One of the Guys (6 page)

41

Shiloh Walker

You wouldn
’
t know how to be a woman
…

In order to drown out his hated voice, Jaynie grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge. She didn’t even bother with a glass, just popped the cork and settled down on the floor, surrounded by the shorn strands of hair.

“Congratulations, darling,” she purred, spying the crumpled invitation from the corner of her eye. “I hope the two of you have a long, miserable life together.”

* * * * *

“Damn.”

Jaynie heard the door shut and she turned her face away, burying it in the couch.

“Go away,” she mumbled.

“I take it you received the invitation,” Kate said quietly.

“Go. Away.”

“Geez, Jaynie, do you have any hair left? What were you thinking?” Grouchy, she turned her head and slitted one eye open so she could see Kate making her way through the piles of hair. “I was thinking that hair was hot, heavy and I only kept it that long because Dean liked it. Why mess with it now? I’m tired. I’m hung over and I want some sleep.”

“So you get an invitation to the wedding from hell and instead of crying or calling me or overdosing on Häagen-Dazs, or all three, you drink an entire bottle of expensive wine and cut your hair.”

Jaynie turned away from Kate and muttered, “It was a gift from Dean. Supposed to be for our anniversary. Seemed appropriate. And FYI, I cut my hair
before
I drank the wine.”

Kate was quiet for a while and Jaynie hoped maybe she’d quietly sneaked outside.

But no such luck. With a sigh, she rolled onto her side and saw Kate sitting on the floor by the beat-up couch. “So you cut your hair—because Dean liked it. Did I get that right?”

42

One of the Guys

Jaynie squinted. “Seemed to make sense at the time.” Kate’s smile came slowly but it grew until it lit up her whole face. She rolled onto her knees and propped her elbows on the couch so that she was just inches away from Jaynie’s face. “So let’s go all the way.”

“All the way?” Jaynie reached up to touch her hair and winced as she realized how very little there was left. Some strands were longer than others, but if she was lucky, it might be a few inches past her shoulders when she got it fixed.

And it badly needed fixing, she suspected. Now that the anger had dulled a little, she was having some second thoughts about the impromptu haircut. Too late now, though. For more than ten years, her hair had been long enough that she could almost sit on it and now, without that weight, she almost felt naked. “What, you think I should go bald? Sinead O’Conner pulled that look off. I can’t.” Kate poked Jaynie in the ribs. “Not talking about your hair. I’m talking a do-over.

I’m talking about you ditching those ratty clothes you wear and taking you for a real haircut, and baby, you
need
one. I’m talking we do you up like Cinderella on the night of the ball and you go to that wedding looking like a million bucks.” She inspected the butcher job on Jaynie’s head then leaned down and pressed her cheek to Jaynie’s. “I love you, no matter what. And I know you don’t like to mess with hair, makeup or any of that girly-crap. But come on, don’t you want to make him sorry for what he did?

What he said? You don’t have to turn into a diva or anything. You can still do your jeans and you don’t have to start fiddling with makeup, though, honestly, once you get used to it, it’s not much trouble. I’m talking a shopping trip for some new clothes. I’m talking one day where you go all out and you show him what he lost.” Her voice pithy, Jaynie said, “All he lost was a frigid bitch too scared to experiment, Kate.”

“You are
not
frigid,” Kate snapped. She poked Jaynie in the arm and those nails didn’t feel good. “So you didn’t want to do a three-way. Hell, neither would I.

43

Shiloh Walker

Interesting fantasy, but that’s all it is—a fantasy. Not wanting it doesn’t make you frigid.”

Logically, Jaynie knew that. Honestly, she did. But still… Groaning, she turned her face away from Kate. “Kate, this is ridiculous.”

“The hell it is. Just listen—don’t say no. Think about it, okay? Hell, what can it hurt?

You spend a few hundred dollars on clothes and we’ll go to the wedding and watch him squirm.”

* * * * *

A few…hundred. Yeah. Right.

Jaynie stood in her bedroom and stared at the bags littering the floor, the bed, her dresser. She had a little bit of makeup on, courtesy of the cosmetics counter at Dillard’s and it felt like she’d visited every clothing store in Spanish Fort. The clothes she wore now had also come from Dillard’s—a short blue skirt that would require extreme caution if she bent over and two skinny-strapped tank tops, a blue one layered over a white one which had lace around the neckline. The lace on the white tank matched the cute little thong panties and front-clasp bra.

One thing that Jaynie had liked buying was lingerie. She’d always liked buying it and that part had been relatively painless. She hadn’t even needed much prodding from Kate. Unlike all the clothes. She’d needed a lot of prodding with the clothes. And the makeup. Jaynie imagined if she hadn’t done the butcher job on her hair, Kate would have had to coax her to the salon too. But Jaynie had been more than happy to hit the salon.

Her hair had been trimmed and now it fell around her face and shoulders in layers.

“You got good hair. Shouldn’t take much more than some mousse in the morning, though if you want it to flip at the ends like this, you will have to blow-dry it,” the stylist had told Jaynie. “But next time you need a change, come see me instead of trying to do it yourself.”

44

One of the Guys

Mousse. She could handle that. Although she doubted she could make it look the way the lady at the salon had. Nor did she want to try. She had hopes that she could convince Kate to help her with it when it mattered.

Like in two weeks. Dean’s wedding.

She even had the perfect outfit. She waded through the bags and boxes on the floor and grabbed the bag that Kate had draped over the end. Kate had dared Jaynie to buy a white dress, but Jaynie wasn’t going to the wedding to try to outshine Kat. She didn’t give a damn about that part.

She was going to prove something to Dean…and to herself.

The dress was a soft peach color. The first thing that Jaynie had thought when she’d seen it was that it was nearly the same shade of the robe she’d been wearing that night with Brian. She had never been much for soft feminine colors but she really liked the way this peach color seemed to glow against her skin. It had two skinny straps and a neckline lower than Jaynie was used to. It followed her curves closely, skimming them like a lover’s caress. It wasn’t quite floor-length, but the skirt was long. There was a slit on either side that went up past her knee and Kate had helped her pick out a pair of shoes that were both pretty and relatively comfortable.

So to speak. The sandals had a nearly flat sole and thin, sparkly straps. Kate had said she needed a pedicure and Jaynie had resigned herself to having her feet messed with.

“A pedicure and a date, and you’ll be good to go.” Kate had told her that while they’d lugged up all the bags and boxes and when Jaynie had insisted she didn’t want a date, Kate had disagreed. “You’re going to go in there looking phenomenal and you’re going to have a good-looking man at your side who hangs on to your every word.”

“Great,” Jaynie had replied sourly. “Where do I find one?”

* * * * *

45

Shiloh Walker

“Find somebody else,” Brian said from inside the refrigerator. He stood up, a beer in one hand and a box of takeout in the other.

Kate grabbed the takeout box and tossed it in the trash. “You don’t want to eat that.

I’ve been forgetting to throw it away for the past two weeks.” Brian scowled and looked toward what would have been his first meal in nearly twenty-four hours. There was next to nothing else in the refrigerator. Both he and Kate sucked at grocery shopping. A glance into the freezer revealed a couple of steaks with freezer burn and a package of ground beef that looked like it had gone past freezer burn and into the final throes of frostbite.

Kate shouldered him aside and shoved the freezer closed. She gave him her most charming smile and said, “Tell me that you’ll take Jaynie to the wedding and you’ll have a meal fit for a king.”

Brian gave the steaks a grim look. “I said no. And last I checked, you weren’t a magician. There’s nothing here to cook and I’m not waiting for you to go the store. Why in hell is Jaynie going to that jerk’s wedding anyway? After what he did—” Kate’s smile faded. “That’s the whole reason she’s going, Bri. He hurt her. He didn’t just break her heart, he did something to her confidence.” She glanced back over her shoulder, as though she had to make sure Jaynie wasn’t there.

“Look, you don’t know the whole story.” She nibbled on her lower lip and fiddled with an earring for a minute.

Wary, Brian asked, “What whole story? Dean fucked around on her. She caught him.”

“No—she caught them. Them as in…three.” Kate’s face flushed red as she explained that Jaynie hadn’t just walked in Kit and Dean. She’d walked in on Kit and Dean, plus one.

“It’s something he tried to talk her in to trying back in college and she wasn’t interested. After all of this happened, he had her thinking she was frigid and a poor excuse for a woman. It’s not just what he did, but what he said to her, Brian. He hurt 46

One of the Guys

her and she’s dealt with that. But she needs to look him in the eye and show him that he hasn’t broken her.”

“Shit.” Brian closed his eyes and wished he had hit Dean that night. Repeatedly. He heaved out a heavy sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face before looking at Kate.

“Katie, I…”
Can
’
t
. The word was there on his tongue, but he couldn’t force it out. It seemed lodged there. He kept seeing Jaynie’s face, how she had looked that night when he’d walked in the door and seen Dean tearing into her as if she had been the one out slumming. He saw how she looked that night she’d come down to the basement, her hands shaking, her voice uncertain and her eyes so full of need as she’d said, “I need this.”

Yeah, Dean had screwed up Jaynie’s confidence and Brian just now was getting an inkling of how badly Dean had shaken her.

Jaynie had seemed as if she had gotten some of it back after that night they were together. Brian knew it had little to do with him personally and everything to do with the fact that he was a man who had obviously wanted her and the fact that she sure as hell wasn’t frigid. Damn, even that thought was laughable. Jaynie was about as frigid as the beach was in August.

But one night of hot sweaty sex wasn’t going to undo the damage that bastard had done to her.

Still, Brian wasn’t so certain he was the man for this particular job. He couldn’t stand close to her without wanting to grab her. He had an ugly feeling that this obsession of his was growing into something serious, something he hadn’t planned on and something he wasn’t ready for. And even if he had been ready for it, Jaynie had no interest in him. She’d made that damn clear.

A woman couldn’t behave as she had the past four months, acting so casual and normal, if she had feelings for a man, right? He took a deep breath and braced himself.

He couldn’t do this. It would be like throwing a lit match into a barrel of gunpowder.

He opened his mouth to say it.

47

Shiloh Walker

But instead of
no
, he heard himself saying, “Fine. Whatever, Katie.” She beamed at him and then glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, and what do you know? The chef is here.”

The door opened and Brian’s stomach seemed to sink. Shit. Slowly, he turned and saw Jaynie come through, juggling two bags. She gave him a casual smile and then she looked at Katie. “I said I’d do lasagna but you promised me a pitcher of margaritas while I cooked.”

She dropped the bags down on the counter and Brian started to retreat, hoping he could get to his room and get the door locked. But he had to pass the kitchen island to do it and the second he did, Jaynie turned and dropped a mesh bag into his hands. It was full of fat, red tomatoes. “Can you cut these?” Jaynie turned away and continued unpacking the bags and that was when he noticed what she was wearing. The short skirt wasn’t exactly indecent but it left entirely too much leg bare for his peace of mind. Long, golden, tanned legs. Her hair was floating around her shoulders, inches shorter than he’d ever seen it. “You cut your hair,” he said, his voice rusty.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, a smile flirting with the corners of her lips.

“Yeah. I…uh…well, I tried to trim it a little myself and did a crappy job of it.” The skirt and the shorter hair weren’t the only difference. She had on a pair of strappy sandals, a dusky blue tank top and something white and lacy underneath that played peekaboo at the neckline. The top closely hugged the full curves of her breasts.

He edged around the counter under the pretense of washing the tomatoes and, as he did, he stole a look at her face.

She was wearing makeup. Some shimmery stuff on her eyes. Something along her cheekbones that added to the warm, sun-kissed glow of her skin. And her mouth was strawberry pink. He wanted to grab her and lift her up onto the island and kiss that lipstick away. Then strip away her clothes, hold her down, fuck her hard—fuck her until she screamed out his name. Until she stopped treating him so indifferently.

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One of the Guys

Instead, he focused on the tomatoes, washing each one carefully before he unearthed the rarely used chopping board and a serrated knife. Both he and Katie could cook. It had been something his mother had seen to, but neither of them cared to mess with it much.

He diced the tomatoes, trying to keep his focus on that task, but it was damn hard.

He kept smelling the soft, summery scent of her skin. She brushed against him when she got out a pan for the sauce. She leaned over the island to drop some onions by the chopping block and he found himself staring at the full, ripe swells of her breasts framed by white lace.