Chloe's Secret (12 page)

Chapter 19

I knocked on the door without calling ahead and realized that I hadn’t been to visit Mom since before Tanner delivered the motorcycle. I didn’t have a problem with her dating, in fact I had suggested it a few times. I just needed to be sure she wasn’t being mistreated by some weirdo.

“Well, I see news travels fast.” She flung the door open and squeezed me tight.

“What news?”

She eyed me suspiciously. Movement fluttered from a shadow in the kitchen. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I meant. Come in so that you can get your nose back into place.”

“My nose is fine.” I followed her to the kitchen and was met with the strong sent of garlic and cilantro. The dining table had been set with dishes, wine glasses, and candles—a significant change from my memory of the room, one that I wasn’t particularly fond of. The light hit Mom’s face and I recognized a change, years of shadows around her eyes appeared to have lightened.

The man’s back was turned as he sipped from a wine glass and stood by the table.

“Sweetie, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Tess.” Mom smiled as the man lowered the glass and turned.

My mouth dropped. I stared from one person to the other. No. “You? Seriously?”

My boss? My mother was dating my boss and calling him sweetie?

“Hello, Tess.”

I turned and walked, leaving them to their dinner and wine. There was nothing I could say that would be appropriate and rather than insert my foot fully into my mouth and lose my job and my mother, I chose the easier route—which was straight
out
the door. I wondered if the reason he had left early so much lately, and piled work on me, had to do with his personal life. Which, apparently, involved my mother. Gross.

It was completely unintended that the tires screeched as I left. I just meant to get away. Quickly. After I’d rounded the corner and was back on the highway, I hit speed dial.

I waited until Tanner’s voicemail told me to leave a message. “Our mom is dating my boss! Are you kidding me?” I hung up, my foot glued to the gas pedal.

When I passed by the diner and saw the lights inside, I opted for comfort food instead of my condo. Abby was no comparison for the news flash I’d just encountered and she wasn’t intimidating me either. In fact, I silently dared her to try.

I trounced in, found a booth in the back, and plopped into it. Luck had it that she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. A bald man with a crooked smile approached with coffeepot.

“Coffee,” he held up the pot, “or something stronger?” He must have read my expression.

“Stronger sounds good. What do you have?” I hadn’t planned it, but since he offered maybe I would skip the comfort food and go straight to comfort brew. After he had marked down my order of tequila, I leaned back and closed my eyes. It hadn’t even seemed odd that a diner would have a healthy supply of alcohol.

I needed stability. Now, more than ever, I craved it. Everything around me had crumbled into rubble. My job. My family. I had to get it under control starting with what I could have an immediate effect on—I intended to focus on the job search process. At least then I might wrangle back a bit of control.

When Tanner said Mom was seeing someone, I expected a kindly old neighbor. I would have even settled for the postman. But Mr. Conners? There was some sick lack of justice in the knowledge that the man who very likely would take my job from me, might also have the ability to take my mother.

The aroma of steaming Columbian coffee wafted up. I heard the clinks of the cup and shot-glass hit the table, but I kept my eyes tight and rubbed them for a second, trying to get my thoughts around the situation.

“You want some too?” the waiter asked.

“Huh?” I slid upright and opened my eyes.

Colton sat opposite me, shaking his head at the coffee. “But I’ll take one of those.” He pointed to the shot glass next to the cup.

“Not you, too.” I lifted the shot glass and with one swift movement tossed it down.

“Too? You had someone else here?” He glanced around.

“No, I just— Where did you come from?”

He pointed over my shoulder. “Back there. I saw you come in.”

“I wish I’d seen you first.”

He frowned as I looked at the table he pointed to, filled with his Dad, Mom, and—Abby.

“Family night out?”

“Not exactly, sort of a business slash planning thing.” He watched me, his dark eyes making me uncomfortable.

“They’re waiting on you.” His dad lifted a hand to acknowledge me and said something to the group, which caused Colton’s mother to glance at us. A flash of recognition crossed her face; I felt my cheeks warm.

“They can wait.” He tossed his shot and held up the glass to the waiter, who nodded then pointed to me with a question in his eyes. Colton lifted two fingers.

“You didn’t have to come over,” I started.

He put a hand around mine on the cup. “I don’t have to do anything. I wanted to. Is everything okay? I tried calling you several times.”

I waited until the other shot glasses were placed in front of us, then spoke. “You called three times. Why?”

He shrugged, his hand still encompassed mine and he slowly slipped it to the table.

“You don’t have to—”

“
You’ve
had a bad day,” he stated.

“Maybe. I’ll get over it.” I tossed back the second shot. “Does your roommate know about Abby?”

“Abby? The waitress? What about her?”

“Or me.”

“Tess, it’s not like that. You’ve got it all wrong.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’ve got it all wrong. My entire life. Wrong. Well, it’s time to make some changes.” I signaled for another shot.

“You sure you want to do that?” He crooked a brow. “Whatever’s bothering you, don’t you think you should just talk about it? Settle it with whoever you need to.”

Settle it? With him? My mother? My boss? “You’re right. I think I’ll start with you. Where do you get off doing . . . what you did with me, when you’re living with someone else? And obviously,” I waved a hand at Abby, “she doesn’t know everything either.”

“There’s nothing to know. And I’m not living with anyone. Not now, not ever.”

His mom came toward us, placing her hand on his back when she arrived. He attempted to shrug it away without my notice.

“Hi, I’m Colton’s mother.” She held out a hand and waited for me to take it, then shook.

Colton rolled his eyes. “Do you mind? We’re talking.”

She grabbed a chair, turned it backward. She straddled it. “Really? What about?”

I felt myself turn ten shades of red.

She looked at her son and coughed. “Oh, um. Okay, I’ll go.”

She rose and returned to the booth, collected a sweater and bag, then exited—without Colton’s dad.

More shot glasses appeared on the table and I stared at them, along with the four empties. Hmmm. They were multiplying.

“Tess, you should slow down a little. Those things will sneak up on you.”

For some reason, that was just plain hilarious so I laughed, perhaps a little too loudly. It had all snuck up on me so what difference did a few drinks make?

Colton eyed me warily.

“Everything sneaks up on you, Colton, if you let it.”

“Maybe, but it might be a good idea to steer away from the ones that put your head in a toilet, or leave you passed out in a diner.” We both jerked as Abby brought a pitcher of coffee and slammed it in front of me.

“I bet nothing really sneaks up on you, though, does it?” I asked.

He pulled at the neck of his t-shirt, which fit snugly across a fairly fit chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at you. A vet, and a motorcycle instructor, both of which, so far, seem to have attracted women from every corner of this neighborhood. Here’s to you, Mr. Hottie.” I pushed the steaming cup of coffee toward the table edge, then lifted the more attractive glass, and downed another shot.

Colton joined in. “And you, Miss Hotter.”

“
Yeah, right
.” I rubbed a hand to my temple.

He tipped the glass and swallowed, then gritted his teeth. I assumed the liquid burned down his throat as much as it did mine. “Looked pretty hot to me—all that flaming hair and smooth pink skin laid out over a bed of straw.” His eyes got a little more intense.

“That was just steam.”

“Steam,” he repeated, thrumming his fingers on the tabletop.

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone need to let off a little once in a while?” I pulled a string of hair between my fingers and started twirling. “Haven’t you ever watched something boil? It churns and churns until eventually—it has to erupt.”

“Has to?”

“Had to, and maybe it didn’t matter where. Or with whom. Even if it was in a barn, with a complete—stranger. In fact,
especially
if it was a complete stranger.”

He leaned toward me and ran a finger down my cheek, strumming against my skin. I decided the shots must have sunk in because my skin hummed from the touch. “Tess, I wouldn’t exactly call us complete strangers. I mean, I’m glad you chose me when it was time for a little steam-letting and all. But, the thing is . . .”

I didn’t think I could bear to hear him tell me whatever “the thing was”, I had had enough surprises for one day. So, I threw down the last shot, chased it with a gulp of coffee and slid to the end of my seat. I wiped the back of my hand across lips that craved the ones I couldn’t seem to stop staring at. “There is no
thing
, Colton.
We
,” I pointed a finger from him to me, “are not a thing.”

I rose to my feet and stepped toward the door. Only my foot caught on the edge of the booth and I stumbled.
Thump
.

Right into his chest, which somehow had moved from the booth to right in front of me. When did that happen? I faltered backward and he grabbed by arms in big, warm hands.

His low, rumbling voice spoke in my ear, “Slow down, lucky bird. No need to rush out.”

I walked a finger up his chest. “My life is so crazy out of control. Want to hear something funny, Colton?”

He rubbed his thumbs on my forearms and even though I’d had enough shots to down an elephant, I felt the tingle of it in my toes. “What’s that?”

“My mother is
seeing
my boss. As in candlelight dinners at the very table that my dad ate meals with us for twenty years. As in
sleeping
with the very man that has told me my job is in jeopardy if I don’t ‘get it together’. She’s sleeping with the enemy.”

I raised my eyes to his in sort of a
what do you think about that
look . . . and saw something cross his face I hadn’t seen before. A softness that I wasn’t prepared for.

“Sounds like you and I have something in common.”

“Your mom is sleeping with your boss?” I giggled. “Wait, you
are
the boss. So that would mean—”

“My mother ran out on us when I was in college. According to my dad, she had to
find
herself. The other day, when you and I were—together, was the first time I had seen her in ten years.”

I surveyed his face. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “It is what it is. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. You want to get out of here?”

I nodded. “I need to go home. I feel a little woozy.” I pulled my keys out of my purse, but he slid his fingers up my arm and circled them around the keys.

“I’ll take those for now. No driving.”

“But how am I getting home? You’re not any better.” I looked at the table and did some quick math; he’d drank as many or more as I had.

“We’re walking.” With an arm encircling my waist, he turned me toward the door and started moving.

“My condo is fifteen miles from here,” I argued.

He put his mouth to my ear and I swore he tugged on the lobe with his teeth. “To my place, lucky bird.”

“Won’t your roommate have a problem with that?”

He laughed and pulled me around the side of the diner, past my car. It was dark thirty at night, but the moon was bright and cast a blue light over everything. He looped his fingers into mine and drew me farther across the lot.

I noticed the silver sheen on the trees that lined the street behind the building, “It’s beautiful out here with the full moon.”

“Yes, it is.” Colton stopped, pulled me to his chest, and looked down not up. His head was framed in the moonlight and I couldn’t make out any expression. Then he was leaning into me, tightening his grip on my waist, and—kissing me. A deep, hot kiss that instantly made me want to melt into him.

“How can you tell,” I whispered, “you’re not looking.”

He dipped his head to my cheek and trailed kisses across to the place where my jaw met my ear. “I’m looking, Tess. I’m looking exactly where I want to.”

“Listen.” I put a hand to his chest and pushed. When he backed up, dizziness overtook me. “I need to get control of my life back. Things are so—crazy. I’m a mess. This isn’t helping.”

“It’s not? Seems like it is to me.”

Okay, well maybe it
had
let off a little steam, but as much as I pretended to be, I wasn’t a one-night stander. Until now.

“I know I said all that about churning and stuff, but—” I was interrupted when he locked onto my mouth again with those intensely warm lips of his. My brain wanted me to hot-foot it home, but there was another part of me that actually
loved
what he was doing.

“Stop thinking, Tess,” he murmured against my lips.

“Okay.” I stumbled out of a shoe as he walked me through the trees and into an open alley behind the restaurant.

Colton let go of me long enough to reach down and snag the shoe, then he ran a hand down my leg and wrapped fingers around my ankle. The warmth of his fingers on my skin started a heat that lingered and spread. He lifted my foot gently and pulled off the other shoe. “Be careful.”

Be Careful.
I wasn’t sure which was more dangerous, walking barefoot down an alley or following him home. Probably the latter.