A Better Reason to Fall in Love (3 page)

Again Tabby and Emmy laughed, for Naomi’s humor was often based on the fact she was such a literalist. Jocelyn, however, rolled her eyes and looked at Naomi as if she were the biggest idiot on the face of the earth.

“Are you kidding me, Naomi?” Jocelyn asked. “I swear, you want everything to be so exact. I just meant he feels good to me. There’s a good feeling about him. You’ve had good feelings about people and bad feelings about people, haven’t you? You know what I mean. I don’t feel threatened at all where he’s concerned. No warning lights are flashing in my brain; nothing’s telling me not to trust him. I think Armando is honest. I think he’s sincere in what he says.”

Naomi shook her head, however. “He said he was in love with you the first time he saw you, Jocelyn,” she reminded. “How sincere can he be?”

“He said he
thought
he
might
love me,” Jocelyn corrected. “And that’s entirely different.”

Naomi shrugged, sighing, “Well, take your pepper spray all the same, girl.”

Tabby looked quickly to Emmy as her friend unexpectedly gripped her forearm. “Hold on to your flip-flops, honeys!” Emmy said. Emmy was wide-eyed and gazing toward another table.

“Check that out!” Jocelyn exclaimed in a whisper as Tabby watched Armando pause at a table some distance away—a table at which sat none other than Jagger Brodie and several other men from the office. “What are the odds?”

Tabby watched as Armando indeed offered a hand to Jagger Brodie—as Jagger shook Armando’s hand and smiled. The two men finished their handshake by bumping fists, and Armando patted Jagger once on the shoulder.

The girls watched in silence as Armando and Jagger continued to converse for a moment. Eventually, however, they shook hands again, and Armando walked away.

“You guys, let’s leave now so we can walk by his table and Tabby can talk to him!” Emmy suggested.

“Oh, yes, let’s do!” Tabby said, feigning delight. “I can just sit right square in his lap, wrap my arms around his neck, and plant one straight on his kisser.”

“He’ll notice
you
, Joss,” Tabby said. “He knows you.”

“He knows all of us,” Jocelyn countered.

“We haven’t paid our checks yet,” Naomi reminded them.

“Then you go by yourself, Tabby,” Emmy suggested. “Just go to the restroom or the gift shop or something. We’ll wait here for the waiter to bring our checks…and you just go somewhere—anywhere. Just walk past him.”

“I’m not doing it,” Tabby scolded in a whisper. Even the thought of walking past Jagger Brodie caused her insides to begin to quiver with nervous anticipation. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if he actually looked up at her as she walked by—if he actually uttered a greeting or something.

“Come on, you redheaded vixen,” Emmy prodded. “Just do it! Just go to the gift shop and buy something—a card, a candy bar…anything.”

Tabby looked to Naomi, utterly astonished at her suggestion. Emmy and Jocelyn were staring at Naomi with widened eyes and gaping mouths as well.

Naomi looked from Jocelyn to Emmy and back. “What?” she asked. “I like silly escapades as much as you guys do.”

“Escapades?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yeah,” Naomi said, smiling. “Go on, Tabby. Just walk past him. That’s all. Walk past him, and I’ll pay your check whether or not he notices you.”

It was tempting. Oh, not the fact that Naomi would pay her check, thereby granting Tabby a free lunch—but just the chance to walk past him, the miniscule chance that he might look up and smile at her. Besides, Tabitha Flanders liked moments of stupid, silly girl stuff now and then. What good was it to have a sense of humor if a person wasn’t willing to use it?

“Shh! Okay,” Tabby said, shushing her friends as they all three giggled with delight. “I’ll do it. But if he actually looks at me or speaks to me…I might drop dead of shock, and then you guys will be sorry.”

Before she could rethink her rash decision, Tabby stood up, inhaled a deep breath, and started for the gift shop. She could feel three sets of eyes boring into the back of her head as she approached the table where Jagger Brodie and three other men sat looking over menus. Jagger was sitting with his back to her. She realized that if he did see her, it probably wouldn’t be until she returned from the gift shop. The understanding caused her nerves to tighten, knowing she’d have to sweat it out a little longer. She wished he’d been sitting in the other direction so the moment of anticipation mingled with terror would pass more quickly.

“This is my brother, Anthony,” David offered, gesturing to a man in maybe his late thirties sitting next to him. “He’s in town for a few days to give a lecture at the university.” David winked at Tabby. “A very interesting, highly intriguing, life-altering lecture on Victorian poetry.”

“Really?” Tabby asked as the man pushed his chair back and stood, extending a hand to her. Tabby accepted his hand, delighted by his gentlemanly manner. He was tall and good looking, and his dark hair, slightly grayed at his temples, gave him a very distinguished appearance.

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry,” Tabby said, smiling at the professor. “It’s nice to meet you,
Professor
Lowery.”

“Hi,” Jagger greeted. His dazzling smile caused Tabby’s heart to leap and to hammer inside her chest. Still, she attempted to appear unaffected. Yet he was so gorgeous—so affecting to every physical and emotional sense she owned—Tabby couldn’t begin to calm her sudden breathlessness.

“So…you know the guy who works here diving off the cliffs?” David asked. “That one that was just at your table?”

“Mm hmm,” Tabby answered, disappointed that it had been David who had addressed her. Everyone in the office knew that once David Lowery started talking, nobody else could get a word in.

“Well, it turns out our Jagger here knows him too,” David announced. “Right, man?”

“Yeah,” Jagger said. Tabby’s stomach began to quiver as she glanced back to Jagger Brodie to see he was still looking at her.

“Really?” Tabby managed. She wanted to run, to escape, to flee, to fly, to jump over the railing into the pool at the bottom of the cliffs—anything to pull herself from the uncomfortable situation. She was going to kill Emmy! Jocelyn and Naomi too!

“I used to work with him,” Jagger answered.

“Ask him
where
he used to work with the guy, Tabby,” David prodded. He chuckled. Josh Woodburn chuckled too.

Shaking his head, Jagger didn’t wait for Tabby to pose the question. He simply explained, “I worked with him in Phoenix over the summers while I was in college.”

“Really?” was the only response Tabby could manage. She knew she sounded like an idiot, and she knew Emmy, Jocelyn, and Naomi were watching with pure delight.

“Dude!” David said to Tabby then. “Jagger worked with him all right…at a gig just like this…as a naked cliff diver in the same kind of restaurant!”

Tabby knew the smile on her face was far broader than it should be—that the pure, delicious delight she felt inside was too obvious in her expression. Jagger Brodie, a cliff diver? The thought and the images it provoked were absolutely fantastic!

“Really?” she asked a third time, feeling her smile broaden even further. She thought for a moment that Jagger Brodie would think she didn’t know any word other than
really
.

“Yeah,” Jagger said, turning his attention back to his menu. “His uncle owned a place just like this, and he gave us summer jobs. I worked days as lifeguard at the local pool and nights as a cliff diver at the restaurant.”

“That’s how the guy here got this place going,” David said. “His uncle’s restaurant in Phoenix did so well, the dude opened this one.”

“You mean Armando owns the restaurant?” Tabby interjected. She was astonished. Jocelyn’s cliff diver was actually the Acapulco’s owner?

“I don’t remember, dude,” Jagger said. It was obvious Jagger was uncomfortable—that he didn’t want to talk about his days as a cliff diver. Tabby had the momentary thought that perhaps it was because she was standing there—that maybe he didn’t want to reveal the scandalous details of having worked as a restaurant cliff diver in front of her. She liked to think it was because he was polite—not because there was plenty to brag about, stuff that shouldn’t be discussed in front of other women.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, Miss Flanders,” Professor Lowery said.

Tabby smiled. Professor Lowery was a man of discreet mannerism. No doubt he sensed Tabby’s discomfort—though she hoped he couldn’t guess as to the true reason—and was offering a pathway of escape.

“You too,” Tabby said to him. She looked to David and then to Josh. “You boys have a nice lunch.”

“Bye, Tabby,” David said.

Summoning every ounce of courage she could, she glanced to Jagger Brodie. He was indeed looking at her. A rather expectant grin was on his handsome face, as if he doubted she would acknowledge him as well. Forcing a nervous smile, she nodded to him before hurrying toward the gift shop.

She was trembling—perspiring! Just the brief conversation—just the short period of time spent in Jagger’s presence—had entirely rattled her. She couldn’t wait to get back to the table to tell the girls what she’d learned. Jagger Brodie—a cliff diver? Armando—owner of the Acapulco? Tabby giggled as she stepped into the gift shop and saw a spin-rack packed with postcards of the Acapulco cliff divers.

“I guess I know what I came here to purchase,” she muttered to herself as she picked out three postcards boasting images of Armando either diving or preparing to dive—all three displaying his admirable physique. “Just a little something for Jocelyn.”

“We call them the Foxy Four,” David was telling his brother. “See the one with the dark hair? That’s Naomi. She’s a little severe—too smart to be a whole lot of fun all the time—but she looks good.”