Almost in Love (7 page)

She grabbed his hand. “Come on.”

“All right.”

She pulled him to the center of the crowd, where he could lose himself in the pulsing beat and the rhythm of the other bodies pressing close. She threw her arms in the air and danced freely, giving herself over to it, moving in a sensuous wave.

Bare stood there, staring at her. She danced closer to him, so close she occasionally bumped into his chest. He settled his hands on her hips, his fingers gripping her tight.

She grabbed his hands. “Loosen your grip. I gotta move.”

He released her, and she danced a sexy circle around him. He stayed stock-still, but his eyes never left her. She reached his front again and looked up at him. “Come on, Bare, dance with me.”

He did a few head bobs. She kept dancing, waiting for him to catch up. Suddenly he burst into an Irish jig. One hand waving in the air, the other behind his back, his feet moved in a quick shuffle-tap motion. She slowed her dance, almost afraid to see what he’d do next. He kicked up his heels to one side, then the other. He was graceful, in time to some mysterious Irish song in his head, perfect for The Dancing Cow but…not at all right for The Bohemian.

People stopped dancing to watch him. He took that as encouragement and kept going. She stopped dancing and watched in growing horror. Should she tell him to stop? People closed in around him in a circle, clapping in time to his jig. She lost sight of him as more people pushed in to watch the strange dance.

She felt a hand on her back, and then someone spun her around. She smiled at her frequent dance partner Carlos. “Hey, stranger.”

“Hey,
chica bonita.”

“I’ve got a date,” she said, quickly sidestepping him, trying to find Bare. She went up on tiptoe. There were so many people. She still couldn’t see him, and then Carlos grabbed her, pulling her back to him. He danced in front of her, face to face, pelvis to pelvis, as they did every time they found each other at the club. It never went further than that. They danced, he moved on to the next woman, just fun. Her friend Steph used to dance with him too—the two of them on either side of him.

She tried to see around Carlos, but he was moving side to side now, all in her space. She kept dancing, hoping Bare would show up sooner or later. Finally, the crowd around Bare dispersed. She shifted, turning away from Carlos, searching the sea of people. Still no Bare. Carlos moved behind her, a hand on her stomach, grinding into her from behind, not hard, just enough for her to know he was there. She lifted her hair up, cooling the back of her neck, rocking her hips in time to the music as she kept an eye out for Bare. Carlos’ hands went to her hips as he moved with her.

She danced, scanning the sea of people, and was about to leave the dance floor when Carlos pulled away suddenly and a sprinkle of cold water hit her back. She turned. Omigod. Carlos was absolutely soaked, mostly through the crotch of his black leather pants. He turned, furious, looking for the aggressor.

“You two need to cool off,” Bare said, holding an empty plastic cup.

Carlos dove for him, knocking the cup out of his hand and throwing Bare to the ground. Amber leaped into the fray, hanging onto Carlos’ arm before he could smash his fist into Bare’s face.

“Stop!” she cried. “Don’t hurt him.”

“These are leather!” Carlos exclaimed. “He ruined them.”

“He’ll pay for it,” she said.

“Like hell,” Bare snapped. He took advantage of Carlos’ distraction and rolled away from him. He stood and leaned into Carlos’ face. “You stay away from her. Hear me?”

Amber jumped in before Carlos had a chance to beat the crap out of Bare. She didn’t know how Bare would do in a fight, but she’d seen Carlos before. He was a black belt. “Very sorry, Carlos, I’ll make it up to you.”

She pulled at Bare until he finally followed her out the door.

The night air was cool, and she tried to focus on deep breathing so she wouldn’t yell at him. What was he thinking picking a fight with Carlos of all people! The man was a lean, muscled super-ninja fighter. And Bare…she glanced over at his scowling face, his wrinkled shirt, and khakis. Bare was an Irish-jig-dancing cow.

“Bare, I don’t think this is going to work out between us,” she said gently. “We’re too different. We should just stay—”

“Friends,” he bit out. “I know.”

“I mean, we just don’t fit in each other’s lives.”

His jaw clenched. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Okay, then. They walked down the street to where the cow car was parked. Tension radiated off her usually good-natured friend. She couldn’t take the silent treatment.

“Are you mad?” she asked.

He stopped and pinned her with a hard look. “No, Amber, I love watching you have sex on the dance floor in front of me.”

She jolted at the harsh words. “I wasn’t having sex with Carlos.”

“You did everything you could with your clothes on,” he sneered. “What do you call it?”

“I call it dancing, you jerk! And I would’ve danced like that with you if you weren’t so busy doing that crazy Irish jig.”

He laughed mirthlessly. “Well, I’m real glad you got to
dance
with Carlos. Really made my night.”

“Don’t talk to me like that you judgmental, uptight…bird-cow man.”

“Amber…” His voice came out in a deep growl that had her heart thumping like crazy. “I won’t share you.”

She recovered fast. “
Share me?
I’m not
with
him. I’m not with you either!”

“Obviously not, or we wouldn’t have had a scene like that.”

He strode toward the car and opened her door for her. She got in and slammed it closed herself.

They drove home in silence.

Three weeks later…

Barry was still stuck in involuntary celibacy and missing Amber like crazy. Sure, he’d known he wasn’t Amber’s usual type, but he’d made an effort. Did he or did he not have six-pack abs and a two-pack butt now? And they always had fun hanging out together. At least they did before they’d gone out on a date. She’d hated his date, and he’d hated hers. Any red-blooded guy would’ve hated watching their date all over another guy. She couldn’t blame him for that. He still didn’t know what went wrong with his idea for a date. Okay, she wasn’t crazy about birds, but she’d liked the beach. And then later at his shop, well, he’d wanted her to see his successful business and see him with all the kids. The kids loved the cow. He had to admit his spectacular fall with fro-yo splashed all over him hadn’t helped his cause. That didn’t exactly scream sexy.

He blew out a breath. Maybe he just wasn’t cool enough for her. She’d called him a bird-cow man. Birds weren’t cool, he supposed. Neither was dancing in a cow costume, no matter how much the kids loved it. He probably shouldn’t have done that. Sometimes he went overboard, not realizing it until it was too late. Still, there was that amazing kiss in the laundry room. The way she’d made little moaning sounds in her throat had him about to lose it right there. How could he make things right?

He fiddled around with his new Bird Bonanza app on his laptop, trying to fix a glitch in the program that kept mixing up the plumage of the birds. Maybe he should’ve just stuck to hanging out with Amber, watching that nightmare-inducing show
Zombie Bonanza
;
then he would’ve gotten the chance to kiss her again. He hated zombies, but he loved cuddling with Amber on her sofa.

But now Amber seemed to have moved on. He’d stopped by her place twice, and she’d said she was too busy with end-of-the-school-year stuff to hang out with him. He knew that wasn’t it. The problem was him. He should’ve kissed her when he had a chance, all those nights when she’d curled up against his side watching TV. He’d been afraid she’d kick him out if he did. He shoved a hand through his shaggy hair. What was wrong with him? Why could he not seem to get his footing with Amber?

Someone knocked on his door. He jumped up. Amber! She was the only one who popped by unannounced. He swung open the door, a smile on his face.

“Hey, bro, can I crash here for a while?” his younger brother Ian asked.

He lost his smile. “Sure, come in.”

Ian dropped a duffel bag next to the sofa. His youngest brother, at twenty-four, was halfway to a doctorate in computer science at M.I.T. But Ian was notably different from Barry in one very important way. Somehow his computer nerd brother was a ladies’ man. And not just with computer science geeks, he’d even made inroads in the engineering and physics departments.

“So what’s up? Why the visit?” Barry asked, flopping down on the sofa next to his brother.

“Semester ended and campus cleared out.” Ian lifted his brows. “Translation: lack of babes.”

“Ah. So do you have a job this summer?” Barry asked.

“Nah. I thought I’d just hang.”

Barry nodded, wondering how long Ian would “just hang” at his apartment. He’d never ask. He could never kick his little brother out. And he knew Ian found it hard to stay at their mom’s house with the memories of their dad there. Their dad had died a year ago, but it was still too painful for Ian.

“What’s new with you?” Ian asked, tossing his messy, wavy brown hair out of his eyes. His brother always looked a little messy. His hair was much more unruly than Barry’s, not to mention the fact that Ian couldn’t be bothered to shave every day and had a thick layer of stubble.

“Not much,” Barry said. “Working on a new app. Still working at The Dancing Cow.”

“Cool. What’s the app about?”

Barry explained his birding app that he hoped would help with conservation efforts and showed him the error he kept running into.

“Let me see.” Ian took the laptop and dove into the coding. Ten minutes later, he handed it back. “Fixed.”

“Really?” Barry took another look.

“Your recursive loop was calling back to a variable that wasn’t even named. Are you feeling all right?”

It was a stupid mistake. He just didn’t have the single-minded focus for app development like he did when he wasn’t spending all his time wondering how to get Amber back in his arms.

“Actually, no.” Barry exhaled sharply. “I haven’t had a girlfriend in an
unspeakable
amount of time, and the one woman I really like, who lives across the hall, by the way, wants nothing to do with me.”

Ian nodded. “You need to get laid. Got it. We’ll get you a woman.”

“I want Amber.”

“Sure, sure. You want my advice?”

Barry just knew he was going to regret this, but his own ideas for making Amber his girlfriend had flopped. “Yes.”

Ian rubbed his hands together. “C cubed is the solution. Can you guess what the three Cs are?”

Barry thought hard. “Candy, carats, climax? Hers, I mean.”

Ian threw back his head and laughed. “It’s not about her, it’s about you. And what are you giving her carrots for? Women hate when you act like they need to lose weight. Man, you really do need my help.”

“Not carrots, carats, like diamonds—”

“Women want an alpha.”

Barry stared at his brother, who was also a long, lean string bean with zero muscles. At least Barry had some muscles now thanks to his
Six-Pack Abs and Two-Pack Butt in 30 Days
workout
DVD, but still…no woman.

“Alphas are the confident leaders,” Ian went on. “C cubed is contacts”—he pointed to his eyes—“confidence, and condoms.”

“I don’t wear glasses.”

“Yeah, those are my three Cs. Yours might be different.” He pushed the hair out of his eyes. “But definitely the confidence one you need to get. Buy some condoms too. It’s one of those act-like-you’re-gonna-get-some-and-then-you-do kind of things.”

Hmm…he did have some condoms, but he could always buy more. He’d like to have lots and lots of sex with Amber. Morning sex, shower sex, nooners, afternoon delights, romantic night sex. All-the-time sex, basically. He had a lot of time to make up for in his celibate state, and he’d had a perpetual hard-on for Amber since the day they met.

He thought about the other C, confidence. They had mentioned confidence in
Cosmo
when he stumbled upon an issue online. He’d tried that with the whole looking-good thing, though, and it hadn’t helped.

Barry’s shoulders slumped. “It’s hard to have confidence when you keep getting shot down.”
Or when you watch an alpha have clothes-on sex with your date on the dance floor
, he added silently.

Ian got up and helped himself to a glass of water. “You gotta act like you’re all that. Then they’ll want some. Got any chips?”

“There’s pretzels in the cabinet next to the fridge.”

Ian made a face, but grabbed the bag of pretzels anyway. “Wait, I got it. Remember how you had those girls all over you senior year when you starred in
Grease
?”

“Yeah.”

Ah, memories. It wasn’t just The Pink Ladies and Sandy all over him. Half the girls in the senior class had a crush on him when he played Danny. He was that good. Of course, once the show was over, he was back to being regular old computer-nerd Barry. His girlfriend, Becky, who’d played Sandy, dumped him right after the cast party on the last night of the show. He’d been in love with her, and she’d been in love with Danny. Heartbroken, he’d moped around the house for a month.

Ian spoke around a mouthful of pretzels. “Do something like that.”

He shoved a hand through his hair. “I haven’t done any theater since high school. I’m too rusty.”

“You’ve got the chops. Just find some community theater, rehearse a bit, and audition.” Ian snapped his fingers. “Women galore. Especially if it’s
Grease
.”

“Maybe,” Barry allowed.

“You got any better ideas?”

“Nope.”

“All right, then, we’ve got a plan. Theater equals confidence. I’m starving. Let’s go grab a bite.”

“Sure.”

They headed out the door and passed Amber and Daisy O’Hare on their way in.

“Hi, Barry, how are you?” Daisy asked. She wore a tank top that showed her pregnant belly and a flowing skirt that ended at her ankles.

“Good. How are you?” He glanced at Amber, who immediately turned away. First step, get the woman to look at you.

“Who is this pretty lady?” Ian asked with a charming smile as he got up close and personal with Daisy.