Stop.
He listened to his brain … or maybe it was his heart that directed him to do so. Carefully he watched Coral’s face. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She was a nice woman. It wasn’t her fault he was mad.
“Wow.” She smiled and reached for the doorknob behind her. He knew what was going to happen if he followed her inside.
“Wait.” He grasped her wrist. “I can’t come in tonight. It’s only our first date. What kind of man do you think I am?”
She seemed surprised for a moment but then smiled brightly at him. “It looks like I’ve finally met a gentleman. My mother wasn’t lying when she told me they existed. I guess I’ll have to see you again.”
They said their good nights and Colin returned to his house wondering why he hadn’t felt the slightest bit of arousal when he was kissing that beautiful woman. The thoughts plagued him all night, so much so that when he went into his shop the next morning his eyes were blurry from lack of sleep.
“You look … surprisingly awful,” Cherri said, standing by a rocking horse he was restoring. She frowned at him and then walked over, placing her cool hand against his cheek. “Are you getting sick?”
He leaned into her hand and shut his eyes for a moment, her touch now familiar and strangely comforting. “No. I just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Oh.” She dropped her hand and quickly stepped away from him.
He knew that she was aware of his date last night and was almost positive she’d just gotten the wrong idea. He was about to reach out and grab her, prepared to clarify his statement, but he stopped himself. Cherri was just his friend. He didn’t owe her an explanation and wasn’t sure why he felt the almost panicky need to give her one. The truth was, he might end up in bed with Coral or another woman. He was supposed to be getting back out there. He didn’t want to be his father, over fifty and still picking up women.
“You can go back to bed if you want,” she started. “I’ll handle things around here for a few hours. I can finish the rocking horse now that you’ve fixed the crack on the side. The delivery man dropped off the piece for the cash register you’ve been waiting on. He said to tell you hi. Oh, and a Mr. Naples called for a quote on a cuckoo clock he bought from a yard sale. I told him to bring it in for you to look at. He said he could be here by two. So you have plenty of time to go recuperate.”
She was speaking a mile a minute and her cheeks were fiery red. Poor lass. “I slept alone last night, love.”
“You did?” Her eyes went wide and she froze for a moment. “Why did you tell me that?” Without waiting for his answer she turned away from him, grabbing a piece of sandpaper before returning to the rocking horse. “Well, it’s none of my business anyway. You don’t have to tell me anything, Colin. In fact, I don’t want to know who you sleep with ever. I just say those things to get under your skin. I bet men talk about that kind of stuff with their guy friends. Do you and Mike talk about that kind of stuff? Well, I guess he wouldn’t talk about his sex life with Ellis with you. That would just be weird and if he does tell you, please don’t tell me because I don’t want to know. Guy friends must talk about different stuff than we would or maybe they don’t. We’re friends, right?”
“Right,” he said when she finished her confusing, flustered babble. “We’re friends.”
Friends.
Just friends.
It was bullshit and they both knew it. He knew why he couldn’t take Coral to bed last night even though he tossed and turned all night trying to deny it.
He liked Cherri. All the serious adult conversation he had with Coral last night, all the shared interests they had, didn’t hold a candle to how he felt when he was with Cherri.
He liked Cherri’s bubbly innocent sweetness.
But he needed Coral’s experience, maturity, and independence.
Damn.
He buried himself in his work that day, unable to face the uncomfortable thoughts bombarding him. It was nearly one o’clock when Cherri tapped him on the shoulder and waved a giant sandwich under his nose.
“I bought you lunch.”
“You didn’t have to do that, love.” He didn’t like the idea of her spending money on him.
“You brought my dog home and are sweet to my grandmother and you don’t have to be. I think a sandwich is just a small token of my appreciation. So take a break for half an hour and eat your lunch.”
“It’s a big sandwich. Share it with me?”
She nodded and they ended up in his office. He tossed the sandwich on his desk and unwrapped it. “Aw, Charlotte. This is so beautiful it brings me to tears.”
“It’s an Italian combo from Roma’s.” She grinned at him. “You look like a man who enjoys his meat.”
“Ha ha.” He shook his head at her bad joke. “I think there may be some paper plates in the bottom of that cabinet.”
He cut the sandwich in half and turned to her, but her head was still buried in the cabinet, her curvy behind sticking up. He hardened immediately. He took a step toward her but stopped when he realized the urge to pull that soft round behind into him was overwhelming. Bloody fucking hell. For the hundredth time he questioned his sanity for offering her a job. His body wanted her. His mind was a far different story. It wanted to tell her to get the hell away from him. She was dangerous to his well-being. But he couldn’t just send her away. Despite his insane attraction to her, he needed her at the shop. She was good at what she did. Good for his business. He’d known for a long time that he needed help running things, but he’d balked at the idea of hiring another person. His work was his pride and his life. He’d thought finding another person who could meet his exacting standards would be impossible. Somehow Cherri managed to, though. She did more than decorative pieces. She sanded, and cut and lifted and got dirty, and she did it all with a smile. But most important, and perhaps most troubling, she filled up that empty space in his chest when she was around. Getting out of bed was a little easier when he knew she would be in his shop.
“Col, when’s the last time you cleaned out this cabinet? There’s so much crap in here.” He pulled his eyes away from her ass and sat on the couch, crossing his legs. It was better that she didn’t know she had the power to arouse him without even touching him.
“It’s been years, but if you want to tackle that job, love, I would be more than happy to let you do it.”
“I’ll do it tomorrow. Aha! I found them. They were stuck under this picture.” She stood up, frame in one hand, plates in the other. But she didn’t look at him. She was frowning at the broken picture frame in her hand.
“What is it, love?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Here.” She handed him the frame and all at once memories of a time he’d rather forget came crashing down on him. A throbbing hand. A hole in the wall. Betrayal. “Who is she?”
He stared at the picture of Serena and him taken on their last vacation together. They both looked so happy with their tanned skin and big smiles. Colin had been happy then. He’d had no idea that the life he had been living with the woman he thought he loved was a lie. “She’s nobody,” he finally answered.
Cherri slid her warm body beside him on the couch, causing him to forget what they were talking about.
“Want me to beat her up for you? She looks little. I bet I could take her.”
“She’s not worth the fight.”
“Let me be the judge of that.” She took the photo from him and threw it in the trash can. “Tell me who she is, Colin.”
“She was the woman I thought I would marry.”
“What happened?”
“She cheated on me. I might have been able to forgive her for that, but she lied to me for a year and that’s what did us in.”
“Somebody actually cheated on you?” She shook her head. “But you’re so freaking beautiful.”
He was surprised to find himself smiling down at her. “That had little to do with it.”
“You loved her.�
� The way she said it he knew it wasn’t a question. But he had asked himself that many times since they broke up. Did he really ever love her?
“I thought I did.”
“What does it feel like?” She looked up at him with innocent eyes.
“What? Love?”
“Yeah, I never felt it before.”
“I don’t know. I look at Mike and Ellis and I don’t think I ever really knew what it was.”
“Well, what do you think it feels like?”
“I think it’s uncomfortable. That your chest feels heavy with it, that love, real love is involuntary. Because no matter what you do or say you can’t stop yourself from thinking about them, from wanting what’s best for them, from putting their happiness and needs before your own.”
She scrunched her face. “Sounds like it kind of sucks.”
“Yeah. It more than sucks.” He laughed. “But it can’t be all bad if so many people are searching for it.” He ruffled her hair. “I came in here to eat a sandwich and you’ve got me being philosophical instead.”
“I’m talented that way.” She grinned at him. And they stared at each other for one long, charged moment. He wanted to pull her mouth to his to taste her sweetness, to hold her to him until he could capture what it was that made Charlotte Rudy so refreshing to him. In his adult life he had wanted to have sex with women. He wanted to satisfy his baser needs with them, but this was the first time he’d simply wanted to kiss a woman, to hold one close, to feel her softness, to just be with her.
Damn it.
He was losing it. He felt that pull again, that overwhelming need to have more of her, all of her. Why couldn’t he feel this with Coral—or any other woman, for that matter?
You’re not right for her.
He moved away from her. Getting up to sit at his desk. “I’m starving, love. Toss me a plate so we can get back to work.”
She nodded, a little sadness crossing her face, and he knew that he had hurt her feelings. He hadn’t meant to but he needed space from her. It was the only way he was going to keep his sanity.
* * *
Cherri ignored the pair of sharp green eyes on her back as she fussed over her appearance in the mirror.
They’re like frickin’ laser beams.
“Where are you going again, pixie?” Baba asked for the third time that hour.
The old woman was suspicious, and as much as Cherri hated to admit it she might have a reason to be. It wasn’t every day Cherri went on a date with a wealthy veterinarian. Or any day for that matter. Okay, so she had never been on a date at all, but it was rude for her grandmother not to expect her to eventually. She had always wanted to go out with a guy. She’d always wanted to be one of those girls who never had a Friday night free. So much so that she prayed for some boy to sweep her off her feet.
Dear God, Hook a girl up. Amen.
But after three dateless homecomings she soon realized that boys were dumb and that God had better things to do than worry about her love life. It seemed her charms were lost on most men her age. Or any age, for that matter. But not tonight. She was determined to have a memorable first date with a guy who wasn’t put off by her six-foot stature.
Baba had been watching her get ready for the past half hour, tsking intermediately and making Cherri feel guilty for declining her offer to help.
She just wants you to be beautiful.
Do you want to go on your first date looking like the Ukrainian version of Bouffant Barbie?
Cherri frowned at herself as she ruthlessly twisted a curl around her finger, but her slightly shaking hand slipped from the lock she was trying to tame. Frick! She hated that she was nervous. She hated more that her hair never behaved when she needed it to.
“I’m going to the Red Note Room,” she replied to her grandmother’s question and gave up trying to smooth her hair. She studied herself in the full-length mirror, running her hands over the simple but sexy black dress that she’d borrowed from Ellis. She wanted to look good tonight, but she was debating her choice in shoes. Ellis had given her patent-leather red stilettos but Cherri put on flats instead. She frowned at them. Flats were very unsexy. But if she wore heels she would tower over Sean.
“Why are you going to the Red Note Room?” Baba raised one of her wispy white brows, stopping the argument in Cherri’s head. “You don’t like jazz.”
Apparently Baba had missed her calling. She could have been a master interrogator for the CIA. Forget enhanced interrogation methods. One look from Yuliana Rudy and even the hardest soldier would crack. Too bad her talents were wasted trying to figure out why Cherri was going on a date.
“I’m going because I have a date, Baba,” she said gently. “Remember? I told you about this.”
“You told me about this, but you talk so fast, maybe I don’t understand. It is like there are marbles in your mouth.”
This coming from a woman with an accent so thick, you needed a machete to cut through it.
“You have a date.”
“Yes, Baba.”
“With a man?”
“No, Baba, with a fish. Of course it’s with a man!”
“Don’t be fresh.” Baba swatted her behind. “You could be a Lebanese. I’m a cool grandma. It would be okay with me.”
“That’s lesbian, Baba. And I am not one.”
“So who are you going out with?”
“His name is Sean.”
“And Sean is not Colin.”
“No.” Cherri frowned at her grandmother in confusion. “I’m not going out with Colin. We’re just friends.” He’d made that very clear the other day when he’d moved halfway across the room just to get away from her.
I don’t want you, freakishly tall girl, was practically written on his forehead. And that was okay. She didn’t want him, either. She just liked kissing him and touching him and talking to him …
She shook herself out of those thoughts to find Baba studying her from head to toe with pursed lips. “I think you should go out with Colin instead. You call him.” She offered Cherri the cordless phone.
“It doesn’t work that way,” she sighed. “Sean asked me out, so it’s Sean I will be going out with.”
“I know how dates work, dumb-dumb,” she sniffed. “But I’d rather you go out with Colin. I like him better.”
“How could you like him better? You don’t even know Sean.”
“He’s Rufus’s doctor?”
“Yes.”
Baba folded her arms under her substantial breasts and shook her head. “Then I don’t like him.”
Cherri took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to lose her patience tonight. She was already nervous enough as it was. She was a little uneasy leaving her grandmother home alone. That combined with the fact that she had no idea how to behave on a date was turning the butterflies in her belly into big stinging wasps. The last thing she needed tonight was Baba being difficult. “You told me that Colin wasn’t right for me. Why do you want me to go out with him all of a sudden?”
She shrugged. “I say a lot of things. Colin is a good boy. He bought me apple fritters this morning.”
“He did?” He hadn’t said a word about it to her.
“Yes.” She nodded. “He stopped by while you were at work and we had coffee and fritters. He stops by a lot. So if you are going to go out with all your boobies exposed, I’d rather it be with Colin.”
She looked at her grandmother, wondering how many fritters it would take for her to stop bugging her.
All the fritters in the world couldn’t achieve that. It’s her job to be a pain in your tuckus.
“I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen tonight. I’m going out with Sean.”
“Then wear a sweater.”
* * *
Cherri wobbled into the Red Note Room that night. She had gone with the heels. Yes, they were sexy, but they were the highest pair she had ever worn and instead of feeling like Marilyn Monroe she felt like she had entered the land of the Lilliput
ians. Why hadn’t she gone with her gut?
Head up. Shoulders back. One foot in front of the other. Look sexy. You can do it.
She suddenly felt like she was walking on stilts.
Sean spotted her and waved with a broad smile on his face.
Head up. Shoulders back. One foot in front of the other. Look sexy. You can do it. Don’t fall. Don’t slump. Walk. Walk. Walk.
He put the cloth napkin that was in his lap on the table and began to rise. Oh, don’t do that. Please don’t stand up, she silently begged him. Standing five inches above her date was not sexy. For some reason it was important that Sean saw her that way. She desperately wanted him to see her as a desirable woman. Not the huge dork she felt like. As she wove her way through the black-clothed tables, he stood to greet her. Damn it! Her nose met his hairline. That settled it. She was officially a giant.
He looked a little different than she was used to seeing him. Slick, in a navy-blue suit and black shirt that was unbuttoned to the middle of his chest, long darkish hairs curling over the edge.
“Hey, sweet thing. You look amazing.” He pressed a kiss to her lips again. She stopped herself mid-cringe. Why she felt the urge to wipe his kiss from her mouth, she did not know.
“Hello, Sean.” Smile, damn it. You’re on a date.
He pulled out the chair next to him, inviting her to take a seat. From their semi-secluded table she could see the band beginning to set up for the night. For a few moments she took in the setting. She had never been to the Red Note before and she didn’t know what to think about it, except that it was dark and it was … red. With candles on every table and lights so dim you could hardly see the person you were with. It seemed like a place that clandestine lovers would meet. She wasn’t sure if it was right for a first date. At least not the first date she was hoping for. Being a low-key kind of girl, she was expecting dinner and a movie.
Gosh, Cherri! You’re not in high school. This is how grown-ups date.
She wiped her damp palms on her dress and smiled at Sean. Awkward. She wished that just once she wasn’t.
“You want a drink? I’ve already had a scotch and soda while I was waiting for you.”
So that was the smell on his breath.“Maybe a ginger ale. I’m not much of a drinker.”
Thrown for a Curve Page 12