Aged to Perfection (9 page)

Jan wrapped her arms around her. “Oh, sweetie,” she cooed, rubbing Rachel’s back in sympathy. “You completely fell for him.”

Rachel sniffled. “Yeah, stupid, hey? I’m forty freakin’ years old. I should be able to have casual sex with a hot guy. Ugh, I’m such an idiot.” She pulled back and linked her arm with Jan’s. “Let’s go inside. I need a drink.”

In a sign of true friendship, Jan led the way into the house singing
Tequila
, her favourite song to sing when she made margaritas.

When Rachel and Jan walked into her kitchen, Rachel’s eyes were drawn to the backyard. She had been working late all week so she didn’t have the pain of seeing Mark. His crew was already gone when she got home for the day. It was funny how much she missed seeing Mark out there. As she looked out the French doors, she gasped.

“He finished.”

She tore open the doors and raced down the steps with Jan on her heels. She stopped in front of her freshly built gazebo and sighed. Of their own volition, her hands moved over the surface, tracing the pattern of the carved wood, caressing the Celtic etchings.

“Wow,” Jan murmured. “This is gorgeous. The gazebo. This whole backyard is so you, Rach. You did a great job outlining to Mark what you wanted. The Celtic stuff is so perfectly you.”

Tears streamed down Rachel’s cheeks. “It is,” she whispered. Rachel wiped the tears from her face and looked at Jan. “But I didn’t tell him to do the Celtic design. He did that on his own.”

“Why? How did he know to do that?” Jan asked her. The quietly spoken words begged Rachel to examine her relationship.

“Because he gets me,” she sobbed, aching for what she’d lost.

Jan walked over to her and turned Rachel’s body so she faced the gazebo. “Rach, are you sure the sex was casual for him? It sure wasn’t for you. This doesn’t look like casual,” Jan said, indicating the gazebo. Rachel rested her head against Jan’s shoulder as she stared in awe at her yard.

“Rachel, a guy who gets you like Mark does is a guy worth fighting for. Look at what he built for you. For
you
, Rach.”

She turned to face Jan. “I’m scared. He’s so young, Jan. How can I trust it will last?”

“Oh, sweetie. Any man who goes to this kind of effort for a woman is not going anywhere. Rachel, I have never known you to be afraid of anything. Don’t let fear stop you from going after what you want. And honey, we both know you want Mark.” Jan raised an eyebrow.

“You’re right.” She was such an idiot. How the hell could she have tossed away what they had? Whatever time she had with Mark was better than living without him. She turned on her boot and ran towards the back gate. “Lock up when you leave,” she called over her shoulder.

“Woohoo, you go get your man, girl,” Jan yelled after her. Her laugh carried all the way out to the front yard.

As she sat in front of the converted warehouse where Mark lived, staring at the cars that lined the alley in front of his place, Rachel debated the wisdom in showing up unannounced. He obviously had friends over; she should come back another time.

When she placed her hand on the gear shift to pull away from the kerb, her gaze landed on the ridiculous sign still sitting on the floor of her car that Mark had insisted on buying her at the flea market.“Just ‘cuz you have one, it doesn’t mean you gotta
be
one.”

Well, she was being one right now.

Music pumped through the stereo of Mark’s loft as people milled about talking and drinking. He looked around his place and rubbed his hand absently against his chest. He’d thought this party was a good idea. Having people around him was supposed to make him forget about Rachel. All it did was remind him of the last time they were together. How well she’d fit in with his friends, how comfortable and right it had all felt. Dammit, why couldn’t she see that?

A body slid up against him moments before arms banded around his waist from behind. He didn’t have to turn around to know it was Lisa. She’d been like a frickin’ octopus all night. Unhooking her hands, he stepped forward and turned around to face her.

“Hey Lise. You having a good time?”

She stepped towards him and trailed her fingers down his chest. “I’d be having a better time if you’d stop playing host and relax a bit. Your place is amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“How come you’ve never had a party here before?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m not a fan of the cleanup.”

“I could stick around and help you with that,” she purred and rubbed her body against him. “You know I haven’t had the complete tour yet. You never did show me your bedroom.”

Mark looked down at her. What the hell was the matter with him? Here was this gorgeous woman all over him and he didn’t want anything to do with her. All he could think about was Rachel.

She’d dumped his ass and she was still all he could think about. Fuck. He felt like such a whipped pussy—most guys would take Lisa up on what she was offering. He glanced at her face again. Nope, it just wasn’t going to happen. He’d just be wishing she was Rachel and that wasn’t fair to either of them.

“Look, Lisa. Rachel and I just broke up I’m really not ready to date anyone else right now.”

She licked her lips. ”Who said anything about dating?”

A crash sounded from the kitchen.
Thank God.
He’d never been so happy to have dishes broken. He gave Lisa a smile. “Sorry, host duty calls. Feel free to look around if you’d like.”

She stuck out her full lips into a pout. “I’d rather wait for you to show me.”

Another crash had him turning on his heel without another thought to Lisa and what she wanted.

The second Mark walked into his kitchen, he groaned. Broken beer bottles were getting ground into his hardwood floors. He looked at his friends and shook his head. This was exactly what Rachel had been talking about. In some ways, they just weren’t in the same place. Several of his friends were one step up from a kegger while hers were going to poetry readings and books clubs. He shook his head. Hell, who was he kidding? He was done with this kind of crap too.

He grabbed his broom and dustpan and started sweeping up the glass. With the floor cleaned, he turned around and surveyed the house. Lisa watched him hungrily from across the room. Shit.

Sheila came up beside him. “Where’s Rachel.”

He rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the knot in his neck. “We broke up.”

“What? Why? What did you do?”

“Me? I didn’t do anything. She just couldn’t handle things and she bolted.”

Sheila stepped in front of him, hand on her hip, and stared him down. “And what did you do to stop her? Or get her back, for that matter?”

Mark ran his hand along the back of his neck and rubbed. “Nothing. I haven’t talked to her.”

“Idiot.”

“Why do you assume I’m the one who fucked things up?” he growled.

Sheila rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mark. I met her. I saw how crazy she was about you. Any idiot could see that.” Sheila looked over Mark’s shoulder and scowled. “Please tell me you are not stupid enough to hook up with Lisa.”

Mark glanced behind him and grimaced at the predatory look on Lisa’s face. “Fuck, no. That’s not going to happen.”

“Good, at least you still have part of your brain.” Sheila grabbed his forearm. “Mark, do you care about Rachel?”

Needing the liquid courage, he took a long pull of his beer before answering. “More than anything.”

She tilted her head to the side, a commiserating smile on her face. “Then fight for her. Women want to know they matter, that they’re worth the effort.”

“She knows she matters. I finished her gazebo and installed it.”

“And what did she say about it?”

He looked down and scuffed his foot on the ground. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen or talked to her about it.”

Sheila rolled her eyes again. “Idiot.”

Before Mark got a chance to say anything else, Sheila’s boyfriend, Dave, joined them and nuzzled Sheila’s neck. “Come on, babe. There’s no one up on the roof right now so we can enjoy the view all by ourselves.” Sheila giggled. As Dave pulled her away, she called over her shoulder. “Quit being an idiot.”

Mark looked around the room. Was Sheila right? Had he given up too easy? Fuck, he didn’t think so. He couldn’t force Rachel to take a chance on them. She had to want it herself. But Jesus, he missed her. Ripping open the fridge door, Mark pulled another beer from the shelf, flicked off the cap and took a huge gulp of the icy cold pale ale.

Lisa saddled up beside him again. “You ready to give me that tour now?”

The woman just didn’t stop.

“Lisa, like I said, I’m just not in the right place right now.” Mark sighed in relief when the doorbell rang.

When the front door opened , Rachel bit back a groan. Of course it would be Lisa, of all people.

Lisa looked back at Rachel, her face a mixture of shock and hate. “Rene, what are you doing here?” Lisa asked.

“It’s Rachel, as I am sure you know, Lisa. Is Mark here?” Rachel asked, barely able to keep the annoyance from her voice.

“Umm, he’s kind of busy, sweetie. We have people over.” Lisa’s condescending tone grated on Rachel’s last nerve.

“
We
have people over? I’m sorry, when did you move in?” Rachel asked.

“Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Mark since you two broke up.” Lisa smirked at Rachel.

“Right. Well, can you just tell him I’m here?”

“I honestly don’t think he’ll want to see you,” Lisa told her.

Through gritted teeth, Rachel stared the woman down. “Ask,” she commanded.

“Lisa, who is it?” Mark’s deep husky voice rumbled from inside the house.

“It’s Rebecca,” Lisa called back to him.

“Jesus. It’s Ra-chel.” Rachel enunciated slowly. “How hard is that?”

A strong masculine hand gripped the door, pulling it open farther, forcing Lisa to step back or be hit by the door’s motion.

“Rach? What are you doing here?” Mark asked, his guarded tone gave Rachel no clue if he was happy to see her or not. He leant against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Umm. Well…” she stammered. “I was just wondering if maybe we could talk for a minute.”

Mark shrugged, indicating she should continue.

She nervously wrung her hands together. Clearly, he was not going to make this easy on her. Her attention was pulled back to Lisa who stood beside Mark, her hand resting on his forearm, a smirk on her face.

“Do you mind?” she asked Lisa.

Mark turned towards Lisa. “Give us a minute, will you?”

“Sure. I’ll just go get another drink and meet you inside?” she asked him, batting her eyes.

Mark absently waved her off. “Sure.”

He stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him. “So, what did you want to talk about?” he asked Rachel, pinning her with his direct stare.

“I wanted to thank you for the gazebo. It’s amazing.” Amazing didn’t even begin to cover it. How could she thank him for taking the time to care about her? For truly seeing her in a way no one else ever had? There were no words.

“Glad you like it. But you didn’t need to drive over here to tell me that. You could have just called.”

Rachel looked down at the ground and absently started tracing a pattern with her foot. “I wanted to see you as well.”

He put his foot over top of hers, stopping the motion. Rachel looked up and met his stare.
Jump
, she told herself, digging deep for the courage to leap. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and slowly let it out again.

Mark placed his finger under her chin. The feel of his warm flesh against her skin forced a shiver of excitement through her body.

“Rach, look at me. You said you wanted to see me, so here I am.” With the slight pressure of his finger, he forced her chin up.

“God Mark, I am such an idiot,” she groaned. “I’m crazy about you.”

“What about the age thing?” he prodded.

“You were right. Whatever this is between us feels right. It doesn’t matter if you are twenty-seven or fifty. I love you, Mark, and if you’re willing, I would really like to give this thing between us a shot.”

She barely got the words out before Mark crushed her against his body. His lips descended on hers with a passion that threatened to incinerate her on the spot.

When he pulled away, they were both breathing hard. Mark rested his forehead against hers. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that,” he told her. “Let’s go inside and I’ll show you.”

“We can’t. You have a house full of people.”

Mark grabbed her hand and pushed open the front door. “Not for long,” he replied over his shoulder. Dragging Rachel behind him, he pulled her down the hall.

“Alright, everyone. Party’s over,” he yelled. In the midst of groans, Mark turned off the music and called out, “Everybody out.”

Laughter bubbled out of her chest, and Rachel covered her face with her hands to conceal the sound. Mark’s strong, muscular arms wrapped around her waist tightly from behind. His hard erection pressed into her back. He placed a kiss on her neck and groaned.