Life Guards in the Hamptons (30 page)

Now the South Fork could get back to searching for a gang of bank robbers and a gang of cyber black hats—unless they were connected.

How could that be? We all wanted to know.

The chief shrugged. “Russ and the government techs are working one angle, the boots on the ground are working another. It just seems too big a coincidence that both are happening at once.”

“But they haven’t been active recently?”

“Not since the night of the shipwreck. Maybe the gang has moved on.”

Before we could discuss the chief’s theory and leads and Russ’ determination to clear his name and the machines he oversaw, or I could remember to ask about Axel Vanderman or hypnotism, the professor started yawning, then half nodded off right at the table.

Matt and Lou assisted him up the stairs after we all wished him well again, and I promised to visit in the morning to plan a strategy.

Matt drove me the two minutes to my house, with the extra food Grandma Eve packed up for me. She’d sent some jam for his company, too, which meant she liked him, not that it mattered to me. I liked him.

He helped me carry my stuff in, so I asked if he wanted coffee. I knew he ought to go, get his house ready for company, make sure Peg had everything she needed, play with his new dog. He said yes, he’d like a cup, which said more about how much he liked me than about his taste in beverages.

He tried to make friends with Little Red while I started the coffeemaker. I doubt Red remembered Matt
saving his life from a homicidal pyromaniac, but he sure as hell remembered who cut off his mangled leg and his testicles.

I threw Red a chew stick—and bigger ones for Buddy and Dobbin—and we watched Red growl his into submission. We simply sat, next to each other on the dog-hair-covered sofa, sipping our coffees, nibbling on the chocolate chip cookies from my secret stash. Kind of like watching a fire in the winter: peaceful, comfortable, no pressure.

Until Matt broke the silence. “Your grandmother is amazing. You are so lucky to have her.”

I laughed. “You’ve never seen her in action. She’s on her good behavior when Lou is around.”

“No, she’s kind and generous and smart, and loves you so much I feel warmed by her affection, just by sitting next to you.”

I felt warm sitting next to him on the sofa. “You’re letting your new imagination show you things that aren’t there again.”

He pulled on one of my curls. “It’s there. I know this is a bad time, but sharing in the rescue, visiting the House, having dinner with your family, I want more.”

“Grandma Eve sent some of those little croissants home with me. I’ll pack a baggie for you.”

“You know that’s not what I mean. I want more of you, your attitude, your courage that you swear is cowardice, your adoration for your grandmother that you try to hide, your silly dog. But I can’t compete with a dude who can buy you the moon and the stars.”

“He’s not on the moon. He’s at the space station.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“No, that’s what Dr. Harmon said. Supposedly trying to get a better look at the holes in the ozone and disruptions in the power lines, but I think he’s calling out to the otherworld to shut the gates between Unity and us. There’s been too much activity.”

Matt wrapped the curl around his finger. “Okay, so your former fiancé is an astronaut, besides being a titled
lord and the best linguist on Earth. I’ll never be half as exciting, or half as heroic as your firefighting friend. I can’t compete with that world-famous entertainer with the million dollar horse, either. I can’t even compete with Frankie, who goes out and buys his dog a Land Rover. I’m just a simple country vet, and that’s all I’ll ever be. Tell me I have a chance before I dig such a deep hole I’ll never find my way out. You are not the kind of woman a man forgets once he fixes her in his head.”

I couldn’t say anything. Matt was my rock, my pillow. How much more did he want to be?

“Come on, Willy. Give me an answer. I can’t go on not knowing if we have a future. I thought we did after the fireflies, but you ran off to the city. I thought we didn’t when you never called, but here we are, sharing adventures and family meals and kisses. You can’t keep blowing hot and cold like that. I’ve got to know.”

I was cold thinking about him leaving. Hot where his hand rubbed the back of my neck. He was right. It was fish or cut bait, shit or get off the pot, do or die. Not that I’d die if Matt didn’t want to be my friend anymore. Not that I’d wither away if I never got to taste him. I’d live. I just mightn’t want to.

Not because we shared Oey and M’ma and the Others. Not because he’d gone to a haunted house with me. Not because my pulse speeded up whenever he smiled and his touch on my neck had me thinking of those soft, soft sheets at Rosehill.

Because he was Matt.

“You have a chance, but—”

He placed his fingers over my lips, then replaced them with his lips. “That’s enough for now.”

Not by half, it wasn’t. One kiss made me want more. Oh, he meant the chance. “You always had a chance, just—”

“Good. I was jealous of the old man. He adores you.”

He was jealous of the professor? How lovely! “I wasn’t flirting with him, not like you and Peg and you and Tina and you and every other female in a hundred-mile
radius. And you’re the one having an old friend come to stay. My old friend is eighty something. You can’t say the same.”

“You’re jealous!”

“Damn right.”

“That means you care.”

“Damn right, but—”

He still wouldn’t let me finish a sentence. I guess he didn’t want to hear all my reservations and rules.

He kissed me again, which shut me up, then he said, “I know, no promises. Caring is a good start. We’ll take it slow.”

We already took it slow. I’d been thinking about him, thinking about making love with him, since the first time I saw him, weeks ago. With the chaos that surrounded me, how could I plan for tomorrow, and how could I turn down a perfectly good plan for today? I was ready to move onto the next stage of our big chance, in my bedroom.

He wasn’t finished working things out in his head, the rational, logical man that he was. “Just so you know, I am not here for a quickie.”

“No quickies.” Un-uh. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.

“Or a weekend affair. I’ve hardly dated since my divorce because I don’t like casual hookups and relationships founded on nothing but mutual satisfaction.”

“Me neither. They’re usually unsatisfying, anyway.”

“Good. So we’re agreed this isn’t about sex?”

Um. “You’re not talking about a platonic relationship here, are you?”

He grinned. “You’ve got to be kidding. I’m trying to play it cool and act the gentleman, not pull your clothes off with my teeth and leave razor burn from your head to your toes. But, no, this isn’t about sex. At least not just about sex.”

“That’s good.” On both counts. He wanted me, which was the best aphrodisiac in the universe. But he wanted
me
, not just a warm body. A body growing warmer by the second.

“Then you won’t run off again?”

I couldn’t leave the professor alone until the sea serpent left. After that … ? “I’ll be here awhile, it looks like. And I won’t go back to Manhattan without telling you, okay?”

“I understand. One day at a time.” He got up and took a box out of his jacket pocket. “Don’t panic, I’m not asking for any promises. I made a hasty marriage the first time. I’m not stepping into that mantrap again until I’m certain it’ll last.” He tapped the box. “It’s not like I’m offering you a ring or anything.”

“So what’s in the box?”

He opened it to show a small radio. “For the House, so it can learn new tunes. You promised an iPod, but we don’t know if the place is wired for Wi-Fi, or if there’s a computer to download. This has a battery and a cord.”

Hell, we didn’t know if whatever lived there had fingers or opposable thumbs, but it didn’t matter. Matt had bought a haunted house a present! What a guy. I threw my arms around him and gave him a big kiss.

About ten minutes later he said, “So that’s a yes? Without forever. Yet.”

“It’s a yes.”

“So can we get to the sex part now?”

We ended up on the floor, naked. That is, we started on the couch, and our clothes ended up on the floor, on the furniture, on the ceiling fan. I think Little Red carried my sandal away to gnaw, but who cared?

The first time was a quickie after all.

I apologized.

He laughed, and I could feel it in his chest, under my cheek. “Hell, speedy, if you’re that fast and easy, this is going to be even more fun than I imagined.”

“You imagined making love with me?”

“Every night since I met you. No, before that, when I saw you at the rodeo. No, when I read your books. No, when your mother told me about you.”

I didn’t believe him. “That long, huh?”

“Maybe longer. You just might be the girl of my
dreams, the one I’ve been waiting for all my life. I knew I couldn’t do anything about it while the Brit was here, or the cowboy, or the firefighter. You’ve been damned busy breaking hearts. Then you packed up and disappeared before I laid mine on the line.”

“I was afraid.”

“Of me?” He tipped my head up so he could look at me.

“Of falling for you. Feeling for you. We have so many logistic-type problems. Location, jobs, even the dogs. How could this work?”

“We’ll figure it out. You’ll see.”

“But I changed your life without meaning to. I didn’t want you changing mine.”

Too late.

The verses of that song kept running through my head, the words about love, not that I used the l-word in reference to Matt and me. That was way too scary. The words about a hunger, though, an endless burning need. It seemed we’d never get enough of each other. Like we had to make up for the wasted time all in one night.

Now I lo—liked him more. Sex did that. Good sex did it faster, deeper. I couldn’t figure how this could work, but I knew I’d regret not trying for the rest of my life. Give up a man who made love like you were his first love? Like you were a precious gift to be savored and cherished? Like he’d never grow tired of you and your perfect body—even when your body wasn’t perfect to start with, and on a downhill slide? Matt made love like he lived his life, with unselfish dedication and purpose and great passion for what he believed in.

He believed we had something special. I believed in him.

We knocked the lamp off the end table, and our coffee mugs and everything else off the coffee table. Then the leg on the old couch gave out and we landed on the floor, laughing so hard we rolled into the bookcase, sending my mother’s dog books and my mother’s dogs in every direction. We scattered the scatter rugs and threw the throw pillows out of the way. Matt tipped over the
magazine rack when he picked me up, and my foot hit the hall umbrella stand when he carried me upstairs. I forgot to tell him about the refrigerator door when he went down later to get us some cold water—not that water was going to lessen the heat—and so he didn’t give the door the good shove it needed to latch tight.

I guess Buddy stuck his long nose in the fridge, then Dobbin helped empty the contents onto the floor for easier snacking. They dragged Grandma Eve’s goodies into the living room, onto the broken couch and displaced pillows. Who needed chew toys when they had plastic containers and tinfoil-wrapped bundles?

We never heard the noise. Or when Little Red, pissed that he’d been locked out of the bedroom with a soft pillow to sleep on, shredded the feather pillow up and down the hallway and stairs.

The house must have looked like it had been ransacked by the Hamptons’ Gang. At least that’s what Susan screamed when she called 911.

We heard the screams and the cries of “Where’s Willy? What have they done to my cousin?”

I flew down the stairs in time to have her call the police back and cancel the emergency.

Which would have been fine if I wasn’t naked, and if the dishwasher at the Breakaway hadn’t helped her carry in a new set of pots and pans.

T
HE DISHWASHER, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Who was related to every chambermaid and gardener and house painter in the Hamptons. This wasn’t as bad as when a snake slithered over my leg while I was messing around at a swimming pool with a blond life guard when I was a teenager. I ran screaming through a cocktail party at Bayview Ranch that time, bare-assed. Maybe that’s when my father decided to move to Florida permanently.

Susan sat on the floor, howling until tears of laughter ran down her cheeks. I couldn’t flee up the stairs because Matt was there, wearing a pillowcase and some feathers and a big goofy grin. I couldn’t get to the kitchen because I’d have to step on the mess the dogs left. And the floor did not open up and swallow me. Who says God answers prayers?

“You didn’t see any of this,” Matt told Julio, righting the umbrella stand with the hand that didn’t hold the pillowcase.

“You the mayor? The one who makes you forget?”

“No, I’m the vet who’ll neuter you like I do all the male dogs in town if you mention one word.”