Seducing Sam (5 page)

On the way home, he turned up the stereo,
bobbing his head in time with the light pop music, humming along and tapping
his thumbs on the steering wheel.  By the time he turned into his driveway, he
was feeling relaxed.

Whatever happened, his home was
his oasis and he could relax.

He’d relax more if he could figure
out a nice way to get out of the date with Dorothy without hurting her.

Pulling into the garage, he shut
the door and stretched, breathing deeply once more before turning to walk into
his house.  As he did so, a movement across the street caught his eye and he
glanced across, surprised to see someone leaning against the fence to Carly’s
house.  Squinting, he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and
realised that it was Carly.

“Hey,” he called, waving.

“Sam,” she called back, returning
the gesture.

When she didn’t say anything else,
he turned and walked to the veranda, jumping up easily onto it without taking
the steps and unlocking the door, entering the house to turn on the hallway
light and drop the keys on the sideboard.

“Honey, I’m home!”  When SJ didn’t
appear, Sam knew exactly where to find him.

Sure enough, SJ was sprawled
across the bed, the tip of his tail flicking lazily at the sight of Sam.

“Don’t stir yourself for me,” Sam
told him.  “I’m sure you’ve had a hard day snoozing.”

SJ yawned, arching his head back
while Sam rubbed under his chin, his purr rumbling comfortingly in the room.

A quick shower and Sam was in his
boxers, all ready for a relaxing time lying back against the pillows on his bed
and reading.  Unfortunately, his book wasn’t where he’d left it on his bedside
table, so he had to go on a hunt through the house, eventually finding it in
the kitchen next to the bread bin.

He could have sworn he’d left it
on the bedside table.

Shrugging, he returned to his
bedroom.  The breeze through the open window was making the blind rattle
against the frame.  While partially closing the window, he noticed that Carly
was in the same position, leaning against her fence.

It was unusual for anyone to be
out this late at night, and he wondered if anything was wrong.

Returning to bed, he started
reading, but somehow his attention kept straying to the woman across the road. 
Was she still outside?  And why?   Had her husband or partner, he still wasn’t
sure which Ed was, not come home?  Was she waiting for him?

When he turned his lamp off, he
couldn’t help but cross to the window and peek out once more, feeling a little
foolish but unable to stop himself.  Carly was gone, the place she’d been
leaning against the fence empty.

Shaking his head at his own
stupidity, Sam returned to bed.  It wasn’t his business.

~*~

It was driving her nuts.  Leaning
on the mop, Carly watched the elderly woman check the corners of the room that
she’d just mopped for the second time.

“I’m sure there’s dirt in that
corner.”  Mrs Hadley bent down close to squint at the corner.

“I’m sure there isn’t,” Carly
said.

Mrs Hadley rubbed her arthritic
finger on the floor.  “There’re marks.”

“Your fingerprints, perhaps?”

Mrs Hadley glared at her.  “Are
you trying to be smart?”

“Just pointing out a fact.”  Carly
looked pointedly at her wrist watch.  “I don’t have time to do this floor for a
third time, Mrs Hadley.  I have other clients to get to.”

“Oh yes, always in a hurry.  I pay
for this service, you know.”

Oh yeah, Carly knew, just as she
knew every place she went to had a time limit.  She was hired to clean, shop,
and take otherwise house-bound people to the bank, not to spend all day with
them.  It was a fact that services were spread across the needy in the
community, and her time at Mrs Hadley’s was done for the day.  Overdone,
actually, by at least twenty minutes.

“I’ll rinse the mop and put it out
the back to dry,” she said.

“I still think it could do with
one more mop.”

About to retort a little sharply,
Carly saw the sadness in the elderly woman’s eyes and bit her lip.  There was
no doubt Mrs Hadley was lonely and seeking to find a way to keep Carly
lingering.  She had no right to take her tiredness and lack of sleep out on the
woman.

Reining in her impatience, she
softened her tone. “Mrs Hadley, it’s clean.  I have to go, I’m sorry.”

Disdainfully, Mrs Hadley sniffed.

“You have every right to ring the
office and ask for me to be replaced.”

“What?  No!”  Mrs Hadley
straightened her stooped shoulders.  “No, you’ll do, I guess.  I’ll just finish
that spot myself.”

Carly had no doubt the spot wouldn’t
be touched, because there was no dirt in it, but nor could she afford to have a
guilt trip run on her, no matter that she understood the true reason for the
elderly lady’s nit-picking.

Rinsing out the mop, she placed it
against the side wall of the house where it resided.  The clean mop bucket went
beside it, and then she was back in the house retrieving her small shoulder bag
and bidding Mrs Hadley farewell.

Once in the car, she entered the
time in the client time sheet and checked the book for the next client.  It was
old Mr Justin’s shopping day, and as she pulled into the driveway she found him
waiting for her, his bags in his hand and a beam on his face. Going out
shopping was the highlight of his week.  She grinned at him and waved, and he
was in the passenger seat in no time.

By the time Carly had finished for
the day, all she wanted to do was crawl inside and forget people existed.  Yes,
she liked her job most days, but the demands could sometimes eat at her,
especially when mentally she wasn’t in any frame of mind to be at the beck and
call of people.

At the Gold Link Nursing
Association office, she returned the work mobile phone to the basket with the
others.  Maddy, one of the RNs, was sitting at a nearby desk filling out
paperwork.

Looking up, she smiled.  “Rough
day?”

“I’m wearing the signs, huh?”

“No smile, shadows under the
eyes.  It shows.”

“Let’s just say I’ll be glad to get
home.”

“Me, too.  Mike is taking me out
to dinner.”  At Carly’s blank look, Maddy explained, “My husband.”

“Oh.  Nice.”

“Maybe you should get your husband
to cook tea tonight, seeing as how you’re tired.”

“Don’t have one.”  Carly gave her
a small wave.  “See you around the traps tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

Glad that Maddy didn’t press the
matter, Carly made her escape, getting into her own car and driving home.  On
the way, she dropped into Ed’s shop.

“Where’s Crusher?” she asked as
she walked through the door of the garage.

Huggie looked up.  “Hi to you,
too.”

“Sorry.  Hi.  Where’s Crusher?”

“In the office.”

Sitting down on one of the stools,
Carly looked at the motorcycle.  She didn’t know much about them except that they
were noisy, sometimes big, you were either a bike person or not, and some men
in leather looked sexy.

Huggie didn’t look sexy.  He just
looked mean, though his looks belied his personality.  One only had to look at
the photo of him with his dainty wife and twin boys that he carried proudly in
his wallet to know.  The love was plain on his face, and Carly knew his wife,
Lisa.  She had the big giant wrapped around her finger and it was she who disciplined
the twins.  Huggie was too soft.

But if you didn’t know him
personally, Huggie was scary.

Putting down the spanner, he regarded
her.  “You’re not sleeping well again.”

Carly shrugged.

“Maybe you should get something to
help you sleep.”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

He frowned.  “That bastard isn’t
worth it, Carly, you know that.”

“I know, and he’s not the issue.” 
Talk about lying.  Or sort of lying.

“If you want to talk-”

“I don’t,” she interrupted
hurriedly.  “But thanks.  I’m fine, honestly.”  Before he could pursue the
matter, she stood.  “Where’s Ed?”

With a grunt, Huggie picked up the
spanner.  “In the main office talking to a client.”

“I won’t interrupt him.  I’ll just
get Crusher and take him home.  See you, Huggie.”

Getting the dog from the office,
Carly caught a glimpse through the glass of Ed talking to a woman as skinny as
he.  Tattoos wound up one of her arms and she was almost flat-chested.  But her
smile seemed genuine and her eyes were smiling when she met Carly’s glance
fleetingly through the glass.

Carly nodded to her, snapped the leash
on Crusher’s collar and led him from the office to her car.  He sat on the
front seat on the way home, head up, tongue hanging out, eyes bulging a little
as usual.  Pulling into her driveway, she stopped the car and opened the door
just as she caught sight of a flash of ginger bounding from her garden.

In a flash, Crusher leaped past
her and was in full pursuit, yapping ferociously.

“Oh, no!”  Dropping her bag, she
sprang after the dog.  “Crusher!”

Crusher tore across the road and
through Sam’s gate, Carly running flat out behind him.  Sam’s ginger cat
whirled around to face Crusher as soon as it got through its gate.

“No!  Crusher,
no
!”  She
dove for the leash trailing behind the dog, only to feel it slip through her
fingers.

A deep voice bellowed, “What the
hell…?”

The ginger cat swore and sprang at
Crusher, the dog realised it wasn’t going to cower the cat and was, in fact,
under attack, and he swung around, yipping and howling.  The leash tangled
around Carly’s ankles and she hit the ground.

Regardless, she managed to grab
the lead while looking frantically around for the cat.  She was just in time to
see Sam scoop up the spitting, ginger cat.  He ran for the house, pushed the cat
safely through the open door and slammed it shut, before he came bounding down
the steps and across the lawn to her.

By now, she was sitting up and
trying to untangle the leash from around her ankles.  Her injured hand throbbed
from where it had made contact with the ground.

Crusher was still whimpering.

“You dumb arse,” she said.

Sam crouched by her side.  “Are
you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  Feeling like a
fool, she squinted up at him.  He looked so cool and calm, and here she was,
hot, sweaty, and sitting on his lawn.  He’d have had to see her go arse over
tit, and that in itself was humiliating.  “Sorry about your cat.  Is he okay?”

“SJ is fine.”  Reaching out, Sam
took the leash from her and deftly untangled it from around her ankles.  “But
you don’t let your dog run loose, do you?”

“Of course not,” she replied
indignantly.  “He saw your cat and slipped past me, but that was an accident.”

“Okay.”  Holding the leash, he
looked at Crusher, his eyes widening slightly.  “
That’s
Crusher?”

“You know his name?”

“Yeah, I heard your husband call
him.”

“My husband?”

“The bloke you live with.”

“Oh, Ed’s not my husband.”  Carly
brushed her hands on her thighs, turning her wrist to inspect the Primapore on
her hand.  It was still intact.

“Sorry, partner.”  Sam studied
Sam.  “Er…this dog’s a little small to be called Crusher, isn’t he?”

Carly couldn’t help but smile as
she looked at the tiny toy Chihuahua.  “Ed’s warped sense of humour.”

“When I heard him call Crusher the
other night, I had visions of a Rottweiler or something.”

“Crusher wants to be a rotty when
he grows up.”

Laughing, Sam transferred his gaze
to her, his eyes warm and making her feel as though his sole attention was
focussed on her.  “Sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine.”  Refusing to sit on
his lawn any longer, she started to get up.

Immediately Sam’s big hand was at
her back, the other under her elbow, guiding her up with an ease that was
astounding.  The warmth of his hand went right through her cotton shirt to her
skin beneath, and for a brief second she actually leaned into his hand, feeling
his fingers spread out.

His hand was so comforting, so
steady, so sure…

Realising with a shock what she
was doing, she abruptly stepped away, almost immediately missing his hand.

Fool
. 
Sam doesn’t go
for girls like you.

And why would she care?  God,
she’d just been badly bitten once, why would she even think such a thing?

Shaking her head inwardly, she
plucked the leash from Sam’s other hand.  “Thanks for helping.  I promise Crusher
won’t be back over here.”

“Now I know how small he is, I
won’t be so worried about SJ.”  Sam grinned.  “I’ll be worried about Crusher.”

She just couldn’t help it.  The
smile curved her mouth in response to his genial amusement.  “Don’t worry. 
Crusher is so scared now of your cat that he won’t step foot out of the front
gate.”

“Ah.”  Bending down, Sam rubbed
Crusher’s tiny head.

Cripes, his hand was almost bigger
than the whole dog.

When he straightened, she caught a
whiff of soap and fresh deodorant.  He’d obviously just showered.

“Rough day at work?” he queried.

“Hmmm?”

“You look a little tired.”

Geez, she must look like shit for
everyone to notice.  Reaching up, she pushed a stray strand of hair that had
escaped the confines of her ponytail behind her ear.  “Yeah.”

For several seconds they looked at
each other.  She didn’t know what to say, yet strangely enough, she was
reluctant to walk away.  But Sam was obviously busy, because he glanced down at
his watch and took a step back.

“I better go.”  Carly smiled at
him.  “Thanks again, and sorry for scaring your cat.”

“No worries.”  He smiled back but
made no move.

Feeling a little self-conscious,
she turned and walked away, hoping grass stains weren’t on her pants.  That’s
all she needed to emphasize her generous backside.  Though why she should care,
she didn’t know.