She returned her gaze to her daughters, and her heart swelled. This man, the one she’d deemed totally inappropriate for their lives, had made two girls laugh and smile so wide their cheeks must surely hurt.
“Want some lemonade?” he asked.
A moment passed before Sara pulled herself out of the heady realization that Adam was carving a place for himself not only in the girls’ hearts, but also in her own. Honestly, it scared her, but she felt powerless to stop it. She looked in his direction and noticed he was indicating the frozen lemonade stand down the beach.
“Sure. Sounds good.”
She watched as he walked toward the stand, and her heart performed a series of flips any gymnast would envy.
“You like him,” Tana said in a singsongy, teasing voice as she came close. “I knew it.”
“Okay, fine, I like him. Are you happy?”
Tana’s smile grew even wider. “Why, yes, I am.”
Sara laughed and pulled Tana next to her, tickled her until she squealed and wriggled free. Tana dropped to the sand and sat back on her heels a couple of feet away.
“He’s nice. Cooler than other guys you’ve gone out with.”
“Hey.”
Tana gave a matter-of-fact shrug. “It’s the truth.”
Sara rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Lilly’s kite-flying efforts.
“Are you going to go out with him again?” Tana asked.
Sara lowered her gaze to the sand. “I don’t know, maybe.”
“You should. You two look good together.”
Sara raised her eyebrow. “And you have so much experience matchmaking.”
“Just common sense. Some people look good together. Some don’t.”
“Looking good together isn’t the most important thing.”
“Doesn’t hurt.”
Sara spotted Adam returning with the lemonades. No, it certainly didn’t hurt.
“You’ve got it bad,” Tana said before she jumped to her feet and ran back toward Lilly, leaving Sara to admit to herself that her oldest might be right.
The moment she acknowledged it, a flood of yearning washed through her. If she and Adam were alone, she wasn’t the least bit sure she wouldn’t push him back in the sand and kiss him senseless.
“Thanks,” she said when he handed her the icy lemonade. She took a long drink, enjoyed the tartness on her tongue and the cool feel of the ice sliding down her throat. “That’s just what the doctor ordered.”
“Tough day?” he asked as he settled beside her in the sand.
She nodded.
“The Turnbow case?” He sounded hesitant, as if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to ask the question.
“Yeah.” She didn’t even try to disguise the fatigue and sorrow she’d carted home with her.
“Makes you wonder how humanity has lasted this long when we go around killing each other, doesn’t it?”
Something in the way he said it, like he was tapping an unthinkable memory, made Sara look at him, examine his strong, attractive profile. He turned, locked his eyes with hers.
“What makes you say that?” Did her voice sound breathy, or was that only in her head?
He broke eye contact and turned his attention to the waves rolling onto the edge of the shore. “Just seems like that’s all that’s on the news anymore.”
She suspected there was more to his observation, but she didn’t question him. Instead, she took another drink of her lemonade and focused all her thoughts on the cold, refreshing taste. She let the simple pleasure of drinking lemonade on the beach with a good-looking man at her side while her daughters enjoyed flying a kite replace all the ugliness of the past couple of days.
“So, you going to let me take you out sometime, without the girls tagging along?” He asked it with that familiar flirtatious tone in his voice.
She smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Well, that’s better than a no,” he said, then laughed as the kite fell right on top of Lilly’s head.
HE WAS TEMPTING FATE, but Adam didn’t care. From the moment Sara Greene had dived off that pier after him, his brain hadn’t been functioning properly anyway. To his surprise, she showed up at the Beach Bum after work the day following the girls’ kite-flying excursion. They did nothing more than sit and have a drink together, but it was nice and easy. For the first time, he thought back to how much work all the flirting had been. He’d never realized it, especially since he’d tried to work as little as possible.
The next day, they met for lunch. By the end of the meal, he’d captured her hand atop the table. And she didn’t seem to mind.
When the day after that she invited him to a cookout at her house, he had to admit the woman had invaded not only nearly all his thoughts, but also his very bloodstream. That part of himself that had sworn never to get serious about a woman again berated him for allowing this to go so far, but he sent those thoughts back into the dark corners of his mind. Hard to do when the Turnbow case had been all over the news and he’d suspected she’d helped to solve it.
Being with Sara gave him a sense of happiness he hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since those hot, dusty but intoxicating days with Jessica.
That thought caused him to hit the brakes on his car, eliciting a lot of horn honking behind him. He pulled in to a parking lot, realized he’d broken out in a cold sweat. He couldn’t do this, not again. God, what had he been thinking?
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
Adam started, jerked out of those faraway memories by Zac’s voice. His best friend stood outside the car, a bouquet of multicolored flowers in his hand. A couple of seconds ticked by before he realized he’d pulled into the parking area for Hearts and Flowers Florist.
Darn small town. Ran into people you knew everywhere you went, and usually when you didn’t want to.
“Are you okay?” Zac leaned over, took a closer look.
Adam wanted to jerk the car into gear and race from the parking lot, drive full out until he escaped the memories that refused to let him find any peace.
That’s when he realized he hadn’t dreamed of Jessica in…not since the night before the kite flying on the beach. When had he ever gone that long without some form of the dream torturing him?
He nodded. “I thought the car was overheating, but the light just went off.” The excuse sounded lame, but it was the best he could do with his jumbled-up brain.
“Uh-huh.” Zac sounded like he knew exactly what was bugging Adam.
Not likely since Adam hadn’t uttered a word about Jessica, about the dreams, about the real reason he’d left the army. Since he and Zac had known each other, all Adam had been was the carefree beach bum, the incurable flirt.
The hollowness of the past few years slammed into him, which didn’t make any sense. That’s what he wanted, right? To not have to be responsible for anything or anyone, to simply float through life until he came to the end of it.
Images of David and Sara filtered through his mind. Damn if he wasn’t reverting back to the person he’d been before that bomb had scarred him in more ways than were visible.
“I gotta go.” Adam didn’t offer any explanations. Maybe he’d explain someday, maybe not. Right now, he just had to get away from Zac and his questions, from that cursed glow of newlywed bliss.
He ignored the guilt that gnawed at him more the farther away from Sara’s house he drove. He might be a bit of a dog when it came to women, but he’d never stood one up. And worse, he felt like he was standing up Tana and Lilly, too.
It wasn’t his fault they’d latched on to him.
No, he’d just taken them out for pizza, bought Lilly a kite, bought chocolate from Tana for her art club’s fundraiser.
Adam gritted his teeth as he nearly took out his mailbox while swerving into his driveway. His neighbors would likely think he was drunk, but he didn’t care. After he got out of the car, he slammed the door so hard he wouldn’t have been surprised if it had come flying out
the other side of the car. The door to the house got the same type of abuse. Once inside, however, Adam just stood in the middle of the living room, wondering what he could possibly do to make himself feel better about ditching on Sara’s cookout without a word.
Nothing. You deserve to suffer.
Yeah, that was new.
He knew only one way to get through the night. Luckily, he’d stocked up on beer just the day before. He feared it was going to take a good quantity to get Sara Greene out of his head.
Cold one in hand, he plunked down on the couch and flicked on the TV, channel surfed until he found one of the Terminator movies. Good, he was in the mood for some futuristic shooting and blowing up stuff.
When the phone rang some time later, he ignored it. At least he tried to. But the stupid thing kept ringing. He’d jerk the cord out of the wall, but that would require him to move. When the answering machine clicked on, he wished he’d made the effort.
Tana’s voice invaded his home, the bubble of numbness he was trying hard to create. “Hey, thought you might have forgotten the time for the cookout. We’re all here, food’s done, see ya.”
No, she wouldn’t.
Chapter Ten
Adam was about as friendly as a snake that had been poked with a stick. All the next day, it took way more effort than he liked to expend to not bite off the heads of everyone who came to the pier. He skipped his normal visit to the Beach Bum altogether and dreaded the questions that would arouse.
The bad mood accompanied him home for a second night and refused to unstick itself from him or let him rest. Though he was dog-tired, after a couple of hours of subpar sleep, he found himself roaming the house. He didn’t turn on the lights, didn’t want to illuminate the person he’d become.
A guy who ditched a nice woman without an explanation.
A man who refused to let go of the past.
One who was so damned scared of caring for someone again that he refused to acknowledge it was happening.
He dropped to the couch and sat staring at nothing in particular, his mind whirling.
Was it possible for him to set aside what had happened in Iraq and attempt an actual relationship with Sara? Part of his mind screamed yes, but it was the part dying to be with her right this very minute. Should he pay attention to it or to the part that told him to stay away, to protect himself?
He let his head drop back against the top of the couch and stared at the ceiling. For once, he wished someone or something would tell him what to do—because he sure didn’t know himself.
He woke up just before daybreak with a horrible crick in his neck. Served him right. As he sat and let sleep ebb, he realized that the idea of getting serious about Sara didn’t seem as bad this morning as it had the night before. He kept waiting for his common sense to smack him upside the head, but it didn’t. Not when he trudged to the bathroom. Not as he showered and dressed. Not as he walked out into the dawn of another day.
By the time he drove in to the parking lot of the Coffee Cottage, his mood lightened. He began to think of all the years of keeping his distance as a sentence that had to be paid, and maybe it was finally over. He was so stunned that he didn’t even notice Ruby until he almost ran into her. She stood in line staring at her phone. When she looked up and noticed him, he didn’t get a warm, fuzzy feeling.
At a loss for what to say, he glanced at the phone in her hands. “Twittering again?”
She didn’t smile. “Doubt you’d like what I’m saying.”
He let out a long sigh. “That I’m a big jerk.”
“Enormous.”
What was he supposed to say to that? She was right.
“You know, I told Sara to give you a chance. Now I feel like a fool.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her.” He was surprised anyone would care enough about him to even make that scenario possible.
“She wasn’t the only one.”
He could still hear Tana’s voice on his answering machine even though he’d erased the message.
“Those girls see something in you. They’ve never latched on to someone Sara’s dated before.”
“They shouldn’t have.”
“Yeah, well, they did. Get over it.” Ruby moved to the front of the line and ordered her coffee before turning toward him again. “Despite your imitation of a weasel the other day, I still think there’s hope for you, too. Sara, however, is going to take more convincing.”
Ruby paid, grabbed her coffee cup and left without another word. Adam was left with the feeling that she wanted him to do that convincing.
Now to figure out how.
“THAT SHOULD DO IT for now, Mr. Wainwright,” Sara said as she closed her notebook. “We’ll contact you if we have any more questions or if we learn anything.”
Mr. Wainwright, who owned a pawnshop on the outskirts of town and who’d been robbed to the tune of several thousand dollars, nodded and turned to start cleaning up the mess the burglars had left behind.
Sara stepped outside into the bright sunlight and shaded her eyes. She faltered when she saw Adam walking toward her from where her car was parked. What was he doing here?
And she had about five seconds to decide how she was going to react to him after he was a no-show at her cookout. Act like nothing had happened, thus not letting him know how much it had hurt her? Or giving him a piece of her mind, thus making her stupid feelings obvious?
“Hey,” he said as he reached her. “The guys at the station said I could find you here.”
“Oh.” Nonchalance, that sounded good.
He shifted from one foot to the other. “Listen, I’m just going to say it. I’m an idiot and an ass on top of that.”
“Very self-observant of you.” She started walking toward her car, and he fell into step beside her.
“I’m sorry I bailed on the cookout and didn’t call.”
She shrugged. “No problem.”
He wrapped his hand around her wrist and stopped walking, forcing her to stop, too.
“I’m not going to make excuses, but I am sorry if…I hurt anyone.” He said the last with an uncertain tone, like he wasn’t sure he should even utter the words.
“It’s a free country, Adam. You can come and go as you like.” It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known he’d bail at some point anyway. She’d just let her herself ignore that fact.
“Let me make it up to you,” he said.
“Not necessary.”
“Okay. Then let me take you out tonight just because I want to.”
That was all she could stand. She turned fully toward him. “You don’t owe me anything. I know you’re a play-the-field guy. Everyone knows that. No hard feelings.”
He caught her gaze and held it. “Right now, I don’t want to go out with someone else. I want to go out with you.”
No matter how hard she tried to prevent it, those words soaked into her, made hope flare to life again. She was an idiot for even considering continuing down this road. She needed to get out now while she could.
“Adam—”
“I’m just going to keep asking until you say yes, so you might as well cave now.”
He sounded so much like his flirty, fun self that a laugh escaped her despite the warning alarms screaming against her eardrums.
She slipped her wrist out of his hand and crossed her arms. “What do you have in mind?”
“It’s a surprise,” he said. “Meaning, of course, that I don’t know yet.”
She laughed and shook her head.
“Just be ready at seven,” he said.
With a big smile, he turned and left before she could change her mind, come back to her senses.
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of watching him leave, so she slipped into the driver’s seat of her car and sat, staring in the opposite direction. She was probably a fool for not walking away now while the hurt was still manageable, but she couldn’t.
She’d just deal with whatever pain there would be when the time
came.
SARA FUMBLED THROUGH her jewelry box, trying to find something to go with her blue-and-white sundress. Nerves made her dump half of the contents onto the top of her dresser. What was wrong with her? She’d been out with Adam before, had spent time with him on other occasions.
But not after she’d thought he’d left her life only to return again with apologies and pleas for another chance.
Tonight felt different, like they were taking a bigger step.
“You sure about this?” Tana asked from the open doorway.
“It’s just a date. I’m going in with my eyes wide open. Besides, I thought you liked Adam.”
“That was before he pulled the ‘disappearing dude’ act.”
Sara stopped her search for the right jewelry and looked at Tana. “He apologized, and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. You know I believe people deserve second chances.”
“But not thirds?”
“Depends, but probably not.”
“Fine, he gets another chance. Here.” Tana extended a wrapped gift toward Sara.
“What’s this?” The girls had already given her their birthday gifts that morning over breakfast.
“Something I thought you could wear tonight. It didn’t arrive until today.”
Sara took the package wrapped in shiny blue paper very like the blue swirls in her dress. When she opened the box inside, a necklace and earrings that looked like white daisies sat on a bed of cotton.
“Oh, Tana, these are so pretty. Where did you get them?”
“The wonders of eBay.”
Sara met her daughter’s eyes, questioning.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t use your credit card. I made some money drawing stuff for people at school, and I gave it to Ruby. She used her credit card to order it.”
Sara ran her fingertips over the large daisy on the necklace. “Thank you. I love them.”
Sara slipped the earrings into her ears and allowed Tana to help fasten the necklace.
“Adam’s going to swallow his tongue,” Tana said as she stepped back and looked at Sara’s ensemble.
The Family Man Page 10