Love Is All Around (6 page)

Damn it all. She couldn’t see the cockroach, just the sweet, tasty chocolate coating. Time to get busy with something else.

“Dwayne, get in gear and unload lunch. I’m hungry,” she yelled.

Will picked up his shirt and ran it over his chest. “Yeah, me too.” He wasn’t making this easy. He held her startled gaze until she flushed and looked away.

“Keep your shorts on. I’m getting it.” Dwayne struggled with the oak picnic basket, banging it against the hard lip of the canoe.

“Be careful with that. You’re going to break a strip.” Patsy grabbed the basket and examined the side for damage.

“If it’s that delicate, why’d you bring the thing?” Dwayne rubbed at a scuff mark with his thumb. “It’s fine anyway.”

If Patsy didn’t know better, she’d have thought her brother was actually apologizing in his Neanderthal way. She adjusted her own tone. “I thought it would add a little class. Besides, Granny always packed picnics in a basket. It’s tradition.”

Dwayne didn’t reply. Instead, he returned to his canoe where Jessica sat watching them.

“It’s nice. I’m surprised you’d risk getting it wet on a float trip.” Will stood close to Patsy, too close for her comfort. She could smell the sunscreen he’d rubbed on his shoulders earlier and that same musky odor she’d noticed last night. Patsy took a step back and almost lost her grip on their lunch. Will reached out and grasped the handle, his hand brushing hers. She jerked away from the distressing zap that accompanied the contact.

“This has real craftsmanship. Not like the stuff you buy today that’s all made in China.” He held the basket up to admire it.

“Thanks. I mean, it’s no problem getting it wet. Water’s good for baskets, keeps them fresh and clean.” Warmed by his praise, Patsy felt herself flush. She reached out to stroke the basket with her index finger just as Will turned. Her finger drifted from the basket up his arm. Without thinking, she let the pad of her finger drift back down over the swell of his forearm. Will froze.

“We eating or what?” Dwayne grabbed the basket, and swung around toward a big flat rock. “Let’s get the grub going.”

What was happening to her? Thank heavens her lummox of a brother had blundered up. She’d been a push-up bra away from channeling Jessica, for heaven’s sake. She didn’t think there was enough holy water in the Midwest for that exorcism. Doing her best not to look at Will, she followed her brother and her basket.

While Dwayne and Jessica unpacked the food and utensils, Patsy looked around for Ruthann. No sign of her. Giggling sounded from the brush about five feet away. Patsy’s eyes narrowed as Ruthann and Randy emerged from behind some brambles. Randy carefully held a branch out like Cinderella’s prince opening the door to her carriage. Ruthann giggled again and stepped through the space.

“Where you been?” Patsy asked. Her annoyance at her own close call with bimbohood colored her tone.

“Oh, Randy was just showing me the difference between poison ivy and Virginia creeper.” Another giggle.

Ruthann lost all use of her brain when a man was around. A habit Patsy found hard to tolerate. She edged up next to her friend.

“You haven’t confused poison ivy with Virginia creeper since we were seven, and you made a wreath out of the wrong one,” Patsy said in a low tone.

“That’s true. I haven’t, have I?” Ruthann arched one brow and strolled to where Dwayne was laying out the food.

They ate lunch sitting around the flat-topped boulder. Patsy had packed an old tablecloth embroidered with a daisy chain border, and a jug of Granny’s sweet tea. Ruthann supplied Kentucky Fried Chicken. Randy had brought sugar cookies so weighed down with icing and sprinkles, Patsy was afraid to pick one up.

“Oh, look. They’re dogs. Aren’t they darling?” Ruthann gushed. “Did Luke decorate these?”

Randy beamed. “Yeah, we baked them yesterday. They’re coonhounds. See, this here is a redbone, this is a black and tan, and this one’s a bluetick.” Randy shuffled through the multi-colored cookies.

“Cute. He can learn his colors, his dogs, and how to bake all in one easy lesson.” Patsy bit the head off a redbone hound.

“Don’t mind her,” Dwayne broke in. “She’s just mad ‘cause he left out Pug ugly.”

“Pugnacious isn’t a coon dog.”

“Yeah, try telling her that,” Dwayne responded.

Patsy ignored him. So Pugnacious had some kind of unexplainable attraction to anything and everything Dwayne’s coonhounds did. She wasn’t a coon dog. She was a purebred pug. Pugs were once owned by Chinese emperors. They did not run around in the dark woods baying and terrorizing raccoons.

“You have a dog?” Will asked as he watched Patsy shake the crumbs out of the tablecloth.

“A pug.” Patsy gave Dwayne a keep-your-mouth-shut look.

“I’ve got a mutt. His name’s Ralph. Looks like a big gray mop.” Will grabbed the other end of the tablecloth and helped Patsy fold it. “I hated to leave him at home today, but I wasn’t sure how he’d do in a canoe. With all that hair, he’d probably sink like Enron stock.”

He took a step forward, holding the corners of the cloth out to her. Patsy grabbed them and jumped back.

“Wouldn’t be a problem unless we tipped over.” Smoothing the cloth with her hand, she watched him from the corner of her eyes.

He stiffened slightly, but before he could comment, Dwayne jumped into the conversation.

“You should bring him out to Mom and Dad’s. Let him run. Damn leash laws. Can’t let a dog get any exercise in town no more.” He crushed his empty beer can in his fist and tossed it into the cooler. “Why don’t you come by Saturday? We’re having a barbecue. Then later, Randy and me are going to run our dogs. Coon season’s not for a few months, but we like to take them out and see if they can pick up a trail. You’re welcome to come along for that too.”

Patsy thought Will looked less than enthusiastic at the mention of coon hunting. Not that she blamed him. Stumbling around in the dark while a bunch of noisy hounds chased down some defenseless critter was not her idea of fun either.

“What’s back there?” Will pointed toward a footpath that led into the brambles.

“Some old ruins,” Dwayne replied.

“Really? Of what?” Will asked.

“A hospital. There’s a cave and a big spring too,” Jessica shoved the picnic basket Patsy’s direction and sidled toward Will. “You’ve never seen it? It’s real pretty.”

Patsy tightened a bungee around the picnic basket. Checking to see if it was secure, she pulled on the elastic. It hit against the basket with a satisfying snap. “You can’t get into the cave though. It’s barred off to save the bats.”

Jessica wrinkled her nose. “You would know that. Who cares about getting in a dirty cave, especially one with bats?”

“What’s a hospital doing out here?” Will asked.

The group turned to Patsy. She sighed. Why was she the only one who seemed to know this stuff? “It was built back in like 1913 or so. The guy who owned it thought the cave would be good for people with asthma. Before that, there was a mill here.”

“What happened to the hospital?” Will asked, his eyes alive with interest.

Patsy felt a stir of excitement. It had been a long time since anyone had shared her passion for local history. “I don’t know, really, except the man who built it died and so did his business. In the late sixties, the Park Service took the land over. There have just been ruins here since then.”

She looked at Will, ready to describe more, but before he could ask another question, Dwayne jumped in.

“It’s a little spooky. Makes a girl want to cuddle. Isn’t that right, Jessica?” Dwayne draped his arm around her shoulders.

Jessica shook him off and grabbed Will. “You have to see it. I’ll take you on a tour.”Pulling her heart-shaped locket toward her breasts, she yanked him toward the trail.

Patsy stared after them. And the breasts win again.

Kicking a rock out of her way, Patsy followed Dwayne and the two couples down the uneven path. Patsy loved the ruins and cave, but she had no desire to see either with Jessica. She felt as welcome as an alley cat in a trout pond. And to make matters worse, she had Dwayne.

“Well, this is cozy, ain’t it?” he complained.

For a tour guide, Jessica seemed to be having a hard time keeping her eyes on the sights. Maybe that was because her hands were so busy rubbing up and down Will’s bicep. Patsy bristled. She wasn’t tromping through these woods so she could watch Jessica grope Will.

“The hospital’s this direction.” Patsy pointed toward a rough path of rocks all but immersed in bubbling water. “You have to risk getting a little wet to get to it.”

“Oh, we can see it just fine from here. Besides, I thought Will might like to walk down this path a little further with me.” Jessica pressed her palm against Will’s bare chest.

“Suit yourself. But I’m not afraid of a little water.” Patsy stared a challenge at Will and took off toward the rocks. She hopped from the bank to the first one, a big flat stone with plenty of space. “Anyone else coming?”

Patsy didn’t wait to see if they followed. She continued jumping from rock to rock until she reached the middle of the stream. Here the water ran faster, covering her feet and grabbing at her ankles. She struggled a minute to keep her balance, then scissored her legs in a leap to the next stone. The closer she got to the ruins, the slipperier the rocks got. When she had made it off the last moss-covered rock onto the bank, she sighed in relief.

Will was only a few rocks behind her.

“Better watch out, city boy. You’ll fall on your rich Internet behind,” she yelled.

“You think so, do you?” Will stood with his feet firmly centered on a stone, three-quarters of the way across the ford.

“If the moss doesn’t get you, the Current will.” Patsy crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against a tree.

“Patsalee, why didn’t you warn us before we got out here? These rocks are slippery as grease on a slide.” Dwayne teetered one rock behind Will.

“Give it up, Dwayne. You couldn’t balance a ball in a bucket, much less make it across these rocks,” Patsy yelled.

“Wait till you try and make it back. We’ll see who gets wet.” Dwayne struggled to keep his footing on the moss-covered rock. He slid forward and inched his way back up. Patsy saw something floating down the stream toward him.

“Watch out, Dwayne. Snake.”

“Where?” Dwayne twisted on one foot and slipped off his rock into the icy water.

Patsy doubled over in a fit of giggles. Will joined in. Unfortunately, he was still perched on his own slime-covered stone. His feet shot forward and his butt fell backward with a splash. Pow, two strikes for the bad boy.

Patsy took one look at his two-toned eyes, wide with surprise, and lost her battle with laughter. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. Seeing him swept underwater was a lot funnier when she was on dry land.

As Patsy wiped her eyes and got herself under control, Dwayne labored through the water back to shore. Jessica, who hadn’t even made it to the halfway point, also scurried back to dry land. Randy and Ruthann were nowhere in sight.

“Sissies,” she yelled.

“Who are you calling a sissy?” A deep voice vibrated just inches behind her.

She spun around to find herself staring into the well-developed and dripping wet chest of Will Barnes.

Chapter 4

“It’s not polite to sneak up on people.” Patsy’s head came even with his chest. For a second, Will thought she was going to retreat, he was definitely in her space, but she cocked her head to the side and looked up at him.

“Didn’t your momma teach you any manners?” she asked. He could almost hear her heels digging into the soft dirt.

What was she thinking? Was she afraid of him? She, or at least his reaction to her, was beginning to scare him a little, and, aside from the sly remark after lunch, she hadn’t mentioned their accident. Even when Dwayne asked why they were late, she’d covered for him. Why?

Remembering his resolve to play it cool, he replied. “Oh, but it is polite to taunt people into falling on their ass in ice-cold water?” Will shook his head, letting water drops fly like she had earlier on the log.

“Hey, watch it.” Patsy jumped back a foot to escape the spray.

“Are you afraid of a little water?” Two could play at this game.

“If I am, I picked the wrong canoe partner today, didn’t I?” She stared him in the eye.

Will flushed; here it came. He knew she wouldn’t be able to resist for long. “About that… thanks.”

“For what? Not like I jumped in and saved you.”

No teasing, no taunts? “And you didn’t tell the others either. You could have.”

“And listen to Dwayne go on? Why would I put myself through that?” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. The gesture forced her breasts together, making the small mounds visible above her bikini top. A bead of water rolled down tan skin into the crevice between her breasts. His gaze followed it, wishing he could trace its path with his lips.

 “I like the other idea too.” Longing for another drop of water to roll down her chest, he grasped a lock of her hair, twisting it around his finger.

“What idea?” Her gaze flitted to his chest, then up to his mouth.

“You saving me.” Her hair was soft and strong. He could feel her breathing, the cool cloth of her bikini top brushing against his chest when she inhaled. He wanted to wrap her hair tighter around his finger, pull her closer until no space remained between them.

“Do you know mouth-to-mouth, Patsy Lee?” He grinned, hoping to give the question a light note.

“Patsy. It’s Patsy now. I quit going by Patsy Lee when I was in the first grade.” She looked annoyed, and he could feel her withdraw.

Over the name?

He dropped his hand to his side. Fine. He wasn’t going to make a fool of himself. “Is that so? Dwayne still calls you Patsy Lee.”

“Yeah, well, I call him a donkey’s patootie too, but I haven’t noticed him sprouting a tail.” She glanced around, the moment broken.

It was the name. Only the name. Wanting to regain the intimacy, Will reached for her hair. He tucked a strand behind each of her ears, then traced the now visible skin with his thumbs.