“Wait!” I caught myself saying, realizing that I’d offended him somehow. “I owe you a drink. You paid for your draft, but then had to leave it.”
He turned back to me, one of his eyebrows raising, and I realized I’d made a mistake inviting Dr. Kijek inside, especially now that I knew we were less than five years apart. Twenty-something sounded like I was a cougar. Only a few years sounded like …
What are you thinking, Jana? I screamed inside my head. You were going to find a new therapist on Monday, remember?
“I shouldn’t,” Adrian said easily while I struggled with what I wanted and what I should do. The lazy way he’d said the words left little to interpretation. He was thinking the same thing I was, I was pretty sure. I shouldn’t meant he wanted to, even though he knew he shouldn’t accept my invitation.
Instead of responding, I simply unlocked the door. He’d either follow me inside, or leave. I decided to leave it up to him.
Chapter 20 – Please Stay
Adrian followed me inside. The catch of the lock clicked into place a second later, making me jump for no reason whatsoever. I knew I had nothing to fear. Adrian was a respectable businessman in the community.
Adrian leaned over to pet J’Austen. As always, my cat took one look at the stranger, then darted off to my bedroom as if he’d tried to kidnap her.
“Sorry …” I offered. “Don’t take it personally. She doesn’t like meeting new people.”
Adrian smiled. “I understand. Unlike dogs, you have to earn a cat’s friendship.”
I forced a smile, thinking that Dr. Kijek himself was kind of like that. Unlike me … I was more like the kitten. He clearly enticed my interest by ignoring me. I’d practically begged him to give me the time of the day in his office, and now I’d invited him into my home. There was that string theory again.
In any other situation, I never would have allowed a man in my house. But Adrian wasn’t some stranger I’d met in a bar. I knew him. Connie would know who’d taken me home, so certainly he wouldn’t hurt me.
And God help me, I knew how soft his strong hands could be. I walked toward the kitchen, attempting to get the image of his hands out of my head.
“What do you have?” His low tenor reached my ears at the same time his fresh male scent tickled my nose.
Adrian smelled like clean, cool water. Not like the beach, but a fresh whitewater river in the springtime. A rush of adrenaline lit up inside of me, the kind I experienced on a class-4 rapid. Was it only because I hadn’t had an eligible male in my house in five years that the aroma was so intoxicating? Or was it because Adrian reminded me of the whitewater I liked to experience? None of the men I’d dated had made it past the curb in front of my house. I simply hadn’t been interested.
“Jana?”
In my typical daze, I set my purse on the bar that surrounded the kitchen and turned to him. “Hmm?”
“What do you have to drink?”
“Oh, right. Wine. Do you like Merlot?”
“I do.”
As if on autopilot, I reached for two wine glasses and the bottle of Merlot on the counter, and poured my standard five ounces into each glass.
Adrian reached for a glass, then walked toward the lanai.
My house wasn’t much, really. Not the kind of house that you’d expect a New York Times bestselling author to own, but I’d always been rather simple. I’d also experienced enough letdowns in my life that I didn’t count on having money tomorrow.
And I really did love my house. Since Dick had left, and Eric had moved away to college, I’d made it into my sanctuary. I still kept Eric’s room, but the rest of the house screamed feminine. I’d even transformed the dining room that looked over the lanai at the rear of the house into my office. So now when I wrote, I was able to daydream while watching ducks waddle into the retention pond. The gentle sounds of a fake waterfall connected to the pool pump were as relaxing as any day spa I could ever wish for. Without the chatter of women vying for my attention.
Although the neighborhood bustled with the laughter of children after three in the afternoon, during the day, I heard nothing but the makeshift waterfall and birds chirping. And at night, my favorite time to sit on the back porch, cicadas or crickets filled the nighttime air.
Adrian sat on one side of my swing, then patted the space next to him.
Inhaling a deep breath, I stepped into the lanai. Why was I so nervous? I was the one who’d invited him inside, knowing what most guys would expect. Then again, if he was a gentleman, maybe he wouldn’t. It had been more than twenty years since I’d done this, though. Had things changed?
I lowered myself onto the opposite side of the swing, ignoring the space he’d suggested. “It’s a beautiful night.”
Adrian turned to me, pulling one knee up on the cushion, as though he hadn’t been surprised that I’d sat as far away from him as the bench seat would allow. “It is.” He took a sip of wine, then smiled. “So, your friend Connie, why did she ditch you? Have you known each other long?”
“About three years. She’s my agent.”
He gave me a slow nod. “Right.” After taking another sip, he added, “Does she do that often?”
“No. She called me a hermit, said I needed to get out more, show people I’m a real person.”
“In other words, promote yourself, your book.”
I’d already drunk too much, but needing liquid courage to confront him again, I tipped back my glass. “Does it bother you that I’m an author?”
Adrian ran his free hand through his hair, something I’d wanted to do from the first time I’d seen him. Well, maybe not the first time. “It doesn’t bother me that you’re an author …” His words trailed off.
“But the title of my book bothers you. Why?”
He set his drink on the glass table and scooted closer. “Jana, can we not do this?” He reached for my glass and set it next to his. “I don’t hate you.”
His hand reached behind my neck, resting there a moment. A long, tenuous moment before he leaned forward, obviously giving me a second to object. I couldn’t find an objection anywhere inside of me. Instead, my heart rate increased, as though I were getting ready to paddle straight into a class-5 rapid. Actually, Adrian reminded me of a dangerous waterfall. If I went over, I might not make it back to the surface in one piece. I knew what I needed to do to protect myself. I needed to paddle to the shore. Get to safety. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to feel the rush.
I lowered my lids as Adrian closed the few inches left between us, taking my upper lip between his soft lips, coaxing me to open up to him.
I did. Like clay in a potter’s hands, I melted into his kiss, allowing him to work my mouth as he wanted.
His other hand slid down my arm, lifting it to his chest, then he stopped. He pulled back. “Sorry. That’s your bad arm. Did I hurt you?”
I hadn’t even noticed. “No. I have a great therapist. It’s been moving rather well the last few days.”
Adrian pressed his lips to mine again, this time taking my other arm and pulling it around his waist.
I gripped onto him. No toy in the world could provide a delicious kiss, the feel of a man’s strong hands. The warmth. The deluge of pleasure that another body provided, simply by pressing against me.
A groan escaped his lips, then the warmth was gone as he sat back and picked up his glass of wine, draining it. He set the glass back on the table. “I should go.”
Everything in me wanted to scream, Please stay. But he was right. Not that there was a chance of Adrian and I starting a relationship together, but if there were, it shouldn’t start with sex on the first date. And if Dr. Kijek stayed in my house for five more minutes, I was sure I’d have him undressed.
“Yes, you probably should,” I said.
He blinked, as though not expecting me to agree with him, but stood in response.
I stood too, following him back into the house.
A few more steps … I just needed to b
e strong for a few more steps. Escort him to the door, instead of asking him to stay.
He reached the knob, but then turned. Would he ask? Would I acquiesce?
“Dr. Bellows said you couldn’t operate a kayak yourself, but what if someone else did the paddling?”
I smiled at his question that referred to Dr. Bellows decommissioning me from kayaking. “Are you asking me out on a date, Dr. Kijek?”
He stepped forward, resting both his hands on my waist. “Please call me Adrian. I really hate it when you call me Dr. Kijek. Dr. Kijek is my father.”
“Oh … Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He pressed his lips to mine again, but pulled back only a second later. “Pick you up tomorrow morning? Seven okay? Or is that too early?”
“Seven would be great. Do you have a kayak, or will you need to use one of mine? I actually have a two-person sit-on-top, as well as my personal kayak.”
He smiled. “I have a kayak. Just bring your life preserver. And if it’s not too much trouble, snacks would be nice. I have very little food at my place, since I’m rarely there.”
Another smile made its way onto my face. Adrian didn’t hate me. Or at least he didn’t hate me anymore. “Will do.”
He opened the door and left my house while I stood there rooted to the floor. A couple of seconds later, the door opened, and my heart leapt in response, wondering if he’d changed his mind.
“Lock the door,” he said, then closed it again.
I shuffled to the door. Dr. Kijek — Adrian — was a gentleman. I ran to the living room window and peeked through the wood blinds to watch him pull himself up into his truck.
Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. And tomorrow, I’d get to do my second favorite pastime. It’d been too long since I’d been able to do the things I loved.
Chapter 21 – Second Favorite
The moment the alarm went off on my iPhone, I rolled out of my recliner, anxious to get started with my day.
Kayaking. I hadn’t been kayaking in four months, not since I’d shown off by taking the head position on a tour. If I hadn’t agreed to take a novice in the boat with me, I probably wouldn’t have torn my rotator cuff. Most men would have pulled more than their share of the work. But the newb I’d agreed to paddle with couldn’t keep the boat in line, so I’d had to steer from the front of the boat, which was practically impossible.
Adrian, on the other hand, knew I couldn’t even lift a paddle, understood that he’d have to do all the work, and yet he’d asked me to go.
An image of me with a parasol brought a smile to my face. “He called me prissy, J’Austen. Can you believe it? Maybe I should show him how prissy I can be.” She offered me a long meow, then trotted into the kitchen, ready for breakfast, even though it was at least an hour or so before her normal time. She didn’t watch a clock, though. If I was up, the first thing I was required to do was to feed her. I wondered for a second if cat food had caffeine in it, since she acted like I did before my morning cup of coffee.
I clicked on the Keurig, then tore open a packet of her favorite flavor, salmon, since I knew she’d be ticked when I left her to go kayaking.
After pouring my coffee into a to-go cup, I stuffed a nylon cooler with the only snacks I could find in my bare pantry: 100-calorie packets of almonds from when I’d tried out a low-carb diet, individual packages of carrot sticks from when I attempted a rabbit-food diet, and bite-sized snickers from the other ninety percent of the time when I said screw it and ate what I wanted to eat. A few single-serving bags of Doritos that I hadn’t eaten from the Taco Bell meal deals I always begged Angela to bring, rounded out the snacks.
“Angela,” I whispered into my cell phone, as if it’d matter after her phone had probably released a shrill ring, since I was in her VIP contacts. “I need your help.”
“Are you okay?” she spoke rapidly, out of breath, as though she’d darted out of bed. I really owed her a vacation after all this was over.
“Yeah … I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I need your help.”
“What’s the matter?”
“Remember how I swore to loathe Dr. Kijek forever?”
Angela groaned. “Can this wait until later, Jana? It’s six a.m.”
“He asked me out on a date —”
“Oh, that’s great. I can’t wait to hear all about it. It’s Saturday, though, my one morning to sleep in. Call me back at nine.”
“Wait! Please don’t hang up. You don’t understand. He invited me kayaking, but asked me to bring snacks. I wanted to bring lunch too, though. But you know as well as I do that I don’t have anything to prepare a decent meal. I gathered all the snacks I have, but I need something to make sandwiches.”
A low chuckle seeped through the phone. “Jana, why don’t you just go through Subway? They open up early.”
“Because then he’ll want to pay.”
“I’m seriously gonna consider charging you for my services.”
“Thank you-thank you-thank you! Just run through Subway and grab two turkey subs. Ask them to put the condiments on the side, though. I promise I’ll owe you big time. Just be here before seven, please.”
“Fine …”
“Thank you, Angela.”
She grunted in response.
I heard Adrian’s truck, so I scampered to finish stuffing sunscreen and towels into my drybag. I inspected my bikini-clad body in the mirror. The extra pounds I’d put on didn’t seem to show, so maybe the daily workouts had assisted that part of my health too. Either way, I grabbed a cover-up, and I was sure I’d have a towel in my lap all day.
“How do I look, baby kitty?”
J’Austen looked up at me, but then darted to the front door, obviously realizing that the sound of the truck meant a stranger was here again. I loved how she always had to see who it was, but then darted off. Some watch-cat she was.
The doorbell finally rang, so I headed to open the door for Adrian, bouncing back as J’Austen darted in front of me. I carefully opened the door as she poked her nose around the edge.
“Well, good morning, J’Austen!” Adrian crooned, a huge smile on his face. He leaned over to pet her, but J’Austen dashed off before he could reach her. She was a more proper woman than I was, not allowing petting the first few times a man was in her house. Adrian stood, his eyes now focusing on me. “Ready?”
What a one-eighty his demeanor had taken. Clearly, as much as he wanted to deny it, it was obvious he hadn’t liked me when we first met. But at least he seemed to like me now. And cats. And that was important to me. Dick had never liked cats … or any animals.
And wow … Not only did Adrian like cats, he looked really good. I’d been accustomed to seeing him in plain khakis and a polo shirt with his company emblem embroidered on the front. Not that he didn’t look good in his work clothes, but today he wore black and gray Hurley boardshorts and a black tank top that hugged his body perfectly, showing off his muscular arms and legs.
A spray of golden hair peeked out from his chest. Not long hair, thankfully, just short tufts, the kind I imagined running my fingers through.
With a shake of my head, I tried to dispel the image of an unclothed Dr. Kijek. It had been so long since I’d been with a man that I was treading on shaky ground. I needed to get my bearings before I did something inappropriate or downright stupid, negligent even. The last thing I wanted was to end up like my ex … Having a baby at forty.
“You’re not ready?” Adrian asked. “Can I help you with something?”
“Oh, sorry. Yeah, I’m ready.”
He smiled again, reaching for the cooler I’d set by the door. “Great. Let’s go!”
I snatched up my beach bag and followed him to his behemoth four-by-four. Why did guys drive such large trucks? I loved owning a truck, but my Tacoma served all my needs.
Adrian opened the passenger door, then glanced down at me. “Ready?”
“Yes.”
“I realized after I lifted you into the truc
k yesterday that I should have been more careful. Since you don’t complain much, I forget that you just had shoulder surgery.”
I laughed. “Can you say that again so I can record you? My cousin and agent think that all I do is complain. And I get so sick of hearing from people about how they or one of their friends were up and moving around days after rotator cuff surgery. Seriously, the next time someone online says something like that, I plan to hunt them down and punch them with my good arm, kick them with my strong legs I’ve worked five years to get, and if those fail to shut them up, I always have my bottle of pepper spray.”
“You’re a firecracker.” Adrian laughed as he wrapped his hands around my waist and easily lifted me into the cab, then hopped up on the running board. “Don’t mind your friends. It’s only because every shoulder injury is different; some are just partial tears. Out of all the injuries I deal with, most patients agree that rotator cuff surgery is the most painful and difficult to recover from, especially when they’re like yours, a full-thickness tear. Then, of course, you had adhesive capsulitis, which has a longer and more painful recovery time than the original injury.”
He ducked his head into the cab and kissed me without warning. It wasn’t a long kiss, just a short peck and then he hopped down. But it had felt so natural, so familiar.
I was toast!
“So where’re we going?” I asked, trying to play off how much the kiss had affected me.
“Originally, I thought about paddling out to Anclote Key, but the Gulf is a little rough today, so I figured Hillsborough River would be nice. Have you been there?”
A smile threatened to overtake my face, so I bit down on my lip to conceal at least half of it. “Actually, I haven’t. I’ve been meaning to, but I usually go with groups, and there hasn’t been one there yet.”
Adrian grinned back. “Are you afraid of alligators?”
“Not as long as they stay in the water, and I stay safely out of it. Why?”
“Hillsborough has an abundance of them — big ones. Since the river is so narrow in spots, I don’t even like to kayak it in April and May, mating season. I’ve come too close to a thirteen-footer on a bank only a few yards away. I swear it felt as though he were Little John, expecting I pay a toll to pass. I was pretty sure my hand would have been a sufficient payment.”
[What's Luck Got to Do With It 01.0] Some Lucky Woman: Jana's Story Page 14