Rum and Raindrops: A Blueberry Springs Chick Lit Contemporary Romance (18 page)

“Too bad.” He tipped his head close to hers. “It always makes me smile.”

“Me, too.”

“Well, maybe we could still flirt a little.”

She smiled up at him. “Maybe. I’m have fallen out of practice already. Will you help me out?”

* * *

Outside a small apartment on the third floor in the city, Rob pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, flooding them with giggles that abruptly stopped.

“You’re limping,” he said as he guided her into the warm apartment, ignoring the way the giggles had ceased due to his presence.

“My ankle’s a tad stiff. I think I overdid it today.” She held out her ankle in a flattering way as if she was a model. “You did a good job of matching Side A with Side B when you patched me up in the bush though. See?”

He leaned over and lightly touched her ankle. Despite the heat radiating through the stuffy entry, goosebumps rose on her skin. Embers stirred in his eyes, and she couldn’t help but believe that he wanted to spread those goosebumps further.

Which was silly. She needed to stop getting her hopes up. He liked flirting but would never take it further at this point in their lives. And neither would she.

“The scar will add character to your fine legs,” he said, standing close as he straightened.

She sucked in a breath, feeling as though she was going to faint. Was he turning up the heat or had the sun just jumped a hundred thousand miles closer to the planet?

Dina bounded into the entry and yanked Jen into a hug that left her stumbling when Dina just as quickly released her, tearing back into the living room. “This is Jen,” she announced as Jen caught up.

One of the girls discreetly returned a lampshade to a lamp as they all chorused a “Hi!”

“Welcome to Rob’s home away from home,” Dina said, giving her a quick tour. Living room with a couch, table, sleeping bags, and not much else. Kitchen with a coffeemaker, card table, and fold-up lawnchair. Bedroom with a neatly made queen mattress on the floor. Bathroom. And then Rob, still in the entry awaiting his next command.

Jen stopped. “This is your place?” No wonder he was so taken with her apartment. It actually had furniture. Plants. Things hanging on the walls. Color.

“As much character as concrete,” he said, expanding his arms.

“Did you just move in?” she asked with a laugh. This wasn’t at all what she’d expected.

“I told you I was a nomad.”

“He moved in, like, a month ago,” Dina added, knocking back a beer.

“It’s my summer place. Cheaper than a hotel when I need to be near the city. My usual room and board place was full.” He stretched, just about touching the ceiling. “Traveling from place to place is getting old.” He let out a yawn. “What’s next, Dina?”

“No talking to boys unless you’re throwing money at them,” scolded a girl wearing a tight shirt and a massive push-up bra. She dragged Jen back to the living room and pushed a glass of dark liquid into her hand.

“To men!” the girls sang and took a drink.

“To Dina!” the girls chorused again and took a drink as Dina returned to the room.

Jen followed along with the drinking, unsure whether to let herself get swept into the fun or to hang back.

“To Don and his big dong!” the girls chorused and took a drink.

Laughing, Jen sputtered and missed her drink.

“She’s already drunk!” The cleavage girl laughed as she embraced Jen with one arm.

Jen laughed good-naturedly and took another sip. The drink wasn’t too bad. Not rum but not bad.

“There are no strippers in town,” Dina said to Jen with an exaggerated frown.

“Booooo!” called the cleavage girl.

“Maybe we could hire some?” Jen asked tentatively. “I haven’t seen a real live, naked penis in years.”

“Yes!” Cleavage girl stood up, fist pumping the air. She pointed at Jen “You are everything I’ve heard about and more.”

“Um, thanks?”

Another girl piped up. “Did you say
years
? When was the last time you got laid? Or do you just have a thing for doing it in the dark?”

Jen pretended to contemplate her reply as all eyes turned to her. “What year is it?”

“No, really,” the girl asked, breathless and eager. “How long?”

“Um. Three years. Give or take.”

“Wow. That is
some
dry spell,” said one of the girls.

Cleavage Girl clapped her hands. “You’re a born again virgin!”

“I’m going to pick up Becky,” Rob called loudly from the entry.

Oh my GOD. What was he
still
doing here? Didn’t he know what bachelorette parties were about? It was about men not being there. And most definitely not listening in.

And definitely not hearing her suggest that they bring in some half-naked men to dangle their body parts in his little sister’s face. She just about hid her face in embarrassment, but the door slammed behind Rob as someone placed a Jell-O shooter in her hand.

Go with the flow.

The door opened again. “And don’t get me evicted while I’m gone. I can hear you out in the hall.”

“We didn’t say anything,” Dina snapped back, rolling her eyes as he shut the door again. “Okay, introductions. This is Jen. Rob’s
crazy
for her.”

“He’s not.” Jen shook her head to the group. Wow. Her head was feeling fuzzy. She needed to get some supper into her or she’d be falling all over…well, hopefully all over Rob. See? Needed supper. She needed to keep her hands to herself. Flirting was okay, but touching was danger with a capital D.

Dina gripped Jen’s face, her breath reeking of alcohol. “He is.”

Jen felt her face burn. He liked her! His sister said so.

Damn forest fire. Ruining everything. Literally.

“Elaine,” Dina said, as she pointed to a girl with a straight nose, straight hair, and gave off an aura of being a straight, reliable sort of girl. “Friends since fifth grade.” And there it was. Reliable and true since age ten. She may as well be a Buick.

And she may as well be a lemon seeing as she didn’t have friends that went back further than three years ago.

There was no way a guy such as Rob could ever truly fall for her. He didn’t even know her. Guys like Rob with his neatly made bed and simple apartment wanted the Elaines of the world. Girls who had their lives together and didn’t come with a soap opera history.

Dina continued around the circle of camped-out girls. Ginger, the cleavage girl who wanted strippers. Anne, gorgeous and petite. Everything Jen wasn’t. And Erika, who was tall and had dated Rob in high school. She was well put together and pretty. Graceful. Unlikely to be in trouble with the law.

Really, she was everything Jen wasn’t, because there was cute, and there was sexy. And Ericka wasn’t cute.

After another drink and a few stories about dating that sounded similar to urban legends, the door opened and Rob presented Becky, the last of the girls who could make it. Dina popped up and herded everyone to the door.

By the time they hit the bar, Jen had to pee from the laughter and the drinks.

Becky, who came with her, asked, “You know Rob through work?”

Jen’s smiled faded as reality came up for a one-two punch. Up until now, she’d been feeling as though she belonged. As though she was part of the group. That she was making friends with the monsters under her bed. Almost as if she had a grip on life and was moving forward. Now…not so much.

The drive-thru burger she’d had on the way to the bar threatened to come back and say hello.

Before Jen could reply, Becky said through her closed stall door, “He’s always been interested in the outdoors. I keep thinking he’s going to get a cabin in the woods like that guy who wrote
Walden
. Did you read that in high school, too? Even back then it made me think of Rob. When he went to med school I thought he’d lost his mind.”

Becky continued over the sound of water hitting water.

“When he left med school I was like, okay, things are making sense again.”

As they washed their hands, Jen watched her in awe. Becky didn’t seem to be out of breath, but she hadn’t paused long enough to inhale. It was inhuman. A really cool superpower.

“I’m so glad he’s the designated driver tonight. I always feel safe around him, you know?”

Jen nodded. It was true, even with her fate in his hands she felt safe. Worried, scared, but not unsafe.

Becky nattered their way back to the bar, her volume increasing to be heard over the loud eighties music. Reaching the group at the bar, they were handed a shot and told to catch up.

Jen scanned the area for Rob, who was sipping a bottle of water several feet away. The way he was leaning against the bar, taking it all in, was sexy.

After another round of Sex on the Beach shots, Ericka roamed over to Rob and began pawing his abs. Jen almost laughed. She’d figured it would be herself mauling him like a bear on a squirrel after a long, cold winter.

Ericka glided a hand along Rob’s stomach, and Jen’s breath caught as Ericka gave Rob a knowing look.

No! They couldn’t. He couldn’t.

What about her? He promised they’d flirt.

“Robbie, ever done a body shot?” Erika’s voice cooed over the music.

Rob’s smile tightened as he gently removed her hand. Ericka tossed back her head, laughing as she leveled her gaze. “I know your wilder side. Let it come out and play.” She made a clawing motion, and Jen felt the air around them still.

“Ericka,” Rob said in a warning tone.

It was like watching a car crash and being unable to look away. It was as though this was the defining moment in her life. When she discovered what kind of man her crush really was. As well as where she ranked in his world of women.

His world of women? Oh Lord, please don’t let him have a world of women.

Ericka pushed herself against Rob. “A body shot. Off me.”

In an effort to seal the deal, she lifted her shirt, exposing a perfect, flat stomach with a sparkling belly ring.

Jen turned to the bar and gulped back another shot, valiantly fighting the temptation to vie for Rob’s attention. Out of the corner of her eye, Rob politely removed Ericka again and reminded her gently that he was the designated driver. Her hands were quick and they were back on his abs like flies on a carcass.

Dina strode over and grabbed Ericka by the arm, whispering something in her ear as she hauled her friend past the group toward the dance floor. Ericka snatched Jen along the way. “I’m sorry. He’s just so
fucking
hot.”

Well, Jen had to agree with Ericka on that one.

“No grudges?” Ericka pleaded.

Jen shrugged in agreement and vowed to let it go. No girl-fight dramatics.

After a few songs, Jen left the sweating throng to grab a glass of water and give her ankle a rest. It was itchy like hell, which she took to mean it was healing, but man, it was hard to ignore. She peered down the bar, spotting Rob chatting with a group of men. She pushed her hair off her face and scanned the bar, on the lookout for interesting people to watch while letting her heart rate settle back into its normal pace.

She spotted a face she’d know anywhere. She straightened up for a better look.

Definitely.

She stepped into the crowd and lost the man. She continued in his direction until she saw his dirty blond curls touching the neck of his faded black Metallica shirt. The plastic print announcing the tour stops was cracked and peeling. She remembered that tour. She’d told him not to go, afraid he’d get hurt in the crowd. She tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned, stepping out of her way before doing a double take and engulfing her in a massive bear hug that sent his beer trailing down her calf and her with a difficulty to breathe.

“Jenny!” Her old friend, Cody, held her at arms length, his cold beer set against her shoulder. “I haven’t seen you since the day you left Ken.” His eyes roamed up her and then down again. “I must say those years have been good to you.”

“You’re not too bad either, Cody.” Well, if a retreating hairline and paunch were considered not too bad for not-yet-thirty.

He pulled her to him again and breathed into her hair. “Jenny. Holy blue angel fart. Not who I expected to see. I thought you were gone forever.”

He pushed her out of his clutches, his eyes flitting over her, taking her in again. “How have you been doing?”

His concern just about made her tear up. Cody knew everything. Everything she’d kept to herself for so many years. He’d been her friend since sixth grade, and she just up and left him because of something someone else did. Someone else’s choices. She shut him and everyone else out.

She missed it. People knowing about who she was, where she came from. The stories of her life. The stories that shaped who she was today.

Cody was the one who’d been there when she’d run away from her parents. He’d offered to hide her in his parents’ basement until she figured things out. But she’d accepted Ken’s halfhearted offer instead and her parents had happily allowed her to stay. But Cody was the man she’d cried on.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call. Once I’d settled,” she said, struggling to meet his gaze.

“Shit. I was so worried.” He gave her shoulders a little shake. “I mean, I figured out what happened and why you ran away. But I thought we were friends. You just took off and dumped us all.”

Her shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry. I assumed you’d side with Ken. You were best friends. I didn’t want…I didn’t want you to have to choose between the two of us.” She swallowed hard, unable to find all those reasons she’d had years ago to abandon his friendship as though he was worth as much as the dust on her Corolla.

Wash it away and forget it was ever there.

Cody led her to the bar with a cool hand on her lower back. “I’m glad you’re okay. Your parents freaked when they found out you’d bolted from Ken’s place. But you were an adult by then.”

“Like they suddenly decided to care.” Jen snorted as she wiped down her leg with a cocktail napkin, avoiding her sore ankle which was ranting at her that it wasn’t a fan of dancing.

“Your dad talked about hiring a private detective.”

The room paused for a second and Jen faltered, staring at Cody. “He what?”