Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set (97 page)

Wow
.

This was a lot weird.

Chapter Four

Their open-faced beef sandwiches came and went.

They talked about school. And students. And pending snow.

They shimmied around talking about nothing but those two subjects, so much so that Jim was beginning to think he was boring as hell.

No wonder he couldn
’t get a woman.

That
’s why he said what he did next. “So what do you do for fun, Patti?”

The look on her face, complete with saucer-round eyes, told him that he
’d likely said the wrong thing. Shit. Was that a line? Like, hey baby, what’s your sign? Surely, no. Because the last thing he wanted to do was insinuate he had asked her to lunch as a pickup.

“
Fun? What’s that? I teach, remember? I stay up grading papers all night rather than hitting the bars.”

The right corner of her mouth jerked up in a half smile, and she started shuffling around, picking up her purse, moving her silverware aside; picked up her water glass and took a sip—all the while avoiding eye contact with him.

Dammit. He’d made her uncomfortable.

“
Oh yeah. That’s right.” Stupid man.

She glanced at her watch. Okay, there was the signal.
“I think…” she started.

He made an effort to look straight at the clock over the dining counter.
“Oh hell. I need to get out of here.” He grabbed for the check about the same time she did, their fingers knifing together.

“
Oh!”

“
I have this.”

“
Oh, no. What’s my part?”

“
My treat.” Man, was she in a hurry. Well, so was he.

“
Then I have the tip.” She scooted to the edge of her booth seat.

“
Fine.”

Those fingers he
’d collided with earlier plunged into her leather bag and pulled out a wad of bills. “There, that should do it,” she said.

“
I’ll go find ImaJean.”

“
You do that.”

They stood, both of them, facing each other, jerking first one way and then that, followed by a momentary pause halting all the skitter-skatter.

“I’m off now,” he said.

“
Me too.”

Jim turned toward the counter, stopped, and glanced back.

Patti evidentially had turned the opposite way because she was half-turned too; her gaze shooting over her shoulder. “Thanks for lunch,” she told him. “See you Monday.”

He nodded, noting that her bottom lip was firmly embedded between her teeth. And for the first time ever, Patti Jo Baker looked, well, vulnerable.

He gave her a wave. “Monday.”

****

Halfway home during her thirty minute drive to Legend, Patti finally exhaled. Normally her radio would have been blaring, she would have been singing, and her brain would have been ticking off all sorts of to-dos for her weekend.

But not this day. And not during this trip.

Something strange was going on with Jim, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She wondered if he was overly stressed, or if the kids were finally getting to him or something because it was like he wasn’t concentrating at all on having a conversation with her.

It was a thought she couldn
’t get off her mind.

It was unlike Jim to be quiet, and several times during their lunch, the silence had filled the air between them in the booth. Of course, it was normally unlikely for her to be so quiet too, and that
’s what got her to contemplate what was going on with Jim, because she knew there was nothing wrong with her.

It had to be him. He wasn
’t holding up his end of the conversation.

And it was like, well…it was like he was shy or something. This was not the Jim Hamilton she knew. The leader of the school who could bark at middle schoolers on the lawn to get them back to their side of the playground, the man who took charge of their faculty meetings even when the teacher
’s got rowdy. The guy who could sooth and sway an irate parent with the best of them.

Jim was way too quiet today, and for whatever reason it was bugging the hell out of her.

Wait.

But was it Jim?

Or
was
it really her? Had she done something? Said something? Felt something?

Her heart clutched.

“Dammit.” She had not felt anything. Nothing at all. Especially not when their fingers touched.

No. When they
’d touched, there was nothing.

Definitely not a spark. Not even one twit of one.

Swallowing hard, Patti stared ahead out of her windshield and looked at the gray sky, wondering if, indeed, they had snow in their forecast and tried to forget that last notion altogether.

No. No spark.

“Liar.”

****

A couple of hours later she approached the little Victorian cottage that was Suzie’s B&B. There was a sting of ice crystals in the air, a slant of sleet breaking through night. It was almost eight p.m. and it had been dark for a couple of hours now. She wondered if she should stay very long because of the weather.

Of course Suzie didn
’t live too far from where Patti lived. Nothing in Legend was very far away from anything. The B&B did sit on the edge of town, though, closer to the lake and the mountain, and for whatever crazy reason, storms were worse on this side of town.

“
I won’t stay long,” she muttered, gripping her bags tighter and stepping onto the porch. “Besides this is not going to work anyway. How could it?”

She had little confidence that Suzie Matthews would find her a husband. It might have worked for Mary Lou Picketts and for Lyssa Larkin, but she held no false hopes that it would work for her.

None.

But hey, she got new clothes and a makeover out of the deal.

About the same time she raised her hand to rap on the red door trimmed in greenery, Suzie snatched it open with a smile and said, “Patti Jo! Come on in. We’ve been waiting for you!”

It was the
“we” that gave her a moment’s trepidation, and had she listened to those kinds of gut things that told her stuff was about to happen, she might have turned tail and ran.

But she hadn
’t.

She forged ahead, her packages grasped to her chest, and crossed the threshold.

Chapter Five

“Patti! We’re so glad you could make it!”

Shit.

She glanced about. People.

There was a couple here. A couple there. Everywhere a couple.

Over by the fireplace stood another, Suzie’s sister, Chelly—they were in the same class in school—and her husband, Matt. Suzie’s husband, Brad, headed toward his wife. They made couple number four. And coming in from the kitchen, was her best friend Kate, and her hunky hubby, Mike. Couple number five.

Couples.

But she was a single.

And damn her, Suzie said nothing about a party. Had she misunderstood?

Kate rushed forward, took a couple of packages from her arms, and kissed her on the cheek. “I didn’t know if you were coming or not!” she exclaimed, then turned to her husband. “Mike, can you take these things upstairs to the blue room? First door on the left.” Then giving Patti her full attention, she smiled. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart. Glad you are here.”

Patti lowered her chin and her voice.
“Kate, what the hell…”

Kate grasped her arm and twisted away, dragging her toward the couple closest to the door.
“There’s Nash and Mary Lou over there. You remember them, right?” She waved and Patti gave a little finger wave and grin back to the happy and newly married couple.

Something didn
’t feel right in her tummy.

She turned back to Kate.
“Tell me, please…”

“
Oh!” Kate exclaimed, this time dragging her by the elbow to her left. “I don’t think you know Midnight and Martin, do you? Midnight owns the Emporium downtown.”

What the hell…

She halted Kate, twirled her around, and then
Patti
did the leading off, pulling Kate toward the kitchen. Once they were behind the solid oak door of the room, she lit into her. “Of course I know Midnight, Kate. I’ve lived here forever. I don’t believe there is a person in Legend that I do not know. Now,” she faced her, square on, and took another half-step closer to her friend, “tell me what is going on. I came here for a private consult with Suzie, and there is a party going on. A party, where there are couples everywhere. And me? I’m not a couple. It’s obvious. Something is up, and I don’t like it. I don’t like being left in the dark, and you know that, so Kate, my dear friend, you need to tell me right this instant what in the world…”

A man cleared his throat. The two women simultaneously whirled to their rear. There, standing by the coffee pot, stood Jim Hamilton.

Hell’s Christmas Bells.

“
Well, hello there, Patti. Long time no see.”

“
Jim? Oh, hello.”

He stepped toward them.
“Funny, I didn’t know you were coming tonight. You never mentioned it this afternoon.”

I didn
’t know I was coming either. To a party, that is.
“Slipped my mind.”

He nodded and lifted his coffee cup to his mouth and sipped. She watched his Adam
’s apple bob a little bit as he swallowed. His head tipped toward the living room. “See you later.”

Then he left.

Patti watched him leave, balled up whatever confusion that was spiraling around just beneath her breastbone into a neat and tidy package, and slowly looked to Kate.

“
This was your idea,” she said to her.

Kate shrugged.
“What idea?”

“
Jim. Are you trying to fix me up with Jim?”

Shaking her head, Kate responded,
“Heck, Patti, why would I do that? I figure if you and Jim were ever gonna get together, you would have done it by now. How long have you known him? Six years or more.”

Patti waved her hands and circled around, pacing.
“I don’t know. About that, probably. Then why is he here?”

Again, Patti shrugged.
“I don’t know the answer to that, Patti. Why don’t you ask Suzie?”

Suzie?

It was then that her brain settled on the matchmaking idea that she and Suzie had talked about this morning.

Ah, shit. No.

And as she contemplated that all the more, she determined that she had to talk to Suzie pronto and get this thing straightened out. Jim Hamilton was not the man she needed to be matchmaked with. He didn’t fit her criteria, not at all.

And the second thing she needed to do was to tell him right straight flat out that this wasn
’t her idea and that she was definitely not interested in a relationship with him.

She turned toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Kate asked, crowding close behind her.

Patti glanced over her shoulder, caught her friend
’s gaze and held it for a sec, then said, “To undo stuff.”

Then she pushed back into Suzie
’s living room before Kate could stop her.

****

The temperature outside was probably in the twenties, but Jim was sweating like a pig in a trailer outside a BBQ smokehouse. Reaching for his collar, he pulled it away from his damp neck, wondering why he’d worn a sweater. He didn’t wear clothes like this normally. He was pretty much into button-downed collars and trousers at school and t-shirts and sweats around the house; an occasional pair of jeans if he was out and about in town. And the sweater? Not his favorite choice.

But he
’d been told to dress a little differently from the norm. That he might get noticed that way. Well, hell… This wasn’t him, and he was damned uncomfortable.

He moved away from the fireplace, let his gaze settle and linger over the room and the people in it for a moment. Next he eyed the front door. Everyone was pretty much engaged in conversation or eating appetizers, so he decided to go for it. Five minutes on the porch, breathing in the crisp, night air, would do wonders to chill the sweat on his brow and around his neck.

Not to mention cool off his libido.

Damn. One look at her. One glance his way from those sexy green eyes. One soft hush of her voice…and he was hard as a rock.

He had to get out of here. Moving with stealth, he headed for the door, turned the knob, and was out on the porch before anyone could ask where he was going.

Once there he let out a huge sigh of relief, closed his eyes, leaned against a porch pillar, and tried to get his mind on anything but the aching bulge in his pants.

He stayed that way for several minutes, soaking in the calm, the party chatter in the background. A thin sheen of snow had fallen within the forty-five minutes he’d been here, and he looked up into the clouds, wondering if more was on the way. He’d not listened to the weather all day, and sometimes, in this neck of the woods, the weather could change on a dime.

No matter. He wouldn
’t hang around here too much longer. In fact, he wondered, perhaps he should go in, make a round, say his good-byes, and be off for home. But wait—that meant he had to face Suzie, and he wasn’t sure he could do that. And he had to face Patti, and that was out too.

Maybe he should just leave now, without saying anything to anyone. He could always call back and tell Suzie he
’d been ill, decided to head on home, thanks for the party and the nice idea about Patti, but well…

Shit. What was he doing? Avoidance. He
’d never acted this way before. He didn’t sneak around, and he didn’t lie. At least now that he was grown up. Forget those times as a kid. But he was about to lie his way out of leaving this party.

Was he that desperate to leave? And why, when lately it was all he could do to keep Patti Jo Baker off his mind, did he want to scramble away when she was put smack out before him, in a socially acceptable situation, for the offering?

“Because of the rules,” he said quietly.
Better just to get on home. Plead forgiveness later.

Pushing away from the pillar, he took one hard step down from the porch. The next couple of steps were easier. Sleet hit his face as he moved into the wind and down the sidewalk.

Behind him, the party chatter suddenly got louder, he turned, registered a sinking feeling in his gut, and caught a pert silhouette in the open doorway.

Then he heard the following:
“Jim Hamilton, where in
hell
do you think you are going?”

Busted.

****

Oh, freakin
’ crap. He’s getting away before I can right this wrong.

“
Jim!” Patti called out again. “Wait!”

Without a thought, she headed down the porch steps, her gaze fixed on the man who had just whipped back to look at her. In her right hand she held a really cool piece of spicy cinnamon candy—homemade by Suzie—that she
’d snatched from a plate right inside the door. As she descended the steps, she popped the hard candy into her mouth, momentarily distracted by her quest. Good, the candy was awesome! She sucked the crisp night air in over her teeth.

Nice.

Jim caught her eye. She hated to admit it, but he was nice too.

He looked…different…this evening, standing there in the moonlight with little crystal flecks of snow on his shoulders, looking back at her. In fact she probably paid too much attention to how he looked to her because as her left boot hit the bottom step, she felt her knee give away, her body pitch forward, her right elbow go out, and from then on, it was rather an ugly scene, she figured, from the outside looking in.

“Oh, God…”

She groaned and lay in a heap on the cold sidewalk and lit into a coughing fit. Candy. She gagged and rolled the hard sugar piece in her mouth and tucked it into her cheek. Last thing she needed was to die from asphyxiation on Suzie
’s front steps.

Within half a second, Jim was at her side, calling her name, feeling all her bones. Had she smacked her head too? Yes. She
’d plonked the porch railing on the way down, and the pain in her forehead didn’t feel so good. Darn it….

She thought she heard Jim mumble a slew of curses—one that she
’d never ever heard him say before—as he picked her up, carried her up the porch steps, barreled through the door, and into Suzie’s house.

“
Really, Jim…this isn’t…” she slurred.

“
Just be quiet, Patti. For once, just be quiet.”

It was all a blur. Her body was whisked through the room, and as the couples started exclaiming things like,
“what the heck?” and “oh darn, is she all right?” she just let Jim take over and say things like, “yes, yes” and “took a little spill on the ice” and “I think so” to which she heard Suzie remark, “take her to my bedroom, just off the kitchen,” and that’s when Patti groaned for real, again, because not only did her elbow and head hurt like hell, but there was some other feeling deep in her gut that told her she was in trouble.

Some sort of trouble. She just didn
’t know what yet.

They rushed through the kitchen, the oak door swinging, passed through the small breezeway/sunroom—she
’d always liked that room of Suzie’s—and then into their private bedroom quarters where Jim placed her on a gigantic, king-sized bed. The door shut behind them.

She expected the throng of couples to crowd in after, but she was wrong.

They were alone.

Jim sat next to her and brushed an unruly shock of hair out of her face.
“Damn, that was a nasty spill. Let me look at you.”

His fingertips softly grazed over her forehead and temple, and involuntarily, Patti closed her eyes. For a moment, there was silence.

Too much silence.

Slowly she fluttered her eyelids open to see Jim leaning over her, his right hand still stroking the fine baby hairs away from her temple, and gazing down at her with concern and…and…and….

“You had me worried there for a moment,” he whispered.

“
I think I’m okay,” she replied, her voice a little breathy.

“
How is your head?”

She winced.
“It hurts a little.”

“
What else hurts?”

She was trying to figure that out.
“My elbow. This one.”

With care she raised her right arm, and he leaned the opposite direction, bracing himself with his arm at her side, to examine it.

“I’m sure it will be fine. Ow.” He’d grasped right at the crazy bone.

“
Tender?”

“
A little.”

“
Should we take you to the emergency room?”

She shook her head and wished she hadn
’t. That hurt a little. “No. No, I’m fine.” She tried to sit up. He positioned himself so that she couldn’t.

“
Patti, lay back and catch your breath. Give yourself a minute.”

Well I would, she thought, except that you are leaning over me way too close, looking into my face, and for some strange reason that makes me all squirmy.