by LJ Evans
After we’d spent about four hours underground, we came out dirty, tired, but happy into the main cavern. Where, to my utter amazement, there was a ginormous chandelier and a stage. All set up over three hundred feet under the ground!
“What?” I said.
Derek laughed at my amazement and gave me a shove with his shoulder. “Never heard of the Bluegrass Underground either, I take it.”
I just shook my head. How did I not know this existed in Tennessee just a mere hour or so away from home? It was like I had been living under a rock. Not this rock, but a real rock where only grubs showed up.
“PBS puts on concerts here about once a month. What I wouldn’t give to play in this space…” He said almost wistfully letting me see again briefly that there was more to this BB than just a carefree attitude.
And, scarily, that attracted me almost as much as his laugh and his smile.
We walked back the half mile to the main building, and thankfully there was a restroom where I could change and wash my hands and face. The bulk of the dirt was on the outer wear I’d borrowed from the guys, but my Doc Martens were probably history.
I slid into my jean shorts and t-shirt along with flip flops. My hair was stuck to my head from the helmet, but I coaxed it back to life enough to look like a regular ponytail instead of a smooshed raisin.
When I came out, Derek was leaned up against a fence waiting for me. The boys were nowhere to be seen.
“You cleaned up fast,” he said. He was eyeing me again in that way that made my toes want to curl up in their flip flops. “I like your shirt.” It sounded way more seductive than it should have.
I looked down and realized that I was wearing my faded “Mischief Managed” t-shirt. Harry Potter and I have always had a fabulous relationship. But it was his tone that had the red hitting my cheeks like a snowstorm hits the mountains.
“I think I’d like to know exactly what kind of mischief Mia Phillips is capable of getting into.”
I crossed my arms over my huge chest and looked away. “I don’t think I get you,” was all I could respond because I really didn’t.
He pushed himself off the fence and came closer. All my insides were screaming to run the other way. Back to the cool caverns and the place where he was calling me Phillips, and I could just concentrate on getting through a tight space to the other side.
“What don’t you get?” He reached out and tugged at the edges of my pony tail, dragging it forward and twirling his fingers into it. I looked down at those slender musician fingers and swallowed hard.
“I can’t be your normal target,” I breathed out.
“Target?” A frown covered his sensual face in a way that seemed almost foreign to him. His hand froze, still tangled in my hair.
“You know. The long line of women that you’ve clearly got trailing after you.”
He laughed, his cleft stretching in that way that made me hunger to touch it with my finger or my lips. I wondered how he could possibly be so happy so often. “Where We Land” threw lyrics in my direction because I found myself wanting him to tell me his secrets. I wanted to see what caused those brief moments of thoughtfulness I’d glimpsed. But, I also wanted to let the good times flood into my life led by this happy, sexy man, and I wasn’t sure if I loved that or hated that. I couldn’t make up my mind. But I definitely knew I was afraid to free fall because where would I land if I let him take me into his spiral?
“Did Blake tell you that? He’s such a schmuck. He knows that isn’t true,” Derek said, but he was still smiling so I didn’t know if I could take him seriously or not.
“Cam told me. And Cam always tells the truth.” I pulled back and pushed his hand away from my hair and my face so that I could try to think clearly again.
“Cam?” He frowned again. “I’ve only met Cam a couple times, and I swear to God I can’t think of any woman that would have been around when she was there.”
“Okay, so why would Blake tell her you were a player?”
Realization seemed to hit him like a pebble on the water and he chuckled again. I didn’t think there was anything funny about it. But I guess only a guy would think that being a player was cool and not the turn off it would be to a notoriously serious girl like me.
Derek realized I wasn’t seeing the humor, and his laughter disappeared. “It’s a joke,” he started. “My dad lives at the PlayBabe Mansion, so Blake calls me a player or playbabe or playdude or whatever he thinks will get under my skin the most.”
I realized he meant thee actual PlayBabe Mansion, owned by Hugo Brantly. The guy whose magazine had made Playboy and Penthouse look like Christian magazines.
I just stared because, like he’d done multiple times since I met him, he made it impossible for me to figure out what to respond to first. There was probably a dozen follow up questions I could have asked, but it was hard to unravel them all. Instead, I felt both frustrated and oddly relieved.
I was saved from responding by my phone vibrating. And as if she’d realized we were talking about her, the text was from Cam.
CAM: Jesus! Blake just told me that you went caving with the moron. Please tell me you are alive and well.
I stepped away from Derek.
“Mia,” he started to protest, but at the same time the boys came storming out of the restrooms. They were flinging water at each other and laughing like ten-year-olds instead of the twenty-somethings they must be.
I put more space between myself and Derek as I texted back.
ME: I’m alive. It was actually pretty amazing. Mia dirty in a cave. You would have been shocked.
My phone pinged almost instantly.
CAM: I sent that two hours ago! I was almost ready to call your mama.
I’d turned off my phone in the caverns. No signal anyway, and I’d just turned it on as I’d come back out of the bathroom so that I could post pictures on Instagram. Poor Cam. She rarely worried. Especially not enough to call Mama because she knew Mama already worried too much.
ME: Sorry. Was deep underground.
And she came back with:
CAM: Seriously, who are you and what have you done with Mia?
I smiled because Mama had said the same thing last night, and I looked up at Derek as I realized that serious Mia was out of her normal shell because of Dangerous Derek. He was watching me again. I could tell he wanted to finish our conversation, but I wasn’t ready for any of it.
“I’m starving, man,” Mitch said as he flung an arm around Derek’s neck. I wished I could be so casual with anyone. It wasn’t a normal move for me no matter if it was someone I’d known my whole life or not. Jake used to fling his arm around me and rub the top of my head just to torment me. Brothers. God, I missed him still.
“Let’s head back into McMinnville. I read somewhere about a good pizza joint they have,” Lonnie suggested.
“You up for pizza?” Derek asked.
“What idiot would say no to pizza?” I replied and all the boys hooted their approval.
Derek eased up next to me as we walked into the parking lot. “Everything okay?” he asked, referring to my buzzing phone.
I nodded. “Cam was worried once she found out I was with you.”
“Goddamn, Blake!” Derek swore. “If he wasn’t already on my team, I’d swear he had it out for me.”
I smirked. “Maybe he just doesn’t like you enough to see his sister-in-law with you.”
“Who? Me? Everybody likes me.” His tone was teasing, but his eyes were serious and stormy.
We got back in the SUV, and even though I offered again to climb in the back, no one would let me. I sighed. At least they’d been taught some manners. Not everyone had. How many times had I squished into the back of Hayden’s tiny sports car while his friends rode up front?
I texted Cam.
ME: On the way to pizza with the moron and his gang. Did Blake really tell you he had a string of girls? He insists it’s a joke. That Blake is teasing because his dad lives at the Pl
ayBabe Mansion. Don’t ask. I didn’t.
We’d driven back into town and parked before my phone buzzed again.
CAM: Seriously. Who is this? The Mia I know is not interested in scary sexy musicians, doesn’t go caving, and doesn’t hang out with a gang of boys.
This was followed by her next response.
CAM: Blake’s laughing at me. He says Derek’s dad does live in that disgusting mansion and that’s why he harasses Derek. He hasn’t seen Derek with any particular girl, but he does know that the girls love him. I’m seriously putting the man in time out.
A minute later.
CAM: Mia. This is Blake. Cam is now in time out.
Buzz.
CAM: Mia
Buzz.
CAM: Cam will not be getting her phone back for a while. Do NOT do anything stupid with the band boy. Come home. Do I need to come get you?
I couldn’t help it. I chuckled to myself at the thought of Cam and Blake fighting over her phone. It made the guilt filled knot that had formed over my shredded heart lighten a little more.
Derek held the door open for me and leaned in as I went by. “By the way, that smile is completely my kind of target.”
And just that quickly, my smile was swept away as I came to a standstill inside the door. There was nothing for me to imagine in those words. They were straight up.
Derek grabbed my hand and gently pulled me towards the table that his juvenile friends had commandeered. I was completely at a loss for any good words. Did I love it? Did I hate it? I couldn’t make up my mind.
THIS
The Offer
“This is the start of something beautiful. This is the start of something new.”
-Ed Sheeran
IT WAS NEARING EIGHT o’clock by the time we’d dropped the guys off at the hotel, and Derek headed back out towards my house. My stomach and face hurt from laughing. I hadn’t laughed so much in… maybe ever. Laughter wasn’t really what I was known for. I was known for getting jobs done, helping people, reading, and just keeping everybody on the right track. It was what made me good at running the business. It was what I was most comfortable with.
Before I was ready, Derek turned onto my street and parked in front of my house. Unfortunately, I had been right. This gorgeous, sexy BB had stormed into my world, and now, after I’d spent less than twenty-four hours near him, I was already going to miss him. Thank God he’s leaving, my head said, but my heart and body protested.
With manners that I would have doubted when I’d met him at the dealership, but which he’d continued to show, he opened my door and held out his hand to help me down. He didn’t let go of my hand as he walked me to the porch.
Pitter patter went my weak heart.
Mama had turned on the porch light, but it wasn’t quite fully dark yet in our summer in Tennessee. It felt strange and date-like to be going up the steps with him. It hadn’t been a date, had it?
Derek saw our porch swing and grinned. “I love everything about Tennessee. Porch swings, sweet tea, and beautiful women.”
I bumped him playfully with my shoulder, and he tugged me towards the swing. He sat, pulling me down next to him and sending the swing into a dizzying rock.
“Whoa,” he grinned, eyes flashing that puckish look of happiness that was like a kid with a new toy.
The swing slowed, and I pulled away a little, uncomfortable on the swing with him so close and us alone in the semi-darkness.
“I had a good time today,” he said.
“Me too,” I said, and it was truthfully the best day in a really long time. So long that it was hard to remember back to another day where I’d felt like this.
“I’m not ready to say goodbye to you yet,” he told me, and my heart skipped a beat just like the heroines in all those romance novels I’d stuck my head in to escape reality.
“I’m sure we’ll see each other again sometime. After all, Blake is pretty much family now,” I reminded him.
“Yes, but I’d like to see you again tomorrow.”
Once I realized he wasn’t kidding, I had to look away because, boiling butterbeer, his eyes were that stormy gray that made me think of passionate skies and passionate kisses that he hadn’t given me, but I could imagine would be more like broiling butter than silky honey. Or… maybe both and that just made me shiver to my core.
“I think that’s pretty much impossible seeing as you leave for Oklahoma tomorrow,” I said a little breathlessly. The guys had talked about it non-stop at the pizza place.
“Come with me. With us.”
I snorted because really, what person in the world spends less than twenty-four hours with someone and then asks them to tag along on a three-week journey across the country. No one. Not even in stupid fairytale romance novels. Okay, maybe in one or two, but that wasn’t my life at all.
“Mia,” he pulled my hand back into his and twisted it up so that my fingers were trapped against his chest, “It surprises the hell out of me that I’m saying it, but I’m completely serious. Come with me.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t. I have a dealership to run, remember?”
“At twenty-two?”
“How do you know how old I am?”
“I’m good at asking questions of the right people. But you’re avoiding the question,” he said.
“I don’t think there really was a question.”
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“Well, here’s the problem. I just bought this really cool muscle car, and I have to get it back to the West Coast.”
My heart tugged as he talked about Jake’s Camaro even though I was really glad he bought it.
“So?”
“Well, my manager is pissed as hell. Doesn’t want me driving all the way because he says I’ll be too tired for the shows.”
“You have five members in your band.”
“Ah, yes, but they also take turns driving the bus. And besides, would you really want me to trust them with the Camaro?”
He looked down at me with eyes that promised me something if I’d only take a leap. But Good Girl Mia didn’t take leaps. This Mia stayed and ran the dealership so her daddy could semi-retire. This Mia studied in advance for her master’s program that started in the fall. This Mia protected a broken heart by living the life that was expected of her.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I run a car dealership, I don’t go spelunking—”
“—caving.”
“—spelunking with a band on a tour across the country.”
“Not your thing, huh?” he said, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. I almost expected him to throw out, “Me thinkest the lady doth protest too much,” or something equally senseless.
“It’s not me at all,” I tried to sound firm, but I knew I was failing.
“But you had fun today.”
“Sure.”
“And you kinda like the boys.”
“They’re pretty irresistible.” I smiled.
“And me, am I pretty irresistible?” he said with that seductive smile. I had to look away before I gave in to something so crazy that everyone would really think I had lost my head. Because, let’s face it, the happiness, the joy, the lightness of today had been fairly intoxicating. It was a drug that was hard for even me to resist.
“That’s debatable.”
I pulled my hand away and rose from the swing. He needed to leave right now before he said something else that would make me forget all my best laid plans.
He must have sensed my change in mood, but he didn’t get up off the swing yet. He took me in again with eyes that seemed to read through my soul.
“This looks more like the real Mia than the pantsuit you wore yesterday.”
“You don’t know anything about me.”
“You know you want to come. Think of all the hidden waterfalls we can find together. It’s just three weeks. An adventure. How long has it been since you’ve had an
adventure?”
Never! My heart called out. I’d only read about adventures that others took. I crossed my arms over my chest, smooshing their preposterous size into nothingness, trying to protect myself from Derek and his unspoken promises.
“Thank you for taking me today. I’ll never forget it, but my adventure stops here,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
He got up slowly, and I felt like the eagle was circling the mouse as he made his way to me. I wanted him to kiss me, just so I could say that one of the best twenty-four hours of my life had ended in a kiss that made me dissolve into nothingness.
But he didn’t. Instead he unlocked my arms from my chest and pointed to my t-shirt. “I think you want more than you let yourself have.”
Stupid mischief managed t-shirt! I could have responded that didn’t everyone want a little magic and adventure? But reality isn’t a novel. My world was anything but.
“I hope you have a really good time,” I told him firmly.
He lifted his hand and wrapped his fingers into my tangled ponytail. “I’d have more fun with you.”
Guilt hit me because I was a sucker for it. You’d think I had grown up Catholic. But this strange, sexy BB couldn’t push me over the edge. When I didn’t respond, he sighed again. Like I’d disappointed him, and that almost got me more than the guilt. I didn’t want to disappoint this beautiful man. I wanted to read the tattoos on his wrists and kiss the bird on his neck and…
I shook my head.
He pulled away with regret in his eyes. “Well. We aren’t leaving until around ten tomorrow. If you change your mind, you know where to find me. My manager would thank you. He’d probably even pay you.”
He moved towards the steps while still eyeing me. As if I’d change my mind and run after him. He got to the bottom of the steps, shook his head ever so slightly, and then continued out to the SUV.
He looked back over the hood and said, “You’re breaking my heart, Miss Mia. I’m gonna have to write a song about you.”
I eye-rolled him, because who says stuff like that, and then waved good-bye before going inside so that I wouldn’t have to watch him drive away. I heard him honk the horn in one last pitiful effort to make me think about him. Which truly wasn’t hard. Getting my heart to stop racing that was hard. Getting my mind back to the dealership and my master’s classes and my reality, that was hard.