She flew toward him with no concern for distance and he braced himself for the oncoming body slam.
“Good girl, Belle. Good girl.” He showered her with appreciation for obeying his command even as he staggered backward. “We’re going to have to work on your arrivals, though.”
Belle swirled her tail and licked his chin as if it were covered with peanut butter.
Once inside he strolled down the hall to the kitchen and filled a bowl with water for Belle. He made a face, and watched in disgust as she guzzled and slobbered her way to the bottom of the bowl. She lifted her head and her muzzle dripped slimy water onto the floor, but her tongue lolled and her tail wagged, so Sean figured she was pleased with herself. He grabbed a handful of paper towels and mopped up the dog’s mess, then pulled a beer from the fridge, poked around for dinner—leftover pizza—and opened a couple cans of tuna for Belle. He mixed it up with some leftover chicken fingers because he couldn’t think of anything else, and while he downed a couple slices she inhaled the concoction he’d provided. He figured that would hold her until they got back from the pet store.
His glance caught the envelope lying on the breakfast bar. He grabbed it and his heart stuttered at the sight of his name written in Rebecca’s looping script. He knew from the weight and feel of it what it contained before he opened it, and he tamped down disappointment to find his house key with no accompanying note. He wondered if she had left it before or after he brought her the kitten.
The front door banged shut and Belle leapt forward, a single bark erupting. Sean grabbed her by the collar and a moment later Emma appeared in the doorway, looking every inch a co-ed in torn jeans and a low-cut sweater. Her swinging ponytail came to a stop when she rooted her feet to the floor, her blue eyes widening. She stared at Belle. Belle dropped to the floor and rolled onto her back. “Is that, like, a dog?”
Sean stuffed the key in his pocket and took a swig of his beer, eyeing Belle and considering her lack of scruples. “I hope that’s a rhetorical question.”
“Um, I’m allergic to dogs.”
Sean swallowed his grin. “I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t realize. I’ve made the commitment to adopt her, so…” He shrugged and let that hang while he set the beer bottle on the counter. “What do you want to do? You know, you being allergic and all?”
Emma backed up, staring at Belle as if she were the devil incarnate. “Well, I can’t stay here. I mean, I can’t, like, at all. My eyes are already starting to water and I’ll be sneezing in ten minutes. I need some Benadryl or something.”
“Your dad came into town today, didn’t he? Where’s he staying?”
“He’s staying with my Aunt Sylvie.”
“Right. Aunt Sylvie. Maybe you could…” Sean offered a meaningful shrug.
“Well, I don’t have much choice now.” She rubbed her nose and sneezed. “I needed your help again tonight with my prelaw—achoo! Omigod. Omigod. I have to get out of here.” Sneezing, she ran off down the hall. Sean tilted his head toward the sound of her feet pounding up the stairs and grinned.
He knelt and rewarded Belle with a vigorous belly rub. “Nice job. Wonder how she’ll manage at the office with you around,” he murmured. Belle wagged her tail and regarded Sean with dewy eyes. “You ready to hit the pet store, ditch that sissy collar and leash?” She wagged harder.
He loaded her into the Silverado and she jumped onto the seat eager to ride shotgun. His cell rang out and he glanced at the caller ID.
“Hey, Maddie, what’s up?”
“Just checking in with you, making sure you’re coming to TJ’s party on Saturday.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Good. Listen, I, um, hear you have a new girlfriend. Why don’t you bring her with you?”
“Who told you that?”
“Brenna said you have a new girlfriend, that she’s kind of a big girl—not that her being big is, you know, a problem or anything,” Maddie rushed to assure him. “I mean, I’m proud of you, going for a plus-size girl. And that just came out so wrong. I just mean that Brenna told me about her. She didn’t insult her by saying she was big. She just said it as a description.” Maddie’s heavy sigh came through the phone. “I’m screwing this up.”
Amused, Sean said, “What else did Brenna say?”
“That she’s a beautiful blonde with big brown eyes, and that everyone is going to love her.”
Sean looked over at his plus-size girl who, at the moment, had her head out the window, ears blowing in the wind, tongue lolling, her slobber sliding down the partially opened window. He grinned. “She’s right about that.”
“Well, great, then. I can’t wait for Saturday. And you should see TJ. He’s so excited. I just want everything to be perfect for him.”
“I’m sure you’ve done a great job.”
“Sweet Lord, I hope so. Oh, and be sure you take a walk to the gazebo while you’re here. Edie’s in charge of the landscaping and she’s promised me it’s going to be perfect for the wedding come June.”
“If my mother said it, then it will be so.” Sean smiled and thought of Jack. “You sound happy, Maddie. Really happy.”
“I am,” she said, but Sean heard the catch in her voice, her tone low when she spoke again. “I’m so happy that I feel guilty sometimes.”
“Don’t. Jack wanted this for you, remember? You’re marrying the guy he picked.”
Maddie responded with a little laugh. “I know. Is that kind of weird?”
“Only if you don’t know Jack.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, and then hung up with Sean’s solemn promise that he wouldn’t show up at the party alone. Brenna’s deliberate miscommunication amused him, but he debated whether to applaud her wry joke or beat her senseless for stirring up a pot of innuendo.
It didn’t matter. Come Saturday, everyone would know the truth—that the new female in Sean’s life was a real bitch.
Chapter 13
Rebecca stared at herself in the mirror and groaned. She fingered her uncooperative hair and decided it resembled nothing short of a free-growing bush. She could hide a small child in there, for cripes sake. With a disgusted sigh she moved on with her self-perusal. She’d chosen a lightweight sweater in her favored emerald green, but what if it warmed up more than expected? Then she’d have sweat dripping between her boobs. She could wear a shirt underneath, but the girls were so small an extra shirt might flatten her into Gumby.
“What do you think, Amelia?” She turned to the calico curled up on her pillow. The kitten made a show of cleaning her tail and rear, hind leg poised toward the ceiling. “You’re right. Sean’s an ass and I’m wasting way too much time worried about this. So what if he’s coming to the party with his new sleepover girlfriend? Big deal. Who cares?” She stretched out on the bed and went nose-to-nose with the kitten. “Not us, right? We don’t care, do we? Not one little bit.” She kissed the kitten between its ears. Amelia batted at Rebecca’s chin in a halfhearted attempt to play. Rebecca scooped her up and nuzzled her. “Behave, okay? Don’t forget where the litter box is.”
Rebecca grabbed her purse and went outside to wait for Nate. She sat on the porch stairs and slid her sunglasses into position, reassured that in spite of the beaming sun, the mountain breeze carried a chill, proving her lightweight sweater to be the perfect choice for the day. Soon it would be warm enough for the swirling gypsy skirts and peasant blouses she loved.
She scanned her yard and made a mental note to trim the bushes across the front of the porch. Some crazy serial killer could hide behind them, just waiting to pounce and—and she really needed to stop watching those crime shows with Brenna and Maddie. Those two were a bad influence and she’d tell them so today, after a couple of margaritas.
The brown Bermuda lawn showed the promise of greening up in spots, and the daffodils planted around the sweet gum tree in the yard across the street pushed up emerald shoots through a graying groundcover of old pine straw.
Her grin faded as fast as it
came. The dark sedan sat along the curb again, windows in shadow. She sat up from her slouch and tried to shake off the sense of being watched. She was being paranoid. Whoever drove the car probably lived in a neighboring house.
Then why isn’t it parked in their driveway?
A cool gust blew through the yard. Rebecca shivered and looked away from the car. She berated herself for being ridiculous. There was nothing ominous about a parked car.
She stood, intent on confronting whoever sat in the sedan, assuming there was someone in the car at all. Didn’t she have the right to know who it was that occupied a vehicle across from her house during random times of the day and night?
Watching her. Possibly. But probably not, she allowed.
The car zoomed away before she reached the end of her drive. She stood with arms akimbo staring after the vehicle, straining her eyes to read the license plate. Nate drove up from the opposite direction and she jumped when he honked his horn and waved.
“Hey, beautiful,” he called out the window of the truck, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners, mouth curved in a smile. “Sorry I’m late. You ready to go?”
She marched up to the driver’s side door. “Did you see that car pull away?”
“What car?”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. “I’ll take that as a ‘no.’”
“Is there a problem?”
“No, not really.” She glanced up the street, frustrated. “Let me get my purse and we can go. Oh, and we have to stop for beer.”
Thirty minutes later, twelve-pack in tow, they turned off the rural highway onto the dirt road that cut through forested land and led to the old farmhouse where Maddie and Caleb lived with TJ, their dog Pirate, and an unknown number of barn cats that Maddie cared for. The house and property were purchased by Maddie and Jack after they wed, and four years after Jack’s death Maddie hired Caleb to renovate her kitchen. Love had bloomed amidst the sawdust, and now the Kinkaid and Walker clans prepared for the upcoming June nuptials of the happy couple. With Edie and Sada pushing the families together at every opportunity, it had become quite the merger.
They drove the half-mile stretch of dirt road in silence. Rebecca stared through the passenger window at the blur of trees and did her level best to ignore the knot developing in her stomach. Maddie had promised her margaritas with extra salt, and she licked her lips in anticipation. It would take more than one to dull the pain of seeing Sean with someone else.
Sean and Emma. Emma and Sean. All. Freaking. Afternoon.
Dear god, it promised to be a long day.
From the corner of her eye she saw Nate glance her way when she sighed, and she continued looking out the window to avoid a conversation.
She had talked to Brenna earlier and been surprised to hear her refer to Emma as “Sean’s gorgeous plus-size girl.” The only thing plus-size about Emma was her eye-popping boobage, but Rebecca had kept this observation to herself and changed the subject. The last thing she wanted to discuss with Brenna or anyone else was Emma’s abundant rack, so she gushed about her new kitten until she could almost hear Brenna developing an eye-tic and migraine over the phone.
“How much farther?” Nate’s voice broke the silence.
“Almost there. You’ll see the house right after the next bend, and you can pull up and park in the side yard. Just park where everyone else is.”
Rebecca’s heart lurched when the rustic house came into view. She focused her attention on the new paint job—confederate blue with white trim and black shutters—and the sprawling porch, sagging the last time she saw it, now rebuilt bigger and better by Caleb, and resplendent with hanging baskets overflowing with bougainvillea and myriad pots exploding with a rainbow array of plants. She wondered if all the flowering stuff was Maddie’s doing or Edie’s.
Nate parked his truck next to Brenna’s convertible Audi, and Rebecca made a quick scan of the other vehicles. Edie and Papa Ron were here, as were Rebecca’s parents. She heard a guffaw of laughter that belonged to Grampa Boone, so she checked him off her list, as well.
Her eyes landed on Sean’s Silverado. She gulped, grabbed her purse, and plastered on a smile. Please God, don’t let my face erupt in splotches became her silent plea.
Screw the margarita. A couple shots of tequila sounded better. So what if this was a party for a six-year-old?
She made a beeline for the porch and the kitchen door.
“Well, hey there, Nate! Glad you could make it!” Big Will’s voice boomed from the vicinity of the barn where the men stood in a collective circle just this side of the open doors, except for Grampa Boone who sat in a folding chair in the shade of the wide doorway with one of Maddie’s barn cats curled in his lap.
Rebecca swallowed a sigh and rerouted herself. She couldn’t ignore Grampa Boone no matter how close his proximity to Sean. She flashed a smile and a wave to everyone in general, and leaned down to give her grandfather a hug and a kiss on his cheek. She gave his longish hair, curling from beneath his omnipresent Atlanta Braves cap, a gentle tug.
“Haven’t we already discussed this? How long are you going to grow this silver mop?”
“I’m like Samson,” he growled and flexed his arms. “It gives me strength.”
“Yeah, well, you know what happened to Samson, right?” Her forced smile caused an ache in her jaw, and being hyperaware of Sean standing on the other side of her grandfather’s chair added to her discomfort. She breathed in deep, hoping for a whiff of Sean’s delicious man scent, but instead caught a nose full of Grampa Boone’s peppermint and wintergreen. She sniffed out and rubbed her nose.
“Yeah, a gorgeous woman came along and caused his total destruction.”
“It’s always a woman,” Sean murmured.
“True.” Grampa Boone nodded. He paused, and leaned forward as if sharing a rare secret. “But what a way to go, eh?”
The men laughed and Rebecca took that as her cue to leave. She hugged her dad and Caleb, and threw a smile in Sean’s vicinity because it would look weird if she ignored him. He winked in response which, along with his accompanying smile, had the effect of liquid heat pouring through her veins. She swung around to make her escape into the house, but ran into a solid wall of well-muscled male.
“Hey, slow down, Twizzler,” Dante said, laughing. He caught her by the shoulders and smiled down at her. “What’s your hurry?”
“Maddie promised me a drink with tequila in it, and I’m ready.” She went on her tiptoes to plant a smacking kiss on his lips. “When are you going to get your head out of your ass and marry me?”
“Marry you?” He widened his eyes in horror. “I can’t marry you. You scare the crap out of me.”
Rebecca laughed and patted his cheek. “Such a wise one, you are.”
“One of these days a man will come along who won’t be cowed by your abundance of Freaking Awesome.”
“Aw, you’ve been reading my diary again.” She dimpled at him. “That’s so cute.”
“If you’re in the marriage market,” Nate piped in, “remember that I’m a cop. Freaking Awesome doesn’t scare me.”
Rebecca’s brain whirred through her mental card file for a smart-ass comeback, but Nate’s expression stopped her cold. His mouth curved in a smile but his dark eyes stayed steady and serious on hers.
Time to beat a hasty retreat.
She stole a surreptitious glance at Sean from beneath her lashes, but his attention was on his cell phone, brows drawn together in concentration, the muscle in his jaw tight, his thumbs tapping the screen. She made eye contact with Nate for an awkward moment, then said to the male assembly in general, “Enjoy your sissy beer, gentleman. I’m heading indoors for a real drink. Call me when it’s time for cake.” It wasn’t until her feet hit the porch stairs that she remembered Emma who, since she and her colossal rack were nowhere to be seen outside, must be in the house with the women.
Crap.
Man up, Rebecca. And for the love of God, don’t stare at her boobs.
“Praise be to God,” Brenna said before the screen door had time to snap shut, and thrust a margarita into Rebecca’s hand. She lifted her own glass and bumped it against Rebecca’s in a quick toast. “Finally, a drinking buddy. It’s all teetotalers in here today. Something about this being a kid’s party and how we’re not supposed to get rowdy or drunk.” She took a strong swallow of her beverage.
Rebecca took a healthy taste of her drink as well, and as her eyes welled she sputtered and coughed, gasping through a raw throat, “Good Lord above, who’s the bartender? This thing is deadly.”
Maddie stood at the counter arranging a fruit platter and threw a look over her shoulder at Rebecca. “Too strong? I’m not drinking, so—”
“You pregnant?” Rebecca blurted the first thing that came to her mind.
“Sweet Lord, no.” Maddie shook her head and her dark hair moved against her shoulders. “I’m responsible for a bunch of kids today. No drinking for me until everyone goes home.”
“No worries. Rebecca and I will make sure nothing goes to waste.” Brenna held up her glass and jiggled it. “Drink up. I’m already two ahead of you.”
Rebecca’s eyebrows shot up. “You’ve downed two of these things? Geez, Brenna. How are you still upright?”
“When she first got here she drank sweet tea like a good little auntie, and then she got into it with Dante about something, and the next thing I knew the tequila bottle was empty.”
Brenna narrowed her eyes. “That man is like an itch under my skirt, and I don’t mean that in a good way. If poison oak were a man, it would look like Dante Caravicci.” She slugged back her drink and set the glass on the counter. “That damned Neanderthal was up at three o’clock in the morning working on some stupid hotrod. Who does that? Who works on car engines in the middle of the night?”
“Uh, Dante?” Rebecca ventured and exchanged an amused glance with Maddie.
“Damn right, Dante. He turns the light on in his garage and it shines right in my bedroom window.”
Love to Believe: Fireflies ~ Book 2 Page 21