With Strings Attached (19 page)

She pressed her lips together and nodded even as she started shivering. The water wasn’t exactly warm, though the afternoon was lovely and sunny. Hell, it was as much fear as it was cold. She swallowed.

“The first thing we’re going to do is just walk back and forth in the water,” Tad said. “We’ll just stay here in the shallow end. So come on everyone.”

They all walked in the water, following Tad. The water never got deeper than her waist so it wasn’t too much of a problem for Corey.

Tad grinned. “With little kids, we have to teach them how to hold their breath, but I guess we don’t need to do that with you.”

She frowned at him. Was this his first time teaching adults? There was no need to mock them.

“So go ahead and take a breath and put your faces in the water,” Tad said.

She blinked and looked down at the undulating turquoise water, her legs distorted beneath the surface. She sucked on her bottom lip. One of the other students, a plump woman who looked like a grandma, bravely sucked in a breath and plunged her face into the water. For about two seconds. But still.

Corey met the eyes of the other woman, a blonde probably a few years younger than her. “I should have worn waterproof mascara,” she said. Corey stared at her. This chick wore
mascara
to swimming lessons? Cripes.

Well, she wasn’t going to let Grandma outdo her, so she breathed in, plugged her nose and delicately lowered her face to the water. One…two…three…and up she came, dripping water. She’d done it!

“Try it without holding your nose,” Tad suggested gently. “It’s going to be hard to learn to do the front crawl if you have to hold your nose.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, her triumph dissipating. “I
have
to hold my nose,” she said. “I don’t want to get water up my nostrils.”

“Breath out as you put your face in, then,” he said.

She sucked on her bottom lip again. Gave a short sigh. Took a breath. Slowly lowered her face into the water. She tried to breathe out, she really did, but somehow her body got confused and she ended up breathing
in
through her nose and she yanked her head out of the water, sputtering, snorting, her sinuses burning all the way to the back of her throat. Tears stung her eyes as she coughed and choked.

“Whoa, there,” Tad said, a look of concern marring his handsome face. “You okay, Ms. Fenwick?”

She couldn’t speak, pressed her hands to her nose. “I told you I had to plug my nose!”

“Uh…” He moved closer as if she might need CPR or something.

This was never going to work! What was she doing here? She leaned against the side of the pool, trying to collect herself. Now she was going to be even more afraid to put her face in the water.

“Try it again,” Tad the sadist said.

She wanted to get out. She wanted to climb out of the pool and never come back. But for cripes’ sake, she’d done tougher things than this. Hadn’t she? She squared her shoulders and mustered up the courage that had gotten her through her childhood. “I tried to breathe out through my nose,” she said.

“Blow bubbles. With your mouth. Everyone try it—exhale as long as you can, blowing bubbles under water.”

She pressed her lips together. Blow bubbles? She looked across to where a mom was blowing bubbles in her baby’s face. Cripes. She took a breath and once more lowered her face to the water.

“Are you going to sulk all the way there?” Matt asked Corey.

He glanced at her, sitting there staring out the passenger window of his Jeep as they drove the freeway along the Pacific coast between San Amaro and San Diego the next week. She’d hardly said two words since she’d gotten in the vehicle.

Her head whipped around. “I am not sulking!”

“Bullshit. Jesus, Corey, it’s not the end of the world if someone helps you with something.”

She probably never would have told him that her tire had blown if he hadn’t happened to call her on her cell when she was sitting there on the shoulder of the freeway outside town, almost in tears. He’d been going to invite her to go out with him and Dylan that night. Instead he heard the wobble in her voice and determined that she’d been on her way to visit her mother when the tire had blown.

“I told you those tires were bald,” he muttered.

“I know. I heard you. I don’t want to spend money on new tires right now!”

“Don’t freak out, for God’s sake.”

“What am I going to do, Matt?”

“I’ll loan you the money.”

“I
have
the money. I just don’t want to spend it on tires.”

He sighed, and then hoped it didn’t sound too long-suffering. “Tires aren’t that expensive. Try to keep a little perspective here.”

She gave him a glare that could have boiled water. Maybe he was being a little too pushy. He knew it meant a lot to her to save money for her business. “What happened with the shop? After you and Dylan looked at it, you said you were going to call the rental company and check it out.”

“I did.” She sighed. “I have an appointment tomorrow. But I’m sure it’s more than I can afford right now.”

“You never know. Want me to come with you?”

She eyed him and he kept his hands loose on the steering wheel while he waited for her response. “I don’t need help,” she muttered.

“I know. But do you want me to come with you? For a second opinion or something.”

She gave a short nod. “Okay.”

“Great.”

“Dylan says I should go back to the bank and try again for a loan.”

“There’s an idea. You still have the business plan we worked on, right?”

“Yeah.” She tapped her fingers on the armrest.

“Did you and Dylan have a good time the other night?”

Tiny pause. “Yeah.”

He didn’t even want to think about what they’d done, didn’t know why he was even asking.

“I’m worried about him,” she said. His head jerked to look at her, then returned to the freeway.

“Worried about him? Why?” Heh. Maybe he couldn’t get it up in bed with her. Matt smiled.

“Something happened… I don’t know if I should tell you.”

“Why not?” His smile broadened.

“Well…I don’t know if he’d want you to know.”

He chuckled silently. Poor bastard. “Maybe not,” he acknowledged.

“He had some kind of nightmare.”

Matt’s humor disappeared and he frowned. “A nightmare? I didn’t think he spent the night with you.”

“He didn’t. We fell asleep on the couch.”

Heh. That was good news. Unless they’d had sex on the couch…

“Nothing else happened,” she added glumly.

He almost wanted to smirk, except she sounded kind of bummed about that. “Why not?”

She shrugged, not looking at him. “I was tired.”

The smile continued to tug at his lips. For once he was glad she was always tired.

“So like I said, we were watching a movie and we fell asleep on the couch, and then he woke up like he was terrified.”

“Huh.” Matt had no explanation for that. “Well. That’s not that big a deal.”

“I suppose.” She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Yeah. Forget I even mentioned it.” She leaned her head against the window. The sun lit up her caramel and butterscotch hair with golden highlights. So she was worried about Dylan and his nightmares? Great. Matt shifted his hands on the wheel.

But truthfully, he’d been a little worried about Dylan too. He’d tried more than once to talk to him, but Dylan clammed up and Matt could only assume he was worried about his foot healing and being able to get back to surfing. Which was understandable.

The next time he looked over at Corey, she was asleep.

His heart softened in his chest, though, looking at her, crashed there in his passenger seat, and he wished he could do more to make her life easier. But she was so damn stubborn. He had money put aside too, contemplating a plan to expand the brewery part of the business, but he’d gladly put that on hold if Corey would take the money and use it to hire some help. She couldn’t go on like this much longer, running herself ragged.

Today she’d been on a trip to visit her mom, taking precious time away from her business to do it. She’d probably stay up all night making candy to try to make up for it. If it was anyone else’s mother, he’d try to drop some hints so her mom could help out, but he knew that wasn’t an option. Not with Corey’s mom. He shook his head.

Corey woke up when he took the exit off the freeway and started slowing for a set of lights. “Are we there?” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. She shoved both hands through her hair and shook it down her back in some kind of attempt to straighten it.

“Yup. You have to give me directions from here, though.”

“I hope I remember. I’ve only been to her new place a few times.” Once again her teeth sank into the soft bottom lip and he saw her fingers twist around themselves. He reached out and took one hand and squeezed it. She flashed him a look, but he said nothing, just gave her a warm look, and she slowly relaxed a little.

“Do you want me to go do something while you visit her?” he asked as he pulled up outside the small apartment building. “I can go get a coffee or something.”

She looked at him. “
I’d
like you to come in,” she said hesitantly. “But I’m not sure about my mom… I was going to talk to her about my dad.”

“Ah. No worries. Call me or text me when you want me to come back. I saw a coffee shop a couple blocks back.”

“Okay. Thanks, Matt.” She opened the door and began to climb out, then turned back. “And thanks for driving me. I’m sorry I was such a bitch about it.”

An evil impulse rose in him and he grinned. “I’ll spank you for that later.”

Her mouth dropped open, closed, then opened again. She blinked. Her cheeks went pink. “Okay, then.” She scrambled out of the vehicle. “See you later!”

Laughing, he watched her walk to the front door of the beige brick building and buzz to get in. Spanking. Huh. She’d almost looked…turned on. They’d never done anything more kinky than…well, okay, the ménage thing was pretty kinky, but besides that… He’d had all these dirty thoughts and fantasies but had never even thought of acting any of them out with Corey, but ever since the night with Dylan, he’d been thinking maybe she was a little more open to trying different things than he’d thought.

He pulled away as she entered the building. Hopefully her mom was doing okay. It had been a while since she’d had problems, but he’d seen how emotional Corey got when she talked about what it was like growing up with her mom and all her issues.

He pulled away, heading back to the coffee shop he’d spotted. He’d met Corey’s mom a few times, briefly, and had had a hard time being nice to her after what he’d heard about Corey’s childhood. But Corey kept telling him that she couldn’t help it, that she was ill. It bugged him that a mom could not be there for her child like that. Corey’d gone through hell and come out of it a strong, amazing woman, albeit with a bit of a chip on her shoulder, but who could blame her? He had to remind himself of that, too, when he got frustrated with her.

As he sat on an outdoor patio in the sun, sipping a coffee, sunglasses shielding his eyes from the bright sun, he imagined them having a nice mother-daughter chat. About her loser father. Another sore spot with him. A man who’d abandon his wife and daughter, knowing how vulnerable they both were. Why had he showed up out of the blue like that? Hopefully it hadn’t sent her mom over the edge again. A different image than the pleasant mother-daughter visit intruded into his brain and his gut tightened. Nothing he could do about it, besides sit there and wait for the call. There was a small shopping mall nearby, if he had to, he’d go look around there to kill some more time.

Corey smiled at her mom as she sat on the couch in her small apartment. It was painfully tidy, a bit shabby but neat and clean. “How are you, Mom?”

“I’m doing well. Thank you for the chocolates. I can’t believe you make those yourself.”

“You’re welcome.” Warmth curled inside Corey at her mom’s compliment.

Mom looked good. She looked…normal. A bad word choice, but still…compared to seeing her in a manic state or in one of her depressed moods when she hadn’t bathed or brushed her hair for a week, normal was good.

“They adjusted my medications a bit again,” she said, picking up a glass of iced tea from the coffee table. “It seems to be working.”

“You have to keep taking them.”

“I know.” A smile played on her mom’s mouth. Her face was still youthful despite the hardships she’d been through, but faint lines around her nose and eyes revealed suffering. She wore no makeup but still looked pretty, her short brown hair now highlighted with silver instead of gold.

“How’s the job going?” Corey asked.

“Great!” Her eyes lit up. “I really love it. It’s so nice to be doing something.”

Mom had had help getting herself straightened out, from the organization that had helped Corey when she’d been a scared teenager living on the streets. They’d worked with Mom to find a job at a small auto-parts manufacturer that often hired people with disabilities for various jobs. She was working there now part-time in the office.