New Life (21 page)

Since there was a lull in the trickle of
customers, I turned my attention to the laptop on the counter. I
was looking through the want ads for entry positions in landscaping
or pet grooming. Those were fields I thought I might be qualified
for. I liked being outdoors, but didn’t know if I was capable of
long hours of shoveling wood chips and wrestling bushes into the
ground. Working at a dog-wash place sounded better. Or a dog day
care like where Anna had taken Baby.

Anna.

Don’t go there
, I reminded myself.
Since I’d decided to stop wallowing in self-pity, part of my pact
with myself was to keep from dwelling on Anna and reconstructing
every moment we’d spent together. That part of my life was over. I
had to put those memories behind me.

I turned my attention to the computer screen
and was so caught up in slowly reading through the ads that I
barely heard the chime when someone entered the store. I didn’t
look up until I sensed a person standing on the other side of the
counter. Shock nearly stopped my heart when I saw who it was.

“Hi, Jason.”

Anna was unearthly beautiful with her hair
lit from the window behind her, making a gold halo around her head
as if she were some angel come down from heaven. I couldn’t manage
a response, just sat there with words stuck in my dry mouth.

“How are you?” She glanced around the store.
“So this is your dad’s store?”

“How did you know where to find me?” I
finally managed.

“Took a little searching, since I couldn’t
call you, but I figured you were at your parents’ house. Your mom
sent me over here.”

“Sorry about the phone. I broke it. But you
were trying to call me?”

“Of course. You just disappeared.”

“But I thought… You told me to go.”

“Because you showed up at my work. I didn’t
mean I never wanted to see you again.”

I didn’t point out that she hadn’t come after
me. Not that day or for at least a few days more. Even as I’d
packed boxes of my stuff and helped my folks haul them down to the
truck, I’d prayed she would stop by. But it was clear she was done
with me.

Or maybe not.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” I said. My
shock at having Anna suddenly appear zapped all intelligent
thought.

“I’ve missed you.” She moved closer to the
counter, and the light shifted to illuminate her face. Those eyes.
God, I’d thought I’d never look into them again, and now they
struck me mute. What could I possibly say besides “I’m sorry” yet
again?

“I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you sooner,” Anna
continued. “I was really angry about you hooking up with someone,
but that wasn’t all that kept me from contacting you.”

A customer came through the door,
interrupting our conversation.

“Jason, good to see you working here.” The
man came over and joined us at the counter. “I know your dad’s glad
of the help.”

“Good to be here,” I answered automatically,
willing the guy to get a clue and leave us to our private
conversation. “Can I help you find something?”

“Naw.” He jerked a thumb toward one of the
aisles. “I know what I need. Just wanted to stop and say ‘hi.’ You
don’t remember me, do you?”

“No. Sorry.” I tapped my head and
shrugged.

“You used to date my daughter, Chrissy. I’m
Don Atkins.”

I winced, wondering if he knew I’d gotten his
daughter knocked up. Not likely or he wouldn’t be so polite.
“Chrissy and I talked not too long ago. Sounds like she’s doing
well.”

Atkins glanced at Anna, then back at me.
“Well, it looks like you’re dealing with a customer here. I just
wanted to say hello and tell you how sorry I was to hear about your
accident.”

“Thanks, Mr. Atkins,” I answered, tired of
the same refrain from nearly every person who came into the store.
They all knew me, but I didn’t remember most of them.

I watched Chrissy’s dad walk away, and not a
single memory of him came to mind. I turned my attention back to
Anna.

“Small town,” she said, lowering her voice.
“I can understand why you wanted to move away. It must be hard to
know everybody has memories of your past except you.”

“You have no idea. Anyway, what were you
saying?”

She leaned on the counter and stared at a
stack of sales flyers by the register. “I did try to call or text
you, but your phone wasn’t working. So many times I thought I’d try
to see you at work or go over to your place for a face-to-face
meeting, but honestly, I was doing some soul-searching. I was
trying to decide if I could live without you. It seemed easier go
back to being single.” She looked up at me from under her brows and
smiled. “I decided I didn’t want to.”

God, that smile, those eyes, that
honey-streaked brown hair tumbling around her face, every damn
thing about her set me vibrating like a high-tension wire. I came
out from behind the counter.

“I don’t want to live without you either,
Anna, I’m
so
sorry about Lisa and about generally being an
ass. I swear, if you take me back, I’ll be better. No blowing off
dates, ignoring your texts, showing up at your work and
embarrassing you, or hooking up with some girl I don’t even care
about.”

She put her hands on my waist, slid them
around me, and the warm pressure against my lower back set my heart
clamoring. “You damn well better not.”

I wrapped my arms around her and leaned down
to steal a kiss from those gorgeous lips I’d never expected to
taste again. I closed my eyes, completely forgetting where we were
for several glorious moments. But then the door chimed as a new
customer entered, and I was forced to pull away. I let my hands
drop from around Anna and replaced my moonstruck smile with a more
professional expression as I turned to greet the customer.

“Hello, Jason. It’s Mrs. Tandy. Remember me?”
the elderly woman greeted me.

“Yes, Mrs. Tandy. I remember you. Blue paint,
right?” She’d been in a couple of days earlier, but I couldn’t
blame her for thinking I might have forgotten her. “You need
another quart?”

“Yes, please.” She handed me the empty can so
I could match the color.

“I’ll be right back,” I said to Anna and went
to the paint center. My brain was reeling as I thought about what
Anna’s reappearance in my life meant. Of course I was thrilled, but
now that I’d moved out of the city, how would we be able to see
each other? Pickens was probably forty minutes from where Anna
lived. Hardly long distance, but inconvenient for having a
relationship when one of the people in it couldn’t drive.

I forced myself to pay attention to the job
at hand before I mixed the wrong shade of blue for Mrs. Tandy.
Slowing down and carefully checking every step of the process
calmed and focused me so that by the time I’d finished filling the
order, my thoughts had stopped zigzagging like crazy.

Chet, a retired friend of my dad’s, was
ringing up Mr. Atkins’s purchase at the cash register when we
returned to the front of the store. Anna stood off to one side,
looking at a display of LED flashlights.

I set Mrs. Tandy’s paint can on the counter
and wished her luck with her project, then went over to Anna.

She smiled at me. “Guess now I’m the one
interrupting you at work. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. I’m glad you came.”

“I should have called you at home instead of
just showing up, but I was so…I don’t know, nervous or excited or
something, I didn’t just want to call your parents’ house to find
out if you were there. I guess maybe I was afraid you wouldn’t take
my call. I needed to see you in person.”

I laughed at the irony of it all—me moping
around thinking we were through and having no idea that Anna was
worried I might be too pissed off to take her call. What a stupid,
pointless lack of communication. “I swear to God, I will
always
take your calls from now on—just as soon as I get
another cell phone.”

I took her arm and guided her to the small
house-wares section in a far corner of the store. I enveloped her
in my arms and kissed her hard and deep, pressing her back against
a shelving unit. My cock sprang up between us, the bulge nudging
her hip. I wouldn’t at all have minded seizing the opportunity for
a quickie in the break room. But this was my dad’s store, and I was
trying to reestablish a reputation for responsibility. Semipublic
sex with a chance for Chet to walk in on us probably wasn’t the way
to earn trust. I forced myself to step away from Anna.

She smoothed her hair into place and wiped
the remnants of kisses from her red lips. “So, what now,
sensai
? Any wisdom to guide us into the next phase of our
relationship?”

“I’ve heard ‘communication is key.’ Maybe we
should work on that.” I smiled but shook my head. “Honestly, I
don’t know what happens next. I’m here, and you’re all the way
across the city. I can’t drive. I don’t know how we’re going to
date.”

“Hey, at least we’re on the same shift now,
and my place isn’t
that
far from here. It’s worth the drive,
to me.” She straightened her rumpled blouse. “I think we should
dial it back to a few dates a week and see what happens.”

“Sounds good to me.” I reached out and picked
off a price sticker that clung to her sleeve. “How about dancing
some night? I wouldn’t mind going back to that place we went on our
first date.”

“The Jukebox Joint. Sure. But only if you’re
really feeling up to it. Baby and I are perfectly happy to spend a
quiet evening at home with you.”

God, that sounded good. I would’ve been happy
to walk off the job right then and there and fulfill that
dream.

“I want to go on a real date with you, and
I’m ready to learn to dance,” I assured her.

Chapter Twenty-five

“So, you’re that girl?” Katie stared at me
with the same dark eyes that her brother and father had. “And
you’re a lawyer?”

“Yes, I am.” I squirmed a little at her
intense scrutiny.

“Lawyers make a lot of money, right? Maybe
that’s what I should do.”

“Do you like helping people solve their
problems? That’s a big part of what we do.”

“You mean finding loopholes for rich
businessmen and criminals. That’s what lawyers do on TV shows.”

“Sometimes our clients might not be ethically
right, but the law is written to be fair and impartial to
everyone.”

“And lawyers twist it to win the case. I
watch
The Good Wife
.”

Jesus, this kid was tough. Wasn’t she too
young to enjoy such an adult show? Shouldn’t she be watching stuff
on Nickelodeon?

“Well, if you think you’d like a career in
law, I can talk to you sometime about the different types. Oh look,
here’s Jason,” I said, eager to escape Katie’s grilling. Damn,
maybe the kid
would
make a good lawyer someday.

Jason slowly came down the stairs, his leg
hitching a little with each step. His eyes were on me, waiting for
him in the front hallway. He smiled at me, and his whole face lit
up. My heart did a double loop before settling back into my chest.
Goddamn but I loved his smile, the way his eyes squeezed up and
almost disappeared and deep grooves cut on either side of his
mouth. I wished disapproving Katie would disappear so I could run
to him and pull him into my arms. But the girl was watching us,
arms folded. She played sentinel as Jason walked over to me and
gave me a more polite kiss and hug than either of us wanted.

“See ya later, KitKat,” he said.

“Okay. Have fun on your date.”

As Jason opened the door for me—such a
gentleman—I glanced at Katie, and even though she didn’t make the
fingers-pointed-to-eyes motion, she might as well have. I got the
explicit vibe of “I’ve got my eye on you.”

“I think your little sister hates me,” I said
as we walked down the driveway to my car.

“She’ll get over it. You did dump her big
brother, you know,” he teased.

“What? Who dumped who? You disappeared on me,
left the city without a trace.” And although I was teasing too,
there may have been a bit of passive-aggressive stuff going on in
our byplay. Time to put that to rest.

“Wait a second. Before we go anywhere, can I
just…” I stopped and pulled Jason close, throwing my arms around
his neck and kissing him like I wanted to, slow and deep and
thorough. “Mm. Maybe we should skip dancing and just go to my
place.”

“No way. I’ve been practicing. I’m gonna show
you my moves.” Jason walked me to the driver’s side and held the
door again, so sweet.

On the drive to the club, we talked about
what we’d done that week while we were apart. Taking it slow as
we’d promised to do was hard. I missed spending time
together—especially bed time. But we’d agreed to go on some actual
dates before plunging back into an intense physical relationship. I
glanced over at Jason and couldn’t for the life of me remember why,
as a bolt of pure desire shot through me.

“Are you ready for this? It’s really noisy,”
I warned him outside the club.

“Yeah. I remember. Don’t fuss over me. I’m
fine.” He took my hand and twirled me around on the sidewalk till
my skirt flared. “See, I told you I’ve been practicing. The trick
is to stand like a post and let you do all the flashy stuff.”

I laughed and gave him a thorough kiss and an
ass grope before we went inside. We didn’t stop to try to get a
table or a drink. Jason dragged me straight onto the dance floor,
which was crowded with hardcore jitterbuggers and less skilled
dancers all jostling for space. He pulled me into his arms and did
a creditable two-step to a fast number. He even spun me around a
couple of times and ended the tune with a little dip. Before he
pulled me back upright, he pressed a kiss to the hollow of my
throat. The kiss ricocheted through me like a bullet, sending
pulses of lust to all my pertinent parts.