Bittersweet Surrender (16 page)

They did. For now.

“So, C. J., have you heard any more from Jake?” Carly asked nonchalantly before spearing a piece of broccoli.

C. J. grinned. “Yeah. He's looking forward to getting here as much as I am for him to come.” He took a drink from his glass of water. “I'm surprised, really.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

“Because he was seeing this woman, and boy, was she hot,” he said, outlining a woman with curves.

Why was it always about the curves? He was seeing someone? Why would he be writing to Carly? Was she stupid? Again? Nausea coiled in her stomach.

Carly saw Rita twitch.

“Ow,” C. J. said, turning to Rita. “What'd you do that for?” He frowned while rubbing his knee.

Rita looked as though she hadn't a clue what he was talking about. Her eyes flitted to Carly and back to him.

C. J. was confused. Not unusual. “Well, Carly doesn't care.” Then he blinked as though he'd realized how his comment about the curves might affect Carly. Her brother was quick. She'd give him that. “Oh, well, I mean, that's no big deal. Carly is Carly. It doesn't matter if—” Another thwack against his knee caused water to jostle in the glasses.

“Stop it, will ya?” he groused.

“It's all right, Rita.” They had enough problems without worrying about her love life.

“Well, he should be more sensitive.” Rita shot C. J. a mad look.

“Hey, sis, I didn't mean anything by that.”

“No problem. So tell me about Jake's girlfriend. He still seeing her?” Carly didn't take a bite this time, because depending on what he said, she could choke.

“I guess not or he wouldn't be coming here. He didn't answer my question when I asked him in the last e-mail what happened to her.” He laughed and shook his head. “That guy has always had a way with women.” He took an ambitious bite of mashed potatoes and swallowed. Lifting his glass, he paused before bringing it to his lips. “If I know Jake, it won't take him long to hook up with someone else.”

That's what Carly was afraid of—especially if that someone else wasn't her. She felt like a total idiot. How could she have thought Jake Mitchell would ever be interested in her?

“Hey, how about we meet for dinner and go
shopping?” Rita asked when Carly answered her work phone.

“Didn't we just do that on Saturday? Smitten? Anything ring a bell?”

Rita laughed. “See, you got me started and now I can't stop.”

“I don't know, Rita. I can't eat anything and nothing looks good on me.”

“Oh, hogwash. I'll pick you up in twenty minutes.” She hung up. That was Rita. She was pretty laid back until her protective side kicked in.

“I'm calling it a day, Scott. Don't work too late.” Carly grabbed her purse. It had been a long Monday and the trip over the weekend to Smitten hadn't helped all that much once she'd heard about Jake's former girlfriend.

“I've just got a few more things to do. I'll lock up when I leave,” he said.

Magnolia was at some committee meeting, so Carly left her a note, fed Pinkie and filled her water bowl, then headed down to Rita's car.

“Oh, those are cute jeans,” Rita said when Carly hopped in the car.

“Coldwater Creek. I love their jeans.”

“I can tell you've lost weight.”

“Five pounds, Rita. Scott has lost like fifteen or something crazy like that. I just want to tweak his skinny little bones. It's not fair how the pounds seem to slide off men while women work just as hard and get little results.”

Rita laughed. “Five pounds is still good.”

“If only I could put it in the right place.” Carly shifted her bra to make sure her insert was level.

“That's a nervous habit, you know.”

“What?”

“Checking your insert.”

“Well, sometimes it feels lopsided.”

“It's not lopsided. It's fine.”

“Whatever.”

Rita was getting on Carly's nerves. What did Rita know about inserts, feeling lopsided, all that? What did anybody know? Only other women who had been through it could understand. Maybe she should give the support group another try.

She knew she should be thankful she was alive. Instead, all she could think of was what was missing in her life.

At the restaurant they placed their orders and sipped on their drinks while waiting for the food.

“So what's my brother up to tonight?”

“Poker night with the guys.” Rita gave Carly a knowing glance. “I just couldn't stay home and watch.”

“It's at your house?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, at least you can keep an eye on things there.”

“He doesn't like me in the same room. Says it makes him nervous. And of course I don't want to do that or he might lose.”

“Hopefully, he won't let it get out of hand.”

“It's already out of hand.” Rita sighed. “But somehow we manage. I'm hoping it's a phase. Midlife or something. It's gotten progressively worse over the last year. Now he seems consumed with it.”

Carly had noticed but didn't say anything.

“I try to hide it. We both do. He can't seem to stop himself.”

“You know, C. J. has always struggled with trying to impress people. I don't know why. Dad was a hard worker, and C. J. could never relate to that. I think Dad was a little hard on him. Though I was younger, I always felt protective of C. J.”

“I remember that.”

“But then maybe Dad could see those tendencies in my brother. I used to think C. J. mismanaged his money as a sort of rebellion against Dad. But now with Dad gone, why would he still do it?”

“Who knows? Maybe still trying to prove himself. You know, strike it rich in an I'll-show-you type of way.”

“Maybe. Or maybe it's not that at all. Maybe it's just who he is and he'll always struggle with that,” Carly said.

“Oh, that's encouraging.”

“Sorry.” Carly smiled ruefully. Sometimes she thought C. J. just needed to grow up. One minute she needed to protect him and the next minute she wanted to give him a swift kick in his backside. Why couldn't she be the little sister for once and let him protect her?

“So, any more news from Jake?” Rita took a bite out of her stuffed burrito. Carly had no clue how the girl stayed so thin.

“I think he's supposed to be here on Friday.” Carly dipped into her taco salad, minus the fattening dressing, wishing all the while she was eating Rita's burrito.

“Oh, that soon?”

“Yes. And I'm only five pounds lighter and one boob short.”

“You're so funny. Your insert does a fine job of making you appear normal. Well, your body anyway. It can't really help your brain.”

“Hey.”

Rita laughed. “I'm just kidding.”

Carly pouted. “I just wish I had taken care of business when it all happened.”

“When Gary walked out, you couldn't think through the next hour, let alone make a decision as big as reconstructive surgery.”

“I know.” Saying nothing of the fact she had no insurance.

Carly poured more boring salad dressing over her salad. She broke off a bite of the tortilla shell. She didn't care if it cost her five pounds or not, she was going to eat at least some of it.

“You ought to buy a cute little black number for this weekend—especially since you're going to see Jake for the first time in a long time.”

Carly imagined herself thin and whole, decked out in a slinky black dress, matching jewelry, and perky heels. Jake's eyes lighting up the moment he saw her. She put down the tortilla shell. “You're right. I do need something. Black is slimming, but I want some color near my face.”

The idea of getting something new perked her attitude. This was just what she needed, something that would “wow” Jake when he saw her.

“What's the plan? Do you think he'll call when he gets into town?” Rita asked before taking a bite of rice.

“He said he would. One of the girls at work is giving me a mani-pedi. I'm also getting my hair colored and trimmed.”

“My goodness, you're going all out.”

No need to tell her about the gray hair sneaking in. They'd be gone soon. Besides, Carly was thankful she had hair.

“I want to look my very best when he sees me for the first time in years.”

They shopped awhile and finally decided
on a flirty red silk dress with strappy red shoes. By the time they headed out of the last store, Carly was feeling pretty good about things. After Rita dropped her off, she put her clothes away and tugged on her sweats. An invigorating run this evening would do her a world of good. She had to work off the extra chips she'd snacked on at dinner.

Jogging past the daylilies and budding roses, she started to feel energized. This workout thing was becoming a habit for her, and she was noticing a difference in her stamina. When she arrived at a nearby park, she stopped at a bench long enough to catch her breath.

“Caught ya.” Scott's hands came over her shoulders and caused her to jump.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was still at the office when you left, and I was going to ask you to jog with me. I saw you run by, so I grabbed my sweats, changed, and finally caught up with you. By the way, you're getting faster.”

She turned her head to him and noticed his face was red and sweaty. It made her feel good to know she'd made him work to catch up with her.

“Can't keep up, eh?” She jumped up from the bench and took off again with a laugh.

“Hey, give the guy a break, will ya?” His words were labored, so she slowed down a little. “Okay, okay, old man, I'll slow down.”

They jogged a little bit, each trying to catch breath.

“So why did you work so late?” she asked, taking in the cute way a lock of blond hair had spilled across his forehead.

“Had a lot of consulting work to catch up on,” he said. “And some things for the spa.”

Another pang of guilt. She could ask him about it, but the truth was she'd rather skip the gory details and find out the final result and deal with it then.

“How's Magnolia?”

“I haven't seen her much the past few days. She's always gone to some kind of committee meeting or out to save the whales. She's passionate for life.” Carly chuckled. “I should be more that way. Wait. I'm passionate about chocolates; does that count?” She smiled at Scott. “Really, I do enjoy finding good lotions and oils for the spa, looking up the next best thing. It keeps me on my toes.”

“Um, so to speak. Get it? Toes, spas, all that?” A bright laugh followed.

Carly stared at him.

He cleared his throat. “Okay, you care about lotions, oils, and stuff, why?”

The sidewalk was cracked and broken beneath her and she almost tripped. Thanks to Scott's steadying hand, she stayed upright. The same hand that had steadied her through other bumps in life.

“Thanks. I care about those things because it makes people happy—”

That's it!

She stopped so quickly Scott ran past her. “Makes people happy,” she said thoughtfully. “The work I do is like a fine restaurant for the outer body.”

Scott had circled back and jogged in place. “Well, that's one way of looking at it. It's easy to see you love what you do. Your eyes light up every time you step into the spa.”

“Really?” They started running again. She thought it funny that he would notice that. “I suppose I should get another hobby, but the truth is I keep plenty busy between the spa, and now with Magnolia and then Jake coming . . .”

“Oh, that's right. He'll be here this weekend, won't he?”

“That's the plan. I went shopping with Rita so I'd look decent when he saw me. We haven't seen each other in forever, remember.” She couldn't talk like this to any other guy on the planet, but Scott understood.

“Well, if he doesn't like what he sees, he's blind.”

She chuckled. “Spoken like a true friend. Thanks.”

“I mean it, Carly. You look great.”

“Thanks.”

They rounded the crest toward her house and as they got closer she saw a car in the driveway.

“Looks like you've got company,” Scott said.

“C. J. and Rita. I'm such a mess. Good thing it's no one from the spa. I wouldn't want to scare them off.”

“So you're a little sweaty. It happens when people run.”

“A little sweaty?”

“And your hair is a little disheveled,” he so graciously pointed out.