MrBigStuff-epub (16 page)

He turned his head, glaring at the exhibitionist beekeeper as she pushed back her tangled hair and sipped her coffee. “Thanks. I mean it, Glory. I can see why Trudy left you in charge. Your communication skills are awe inspiring.”

She grimaced. “So they all tell me. Can we blame the hour? No one should be up this early after that kind of party. And if they are, they shouldn’t be forced to think.”

Jefferson hadn’t slept. He hadn’t wanted to take the chance he might wake up to find Caroline gone. And he could not stop thinking about what she’d said. The distances between them…

He’d gotten up before sunrise and walked over to John and Trudy’s house, only to find Glory leading an exodus of luggage-toting women, with a very tired and undeniably angry Manly herding them to his car.

Trudy and John had left last night for their honeymoon and Diego was nowhere to be found.

He’d had to talk to someone. Glory had offered him coffee and everything had come pouring out, from Caroline’s first visit to La Grange to their conversation last night. “Hell.”

Glory uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. “Okay listen. Personally? I’m a mess and you know it, and I know you know it so I feel like a hypocrite giving you advice on love.” She shrugged. “But I see where she’s coming from. I kind of admire her for being so honest. Not everyone can admit when they’re afraid.”

“She didn’t give me a chance to prove her wrong or even discuss it. She decided for both of us.”

Glory nodded. “She’s an independent woman who, I’m guessing, has experience with disappointment. And I’m also guessing, you being a man and all, that you haven’t told her how you feel about her. Women are superior in many ways, Jefferson, but despite popular theory, psychic powers don’t automatically come with every vagina. You have to actually say the words.”

Jefferson laughed in spite of himself. Glory looked like an innocent woodland nymph but what came out of her mouth had more salt than sparkle.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t right. He’d said it in a million ways but never once out loud. “So I should tell her.”

“Yes.” Glory pointed her finger at him. “Only if you follow up the words with action. Action that is not sexual. That can only happen at the end.” When he frowned at her she shrugged again. “You asked. First you tell her how you feel. Then you show her that her worries are groundless. Then you can make sweet kinky love to her from here to eternity. From what you’ve described, you two have no problems in that area.”

But the worries weren’t entirely groundless. One of them was ridiculous, one could be easily resolved, but the last?

He looked out over the pond, watching the mockingbirds chasing after each other from tree to tree. He knew those birds. Knew every inch of this land, every person in town. He could predict what the weather would be like tomorrow, he knew his patch of sky so well.

It wasn’t long before he started to smile.

He stood and looked down at Glory, still sipping her coffee. She raised her pale eyebrows. “Did you figure it out?”

“I did. I need to make a few calls.”

She waved him toward the sliding glass doors. “Be my guest, it isn’t my phone.”

“Thank you, Glory.”

“That’s what you pay me for. That and my bee collection. Hey, if this works out for you, maybe you can give
me
advice on what to do with two seriously possessive Peeping Toms.”

Jefferson was halfway in the door when he heard her, and he leaned back out again with a grin. “That’s easy, Glory. Everyone seems to know it but you. All you have to do is let them in.”

***

Caroline got out of her car and grabbed her purse, walking swiftly through the parking garage. She noticed a camera pointed at her car and glared at it for reminding her that she didn’t have anything scandalous to catch on film.

Not for weeks now.

She’d woken up alone in Jefferson’s bed and known she had to leave before she changed her mind. She was halfway to Austin before the tears started falling. The plane touched down in Los Angeles before they stopped.

Trudy would be flying home from her honeymoon today. Caroline decided to call her tomorrow. She wanted to let her know she was still here for her and the baby even though her brother had broken her heart by not coming after her.

Maybe she wouldn’t mention that part.

She rounded the corner for the elevator and saw her neighbor Robin holding a well-bundled Voodoo in her arms. Caroline forced a smile. “Is he wearing a puppy Snuggie?”

Robin nodded. “He seems to like it. Every time I take it off he starts barking and chewing up the coffee table. Literally. My coffee table is now firewood. My little devil has sharp teeth. Were you visiting your dad again?”

“I was.” Caroline came closer and gave Voodoo a scratch. “We’ve been getting a lot of good work done on the book. It’s almost done.”

They’d started talking about her aunt, and Caroline was surprised at how healing it had been for both of them. They’d both realized they’d taken on too much responsibility for her death. Caroline had pushed herself to live hard to make up for the loss, and David had stopped enjoying his success, stopped doing what he loved, because his sister hadn’t been able to enjoy it.

She wished they’d talked about it years ago, but at least they finally had. It was time to let go of the past.

The elevator doors opened and Caroline took a step backwards in shock. “Jefferson?”

Her neighbor looked between them and then stepped into the elevator. “Don’t mind me.”

Jefferson smiled and held open the door for her, staring her down until she came inside.

She turned her back on him.

Robin cuddled her dog and glanced around the elevator uncomfortably before looking over her shoulder. “So, your name is Jefferson.”

“It is.” His voice. Damn him. She’d missed his stupid, sexy voice.

Robin nodded pleasantly. “I’m sure I read that somewhere. I always just thought of you as Mr. Big Stuff or, you know, Garage Sex Guy.”

Caroline caught Robin’s gaze and stared. Loudly. Her neighbor winced. “I’m sorry, that was inappropriate, wasn’t it? I can’t help it. I hate awkward silences fraught with meaning. “

The elevator door opened and Robin was the first to escape, murmuring soothing words to her warmly dressed, alien-eyed dog.

“Caroline—”

She stepped out of the elevator and whirled to face him. “Go away.”

Hadn’t she visualized this meeting? She was going to be sophisticated and bored. She was going to have moved on with a harem of Chippendale dancers following her around adoringly. She wasn’t going to let him get to her.

“I’m not going anywhere until you listen to what I have to say.”

She crossed her arms. “You can have five minutes.”

He took off his ever-present cowboy hat and ran his fingers through his hair the way she longed to, making her hand twitch. “Can we talk in your apartment?”

She turned and walked away without responding, reaching inside her purse for her keys and opening the door, and then stepping aside to let him through. “Now you have four and a half minutes.”

He cupped the back of his neck with his hand. “I was going to call—”

“You were
going to call
?” She laughed and kicked off her heels angrily, pacing into her living room. “That’s the line you want to go with? It’s not very original, Junior.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Let’s get something straight here.
You
are the one who listed off the reasons why we couldn’t work and
you
are the one who left my bed without saying goodbye. Again.”

Her indignation deflated like a leaky balloon. He was right, damn him. “You wanted to talk?”

He shook his head and laughed. It was a tired laugh. “I
was
going to call. Hell, I was driving to Austin, probably only a few hours behind you, but I stopped myself. I decided it would be better to wait until I had solutions to your problems.”

“My problems?”

He stepped closer. “First of all, I’ve talked to Trudy. They called to check in during their honeymoon. She is willing to promise, in writing, that we have her blessing and that she will love both of us regardless of our relationship decisions as long as we keep our door locked whenever we’re visiting. Problem solved.”

Caroline shook her head. “That’s silly, she doesn’t—”

“Despite John’s reluctance, Troublemaker is expanding. We purchased land, not an hour from here. Ground has already been broken on a house, a guest house, a bunk house for a few employees and, of course, the space to make our secret barbecue sauce.”

“What?” She was sure she’d heard him wrong.

He was so close now she could touch him. “I’m relocating. With enough room for Trudy, the baby, heck even your dad and Sylvie to come and stay for as long as they want. That’s the second problem solved.”

Jefferson was moving to California. For her? She was losing the ability to breathe. “Wait, I don’t unde—”

“Finally,” he interrupted, his finger pressed gently on her lips. “The last problem, which isn’t really a problem at all. You know John is ten years older than Trudy right? No one sees any problem with that, and frankly it’s kind of sexist if you don’t think the same rules apply to you. But since you brought it up, let me address it. When you’re sixty and your back goes out, I’ll carry you to bed and massage your aches away and probably try to take advantage of you while I’m doing it. I’ll always take care of you, and I’ll always want you to take care of me.”

She leaned away from his touch to respond. “You can’t know that.”

His green eyes were piercing. “And you have no reason to doubt it. No one can know what’s going to happen tomorrow, that’s true. Troublemaker could stop selling. Those new billboards of you and I stripping each other to sell jeans might cause such an uproar we get kicked out of town. The only thing we can be sure about is how we feel. And I’m sure.”

She held her breath when he took her hands in his. “I’m in love with you, Caroline. And don’t say I don’t know you well enough, because I do. You think too much and you worry too much, and you run around like a hummingbird that can never sit still. Your father is still your hero and you are always there for your friends. You’re honest and loyal, kinky in the most extreme sense of the word, you sleep like a sexy Disney vampire and you are all I can think about every minute of every day.”

She laughed through her tears. “Disney vampire?”

“It’s true.” He shrugged. “It’s adorable and true.”

Caroline shook her head. He was here. In her living room and saying everything she’d always wanted to hear. It was almost too good to be true.

You said the same thing about John and Trudy.

She smiled at Jefferson. Was this really happening? “Say it again?”

“Sweet Caroline, I love you.”

“Good.”

He frowned. “Good?”

“Yes. Good.” She tugged out of his grip and took a step back, still smiling.

He tilted his head to study her, as if trying to figure her out. “This is the part where you say the words back to me.”

“It is?” She took another step back, raising her hands to the buttons on her blouse. “Are you sure? I’m just supposed to blurt out that I’m completely in love with you, that I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how much, without any kind of incentive, sexual or otherwise?”

A spark of understanding flared to life in his beautiful eyes. “You’re going to tell me you love me.”

“Or what?”

He stalked toward her, undoing his belt and she turned and ran for her bedroom.

It wasn’t going to take much to make her to admit how she felt. She loved him. Maybe it was too fast and maybe it was crazy, but there was no denying it was true. He hadn’t been on her list, but he was everything she wanted. She’d been so close to giving up on finding a love of her own after a lifetime of kissing frogs, and now...

She heard his belt snap. “Tell me you love me,” he called from outside her bedroom door. “Or I
won’t
spank you.”

This was going to be a short rebellion.

She was waiting for him on her knees when he came through the door. “Jefferson?”

“Yes, Caroline?”

“Get ready to spank me.”

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