by Quinn, Taryn
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Vee creeping closer with a tray of drinks precariously balanced on her baby bump. I nearly rose to help her, but she edged away before I could.
“Your child is our child, and I have no clue what you mean.”
“Oh, really. You don’t recall telling Tillie Neusbottom—what kind of name is that, by the way—that your ex-wife cheated on you while you were live on camera? I’m surprised you would be so tacky, but I suppose small towns have a way of doing that to you.”
I leaned forward, narrowing my eyes as my muscles locked. A common reaction to Dani’s mother, but this time was worse than ever before. “What exactly do you want?”
“Are you denying you subjected my girl to a media firestorm thanks to your libido?” She looked down her ski-jump nose at me. “No wonder Dani was so worried about you and your hermit lifestyle, if you think the way to find someone is to announce your desperation on Facebook.”
“Dani was worried about me, hmm? If you know that much, then you probably won’t be shocked to find out our daughter decided to make that post for me. Also, I wasn’t the one to give her your old phone, and I wasn’t the one who was probably filling her head with God knows what.” I clenched my jaw. “Like saying I looked sloppy. That was a particularly nice one.”
“I don’t recall using those exact words.”
I shifted in my seat. It was taking everything I possessed to not take off. Hell, I’d prefer to meet Macy somewhere rather than sit here.
“Right.”
“Well, for God’s sake, look at yourself. Do you even shave anymore? And a Poison T-shirt? Are you actually serious right now? On top of that, you’re blaming my child for what you obviously did because you’re starved for attention.” Her pursed lips as she looked me up and down told me her thoughts on that score exactly. “Which means your focus isn’t where it should be—on my daughter.”
“Starved for attention, is it? Is that what you believe?”
Macy’s voice from behind me had my spine stiffening, although it turned to liquid when she took advantage of my sideways position at the table to slide onto my lap.
Macy Devereaux was on my lap. In public. In her own café.
She wore some killer outfit I couldn’t quite process. Dark blue jeans with slashes in the thighs. A black off-the-shoulder top with her hair in an updo that left her neck distractingly bare, allowing her spicy cinnamon scent to tease me mercilessly. I couldn’t imagine a cinnamon perfume, but such a thing had to exist because if I lowered my head and sniffed, she smelled like fucking sin.
“Hi, I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Macy. And you are?” Macy dropped her big purse on the table with enough force to make Jessica’s china cup rattle, and she reared back in her chair as if Macy was a cobra about to strike.
Which it turned out she was, just not the way Jessica thought.
Before Jessica could reply, Macy shifted toward me and stroked her fingertips over my bearded jaw. Her fingertips glittered with some shimmery polish, which was the last thing I saw before her mouth touched mine.
Actually, no. She feasted on me as if I was a piece of chocolate cake and she’d missed dinner.
Did I mind? Hell no.
Did I understand? Absolutely not.
But that didn’t stop me from tilting my head and kissing her back without the slightest thought for my ex-wife or the rest of the patrons who had to be eating this up. I was too absorbed in Macy. Drowning in her and loving every second. A quick nibble on her bottom lip had her moaning into my mouth, and fuck, I went as hard as a pike.
A bang on the table had us jerking apart. Macy blinked at me like a startled cat, her blue eyes hazier than I’d ever seen them. Surprisingly soft and unguarded. Was that how she would look at me if I was inside her?
When. It was becoming an imperative at this point.
“Damn, you join the party fast,” she said under her breath before shifting toward Jessica. She lifted her ass deliberately off my lap and slid more fully onto my thighs.
It took me a second, but when I got there, I had to grin.
“Sorry about that. So rude of me. What was I thinking? It’s just my thing, you know, to greet my man when I see him for our first date. Surely you’ve seen the news?”
Jessica’s barely there brows knitted together. “He’s your man yet it’s your first date? You run fast in this town.” She flashed Macy a Cheshire smile. “Then again, I didn’t date John until after he was ‘my man’ either. So, I totally understand, girlfriend.”
Behind Macy, I tipped back my head. I’d thought the hell Dani had unleashed was bad? This was running a close second.
“I’m not your girlfriend, and I doubt you understand much if you think Gideon,” Macy stressed the word as if Jessica was unfamiliar with it, “had to go on Facebook trolling for dates. He just has a very concerned child. Wonder why that is?”
“My child, you mean. The one we share. You sitting on his lap doesn’t change that fact. It also doesn’t alter the fact that if my daughter was concerned, she probably had reason to be—whether or not some thirsty small-town Betty thinks she’s got him wrapped.”
“Hey,” I said to Macy, gripping her hip as she started to rise. And it wasn’t to walk away, I was certain. She would lay Jessica flat out without breaking a damn nail.
“I got this.” Macy waved me off.
“I know you do, Killer, but this is my mess.” I stood and planted my hands on the table to lean toward my ex. “You’re going to want to apologize to Macy. Right now. You might also want to get your story straight. Am I a sloppy hermit or horny and desperate? Seems like you keep switching stories.”
Jessica slid her gaze past me to where Macy stood beside the table with her hands on her hips. “Judging from your choice of companion, I’ll go with the latter.”
Macy cracked her knuckles. “I have a rule about not allowing fisticuffs in my place of business. But I don’t think it counts if I start them—or finish them.” She took a step forward.
My arm shot out to block Macy just as Jessica unwisely chose to speak again.
“This is your café? Nice Jason mask outside. And all of these cute little Halloween decorations a season too early.” She made a show of looking around before tapping her nail on the handle of her still mostly full latte cup. “Might want to spend more time on your coffee though. Your beans are burned.”
Macy lurched forward. “Why, you bleached—”
“Enough,” I snapped, earning a look of pure malice from Macy. “You don’t want to do this,” I told her in a low voice, well aware her body was humming beside mine as if she was a stun gun set on decimate.
“Oh, you’re wrong. I very much want to do this.”
I didn’t doubt it, but I was beginning to grasp Jessica’s intentions—at least in the pit of my stomach if nowhere else—and I couldn’t let it happen. Not if it meant we were playing right into Jessica’s twisted hands.
“Why are you here?” I asked quietly, refusing to give my ex the satisfaction of knowing how rattled I was.
Jessica didn’t make cross-country trips for no reason. She also normally wasn’t obsessed with my dating life—or lack thereof. If she was circling around that pond, trying any number of lures until she found one that worked, there was a purpose. She wanted something, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what.
The real question was why.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Jessica got to her feet and gestured wildly. “You’re out of control. Spreading untruths to the media, casting around for dates and hanging out with women with anger management issues, not to speak of a basic lack of class and taste.”
Macy cocked her head and crossed her arms. “Looking at you, I’d say that’s a compliment.”
Jessica arched an eyebrow. “What movies have you been in, honey?”
“None. I also haven’t seen you starring as a good parent either, honey, since I’ve been in Crescent Cove for years and I’ve never seen your f
ace before.”
Even as Macy said the words with a perfectly charming smile, my fists locked into fists at my side. The gauntlet had been thrown, and Jessica wasn’t one to let it lie.
“I’m glad you mentioned that actually.” Jessica tucked her clutch under her arm and stared at me until my throat constricted. I knew what was coming, felt it in my bones. “I don’t see my daughter enough, and it’s time I fix that. I want to alter our custody agreement, John. Equal split. Fifty/fifty.”
While I reeled and tried to breathe through the shock and pain arcing through my chest, Jessica zeroed in on Macy. “Or maybe seventy-five/twenty-five, considering negative influences.”
Nine
I’d been on a lot of first dates. More of those than any other actually, since most guys weren’t fit for a second or third. At least not fit to my way of thinking. I was sure a lot of the men I’d tossed back into the lake would make some other chick very happy someday.
Me? I was kinda like that Garbage song, “Only Happy When It Rains.” I wasn’t miserable by nature, far from it. But I rather liked poking my head out of my trash can Oscar the Grouch-style and lamenting the general state of the world.
Yeah, so I looked for reasons to stay single. It was easier that way. Safer. Less problematic.
But I’d never had a guy show up for a first date and split before we’d even made it to dinner.
To be fair, Gideon hadn’t left the property entirely. I knew that because Vee and I were crowded at the window beside the back door, watching as he paced and kicked at nonexistent rocks and twigs.
“You should go talk to him.”
“And say what?”
“Well, I didn’t hear everything that was said—”
“You liar. You probably attached a listening device to her cup when you served her.”
Vee blinked her big eyes at me in the perfect picture of innocence. “I don’t have a clue what you mean.”
I snorted. “Right. Look, I appreciate your finely attuned hearing—probably mommy ears, right?—because it’s what brought me downstairs in the first place. Although I didn’t exactly help. I tried,” I muttered, shutting my eyes against the sour flavor in my throat. It tasted an awful lot like regret. “I got a little jealous, okay, yeah. I mean, I had a date with the dude. Have,” I corrected, despite that not being at all certain. “Seeing him with his ex kinda knifed me in the guts a little, but I dealt with it. She’s just a stone-cold bitch.”
Who wanted to take his kid from him, for at least half the year. If not more.
“I’m not a fucking negative influence,” I added for good measure. “I’m an upstanding businesswoman who has added extensive value to this community. And so what if I have a Jason mask on the light outside? Is that a crime?”
“Definitely not.” Vee gnawed on her thumbnail as she strained closer to the narrow window, pressing her rather large belly against the wall to get the best vantage point possible.
I snatched her arm and tugged her back. “Be careful. You’ll crush them.”
She laughed at me. Actually laughed. “You know, you could try letting someone else see your gooey caramel center. Just for a change.”
“I don’t have a gooey anything.” I sniffed. Except I did, a side of myself I kept not only under lock and key but armored guard.
“Liar. I saw you on Gideon’s lap. I’d say you were plenty gooey after that.”
“Whole different kind of melting going on there, chick.”
“Look at him.” Vee jabbed one of her short rainbow-colored nails at the window.
I looked and my heart ached. I didn’t like to admit I had anything in the center of my chest, preferring to believe that area was concave and/or possibly filled with coffee grounds, since I mainlined the stuff. But even I couldn’t deny that taking in the hunched curve of Gideon’s shoulders and the quick clip of his pacing feet made that stupid organ physically hurt for him.
It was partially my fault. I’d helped goad the tigress with the dark roots. She’d deserved every word that I’d blasted her with, but Gideon didn’t. Dani didn’t. If anything, I’d done had pushed Jessica to demand custody, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
Like, oh, sitting on Gideon’s lap like he was a prized steer.
And antagonizing Jessica.
And taunting her over her lack of mothering skills.
Minor things, really. Except not.
“I gotta go out there.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes and rued that I couldn’t shove my hands through it in frustration.
Rylee would kill me if I ruined her handiwork. Then again, she was probably upstairs asleep on my sofa, enjoying every minute of her few hours of freedom, and wouldn’t know the difference.
Besides, the whole date thing was now in question. As was the possibility of using the condoms I’d packed just in case.
Unless my vibrator became a whole lot more animated, I doubted they’d be necessary.
“Yes, you do.”
“Any tips?” I fiddled with my earrings.
Yes, I’d gone all out for this man. Lacy matching bra and panty set, the newest pair I owned. Earrings that weren’t bats or ghosts or grim reapers, but dangling silver ropes.
“Let him talk.” Vee turned toward me and inched up to lay her hands on my shoulders. “Don’t ‘Macy’ him. The guy needs support, not snark.”
“I should be insulted by your implication, but right now, I’ll just gratefully take the advice.” I tipped my forehead down to hers. “Thanks. Now go put your feet up and call your husband so he doesn’t march down here with that adorable baby of yours and get more ovaries exploding in the café.”
I walked outside and let the door swing shut behind me. Outside, the chilly August wind batted me back, making me grip the doorknob. I could still go back in. Let Gideon find me when he was ready.
If he was ready.
Hell, I had a power charger for my personal pleasure wand. Who needed men?
Then he turned and glanced my way, and the overhead lights along the back of my building illuminated the stark lines of his face. The hollows of his eyes. His clenched jaw.
And I couldn’t turn away.
I made myself go over to him. To just stand at his side, since he’d finally stopped moving.
“You don’t have to take me out tonight,” I said hoarsely.
So, we were going with that as our way of offering support? Okay, then.
He worked his jaw before glancing down at me with hooded eyes. “The fuck I’m not.”
I shivered, and it wasn’t entirely from the breeze kicking up again. I didn’t have a jacket, but the chill wasn’t what made me swallow hard.
“It’s too cold for this top, much as I like it.” His gaze moved over my bare shoulder as thoroughly as a caress before he whipped off his jacket and tucked it around me. “Don’t argue, Macy. Just do not. Not now.”
I didn’t. I just concentrated on breathing and not letting years of walls and protective barriers crumble under his hot, unflinching stare.
It wasn’t even entirely due to him. I felt guilty and worried about him and Dani and conflicted about doing any of this considering our working relationship.
Considering I already wanted to scale him like a fence and put his post to very good use.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew extreme sexual desire could make people do dumb things. I just hadn’t been in that position for a long time.
Then again, positions—and thinking about the wide variety of them—was half my problem right now.
“Don’t look at me like that either.”
His voice was like a sandpaper touch against my too tight skin. “How?”
“Like you don’t care what I say as long as I use my mouth in other ways.”
I cleared my throat. “What kind of woman do you take me for?”
“An incredibly smart, savvy, beautiful one. Who I very much want to take out tonight, come what may.” He ran a hand through his hair and cursed under his br
eath. “But it’s all fucked now, because she wants to take my baby from me.”
The pure agony in his voice had me laying a hand on his arm. He glanced down at it as if he didn’t understand what I was doing. I didn’t either.
This was simply fumbling in the dark.
“I messed up.”
“Macy—”
“Let me finish. A little birdie told me you were in a spot with your ex. I’m a jealous bitch when I want to be. I guess that includes when the guy I’m going on a date with is chatting with a gorgeous Hollywood blond he happened to once be married to. Although I think her color is a bit brassy, to be honest.”
The corner of his mouth ticked up. “I divorced her after she cheated on me with the pool boy. Can a story be more clichéd?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised,” I said faintly, locking down any sudden needs to go to confession.
I didn’t talk about Lou. Only Vee knew the barest bones, and that was because she’d been around right afterward. And okay, so did Rylee, but she was my best friend. There also might have been threats of blood loss involved. She’d been pregnant at the time, so she’d been in full-on savage mode.
“I don’t have feelings left for her. If I could vaporize her with my mind and it not affect Dani, I’d probably do it just to save myself the aggravation of dealing with her. But most of the time, she’s like that gnat you ignore because killing her would be more trouble.”
I blinked. “That’s specific. And because I’m me, oddly hot.”
“I like you being possessive of me.” His spicy cologne wafted toward me on the breeze.
And those shields that were wavering in his presence held up tiny white flags.
“It wasn’t of you per se.” Even I could hear the breathiness of my voice. I wasn’t flirting so much as trying not to forget how to breathe.