Tequila And Tingles: Turtle Pine, Book 2 (6 page)

There went her tongue again. Was it necessary that she have a sexy nervous tic? Then she blew out a breath and sank to the lower seat on the bleachers. “Very little.”

He sat next to her and kept his chuckle to himself. “How much little? As in nothing? Or a few bits and pieces?”

She touched her forehead and shook her head. “Might as well be nothing. I remember Tina giving me a shot. I never take shots because they do this to me.” She placed her palms over her cheeks and pulled them down, dragging her cheeks so the horror was clear on her face. “Anyway. There was the shot. A little bit of you and then waking up Sunday morning.”

“That explains why you left your shoes to make a fast getaway.”

She groaned. “Do not ever mention that again.”

She was hunched over, face buried, and only looked up enough to see the pool. This was something a bit out of his element. He’d been into girls of the one-night-stand variety. Not girlfriends who lasted months. He’d been too busy with training for anyone to want to stick around longer. So far as he knew, his mom was solid as a rock. He’d never seen her crack. He had no experience with emotional women and didn’t know what the hell to do with one who had her face in her hands and was trying to hide from the room, but patting her back felt like the way to go.

The moment his palm landed over her upper spine, she sat up straight with a deep breath. “What happened that night? Just tell me so I can go home and forget it again.”

He found himself chuckling again. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. You passed out. I was a complete gentleman, covered you up and let you sleep.”

She gave him a side-eye. “Then why was I naked?”

Oh, that was one word she shouldn’t have said. There she was in his memory. Naked. Sexy as hell in front of him with a come-hither gesture he’d aimed to grab. “We went back to my hotel. You undressed yourself. We were planning to—”

“I can guess that part.” Her brows slashed down.

He smiled at her, leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “You undressed yourself. That’s when you passed out. That’s all that happened. I swear.”

“I guess I don’t have much choice but to believe you.” She tugged on her shirt and then smoothed a hand down her stomach. “Thank you for not…well, for being a gentleman.”

“You’re welcome.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to get my shoes when I don’t have my daughter with me. I don’t want her to ask questions.”

She sounded all proper and grown up and not like the woman who had ripped at his shirt. Christ, he couldn’t wait to see her away from prying eyes. “No problem.”

She dug through her bag and came out with a card. “Use my cell, if you would. Or just text me with a time to meet. I can’t always answer the phone.”

The front of it read
Alabama First
. Her name was under it with
loan officer
under that. “Loan officer. If this job works out, I might be seeing you to buy a house.”

She blinked at him. “You don’t have somewhere to live?”

“I’m staying with my sister. Meredith Johnson.”

She nodded. “Schoolteacher. Right. And, yes. If you’re looking for a housing loan, I’m your girl.”

He pushed off his thighs and stood. He’d like to have her as his girl in a number of ways. Starting with walking her out the front doors. “Katie told me it was snack time and I hear there’s a bakery in town with great cookies and cupcakes.”

Beth stood and yelled for Katie to come on. She gave him a perfectly nice, polite smile. He had a feeling if she had a professional bank picture, this was what he’d find. “Thanks, but with Katie I’m not comfortable doing that.”

Then Katie was there, tucking in behind her mom’s leg and hiding her face from him. He gave her a wave. “Eat a snack for me too.”

She didn’t nod, respond or even smile. She merely studied him. They were off and he turned. He didn’t remember being so untrusting and distant as a kid. He started for the pool to round up discarded life jackets.

A cold, wet-headed mop of a girl latched on his leg. “Had fun!”

Just as fast, Jenny was gone. He waved after her, picked up jackets and goggles and spotted something blue under the bleachers. The cloth was damp and he opened it up and recognized the turtles on the front as Katie’s shirt.

Like mother, like daughter.

Chapter Seven

Beth pinched the bridge of her nose and focused on the phone conversation. She just had to get through this and then she’d deal with her cell phone. Maybe. Or maybe she’d put that off until she figured out why it was so danged hot in her office. Sure, it was summer, but the bank had air conditioning. Or it had yesterday. She lifted a pad of paper and fanned herself. “Yes, Mrs. Williams. The interest rate is averaging about four point five right now.”

Mrs. Williams breathed out. “Is there a way to get that down more? Your mom said I should call you because you would take care of us and do us a real good deal.”

Ah, small towns. Being a banker had been far easier when she’d been surrounded with fifty or sixty thousand others who didn’t know somebody who knew somebody. “She did? I’ll be sure to thank Mom later. But the truth is, that is the best I can do unless you can get a bigger down payment. I’m bound by restrictions on the bank, and I come out with my best offer to start with.”

“I see. Let me speak with my husband and let him decide what he wants.”

“Sounds great. Call me anytime or come see me whenever you like.” Beth hung up and stared at the source of her growing agitation.

There her phone sat. Looking so innocent. Not doing anything. Just chilling on the corner of her desk. Not even buzzing in annoyance at the moment. She poked it with her pen. Nothing happened. She wasn’t stupid though. “I know what you’re about.”

She lifted the phone and opened the text Jason had sent that morning, asking if she wanted to have a lunch date. No, she didn’t want to do lunch. She was tempted by his offer, yes. But should she? Absolutely not. For one, he was too young for her. For two, she wasn’t interested in dating, or interested in anyone in Turtle Pine thinking she was dating. Then for three, she’d humiliated herself enough with him. No need to go crashing that car in the street again.

He needed to move on and find someone else who was open to what he was offering. She stared at the message, planning to turn him down, but as she read it again, she realized she’d read it wrong the first time. He hadn’t asked for a date. He’d offered lunch. Or dinner. Whichever was best for her to meet to return not just her shoes, but also her daughter’s shirt, it seemed. She tapped on the phone.

With a knot in her throat, she responded that lunch was fine. Then she could set him straight and send him on his way. A quick order to go at Jaspers and then tell him in the parking lot while she was in her car. That sounded like her kind of plan, and he agreed to it. Well, he agreed to lunch. She didn’t mention the rest.

The closer her lunch break got, the smaller her confidence got over this whole idea. New, tweaked plan. She packed up and left ten minutes early. She would already be in her car with lunch and waiting to leave before he even got there. Fail-safe plan.

Except by the time she got in her car and started across town, her shoulders had curled in and her back ached with her forward slouch. Not all plans were fail-safe. Just look at the train wreck of a plan she’d made with Bill. Who knew there were options to get off the train at the station and take a different one without her? It certainly hadn’t been in the wedding vows.

She pulled into the old, cracked concrete parking lot of Jaspers, and luck wasn’t feeling her today. Jason was already there. She turned her car off and opened the door. So much for beating him here and ordering and ugh.

A hand in his pocket and happy-go-lucky grin on his face, he leaned on the damned roof of her car. “You’re early.”

“Yep.” Lucky her. She grinned in return, but hers didn’t feel as casual and awesome as his looked.

By the downward pull of his brow, it probably came across as it felt. He cleared his throat. “Let’s order. Looks like we beat the crowd.”

There was that. Sort of. It was ten till twelve, and by the time they got their burgers, Jaspers would be hopping. Then half the town would think them seriously dating. By the time lunch was over and she got back to the bank, they’d probably be engaged.

Jason stood next to her at the counter and announced they would eat here. The words, “No, thanks, it’s to go,” were on her tongue until Paula pinned her with a gaze.

“What can I get for you, Beth?”

To refuse Jason’s offer to eat here would make a scene. And as potential rumors started filling her head, like they were in a hurry and grabbing lunch to go so they could eat in private, Beth spit out an order for a burger and fries.

Jason asked for the same and handed over a twenty. He tossed her a smile. “I got it. Lunch was my idea.”

“Thanks.”

Paula set two cups out and Beth escaped Jason and whatever that delicious smell was on him. He should smell like a pool. With the way the water had choked the life out of her nose before he’d gotten there, she should be able to smell him a mile away and nearly pass out. Not the good kind of passing out that could be mistaken for swooning either. Smelled like he got the water fixed.

He eased in next to her at the drink fountain and this fresh, woodsy scent surrounded her again. Ice dropped in loud clumps in tandem with her pounding heart as he moved alongside her, filled his drink and settled in a booth with her. He poked his straw in and she managed to look everywhere but at him.

Then he went and reached across the table and touched her hand. “Are you okay?”

His touch was hot and intoxicating and she jerked her hand away. “Great. Why?”

She flicked hair off her shoulders and rubbed her palms over her thighs. She was completely fabulous sitting here across from a man she’d spent the night passed out naked with. A man she’d never expected to see again.

“You seem a little jumpy.”

“I’m always this way. Mom used to call me a nervous Nelly.”

He lifted a brow. “You weren’t nervous the first time we were together.”

Tequila was good for the nerves like that. She readjusted in her seat. “As we’ve discovered, I wouldn’t know.”

He chuckled and leaned back in his seat. “Relax, Beth. If I wanted to chop you into little pieces, I could have already done that.”

She shot him a look. “Funny.”

“Sorry.” He winced. “I was trying to make a joke to get you to relax. We’re just two friends meeting for lunch. That’s it.”

Okay, she was an adult here. An adult with gross, sticky sweat making tracks down her spine. Time to be responsible. “Here’s the thing. I’m—”

Paula leaned over their table and placed their food down. “All ready for you two. Is there anything else y’all need?”

Jason shook his head. “Looks good, thanks.”

When Paula looked her way, Beth managed a nod and a smile. As the woman walked away, Jason was back to chuckling. Glad he found her nerves oh so hilarious. She snatched the ketchup bottle and poured some on her plate. “You’re too young for me and I have too much happening in my life.”

His brows lifted. “Do you feel better now?”

She stared at him. “What?”

“You were sitting on that statement since before you got here. I’m asking if you feel better now that you got it out.”

She dropped a fry on her plate. “I don’t get you.”

“There’s a lot I don’t get about you. That’s why I asked you to lunch. To find out more.”

She shook her head. “Why me?”

He lifted his burger and shrugged. “Other than my sister, you’re the only person I sort of know in this town.”

“You don’t seem like the type of person who struggles to make friends.” She gestured at him with her drink. “America’s Golden Boy, or some such like that.”

A brow twitched, teasing to arch, but he glanced away and retrieved his own drink. “Something like that.”

“So go make friends.”

He gestured at the chair. “That’s what we’re doing here.”

“I mean with someone else.”

He laughed. “I like you.”

She pushed bangs away from her face. “Since my wonderful first impression was me drunk as a skunk and passing out on you, I can see how you like me and want to know more.”

“That night really bothers you, doesn’t it?”

Why was he so calm and collected about this? Maybe because he wasn’t the one who’d made a complete ass of himself. He wasn’t the one who’d passed out and fled barefoot the next morning. “Of course it does.”

“I’m okay with it. I’m not judging you and I’m not bothered by it.”

“Are you so used to having drunk girls in your hotel room that you don’t even blink twice at us anymore?” Ugh. She pushed her plate away. “A little heads up, that was my first horribly embarrassing drunken appearance and I’m aiming to make it my last. If you get off on that sort of thing, that was my one and only time.”

“Actually, you were my first.” He lifted his drink. “I mean, the first to pass out on me. If I had known just how wasted you were, I never would have taken you with me. I thought you were just a little loose. Your eyes were focused, your speech wasn’t that slurred. You were a little loud—”

“Oh, God.” She dropped her face in her hands. “I don’t want to know more.”

He was still smiling. “Basically, if I’d known you were that far gone, I would have put you and your friend in a cab, or in a room with each other until the morning or something. I wouldn’t have taken you with me. But I did. And it was interesting.”

“I’m positive I don’t want to know more.” She pushed hair away from her face.

“It’s not as bad as you might think. It was a good interesting for me.”

Oh, she was going to be sick. “I bet I can’t wait to hear this.”

He winced. “It was no big deal, but there you were, in my care. I had a plan all worked out for you.”

She eyed him and decided instead to stare at a crack in the wall. It wasn’t near big enough to crawl into. But she could think about it really hard. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“I didn’t get to do too much. Covered you up, pulled your hair back—”

“You fixed my hair?”

Pink tinted his cheeks and he looked away as he took a sip. “It was all in your face. A couple of times I thought you were going to suck a wad of it in your mouth and choke. You’re a heavy snorer.”

She straightened. “Am not.”

He lifted a shoulder, a smile marking his lips and dotting his cheek. “You left that morning before I could get you aspirin or breakfast or see you home or to wherever you wanted to go. I lived and so did you.”

“Oh, almost like a happy ending there.”

“Almost. But then you disappeared. And I like you and want to get to know you more. That’s all.”

“This still isn’t a good idea. I’ve got young kids and it takes a lot of energy to meet all their needs.”

“I have a high metabolism and am surprisingly great with kids.”

“Surprisingly?”

He winced “Maybe a bad word. I’ve worked with lots of teenagers but never with young ones. They’re fun.”

“Good for you, but what I meant was, it takes a lot of my energy to meet all their needs. I don’t have a lot of extra time for whatever this is you’re proposing. That night in Buckleberry is never going to happen again.”

“I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give me.”

That was a hell of an offer, but she couldn’t. Not really. Not logically. It was dumb to even consider that. Damn, why did he have to look so good? Sure, he was attractive. And from what she could remember, a hell of a good kisser. That wasn’t enough for her to be considering this…whatever
this
was.

Apparently, that would be up to her. But, no, definitely not. “You’re crazy.”

He pointed at her with a fry. “You’re not scaring me off. I find you completely fascinating and your smartass mouth humorous. I’ve never met a woman like you before.”

She stabbed her ice with her straw. “I’m not prepared to do anything like this. Not for a long time. I just got divorced a year ago and it wasn’t easy. I’m not recovered from that, and Katie took it hard. So I’m flattered, and thank you for lunch, but I’d like to get my shoes and whatever else and go.”

He kept eating. “I’ve noticed Katie is…distant compared to the other kids in class.”

“She is a little.” She straightened. “I put her in this class to help her social skills. She’s doing well.”

“She is, but she doesn’t trust me.”

That’s because her dad is a fucking asshole.
She cleared her throat since she couldn’t say that. “There are not a lot of people that she does trust.”

“Sometimes I think she’s almost afraid of me.”

“Curious.” She tapped her thighs. “Not afraid. I don’t think Katie is afraid of anything.”

“Is there anything I can do to get her to take her walls down? She won’t pass the class if she doesn’t let me teach her to float. To do that, she’ll have to be on her back and let me support her. It’s going to take a lot of trust.”

Beth pretty well collapsed in her seat. She couldn’t see Katie being up to that anytime soon. “She’ll slowly warm up to you. You just have to give her time.”

“I only see her three times a week, for an hour, while we’re surrounded by nine other kids that she can hide behind.”

“I can’t make her participate better, if that’s what you’re asking. She’ll refuse even more. She’s stubborn. Hardheaded. She’s impossible and you can’t convince her into anything if she doesn’t want it.”

“That sounds familiar.”

If he thought he was the first to point that out, he was dead wrong. Her brothers, her father—her mother most of all. Her mom said she was paying now for her own stubbornness as a kid or something. “It’ll serve her well when she’s an adult.”

“I was thinking of a couple afternoons at the park. I saw one on the way to TPC.”

“I’m not interested in dating.”

“I’m not asking you out. I’m asking for your permission to take Katie and her little brother to the park a couple days so she can pass her class.” He shook his head. “That came out a little wrong. I want you there too.”

She took a drink to buy time. She sucked down half her tea and still didn’t have anything awesome to say. It was him. His eyes and cocky grin and the vague memories she had of them together. “I don’t know.”

“It’s for Katie.”

Damn it. This was for Katie and no other reason. “Fine. A few days at the park.”

“Since tomorrow is Saturday, will that work okay? We can go in the morning or the evening when it’ll be cooler.”