Pick Me (6 page)

“You really didn’t know?”

He sat back in his chair and considered his beer, running the pad of his thumb around the neck, sending her thoughts racing. Did he stroke a woman’s throat the same way, with the same deliberation?

Forget her throat, what about the rest of her?

“To be honest,” Calder said, “I wasn’t really paying attention to much in those days. Life at home kept me pretty distracted. Most days I left school on that bike and rode as far as I could.”

Thea studied his profile as he hooked his thumb and middle finger around the bottle neck and swung it up to his mouth for a long swig. The night he’d taken her on his motorcycle, the night they’d feasted on cheeseburgers and malts, he’d said nothing about his home life. But then, she hadn’t said much about hers either. They’d enjoyed one another like two people without pasts, without expectations. They’d felt anonymous and it had been a wonderful feeling.

But now they were adults, and grown-ups didn’t get to hide from their lives or pretend to be other people.

Maybe in Vegas, but not in Magnolia Bay.

Funny that life had recently brought both of them back—but for very different reasons, though she wasn’t yet sure what his were. Maybe tonight she could find out.

He sat back. “I hear your mom and dad are still running Dunn-Right Preservation.”

Thea nodded. “With my sisters, Willa and Connie, too.”

He smiled. “You didn’t want a part of the family business?”

“Old houses aren’t my thing.”
Neither are new ones, when they’re overrun with bugs
, she thought. “What about you? No interest in working your folks’ farm?”

He smiled. “It was always going to be medicine for me. Now that my mom’s gone, my brother, Pete and his wife run it for my dad. Pop’s there but he can’t really manage the day-to-day stuff.”

“So it was your brother who got the bug then?”

“He might not put it quite like that.”

Another cryptic response.

Calder rose. “Ready to eat?”

“Sure,” Thea said. “Can I help?”

“Two plates, two hands; I’m good.”

Yes, he was, Thea thought as she watched him disappear through the slider and back into the house, reminded of how those jean-clad legs had looked earlier that day in shorts, the taut muscles of his thighs, the strong calves glistening with sweat. She forced her eyes to her beer and took another sip, the taste growing on her. The alcohol was growing on her too, and its smoothness was steering her thoughts into dangerous waters.

Calder returned with their dinner and set her plate down first. “So,” he said, reclaiming his seat. “Let’s get back to how I missed out on being Most Wanted at Magnolia Bay High.”

She laughed as she took up her fork. “I’m sure you’ve made up for what you missed in high school.” Not that she believed for five seconds he was any kind of saint in those years, either. Just because he didn’t date her friends, or any girls she had known, didn’t mean he couldn’t have found plenty of company in other parts of town.

“Don’t be so sure,” he said. “Med school can take you out of the dating game for a long time.” He chased a forkful of rice with a swig of beer before he continued. “Then you’ve got your residencies. By the time you’re ready to practice in one field, you’re out of practice in another.”

“Then you’re saying you were a monk all those years?” The beer was loosening her thoughts, all right.

“A monk? Hell, no,” he said, grinning sexily. “I may I have been out of practice dating, but I’d stayed in good shape for other parts of the mating ritual.”

Thea hoped the expression she wore wasn’t half as moronically delighted as the way she was feeling, but she couldn’t remember the last time a man, a really good-looking man, had flirted with her.

She pushed a shrimp around her plate. “This is nice,” she said. “When you’re in a long-term relationship…”She looked up to meet his gently probing gaze and admitted, “It’s just that it’s been a while since I’ve been flirted with properly.”

He smiled. “Damn. And here I was hoping to flirt with you
improperly
.”

God, how long had it really been since she’d had a conversation like this? Had she had many with Dennis? Surely in the beginning of their relationship, though she couldn’t remember her abdomen heating up so fiercely, or her scalp prickling at the base of her neck.

“So there hasn’t been anyone special in your life?” she asked.

“In my line of work, it’s tough. I move around a lot. I might stay at a place for a year, sometimes no more than six months.”

“That must make it hard to meet people.”

“Meeting people isn’t the problem.”

Of course it wasn’t. A girl could get lost in those green eyes and never find her way out.

“What is then?” she asked.

“Saying goodbye. Trying to be in a committed relationship when you both know it comes with an expiration date.” He winced. “God, that sounded awful. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She pulled gently on a loose corner of her beer’s label. “I’m the last person to wave the flag for lasting love, believe me.”

She hadn’t meant the admission to rush out, but there it was—and based on the inquisitive warmth in his eyes that burned back at her when she looked up, she knew there could be no resealing the can of worms she’d just opened. The realization was startling to her: Not so unlike the last time they’d been alone, here she was again, recently duped and dumped.

“I take it that means the city isn’t the only thing you’re looking to get away from out here?” he asked.

Thea nodded.

“Were you and he married?”

“Not yet. I thought we were on our way.”

“Then he’s an idiot.”

Thea met Calder’s warm gaze, moved, even though she knew the comment had come from a place of kindness. Maybe even pity.

So why did she allow it to buoy her spirits so high?

“I’m afraid I’m the idiot in that equation,” she said with a weak smile. “Although my family seems to think I’m better off without him.”

“And what do you think?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

A breeze rolled in, bringing with it the soft, wet heat of evening and sweeping the air free of the sober discussion they’d veered into. Thea was grateful for its timing.

“A toast.” Calder picked up his beer and held it to hers. “To old friends and new roads.”

She knocked her bottle against his and they both drank. Lowering their bottles, they held one another’s gaze. A cell chimed. This time, the ring came from him. Calder dug into his pocket and eyed the screen. When he looked back at Thea, his expression was weary. “It’s my brother—I should take this.”

“Of course,” she said, standing.

“Wait one sec.” He picked up the call and said into the phone, “Hold on, okay?” He lowered the phone and said to Thea, “Let me walk you back.”

“I may not have the best sense of direction, Doctor, but I think I can find my way across that short wall,” she said, pointing to the lattice divider beside them.

He chuckled. “Fair enough, Counselor.” They smiled at each other, the phone still pressed against his chest. “I’d like to do this again. It’s been great catching up.”

“Me, too,” she said, maneuvering around him for the steps, hoping her balance would hold out. “Thanks for dinner. It was delicious.”

Back on her side, Thea heard Calder bring back up the call, his voice deepening. She heard the whoosh of the slider opening and closing, then silence.

Around her, the night was soft but when she searched the air for the scent of the bay, she could only detect it faintly, no more pronounced than the faint dusting of stars that were barely visible in the dusk sky.

Regret swirled. Had she spoiled their evening by mentioning Dennis? Calder had prompted the subject but then she’d been unsure in her response. A part of her wished she’d said that she knew without a doubt that she was better off without Dennis Connolly.

So why hadn’t she?

Chapter Five

By
the time Thea had returned to her condo and put in a call to her sisters, Willa and Connie had already left the Crab House, which was fine by Thea. The truth was, as much as she loved her sisters, she wasn’t in the mood to be cross-examined in a busy restaurant, not to mention her beer on an empty stomach would have made that short trip a risky one.

But now, this morning, pulling up to Willa and Knox’s bungalow, Thea knew her sisters would expect the full play-by-play of her dinner with Calder, and Thea wasn’t sure she was up to the inquisition.

A pair of white Loveless Brothers’ Construction trucks sat parked in the driveway, their beds loaded with tools and materials, the narrow front yard covered in stacks of lumber and boxes. Thea skirted around the piles and mounted the bungalow’s porch steps carefully, knowing that even though Willa and Knox had been months into their restoration work on the old house, much about the cottage was still as fragile as it looked, including the four crooked treads that led to the porch—not to mention the floorboards themselves that boasted gaping holes of rot every few steps like slices of Swiss cheese. To say the house was a labor of love was an understatement—good thing Willa and Knox were too crazy in love with each other to know how insane they were to take on the project in the first place.

The bungalow’s front door was open, which was fortuitous since no one would have heard a knock over the din of activity inside.

“So?” Willa rushed at her as soon as Thea stepped into the cacophony of hammering and drilling, barely letting her get inside before she demanded with wide, expectant eyes, “Was it a kiss worth waiting fourteen years for?”

Thea smiled. “I told you, it was just dinner. There was no kiss.”

“No kiss?” Willa grabbed the sides of her head. “My God, I can’t believe you blew it
again
!”

“Give me a break, okay? I just broke up with my boyfriend.”

“Weeks ago, Thee.
Weeks
.”

“Are y’all going to put me to work, or what?”

“Fine,” Willa said with a begrudging sigh. “But I’m not giving up on this.”

Thea should only be so lucky. She stepped further inside the front room and glanced around. “It looks like y’all are making progress. Is Peach coming over?”

“Are you kidding?” Willa snorted. “Peach came by to help—and I use that term loosely—last week in heels and a minidress. She scraped off exactly one square foot of wallpaper and promptly started bawling because she’d snapped off a new nail tip. I haven’t seen her since and I don’t expect we will until we need “help” ordering furniture we can’t afford from high-end catalogs. Con’s here, though. She and Jay are in the kitchen tearing up linoleum—well, I should say where the kitchen will be when we’re finished.”

“Yay, I was hoping that was you!” Connie appeared with her boyfriend, Jay Preston, both of them in paint-stained t-shirts. “How was dinner?”

Willa answered before Thea could. “Not good. Apparently there was no, you know…“ Willa paused to deliver a pointed wink, “…
dessert
.”

“No dessert? Surely there was at least
coffee
?” Connie asked, clearly understanding Willa’s coded language.

“Nope,” said Willa. “No coffee. Not even
decaf
.”

“Wait…“ Jay looked between them, bewildered. “Am I missing something?”

Thea sighed. “Pay no attention to them, Jay. They’re like seagulls. If you ignore them, they eventually lose interest and move on to bother someone else.”

“Very funny,” Connie said, turning to Jay to explain. “Thea’s next door neighbor is an old friend from high school who she had a wild crush on—“

“And who she had the chance to fool around with on prom night,” Willa continued, “but didn’t because she didn’t want to cheat on her boyfriend who, it turns out, was already cheating on
her
with some floo —“

“Will!” Thea cried.

“Now who are you pissing off, Meen?” Knox Loveless appeared in Carhartts and a t-shirt, his dark hair powdered with sawdust, and came up behind Willa with a rakish grin, grabbing her around the waist and spinning her around for a hard kiss. Thea could remember when Knox’s nickname for her younger sister used to make steam blow out of Willa’s ears—now the moniker made her light up like a bonfire.

“Oh, Lord,” Connie groaned. “Cut it out before we turn the hose on you two.”

“Can’t, sorry,” said Knox, breaking away. “Water won’t be on until next week.” He twisted back to resume their kiss. Willa hooked her arms around his neck and pulled him in tighter.

Thea felt a pang of envy. Try as she did to convince herself that she was better off without Dennis, she still longed for passion, for someone to scoop her up into a kiss like that and refuse to let go.

Not that Dennis had been one for sweeping kisses—a fact she’d do well to remind herself of more often.

* * *

After three hours of tearing up carpet and priming shutters, Thea decided she played Tool-Time Girl long enough for one day.