Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance (11 page)

“Yeah, maybe.” The sadness in his eyes undid
her.

The urge to take away his pain whipped
through her, wrapping her in the eye of a tornado and pummeling her
good sense. She touched his cheek, mesmerized by his dark eyes,
drawn in by animal magnetism. She leaned forward. He leaned
forward. The scent of pure male, clean and masculine filled her
nostrils. Her hand dropped to her side. She stared at his mouth and
moved closer, just an inch or two separated them. His hot breath
tickled her nose. She closed the final distance, unable to
resist.

His lips tasted just as she imagined, like
spearmint gum and all-alpha male. He didn’t move as she sampled
them, letting her take the initiative. Kelsie ran her tongue over
his lower lip and circled to his upper lip. Once she completed the
circuit, her mouth followed her tongue. His lips were strong,
uncompromising, sensually powerful, everything she knew they’d
be.

With a tortured groan, Zach buried his long
fingers into her hair and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss,
sucking her tongue into his warm mouth. Kelsie wrapped her arms
around his neck and held on tight. Her wayward body pressed against
his without her permission.

She didn’t give a damn. She wanted him with
a feral need she’d never felt with another man. Maybe it was a
payback thing, a way to give him a part of her and ease her guilt.
Right now the reasons didn’t matter. Their mouths mated wildly,
like animals, freed of all the restrictions placed on them by
society.

Society
.

Oh, crap.

Her job
.

Calling on a reserve of strength she kept
for tough times, Kelsie pushed him away. She was here to teach him
social graces not to engage in a tongue tango.

Zach backed up a few steps, shaking his
head, almost pawing the ground like a bull in the ring. “If you
think that’s going to make me change my mind, you can forget
it.”

“That was so not a good idea on many
levels.” She panted and fanned her face.

“Tell me about it.” He leaned back against
the steps with a sigh and glanced around. “I’ll pay someone to
clean up this place.” As if what happened was all about the yard
and not about this mutual attraction arcing between them.

Kelsie opened her mouth to thank him and get
herself out of the garden reclamation business. Then she stopped
dead in her beat-up shoes. All her life people bailed her out of
her problems then perched her on a pedestal and admired her but
never expected anything of substance and sacrifice from her. Sure,
she’d sacrificed herself for ten years with a controlling husband,
but not that type of sacrifice.

“No.” She couldn’t believe that word came
out her mouth even as a plan formed in her mind. Zach considered
her a selfish woman who’d never change. She had changed, and she’d
act accordingly.

“No?” He stared at her, his mouth hanging
open.

“No. I’ll get volunteers to do it, and we’ll
do it for free. You can donate the money you’ll save to a
charity.”

“What kind of charity?”

“One for battered women.”

“Battered women, huh? What do you know about
battered women?”

Too much when it came to being emotionally
battered, but she’d be damned if she’d solicit his sympathy. “One
of the many charities I organized when I was married to Mark.” She
tossed her ponytail as if the actual charity was of no consequence
to her. He might as well continue to think the worst of her to keep
him at arm’s length.

He nodded and held out his hand. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

Now for the hard part. How to swing the deal
she just made with him and with herself. Not just the gardening
part but the hands-off the student part.

CHAPTER 7

Finished with her weekly meeting, Kelsie
limped out of the coach’s office, discouraged and beaten. HughJack
spent the entire meeting staring at his computer, while Veronica
stared down her nose. Neither was impressed by Kelsie’s report,
despite her attempts at sugar-coating and spin-doctoring.

She sat down in an empty reception area
around the corner from the main doors to the practice facility,
pulled off a shoe, and rubbed her throbbing foot. In the past week
she’d gained a new respect for people who did physical labor for a
living. She’d never see a gardener or repairman in the same way.
There wasn’t a muscle in her body that didn’t ache, or a square
inch of skin that wasn’t red and chapped.

For the better part of the past week, Kelsie
attempted to tackle Zach’s yard, but instead it tackled her. She
couldn’t give up. Not now. Not when her goal hovered on the
horizon. A stubborn linebacker and a jungle yard wouldn’t deter
her. Even if said yard harbored all sorts of nasty, greasy
surprises, such as old car parts and garbage and disgusting
creatures in the form of slugs big enough to cart off the house on
their slimy backs.

Loneliness and longing were almost as bad as
her physical pain, lonely for a friendly face and longing for a man
who’d never forgive her. Men complicated everything, and she
preferred things to stay as simple as possible until she rebounded
from her current sorry state.

But she’d kissed him. Not just a nice sweet
kiss, but an all-out assault in which she’d attempted to burrow
under his skin or at least his clothes. This obsessing over him had
to stop. She’d tasted that forbidden fruit for the last time. No
more. She was a professional doing a professional job, and she
would not
do
her client.

Mercy, but Kelsie needed someone to spill
her woes to other than Scranton. Someone who’d be an ally in a
harsh world. She craved true girlfriends, the type everyone else
had, not the superficial ones she’d had all her life. Of course,
you have to be a friend to have true friends. Kelsie was ready to
be that type of friend if only someone would give her chance.

Someone like—

She heard a familiar voice and stilled,
listening, certain her addled brain must have dredged up an answer
to her prayers.

“I’m on my way, Vinnie. Where are we
meeting?” Rachel Ramsey’s voice drifted to where Kelsie sat. She
held her breath, hoping she’d hear the location before Rachel
exited out the door.

“Beachfront Pub? Got it. See you there in
ten.”

Talk about right-place, right-time. Kelsie
had better start going to church because someone up their just
might be playing on her team.

Slipping her shoe back on her foot, she
ignored her protesting toes and stood. She walked up to the old
security guy at the front desk and gave him her pageant-winning
smile. “Where’s the Beachfront Pub?”

He grinned as if she’d just gifted him a
winning lotto ticket. A few minutes later, she hurried out of the
building as fast as her bruised and blistered feet would carry
her.

Kelsie drove ten minutes to the Kirkland
waterfront area and parked in the restaurant lot. She glanced in
the rear-view mirror, still feeling as if her face betrayed the
effects of Zach’s kiss last week. She touched her lips. Perhaps the
physical evidence disappeared but in her mind those hungry lips of
his still roamed across her mouth and face, wreaking havoc with her
brain.

No more men. Not a one. Especially not an
unsociable loner with the manners of a caveman and a chip on his
shoulder larger than most continents.

No. No. No.

Just keep saying the words, Kel, some day
you might really believe them.

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind and
shore up her courage, she walked into the Beachfront Pub and paused
in the doorway, scanning the tables. With the regal bearing of the
beauty queen she once was, she wove between the tables to one near
the window. Several men gazed appreciatively at her as she strolled
by. She ignored them. They weren’t part of her plan, now or ever.
Two heads bent close together, one blonde, one brunette, gossiped
away, totally unaware of her determined approach.

“Imagine meeting you here.” Kelsie gushed,
using her best girlfriend-to-girlfriend voice.

Both women glanced up at the same time. She
caught the quick look between them, almost as if they were on to
her but too polite to call her out on her deception.

“I thought I’d drop by for a quick
bite.”

Again that silent look between friends. A
hesitation. Kelsie held her breath, praying they were as nice as
she guessed they were.

Rachel smiled up at her, a friendly, open
smile. “Please join us.”

Lavender nodded her agreement as she sipped
on a yummy looking foo-foo drink.

“I’d love to.”

Rachel moved her purse out of the way, and
Kelsie slid into the booth seat next to her. “I was in the area
meeting with Coach Jackson and Ms. Simms to discuss my progress on
a special project.”

“Zach’s manners class? Tyler told me all
about it.” Lavender made a face, as if she didn’t quite agree with
Tyler spreading dirt about Zach.

“Tyler talks too much, and he holds his
grudges near and dear to his heart.” Rachel sighed.

“So does Zach.” Kelsie knew that better than
anyone. No sense denying the obvious.

“Tyler says you have Zach all tied up in
knots. Mr. Invincible might not be so different from the rest of
us.” Lavender winked at her.

Kelsie shook her head, hoping to chop that
rumor down. “Not those types of knots. He has good reason to
dislike me, and he wallows in his grudges.”

“Zach won’t let it go with Tyler either.
Their childish war is dividing the team. I don’t understand why the
coach allows it to happen.”

Kelsie resisted the urge to defend Zach for
the second time in a week. No reason to get her panties in a bunch
over the truth. Zach did hold onto things long past their
usefulness. “Zach’s a bit of a stubborn, proud man.”

“You knew him from high school?” Rachel
signaled the waiter and a moment later one of the incredible drinks
showed up in front of Kelsie.

“What is it?”

“Root beer float, only with alcohol instead
of ice cream. It’s our lunch tradition.”

Kelsie sipped the drink and licked her lips.
“Heavenly.” She held her hands to her heart and looked upward.
Rachel and Lavender laughed.

“Hey, sister, you’re not distracting us that
easily. Spill. You and Zach have a history,” Lavender prompted.

Kelsie hesitated, not willing to tell all
and paint herself in such an unfavorable light. “He hasn’t changed
much, except he has more money. In high school, he stayed to
himself, looks like he still does.” Thanks to her. She’d taught him
a valuable lesson when it came to trusting people, and she felt
like crap about it.

They ordered lunch, sipped their drinks, and
made small talk. Kelsie had so missed female interaction. Her ex
all but cut off her friends over the past ten years. He’d embraced
her family because both her parents worshipped him as if he walked
on water. She could do nothing right in their eyes and his.

A lull in the conversation gave Kelsie the
in she needed. “Have you ever done something so stupid you can’t
figure out how to rectify it?”

“Of course.” Lavender paused in mid-chew and
studied her.

Rachel laughed. “All the time. I can’t even
walk on a flat surface without stumbling.”

“I could help you with that.”

The both stared at her, mouths open.

“You learn how to walk correctly in beauty
queen school.”

“Beauty queen school?” They said in
unison.

Kelsie waved them off. “It’s a long, boring
story and not important to my problem.”

“And that is?”

“When I accepted the job working with Zach,
I wanted to sweeten the pot, go above and beyond, give the Jacks
more than their money’s worth.”

“And you did what?”

“I agreed to help Zach host a black-tie
fundraiser at his home on Queen Ann Hill with proceeds going to
Veronica’s favorite charity.”

“You took on Veronica’s Hearts for Homeless
campaign? You’re a brave woman. Isn’t she, Rae?”

“You’ll never do it well enough to please
her.”

“It’s even worse than that. Have you seen
Zach’s home?” Kelsie picked up a breadstick and gnawed on it.

“Zach is a loner. No one’s been invited to
his place.”

“Good thing. If they wandered off the front
porch they’d never be heard from again.”

“That bad?”

“You two know Zach. He’s not into
appearances. He’s also a procrastinator. If it’s not football, he
puts it on a back burner.”

Both women met each other’s gazes and said
in unison. “It is that bad.”

“Is he hiring someone to clean it up?”
Rachel ordered another round of drinks.

“No, I’m cleaning it up. I got Zach into
this mess, and I feel responsible for taking on some of the chores,
but I don’t really have the cash to hire anyone.”

“Girl, you are in deep doggie doo.” Lavender
grabbed her second drink and took a long suck on her straw.

“I know. Just shoot me. I was hoping we
might put our heads together for the greater good. I’m
desperate.”

“You came to the right place.” Lavender’s
smirk danced across her face. “Tyler might help.”

“He hates Zach.”

“Exactly. Which is why he’ll help. When he
finds out Zach isn’t cleaning up the place, Ty will grab the
offensive guys and jump right in. The place will be ready in no
time.”

Kelsie thought about it. “That might work,
but what’s the incentive besides making Zach look like an ass?”

“For Ty, that’s enough. Besides I know how
his mind works. He’ll make it into a competition. Offense versus
defense. Zach won’t be able to resist the chance to best him. You
wait and see.”

“And poor Derek will be there to make sure
they don’t kill each other,” Rachel sighed and checked her text
messages.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Kelsie looked at
each of them. Both women’s eyes gleamed with mischief.