d thought these urges had died a horrific death years ago, but here they were, taunting her in front of the sexy soldier guy.

  “I can gift wrap it for you,” she offered as a way to get him to stay a bit longer.

  He shook his head. “No, thanks.”

  “It’s really no trouble, and it comes with the purchase.”

  “Thanks, but I want to look at it some more before I give it to her.”

  “Maybe I should have made one for you too.”

  “Maybe.” He winked at her.

  She gave back his phone and handed him the box of leftover items.

  “So Saturday. I’ll pick you up at seven,” he confirmed with a nod.

  “Seven. I’ll be ready.” She almost said she was ready right then, but kept it contained. She needed to rein it in before she scared him away.

  * * *

  After packing every toy Luca owned and giving Evan strict orders, she watched her ex-husband load her child in his sports car and drive off with him. Every time Evan had visitation, Riley spent the first half hour crying and worrying that her baby might not ever come back. She’d heard horror stories where the father took the kid to another country, and the mother had no way to get the child back.

  Of course to pull something off like that Evan would need intelligence and motivation. Two things he lacked immensely.

  She took a breath and went to get ready for her night out with the girls. It had been months since she’d gone out alone with adults.

  “I have a date tomorrow night,” Riley said as soon as she sat down. It was possible her friends Lexi and Nichole or her sister Roz had more exciting news, but Riley didn’t give any of them the chance to share.

  “That’s awesome. Congratulations,” Roz said. “Is he nice? He’d better be nice.”

  “You thought Evan was nice,” Riley pointed out.

  “Okay, but he’d better be nice for real.”

  “It’s too soon to tell. He was a marine. He did do a fine job of protecting me with his body from a loud noise yesterday.”

  “Ooh. Romantic,” Nichole said with a laugh. They were all happily married and thought Riley should be too.

  A few minutes later they were talking about kids, morning sickness, and laundry, but Riley had a happy heart and a date with a sexy soldier.

  Chapter 2

  Sam had no idea why he was nervous as he drove across town to pick up Riley. It was a date. He’d gone on thousands of dates. Okay, maybe not thousands, but hundreds at least. He’d never felt nervous before, and didn’t like the feeling now.

  He wiped his hand over his short hair and took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell.

  Riley opened the door with a smile and stepped out of the house, pulling the door closed behind her. He didn’t so much as get a glance inside first.

  Was she neat? Messy? Serial killer? Were there bodies piled up? He didn’t smell anything except her soft vanilla scent so he assumed her home was corpse-free. Besides he was pretty sure he could handle her. Petite girls weren’t normally his thing. He generally liked a pair of legs that were long enough to wrap around his waist twice, so he was surprised he found Riley so appealing.

  She was wearing a red dress, and her blonde hair hung down her back in waves. He held out his arm and led her to his truck with all the manners his mother had beaten into him.

  His truck wasn’t raised, but it was high enough that it wasn’t going to be easy for her to get inside. Especially not in the dress and the heels.

  “Up you go,” he said as he put his hands on her waist and hefted her up into the truck like a bag of concrete mix.

  “Thank you.” Her cheeks flushed red. “Height challenged,” she explained.

  “I’m a full-service kind of guy.” He hadn’t meant it to be a line, but it turned out to be a good one.

  “Hmm.” She smiled, and he knew she was interested.

  He had become a one-night-stand kind of guy out of necessity more than choice. Usually the date portion of the evening was only to ensure the sex portion. But as he drove them to the restaurant, he found he liked joking with her. Especially as she laughed about the pitfalls of being short.

  “So then I leaned out to pull the door closed and realized I couldn’t reach it. So I had to get back out of the car, pull it closed, then squeeze myself inside the small opening so I could sit down and shut the door.”

  “Wow. I’ve never been happier to have long monkey arms than I am right now.” He laughed. “Although being big is not all it’s cracked up to be either.”

  “Oh really?” She raised her brow.

  “Yeah. Do you know how hard it is to get through the grocery store without some short woman stopping me to get something down from the top shelf?”

  “Oh, no! I have to do that all the time. I hope I’ve never bothered you.”

  “I think I would have remembered you,” he said without thinking. It was true. Her warm brown eyes made him want to look deeper, to see if he could find the bottom.

  Her cheeks—the ones he still thought looked soft—flushed at his compliment. He’d thought he was in. Now he worried he was in over his head.

  * * *

  He took her to a nice Italian restaurant she’d been to only once before. Unfortunately it was where Evan had taken her to celebrate a new job—the first of many new jobs he would come to have—after they were married. They had shared an order of calamari, and she thought her life was going to be perfect.

  It didn’t turn out that way, but the calamari was pretty good.

  Evan told her he’d found someone else when Luca was three months old. Not only had he found someone else, but the new girlfriend was pregnant. He apologized and even cried while she tried to work up to some emotion. Any emotion. But at that time, nothing came. She couldn’t be angry, hurt or sad. All she could think of was her son, and how his life would never be the way she’d planned it for him. He would never be able to climb into bed with his parents on Sunday mornings to snuggle. He would never have a brother or sister that looked like him, instead he would have half-siblings and stepsiblings.

  He would be passed back and forth, forced to eat two meals on holidays, and he would wonder what he did to make his dad leave, just like she had wondered when she was a child.

  “You okay? It looks like you’re pissed off,” Sam said with his brows pressed together.

  “I’m great.” And she was.

  Sure, she eventually got around to the anger and hurt, and there was a time when she hated Evan with every fiber of her being. But over the last two and a half years she’d moved on.

  Her son was happy and loved, and he crawled in bed with her on Sunday mornings to snuggle. She didn’t need anything else.

  Except maybe a night of fun with the man
sitting across from her.

  “So are you Italian?” she asked the very inappropriate question. He was obviously some perfect mix of nationalities. His skin was a magnificent bronze color, and his eyes were hazel. His dark hair was thick, and might have been curly if it wasn’t cut so short.

  “No.” He paused and for a moment she thought she was going to have to ask. “My father was Dominican, but I don’t really remember him.”

  “I never knew my father.” Why had she said that? As if they could make a club or something.

  “So we’re going straight for the hard stuff, huh?” he said with a laugh as the waiter came over to take their drink order. He ordered a beer and she got a glass of wine. She didn’t get the chance to go on many dates, she was going all out.

  “I’ll briefly discuss my failed marriage and then that should be it for the hard stuff on my end.”

  “How long were you married?”

  “Three years.” She deliberately didn’t mention they had a son together before he took off. On the few dates she had gone on, she’d found that the men backed off immediately when she mentioned having a child. She didn’t want to risk having Sam back off. At least not tonight.

  And what would it matter? She was an adult. She wasn’t seeing anyone. It was perfectly acceptable for her to take him back to her apartment and have a great time with him. Then she would send him on his way in the morning. People did this. She could do this. There was no harm in keeping some parts of her life a secret. As long as they didn’t get attached, no one would get hurt.

  * * *

  It was official. He liked her.

  Not just because Sam was pretty sure he was going to get an invite back to her place, but because she ordered a glass of wine without giggling and pretending she shouldn’t. And she ordered real food; not just a salad. She wasn’t going out of her way to try to impress him which meant one of two things. She was secure enough not to care what he thought, which he found incredibly sexy. Or she was only looking for a short-term fling. Also sexy.

  “So you said you travel a lot for work. What do you do?” she asked, and damn if she didn’t seem genuinely interested.