“You haven’t been here that long, have you? You get used to the humidity.” His voice was warm, husky and gave Lacy chill bumps.
As Jake began to walk back to her, she held the clutch up in front of her chest. He’d done a better job of getting to shelter before the storm had come, but his shirt was still spattered with drops of rain and sweat and clung to his broad shoulders, showing every ridge and ripple of the muscles. “No, not long,” Lacy answered as he approached. “I moved from Omaha, Nebraska, so this climate was a shock to me. Why did you decide to come back? Didn’t you like Arizona?” Mr. Barnes, her appointment, was inside waiting for her, impatiently she had no doubt. Sure she was late, but Lacy couldn’t make her legs move to carry her away. She’d much rather be with Jake than avoid the wrath of Percy Barnes.
Jake lifted a hand to his head and took off his cap. It had the Willow Cove logo on it and a thin faded white sweat line from the hard work he’d been doing lately. “Why did I decide to come back? Money, mostly,” he said, laughing and running a hand through his tightly cropped hair. “They offered me a deal I couldn’t pass up. Plus, I needed to mend some family fences.” Lacy felt her blood pressure escalate as she noted the few strands of silver mixed in with all of that dark sable brown. It looked soft to the touch. And she wanted to touch. He went on with his explanation. “But I don’t plan on staying forever. As soon as I finish this job, I’m out of here. I need to get out of Louisiana.”
“You’re leaving?” The news hit her like a ton of bricks.
He smiled gently, seemingly deep in thought. “Not anytime soon, I don’t have an offer yet and I wouldn’t walk off this job until it’s finished. That’s just not my style.”
Sadness cascaded over her like the rain had earlier. “I hate that,” she confessed. “You seem very nice.”
“Hey.” Jake stepped a bit closer to her. “I’m not gone yet. And I’d appreciate you not telling anyone what I said. I’d hate to be fired for making future plans.”
“Oh, I’d never say anything. You can count on me.”
“What were you doing out in this bad weather?” he asked, as if reluctant to end their conversation.
“I had to run back to my place for something. Living onsite can be handy.” Lacy lived at Willow Cove. Accommodations had been part of the incentive package to come work as the events coordinator for the resort. Sure there was a downside, since she never really got away from work because she lived only a few steps away. But it also meant she was never alone, and that was important. Much of Lacy’s life had been spent without the company of peers, just her family and she wanted to spread her wings and fly a bit. But now she’d learned Jake didn’t plan on hanging around very long—just her luck. If Lacy was going to have any shot at Jake at all, she was going to have to put some plans in motion. And fast.
“Where do they have you set up?” Jake asked.
She was so deep in thought, his question startled her. “One of the condos.” She pointed past the clubhouse toward the golf course. Lacy’s mouth was literally watering, this was the longest she’d ever spent in Jake’s presence and his gray eyes were making her even more nervous. Surely he had to know the effect he had on women.
“Which one?” Jake asked.
“Three-oh-eight.” ‘Write it down. Memorize it.’ She wanted to say.
“Nice. When I came to work here, they put me up at The Bailey’s.”
Lacy hadn’t been in one of the fancy waterfront homes, but she’d passed by them on her runs. “So I’ve heard.” She knew he’d lived there for a bit when he first arrived. Oh, Lacy knew the stories all right, stories of the waitresses at the resort who’d gone to Jake’s room late at night and left their hearts there. Jake Knight had become a local legend around the resort and not just because of his fast greens and tightly cut fairways, but for his prowess in bed. He had a reputation as a man who knew what he was doing on the course and knew even more in the bed. By all accounts, Jake Knight was a fully mature male who knew how to please a woman and the thought made Lacy shiver with need. “You’re older than I thought you were,” she said out loud, then put her hand over her mouth.
Jake just laughed. “I get that a lot.”
Lacy stuck out her hand, placing it on his forearm. “God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” He looked great. Really great. Jake had the body of a twenty-year-old, but the salt and pepper hair and laugh lines around his eyes, betrayed the fact that this man was no mere teenager.
Jake placed his hand on top of hers. “Don’t worry about it. I’m thirty-four. Like I said. I get that a lot. It’s the gray hair. It comes with dealing with golfers all day. I tell ya, they can be one hell of a demanding group. Everyone has an opinion on what height the greens should be cut at, or what kind of sand we should use in the bunkers.”
“There are different types of sand?” Lacy loved to hear him talk, it didn’t really matter what they were talking about.
“You’d be surprised. First thing I did when I got here was change the sand we used in the bunkers. I had tons of the stuff shipped down from Ohio.”
“Why?” Had he just looked down at her breasts? She’d been so enthralled with him, it had never occurred to Lacy that he might be checking her out. But...yes! She wasn’t wrong, his eyes did slip from her face to her chest. To give him credit, though, Jake never missed a beat. He went right on talking.
“Because the sand they were using before I got here turns brown when it rains. The sand I get from Ohio stays whiter longer. I don’t know about some of these yahoos who golf here, but I like my grass green and my sand white. Of course, half the golfers loved it, the other half blamed the new sand for their bad scores and guess who had to hear about it?”
“You, I’d assume.” The very idea that he might be a bit attracted to her made a blush wash up Lacy’s face. Now her nipples weren’t the only things swelling, she felt her clit wake up and take notice.
“I tell ya, it seems like you can age ten years during the course of one golf season.” He stepped close to Lacy to speak in conspiratorial tones. “But you know what it’s like, I’m sure. You work events. I’ve worked on plenty of golf courses in my life and I know that if there’s one thing that matches and is maybe even harder than running the course, it’s running the events. I only have to deal with retired engineers who blame me every time they don’t break ninety, you have to deal with demanding brides and cranky businessmen. I don’t envy your job at all.”
“It can be fun,” Lacy whispered. He was so close. She was only picking up the odd word Jake spoke, she was too busy enjoying his proximity and the mixture of soap and sweat that kept sending surges of electricity down her spine.
“I guess there are assholes everywhere in life.”
“Yeah,” Lacy said with a feminine snort. “There’s one waiting for me inside.”
Jake broke into laughter. “Oh, yea, I know all about it. It’s that time of year. Doc Barnes and his Fourth of July party. Hell, it was the first thing people told me when I hired on. ‘Watch out for Doc Barnes.’ ‘Don’t cross ol’ Percy Barnes,’ they all told me. They didn’t realize I already knew him. He and my family go back a long way. Barnes was instrumental in building this lake back in the sixties and he was responsible for a lot of people losing their homes and their family farms.”
Lacy could tell what Jake was saying was important to him and she wanted to know more. “Was your family displaced when the lake came in?” She knew it would have been before he was born, but those types of things could impact people and places for generations.
“Yea, but that’s a long story. Just know that the old fossil has been here since the resort opened in 1996 and I swear, he hasn’t gone home since I’ve been here. I see him every morning when I get to the course and I see him in the dining room whenever I have to come back at night for something. He thinks he owns the place. What he is though, is a pain in the ass.”
“I wish I had the guts to say stuff like that about the membe
rs.” She studied his mouth while he spoke, thinking how amazing it would be if she had the courage to go up on tiptoe and join their lips.
“You gonna tell on me, Miss Allen?”
Was he flirting with her? Surely not, but something in his smirk when he said it turned Lacy’s core molten and made her giggle. She wished she was the daring kind of girl who said something like, ‘What will you give me to keep my mouth shut?’, back to him, but it was taking all she had in her just to keep from melting under his gaze, much less come up with a witty retort. “No,” she said, sincerely. “I’d never do that.”
“Good. I knew you wouldn’t.” Jake turned and went back to the edge of the covered valet parking area and Lacy scolded herself.
“Good?” she said in a whisper, not intending for him to hear. “Seriously? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“Looks like it’s letting up,” Jake said, offhandedly.
Obviously he was only staying with her until he could make a run for it and not get wet. Heck. Lacy walked over to where Jake was standing. The sun was threating to peep out from behind the thick blanket of clouds overhead and the rain had let up significantly. “You’re going back out now?” Lacy said when Jake put his cap back on and ventured out into the thin curtain of rain.
“Those bunkers aren’t going to shape themselves,” he said, stepping up onto a large yellow backhoe. “I’ll catch you later.” Jake smiled and waved at her, driving off with two quick taps of the horn.
Lacy watched him drive away with that big powerful piece of equipment between his legs. She’d heard it wasn’t the only big powerful piece of equipment he had between his legs. And she’d give her eyeteeth to find out for sure. And now that she knew their time together might be limited, Lacy thought she ought to be brave enough to take a few risks. “You can count on it, Mr. Knight, because I won’t be running very fast.”
*****
“Where’s that fool going?” Percy Barnes asked Lacy the moment she entered the clubhouse. He’d been standing in the main building, watching the rain with everyone else and saw Jake and Lacy talking.
“Good morning, Mr. Barnes,” Lacy said in greeting.
“That’s Doctor Barnes to you, girl.” The old man had to be ninety years old if he was a day and even though he’d been retired from his proctology practice for over thirty years, he still insisted everyone address him as ‘Doctor’ Barnes and Lacy was no exception. What Jake had told her about him hadn’t really come as a surprise. She’d known he’d been involved with the original construction of the resort nearly twenty years ago. But she hadn’t known of his ties with the lake itself. She knew some of the history and how both Texas and Louisiana worked together to get the massive lake filled. Many people still resented the lake, but there were also countless who had profited. It was understandable that Barnes felt some pride in the lake and the success of the resort. Although he hadn’t really invested any money in the construction of the club, he had introduced the club’s owners to the man who owned the land the resort was built on. That tenuous connection was enough to convince Percy Barnes, if just in his own mind, that he was part owner of the Willow Cove Golf and Conference Resort. So he spent his days there, bossing around the staff as if they were his employees and generally being, like Jake had said, a pain in the ass. It didn’t take Lacy long after meeting him the first time, to decide that Mr. Barnes was what he used to examine for a living. But he was sort of an institution around the place, so she just kept her mouth closed and dealt with him.
“He said something about shaping bunkers,” Lacy offered, walking to her office quickly. The sooner she got this meeting under way, the sooner it’d be over. “Are you ready, sir?”
“Why the board wants to add an extra nine holes is beyond me.” Barnes pondered as he walked behind Lacy. “And to hire that idiot to do it? Well, I’ve known his no-count family for years. No Knight ever did anything to brag about.”
An urge to defend Jake rose in her spirit. “I heard he came highly recommended and is doing a wonderful job.”
“Hogwash,” Barnes sneered. “Did you know he got the sand for the bunkers from Ohio?”
“So I’ve heard.” Lacy bit her lower lip to stop herself from popping off at the old man.
“It costs twice the price of the sand we already have,” Barnes complained. “There’s nothing wrong with good Louisiana dirt!”
“I’ve heard the new sand is more desirable. It lasts longer and stays whiter.” She couldn’t help spouting off. Moving into her office, she stepped behind her desk, signaling for the old gentleman to make himself comfortable. He ignored her.
Barnes fixed Lacy with a stern, disapproving look. “Is that what you heard?” Lacy didn’t answer. “And what exactly have you heard about showing up for a meeting on time, Miss Allen? Didn’t they teach you any manners or business acumen where you came from?”
“I’m sorry about being late, Doctor Barnes. I had to run back to my room for something and I got caught in the rain.” And it had been totally worth it. Lacy looked out the window of her office. Jake was sitting on the backhoe, working the arm with precision to move a pile of topsoil while a crew of men leaning on shovels looked on. “Have a seat, Doctor Barnes, please.” She insisted as she closed the blinds of her office so she wouldn’t be tempted to turn around and look at Jake every few minutes during the meeting. Now, as soon as the good Doctor was gone, all bets were off. Lacy was sure she’d be tempted to just lock her door and sit there watching Jake work all day. She wouldn’t care if she got a lick of work done. But before she could indulge in something like that, she had to try and make this old curmudgeon happy if she possibly could.
“As I made you aware at our first meeting, Miss Allen, I’ve been in charge of the Fourth of July party at Willow Cove since it opened back in 1996.”
Of course Lacy was aware, he’d told her this about a thousand times already. “Yes, sir. And I hope we can make this year’s celebration extra special for you. I have some ideas...”
He ignored her and kept talking. “Many members consider it to be the premiere event of the season. In fact, many have been asking me about the details. Personally, I don’t like to take chances. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I say. So with that in mind, I don’t want to make too many changes. I’m sure your predecessor has a file for the party somewhere in that filing cabinet of hers.”
The party wasn’t far off, only a little over a week away. This was her second meeting with Doc Barnes and she’d indeed found the file for the party in the large black cabinet which dominated her office like an ancient monolith. ‘Ms. Decker was from a time long forgotten,’ the man who’d hired Lacy told her when showing Lacy her new office. ‘She preferred paper to computers. I’m not sure how you want to do it, but you might consider working from her files for a little while. You’ll find more valuable information in that clunky metal cabinet of hers than you will on her computer.’
“I pulled the file the other day, sir,” she assured him. June was coming to an end and they were right smack dab in the middle of the peak season. Lacy was in charge of events at the resort and she barely had any free time at all. The condos and hotel were full every weekend, there was always a wedding or a conference in town and she’d hardly had time to look at the file for the Fourth of July party.
“And do you think you’ll be able to handle it?” He was looking at her with skeptical eyes, not trying to hide the fact that he had serious doubts. “As I’ve said, Miss Allen, this is the club’s premiere event of the season and I’d hate for anything to go wrong.”
Lacy bit down on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to crawl over the desk and smack the concerned look right off his two-hundred-year-old face for doubting her. “I can assure you, Doctor Barnes, that while I haven’t had that much time to look over the file, I’m more than capable of handling it. Let’s not forget, putting parties and events together is what they pay me for. I can assure you I’ll be able to handle it.”
> Barnes stood up from his chair with the help of his cane. He was surprisingly spry for a man of his age and Lacy doubted he even needed the cane. He probably just carried it so he always had something in his hands to swat stray dogs with. Doctor Barnes was overtly mean, he did it openly and without restraint and she wondered how often she’d be forced to deal with him in the coming weeks. Oh, well. Even though her job was important, Lacy had other plans to set in motion besides the Fourth of July fireworks, ones that included Jake Knight and some fireworks of her own.
*****
Lacy’s head was spinning. She had to deal with a nervous bride who wanted to switch two hundred salads from chef to Caesar, a businessman who insisted that the resort should let him use an extra conference room for no additional cost and a club member who was trying to get free soda for his daughter’s sweet sixteen party which was being held at the pavilion down by the lake. Those were just a few of the things Lacy had to deal with during the morning. “Why do these people think they can talk to me however they want?” Lacy vented to her assistant Jenny after getting off the phone with the businessman who wanted the extra seating free of cost. “It’s like they think just because they’re paying me to do something for them, they can treat me as poorly as they’d like.”
Even though today wasn’t much different from every other day, demanding customers and worse, rude customers, were a part of the event business. Couple this aggravation with the frustration from her failed attempt at an orgasm the day before, had Lacy on pins and needles.
“Just go to lunch,” Jenny told her. “I’ll hold down the fort here. The author convention we hosted over the weekend for Sable Hunter ordered lots of extra chicken wraps.”
“And they didn’t finish them all?” Just the thought made Lacy’s stomach growl.
“Not even close,” Jenny said with a smile. “All of those erotic romance writers had more on their mind than food. You better get down to lunch before today’s staff special is all gone.”
Red Hot and BOOM! A Sizzling Hot Collection of Stories from the Red Hot Authors Page 16