Had To Be You (8 page)

“Geez, how long does it take to replace a stick?”

Rory glanced up at him with a quizzical frown.

“The one she wears up her ass every day,” he explained.

Her eyes widened in a stern look of reproof, even as she desperately attempted to stifle her laugh. Kevin didn’t try to hide it, his shoulders quaking as he almost choked on his donut.

Eileen had been dating Danny on and off for the better part of the last ten years. By all accounts, she was biding her time, just waiting it out until a ring appeared on her hand, but her patience didn’t exactly extend to his brothers. She was especially lacking in tolerance when it came to their, at times, inappropriate sense of humor. And when Danny first bought the beach house, she was none-to-pleased to realize that all the O’Sheas pretty much came with it.

“You’re terrible,” Rory said quietly, standing from the table when her cell phone beckoned from down the hall.

As she left the kitchen, Matt’s grin softened, his gaze following her until she disappeared into the guest bedroom. Her short t-shirt revealed a brief but enticing glimpse of her soft, toned tummy, and a tiny pair of boxer shorts hung low on her slender hips, accentuating those long, tanned legs.

He caught himself, trying to shake off the slight trance he’d fallen into, realizing that his thoughts were definitely straying to places they shouldn’t go this early in the morning—or ever again, now that he thought about it.

Over his coffee, he noticed Kevin was leaning back in his chair, grinning at him.

“If some guy put that smile on your face, I’m happy for you, brother.” Matt placed his mug back down on the counter. “I’d just rather not hear about it, thanks.”

Kevin shook his head slowly, looking like he just swallowed a canary instead of a chocolate cruller.

“Actually, I was thinking more about who is putting that smile on your face.”

“Oh, no.” He replied with a humorless laugh, refusing to play along. “This? This is not a smile.”

His brother raised a skeptical eyebrow. “It’s not?”

“No, it’s not,” he assured him as he hopped down from the counter. “It’s a grimace of fond regret for your lost youth.”

“Ah, I see…” Kevin laughed, nodding. “Crying on the inside, are you?”

Rory returned at that moment, her cell phone in hand, and took a seat the kitchen table again.

“Sorry—work stuff,” she said, glancing between them with an uncertain smile. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Matt said shortly, placing his coffee mug in the sink. “And, as much as I could do this all day, I gotta get going.”

“So, we’ll see you for a few beers later?” Kevin said.

“If you could manage to have any in stock when we get there, that is,” Rory added as she nibbled at a piece of coffeecake, trying not to smile.

He paused in the doorway.

“For you, my cynical cinnabun? Anything.”

With that, he left, jogging back down the stairs of the outside deck to hop into his truck and pull away.

Once he was gone, Rory’s smile remained. It was clear to her now.

Right or wrong, she wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

FIVE

The sun glowed hot in a pale sky as she pushed wilted strands of hair back off her forehead, squinting tiredly over at Matt in the glare.

He glanced back to where she was leaning against a dock piling, waiting for him.

“You sure you don’t want one?”

“You sure you do?” she called back in faint irritation.

He was currently ten people deep in line for one of the freshly-squeezed lemonades at the pushcart frozen drink vendor on the pier.

“Is that one of those rhetorical questions?” he countered, grin hovering at the corners of his mouth.

She only rolled her eyes in response, noticing other people in line glancing between them with traces of amusement at their exchange. She wandered away to the edge of the dock, tempted to just jump into the cool, sparkling blue.

It was only the third day of summer vacation, and they’d both spent the better part of the morning trying to find jobs—or rather, trying to find her a job, while he found some new distraction at every turn.

Finally the line made a surge forward and Matt was able to place his order. He joined her a moment later, handing over a frozen drink.

“I said I didn’t want one,” she reminded him, but accepted it reluctantly.

“Yeah, I know what you said.” He took a sip of his own. “So, there’s a party Saturday night, out past the beach at Thatcher Cove. You up for it?”

“A party?” She frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Come on—for once!” he urged her. “It’ll be fun.”

She turned to throw him a sly sideways grin.

“So, you’re not going to be there, then?”

“Ha!” Matt tossed his head back. “If that’s the way it’s gonna be, I’ll make you a deal.” He tilted his gaze towards her. “I promise not to speak to you, or even acknowledge you, if you’ll just do the same for me.”

“I’d be more than happy to ignore you, Matt. You don’t even have to ask.”

“Oh, no, trust me!” he returned the sentiment graciously. “The pleasure is all mine.”

She couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, and he chuckled as well, ducking slightly to bump a shoulder against hers before returning his attention to his frozen drink.

They paused by the marina to cross Main Street; the afternoon traffic snarled around the square in a tangled mess. The drawbridge was in its most upright position to allow a large commercial fishing vessel to pass through the narrow channel, and vehicles were jutting out of line everywhere at odd angles, causing even more congestion—as if they had actually been attempting to drive around it, ignorant of the water on every side.

“Ah, summer people…” Matt muttered around his straw. “It’s not so much the heat, as it is the stupidity.”

Rory smiled, sipping her drink. As they maneuvered through to cross the street, he reached up to playfully tug on her ponytail.

“Matt? Hey!”

Glancing in the direction of the unfamiliar voice, all Rory saw at first was the sun bouncing off shiny blonde highlights and a wide, perfectly white smile offset by raspberry lip gloss.

“Oh—hi, Casey.”

Rory glanced at Matt, wondering if she’d only imagined the strange squeak in his voice, almost as if his air supply had been cut off somewhere. Or maybe it was just all the oxygen in his blood was now rushing southward.

Casey Conroy was a year ahead of them, and co-captain of the high school cheer and dance squad. Rory had no idea they were so friendly. She arched an eyebrow, noticing her shorts barely covered the tight round curve of her butt, and her globe-like breasts expanded the material of her tiny athletic top in a manner that defied all laws of gravity.

“How’s your summer going so far?” Casey asked him, and then gave Rory a look that registered zero recognition. “Hi.”

Even if she was just a lowly sophomore, it was still a pretty small town. Rory even had some of her gymnastics meets in the same gym where the cheerleaders practiced. Yet obviously she didn’t rate enough to make her radar.

“Hi,” she said.

“Summer’s great,” Matt replied right after her.

“Did you hear about the party this weekend?”

“Ah, yeah, I heard something about that,” he said with a shrug, in all likelihood trying too hard to play it cool. “Maybe we’ll see you there.”

“Okay. See ya!”

Matt smiled after her.

Continuing on with a weary roll of her eyes, Rory tossed the rest of her drink in the nearest trash receptacle and shook her head.

“Ugh, just when I thought there was some hope for you…”

“What?” he exclaimed, throwing a hand up in the air as he hurried after her. “I’m just appreciative of the natural scenery, if you will.”

Rory smirked. “Looks more like paint-by-numbers to me.”

“What was that?”

She didn’t bother to reply as he caught up to her side. Though she’d never had any reason to meet her father’s new young thing—the one he left his family for—in Rory’s imagination she looked pretty much exactly like that.

After a moment, Matt reached up to play with the string tie of her bikini top that peeked out of the back of her shirt. This time she swatted him away like a fly.

A moment passed before she glanced over at him. “So that’s really what guys want, huh? Someone so…” She struggled to find the right word. “Obvious?”

His voice rose in exasperation. “She goes out with one of the guys on my team, okay? I never said I wanted her!”

“I know you didn’t. I’m just asking in general. I’m being serious here. That’s what most guys want. That’s what is considered sexy, right?”

“No, not necessarily.” A frown flitted over his brow but he was calmer now. “Despite the fact I know you’d like to lump us all under the category of lecherous horn-dogs with one-track minds, every guy is different. For a lot of guys? Yeah, that might be exactly what does it for them. But for others, it can be something a lot more simple—the way a girl laughs or smiles, for example, little things she does, habits she has.” His voice was softening with something undefined as his eyes drifted over her, words trailing off. Clearing his throat, he shook his head. “Stuff like that.”

Rory frowned uncertainly.

“And guys notice things like a girl’s sense of fashion far less than you might imagine.” He tilted his gaze towards her. “I mean, you dress fairly conservatively.”

She glanced down at her faded denim shorts and plain white tee, then back up at him.

“And?”

“And…” He sighed dramatically. “All I see is that you have a pretty nice rack.”

She stopped short, her mouth agape before she clamped it shut. Pressing her lips into a scowl, she punched him in the arm.

“Ow!”

“You’re repulsive.”

“What?” He couldn’t help but laugh as he rubbed the spot. “You asked!”

“I know. It’s my own fault,” she agreed, walking away. “I was under the mistaken assumption I was talking to another human being.”

“Okay, you want to know the truth?” Matt caught up to her again, resting his hand on her arm just briefly before quickly lifting it off in a gesture of surrender. “And don’t tell anyone you heard it from me, because I’m breaking all kinds of male codes of honor here, but most girls have the power to reduce a guy to putty in their hands, should they choose to use it. Because for the teenage male species? The mere fact a girl throws even a remote amount of kindness or interest their way could pretty much do it for them.” He shrugged in a gesture of capitulation. “Sad, but true.”

“And, I know you may not believe this,” he continued, “but guys are capable of having feelings, too. And if you have feelings for a girl? Well, just her saying your name in a certain way or doing something as random as touching your hand? Those can become the most unbelievably sexy things. If it’s the right person, of course.” He raised his eyebrows, sounding almost resigned. “Trust me. There is relatively little effort that needs to be involved.”

Slowing to a stop as they reached the boardwalk, he turned to face her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and lowered his voice to a solemn pledge.

“So, remember—use your power for good, not evil.”

Rory narrowed her eyes as his hands tentatively drifted down her arms, holding her there gently with fingers briefly intertwined. When he tilted his head, leaning in, she abruptly pulled back.

“And what do you think you’re doing now?”

“I have no idea,” he murmured, lips too close for comfort.

She placed her hand flat on his chest, shaking her head with a little smile as she shoved him off.

“Give it up, Matt.”

“Face it, Rory.” He laughed, jogging to catch up as she continued on her way. “It’s gonna happen one of these days. You can’t fight it forever.”

“I can try.”

***

Rory trailed Kevin through the throngs of people tangled around the deck entrance, most right off their boats tied-up at slips nearby. Men wore topsiders and polo shirts, while women were decorated in preppy nautical prints with knit sweaters to ward off the ever-present coastal winds. A younger crowd populated the inside of the pub, very similar to what she remembered from Boston college bars, just with less clothing and more sun-bronzed skin.

A sense of nervous energy and anticipation was building in the pit of her stomach as they wound their way through. She was more than anxious to finally see Matt.

Kevin had joined her for the obligatory meal at her mother’s house, providing a welcome touch of comic relief to the requisite small talk with her relatives. Then they’d started the night at a new, upscale martini bar (in the former location of the old Mayflower Mercantile) where he was meeting some of his work friends. They were perfectly nice and friendly, and Rory could tell that there was something more going on with him and Joshua, a good-looking music instructor from the middle school. As much as she didn’t want to rush or interrupt the budding romance, she kept stealing discreet glances at the clock.

Years of time unspent, and now minutes suddenly felt like hours.

Her smile lifted, all that anxious energy finally abating, once she spied Matt behind the bar. He was talking and laughing with his bartender, his tanned cheeks reddened with just the slightest hint of windburn right under his blue eyes. It was a tell-tale sign that he’d probably spent his afternoon out on the water. His thick, dark hair was neatly trimmed and he wore a button-down chambray shirt that nicely fit his strong shoulders. It made him look professional, polished, and devastatingly handsome.