Double Dare (7 page)

“I’m going to assume,” he grinned, taking her breath with the way his face lit up, “I scared you.”

“Yes.” It came out as a laugh. How could she not with him grinning like that?

“I wondered where you went.”

“You could have made a noise.” She went to put a hand over her heart, but stopped short, remembering the goop.

“Trash?”

She reached forward and said, “You don’t have to—”

“I know I don’t
have
to.”

“Over by the tables.” She attacked the floor with the mop until all the red disappeared. Thankfully, he wasn’t watching her, but was frowning down at the pie section.

“Dustpan?” she asked, and he brought it to her.

“You give your food interesting nicknames.”

“Started in college. I’d make something Sasha or Abigail would say Finger Lickin’ Pie or OMG Chocolate Chips.” She shrugged. “Traditions are hard to break. Sasha makes the placards.”

He nodded his head slowly as though he was just realizing something. “You’re close to your friends.”

It wasn’t a question so she didn’t feel the need to answer it. “Was there something else you needed from me?”

“I see you’ve put out the cookies I had last night. I could use two, no, six. Josh’s covering for me.”

“Does he eat you out of house and home?”

The laugh burst out of him, and the sound of it seeped into every cell of her body. How could she have thought this man didn’t have charm? It was there in his smile and laugh.

“Imagine me at work,” he said. “All day thinking about the last piece of lasagna or whatever. I can see myself heating it up and taking the first bite. Then I get home and can’t find it anywhere because Josh has already hoovered it up. This scenario is a regular occurrence in my house.” This time the laugh was deep in his chest again.

She didn’t have to ask if he loved his brother. The light in his eyes spoke volumes. “Let me wash my hands and I’ll get them for you.”

Emma took the time to pull herself together. This wasn’t the type of man to fantasize about after one full-bodied laugh. Her friends may think she was conservative and it would make sense for her to be attracted to a man who fell into the same category, but Emma wanted one of those fun men. Men who didn’t mete out laughs like they were rationed commodities. A man who wouldn’t only understand the immature dares she did to make her friends happy, but one who would contribute ideas.

Tobias, a man who had a black tee shirt fetish, did not fit into the fantasy. Keeping it all business between them wouldn’t be a problem. Discounting the kiss, Tobias was a little rigid.

The description reminded Emma of her ex-boyfriend, Sean. Being with him had taught her a life-changing lesson. With him, she’d seen the dapper and serious man and thought he’d turn fun. Isn’t that what happened when you fell in love? The man in the three-piece suit who worked, worked, worked would take an afternoon off to dance in the park and sing in the rain.

She’d loved the man Sean could be, not the one he was. On the flip side, Sean never looked past her reliability and steadfast manner. He was completely baffled by the side of her that willingly participated in the dares. He crushed her heart and life crushed her soul. Only for a little while because after that she had refused to let it. In the end, they’d both been criminally young, and there were light years between that girl who loved Sean and the woman she was now.

May have been glass between them, but there was just as much distance between Tobias and herself. The conclusion eased the expectant tension in her body. “How are things going?”

“Smooth.” He had his thumbs stuck in the pockets of his jeans. He drummed his fingers along his thighs. “I’ve been up to twelve people sitting at one time. Three were writers. I’m thinking I should charge them a fee.”

Emma’s eyes widened with horror at the bloodthirsty tactics, until she noticed the light in his eyes again. Blanking her face, she said, “Charge them by the hour, not the words.”

She added some Raspberry Swirls and Caramel Drops to the cookies. At the cash register, she handed the box to him without ringing it up.

“How much?” he asked.

“I don’t
have
to charge you.” Then she remembered. “I need to get your coat back to you.”

“That’s…fine. Get it to me when you can.” He lifted the box. “Thanks. And don’t go easy on my brother. Make him earn his keep.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m paying him.”

“Emmaline,” he paused and his gaze raked her from head to toe, leaving a trail of heat behind. “You didn’t even check his ID when you hired him. What are his duties?”

He had to stop saying her full name. Her heart refused to settle back into a normal pace when he did. “What does that even mean? You didn’t check his ID,” she mimicked his dour tone. “People hire all the time without checking someone’s ID first.”

“It means you had no intention of hiring an assistant. He looked at you with sad eyes and you caved.”

“You say it like it’s a personality flaw.” She threw up a hand in exasperation.

“Not my intention. It’s an observation.” He seemed to consider something and a ghost of a smile played at the corner of his mouth, then it flattened. “You’re a marshmallow.”

“I am not.” Indignation filled her tone.

“How many times have you run naked down the street?”

“Once.”

He glanced down at Emma and brought his gaze back up to her face as if he could read her history on appearance alone. “How many reckless things have you done for your friends?”

Defensive, she crossed her arms. “Doesn’t mean I’m a marshmallow. If your coffee was crap I would have turned down your offer.”

“You would have, but that’s because you’ve got a sense for business. Though I have to question the free cookies.”

“Oh, free cookies.” She sucked her teeth, shaking her head. “That’s a sure sign someone is soft and can’t run a business.”

“And what exactly will my brother be doing from three to seven?”

Emma swallowed, because she hadn’t figured it out yet. Depended on how long it took him to fill out the paperwork. She’d give him something to chew on while he went through it. Eating and filling out paperwork doubled the time. From there, she’d iron out a plan. “Paperwork and then errands.”

He shook his head. “Plying him with dessert doesn’t count.”

“You could have given him a job,” she countered; because there was no way Emma would admit he was right.

“I’m not soft, but I’m not cruel. There’s the difference. I provide everything, and all he has to do is graduate from college. That’s the deal. He brings home crap grades, he’s out. I’m fair when life rarely is.”

Tobias was straighter than an arrow. There was something comforting in knowing you’d get the same result every time, because there was nothing worse than someone with shifting ethics.

“I won’t hold you up.” He lifted the box again. “Thanks, Mallow.”

His tone was so deadpan she couldn’t hold back the laugh. It bubbled out of her throat. It may have been her imagination, but he grinned on his way out. A pang shot through her heart. She wished, for only a second, he’d turn that grin her way. A foolish fantasy. One more dangerous than serving Late Night on a first date. Another customer walked in, and Emma was more grateful than she could put into words.

Chapter Six

Stupid to be on his sixth set of squats, but it was just as dumb to flirt with Emmaline. Tobias would regret both actions in the morning. Sweat slid down his legs. The plain white walls shone in his peripheral, forcing him to squint. He’d turned one of the larger the guest bedrooms into a gym. Ripped out the carpet, put down mats and turned one wall into nothing but mirrors. Catching a glimpse of himself in the reflection, he noted the strain around his eyes.

“Is something wrong?” The basketball jersey outfit hung on his brother’s lithe frame as he did curls.

“No,” he said on a grunt. Tobias rested, swiping at the sweat on his face with a black towel. He began on his next set of squats.

“What set are you on?”

“Concentrating,” he gritted out, feeling the give in his knees. He’d better quit soon or he’d have more than regrets. Shaking out his legs on the cushioned floor, he tried to get to the treadmill before his heart rate slowed. He stabbed at the buttons to cue in a fast-paced walk. “What did you do at work today?”

“Man, Emma—”

“Miss Sharp.”

His brother cut a look Tobias’ way. “She’s really good in the kitchen.”

Josh stood, picked up another twenty-pound weight and began doing flies. No bulge of muscle, but definition. Tobias let an ounce of pride fill him.

“Loosen your elbow,” he said. “She is, but what did you do?”

The weights rested at Josh’s side and he shrugged. “Nothing. Filled out some paperwork. She kept interrupting me, wanting me to try some recipes. By the time I finished filling out the HR stuff, my shift was over.”

He snorted. Marshmallow to the core and the thought made him frown. It wasn’t any of his business. Emmaline wasn’t trying to con Josh. The thought probably never crossed her mind. She barely had a plan for what his brother would do to draw a check.

The woman didn’t have a dishonest bone in her soft, warm body. He missed a step. Chastising himself, he put his mind back on the task. Flirting could just be flirting. It didn’t have to go any further. Would it kill him to not jump from mindless actions to all the dire outcomes in one thought?

“Tobias, are you ok?”

“Yeah.” Josh was looking at him out the corner of his eye in total disbelief. Tobias said, “Did she tell you what you would do tomorrow?”

“She needed me to come in early. Lunch. Meeting some guy named Roger.”

“Roger?” He missed another step, but managed to get back into the rhythm by the next one.

“Some lawyer. She called him on the phone.”

His chest started to burn and he evened his breathing before asking, “For lunch?”

“She was laughing and blushed a few times. Is that normal for a woman her age?”

He’d noticed the blushing habit, but that was a cue Tobias was telegraphing his thoughts in his eyes. “For some people.”

Lunch? He knew attorneys. No false gods came before the billable hour unless they could at least charge a .02 of an hour for it. “And she’s not old.”

“She’s your age.”

“Dear baby brother of mine…” He punched up the treadmill’s speed. Rubber slapped against rubber as he ran. “If you don’t see it, I can’t describe it.”

As if speaking of the devil, he could see her again on the street. A better nickname would have been Lucky, and he could have seen her blush scarlet. But calling her Lucky would have thrown them into a sexually charged No Man’s Land he was trying like hell to avoid. Mallow, made her laugh, and that was fine because you laughed with friends and associates. Secret jokes didn’t cross the line.

I used to laugh with my lover
.

“I’m not blind,” Josh said, insulted. “She’s a ten. Just for her age. Are you and her―are you ok?”

Tobias slapped the abort button on the treadmill. “I’m fine. Stop asking me.”

“Yeah, ’cause you’d tell me if something was wrong.”

“What?” The comment stilled him.

Josh kept his focus on what he was doing as Tobias had taught him. “Like I said, I’m not blind.”

Blood roared in Tobias’ ears. Reality wavered and slipped into memory.

He couldn’t see
her
face. Whenever he tried to see Gabriella’s face, her lifeless eyes would super-impose on the memory. But he could see her sculpted form, chiseled by the miles she ran in the morning. He could hear the huskiness in her voice. The white sheet wrapped around her leg, leaving her bare from the knee up.

The livable sheets.

Sweat clung to the hollow of Gabriella’s stomach as she breathed out heavily. “Partners, no matter how close, don’t live in each other’s pockets like we do. He’s sixteen.”

Gabriella’s laugh filled the room, filled him. The interior of the room he couldn’t see, but knew was bare, so bare. “I’m conveniently here when he gets home from school. Boys are born with a sixth sense to know when sex is happening.”

“Our parents just died. He’s the one who found my dad after the heart attack, and then my mom a week later. He needs time to adjust. He’s scared I’m going to leave him, too. Every day I go to work he’s frightened one of you are going to show up and start with the I’m-sorry-but speech. You’ve seen it. He’ll see you as a threat.”

“Me? A threat?”

Her delicate hand hung limply in his, covered in blood.

“Tobias!” There was a note of tension in Josh’s tone.

“Yeah?” The white walls and mirror came back into focus.

Josh searched his face and then his shoulders hung with relief. “Are you going to start something with her?”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “Of course not. We’re giving each other’s business a boost. That’s it.”

Josh picked up the weights. Tobias’ forehead scrunched up. Confused, he tried to remember when his brother put the weights down.

“Are you an eunuch?” his brother asked.

His head snapped back at the question. “What?”

“You don’t date.” Josh shrugged and picked up the reps where he left off. “You don’t get late night calls. Do you pay for it?”

Disgusted, Tobias said, “Not your business and no.”

“It is when all you do is breathe down my neck. You spend time with a ten and don’t look twice at her.” Josh hesitated, “And zone out.”

“Sex would cure all this?” He shook his head. “Thought I taught you better.”

“Wouldn’t cure what’s wrong, but it sure as hell would help. More chasing her and less chasing me. She’s nice.”

Josh hesitated a beat longer this time, but finally added, “Tomorrow, after work, I’ll be hanging out with some friends. Guys I met at the college campus when I had to turn in my school schedule. Won’t be home until late, if at all.”

Tobias had to force his expression to stay flat because he wanted to laugh. “Is this where you tell me about the birds and bees?”

Josh grinned at him. “If you don’t know it, I can’t describe it.”

*****