He put two dollars on the bar for a tip and grabbed the water glasses placed in front of him. “She’s not my girlfriend. Just a friend.”
“Oh?” Candy lightly touched his arm.
“Uh, yeah.” Hell, now what? “Would you like to join us?” With no idea where that came from, he turned. His eyes landed on Erin in conversation with the bar guy. Things seemed to be going smoothly.
“I’d love to.” She wrapped her arm around his and they stepped back to the table.
Erin’s eyes bugged out of her head the second she saw them. “What are you doing here?” she directed at Candy.
As Troy sat, he looked between the two women. Shit. Growing up with a sister, he knew the look a girl wore when she didn’t like someone. And Erin and Candy did not like each other.
“Troy invited me,” Candy said, sitting and scooting her chair closer to him.
How was he supposed to know the two women didn’t get along? Who didn’t like Erin?
Erin’s eyes met his. He hoped she saw apology in them. What he saw he couldn’t name. She’d slipped on a mask, her features neutral, her face blank. “This is Michael.”
“Hi,” Michael said.
“Michael, Troy and Candace.” The way she said Candace made him think there was something more she wanted to add to the moniker. Like Candace, the most unpleasant person in Cascade.
“Hey,” Troy said.
“Hiya,” Candy cooed.
“Nice to meet you.” Michael turned back to Erin. He leaned forward so he could whisper something in her ear. She giggled. His hand landed on her thigh.
Candy angled her head closer and said, “So, Troy, tell me about your last rescue. I think it’s so honorable what you do.”
He shifted his consideration to Candy. Erin could do whatever she wanted. He wasn’t there to tell her how to act. Letting a stranger she’d met five minutes ago put a hand on her thigh riled him up, but she was a grown-up and free to do as she pleased.
“I’m sorry, what did you ask?” he said.
“How’s your job?”
Job. Right. “Quieter now that the tourist and fire seasons are over.”
“Oooh, you know, I love to bake. Maybe I should stop by the station and bring you boys something sweet to eat now that you aren’t so busy.”
“Sure. That would be nice.” He glanced back at Erin and Michael and found Erin peeking at him and Candace.
She looked away.
“What’s your favorite? Brownies? Cookies? Pie? My grandfather’s got an apple orchard in his backyard. Maybe you’d like to come help me pick some and then I can make you an apple pie.”
“It all sounds great.”
“Or, I know. You could bring your niece, and the three of us could go picking. I bet she’d love it.”
“You’ve met Amelia?” The scale tipped in Candace’s favor, his interest piqued.
“I have and she’s just darling. Your sister and mom are delightful, too.”
He studied Candace. Attractive. Friendly. Conservative. He’d bet she’d never climbed a mountain or even knew what a zip line was.
“Rock. Climbing. I like to go rock climbing.”
Erin’s words jerked his attention. Michael had an arm over her shoulder and his head canted close enough to nibble her ear. She didn’t look upset by his proximity, but she pressed his chest. He leaned back without hesitation.
“We should do it, then,” Michael said with good-natured disposition.
Huh. Troy didn’t understand. Was Erin giving him the word? Or had her conversation led them to the topic?
Erin let out a deep breath. “I don’t Rock. Climb. With just anyone, you know.” Her eyes met his and he knew. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to be around Michael anymore.
“I’m not just anyone, and if—” Michael was interrupted when the waitress dropped off drinks. Troy quickly pulled a ten out and handed it to the girl, ready to stand and make some excuse as to why he and Erin needed to suddenly leave.
Before he could do that, though, Erin picked up her beer bottle. Her elbow slipped off the table and the bottle tipped, spilling all over Michael. He jerked his chair back.
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry,” she said.
“Not a problem. I’ll just go clean up and be back.” He stood and took off toward the restroom sign.
“You know, I’m really not feeling that well. I think I’d like to go home now, Troy.” Erin’s soft voice betrayed the devil he knew sat on her shoulder. That spill was no accident.
He got to his feet. “All right. You going to be okay, Candy?”
She rose and put her hand on his upper arm. “You’re so nice to ask. I’ll be fine. I came with a friend.”
“You have a friend?” Erin asked.
A growl slipped between Candy’s lips, but Troy didn’t think Erin heard it. She did make a scowl crystal clear, though, and then her face softened the second she looked back at him. “Maybe we could meet for a drink another time?”
“Uh, sure. That’s sounds good.” What else could he say? Erin might dislike her, but she’d always been friendly to him.
“How about next week?”
“Think you can finish this conversation later?” Erin swept in and grabbed his hand. “I really need to go. Bye, Candace.” She tugged him away. Damn, she had some strength in that little body.
“Bye,” he tossed over his shoulder to Candy.
Erin didn’t stop until a brisk outdoor breeze hit them. She let go of his hand and marched to the car. “You cannot go out with her.”
Troy kept pace with Miss Speed Walker. “Why not?”
“You just can’t.”
He shook his head. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get an explanation. “What did Michael do in there to make you want to leave? The guy seemed cool and you seemed to be enjoying yourself.”
“Nothing.”
“He had to have said something to piss you off and make you use rock climbing.”
“Nice of you to finally notice.” She jammed through the parking lot without sparing him a glance.
“What does that mean?”
She stopped at the passenger door to his truck. “Can we just stop talking?”
He had no idea what had just happened. With Michael or Candy. But he did as she asked. He didn’t say a word until they got to her place and he shut off the engine.
“Thanks for tonight,” she whispered and opened the car door.
“It wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped.”
“Maybe next time.” She tossed him a small, appreciative smile and took off toward her front door.
Troy watched her until she’d disappeared inside, thinking he couldn’t wait for next time. And how that made it a really bad idea.
Chapter Four
“Did you read the latest women, life & love column?” Kagan asked, throwing two poker chips into the center of the table to up the ante. “I almost spit my coffee all over my computer this morning.”
Erin folded. Her cards sucked tonight. Teague, Vanessa, and Sela matched Kagan’s bet. “I think it might be my favorite one yet,” Kagan said.
The column was written by “Jane,” a “real single girl living in Cascade.” No one knew who Jane really was and with the anonymity came some very interesting articles. Erin got up and grabbed the bag of pretzels from the kitchen counter. This was her first Monday hosting girls’ poker night and she’d pulled out all the food stops.
Not.
“She’s definitely gotten racier these past couple of months,” Erin said, sitting back down and placing the pretzels within reach of Vanessa. At four months pregnant, Vanessa ate like every ten minutes.
“That’s for sure,” Sela said. She wiggled her nose like she had to sneeze, which meant she had a good hand, before adding, “Luke is a total vagenius.”
“Eeeww!” Erin, Teague, and Vanessa squealed at the same time. “We do not want to hear about our brother like that,” Erin said.
Sela grinned. “Sorry, but y
ou guys are my best friends.”
The girls all turned their cards over. Sela’s full house kicked butt.
“Tell your nurse friends.” Erin gathered the discarded cards while Sela scooped up the winning chips.
“Shane definitely knows his way around my lower anatomy,” Kagan said. She let out a contented sigh. “He’s got my sexual GPS mapped out perfectly.”
“Jane definitely nailed the tips for lady-part appreciation,” Erin said, dealing the next hand. She tried not to think about how long it had been since her southland area had been explored.
The room got silent and she looked up from the cards. Everyone’s eyes met and they all cracked up.
At the outburst, Rover made a beeline for her bedroom, his tan fur a blur out of the corner of her eye.
“How are your online classes going?” Vanessa asked, the corners of her mouth lifting. She had a pair or better for sure with that look. Lucky for Erin, she’d dealt herself three tens. Her first decent lead-in all night.
“Good. I can’t wait to be done, though. My boss is really excited for me to start a whole new program at COA where people can come for outdoor therapy and discover themselves in a different way.”
Vanessa put her hand on Erin’s. “I’m so proud of you.”
Erin shrugged one shoulder. Feeling bad or sad or afraid of something sucked and she wanted to free people’s minds of their troubles. When Scott had broken her heart at the end of college she hadn’t wanted to do anything for weeks. She’d moved back to her parents’ house and hated everyone and everything. One day a friend convinced her to go skydiving. She’d gone and something in her snapped—she felt liberated from the rush of the wind and speed of her free fall. Afterward she’d jumped into extreme sports as a way to keep her mind clear, and it worked.
Her sense of adventure matched her brother’s. Luke had always told her she had no fear and was more tomboy than girlie girl, and she’d discovered he was right.
Sela’s and Kagan’s cell phones chimed with a text message at the same time. Teague said, “Yes!” as she won the five-card hand this time and gathered her winning chips.
“Quick, what’s the name of the actor who plays Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory?” Sela asked, glancing up from her phone.
“Jim Parsons,” Kagan said, her fingers typing away on her cell. “But I beat you to it so you may as well just type some x’s and o’s.”
Vanessa crossed her arms over her growing tummy. “I guarantee you Hayden beat both your guys.”
The guys—Hayden, Luke, and Shane—were at the Crown & Anchor for Monday Night Football. They’d started the ritual this year now that Luke had married Sela and moved back to Cascade for good. During halftime a trivia game went up on the TV screens and the winner won some cash.
“Bathroom break,” Vanessa added, standing. “Hey, do you have any more of those chicken nuggets? Because if you wanted to heat a few up while I’m gone, I’d be okay with that.”
Erin got to her feet. “Anything for my nephew.” She patted Vanessa’s tiny baby bump.
“Or niece.”
“It’s a boy.” Erin smiled and got cooking. Or rather microwaving.
A half hour later Erin ran out of poker chips and she silently cursed her sisters. They’d beaten her at every hand tonight. Only Kagan had had crappier cards a time or two.
“Sooo, we’ve waited all night for the scoop on your date, and since you’re clearly not going to volunteer the information, spill,” Vanessa said, crossing her arms over her tummy.
“Yeah, spill.” Teague leveled her with a you promised to share more look, eyes soft but serious.
Erin hadn’t stopped thinking about Friday and Saturday night.
“Friday night was a bust. Troy’s friend was okay, but there was zero chemistry.” She shuffled the cards. “The restaurant had awesome pasta, though.”
“Friday night?” Kagan said. “That sounds like there was another night, too.”
Oh yeah, they thought she’d been doing homework all weekend. “Actually, Troy and I went to a bar Saturday night. He felt bad about how things went with his friend and knew a place in Beaver Creek he thought would be worthwhile.”
“So he played your wingman?” Kagan grinned.
“Yes.”
Sela put her elbow on the table and dropped her chin into her hand. Her eyebrows hit a high note. “Did it work?”
“Yes and no.” How was she going to explain this without telling them about Candace? She’d acted like a total jealous lunatic and wasn’t proud of it. But beating Candace to a boyfriend aside, Erin liked Troy at least enough to spare him from Candace’s horrible clutches.
Find the love of my life first. In fact, I already have my sights on someone, Candace had said at the Crown & Anchor. Was Troy the someone she had designs on? And what was she doing all the way in Beaver Creek? Was she following him? Them?
Okay, now Erin had really lost it. Candace might be selfish and cruel and think she was better than everyone else, but she wasn’t a stalker.
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked, putting her hand over Erin’s. “You’re shuffling those cards to death.”
She let go of the deck. “I did meet a guy.” Michael had been hot, funny, attentive, and a thrill seeker like her. She would’ve gone out with him if he’d asked. If she hadn’t ditched him without a word, he might have. But watching Candace get cozy with Troy, her stomach had roiled and she hadn’t been able to focus on Michael anymore.
Because of her competitive nature, Erin had told herself. Because of her rivalry with Candace.
Not because of some misplaced feelings for Troy.
“And?” Teague said, her eyes wide with interest.
“He had definite potential, but I didn’t feel well.” Truth. She’d been sick to her stomach. “I asked Troy to bring me home before Michael—that was the guy’s name—and I had a chance to exchange phone numbers or anything.”
“You could go back this weekend,” Sela said. “Maybe he’ll be there again.”
Erin lifted the poker chip box off the floor and opened it so she could start cleaning up. Kagan was looking at her funny, like she’d guessed there was more to the story than she was telling.
There was more. More she was having a hard time dealing with. The weekend had stirred up stuff she’d thought she was ready to let go of. But she wasn’t. She could tell Sela, her sisters, Kagan, the truth: that her damn ex’s betrayal still held some power over her. They’d probably—no, they would—help with the mess in her head over the possibility of having her heart trampled on again.
But she’d rather suffer silently. Watch the Bravo channel until all hours of the night. Eat all the ice cream in her freezer.
“Maybe,” she said to Sela. She scratched the back of her head, sliding her fingers through the strands of hair as she pulled her hand away. She kept wishing she’d wake up one morning and miraculously decide to trust someone again enough to love him.
“If you do, you should take Troy with you,” Kagan said. “Or one of us. We’ll watch your back.”
“I know. Thanks.”
“And we’re here if there’s other stuff you want to talk about,” Vanessa said.
Okay, enough with the tenderness and concern. Erin clenched her jaw.
For several long beats, the only sound came from the ticking of the decorative iron wall clock, like she might share more if no one said anything. She glanced at the time. Close to ten and she had to be up early to work on her thesis.
“Well, thanks for coming over.” She stood and gathered the playing cards while everyone else counted their chips. They finished up without words, which bothered her sisters, she knew, but she appreciated their dropping it. They knew if they pushed, she’d make herself scarce for a while. Take off for a rock climbing or hiking trip with strangers who knew nothing about her.
Ten minutes later, Kagan was the last one out the door. Before Erin could shut it, Kagan turned and wrapped her in a fierce hug. “I kno
w you’re going to find someone special,” Kagan said. “And I know you have so much to offer someone that it would be a shame not to try again.” Then she bounded down the walkway, leaving Erin full of shame, actually. For not trusting her best friends with the parts of herself they most wanted to help her rediscover.
…
The next morning, Erin waited at the base of the hiking trail to Cascade Falls. The soggy ground cushioned her pacing; the smell of earth and last night’s rain tickled her nose. Sunlight streamed through the tree canopies. She stopped in a sunny spot and lifted her face to the sky.
She couldn’t believe how lucky she’d been to get a volunteer with acrophobia for her thesis. She’d put word out to the local fire departments, police stations, and medical facilities because those occupations often included a great deal of stress and sometimes fear about something or other. Her hope had been to find someone with a phobia, but getting a firefighter with a fear of heights had exceeded her expectations. When the chief emailed her he had a candidate and then they’d coordinated a time and place for her to meet him, she’d bounced in her chair with excitement. She’d been so thrilled she’d forgotten to ask the guy’s name.
No matter. It was a weekday and the wet conditions meant they’d most likely have the trail to themselves and he’d be the next person to come along.
The sound of a car churning up gravel met her ears and she pictured the small parking lot just beyond the trees. A few moments later a car door slammed shut. She watched for a person to approach through the shadowed and branch-laden walkway.
“Troy?”
“Erin?”
He had on cargo shorts and a black CFD T-shirt that stretched across his well-defined chest and showed off his muscled biceps, his strong forearms, and his hands. God, he had nice hands. His brown hair was mussed and about a week overdue for a cut. She liked it.
“You’re not meeting a grad student for some exposure therapy, are you?”
“You’re not the grad student I’m meeting to cure me of my fear of heights, are you?” He smiled and a flutter of nervousness rippled through her. He’d also obviously not gotten her name.
“This is bad,” she said.
His smile turned upside down. He stopped in front of her.
Wild About Her Wingman Page 5