Her Sexiest Mistake (18 page)

“It always works for me, so I hoped—”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “It worked. I just got overwhelmed. You know…work, Hope, Tess.”

“You mean Mike.”

“Maybe him, too. Tess won’t admit it, but she’s been hurt, too much. Maybe you could tell him to move on now before it’s too late. It won’t be difficult. All he has to do is smile that smile and another woman will be falling all over herself to snag him.”

Kevin smiled grimly. “I’ve had this conversation with him.”

“And?”

“And he wants Tess.”

“Damn it, Kevin.”

“Look, I’ve seen him with her. They were here this afternoon with Hope, baking. My brother, the hound dog, measuring sugar and cracking eggs.”

“So?” Mia shrugged, unimpressed. “A guy’ll do anything to get laid.”

Lifting a hand, he stroked a finger over her temple in the guise of tucking a stray strand of hair back. “Only guys?”

She slapped his hand away with a laugh. “Fine. Women do it, too.”

“You’re upset at all the changes.”

“No, I’m—” She broke off, her eyes locked on his. “Okay, maybe. I don’t like change.”

“Of course you do. Look at your life and how you’ve changed it to suit yourself. Your job itself is a constant change. What you don’t like is when you don’t have the reins in your hands. When you’re not sure of the outcome. You act all tough, but the truth is you’re not much of a gambler if it’s not a sure bet.”

“You make me sound like a control freak. I’m not.”

At that, he tossed back his head and laughed. “Yeah. Okay. You’re also not in denial.” He stroked a hand up her back and made her want to melt. “It’s okay, I’ve got your number.”

She hated how breathless his touch made her. “Think so?”

Leaning in, he kissed right beneath her ear. “Yeah,” he said on a soft exhale and made her shiver. Smiling against her skin, he bit her lightly. “Now tell me what’s really wrong, since you’ve danced around it.”

Wrapping her hands around him, she cupped his butt and squeezed. “I’ve got a better idea.”

He grabbed her hands in his. “I’m on board with that idea, trust me, but everyone is standing in my kitchen, probably watching us.”

“Damn it. Why are there so many people in our lives?”

He laughed again. “I haven’t a clue. Come on. Later we’ll ditch ’em all and you can have your way with me.”

“Promise?”

“If you promise to hang around long enough for me to get my heart rate back to normal afterward.”

She stepped back in automatic defense, but he simply pulled her in anyway. “Is that elusive cuddle so terrifying? Really?”

“Is that why you asked us to stay with you?” she demanded.

“Well, all the possibilities did weigh in.” He kissed her again, then straightened and smiled at her, and took away her breath. Her chest tightened, too, but she told herself that was just because her life suddenly seemed like it was a runaway train. She stared at him, then put her forehead to his chest. “God, you get to me.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he murmured, stroking a hand down her back. “I know things are changing fast right now. But work has been hard before.”

“Not really. I’ve always loved it so much, it never felt hard. But now with my boss out for blood and Ted out for my accounts, I’m not exactly feeling the love.”

“Kick their asses.” His thumbs stroked her jaw when she smiled. “Next time anyone’s in your face, remember it’s not about them, it’s about the actual work and how much you enjoy it. Next problem.”

“Tess. She’s lost her job and she’s about to get her heart stomped, and I can’t help her with any of it.”

“She doesn’t seem too worried. She’s a big girl, Mia. And she’s got it together.”

Mia blew out a breath, unable to concentrate with his hands on her. “Yeah.”

“Next.”

“Hope.”

“A great kid.”

“But she’s not mine. She doesn’t belong here with me.”

“That explains why she’s braced for the other foot to fall.”

“Meaning?”

“She’s just waiting for you to send her back.”

Mia sighed. “Sugar doesn’t want her back yet. Damn it. I can’t send her back knowing that.”

“Because you know how it feels?”

She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “No, it wasn’t like that for me. My mom wanted me around, I just didn’t want to be there. I couldn’t stand to be there. Pretty rotten of me, huh?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Is it rotten of Mike to want to hear? Is it rotten of me to wish I’d been good enough to play pro basketball? Is it rotten of Tess to dream about her cookie company? Or Hope to want to be you?”

“She doesn’t want to be like me.”

“Look again.”

“Damn it, I am not a good role model. I’m not like you. I don’t want to fix people.”

He went still. “Is that what you think I do?”

“It
is
what you do. And I meant it as a compliment.”

“Next,” he whispered.

“You.” This admission passed by her inner editor, and she lifted her head.

His eyes seemed to be deep and full and very warm. “I didn’t realize I factored.”

“Oh, you factor.”

“That is very good to know.”

She saw the light of intent in his eyes as he leaned in, and as much as she wanted to lose herself in his kiss, she planted a hand on his chest. “I have no idea what I’m doing here. You know that, right? I’m on this merry-go-round, and I don’t know how to get off.”

“Just follow your heart.”

Could it really be that easy? She decided she’d never know unless she tried. So she slid her hands into his hair and tugged his face down for a kiss. He humored her for a beat, then tried to pull free, but she touched her tongue to his and dragged a low groan from him as he pulled her close and let her deepen the kiss.

Only when they were both breathless did he step back, still holding one of her hands, which he trailed down her arm, linking her fingers with his. He brought their joined hands up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. Watching her over their fingers, he nodded. “You look better now. Less tense.”

She felt her body humming. That kiss was far more potent than she’d expected. “I don’t feel less tense.”

“Yeah, you do.” He ran a finger between her eyes, where there was usually a tight furrow. “You’re not frowning. In fact, you’re smiling at me. And your eyes are dreamy.”

She leaned past him and looked at herself in the reflection of the side-view mirror of his bike. God. It was true.

He laughed. “Don’t look so shocked.”

She kept staring at herself. He hadn’t mentioned the color of her cheeks and the almost giddy expression on her face. “Dessert,” she decided.

“Sounds good.”

What was good was him. She leaned against his body. “And then…” She pressed against his erection. “This.”

“And then…?”

She sighed. “Look, about that whole cuddle thing…”

He laughed and slung an arm around her. “You might like it, you know.”

Yeah. She did know.

T
hanks to a certain night-owl teenager, Kevin and Mia’s late-night rendezvous never materialized. Hope managed to stay up past Mia, who fell asleep in the queen bed with the teen next to her, rocking out to the iPod Tess had lent her.

Kevin stuck his head in to wave good night to Hope, smiling grimly to himself as he eyed the exhausted Mia. No doubt, she was going to wake up in the morning ready to kill Tess for giving Hope the iPod.

The next morning he found Mia with her head in his refrigerator, dressed to the hilt in some floaty sort of skirt that flirted with her legs and a top that played peekaboo with something lacy and made his blood race. She straightened, a scowl on her face.

“Nothing good magically appear?” he asked.

She whipped around, startled, and he realized it hadn’t been the food making her frown, but her thoughts. “I’m late,” she said in warning when he took a step toward her. She held up her hand to ward him off. “Very late.”

“Just this then…” Pulling her close, the scent of her shampoo and sweet, soft woman tickling his nose, he kissed her.

She let out a low murmur and kissed him back until his eyes crossed. Lifting his head, he eyed the pantry door with half a mind to drag her in there.

“No,” she laughed breathlessly and blew out a frustrated breath. Looking sexy as hell, she moved out of his arms and into the kitchen, calling for Hope to “hurry her tush up” and leaving him behind, hot and bothered.

Nothing new, he’d been hot and bothered since he’d met her.

That evening was a repeat performance, but at least the next morning Mia softened enough to give Kevin a longer kiss. She’d just pressed him back against the refrigerator to feel him up—and down—murmuring, “If she stays up late tonight, I’ll kill her,” when Mike and Hope walked in.

Mike arched a brow.

Hope just stared.

Recovering quickly, Mia tossed Kevin half her bagel and commanded Hope to hurry, as if they hadn’t just been going at it against the refrigerator.

Kevin took much longer to recover. Like all day…

On the third morning, Mia was feeling desperate, and shoved Kevin into the bathroom. “This is a ridiculous,” she whispered. “How do married people ever have sex once they have kids? I can’t wait any longer.” She lifted her skirt.

No panties.

With a rough groan, he reached for her, but Mike banged on the door.

Mia thunked her head back against the shower. “I’m going to cry,” she whispered. “I mean it.”

But a few minutes later, in the kitchen, she gave him a whole bagel. Toasted and jellied.

Progress.

“You made this for me?” Kevin murmured, surprised.

“Maybe I’m staking my claim.” Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him good-bye.

“Ew,” Hope said, coming into the room, wrinkling her nose but looking secretly pleased. “Gross. Old people making out.”

Old people wanting more than that, Kevin thought.

Late the next night, when Kevin had resigned himself to the fact that Mia was sabotaging their nights on purpose because she was freaked about “living” together, he heard someone in the hallway.

It was Mike, who smirked.
Still not getting laid?

Kevin sighed.

Sucks for you,
Mike signed, clearly dressed for going out.

Where are you off to?

To get what you can’t.

With Tess?

Mike’s smile fell, and he shook his head.

You saw her just last night. What happened?

During…an inopportune moment, Linda paged me. And then Shelly. They wanted me to go out with them.

Kevin shook his head.
Demanding harem you have there.

Hey, I haven’t seen any of them since I met Tess. But she doesn’t know that.

And the calls look damning.

Mike nodded, a new expression on his face: shame.
It happened last week, too. She read one of the texts. It said
Come fuck me, big guy.

Ouch.

Mike let out an agreeing sound.
She dumped me. She cried when she did it, too.
Looking destroyed, he shrugged.
So I guess I’m going out with the gang.

Why don’t you stick around here instead?
Kevin signed casually, trying to keep him from the need to go self-destruct.
I can put in a movie—

Mike shook his head and brushed past him.

A moment later, the front door shut.

With a sigh, Kevin went to the kitchen, hoping his brother kept his brain turned on. He heard the pad of the bare feet a few seconds before Hope poked her head in. She wore a black T-shirt that fell to her knees and her hair in a ponytail. No makeup at all. She looked about twelve, and incredibly sweet. “Hey.” He kicked out a chair. “You too old for milk and cookies?”

“Never.”

He started to get up, but she waved him down and helped herself, serving him as well. He smiled and thanked her, and then waited.

It didn’t take long.

“So this relationship thing…” She didn’t look at him but into her milk as if it held the world’s secrets. “How do you know when it’s real?”

“What kind of relationship are we talking about?”

“There’s different kinds?”

“Sure, there’s the friendship relationship, the student/teacher relationship, the love relationship—”

“That kind.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Well…there’s the I-gotta-have-you-or-life-is-over love. That’s usually a teenage thing, and lasts, oh, about a week.”

She snorted and dipped her cookie in the milk.

“And then there’s the I-love-you-if-you-change-into-the-person-I-really-want love. That usually doesn’t last much longer than the teenage kind.” He knew. He’d been there with Beth.

Another snort came from Hope as she shoved the cookie in her mouth, and he smiled. “And then there’s the real thing. The I-can’t-eat-can’t-sleep love that snags you by the heart and won’t let go. Only problem is, it’s almost always fatal.”

She went very still, then swallowed. “When you spell it out, it’s not really that hard to tell the difference at all, is it?”

“Are we talking about Adam?”

She looked away. “Actually…I was thinking about Aunt Mia. If she fell in love, the real kind, maybe she’d want kids. Maybe she’d want me to stay. And, you know, help.”

God, she was killing him. “She’d be lucky to have you, Hope.”

She played with another cookie for a minute. “Think she’d want to keep me?”

How to tell her Mia didn’t want to “keep” anybody. “Your aunt has some things to work out in the keeping department,” he said gently.

“And we can’t work them out for her?”

“No, unfortunately.”

She sighed. “Don’t you hate it when you can’t just fix stuff? And make it right?”

He absorbed the unexpected wisdom. He
couldn’t
fix things. He
couldn’t
make it right. Some things just had to go the course. The kids in his class. Mike, Mia…“Do you have any idea how smart you are, Hope?”

She met his gaze straight on. “Smart enough to know which kind of love it is you have for Mia.” She smiled at his shock. “Don’t worry. Maybe it won’t be fatal this one time.”

She left him after that, but there was no way he could sleep. He tried late-night TV and had just watched some stupid infomercial on exercise equipment and was contemplating a way to wake up Mia when his cell vibrated to life. He looked at it and knew.

Mike, in trouble again.

Don’t you hate when you can’t just fix stuff?
Hope’s words echoed in his head as he watched the cell shimmy and shake. He couldn’t fix his students; they had to want to learn. He couldn’t change Mia into wanting something she didn’t.

And he couldn’t rescue Mike by bailing him out over and over again.
Shouldn’t.

After a moment, the phone stopped vibrating, and with a sick, heavy pit in his gut, he got up and went to bed.

The next morning Mike slammed into the house, stalked down the hall, and went straight to his room. Kevin came out of his room and shouldered his way into Mike’s before he was locked out.
What happened?
he demanded as his brother stripped out of his shirt.

Mike snorted.
Now you want to know? Fuck off.

Tell me.

I was arrested for disorderly conduct for a bar fight which, by the way, I didn’t start. You’d know that if you’d have picked up your phone.
He started to brush past Kevin, who blocked him with a hand to his chest.

I told you I was done bailing you out.

Mike stared at him, then shoved him back a step.
Get your smug self-righteous face out of my room before I smash it.

Mike—

Look, you’re done saving my ass? Fine. No doubt I deserve it. But I sure as hell don’t want to see or talk to you right now, so get out.

How did you get home?

Concern? Is that concern on your face? A little late, isn’t it?

Mike—

I spent the night in jail and was picked up by Tess. Satisfied?

You called Tess?

For a ride home. She gladly gave it, unlike my own brother. Then she said I disappointed her, that she expects more from a man than I can give. Said I shouldn’t call her again.
Mike punched the wall, then rubbed his knuckles.
Look, just get the hell out.

Mike—

But Mike turned and walked into his bathroom. The lock tumbling into place echoed into the silence.

Hope sat in science class, riveted by the lesson. They were learning about the effects of the moon’s pull on the ocean, and she was taking notes, dreaming about swimming with the dolphins.

Kevin—Mr. McKnight here in class—was tense today. She knew something was going on when she’d entered his kitchen that morning because he and Mia had immediately stopped talking. They’d both looked extremely unhappy, which she assumed was Mia’s doing. Why couldn’t the woman get it together?

Adam touched his foot to hers, and Hope looked over in surprise. He passed her a note.

When are we getting together?

Though she’d been the one to say they could, she was avoiding actually doing so. She didn’t know why. So she smiled but didn’t answer, didn’t know what to answer.

After class, he took her hand. “Walk with me to the teen center?”

She wasn’t supposed to—they were supposed to walk in groups of three or more, and always with at least two girls—but he was pretty cute, and smiling at her with those eyes. “’Kay.”

But instead of going straight to the teen center, they veered off the path and entered the woods. There, with the trees all around them, the day dim from the low clouds, Adam kissed her.

“Um—” she began, but he thrust his tongue in her mouth.

Jeez.
Still too much slobber. She tried to pull back, but he held on tight, then stuck his clammy hand beneath her shirt. She jerked free.

“What?” he asked, lifting his hands.

“Um…wait a sec.”

His eyes filled with impatience. “Jesus, it’s always
wait
with you.”

She knew she’d given him mixed signals, and she felt bad, but she
felt
like a walking mixed signal. “I’m sorry.”

“If you’re sorry, then kiss me,” he whispered in that sexy voice and leaned in.

Okay, fine.
One
more. She let him stick his tongue back down her throat and put his hand back up her shirt, hoping he wouldn’t unhook her bra. She tried to stand still to wait him out, but she just couldn’t do it. She was about to shove him away when the twigs and branches on the path crackled beneath someone else’s feet.

Adam jerked back.

And Hope looked up into Kevin’s face. He looked pissed, and Hope wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

“We’re not doing anything,” Adam said.

Kevin uttered one very unteacherlike word, and Hope squeezed her eyes shut.
Please God, just kill me right now. Strike me dead with lightning.

But God wasn’t listening.

Kevin took a deep breath and looked at Adam. “You.”

Hope shifted uncomfortably. “Kevin—”

“Zip it, Hope,” Kevin said without looking at her. “You’re next. Right now I’m talking to Adam.”

Hope tried God again.
Please, I’m begging you. Kill me.

“This is the—what?—the third time I’ve caught you out here this week playing tonsil hockey?” Kevin asked Adam.

Hope stopped talking to God and stared at Adam. “Wait.
Third
time?”

Adam backed up a step, eyes cool and hooded. “Kissing isn’t against any rule.”

“Being out here in the woods is,” Kevin said. “You’ve been warned. You’ve been punished with extra assignments. Now you’re going to be suspended.”

Adam lost his smugness. “Hey, wait. I—”

“Too late,” Kevin said firmly.

“But if you get suspended from summer school, you don’t get credit for the class,” Adam said. “I need the credit.”

“Too bad.”

Adam just stared at him. “I thought you were cool. I thought you cared about fixing us.”

“Oh, I care, Adam,” Kevin said quietly. “But I can’t fix you. Only you can do that. You need to stop smoking pot and you need to get your act together while you’re still a minor and these mistakes don’t count against you permanently. If I can help you, I will.”

“Funny way of showing it.”

Kevin shrugged.

Adam glanced over at Hope, who was still stuck on the
third time
thing and looked away. Adam kicked the dirt and stalked off toward the teen center.

Hope couldn’t help it, she let out a relieved little sigh. Kevin, unaware that he’d just saved her from having to tell Adam no, was now glaring at her. “You want to tell me how I’ve ruined your life, too?” he asked. “Because—what the hell—I’m on a roll. Let’s hear it.”

Hope shook her head.

Kevin sighed. Swore again.

And Hope worked up the nerve to ask her most pressing question. “Are you going to tell Mia?”

“No.”

She sagged in relief that turned out to be short-lived.