Tangled Up in You

her and every other female’s attention to his Levi’s hanging low on his bare waist.

There was no doubt about it. Mick Hennessy was so blatantly all man that it hit a woman like a brick to the forehead. He was headed straight for her, and she’d be lying to herself if she pretended that he wasn’t hot as hell. While she had no problem lying to other people, she could never lie to herself.

Chapter 4

“Fire in the hole!” Louie shouted and set off several screeching rockets, saving Maddie the effort of thinking up a half-truth or full-out lie. Four rockets flew up instead of at her head and her pulse steadied.

These rockets were a little bigger than the last and exploded in small bursts of color. Louie had broken out heavier artillery, yet still no one seemed in the least worried. No one except Maddie.

“I want to stay down there,” Travis grumbled as he, Mick, and Pete moved up the steps of the deck.

“The big show’s about to start,” Mick said, “and you know kids have to move where it’s safe.”

Big show? She raised her wine and drained the glass. She wondered if Mick was going to put Tanya out of her misery and button his shirt. Sure, it had been hot earlier, but it was getting fairly nippy now.

“Donald is a kid,” Pete complained.

“Donald is fourteen,” Lisa said. “If you’re going to argue, you can go sit by your grandmother and Tia Narcisa.”

Pete quickly plopped his behind down on the steps. “I’ll sit here.” Travis sat next to him, but neither appeared happy about being confined to the deck.

“Hey, Mick,” Tanya called out to him.

He glanced up from Travis, but his gaze met Maddie’s. His blue eyes looked into hers for several heartbeats before he turned his attention to the petite woman on Maddie’s left. “Hey, there, Tanya. How’s it going?”

“Good. I still have some Bushmills Malt 21. What are you doing after the show?”

“I’ve got to take Travis home, then head to work,” he said. “Maybe some other time.” He moved past them to a cooler and bent at the waist. He lifted the white lid and his shirt fell open. Naturally. “Yo, Travis and Pete,” he called out. “Do you boys want a root beer?”

As one, the two boys turned at the waist. “Yeah.”

“Sure.”

Ice and water sloshed in the cooler as he grabbed two cans of Hires and lobbed them into the boys’ waiting hands. He pulled out a Red Bull, then closed the cooler’s lid.

“Maddie, have you met Mick Hennessy?” Lisa asked.

Out of habit, she held out her hand, “Yes, we’ve met.”

He wiped his hand on his pants, then took her fingers in his cool wet palm. “Kill any mice today?”

“No.” His thumb brushed her bare ring finger and he smiled. Intentional or not, she didn’t know, but the light touch spread hot itchy little tingles to her wrist. It was the closest she’d come to real sex in years. “No dead mice yet, but I’m hoping they’re experiencing death rattles even as we speak.” She pulled her hand back before she forgot who he was and why she was in town. Once he found out, she doubted there would be any more handshakes and tingles. Not that she particularly wanted either.

“Call an exterminator,” Tanya said.

Maddie had called an exterminator and he couldn’t get to her house for a month.

“Be careful who you call,” Lisa warned. “Car penters and exterminators work on Miller time around here and they have a habit of just up and leaving at three o’clock.”

“I take it three o’clock is Miller time.”

“Pretty much.” Lisa’s mother-in-law called her name and she grimaced. “Excuse me.”

“Better her than me,” Delaney uttered as Lisa walked away.

“I could give you the number of someone who might actually arrive when he says he will.” Mick popped the top to his Red Bull. “And stay until the job is finished.”

“Have your husband or boyfriend take care of your mice problem,” Tanya suggested.

She looked at Tanya and suddenly didn’t get a nice neighborly vibe. The energy had changed since Mick had walked onto the deck. She wasn’t sure, but she guessed that Tanya wasn’t going to be her new B.F.F. “Don’t have a boyfriend and I’ve never been married.”

“Never?” Tanya raised a brow as if Maddie were a freak, and Maddie would have laughed if it wasn’t so ridiculous.

“Hard to believe, isn’t it?” she said. Tanya need not worry. The very last man on the planet she would ever get involved with was Mick Hennessy. Despite his nice abs and killer happy trail. “I’m such a great catch.”

Mick chuckled and took a drink of his Red Bull. Through the darkening shadows of nightfall, she could just see the laugh lines creasing the corners of his blue eyes as he looked at her over the silver can.

She smiled back and decided it was past time to change the subject. “Did you have to toss Darla out of Mort’s on her bare behind?”

He lowered the can and sucked moisture from his bottom lip. “Nah. She behaved.”

“Are women still tossing their panties?” Delaney asked.

“Not as much. Thank God.” Mick shook his head and grinned, a flash of white against the dark. “Believe me, tossing drunk, half-naked women from my bar isn’t as fun as it sounds.”

Maddie laughed. Never in a million years would she have thought she’d find Mick Hennessy so utterly likable. “How often does that happen?” Then again, he was his father’s son.

Mick shrugged. “Mort’s used to be a really wild place before I took over, and some people are having a hard time adjusting.”

“They’ve never adjusted to Jackson’s Texaco taking over for Grover’s Gas and Go, and that was about six years ago.” Delaney drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “My feet are killing me.”

“Fire in the hole!” Louie yelled seconds before sending up another barrage. Maddie spun around and her gaze flew to the rockets soaring straight up.

Behind her, Mick’s deep laughter was almost drowned out by the rockets’ pop- pop-pops. When she turned back, he’d moved to help Delaney find a chair. Tanya trailed after them and Maddie wasn’t sorry to see her go. The woman had gone from perfectly pleasant to bitchy over a man, something Maddie had never understood. There were other available men on the planet, why get all uptight over one? Especially if that one had a reputation for never getting involved. For loving and leaving. Not that Maddie ever held that against anyone. She didn’t understand women who got so attached so easily. After a few dates or good sex, they were in love. How did that happen? How was that even possible?

Sofie Allegrezza and her friends moved to the railing beside Maddie for a better view of her father’s fireworks show. Maddie set her glass on the railing and watched Louie load up the three big mortar tubes. She’d never needed a man in order to feel good about herself or to make her life complete. Not like