A Captivating Conundrum (21 page)

His head popped around the corner and he smiled up at me. "There you are."

I nodded, looking at his casual clothes. The sky blue oxford changed the color of his mesmerizing eyes to a warm blue, and the jeans looked as if he was more than comfortable. In fact, he looked…inviting.
Why does he always have to look 'FMN?' It's so not fair.

A good meal, an inviting man…yup, this was not going to be easy.

Giving me his hand, Matt walked me to the small dining area. My grandfather's table had been set with the colors of red and russet. The candles were lit, the music was low, and the carafe of a Barbera Superiore rested on the table, ready to transport me to the beauty of an Italian countryside.

With a kiss on the cheek, Matt led me to the table and sat me down, as I watched him flit back and forth to the kitchen bringing everything from delectable fruits, cheeses and salad to a mammoth lasagna that looked like it could feed a starving country.

My stomach growled and I coughed to cover it up; I actually couldn't remember when I'd eaten last, except for the stale pretzels on the bar. I don't even remember having any fruit for the day…just coffee. I shuddered, wondering exactly when my heart would give me up for good.

Matt sat down across from me, never breaking the eye contact that seemed to be making me fidget more than usual.

I waved my hands around the table, taking in the delectable sight. "This is quite the spread. You didn't have to go to all this trouble."

He shook his head. "No trouble at all. I mean, I certainly owe you."

My heart dropped just a tad when I heard those words. Sometimes I could be so stupid. This was a gentleman thanking me for my hospitality and asking me to work on the script which he was
only
performing out of the kindness of his heart. I ordered the mature woman inside my head to smack the young, dreamy-eyed girl in there who was making me feel more and more like a silly fool.

"You don't owe me anything, Matt. You're the one who took the project on." I took a deep breath and picked up my fork. "So, should we begin working on that now?"

Drawing back a little, Matt bit down on his lower lip. "First, I want you to relax—eat and enjoy while I get to learn all about you."

I practically choked on the wine. "Nope." 

He stared at me in confusion.

Clearing my throat, I attempted to turn the tables on the stunning man. "This is your night on the fire, Matt. I want to learn all there is to know about this California dude squatting in my house. Chris certainly thinks a great deal of you."

Matt smiled. "Chris is a good kid."

"Kid? He's not much younger than you." I laughed. Chris
did
have that youthful face that spoke of a man who would never age no matter how many years passed by.

"Well…I'm glad he met Bobby. Bobby seems like a good man," Matt said.

"He is, but it's really odd. It's been like two days; I'm still not quite understanding how close people can become so fast. Weird, huh?"

He looked at me over his glass of wine. "Why weird?"

I shrugged. "I've heard of whirlwind courtships but this is a little ridiculous."

He put the glass down and swallowed. Leaning forward on his elbows, Matt kept his gaze steady. "Never heard of love at first sight? You're a writer, after all."

My heart twitched a bit as his warm breath touched my cheek. "Exactly. That's a theory that
only
appears in books because it's fiction."

He sat back. "Really?"

"Of course. Life is 'lust at first sight,' my dear. I'm sure you know that concept. Love has to come from somewhere else and that takes time."

"So you never had that feeling?"

"What? Seeing someone across a crowded room?" 

He laughed. "Sure."

"No."
God, I know I'm a bad liar, but please just let me get away with this one
.
I really don't want to look like a dork. Besides, it was kind of true—it had never happened to me…until I saw him.
Quickly I picked up my fork and started shoveling in the salad. Anything to be able to look away from those probing eyes.

"Hmmm…"

"You?" I tried not to spit a crouton at him.

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. It's happened."

"See?" I replied. "You're not married, so I would assume that 'moment' IS just fiction."

He looked down at the table, causing the mature female inside to smack me upside the head. "Matt, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm sure she would've worked out. Life probably just got in the way."

Instead of a look of sorrow or regret, Matt returned a smile. "We'll see."

Clearing my throat, I reached for the cheese. Again, keeping my mouth full at all times was the only way to go.

~ His ~

For a woman my Mom would refer to as, 'a tough nut to crack,' Beth's emotions really did come across loud and clear on her face.

I almost had a repeat of the coffee incident when she attempted to lie and then dove into the food like a hungry lioness that'd just scored her first bloody carcass in a decade. She looked away, her face grew hot…deflection was certainly something she tried often enough, but she wasn't very good at it.

"First sight aside, I assume
you've
been in love," I said, already wanting to punch the guy's lights out who'd made her have that 'moment' during her lifetime.

Reaching for the cheese platter, she sent me a simple shrug.

I laughed to myself, knowing Beth was not about to give in. "I've been in love," I admitted.

Beth began to study me as she ate.

I breathed deep. "I had a first love, of course. It was one of those 'Jack and Diane' tales."

Beth pumped her fist in the air. "Go Cougar!"

I smiled. "Yes, Mellencamp certainly knew how to tell the tale of small town life."

As Beth's embarrassment seemed to fade, her skin went back to its soft, natural color. "So, who was this Diane?"

"A girl in high school. We were together a while, fell in love, had a moment of looking out into that big, bad world pretending we were gonna take it on together."

She grimaced. "No dice, huh?"

I looked into the glass of dark red wine and spun it in my hand, watching the small waves circle as if I was somehow looking back in time. "We were kids."

"Sometimes they're the ones that mess you up the worst."

I caught a strange note in Beth's voice and raised my gaze, but she immediately reached for a breadstick and went to work.

"So, what then?" she mumbled.

"I raced out into the world. I knew what I wanted and I knew I wasn't going to stop until I got it."

"Left the prom queen behind, aye?"

I nodded. "Close." 

"I'm sure you'll always be the one who got away." Beth smiled, quickly looking away and reaching for another breadstick. "I assume there was love to be found in the big city?"

I tried not snicker; I had a feeling Beth considered me to be far more of a stud than I actually was. "I fell in love with my leading ladies."

She nodded. "Makes sense."

I continued quickly, wanting to make sure she understood that I was not their Romeo, "When you're in a play you usually have to sing the ballad, romance them off their feet, fight by their side—you kind of
have
to fall in love because they become your partner every night for months on end." 

"I would think if you didn't love each other the performance would suck," she said honestly.

I loved the fact that she was so relaxed about love and sex and the fact that I was in an industry that certainly held an abundance of both. 

"Romance continued offstage?"

I looked at her face studying mine; the gaze of a blushing girl had disappeared and the look of an interested woman came forth. "A couple." 

Beth nodded.

"One lasted two years."

"Must have been real."

"It was." I remembered the Hawaiian beauty with the kind heart. "Just not the right time…not the right woman. I have a tendency to throw myself into my career and, I wanted to really shine, you know?"

I knew she knew. After sealing myself away in her library more than once and reading her words, I knew how very hard Beth had worked to get where she was.

"Ended badly?"

I shrugged. "I stayed friends with most everyone I've ever dated."

Beth issued a loud laugh.  

"What?"

"Come on. Everything ends badly, Matt. If it didn't, it would still be in your life."

"Okay." I sat back in the chair. "I've been cheated on. I've been a jerk. I've loved with everything I've had…I thought. Been kicked sometimes but they had been too. I tend to get with women who are a bit dreamy, I suppose, but I always crave the strong one. I want to take care of a woman, but I want her to take care of me right back. I want to support her, but I also want her to understand that I like being left alone sometimes. I like to write songs; I like to think about myself and be stuck up now and then." I said, offering a smile. "And I guess that's a lot to put up with." 

Beth seemed to think over the information, and then nodded. "I understand. Everyone needs to take the ego out and polish it once in a while, and some chicks can't deal with that. They're supposed to be your number one priority, not the career."

"They were, I thought, when I was with them."

Her eyes were filled with understanding and, oddly enough, friendship. "I'm sure they were, but a chick needs to step back sometimes too."

I just stared at her. She was
always
a conundrum. First Beth would reveal a total girl who lived somewhere under all that intelligence and strength, then would make me feel like I was talking to one of my best friends—all understanding and no judgment whatsoever.  

"What?" Beth asked. I must've been staring too long.

"I don't get you. I mean, I can't quite get a handle on who you are."

She laughed—one of the softest, deepest sounds I've ever heard. "Oh, hon. I'm not one." Beth pointed at her head covered in that beautiful dark fire, and made a face. "There are more characters and personas living in here than any ensemble you've ever been in. Hell, I don't even know who I am."

I waited a heartbeat. "Yes you do."

Her laughter stopped and she stared at me. 

"You really do."

She raised an eyebrow. "So what makes you a good boyfriend?"

I didn't have to think. "I take it very seriously. You?"

Clearing her throat, Beth reached for another breadstick. "What about your family?"

…The wall remained intact. I should've felt frustrated with her avoidance, but I couldn't. All she did was excite me more. "Well, my Mom loves me and
that's
the woman you really need on your side.