I nodded. "He"d always say that we both had a natural beauty that any man should appreciate. That anyone could paint up a boat or a person with sparkle and make them shine, but a real man would love us just as we were, buck naked." At May"s singsongy laugh, I looked up and blushed. "Yeah, my dad had a way with words."
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and I felt it in my toes as even the windows rattled.
"Oh dear, Andie, you"d better go get you someplace to stay before this storm hits," May said, looking out the window. "This is going to be a bad one."
"Electricity in this one, I told her," Jarvis said. "Ever since she got here, the air"s been crackling."
I smiled, and wiped my mouth. "Well, crackling or not, I was thinking of sitting here till it pa.s.ses." One glance out the window at the heavy darkness bearing down cemented that theory. "That doesn"t look like something I want to be driving through."
A look pa.s.sed between them, and then May gave me a different smile that I didn"t understand.
"Glad to hear it," she said. "Maybe you"ll get to meet Jesse."
"No maybe about it," Jarvis said, looking over my head with a feisty grin. "Here he comes."
"Good morning," rolled a warm, deep voice from behind me to my right, making me jump. "How"s everything this morning? I had to come meet the woman who put my cook to work today."
May chuckled and smiled at the approaching man, while I repressed a groan. I really wasn"t up for meeting people, and I should have just ordered toast. But I couldn"t shovel it in fast enough. Nothing-ever-had tasted that good. And the bacon melted in my mouth. I hadn"t even made it to the eggs yet. Brad was an idiot.
"This is Jesse," Jarvis whispered, as though I needed another warning.
I swiped my hands on my water gla.s.s and wiped them quickly on my napkin, hoping nothing was sticky, and held out a hand as I looked up.
"Hi, Andie-" I began, but the sound stuck in my throat as the recognition flashed through the man"s eyes. I felt it rocket through my body. It might have been twenty-two years, but there was no mistaking who he was. Mr. Hot s.e.x on the Beach.
Chapter Four.
Oh, dear G.o.d.
Something close to a smile, or amus.e.m.e.nt, spread through his face while my mouth went on vacation. "Fremont," he finished for me.
He remembered my name. Holy s.h.i.t. My thoughts became strikingly clear, bouncing off each other like b.a.l.l.s in a pinball machine. Like the annoyingly female thoughts of the state of my appearance. And that he recognized me and was standing there looking at me like-that.
"Montgomery," I managed, keeping my hands off my face and hair by sheer power of will. "Wow. It"s been a long time."
"Yes, it has."
As his gaze bored into me, clearly replaying a few things, my mind did another photo trip. Things not in the photo alb.u.m.
"So, you two know each other, evidently?" May said, her voice startling me back to reality.
Her eyes met mine, all wise and knowing. My G.o.d, was it that obvious? Thunder rattled the building again, and Jarvis raised an eyebrow.
"I think maybe I had it backwards," Jarvis said. "Think maybe the electricity"s in here, not out there."
He looked good. Too d.a.m.n good. Standing there in his worn-out jeans and open b.u.t.ton-down shirt over a T-shirt, it didn"t seem fair. He should have been fat. Fat and bald with bloodshot eyes and yellow teeth.
I laughed, attempting savvy confidence, as the moments ticked by awkwardly. As his gaze left me to motion to the little blonde waitress, I fantasized about beating my head on the table. Really? Why was I so stupid over a guy I knew for only twenty-four hours twenty years earlier? Was I twelve? h.e.l.l, the way my insides went all twittery, you"d think we had something major. But in my defense, it was one of the most intense days of my life. Like falling in love on speed. And waking up alone the next morning had been harsher than any hangover I"d ever had before or since.
"Macy, you need to close out your tips and go ahead home, okay?" the man I now knew as Jesse said over his shoulder to the young waitress as he walked away, behind the bar. "We"ve got some really nasty weather on the way."
"Yeah, we need to go, too," May said, sitting up a little straighter.
Jarvis turned to his suddenly antsy wife. "Everything will be fine, woman. Finish your coffee, we"ve got nothing but time."
May reluctantly picked her cup back up. "We don"t need to be out in an electrical storm, Jarvis. Andie, are you sure you"re staying put?"
I looked outside with dread, and then turned to see Jesse talking to customers in another booth. "Yes, ma"am."
My original plan to read quietly while the storm pa.s.sed didn"t seem as great in the new light of Jesse Montgomery. But then again, I was a big girl. I could be mature and hold a civil conversation and do what I was there to do. Which was not to spend my precious hours strolling down memory lane. A big white clock on the wall mocked me, telling me another hour had pa.s.sed and I was no closer to a resolution than I was back at the condo.
"I might just stay here till it pa.s.ses," I said, looking over my shoulder. "a.s.suming he doesn"t shut everything down."
"Well," Jarvis said, scooting out of the booth. "We"re going to go ahead and go, I guess. May"s getting antsy."
"Good idea," I said, getting up with them. "Thank you so much for letting me sit with you."
"Oh, honey, we enjoyed the company," she said. "We don"t get much anymore."
Jarvis stopped just short of me and gave me a wink, his old blue eyes sparkling. "It was a special day after all, Andie. We got to meet you."
My body went warm. "Aw, thank you, Jarvis. You made my day a little better, too."
They shuffled past me and pushed out the door, a gust of wind swirling in and toppling some plastic table signs nearby. Jesse came back around the bar to right them and pull the door shut.
"Jesus, this is bad," I heard him mutter.
I took some deep breaths for courage, got out my wallet so I wouldn"t have to fumble in the abyss of my bag, and approached the counter, where Jesse"s back awaited me.
"Hey, can I go ahead and pay?"
Jesse turned around and I cursed the infantile little flip my stomach did. G.o.d, he still had an effect on me. What the h.e.l.l was that about?
"Sure."
"Do you know how bad the weather"s supposed to get?" I asked, for the sake of conversation.
He shook his head. "News last night just said we"d get some rain."
"Well, maybe you can check on the Internet."
He met my eyes, looking-what-amused? "Don"t have Internet," he said.
I chuckled. "What, here at the diner? Or at all?"
"At all," he said. "Don"t even have a cell phone."
I scoffed. "Seriously? How do you communicate with people?"
He smiled down at me, and I pressed my fingertips hard into the counter to feel the pain instead of my heart slamming against my ribs. G.o.d, I was such a girl.
Turning to point at a landline phone attached to the wall, he said, "With that."
I raised my eyebrows. "Wow."
"Yeah, I"m old school that way."
I nodded, scoping out a far side wall booth I could disappear into without drawing much attention. I really didn"t want to have to leave, but-I didn"t want to continue these awkward conversations, either.
There was a pause as he punched in my bill. "So, what are you doing now, Fremont?"
At the sound of my name used like that again, tingles went down my spine.
"I"m an accountant," I said, shrugging as if to apologize for it. That was silly, it was nothing to be ashamed of. "I work from home, it"s not a bad gig. Pays the bills."
He nodded. "Married? Kids?"
A chuckle rose up from my chest. "Divorced and a daughter in college. Jump right to it there."
"Sorry," he said, raking fingers through his much shorter dark hair. "I tend to be a little abrupt lately."
"And you?" I responded. "Family?"
He dropped his gaze back to the receipt and his face went all business again. "No."
I suddenly remembered the comment about him losing his wife. d.a.m.n it, Andie, way to go.
"So, what brings you this way?" he asked, changing the subject.
Escape. Terror. Being a big chicken s.h.i.t.
"Just getting away for the day. Might go to the lake," I added, using May"s idea so I would sound more grounded. And then, remembering that my last adventure there was with him, I stared at the counter.
"Just for one day?"
I met his look instantly, and wanted to throw something at him for being so smug.
"That"s cute, Montgomery," I said, as I signed the slip and pushed it back across the counter.
"Sorry."
"Yeah," I said, not looking at him as I turned away. Men were pigs.
"Hang on," he said, glancing around the diner. "I didn"t mean anything by that." At my look, he raised a hand. "I promise."
I shook my head, trying to appear that I didn"t care. Which I didn"t. Not really. "Whatever," I said with a little shrug.
"Just-" he began, running a register tape as he pulled in a deep breath and let it go slowly. His expression looked conflicted, as if he were measuring what he wanted to say. "If you"re going that direction, it"s not gonna be good. Why don"t you-stick around?" He tore off the tape and met my eyes. "Just till it"s over."
The words bounced around, echoing in my head, and I couldn"t look away. My mouth went dry, my toes tingled, and everything from my neck up lit up like a match. I just nodded and headed to the booth I"d already earmarked.
Jesus. I threw my bag into the seat and slid in, resting my face in my hands. I felt clammy and shaky, even. It was insane. I was a grown woman, with more than a few old flames in my wake. Some were even hotter than he was, but nothing matched what I"d experienced with him. Not even in my marriage.
I shook my head free of the crazy, and dug my book out of my bag just as the rain hit. It wasn"t bad, just a steady shower, and I wondered if I was just being paranoid. I studied it for a moment, and then decided to stay put. At least till the progressing doom I could see coming from my angle pa.s.sed. I didn"t want to be out when that came over.
Plus, he"d asked me to stay.
"Ugh!"
So I opened my book. It was one I"d started before, and had a folded Post-it note marking it at page ten. That didn"t bode well, but my options were limited.
I couldn"t think, however, as I stared at the page. I had a mission, d.a.m.n it, and swapping weird vibes with Jesse Montgomery was not helping my cause. My ears perked up every time he spoke to someone, and I found myself watching him as he patted people on the backs and laughed over shared stories as he simultaneously encouraged them to get home before things got worse. After he"d walked the last patron out, an elderly man with a cane and a b.u.t.ton on his fishing hat that read I"M A GREAT CATCH, and the little blonde waitress had made a run for her car, splashing in what looked to be already ankle-deep water, Jesse locked the door.
And I started to sweat.
He glanced my way, as if unsure what to do with me. I knew the feeling. I was unsure what to do with me, too. And I wanted more than anything else to have made another choice. I was an idiot. And I was being punished for that d.a.m.n breakfast. Rebellion was good while it lasted, but I had the feeling that the blueberry waffles weren"t going to be worth being locked up with Jesse Montgomery.
Why couldn"t I have just said yes?
I loved Brad. No, I hadn"t mentioned that to May, but I did. I loved his crazy energy and positivity and confidence. I loved how he took charge of any situation and fixed it. I loved how his face relaxed like a baby when he slept, completely in contrast to the hard ambitious lines of his waking hours. And I loved his smile. Of course I did, he paid a fortune for teeth that white, but it was really the way his eyes sparkled when he smiled.
He was my best friend, wasn"t he? Of course he was. Brad was the one I told everything to. The little voice whining in the back of my head reminded me that I did that because all my other friends had walked off the planet and he"s all I had. But that was beside the point.
A gust of wind slammed a sheet of water into the window next to me, making me jump and bringing me back to the present. I blinked my focus back to the page in front of me-which was still page ten.
"s.h.i.t."
I looked up to see Jesse standing at the door, and when I followed his gaze, I saw what looked like a B movie prop coming at us. A wall of water driven by blackness. And that"s when I realized I"d left my phone in the car.
"Oh, c.r.a.p."
I popped up out of that booth and sprinted to the door, where he looked at me like I was nuts.
"What are you doing?"
I pointed at Brad"s car. "I left my phone. I have to get it."
His eyebrows drew together. "You do see what it"s like out there, right? It"s starting to flood, with that clay being so hard-packed."
"I can"t leave my phone out there," I said, gesturing toward the crazy-looking lock on the door. "Please let me out."
"Fremont, look." He grabbed my shoulders and turned me so that he was right up against my back. "That"s not worth a cell phone," he said, right above my ear, which did nothing to help me see the weather.