Neighborly Complications (Stories of Serendipity #1) (11 page)

Before Tom she had gone out with Mark. Mark had been a musician and jobless and homeless. Claire allowed him to move in with her, and he tried to suck her dry, both financially and emotionally. He had moved out and ended the relationship, when he found a rich benefactor to shack up with. Claire had been surprised to find out the benefactor was a man and Mark had suddenly turned gay.

Before Mark had been James, whom Claire had met at a bar. Charming and handsome, James had wined and dined Claire for months. After he had made a particularly racist comment, Claire discovered that he had initially asked her out because she looked like she had ‘good genes’ and would make a superb mate for James to propagate a superior race.

Claire just had rotten luck picking men. She got too physical with them too early, taking all mystery out of the equation and letting her hormones rule her decisions. She had sworn that she wouldn’t do it again.

But something about Max was different. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, and she hoped to god she was right about him. She said a little prayer that he wasn’t some kind of parasite, or cheater, or complete weirdo. But she’d obviously been wrong before.

Well, what’s done is done.
She would go out with him tonight and see what happens.

Finally, seven o’clock came, and Claire was waiting on the porch wearing jeans, boots, and a black Henley. He had said to be comfortable, and even though it was late September in Texas, it was getting cooler in the evenings, and she really had no idea what Max had planned.

She heard a roar come from next door, and she saw his enormous dually pick-up truck sidle up to the curb in front of her house. The passenger window rolled down, and Claire saw Max’s grin. She started walking across the yard to the truck, as Max walked around to her side and opened the door for her.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome. You look nice. I didn’t realize we were going to be twinkies.”

That was when Claire noticed that they had on the same outfit, almost identical. He also wore boots, although his were brown, where hers were black, and his were more worn. His faded jeans hugged his thighs nicely, and his Henley was a bit tighter than hers, showing off a rippling chest that Claire had glimpsed before in a lusty haze.

She looked up at him in mortification. “Let me run in and change real quick. I won’t be a minute.”

Her stomach flip-flopped as his arm blocked her. “No. I like it. It looks like we belong to each other.” Shutting the door, he effectively put an end to her argument.

Inside his truck, Claire let his manly, earthy scent overwhelm her. As he walked around the hood of the truck, Claire took the moment to admire the way he walked. He was really tall and broad, and he moved with the grace and fluidity of a panther. She had seen panthers in zoos, and they were pretty powerful creatures. She imagined that they rarely lost any prey that was in their sight. As Max folded himself into the driver’s seat of the truck, she stifled a shiver of anticipation. He looked at her, questions in his eyes.

“You okay?”

Claire swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “Um…Yeah.”

“You ready?”

“Yeah. Where are we going?”

“To the park. I’ve got a bucket of chicken in the back seat. We’re going to watch a movie in the park. When’s the last time you saw
Casablanca
?”

She brightened considerably. That was her favorite movie. Ever. “Are you kidding? ’I remember every detail. The Germans wore grey, you wore blue.’ I love that movie.” She saw the surprise in his eyes when she did her spot-on Bogart impersonation and laughed. Okay, maybe she could manage to have a decent time, despite her nerves.

When they got to the park, Claire saw that there was a huge screen set up at the base of a small hill, and people had set up blankets and picnics on the hill to watch the movie. Two large speakers flanked the screen.

Max pulled a blanket, a cooler, and two grocery bags out of the back seat of his truck and led Claire to a spot on the hill that had a great view but wasn’t right next to a bunch of people.

He looked at Claire, “Is this okay?” She nodded, and he set down the food and cooler, then started spreading the blanket. Once he had served them both, Max broke the silence.

“So, what are you going to do here, in the thriving metropolitan area of Serendipity, Texas?”

“I’m going to fix up my house and open a bed and breakfast.”

He raised an eyebrow and quirked a corner of his mouth. “Really? That was my plan for the house.”

“I know.” Just hearing him say it, and the proprietary tone that she heard in his voice, caused her blood to heat. Her body tensed, ready for him to say something about how he could do a better job than she could.

“Don’t get all prickly at me again. I just think it’s ironic, don’t you?”

“What’s ironic?”

“That I’ve had my eye on that house for years with that in mind and haven’t been able to get it. Then you swoop in with the same plans.” He expelled a breath. “I guess I’ll have to fall in love with a different idea.”

“Why my house? What’s so special about it?” Claire wondered if he knew about the gold that was supposedly hidden there. She felt sure that he did, and that was his real reason for wanting the house. Suspicion flared within her. Was this all a ploy to get to the gold? He wouldn’t go to such lengths, would he? She remembered his face on the day of his break down and knew instantly that wasn’t true. He wasn’t after the gold.

He leaned back on one elbow on the blanket, a drumstick in his hand. “I’m really not sure. I used to go inside with my friends in high school and party in there, and I’ve just always seen myself living there, raising a family, hosting guests. It’s always been that house. I can’t explain it. I’ve just always felt pulled to it, but your uncle wouldn’t even consider selling it to me.”

Was it Katherine’s dream, too? She wondered what role his dead wife played in the desire to own that house. Did he see it as a way to propagate her memory? She didn’t have the guts to ask. Claire tried not to stare at his form, lounging so contentedly next to her. “Well, I’m glad he didn’t sell it to you. I love the house.”

“In retrospect, I am too.” His tone was soft, and the bourbony quality as usual did strange things to her insides.

Curious, she asked, “Why?”

“Because if he’d sold it to me, I wouldn’t have met you, would I?” His gaze was intent on her, those caramel-colored eyes focused on her face, making her uncomfortable. “Anyways, I’ve tabled the notion. I’ve made it this long without my bed and breakfast, and I seem to be doing okay.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “I guess I could put off the idea for a while longer, until something else comes up. I’ve just got to wrap my brain around the idea of it not being in that house.”

Claire was unable to drop this. She wanted to know if it was a dream to fulfill Katherine’s desires, if her staying would be a constant memory of something he and Katherine were supposed to do together.

“Was it something you and Katherine were going to do together?” She asked him softly.

His eyes glazed in memory, and she almost regretted asking. She was afraid he would have another break down, but apparently it didn’t trigger anything, or he’d already gotten it all out of his system, because he answered her straightforwardly.

“Not really. I mean, we talked about it, but I don’t think her heart was in it like mine was. It was more my dream than hers.”

The movie started, and Claire focused her attention on the screen. Inside her head, though, she couldn’t think about anything except the man next to her. As attracted to him as she was, she couldn’t bring herself to trust herself around him. Honestly, she had no idea what had come over her the times before when she had done completely inappropriate things with him. There was just something about him that dissolved her inhibitions, and she didn’t like that one bit.

“So you know about the gold that’s supposed to be hidden there?” A perfect example of her inhibitions flying out the window. Why else would she say something like that to Max? She had never really been one to be an open book, she hated people who told her everything about their life, and didn’t want to be that person. She preferred to keep things to herself, but being around Max made her internal filter shut off.

He gave her a knowing smile, flashing his even, white teeth in a way that sent a warm rush of heat through her body. “Sugar, everybody in town knows about the gold,” He drawled in his smooth voice. He sat up to rummage around the bucket of chicken for another piece. “Is that why you’re here? To get rich off the gold?”

She wondered why she had even asked. She wondered more why she was going to tell him what she said next. “Well, Uncle Eddie always talked about it when he talked about this house. He let all of us cousins pick which property we wanted, and I’ll admit, that’s why I wanted this one. I didn’t realize this was his home growing up. It was either this one or the beach house in Galveston, but I can’t really afford the insurance on the beach house…”

“This is a nicer town than Galveston.”

“Yeah, it seems so.” Desperate to change the subject, she asked, “What is there to do around here?”

His face lit up, as he started talking about the town. “Well, there’s the Gin. We like to have festivals and such for just about any reason. There’s an annual Dulcimer Festival, Hot Pepper Festival, Dogwood Festival, Christmas festivals, festivals for fundraising, anniversary festivals. You name it, there’s a festival for it. Then there are the movies in the park every month. The community theater puts on about four shows a year, and there’s always a kickin’ party for those. The downtown area is pretty fun sometimes, and anything you want to get involved in has parties and events. The annual Fireman’s Ball is another pretty big event.” He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “And Serendipity has the lowest ratio of people per church in the state. We have every denomination of spiritual enlightenment you could possibly be looking for — except possibly some of the Eastern ones. Apparently, we’re not that broad-minded.” His voice became more normal, as he enquired, “What are your interests?”

He had turned so that he was facing her, while he said all of this, and Claire was taken with his sudden excitement as he talked about his town. She thought a minute.

“Hmm…I like old things, antiques, and old houses mostly. I like to fix stuff up, though I’m not really very good at it yet. I would like to restore old furniture, after I get the B & B going. Nothing major, just fixing joints and refinishing. That’s about all I can master, I think.”

“So, how were you going to go about restoring the house?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you just admitted that you’re not very good at it. Were you going to hire it all done?”

“Not unless I found the gold…I don’t really have any money. I was just going to see what I could get done by myself.” This was a little embarrassing, that she didn’t have a strong business plan for it. She was sort of flying by the seat of her pants. “And try to make friends in high places, like remodelers…” She was teasing him, and hoped he didn’t think he was using him.

He raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “So, you are counting on finding gold that has been hidden for years, if it even exists, that no one’s been able to find yet?”

She blushed. “When you put it like that it sounds stupid, but Uncle Eddie knew where it was hidden. He said he’d made sure no one could find it until he was ready for them to.” She pulled at the corner of the blanket distractedly.

He leaned back on his elbows again, studying her. “But he never told you where it was?”

“No. He liked games. But I must admit, I’m a little over this one.”

“No hints?” His eyes filled with disbelief.

“No. All he said was the gold was well-protected.” She sighed in frustration. She’d been through all of this inside her own head. Saying it out loud wasn’t helping anything. “Can we talk about something else?”

“Sure, what do you want to talk about?”

“You. What do you like to do for fun?”

His gaze on her softened, “I’m a homebody. I’ve spent the last four years working on my house and building furniture to distract myself from Katherine.”

Claire was afraid that mentioning Katherine might start a repeat of last week, but it didn’t. His eyes took on a haunted quality, but he didn’t break down again.

“You moved back here after she died?”

“Yeah. My parents had moved to Florida when we got married, so the house had been vacant for a while, but they deeded it to me. I had to get away from the memories of the life we were supposed to have together. I didn’t even bring our stuff. I sold it all.” He had stretched his long body out and was looking at the sky as he spoke. “So I built new stuff.”

Anxious to get him off the topic of his dead wife, Claire said, “So, you’ve known Summer a long time, too?”

He smiled and turned to her, as if he knew what she’d done. “Yeah. She’s been over a lot. Her grandmother used to come over too, when she was living.”

Max was quiet after that. He laid on his side, his head propped on his elbow, looking at Claire. She was only slightly uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

His hand snaked out to touch her, but she inadvertently flinched. His touch made her lose her thoughts, and she desperately wanted to keep her wits about her. He dropped his hand.

“My past has had me in a choke-hold. When I met you, something made the fingers wrapped around my neck loosen. I can’t explain it.”

Claire tensed. “I’m really glad for you Max.” Her fingers played with the corner of the quilt she was sitting on. “I really am. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you…To lose the love of your life like that…” She saw the flash of pain in his eyes, and regretted her words, but she had to go on. “But I’m just not sure how I fit into your life. I can’t replace her. And I don’t want to compete with her memory.” She said the words as gently as she could, but they had to be said.

“But you agree with me that there is something between us?”

Claire sighed. She had no idea what was between them. “When I’m around you, I’m different. I don’t normally do the things I’ve done with you, Max. That’s not who I am. I can’t believe I’m even here.”