Dreams & Desires. Kat Cantrell

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       Eight

      It was just starting to get dark when Clare pulled in the driveway. Parker’s car was gone, and she realized that deep down she had been hoping he was still there. Which was completely ridiculous. He had better things to do than hang around all day waiting for her.

      But it would have been a little cool if he had. And a little terrifying.

      She parked her aunt’s car in the garage and stepped inside the house. “I’m home!”

      “In here!” her aunt called from the living room.

      Aunt Kay sat in her recliner, a book in her lap. She loved murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. The darker and gorier the better.

      “So,” Clare said, setting her purse down on the coffee table. “Is he buried in the backyard in a shallow grave?”

      “Oh, please,” her aunt scoffed. “There are much more effective ways to get rid of a body. And a car.”

      Clare gave her a look.

      “I’m kidding. I like him.”

      Huh? Aunt Kay never “liked” anyone without getting to know them first, and that process could take weeks, and sometimes even months. “Just like that? You like him.”

      She shrugged. “Sometimes you just know. I would think you of all people would realize that.”

      “What’s that supposed to mean?”

      “You know exactly what I mean, Clare. You’ve got it bad for the man.”

      Yeah, she did. “He doesn’t know that.”

      “He sure thinks he does.”

      Of course he did. He was a man. He thought he knew everything. It just so happened that in this case he was right.

      Lucky guess.

      “He is a little stubborn. I almost ran him to death on the jogging path the other day. Then I served him a half-frozen breakfast sandwich, which he actually ate. I should have known he would be too damned polite to complain.”

      “Sounds as if you’ve been having fun with him,” Kay said.

      “At his expense.”

      “Nothing wrong with that. Is he good in bed?”

      Clare collapsed onto the sofa. “We never made it to the bed, but he’s good on a couch.”

      “I’m just happy to hear that you’re letting your hair down and having fun for a change. You need a man in your life.”

      “Don’t get ahead of yourself.” It had bad idea written all over it. She couldn’t think straight when she was around him. All she could feel was an edgy sort of excitement, and she had been displaying a dangerously blasé attitude. She’d left him alone in her house, for God’s sake. She never did that.

      Although to be fair, removing him would have required dragging him sound asleep out the front door and leaving him on the porch. She’d tried to wake him when she was ready to go, but the man slept like the dead. “I haven’t even decided if I’m going to sleep with him again,” she told her aunt.

      “Well, that just breaks my heart,” Aunt Kay said. “A body that perfect should be put to good use.”

      Though she and Kay looked a little bit alike, and they both shared a deep aversion to farm life, Clare and her aunt couldn’t have been more different. Kay grabbed life by the horns and didn’t let go, while Clare wouldn’t even venture on the other side of the fence.

      “Here’s something you might find interesting,” Kay said. “I told him he could go up to your room to change.”

      Clare’s jaw fell. “Why? You know I hate that.”

      “He apparently knows, too, because he asked to change in the bathroom down here instead. Said he didn’t want to invade your space.”

      She blinked. “Oh.”

      “Sounds like he knows you pretty well already.”

      Yeah, it sort of did.

      “And he respects your space.”

      Finally.

      “And he’s so hot.”

      Yes, he was.

      “Maybe you should cut the guy a break and give him a chance. Not all men are liars and cheats. Something tells me that he’s one of the good guys. Go out on a date or two. Have some fun, see where it goes.”

      “Why would I date someone that I can’t even take home to my family? You said it yourself. They would have a field day with him.”

      “Maybe you should stop worrying about what they think.”

      She wished it were that easy. “How badly did you scare him?”

      She shrugged. “If he scared easily you would have been rid of him months ago.”

      That still didn’t make a relationship a good idea. It just meant that he was stubborn.

      “I wish you could have seen the look on his face when he woke up and saw me standing there,” Kay said with a smile. “If only I’d had my camera.”

      Clare would have paid big money to see that. “I hope you don’t mind but I had to use your car. Mine committed suicide last night. It will cost almost as much as a new one to fix it.”

      “Of СКАЧАТЬ