Accidents Make the Heart Grow Fonder

by Tara Mills

  “A second Grizzly?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Who the hell would want to take those guys on?” he asked, perplexed. “They’re huge.”

  “I know. Alcohol had to be involved. All I have so far is that heated words were exchanged between the two tables and then all hell broke loose and everyone came up swinging.”

  “Okay. Well, I guess we sit tight.” He turned to Sabrina. “Come on, I’ll show you around.” He looked at Lisa. “Excuse us.”

  Taking Sabrina’s hand, he drew her into the studio. She gawked at all the paraphernalia: the lights, microphones, wires, and cables everywhere. She wandered around the cameras and paused over the Teleprompters before giggling at the blue screen. Then her eyes lingered on the news desk.

  “Can I try it?” she asked, already walking over to the anchor chair. She spun to face the desk and straightened through her back, giving the idle camera a saucy smile. “Good evening, I’m Candy Apple coming to you live with tonight’s breaking news. First, a new study has proven conclusively that there is no corollary link between men’s cars and penis size. So gentlemen, drive what you like without shame.”

  Jackson laughed. “Candy Apple?”

  She grinned. “Economic indicators all suggest that prolonged credit card use has been shown to contribute to mounting debt. For more on this story we go now to Tilly Cashwise, live from the Sears Annual White Sale.” Sabrina turned to a blank television screen. “Tilly, it looks like you’re in the middle of a feeding frenzy. Can you tell us what’s happening?”

  Cupping her ear she did a different, excitable voice. “Why, yes, Candy, there was a near riot over toilet seat covers not fifteen minutes ago, and a shocking fight broke out over embroidered pillow shams right before that. An eighty-nine-year-old woman was taken into custody and her false teeth confiscated as evidence. I’m sorry to say that those lovely shams are all gone. But what really frosts my cookie is that bitch over there, with the ugly orange sunglasses on her head, tore a beautiful queen-sized percale right out of my hands! It was mine. It was clearly mine, and I’m going to get it back. I must have it. I must.”

  Sabrina turned back to camera. “Thank you, Tilly. Now on to baseball with Mitt Glover. Mitt, can you tell us whether Jackson Murphy will be lucky enough to get a hit tonight?”

  Her next voice really broke Jackson up. “Well, I’d like to say that the odds are in his favor, but you never know. His form is incredible, his technique difficult to fault, but Jackson seems stymied by first base. We’ll be interested to see how he handles his next attempt at bat.”

  “I look forward to that as well,” he said, strolling over with a sexy grin. He put his hands on the desk in front of her and leaned in, closing the distance.

  Sabrina beamed and moved toward him, but just before their lips connected Lisa poked her head into the studio and called, “Jackson!”

  He groaned softly. “So close.”

  “Strike two,” Sabrina whispered back.

  “To be continued,” he promised. “Are you staying here or coming with me?”

  “Should I wait?”

  “Just don’t touch anything.”

  “Maybe I better go with you. I don’t know if I can be trusted.”

  “Well it’s confirmed,” Lisa told Jackson excitedly. “Austin Black was definitely involved. Rudy is trying to reach Gray Sampson now for a statement.”

  Jackson sat on the edge of an empty desk. “What do we know about the third guy?”

  “Might be Noble’s cousin. He’s supposed to be visiting from Detroit, but his identity is unconfirmed.”

  “Is he as big as the other two?”

  “Damn close.”

  “Jeezus,” Jackson said, shaking his head. “Who were these other guys?”

  “Out-of-towners. They came in for the Grizzlies/Rockets game yesterday. Apparently they had issues with the outcome.”

  “And now they’ll be drinking their meals through a straw, no doubt.”

  “I have a suspicion they knew exactly who they were provoking.”

  Jackson nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. There could be a large cash sum involved here. Let’s find out more about this group, okay?”

  “Tom’s already working on it. He followed them to the hospital and he’s making a nuisance of himself.”

  “That’s my boy.”

  “You know, if you want to leave, I can give you a call if anything new pops up.”

  Jackson looked over at Sabrina and raised his eyebrows. She nodded back. The woman wanted him gone.

  “What do you think?” he asked her. “Should we make a break for it?”

  “I’m game.”

  He grinned at the ongoing baseball allusions. “Okay.” He turned to Lisa. “I’ll be watching tonight, but if you need to reach me my phone is on.”

  “I know the number. Don’t worry. We’ve got this covered. Go out and enjoy your date.”

  Relieved of duty, Jackson led Sabrina out, but with the doors to the parking lot looming in front of them she stopped and said, “Hold it. I thought I was going to see your office.”

  He sighed and turned her around, heading back. They stopped outside an open doorway, and he reached in and flipped on the lights.

  She walked in slowly, taking everything in. “So this is where it all happens,” she murmured. She smiled at the turtles on his desk and gave the bobble-head a flick, setting his head nodding. “Cute.”

  “That’s Maynard,” he said, smiling. “The one hanging over the screen is Crush.”

  She walked over to the shelf and read several of the bindings, but they were all industry oriented. “You don’t have any pictures in here, I mean, other than turtles,” she said, grinning at the set of photos on the wall showing newly hatched sea turtles making a mad dash to the ocean.

  He looked around, realizing she had a point. “Huh. What can I say?”

  “Nothing.”

  He tipped his head and smiled. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yep. Where to?”

  “I was hoping we could catch a ball game.”

  She laughed. “Now don’t get ahead of yourself, Sporto.”

  ****

  Sabrina liked watching Jackson drive. He had a smooth touch, his feet moving fluidly over the pedals, perfectly coordinated to his hand on the gearshift. The thrust of the engine kicked her back gently in her seat and quickened her pulse. She’d never expected she might be one of those women who could get turned on by watching a man drive a sexy car, but then she hadn’t met Jackson yet. She didn’t know how much it would affect her to see his Stafford sleeve tighten over his swelling bicep when he shifted. She wouldn’t understand how just a glimpse of his barely discernable Adam’s apple, mingled with his masculine cologne and the leather seats, would make her body hum in time with the well-tuned engine. If BMW had designed this car with romance rather than performance in mind, she would have pounced on Jackson already, but an impulse like that, no matter how strong, would be dangerous to act on.

  He shot a quick glance her way. “Did you want to drop by your place and change?”

  “Into what?”

  He shrugged. “Something more comfortable.”

  “I realize that, but what, as in what will we be doing?”

  “Hell if I know. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “I want to go back on a boat. Not necessarily that big one, but a boat.”

  He gave her a longer look this time. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. You don’t have one, do you?”

  “No. But my brother does. Want me to call him?”

  “Think he’d let us borrow it?”

  “I can ask.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “Sure.”

  “Cool. Give him a call.”

  Sabrina turned away when Jackson thrust his hips up to fish his phone out of his front pocket. It was simply too much to handle in her current state of arousal.

  “Yeah, Rob, it’s me. Fine, I’m
fine. No, I’m not lying. I’m good. Listen, I was wondering if I could borrow your boat this afternoon. Really? That’s great. Give us an hour, because we have to change clothes. Good, I’ll see you then.”

  To Sabrina’s relief, he tossed the phone onto the center console. “He said yes?”

  “He said yes.”

  “All right!”

  Jackson laughed. “We’re closer to your apartment. Make it quick, okay?”

  “Just call me Speedy.”

  ****

  Sabrina dug through her lingerie drawer in a mad scramble to find her three swimsuits. They flew one after another onto the bed. The last exhumed from the back of the drawer was the only one she’d never worn. She’d never intended to wear it. She wouldn’t have bought the damn thing if Tanya hadn’t exerted her formidable skills of persuasion on Sabrina two years earlier. So she grumbled when she brought it home and clipped off the tags—Sabrina never returned anything to a store, ever; she found it too embarrassing—before promptly stuffing it as far out of sight as she could. It wasn’t her style. It was too risqué. Did she dare? Silly question. Something deep inside drove her to unearth the forgotten suit after so long.

  Sabrina tore off her clothes, weighing the pros and cons of each bathing suit, but her eyes kept returning to the last, most seductive of the three. It was downright provocative, looking like a string bikini from the back, but from the front it qualified as a one piece—an abbreviated one piece, to be sure—with only a narrow hourglass-shaped strip connecting the bra to the panty. That strip of fabric was why Sabrina had caved in and dug out her credit card. It was visually slimming through the waist and smoothed out her little tummy. Still, there was going to be a lot of pale skin showing. Did she really want to put her marshmallow-white body into that? She looked one last time at the first two suits before deciding to take the bold step.

  Jackson looked up from the stereo when Sabrina walked out of her building and just about swallowed his tongue.

  She hopped in and waved a bottle of sun lotion. “You’ll need to help me with this.”

  “Honey, I’d pay good money for the privilege.”

  Sabrina laughed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t be difficult.”

  “Are you willing to share some of that with me?”

  “Oh, I think that can be arranged.”

  “God, I’m glad Rob has a boat right now.”

  “Do you know how to drive one?”

  “I grew up on one.”

  “Excellent.”

  ****

  She frowned when he came out buttoning a short-sleeved shirt over his swim trunks. “We have to get you a pair of Speedos.”

  “No way. I have to be free and unfettered.”

  Sabrina laughed. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait.” He ran into the kitchen and started loading up a brown bag with cheese and crackers, some fruit, and two bottles of wine.

  “Oh, that sounds good,” she said, completely on board.

  Rob met them in his driveway twenty minutes later. He walked right over to Sabrina’s side of the car and leaned on her open window. “Hi, there,” he said with a smile only slightly less devastating than his brother’s.

  “Hi,” she said grinning back. “Thanks for letting us use your boat.”

  “No problem.” He snickered at Jackson, shaking his head. “Mind if I tag along?”

  “Maybe next time.” Jackson held his hand out in front of Sabrina. “I’ll take the keys.”

  “I was just kidding,” Rob explained to Sabrina with a laugh. “I have plans. I just like messing with him.”

  “I understand. My three brothers do the same thing.”

  “Three? Ouch.” He dropped the keys into Jackson’s palm and stepped back. “Sabrina, right?”

  “That’s right,” she said, pleasantly surprised that he knew her name. That was good, surely. It meant Jackson brought her up to people. There was another celebratory jiggy dance in her future. Whoo-hoo!

  Jackson leaned across Sabrina’s lap so he could see his brother. “When do you need the keys back?”

  “Hang onto them. I’ll get them from you on Tuesday.”

  “Will do. Thanks again.”

  Sabrina’s eyes followed Jackson as he straightened up. “Do we know where we’re going?”

  “Yep.” He threw the car into reverse.

  As they backed out of the driveway, Sabrina gave Rob a little wave, but her smile froze when she realized he was shaking with mirth. Her jiggy dance plans came to a screeching halt. What was so damn funny?

  Rob’s speedboat was docked on Spirit Lake, one of the largest in a chain of lakes that eventually emptied into the St. Clair River. The seemingly endless stretch of docks at the marina was a little intimidating. Sabrina followed Jackson along the floating walkway, wondering how he could keep it all straight. He eventually set their bag of goodies down at his feet.

  “I’m going to need your help with the cover.”

  Following his directions, she helped to get the boat exposed, and Sabrina’s heart went skippity-trip at what she saw. “This is gorgeous. What does your brother do, anyway?”

  “He’s a psychiatrist.”

  She snorted. “Figures.”

  Jackson stowed the cover under a panel in the floor, then checked out the gauges. “Yes!” he cheered. “We’ve got a full tank of gas, too.”

  He slid back a smoked glass door and exposed the lower cabin. “Would you put the bag down there?”

  “Absolutely,” she said instantly, eager to explore this seriously choice cruiser. But first, she couldn’t resist snooping behind the door right in front of her seat.

  “Hey! There’s a bathroom.” She gaped at the contoured facilities. “I mean, it’s small, but a girl’s gotta love a bathroom, especially when we brought wine with us.”

  Jackson grinned. “Hurry up and put that stuff away, then get back up here. We have to untie ourselves from the dock or we’re not going anywhere.”

  “This is so great,” she said excitedly, sprinting down, dropping the bag on the built-in sofa, and then turning right around. She got a blast of sunshine in the kisser the instant she stepped out. Squinting into the light, she asked, “Where do you want me?”

  He stared at her, his mind flipping through an array of tantalizing scenarios. “You want the honest answer or the practical one?”

  “I think I can guess the honest answer, but where would I be the most helpful?”

  “You take the back of the boat—and don’t fall overboard.”

  “Ha, ha.” She walked around the sun bed and onto a low deck extended over the water. “Is this what I think it is?”

  Jackson was crouched down, unwinding the line from the dock. “What’s that?”

  He stood up and walked back to see what she was referring to as she unfastened the second line. She pointed. He nodded, finally understanding the question. “Oh, the swimming deck. Yeah, that’s pretty nice.”

  She stepped back onto it and Jackson walked beside the boat, drawing it out of the slip before leaping lightly on board and heading over to the captain’s chair. He turned the key and fired the engine. They slowly backed the rest of the way out. Sabrina settled onto the chair across from him and grinned like a ninny.

  “Here we go,” he said.

  They pulled away from the marina with barely a wake, but once they hit open water and the coast was clear, Jackson gave her a wicked smile. “Hold onto your sunglasses.”

  He gunned it and the boat shot forward, throwing Sabrina back in her seat. The bow rose toward the sky and the propeller dug in, the angle of the floor suddenly steep. It was a rush, a giddy, mind-bending rush that thrilled her to her polished toes. Turning, she shared a grin of pure delight with Jackson. He laughed and cranked on the wheel, giving her something else to cheer about as they cut up and over the wake of another boat.

  Sabrina wondered how he could see what was in front of them, but he was up on one foot, his right leg bent behind him on the seat—in
complete control. Wasn’t he always?

  He eased off on the gas and the nose dropped down as they slowed to pass through a narrow channel.

  He looked over at her. “Do you swim?”

  “Yes.”

  “There’s a quiet bay across this next lake. It’s a good place to anchor and take a dip. We could eat there and open the bottle.”

  “Guess what. We forgot to bring towels.”

  “Rob always has clean towels on board. They’re down below.”

  “You know, this day is turning out to be one of the best I’ve ever had.”

  Jackson laughed. “What was the best?”

  “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

  “Can we go fast again?” she asked as soon as they cleared the channel.

  “There’s more boat traffic here, not to mention water skiers and jet skis, but I’ll see what I can do.”

  They didn’t reach the exhilarating speed she’d hoped for, but it wasn’t bad. He went wide around a fishing boat hugging the shore, then turned into the sheltered bay. At the far side, Jackson cranked the wheel and pointed the boat back toward open water.

  “Time to drop the anchors.” He killed the motor and climbed around the windshield to reach the prow, opened a compartment at his feet, and hauled out the anchor, giving it a good toss over the side.

  “What can I do?” Sabrina asked, looking around.

  “There’s another anchor at the back. Make sure it’s tied securely to the boat before you pitch it into the water. It’s going to keep us from spinning.”

  “Got it.”

  Safely tethered, the boat bobbed lazily on the gentle waves.

  “So where’d you put the sunscreen?” Jackson asked, unbuttoning his shirt.

  Sabrina watched him, her mind completely wiped clean of all conscious thought. It didn’t help her any when he slid out of the shirt and hung it over the back of his chair. Her eyes were fixed on his bare back, his firm, luscious ass, his toned, muscular legs. She loved how his body was fit and strong without being muscle-bound. He worked out, but he obviously didn’t want to bulk up. It probably wouldn’t fit right under his business wear.

  He turned and caught her staring. “Did you hear me?”