Chapter Three
“Hey, Mom! I’m here. And I brought you cookies.”
Silence greeted Shelby as she let herself into the house where she’d grown up, where her mom still lived, at the moment alone.
“Mom? You home?”
Shelby frowned at the lack of response. She’d told her mom she’d drop over Saturday for a little while. Why wasn’t she here? Then she heard muffled noises down the hall of the spacious bungalow. She moved through the front foyer, through the living room and paused, listening. Her heart picked up its pace a little. Was her mom okay?
“Shelby?” Mom’s voice called from her bedroom down the hall.
“Yeah, it’s me. You okay, Mom?”
“Fine, fine. Just hang on a sec.”
Shelby let out the breath she’d been holding and walked into the kitchen. She set the container of chocolate-chip cookies on the counter. Breakfast dishes still sat there—a couple of plates, knives, two coffee mugs.
She turned at the sound of her mother entering the kitchen. “Hi,” she said, smiling. Her mom was tying a robe around her waist and her short, blonde hair stood up all over her head. Her cheeks were pink. “Um…did I come at a bad time?”
“Oh no. Well. I forgot you were coming.”
No surprise there. Shelby tried to keep the corners of her mouth from turning down. But when her dad appeared in the doorway behind her mom, she saw why she’d forgotten. She sighed.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, Shelby sweetie. What’re you doing here?”
“I made cookies this morning. I brought some for Mom.”
“That’s so sweet of you,” Mom said. “You make such good cookies.”
Shelby wasn’t sure why, at her age, she still made these stupid little efforts to please her parents. She should have moved past that, shouldn’t have the need for their approval anymore, but it seemed that she liked to continue to torture herself. She knew her mom would eat the cookies or serve them to guests without even remembering Shelby had made them. Her mom hadn’t even remembered she was coming that afternoon.
She would’ve asked her dad what he was doing there, but it was pretty obvious. “Are you getting back together?” she asked.
“Yes.” Her mom beamed and shot a smile over her shoulder at Dad. “We already are. Your father moved back in yesterday.”
“Wonderful.”
Her mom frowned. “You don’t sound very happy for us.”
What could she say? Wasn’t it always better when love triumphed? When a marriage survived, got another chance? But she knew it wouldn’t last, and sometimes she wondered if it wouldn’t just be better if they split up for good and quit riding this rollercoaster they’d turned their lives into. “Of course I’m happy for you,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks for dropping in,” Mom said.
“And for the cookies,” Dad added.
Okay then. So much for maybe a cup of coffee, a cookie and a little chit-chat. “You’re welcome. I have to go now. I have a company picnic to go to later this afternoon.”
“Oh, how nice. That RBM seems like such a nice place to work for.”
“I don’t work there anymore, Mom,” she said patiently. “Remember? I left there a year ago. Now I’m at Gold Shield Insurance.”
“Oh, of course!” Her mom slapped her forehead. “I’m so scattered! I knew that.”
Shelby smiled and nodded. “Well, I’ll talk to you both later.”
She paused outside the front door and closed her eyes, sucked in a deep breath and let it out, then shrugged her shoulders. Maybe this time things would be different for them and they’d be happy together. And maybe she’d win the fifty-million-dollar lotto this weekend.
Jake waited in the parking lot for Shelby Saturday afternoon, leaning against the fender of his SUV in the warm summer sun, wondering what the hell he was doing there.
He wasn’t exactly the knight-in-shining-armor type. One girl he’d dated had called him a player, a term that made even his lip curl, but hey, he wasn’t looking for a relationship, just fun and a little companionship sometimes, and yeah, sex. He tried to make sure the women he hooked up with felt the same, made it clear upfront whenever he met someone, so there were no hard feelings, except sometimes, there were hard feelings. Girls got all emotionally involved even though they knew they shouldn’t, said they wouldn’t, and then they blamed him when he had to pull the plug.
So doing a good deed like this was a little out of character for him, and he had to question his own motives. Shelby was a hot blonde he’d been eyeing with interest for months. Was he just using this as an excuse to get into her panties?
He rubbed his face, adjusted the sunglasses sitting on his nose. Hell, he didn’t even know why he’d made this crazy offer. But he was here and he had to go through with it. After this, she’d be on her own. She’d have to find some other way to get her dickhead boss off her case.
But, man, he hated to think of some asshole doing that to anyone. Whatever. The world was full of assholes and she was a big girl. Well, not literally. Literally, she was a tiny little thing, a blonde kitten in pink high heels.
A kitten he’d been thinking about since last night. Last night had been fun.
He straightened and glanced at his watch. One minute before three o’clock. He paced to the back of his vehicle, watching the parking lot, hands shoved into his jeans pockets.
It had been fun until suddenly out of the blue, it was as if she’d thrown up a wall of ice and had practically sprinted out of the bar. He’d racked his brain the rest of the evening trying to figure out what he’d said that had shut things down so fast, and couldn’t come up with a damn thing.
Far be it from him to pretend to understand women. His track record in that area was pretty pathetic.
A car turned into the lot, a little silver Pontiac GT convertible, exactly on time, and his body went on alert, a small adrenaline rush singing through his veins. The car slowly approached, pulled into the spot next to his and he recognized that gleaming blonde hair.
She emerged a moment later, slammed her car door shut and, as she walked toward him, held her remote over her shoulder and locked the doors with a chirp. She wore jeans, like he did, sitting low on her hips and rolled up above her ankle. Instead of pink heels, today she wore pink flip flops, and a modest tank top hugged her body, not hiding her impressive chest but certainly not displaying it in an overtly sexy way. She was sexy nonetheless. Christ, she could dress in a sack and she’d still be sexy as hell. What was it about her? Yes, she was pretty, with a sweet oval face, plump lips and big eyes, and yes, she was blonde, though her long hair was straight and silky, not teased and bimbo-big. And though she was small, she was definitely stacked and probably had a cute ass, too, in those jeans.
But there was more to it than that, and damned if he could put his finger on what it was.
She greeted him with a determinedly cheerful smile. “Hi. You came.”
He lifted a brow. “You thought I wouldn’t?”
“I wondered. I still don’t know why you’re helping me like this.” She gave him an assessing glance. “But I do appreciate it.”
“Wait till the day’s over,” he said, setting his fingertips on her lower back and directing her around to the passenger side of his vehicle. “If we convince your boss you’re taken and get him to lay off, then you can thank me.”
She laughed. “Okay.”
He drove the short distance to Pacific Park, the big, beachside park where the picnic was being held, and soon they pulled into another parking lot, already half-filled with vehicles.
“It’s a nice day for this,” Shelby commented as they walked toward the crowd of people. The scent of hot dogs and hamburgers floated in the warm summer air. The laughter and cries of children could be heard from a distance, and as they approached the group, Jake saw the kids being organized into some kind of race.