Chapter Three
OWEN TURNED INTO the parking lot, only to come nose to nose with a flatbed tow-truck parked front out. He inched the Toyota carefully around and slipped it into the reserved space outside his own townhouse.
Apparently something was wrong with Kaylee’s little sports car. As he watched, the tow-truck driver attached chains to the coupe’s chassis and then pulled the car onto the flatbed. As the tow-truck rumbled out of the parking lot with the small Nissan onboard, Owen got out of his Toyota and walked over to Kaylee, who was standing on her front step with her arms wrapped around herself as if she were cold. “What’s wrong with it?”
“With what?” She glanced up at him, and then seemed to realize what he was asking, because she flushed. “Oh, the car? Nothing.”
“Why are they taking it?” Surely it wasn’t being repossessed? She had a job, she couldn’t be defaulting on the payments.
He glanced at the truck, just merging with traffic on the street outside. It offered no clues. It was just another tow-truck. Big and red with Ted’s Towing written on the door.
“I gave it back,” Kaylee said, as the coupe disappeared out of sight.
Owen turned to her. “Gave it back?”
She shrugged.
“Did you buy another car?” Trade up or down, maybe? He looked around, but didn’t see anything new or exciting in the lot.
“No,” Kaylee said.
“How are you gonna get to work?” Peckers was too far to walk. He had driven there a few times, thinking he might go in for a drink—hoping to see her—but he’d never actually managed to convince himself she’d be happy to see him.
At any rate, she’d better not be thinking of walking home at night. Anything could happen to her between there and here.
“No problem.” She laughed, but it sounded hollow. “I don’t have a job anymore, either.”
“What?”
“And now I’m going back inside to finish packing, so I can blow this popsicle stand.”
She turned away, even as Owen stood frozen to the spot, struck dumb by the news. She was leaving? Why? How?
“Wait a second!” He reached out and snagged her arm. It was the first time he’d touched her, other than accidentally, and he dropped his hand again as if he’d burned himself.
She turned around, but she looked reluctant. He gentled his voice. “What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story,” Kaylee said.
Owen glanced around the parking lot, searching for inspiration. The sun was high, he figured it must be around noon. “Why don’t I take you to lunch,” he suggested, “and you can tell me about it?”
Oops. She looked startled. Should know better by now. She always says no.
Except she hadn’t yet. He pushed the advantage. “Somewhere quiet. Where no one will hear us.”
Better. But still not good enough. She bit her lip. “I don’t know, Owen...”
“C’mon.” He made his voice coaxing. “You gotta eat. And you know you can talk to me. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Are we?” She glanced up at him.
“Of course we are.” She was his neighbor, and he wanted to get in her pants. That made them friends as far as he was concerned. “It isn’t like we haven’t eaten together before, Kaylee.”
“That’s true,” Kaylee admitted.
“So you wanna come?”
She blinked, and for a second, her lips quirked.
“What?” Owen wanted to know.
“Nothing.” But she didn’t look like it was nothing. She was fighting a smile, and her eyes laughed at him.
He thought back to his words, and blushed. Oh. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I know,” Kaylee said. “Sure, I’ll go to lunch with you. Just let me get a jacket.”
“I’ll drop this inside.” He lifted the briefcase in his hand. “Two minutes.” It would give him enough time to check his reflection in the mirror, to make sure he didn’t have ink spots on his shirt or that his hair wasn’t standing straight up, the way it was in the habit of doing after he’d run his fingers through it a few times.
Kaylee nodded and disappeared inside her townhouse. He could see boxes through the open door. Obviously she hadn’t been joking about the packing. She really was leaving.
He dropped the briefcase in his own hallway and spared a quick glance in the mirror—no ink spots, but messy hair—before going back outside to wait for her. It took her just a bit longer than two minutes, but when she reappeared, he realized it was because she’d changed, from leggings and an oversized shirt to tight jeans and a less oversized but still loose sweater. It was strange to see her in anything not form-fitting, but maybe it was just in the summer she wore skin tight cropped tops.
She gave him a bright smile, one that seemed forced rather than happy. “Ready.”
He opened the car door for her and closed it, before walking around the car to get in himself. “Where would you like to go?”
“The French place on Third?” Kaylee said.
La Belle Vie? Not his personal choice, but why not, if it was what she wanted? “Sure.”
She glanced at him. “Are you serious?”
He glanced back. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Isn’t it expensive?”
Yes, it was. A bit more expensive than it was worth, in Owen’s opinion. But if it was what Kaylee wanted, he’d be happy to get it for her. “It’s all right. It isn’t every day I get to take a beautiful woman to lunch.” He smiled at her.
She blushed, unaccountably. Strange. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what she looked like. She had a mirror. And he couldn’t be the first man to tell her she was beautiful. In fact, that was probably how the guy who wasn’t Gilbert Norris had talked her into bed in the first place.
“I don’t want to go to the French place,” she said.
“OK. Where do you want to go?”
“You choose,” Kaylee said.
“Well, what are you in the mood for? Sandwich? Burger? Seafood? Indian?”
“Not Indian. It...” She stopped and flushed. “I can’t eat anything spicy. Sandwich would be fine. Or burger.”
“The bar and grille on Second does good burgers.”
“That’s fine.” She leaned back in the seat and looked around. “Nice car.”
He supposed. It wasn’t a Mercedes or a Porsche or anything like that, but as sedate, unobtrusive, middle-class sedans went, the Toyota wasn’t bad. “Thanks.”
Or was she being facetious? She’d made a big deal out of the Mercedes keychain the Gil Norris guy had had. Maybe she was mocking the fact that Owen was driving a Toyota. Not manly enough for her. Or not expensive enough.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t look like she was being facetious. And it wasn’t like she had any room to talk, anyway. She didn’t even have a car anymore.
“What happened with your job?” Had she gotten tired of walking around on display all the time, with people—men—constantly staring at her boobs?
Way to sound superior, dude. You stare at her boobs too.
“I lost it,” Kaylee said.
“Downsizing?”
She hesitated. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I thought that was why we were going out. So you could tell me what happened.”
“I’m going out because I’m hungry,” Kaylee said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll feed you. Maybe we can talk about basketball.”
“I don’t like basketball,” Kaylee said.
“I don’t either. See, we already have something in common.”
He waited for her to smile, and then left her alone. They drove in silence, while he kept his attention on the street and the traffic, and while Kaylee looked out the window, teeth sunk into her bottom lip and her arms crossed, protectively, over her midriff.
There was no wait when they got to the place on Second, and a few minutes later, they were sitting in a booth in a corner
, quiet and out of the way, grazing on a basket of all-you-can-eat French fries. Or Owen was grazing. Kaylee was tucking in like she hadn’t seen food in a few days.
Surely losing her job didn’t mean she was starving? If so, he’d just found a new purpose in life: take Kaylee to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, to make sure she got three square meals a day.
He waited until she’d had a few minutes to snack, before he broached the subject again. “So about Peckers...”
She looked at him. “I got fired.”
“Why?”
“Long story.” She picked up another fry, dragged it through the ketchup, and lifted it to her mouth. Owen watched as her lips closed around it and did his best not to imagine those lips closing around something else. Not too successfully, since he had to shift in his seat to alleviate the pressure behind his zipper.
“Why don’t you start at the beginning?” Maybe, if Kaylee told him her tale of woe, it would be enough to throw cold water on his libido.
She sighed. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He smiled. Charmingly. “I like stories. Just make sure it’s a good one.”
“I don’t know about that,” Kaylee said. “Mostly it’s about a girl who did something stupid.”
“We all do stupid things.”
“Not like this,” Kaylee muttered.
“Well, maybe I can fix it for you. What did you do? Spit in the beer? Cook the books? Borrow money from the till?”
“No!” She stared at him as if he’d grown an extra head. “Not that kind of stupid. Sheesh!”
All right, then. “How about you just tell me what happened, and I won’t try to be helpful.” At least not until he understood the situation.
She nodded and reached for another fry. Dragged it through the ketchup and popped it in her mouth. Owen adjusted his pants again.
“I grew up in a little town about an hour south of here,” Kaylee said. “Halfway between here and Atlanta. In a trailer park.”
She waited, watching him under her lashes. Afraid he’d jump up and run away from her, screaming?
“All right.” So she didn’t come from money. He hadn’t thought she did.
“It was just my mother and me. I never knew my dad. I’m not sure she did. She never talked about him, and when I asked, she told me to mind my own business.”
Owen didn’t have an answer for that—not one he felt he could share—so he kept his mouth shut.
“She died three years ago. Kidney failure. Couldn’t afford a transplant, and there were too many other people on the waiting list.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “Nothing good ever really happens to people like me, you know? That’s why I should have known, when that guy came into Peckers and tried to pick me up, that it was too good to be true.”
“The one who told you he was Gilbert Norris?”
She nodded, and a shadow crossed her face. “I should have realized something was wrong with him. He was a little too slick, and everything he said was a come-on. A slimy one. But he told me he was Gil Norris, so I thought maybe he was used to getting away with it.”
Ouch. Owen let that one lie, although he itched to tell her that not all men with money were slimy. “Didn’t you wonder if he really was who he said he was?”
She shook her head. “Why would I? When someone tells you their name, it isn’t like you question it, you know what I mean? Why would you?”
Owen nodded.
“I was surprised that he was interested in me. Alana and Melody were there too, and they’re both prettier than I am.”
Owen had a hard time believing that, but she was already moving on, so he didn’t say anything.
“So I went home with him. I thought maybe, if he liked me, he’d want to see me again. I don’t usually sleep with guys on a first date,” she glanced at him under her lashes, and he wondered whether it was a warning to him not to try anything when he brought her back home, “but I thought he was Gil Norris...”
“Right.” Amazing, the doors the Norris name and mention of Norris money opened. Maybe that’s what he should have done right from the start: tell her that he was really Gilbert Norris’s grandson and that one day he’d inherit Norris Industries and everything in it. Maybe if he’d done that, she would have been all over him the way she’d been all over the other guy. And he wouldn’t have had to listen to the bed banging against the wall in the other condo, and Kaylee moaning while someone else was getting what Owen wanted.
Chapter Four
“I MADE SURE he used protection,” Kaylee said. “I swear I did. I’m not careless like that. My mother got knocked up when she was younger than me, and if there was one thing I didn’t want, it was that.”
“But?” There was clearly a “but” coming, and he had a sinking feeling he knew what it was.
“He had a really small dick,” Kaylee said, making Owen feel grateful he wasn’t eating anything right then, because he would have choked on it, whatever it was, “and the condom slipped off.”
“You’re kidding.” He couldn’t help it, the words just fell out of his mouth. He may have his faults, but he’d never knocked anyone up, accidentally or on purpose. And certainly not because he couldn’t keep a condom in place. He could just imagine the embarrassment of having to apologize.
And then—Christ!—having to go fishing for it? It was almost enough to make him feel a bit sorry for the other guy.
Almost.
Kaylee shook her head, her cheeks hot. He took a moment for the embarrassment to settle, for both of them. While he did, the food arrived. He’d ordered a burger and Kaylee a chicken salad sandwich. She tucked in without waiting for him. Now he knew why.
“So you’re pregnant,” he said.
She nodded, her mouth full.
“By a man you know nothing about.” Other than that he was a liar with a Mercedes keychain and a really small dick.
She nodded.
“Is that why you lost your job, too?”
She nodded. And swallowed. “They said to come back when my boobs are bigger than my stomach.”
Ouch. “Your boobs are bigger than your stomach,” Owen said. “You have great boobs. I’ve always...”
Shit. Way to make her feel better, dung-brain. Compliment her rack.
“Thank you,” Kaylee said, as if there was nothing unusual about a man telling her he’d always liked her breasts. Maybe there wasn’t. Owen wasn’t sure whether that made it better or worse. “And they are. Usually. Just not right now.” She took another bite of the sandwich.
“And you’re packing to move. Where are you going to go?”
She shrugged.
“Don’t you have something lined up?” She couldn’t just walk away. Not just because that would mean he’d never see her again, but because she had to go somewhere.
“I figured maybe I could crash with Alana or Melody for a while. Just until I figure out somewhere else to live. More permanently.”
“What about family?”
“I told you,” Kaylee said, “it was just me and my mom. And she’s dead.”
So she had no car, no job, and no income, nowhere to live and no one to stay with. If she moved in with one of the waitresses from Peckers, she’d probably end up sleeping on the floor, and that wouldn’t be good for her in her condition. And how long before they got tired of her and kicked her out? “When’s the baby due?”
“Middle of April,” Kaylee said, her mouth full.
Six months from now. He could offer her his second bedroom until then. It wasn’t like he used it for anything.
Well, technically he used it for work... but he could move his desk into his own bedroom. It would be cramped but worth it, if it meant having Kaylee move in with him.
Although she’d probably think he was hitting on her. Taking advantage of the situation to snag a hot live-in girlfriend. She’d move in, and then he’d start making demands.
He couldn’t even blame her, espec
ially after he’d told her he liked her breasts. Watching her all the time, and having to keep his hands off? Not an easy thing to do.
To distract himself from the idea of Kaylee walking around his apartment in her underwear, he asked, “What kind of baby is it? Boy or girl?”
“I don’t know,” Kaylee said. “I think it’s too soon to tell.”
“You think? What did the doctor say?”
“I haven’t been to see a doctor.”
He had just lifted his burger, and now he put it back down on the plate. She was three months pregnant and hadn’t been to see a doctor? “Why?”
“No money. And no health insurance.”
Fuck. He leaned back in the booth. Not even he could help with that. A roof over her head was one thing. That was something he could handle. And he could feed her. She wouldn’t have to work, he could afford the expenses on his own, without her help. But health benefits...?
For that she needed a job. And he wasn’t sure he could get her one. Norris Industries didn’t have many positions open for recently fired Peckers waitresses without experience or an education, especially when they were pregnant.
Although...
“You’re not eating,” Kaylee said, looking at him with concern.
“I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
“Something I can do to help.”
She blinked. “It’s not your responsibility.”
No. But she had no one else.
“It’s my mistake,” Kaylee insisted. “I’ll fix it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll figure something out.”
Sure. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.” But she looked wary.
“Why didn’t you terminate the pregnancy? You’re single, you have no family and no health insurance, and you don’t even know the name of the guy who knocked you up...”
She flushed, and for a second he thought he’d gone too far. That she’d get up and dump the rest of her milkshake over his head.
But instead she answered. “I knew who he told me he was. It wasn’t my fault that he lied.”
Friends With Benefits Page 3