“Take a deep breath and relax. He’ll wait for you.”
She did as she was told, or tried, puffing out a lungful of air in a long, slow sigh.
“Now what’s
Now she sounded more like the former RA nurturer Tessa had loved since the day they’d met in the dorm. “What’s the matter is…” She closed her eyes, and dug deep. “He’s all wrong.”
“But he’s all right.”
“This is not a country song, Lace. He’s not what I want in a man.”
“Too sexy? Too big? Too interested? Too funny? Too talented? Yeah, I see the problem.”
“I mean it,” she insisted, frustration growing. “He’s a drifter who drives a motorcycle.”
“The Ducati that was parked in front of the resort this afternoon?” Lacey asked, blowing out a whistle. “Speaking of orgasms, I think Clay had one just looking at that bike. He drives that? He’s taking you out on it?” Her voice rose in utter incredulity.
“He drove it over here but I’m going to take us in my truck,” she said. “And what I’m saying is he’s a man who wants nothing like I want. Roots, kids, stability.”
“He told you all this in an interview when he wouldn’t answer personal questions? Interesting.”
Tessa ignored the sarcasm. “I can tell from looking at him.” She finally cleaned her eyelid, and did one more cursory swipe of mascara brush, and then tackled the blush compact. She didn’t need it; nature colored her cheeks enough around this guy.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Lacey said. “I have two words for you.”
“I know what two words they are, Lace. Clay Walker.”
“Precisely. Could I have been more wrong about him when I met him? Remember how hung up I was on his age and looks and his relentless determination to get me naked? Well, I wasn’t wrong about that.”
“And you have the brand-new baby to prove it.”
“Need I say more?”
Tessa dropped the makeup brush. “How about something that sounds like ‘Be careful’ or ‘Have a good time’ or ‘Don’t fall for the wrong man.’”
“You don’t know he’s wrong. You don’t know what kind of man is under all those muscles and hair and ink.”
Tessa laughed. “Well, when you put it like that…”
“Exactly. You need to find out more about him.”
She was right, but still. “I can tell he’s a drifter without even asking. I talked to three former employers in
“But they said he was a great chef and a…”
“An upstanding citizen,” Tessa supplied. “Two of them used exactly the same phrase.”
“Well, there you go. It’s nearly unanimous.”
“But doesn’t that strike you as odd?” Tessa asked, giving voice to one of the questions that had been bugging her ever since she’d made the calls to his references. “An upstanding citizen? Who says that unless they’re running for office?”
“He didn’t say it, they did. And it’s probably because he looks exactly the opposite and they want to assure you that he isn’t going to steal the booze or dip into the cash drawer.”
Oh, she was making entirely too much sense. “Lacey, do you or do you not want me, and all of your employees, which now includes a new head chef, to be focused on the most important weekend guests since we opened the resort?”
“Of course I do,” Lacey answered. “But you’re not going to stop growing great food because you’re falling in—”
“I am not in love!”
“—bed with the new chef.”
She burned during a second of silence. “That’s at the root of this, isn’t it?” Tessa admitted into the phone. “For him, it’s probably about sex and for me, it could never be just sex.”
“Hey, you’re the one on the sperm hunt.”
“He already said he wouldn’t be the supplier.”
“In a bar, after some scotch, when he had no idea he’d ever see you again.”
Tessa grabbed a comb and started untangling her wet hair. “So, it’s even more impossible now when he knows he will see me every day at work. He’s officially off the sperm-donor list.”
“All the better.”
The comb stuck in a knot. “What do you mean? You know how much I want—”
“Tessa, you have to stop…” Her voice drifted off, and, in the distance, Tessa could hear the not-so-soft cry of a hungry infant and the low tones of Lacey’s husband talking to her.
She closed her eyes and listened to the music of—a family. A life with a partner and a baby and a future. A life she might nev—
“Sorry, Elijah’s starving. I gotta go.”
“It’s okay. I got the general gist of your advice. Go have four orgasms for no other reason except it feels good.” Even though that wasn’t exactly what Tessa wanted.
“No.”
“No? Then what are you advising?”
“Same thing I advised earlier today. Give the guy a chance, Tess. Have dinner, find out what he’s made of, get beneath the sexy exterior and let go and enjoy yourself.”
Tessa looked hard at her reflection, meeting the challenge Lacey offered. “In other words, forget about a baby.”
“Just have fun tonight,” Lacey said. “The other stuff will work itself out. And don’t forget everyone’s coming over later for a nightcap, so you better join us.”
By everyone, she meant Jocelyn and Will, and Zoe and Oliver. And…Tessa. “Seventh wheel.”
“Oh my God, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that. Bring John.”
She tried to imagine how that would unfold: Tessa showing up for a late-evening gathering with her three best friends and their significant others. Awkward or awesome?
“Unless you’re otherwise occupied.” Lacey’s meaning was all too clear.
“We’ll see.” And they would. “But I’ll give him a chance, Lace. I will.”
“Good girl. See you later, I hope.”
She didn’t commit to that, though. One step at a time. Taking a deep breath, she turned from the mirror and took the first one.
Ian paced the living area of Tessa’s undersized house after she’d closed the hallway door and left him to wait for her. No bigger than a roomy one-bedroom apartment, the bungalow was part of an enclave of similar structures built for high-level employees of the resort.
Convenient, because if he lived in one, he’d be right next door to Tessa, and the more contact they had, the faster he could get his impulsive marriage plan into action. Things were already going swimmingly.
He paused at a bookshelf next to the TV, perusing the titles. A smattering of fiction, but mostly books on gardening, greenhouses, horticulture, hydroponics, permaculture, harvesting, and—
He crouched down to make sure he’d read the title on the pink spine correctly. Yes, he had.
Behind it, he found another row of books, all blocked by gardening titles. He eased out a few and found a treasure trove of books all on the same subject, with titles that sang the same song.
“Looking for a particular title?” He whipped around to see Tessa standing in the doorway in a simple black dress, sleek heels, her hair falling around her shoulders. Damn. At least he wouldn’t have to pretend to be attracted to her.
He straightened slowly, still holding a book. “
