Messing With Mac

“I asked you not to say it,” she tried to quip, and failed utterly. To save maybe even an ounce of pride, she sat up.

While they’d been lying there watching the clouds go by and breaking her heart all over again, the hose had turned the grass into a slip and slide zone. Her shirt was drenched, and so was her skirt. God only knew what her hair looked like.

She was a mess, inside and out, and looking down at Mac, also wet, but looking all the more magnificent for it, she felt a surge of resentment.

Temper was good, she decided, staggering to her feet and grabbing the hose again. Temper bypassed desolation and misery. Temper gave her strength. And guts.

And it was temper that had her leveling the hose on Mac once more as he lay there all comfortable and cozy with his closed off heart and gorgeous body and incredible mouth that had left her aching.

When the icy water hit his prone body, he swore and lunged for her. She whirled to run but he was faster, knocking her feet out from beneath her, catching her as she fell.

Right on her hat.

“You’re right,” he growled, squishing it flat beneath her with his weight. “That was damn cathartic.” He then tucked her body more fully beneath his, and once again she found herself right where secretly she’d wanted to be.

Under him.

His smug smile faded as he looked down into her eyes, and indeed, all of her temper faded as well. Damn him, she thought, swallowing hard when he spread his hands on either side of her face. Damn him all over again because his mouth was lowering to hers, and all on its own, her mouth rose up-

“Oh, my,” came a shocked female voice as two sandaled feet came into view. Peach toenail polish and two silver toe rings.

Suzanne.

“Hmm,” came another female voice, not shocked, wearing black combat boots.

Nicole.

“Maybe we should go away,” Suzanne whispered, presumably to Nicole.

“Definitely going away,” Nicole agreed.

And not one of the four feet moved.

With a sigh, Taylor shoved at Mac. With one last stroke of his thumb over her bottom lip, he surged to his feet, bringing her up with him.

Indeed both Suzanne and Nicole stood there, gaping, Suzanne in one of her flowery, flowing sundresses with crystals in her ears, and Nicole in a black tank and camouflage pants.

Neither of her friends said a word, just looked at them both with shock.

Not that Taylor could blame them. Dry, Mac was a most amazing specimen of a man-tall, built and hot.

Wet, he was every woman’s fantasy.

Especially hers.

Mac thrust out his hand as if he hadn’t just been sprawled over the top of their best friend. “I’m Mac.”

“Nicole,” Nicole said slowly, eyeing him very carefully as she shook his hand. “And this is Suzanne.”

Mac shook her hand, too, smiling, looking totally and completely at ease even as water ran from his hair and down his face.

“I, uh…” Taylor looked at Mac, for the first time in her life utterly at loss for words. “We were…just…”

“I think we know what you were just,” Nicole said with a straight face.

Suzanne couldn’t keep hers though, and she grinned. “You were making out. On the grass. With water. On your pretty clothes. You even squashed your hat. Oh, Taylor.” She laughed and clapped her hands together. “It’s so wonderful.”

Taylor patted her hair, and Nicole snorted. “Oh yeah,” her supposed friend said. “You’re a wreck. Your hair, your makeup, your clothes, everything.”

Mac’s lips twitched as he eyed Taylor’s friends in appreciation. “She looks good all messed up, doesn’t she?”

Nicole shot him a sideways glance. “You like her that way?”

Mac’s gaze held Taylor’s prisoner. “I think I like her this way best of all.”

Nicole looked at Taylor pointedly.

Taylor looked away, but she figured by the look on Mac’s face he’d seen the blush anyway.

He saw everything.

“You’ve done it, Taylor,” Nicole said. “You’ve found the right man for you. No fancy suit, no fancy hairdo, no fancy words… Oh yeah, I like him a lot.”

Taylor ground her back teeth together when Mac grinned. “You make him sound like a new car I’m thinking of buying.”

“Or riding,” Suzanne whispered beneath her breath, managing not to laugh when Taylor glared at her. “Sorry.”

“He’s my contractor,” Taylor said, and snatched up her squashed hat. It was destroyed. “A contractor who ruined my favorite hat.”

“Right.” Nicole lifted a brow. “And what was it exactly you two were just doing? Working really hard, right?”

Mac laughed, then wisely turned it into a cough when Taylor rounded on him.

“I’m going inside to work now,” he said.

“Good idea.” Taylor waited until he’d walked up the stairs-knowing Nicole and Suzanne were staring at his very starable butt as he went-waiting until he’d disappeared inside to round on her so-called friends.

“Oh, baby,” Suzanne whispered. “You’ve met your match.”

“He is something.” Nicole looked quite pleased.

“It didn’t take you long to be the last to cave on the singlehood vow.”

“I’m not caving!”

“You were wrapped around him tighter than Glad Wrap,” Suzanne offered ever so helpfully.

“And lip-locked,” Nicole added with a smug grin.

“So does he kiss as good as he looks?”

Taylor swore impressively, making her friends howl with laughter. “We are not together,” she said.

She was not, absolutely not, going to admit that even if she’d had a moment of weakness and wanted that very thing, Mac did not. “He’s simply here doing a job. That’s all.”

“So the kissing thing, that’s what…a side benefit?” Nicole asked.

“Don’t you have your own life?” Taylor demanded.

“Hey, you butted in on my life on a daily basis when I lived here,” Nicole protested. “And when I was falling in love with Ty-and denying it-you laughed at me every step of the way.”

“I am not falling in love with Mac.” But her heart hitched painfully. “I’m not.”

“Oh, honey.” Suzanne dropped the teasing note in her voice. “It’s all over your face, don’t you know that?”

“We’ve only just met each other.”

“When it’s the real thing,” Nicole said, also surprisingly free of mockery. “It happens like a train wreck. You see it coming but you can’t look away.”

She already knew that. Damn it, she already knew. She’d done love once, and it had been glorious.

And painful.

And yet…God help her, she might have been willing to try again.

If Mac had been willing. But she couldn’t, wouldn’t, compete with the memory of his ex-wife. “You guys are off the mark on this one.”

She had other things to think about. Such as getting the money together for the next round of renovations. “So,” she said with false cheer. “Who’s up for a trip to my storage unit to see what antique I can bear to part with this month?”

Groans met this, and Taylor smiled. Friends. If they were all she ever had, it would be enough.

She’d make it enough.