“How could I forget? We could hear the two of them yelling clear down the hall.” Abigail made a face at her cards and folded. “Mitch wanted his father to go after her, but Nick refused. Even worse, he wouldn’t tell Mitch what went wrong.”
“Which explains the tension between them.” Jaye was all too familiar with the drawbacks of working with family.
“Yep.”
“Nick met Elise a couple of months after Liz left. Mitch wasn’t too happy about his father remarrying, but he’s crazy about Elise’s boys. He took them right under his wing.” Sarah smiled at Jaye. “I’ve always thought he’d be a great father.”
“I think he’s a hunk.” Abigail’s wrinkled cheeks turned a pretty pink color. “I’d marry him in a heartbeat.”
“I doubt he’ll go for another big wedding, so keep it small,” Sarah teased.
“Don’t get your hopes up, ladies. He’s a determined loner.” Veronica stared at her cards and chewed her bottom lip.
“I’m all in.” Jaye pushed all her chips into the center of the table.
“You wanna play? Okay, let’s play.” Veronica tossed her remaining chips into the kitty.
“Too rich for my blood.” Sarah put down her cards. “I fold.”
“All right, city girl.” Veronica peered over the top of her cards. “Let’s see what you have.”
Jaye laid down her cards, face up. “A pathetic pair of fives.”
Veronica made a face of disgust and laughed. “I’ve got nothing, Jaye. The pot is yours.”
She pulled the winnings toward her, but the victory felt hollow. After hearing Veronica call Mitch a determined loner, Jaye couldn’t shake her disappointment.
“Why don’t you want what I want? I’ve been trying to figure out why we’re so different, and for the life of me, I can’t.”
“Beats me,” Jaye muttered. She walked into Mitch’s kitchen and hung up her coat. She stopped by the window to stare at the silvery shadows slanting across the back yard.
“We were good together, especially when you were in handcuffs…”
She jammed the phone into her back pocket and rubbed her left wrist, remembering how chaffed her skin got the night they acted out David’s sexual fantasy. Was she asking too much for a man to want her just as she was, without manacles and leather bonds?
“Nothing wrong with tying her up.” Mitch strode into the kitchen with his cell phone pressed to his ear. “I can’t think of a better way to stop her from running away.”
Blood pounded in her ears. Jaye’s mouth dropped open.
“Try galvanized cable, which is stronger than rope.” He reached into the bag of cookies sitting on the counter and popped two in his mouth. “No, the cable won’t hurt her. The plastic coating won’t dig into her skin. Heck, she may even like chewing on it.”
Cloaked by the shadows, Jaye stared at Mitch’s black shorts and white t-shirt and wondered if that’s what men with galvanized cable fetishes wore.
“No, Phil. She’ll pull a stake out of the ground. You’re better off bolting a lead to the house. That’s what my family did for our dog.”
Jaye let out a relieved sigh. They were talking about Phil’s new puppy, not his wife.
“I can give you a hand, all right? See you tomorrow.” He slid the phone onto the counter and opened the refrigerator. Bright light illuminated his face. He pulled out the orange juice, shook the carton, and chugged a mouthful from the spout.
“Have you been drinking from the milk carton, too?” she asked.
He coughed and slammed down the carton on the counter, drawing the back of his hand across his mouth. “I thought you went to your room.”
“Nope. I was distracted by the moon.” She looked outside at the silver light cascading over the distant mountains. In the window’s reflection, she saw Mitch gesture toward the orange juice.
“Sorry. I’m used to living alone. Guess you saw me eat those cookies, too.”
“No problem. I got them for both of us.”
“Thanks.” He screwed the cap on the orange juice. “Did you win tonight?”
“Veronica’s not too happy with me. She can’t buy new dishes for at least another week.” Jaye turned her head to study him. “What do men want?”
A scowl crossed his face. “Say again?”
“What do men really want from a woman? Don’t sugarcoat your answer. Men just want sex, right?”
He put the bottle into the refrigerator and let the door swing shut. “No, we don’t want sex. Truth is, we want lots of sex. And football.”
“In that order? Sex, then football?” The revelation sparked another question. “What if your girlfriend wants to have sex while you’re watching football?”
An attractive indentation formed near the corner of his mouth. “Sex wins, every time.”
“Why?”
“Because sex feels incredible and is a heck of a lot of fun. Football, on the other hand, is just fun.” He leaned his hip against the counter. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m just trying to figure stuff out.” She felt a bit surprised he didn’t seem to mind talking about sex. With a flick of her wrist, she flipped her bangs out of her eyes. “For a while, I used to think women needed to be loved before they had sex and men needed to have sex to prove they were loved. A paradox, you know? But now, I don’t think love has anything to do with sex. We just want what we want, and we keep looking until we find whatever makes us feel good.”
“You’re not usually so negative. What did you girls talk about tonight?” Mitch held up his hand to stop her reply. “Let me guess. Did the discussion revolve around how rotten men are?”
“Quite the contrary, in fact.” She opened the fridge and reached for the cranberry juice. “You didn’t take a swig of this, did you?”
“No way. That swill is all yours.”
She poured some into a glass and put the bottle back into the fridge. “If you must know, we talked about you. Did you know Abigail has a crush on you?”
“I had no idea.” He shook his head with a rueful grin. “If only I were thirty
