by Stacy Finz
She hung over the side of the boat. “It doesn’t have a name.”
“Not yet. Got any ideas?”
She thought about it for a while. “How about Boys and Toys?”
“Nope. How about Catch Me If You Can?”
“Ick, sounds like that Leonardo DiCaprio movie.” She leaned back against him and let her head drop onto his shoulder.
“Blood, Sweat, and Beers?” His lips brushed her hair.
“Better, but still not loving it.”
“Livin’ Large?”
“Cliché,” she said.
He maneuvered the boat in one-handed, keeping the other one around her. She nestled closer, fitting perfectly tucked in against his chest.
“Whatever Floats your Boat?” she offered, and they both laughed.
He came in parallel a few feet away from the dock, swung the wheel to port, and kicked the engine into reverse. As the stern moved closer, he put the boat in neutral, letting it side-slip right up to the wooden pier. Easy. The tough part was breaking away from Deb to tie up his dock lines.
“Where you going?” She clung to him like a monkey with her arms around his neck, and he carried her to the port side of the boat.
“Gotta secure her. Wanna toss me the line?”
He hopped onto the dock and she threw him the rope, which he tied to a cleat, then repeated the action with the fenders. TJ reached inside of the boat, grabbed Deb around the waist, and hoisted her onto the dock.
“How ’bout Foolin’ Around?”
“Huh?”
“For the boat’s name. The Foolin’ Around.”
“Not bad.” He played with the zipper on her jacket. She raised her face to his, her lips, chapped from the cold, calling to be kissed. He leaned in and touched them with his mouth. Feather soft at first because he told himself that he only wanted a small taste. But when she opened to him, twining her arms around his neck, he was a goner. He deepened the kiss, using his tongue and even his teeth.
“Let’s test out the name,” he said against her mouth. And they spent the rest of the afternoon in his bed, fooling around.
* * *
Win leaned against Garner Adventure’s front counter while Darcy searched her computer for first trimester symptoms on her computer monitor. He watched the door. Soon his parents and brothers would start arriving for work and he didn’t need them in his business, especially after the bad impression Britney had made at the party Saturday night.
“Well, what does it say?” he asked, impatient.
“That pregnant women have mood swings.” She flipped him a look over her shoulder as if to say, duh.
“I know that, Darce, but how pronounced are they?”
“It depends. Was she a bitch before she was pregnant?”
What happened to sweet, little Darcy? Win wanted to know. It was as if mad scientists had replaced her with an evil clone.
“Can’t say.” They didn’t exactly do a lot of talking before he’d put a bun in her oven. “I guess she was never real warm and fuzzy. You didn’t like her, did you?”
“She just didn’t seem to make much of an effort to meet your family or friends.” The silent question hung in the air. You sure you want to marry this chick?
He’d felt it from his father, his brothers, and possibly his mother. And now Darcy, the most objective person watching his train wreck. The rest of them wanted him to marry someone like Deb. How could he blame them? For all intents and purposes, Deb was perfect for him.
“She was having a bad night.” Though he’d gotten her the damned ring she’d wanted. He’d be paying it off until the cows came home, and the cost had cut a fair amount into his house budget.
“Ya think?” There she went with the sarcasm again. “I hope you told her that she embarrassed you.”
“She didn’t embarrass me,” he said, and even to his own ears, he sounded defensive.
She fixed him with a get-real look. “She should’ve.”
“Jeez, Darcy, don’t hold back.”
“You wanted to know.” She leaned back in her chair, and for the first time, he noticed she was pretty well endowed in the chest area.
You’re an asshole, he told himself. “I’m gonna go flip tires. I’m available on cell.”
“Flip tires? Is that some kind of code for something?” She folded her arms over her rack as if she knew he’d been checking it out and made flip tires sound like a euphemism for jacking off.
He wanted the old Darcy back. “It’s an exercise thing . . . at the gym.”
She shrugged and went back to her computer. He picked up his duffel and headed out just in time to pass TJ, who was on his way in.
“Where you going?” TJ had more pep in his step than usual. The idiot was downright glowing, if a dude could even do that.
“The gym. What, you make some sort of a million-dollar acquisition this morning?”
“No. Where’d you come up with that?”
“You look happier than usual,” Win said.
TJ moved off the sidewalk so a woman with a stroller could get by. Win knew exactly what TJ was thinking: That’ll be you soon.
“Where’d you go Saturday night?” TJ asked. “One minute you were at the party. The next, you and Britney were gone.”
“She wasn’t feeling well,” if you counted having a giant meltdown as sick. She’d been furious that he’d told her to stop drinking and had ordered him to take her home. Win hadn’t heard from her since.
“Colt couldn’t reach you Sunday,” TJ said and studied him.
“My phone must’ve been off. Plus, I had that rock-climbing group.”
TJ continued to do that spooky, I-know-you’re-lying thing with his face. Someday, he’d make a gnarly parent. “Everything okay?”
You mean besides the fact that my life’s blowing up? “Everything’s great. How ’bout you?”
“We’ve got some issues I want to talk to everyone about. You available for an emergency meeting later today?”
“Sure. I’m doing a snowboarding exhibition at Winter Bowl, but it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. Does two sound good?”
“Let me check with Deb, Josh, and Colt and get back to you.”
“Roger that,” Win said and walked to the street where he’d parked his Jeep. TJ and his freaking meetings.
He made it to the gym in record time. The weekenders must’ve all gone home, leaving the roads wide open. Inside, he spotted Deb doing reps with a 250-pound tire. Not too shabby. She was hella fit and he took a moment or two to watch her. Great form. Her squats were unequaled.
She saw him and nodded her head in greeting, her hands too occupied with the tire to wave. He gave her a thumbs-up and made his way into the locker room to change. By the time he came out, she was done with the routine and stood by the watercooler, wiping sweat from her face with a towel.
He went over to apologize for leaving her party so early. “Good workout?”
She was out of breath but managed a “Yep.”
“Sorry I ducked out of the party early. Something came up with Britney and we had to leave.” He went in to give her a belated birthday hug, but she stopped him.
“Kinda rank right now.”
“Got it.” He grinned. “Anyway, happy birthday, Bennett. Hope it was a good one.”
She started to speak, stopped, and finally said, “It was a beautiful party and I had a wonderful time. I hope Britney’s okay.”
“She’s fine,” he said. “You headed to work?”
“My last shift at the diner. Yay! If I get off early enough, I’ll put in a few hours at GA.”
“TJ get in touch with you about the emergency meeting?”
“No. What emergency meeting?” She folded her arms over her chest.
Oops. He’d gone and stepped in it.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. TJ isn’t keeping anything from you.” He maneuvered her away from the cooler so someone could get a drink. “I just saw him twenty minutes ago and he
brought it up. Probably hasn’t even had his morning coffee yet. He’ll call you.”
“He better.” She started for the women’s locker room.
“I’ll see you in the office later.” He went to get a lane before they were all gone.
Not even halfway down the aisle, his phone chimed with a text. He should’ve left the damn thing in the locker room but was technically on the clock. He glanced at the message, expecting it to be a calendar invite from TJ. Nope. Britney had apparently returned to the world of the living.
I’m out of decaf. Can you bring me some?
He rolled his eyes. At least she was staying away from caffeine. And, hopefully, vodka.
* * *
Deb showered, wrapped herself in a towel, and grabbed her phone from her gym bag. There was a little bench in the shower and she perched on the edge of it with the curtain closed and called TJ.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the meeting?” she asked, her voice terse. They’d been together most of Sunday and not once had he mentioned a meeting. “Are you unhappy with my work?” She knew sales weren’t good, but that wasn’t her fault.
“Where’d you come up with that?”
“Win. He said you’d called a meeting,” she said.
“Win? When did you see Win?”
Who cared? The point was the meeting and the fact that they’d slept together and now he was keeping secrets about her job from her. “At the gym.”
“You two went to the gym together?”
“For Christ’s sake, forget about Win. Are you going to fire me because we had sex?”
“What?” There was a long pause.
The water went on in the stall next to hers and she wondered if whoever was in there had heard her. If so, the news that she and TJ had gotten horizontal would be all over town by the time she got to the Morning Glory.
“Deb, look at your goddamned messages.”
She took her phone away from her ear and scrolled through her emails. Uh-oh. Ten minutes earlier, he’d sent her a calendar invitation. She banged her head against the curtain. Who me, paranoid?
“Uh, sorry, I hadn’t seen it.” She cringed. “I’ve got to go to make my shift. I’ll see you at the meeting.” She hoped Felix would let her off in time, especially after the stink she’d made.
He clicked off. Not even nine in the morning and they’d already had their first awkward postcoital encounter. Still, she’d spend another night with him in a heartbeat. The whole experience had been magical. Not just the sex, which alone was unrivaled, but everything. Sleeping curled up next to him, breakfast in the morning, the boat ride, pool, foosball, dinner, then The Big Lewbowski. Who knew it was his favorite movie, too?
The scary part was how deep she was getting in. If she didn’t watch it, she’d drown.
She hurriedly got dressed, thanking the good Lord Jesus that this would be the last she’d ever don her diner clothes again. For the first time in a long while, she got in her car with confidence that it would actually start—another wonderful thing TJ had done for her.
A big bouquet of balloons greeted her at the host stand at the Morning Glory. It wasn’t until she read the inscription—“Fine, go”—that she realized the balloons were for her.
“An Adam and Eve on a raft and wreck ’em,” Ricki called into the kitchen, then came over to give Deb a hug. “We’ll miss you, girl.”
Ah hell; she wiped a tear at the corner of her eye. “Don’t tell Felix.”
“Now that you’re a big executive, you still planning to eat here?”
“I’m hardly an executive, but of course I’ll still eat here. Best tuna melts in town.” They were the only tuna melts in town. Boden and Rachel wouldn’t compete with Felix’s signature dish.
“Enough chitchat,” Felix hollered from the back. “Get to work, ladies.”
Deb exchanged looks with Ricki and they erupted in laughter. The restaurant was unusually slow. Weekends in Glory Junction typically bled into Monday, but not today. Deb spent the first hour of her shift refilling the salt and pepper shakers and cleaning up the condiment caddies. Here and there she waited on a few tables, mostly locals who congratulated her on the new gig at GA. Jack came in to get his daily fried egg sandwich, which he brought back to the police station and presumably ate at his desk.
She’d never realized how buff he was, and come to think of it, he was doing something different with his hair. “You look good, Jack.”
He puffed up at the compliment. “Thanks. I’ve been doing CrossFit with Carrie Jo and sometimes Foster.”
Foster had mentioned something about it, though with Sweet Stems doing a bang-up business, he barely had time to breathe, let alone go to the gym.
“Good for you,” she said.
Felix bagged Jack’s breakfast sandwich, poured him a to-go coffee, and off he went. Rita Tucker came in an hour later and sat at the counter, where she ordered her regular: cottage cheese with fresh pineapple and a slice of dry wheat toast. No wonder the mayor was thin as a string bean. Late morning, they got a second round of breakfast diners, but for the most part the service was noneventful. Deb’s replacement came in around noon to relieve Ricki, but Ricki stayed anyway.
After the lunch rush, Felix called the waitstaff into the kitchen. The cook brought out a cake and everyone gathered around to wish Deb well. She choked up a wee bit because as far as she knew, Felix had never made this big a fuss for anyone else.
“We’re slow today, so anytime you want to take off, Bennett, you’re free to go.”
She’d make the meeting at GA. Her pulse quickened at the thought of seeing TJ. A combination of nerves and anticipation filled her. She was fully prepared for him to treat their liaison as a onetime fling. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t be disappointed.
After cake, she went into the back room, cleaned out her locker, and tossed her apron in the hamper. She had just enough time to run upstairs and change. On her way out of the diner, she found TJ standing at the counter, talking to Felix. He gave her the dude head nod, which meant they were back to being whatever they’d been before they’d slept together. Why was it that she always wound up in the friend zone?
“Getting doughnuts for the meeting?” she asked, trying to sound casual. Professional.
“Yeah. You have any preferences?”
“I just had good-bye cake, so I’m sugared out for the day, but thanks.” She grabbed her balloon bouquet. “See you in a few.”
Deb wrestled the balloons out the door and jogged up the stairs to her apartment. She wasn’t there more than five minutes when someone knocked. TJ. He stood at the threshold, holding a white pastry box, staring back at her through the peephole.
She swung open the door. “What’s up?”
He shouldered his way in, placed the doughnuts on the kitchen table, grabbed her around the waist, and kissed her into next Sunday. “If this isn’t okay, tell me now and I’ll stop.”
She didn’t say anything, just kissed him back with everything she had. Next thing she knew, he was pulling her shirt over her head, his hands roaming over her tummy, rib cage, and breasts. When he went for the front clasp on her bra, she waltzed him toward the bedroom.
“We don’t really have time for this,” he said.
“Haven’t you heard of a quickie?”
His mouth curved up in a sexy grin and he dropped her bra somewhere on the floor as they kept moving. “It’ll have to be very quick. I need to talk to you.”
She put her finger over his lips and pushed him onto the bed. “No talking.” She wanted him so badly her entire body burned with it.
He got her pants off and then his own. Next came their underwear. His hands covered her breasts and with his thumbs, he drew circles around her nipples. She straddled him, rubbing against his erection until it made her wild. He still had a thermal shirt on. Too worked up to pull it over his head, she inched her hands under the hem and flattened her palms on top of his chest and began to slip him inside her.
“Co
ndom, baby.” He rolled out from under her and hung over the bed, scrounging through his jeans’ pockets until he found his wallet. Within seconds, he grasped a foil packet, tore it open, and suited up.
He tried to mount her, but she wanted to be on top. Happy to accommodate, TJ pulled her over him into a sitting position and entered her in one powerful thrust. She rode him like that while he touched her everywhere, his eyes filled with desire as he watched her sway over him.
“Jesus, it’s good like this,” he said, clutching her hips and moving her faster. “I like looking at you . . . so beautiful.”
“Oh, TJ.” She adjusted herself to take more of him and he moaned his approval.
One-handed, he tugged off his shirt and she felt the muscles in his arm constrict. She could look at him this way—any way—for hours. A big, dark-haired Adonis. And those blue, blue eyes, so gorgeous. And the way he looked at her, like she was the most precious thing in the world, got her right in the gut.
Not going to love you, TJ Garner. Uh-uh.
But it was already happening. In a big way. And she suspected there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, ready to come crashing down. “So close.”
He touched her, releasing the last of her reserves, and she shattered. He followed her with a long, loud grunt and she fell flat on top of him. They lay there, breathing hard, as he caressed her back.
His hands sifted through her hair and he kissed her so passionately that she felt a pool of warmth collect in the bottom of her stomach.
“You okay?” He cupped the sides of her face.
“Yes. You?”
“Never been better. But I should probably get rid of the condom.” He pulled out of her, but she hung on.
“Just a second more.”
He rolled her to her side and ran his finger across her lips, his eyes a deeper blue than she had ever seen them. “We do need to talk.”
Ah, here it came. Pretty soon, in the nicest way possible, he was going to tell her that they would always be best buddies, but that he wasn’t ready to get serious with anyone. Then the inevitable, But if you want to keep having sex, I’m totally down with that. Of course, we wouldn’t be exclusive. But you’re cool with that, right?