Love Beyond the Curve (BookStrand Publishing Romance) (5 page)

“Can we leave after this?” She looked very bored with the whole evening.

“What? Aren’t you having a good time? They are great people, Candace.” He looked directly into her eyes, not trying to hide his exasperation with her attitude.

She nodded her head in agreement but seemed unmoved in her opinion of his friends. “I can see that you all have a great working relationship. They do really seem to respect you, but I still think it is a bad idea to fraternize with your workers.”

“Okay, let’s just forget it for now and enjoy the dance. You do look very pretty tonight, by the way.” He hugged her a little closer to him, leaning down to kiss her temple in an attempt to salvage the rest of the evening.

“Thank you for the compliment, but I still want to leave before too much longer.” She looked at him with a crooked smile, wise to his play at getting her to forget leaving soon. Reed threw his head back and laughed at her but didn’t commit to anything.

They continued dancing, and then Candace broke the silence by saying, “Isn’t that big girl over there the one renting your apartment? What was she thinking when she decided to wear that? She is entirely too fat to wear something like that out in public.”

Reed turned his head to look in the direction of Candace’s nod and was shocked to see Charlotte dancing with a tall, good-looking man that obviously was into her by the way he was sliding his hand down the length of her back, on over her hip. He was resting his hand there as they moved with the music. Reed couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he watched Charlotte remove the hand from her hip and place it back on her waist. As if she could sense his eyes on her, she turned her head in his direction, locking gazes with him. She shook her head and rolled her eyes at him, as if she knew he had just witnessed the hand removal from her hip. He grinned and nodded his head at her as the song ended, and he let go of Candace. A fast song followed, and he was surprised to see that she remained on the dance floor with “The Octopus.” He and Candace went back to their table, but his eyes remained fixed on Charlotte. He couldn’t help but notice she danced very well to the faster-paced music, as well as the slow. He took into account what she was wearing, since that was what Candace had been so appalled over. He thought she looked good and downright sexy with the way she was dancing in it. Candace would scream if she knew the exact thoughts that popped into his head as he began to watch her from their table. She was wearing a black dress with a sweetheart neckline and three-quarter-length sleeves. The hemline was about five inches above the knee. It was rather form-fitting, but the ruching of the skirt was slimming and made her look very appealing, in his opinion. What was sexier than the dress was her confidence. Reed thought she looked very sure of herself, and was only thinking about having fun and not how she looked to everyone. And did she ever look good.

Her full breasts and curvy hips moved very sensuously to the beat of the song she was dancing to. Octopus Man looked to be literally drooling over her as he leered at her body twirling around with her arms extended over her head. He didn’t blame the guy for trying to cop a feel. He remembered how she had looked when he rounded the end of the sofa, only to find her shirt ripped open and her huge breasts heaving as she cried into her hands. He remembered how soft she had felt against his chest as he held her while he tried to comfort her. She was soft, but there was also a firmness of muscle underneath. He could see the sculpted muscles of her outer thighs as she danced in the high-heeled red pumps. But then, he had already noticed those when they were washing cars together. She looked like she was trying to walk away from Octopus Man when the song ended, but he wasn’t having it. Maybe he could help her out. She’d do it for him, he was sure.

“Excuse me, Candace, I’ll be back.” Reed stood and made his way through the crowd to where Charlotte was beginning another slow dance with Octopus Man.

“May I cut in?” His deep, confident voice quickly got the attention of the couple.

Charlotte looked extremely relieved and said, “Of course.” Reed took her hand and pulled her away from the guy into his own arms, much to the disappointment of her dance partner.

“Thank you. I don’t think I could have stood another groping session with him. If I moved his hand from one place, he moved his other one to another.” She shook her head, placing her own hands on Reed’s broad, muscular shoulders.

“I saw. I thought maybe I could help you out, so here I am. Just mark it down on my file. I’m sure I’ll need help with something before long.” He laughed.

“I’m never going to be able to pay you back if you keep rescuing me every week. He is the brother of a coworker I’m here with tonight. He has decided I’m his type, and he knows he could really ‘satisfy me’ if I’ll just give him the chance. Can you believe he said that to me?” She shook her head in disbelief, yet laughed at the thought of the confident man.

“I can believe he would like to try. He just didn’t need to actually
say
it to you. He should have tried to
show
you what he could do for you. Then you might have been
begging
him to take you with him.” Reed’s rich, deep voice sent tingles running straight down to her lower belly. He arched a brow as he looked down into her smoky blue eyes, making her catch her breath.

“I suppose that is the ‘Jackson way,’ huh?”

“I suppose it is, at that.” He slid his hand a little lower to rest at the small of her back, where her spine began to curve into her hips.

“I like your style, Jackson. I hope Candace appreciates what she has in you.” She raised an eyebrow of her own now.

She couldn’t help but notice the way Reed stiffened slightly at the mention of his girlfriend’s name. Charlotte held his gaze and let him hold her.

Reed sighed and pulled her a bit closer to him. “I’m beginning to think Candace is only sure of her own worth, and how grateful I should be to have her on my arm. She nearly had a hissy fit in the parking lot before I literally dragged her into this place. I could really be having a great time with my friends if she didn’t take every opportunity to roll her eyes at me every time she lifted her glass to take a drink.”

“I’m sorry, Reed. She’s too much of a diva to realize she should be trying to do some things that you enjoy if she really cares about you. I’ve been there more than once. Men can be major divas, too. I told you about the ones that think I should be glad they’d be seen with me. In return, I should cater to their every whim. Yeah, I know the type.”

“What did you do?” He recalled their conversation from last week and wondered what she would do in the same situation.

“I told them to go fuck themselves, because it was obvious they loved themselves more anyway. I walked away, Jackson. I would rather be happy alone than waiting around for a crumb to be tossed my way. It wasn’t always that way. A long time ago I did feel grateful to have a relationship with a guy, rather than be alone, but then one day I looked in the mirror and told myself I was worth more than that. I know that somewhere there is a man that will spend the day thinking about me, and how I make him feel. I’ll be somewhere feeling the same way about him. He’ll realize that his best times are when he’s with me, and know in his heart he never wants that to go away. He’ll fall in love with
me
, and not see who I am based on my body type. In the meantime, I’ll continue to go through my days doing what has to be done, and not worrying about relationships. It will happen when it happens, and it will be solid. I finally love me, so I can really love someone else the way they deserve to be loved.”

“Sounds wonderful. You
deserve
to be loved that way, Charlotte. He needs to hurry up and get here. He doesn’t know what he’s missing. Well, I guess that’s the end of the song. I better get Candace out of here before she has too much more ammunition to use on the ride home. You going to be okay with Mr. Octopus?” He nodded toward her table where her friends were gathered and the guy was glaring their way.

“Certainly. In fact, I am going to head home myself. This has been a difficult week for me, and I could use the extra sleep. I enjoyed our dance. Good luck on the ride home. I’ll see you around.” She squeezed his hand and turned to leave.

Reed gripped her wrist and turned her around to face him. He then leaned down and kissed her gently on her lips.

Charlotte was taken by surprise by the gesture. “What’s that for?”

“Thanks for deciding to be yourself. I think you made the right decision.” And with that, he turned and walked back to his table and left with Candace beginning her tirade before they were even out the door.

Chapter Ten

Four days off. Charlotte couldn’t even remember when she had last had four days in a row off from work. She was the one who always volunteered to work extra shifts and holidays when women with kids were scheduled to work. She also had the least seniority, so a lot of less-than-desirable shifts came her way. She had been through a lot the last few weeks with losing two patients. She had gone into work early in order to be there for them and their families, as they had become quite attached to her. Somehow it made their last days easier, she thought, to have the people who cared the most by their sides. She loved her job, but it never got any easier to let a child go before they had had the chance to really experience life.

She was going to sleep as long as she wanted, setting no alarm clocks at all. If she slept for days, it would be fine with her. She was going to give herself a pedicure and manicure, as well as a facial. She would go online and shop for a few new outfits for the fast-approaching fall season. She might go rent a couple of movies, or better yet, read a sappy romance. She hadn’t had time to read since she began her new job. That would be the most decadent indulgence for her. She loved to escape with a good book. This was the perfect weekend to do it. She had Friday through Monday off. She wouldn’t have to go into work again until Tuesday afternoon. It was going to be a dream.

As she pulled into the driveway, she noticed Reed’s work truck was pulled very close to the house, and two guys were helping him get inside. “He must have really tied one on if he has to have two guys help him get in the house.” She chuckled to herself, but then she saw the bandage wrapped around his chest. Then she noticed the crutches. One of the guys was trying to help him use them.

“What in the world has he gone and done now?” she spoke aloud to herself, throwing her SUV into “park.” She jumped out to see if she could be of any assistance. She hung back until they had gotten Reed into the house, holding the door for them as they got him as far as the den. They eased him down into a recliner, where he winced in pain as he tried leaning back into the chair.

“What happened, guys? I’m Charlotte Hamilton. I live in the apartment behind the house. I’m also a nurse, so I wondered if I could be of any help.” She sat down on the edge of the sofa, watching Reed’s face contort with pain. He was pale, and beads of sweat were breaking out on his forehead as he obviously dealt with the severity of his condition.

“He had an accident on the job. He was helping to unload a truck of lumber so we could go home, and the crazy thing shifted. He jumped off the back of the semi and messed up his hamstring muscles. Because of that, he wasn’t able to move fast enough to get out of the way when lumber started coming off the truck behind him. He broke a couple of ribs when that happened. We took him to the ER. He’s got the two broken ribs and a badly strained hamstring in his left thigh. He’s got to stay off the leg for a week at least, using crutches only if he
has
to get up for the bathroom or something. He’s on pain medicine now, but it’s going to hurt like hell when that wears off.” The man stood looking down at Reed, who was sitting with his eyes closed, half listening to them discuss him like he wasn’t there.

“Did they give you a prescription for pain medication and tell you what to do to make him comfortable? I know what I would do, but I wondered if you have specific instructions from the doctor,” she asked the other guy that was standing there as she placed a cool palm against Reed’s damp forehead.

“Yes, ma’am. Here they are on this sheet of paper. He has to keep ice packs on it. Keeping it elevated is the main thing.” He handed her the paper to inspect herself.

“Did you get the prescription filled yet?” she asked as she stood up and reached down to check his pulse rate. It was steady and strong, much to her relief.

“No, we just wanted to get him home. I’ll go get it while you two figure out what to do with him next.” The redheaded guy patted the prescription in his pocket and made a quick dash for the door.

“Okay, he is going to have to be put in a bed, bathed, and that leg propped on a stack of pillows. We need to get the ice packs started as fast as we can. You think you could sit here with him while I check something out?” she asked his friend, hoping he was ready to bolt out the door, too.

“Sure, and my name is Tyler Baxter. Joe Wilson was the other guy.” He extended his hand toward her in greeting.

“It is nice to meet you, Tyler. Are you very familiar with this house?” She stood looking all around her, as she placed her hands on her hips.

“No. I’ve only ever been in here and the kitchen.”

“Okay, I’m going to see if there is a room on this floor where we can put him, so he won’t have to deal with stairs for a while. I’ll be right back.” She wheeled around and headed to a room near the back of the first floor.