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Chapter 2
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Mattie pulled the elastic scrunchie out of her hair, then scraped her fingernails over her scalp.
"Brad means nothing to you now." Hours later, and she was still trying to convince herself.
She pulled her clothes off, wadding them into a ball and shooting them across her bedroom into the laundry basket. She crossed the hall to the bathroom, continuing her monologue while she waited for the water to run hot. "I mean it, too. You're not fifteen anymore. You're past that." She braced one hand on the tile wall and thrust the other under the stream of steamy water. Perfect.
"He'll visit. You'll be sympathetic. That's it." As she stepped into the shower, she noticed the bottle of Fresh Freesia shower gel. Jess was always leaving fancy gels and shampoos in here for her.
Mattie started to reach for her own bar of Ivory like she always did but paused. What would it hurt? Surely one fresh freesia shower wouldn't spoil her forever. As she flipped open the cap and inhaled the light floral scent, she found herself humming "Love is a Battlefield."
By the time she stepped out of the shower a few minutes later, she'd graduated from humming to belting it out at the top of her lungs. She paused only long enough to wrap her hair in a towel. Grabbing another towel off the rack, she headed for her bedroom. It wasn't until she opened the bathroom door that she heard the phone ringing. For a brief second, she contemplated letting the machine get it, but Jessica might have forgotten something.
After trotting down the hallway to the kitchen, she snatched up the phone and was about to punch the talk button when she noticed the dog prints. A trail of large, muddy paw prints led across Jessica's plush cream carpet, over the snowy tile floor, and toward the sliding glass door to the backyard. Which was odd, considering she didn't have a dog.
Still holding the phone, she followed the trail to the back door and looked out. Sure enough, there sat a large, honey-colored Lab, and...a man, crouching just in front of the dog, wrestling for control of a paw.
Her heart leaped. Brad.
There. In her backyard—well, Jessica's backyard. With a dog.
The phone in her hand gave one last shrill ring before being cut off. She blinked at the handset for a second, then realized the machine had picked up the call. Quickly, she punched the talk button. "Hello?"
"Oh...hi." It was Jessica. "I was about to leave a message. I thought I'd miss you." Mattie didn't talk her eyes off Brad as she answered. "I was just getting out of the shower." She couldn't help noticing a thousand little details about him: the way his blond hair---now darker than it had been the last time she'd seen him in person—still gleamed in the sun. The way the cotton of his oxford shirt stretched taut across his unbelievably wide shoulders. The way his crisp khakis molded his lean hips and firm buttocks.
"I'm glad I caught you. I forgot to tell you Brad has a key."
"Oh. Yeah." Just then, the dog looked up and noticed her. The glass door separating them barely muffled the noise as the dog barked at her. "That makes sense."
Brad stiffened, then glanced over his shoulder. A second passed. Then he stood and turned to face her. The instant his eyes met hers, every cell in her body seemed to shake itself awake. In the years since she'd last seen him, she'd convinced herself his eyes weren't as spectacularly blue as she remembered. She'd convinced herself no one had eyes the color of the ocean's depths. She'd been wrong.
Mattie felt a familiar jolt of adrenaline. Entranced by his gaze, a second passed before Jessica's voice intruded over her own thundering heartbeat. "...you okay? You sound really strange."
"Sorry," she mumbled. Try as she might, she couldn't seem to take her eyes off Brad. "I'm just...um..." Finally, she tore her eyes away from him and shook her head to clear it. "It's just that I'm dripping on the floor."
And that's when she remembered she was wearing only a towel.
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Are you crazy?"Brad considered her question as he slid the laminated card back into his wallet. Crazy? He didn't think so.Confused? That was another matter entirely.He achieved every major goal he'd set for himself in the past fifteen years. Now, when it mattered most, he'd failed. What he couldn't figure out was why it pissed her off."Look Mattie, all I..."She cut him off with a firm shake of her head. "No. Absolutely not.""But...""I am not going to help you find a wife.""Find a wife?" It took him a second to comprehend the conclusion she'd leaped to. By that time, she'd already spun on her heel and stormed off down the street.He caught up with her in a few steps, but she refused to look over at him. "I don't need..."She jerked to a stop, then whirled around. "You don't need? This is all about what you need, isn't it?" She glared at him, her eyes shooting daggers. "What about what I need?"It was just as well she didn't give him a chance to answer. He didn't have the slight
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Surprise ricocheted through her and all Mattie could muster in response was "Huh?" followed by a long pause and then an equally ineloquent "Well, no."Sure, she'd fantasized endlessly about him asking her out, but she'd never wondered why he hadn't. "I was the scrawny best friend of your kid sister. I figured I was too young and you simply weren't interested." "When you first moved to Palo Verde, when you were ten? Yeah, you were too much young." He put his glass down and pushed away from the counter to step nearer to her. "When you were thirteen? Yeah, you were just the scrawny best friend of my kid sister." With two more steps, he closed the distance between them. He stopped, with his feet planted on either side of her own. Mattie's heart began to pound at his closeness. She inhaled sharply, trying to catch her breath, but that just pulled Bard's warm, masculine scent into her lungs and did nothing to clear her head. "By the time you were fifteen? You weren't scrawny." His focu
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She didn't mean to kiss him. It just sort of happened. An accident. Like the time in college, she'd tripped, fallen partway down a flight of stairs and broken her foot. One minute the world was right-side up and her feet were firmly on the ground, the next she was tumbling, free-falling, helplessly headed for disaster. One minute she was gently stroking his arm, murmuring something reassuring. The next, he'd twisted to face her, and the temptation of having him so close was simply too much to resist. Her mind cut off and she leaned forward to press her lips to his. Instantly she pulled back, surprised by the warmth of his mouth. But one taste simply wasn't enough. She had to have more. Leaning forward for another kiss, she pulled her feet up under her, angling closer to him. His lips were warm and soft beneath her. Pliant. As if he hadn't yet decided whether or not to kiss her back. But he tasted wonderful, spicy and sweet. Like cinnamon sugar. And she simply couldn't get enough o
