Thwarting Cupid (12 page)

She nodded and smiled right back. “Yes we do.”

“Excellent.” He followed her inside the store, surprised at the peace that settled over him.

Chapter 12

Carissa was sealing up the last of the damaged envelopes when Hutch returned to the office.

“We’re back on track,” he announced.

“Great news! You know what happened?” Deborah asked and ran an envelope through the postage meter.

He shrugged. “Some malfunction in their equipment. It was routing everything back to us. The post master is taking care of it.”

Carissa straightened the stack of sealed and metered envelopes, and placed them in the waiting mail crate.

“That
is
good news.”

“The best news is that it’s still early enough for us to have a nice afternoon off.”

Deborah popped out of her chair and gave Hutch a smile. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” She had her purse and was almost out the door before she tossed a wave over her shoulder.

Hutch chuckled and shook his head then perched on the edge of a desk. He tucked something inside a drawer, then focused his beautiful green eyes on Carissa. “What about you? Ready to blow this joint?”

“What did you have in mind?” Carissa asked and stood to stretch.

“If your back is up to it, we could wander around the Promenade for a bit.”

“Sounds good to me,” Carissa agreed.

And that’s what they did. Hutch left the last box of letters at the mail drop, then he and Carissa strolled around the city center on a gorgeous February day.

They ran into a film shoot and stopped to watch the action with the rest of the tourists for a bit. A little further up the block, they stopped to watch various performers work their craft for the crowd.

A group of crunk dancers drew a huge audience with their tight beats and amazing moves. When the crowd pressed in around them, jockeying to get a better view, Hutch put an arm around Carissa’s waist to keep her close to his side.

Carissa knew the move was just designed to keep them from getting separated amongst all the people, but that didn’t stop her heart from beating just a bit faster. She felt giddy like a schoolgirl out on her first date with a boy. Except this wasn’t a date. She bit her lip and looked up at Hutch. His attention was focused on the performers and he was nodding with the music. Who said white boys had no rhythm? Carissa smiled to herself. Maybe this little outing hadn’t started out as a date, but there was no reason it couldn’t turn into one.

She took one more breath for courage then slid an arm around him. He paused mid bob to look at her. She gave him a timid smile, but prepared to back off if he looked the least bit uncomfortable. To her relief, his reaction was to hold her even closer before turning his attention back to the dancers. Success!

* * * *

Quincy stood facing Carissa and James, arms folded, less than three feet in front of them. He scowled at James, who dared have his arm around her waist. Her arm was around him, too, telling Quincy just how much of a bad influence the man was on her.

If he hadn’t been called away yet again, he could’ve had all this nonsense nipped in the bud by now. His irritation at the whole situation was so great that he didn’t even care about the people moving back and forth through him when they moved to see the performers better. It wasn’t like it hurt him or anything, occupying the same space as the humans, but it did creep him out a bit.

Applause broke out around the crowd. Carissa and James let go of one another to join in. When the crowd dispersed, James caught her hand, keeping her with him. Quincy knew he had to do something. And fast.

He followed along behind them, watching James like a hawk; from the bills James dropped into the performers’ case when Carissa wasn’t looking, to the way he opened doors for her. Quincy scrutinized James’s every move. Each time, James came up lacking. But Carissa, poor thing, was eating up all the attention. She pulled the man to a stop outside a chain book seller.

“I’m sorry. It’s, like, illegal for me to walk past a bookstore without going inside,” she told James while trying to keep a serious expression on her face.

“Well, you’d be a pretty cute jailbird, but I’d still hate to see you behind bars.” James made a grand gesture of opening the door for her, and followed her inside. Quincy rolled his eyes. He didn’t stay with them. Instead, he popped straight to the travel section where he knew she was headed.

Carissa didn’t disappoint. She made a beeline for the books about Italy and grabbed her favorite from the shelf.

“Check this out.” She flipped to a large photo spread of the Amalfi Coast. “I am a mere six months away from buying the plane ticket.”

James checked out the photos. “You’re going to Italy?”

“Yep. Next May. I will finally get to see this gorgeous view for myself.” She flipped a couple pages to a photo of the hillside village. “I’m going to visit each one of those shops. Climb those stairs right there.”

“Wait. Part of your fantasy vacation includes climbing stairs?” James asked, an amused note in his voice.

Carissa didn’t appear offended. Quincy was miffed on her behalf. How dare this idiot make fun of her dreams!

“It sure does.” She tilted her head and studied the photo. She traced the stairway that ran past a deli. “No idea why, but I just really like those stairs. I want to see what’s past that little deli there.”

“Makes perfect sense to me.” He stepped closer to her while she turned to the page featuring tourists in small boats heading into a cave. Another picture showed the boats inside the cave and the blue light reflecting up from the water.

“That’s the blue grotto off Capri. I’m going to explore those caves, too.” Carissa scrunched up her nose. “I know it’s a total tourist trap and you have to be there when the sun is shining and the water is calm enough for the boats to enter the cave, but I totally have to try it at least once.”

“I had no idea you had such an adventurous spirit. Who are you going with?” The question sounded casual enough, but Quincy’s practiced ears picked up on the jealous undertone in the man’s voice. Interesting. Perhaps this was something he could use.

Carissa, however, appeared clueless. She closed the book and put it back on the shelf. “Nobody.” She picked up a travel dictionary and flipped through the pages. “I keep meaning to learn Italian, but I’m very good at procrastination.”

“So you’re telling me you’re going all the way to Italy, a country known for romance. By yourself.”

She frowned at him, picking up on his serious tone. Quincy rubbed his hands together in glee. The man was going to try to talk her out of her dream vacation. Boy was he in for a surprise. Old James was about to be history.

“What’s wrong with going by myself?”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just…”

She glared at him. “What? Pathetic?”

“No. Unsafe.”

Carissa rolled her eyes. “You saw the pictures, Hutch. How ‘unsafe’ can a tiny little village be?”

“There’s always some criminal element looking to take advantage of tourists. Even in small towns.”

“That’s why I’ve already bought my travel wallet. It has a cut-proof strap. And even I have a hard time getting the darn thing open.” She replaced the dictionary and walked away. James followed. Quincy grinned. Poor sucker. She was really ticked, since she headed for the exit instead of continuing to explore the store.

“Pick pocketing isn’t the only danger. What if something were to happen to you while you’re there? Who would be there to help? Bad things can happen when we’re alone.”

“Bad things can happen just as easily if we’re not alone.”

James caught her elbow before she could reach the exit and pulled her around to face him. “This is serious, Carissa. Why are you so determined to do it alone?”

“I do everything else alone. Why not this?” She shrugged and looked everywhere else except at James.

“Surely there’s someone you can go with.”

Tears pooled in her eyes, causing Quincy to flinch. Fortunately, she kept them in check so it was bearable for him to stick around.

“The ‘someones’ I’d planned to go with are dead, okay. I’m not putting this trip off any longer.”

James looked stunned by her statement. So much so that his grip on her arm loosened enough for her to shake him free and hurry out of the store.

Quincy met her on the sidewalk. Carissa swiped at her eyes and took a few calming breaths. Just when she’d gotten herself together, James stepped outside. Quincy rolled his eyes. This dude was a serious glutton for punishment.

“Your parents. You planned to take this trip with them.” The man placed his meaty paws on her shoulders and massaged. Quincy waited for her to shrug him off and was disappointed when she didn’t. Instead, she just stared at the sidewalk.

“How’d you know?”

“Your Facebook status.” He hugged her from behind. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was over a year ago. You saw it? You didn’t comment.”

“What could anybody say to make everything okay again?”

“True,” Carissa said, but she bit her lip. The gesture told Quincy that she’d accepted the man’s excuse on the surface, but didn’t quite agree with his logic. Good. Maybe it would be easier to get rid of the guy than he’d first expected.

“Speaking of Facebook,” James released her from the hug and walked around to face her. “You have like a gazillion friends. You expect me to believe that not one of them would want to take this trip with you?”

“Did you consider that maybe I don’t want to go with any of them?” Carissa walked to the nearest shop window to look inside. The fact that it was a cigar shop and she hated smoking told Quincy just how upset she was. James dogged her steps.

“That’s silly. Why wouldn’t you want anyone to go?”

“Look. I have an itinerary, okay. Things I wanted to do with my parents. If someone else goes, I’ll have to do what they want, too, and risk not seeing everything that’s already on my list.” She turned from the window. “I can’t let that happen.”

“So tell whoever goes with you that upfront. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Understand what? That I’m asking them to drop a couple thousand dollars on a trip where they have no say in anything we do? Yeah. That would go over real well.” She started walking again.

“If they’re a good enough friend, they’ll understand.” James hurried to catch up, but was still a step or so behind, which is why he missed the stricken expression on her face. Quincy refused to feel bad for her. He was only responsible for redirecting any romantic interests. She’d kept everyone else at arm’s length all on her own. He refused to consider the two were in any way connected. This wasn’t his fault.

“Seriously? You’re like a dog with a bone.” Carissa rubbed her eyes. “Can’t you just let it go? I wish I’d never mentioned the trip to you.”

“And you are stubborn to a fault.” He caught up to her and fell in step. “Why are you so determined to be alone?”

Carissa whirled to face him. Their abrupt halt forced other pedestrians to detour around them.

“Are you kidding me? I’m not trying to be alone. It’s the hand I was dealt. I’m going to play it out.” She started walking again.

“One hand never lasts forever. You just have to wait for the next deal.” Quincy had to give the guy credit for his persistence. If her clenched jaw was any indication, he was digging himself quite a grave and was too stupid to realize it.

“Get a new hand? Just like that? Forget I’m an orphan and play another game?”

“I didn’t say it would be easy. But you’re getting caught up in a pattern that shuts everyone else out. It’s not healthy, Carissa.”

“What could you possibly know about my patterns? You’ve only been around for like two minutes.”

“I know that not a single person has called or stopped by since your accident. You barely make eye contact with the people around you. You’re disconnected.”

She snorted. “Let’s see how connected you still feel after everyone you love the most dies.”

“There’s still a lot of folks here, Cara. Just look around.” He gestured around the busy street. “If you’d just let us in, you’d be surprised at how connected you really are.”

Quincy frowned when James took Carissa’s hand in both of his and held it to his heart. He was dismayed when she didn’t yank it back. In fact, she looked like she wanted to believe what the guy was telling her. Never mind that it was true. Quincy didn’t want her connected to that man at all. He was going to have to act. Quincy looked around the street for a suitable distraction.

“I don’t know if I can do that, Hutch. It’s so hard to–”

“First, stop focusing on what you might lose. Yeah, it’s a risk, but what you gain is worth so much more.”

She stared at him. Crap! It was obvious that Carissa was starting to buy what he was selling. Quincy needed to do something. Fast.

He took note of a street performer setting up a bit further down the block. The guy was a scrawny kid with wild, shaggy hair that was an impossible shade of red. Artsy tattoos covered his neck and arms. His shirt was threadbare along the edges and his jeans were skinny and tight. Quite an impressive feat considering how small he was.