Playing with Fire (10 page)

“Still no quarters, dude. Use dimes and nickels.” As he turned and took the two steps to the counter to set the drink down, he spotted Macey entering the shack through the doorway to his left. His spirits rose, either because she might be able to get him quarters or maybe just because she was a friendly face in a sea of thirsty strangers. A heartbeat later, though, he frowned.

Trailing closely behind Macey was the firefighter who’d asked her out. The one she’d claimed to have turned down.

Evidently she’d lied, because there she was with him, and it was most definitely a date. She looked…God, she looked hot. She wore a short white dress that hugged her curves and showed off her tan, among other things. It wasn’t indecent—she was well-covered—but it was eye-catching, and sent Derek’s imagination into overdrive. Her heels added a good three inches to her height and made her legs look like a model’s. Her hair hung down in big waves over her shoulders and back, and she wore more makeup than usual.

“Look at Macey,” Lauren said with approval as she came up beside Derek. “Who is
that
she’s with?”

“Her neighbor,” Derek muttered, before helping the next customer. “Switch registers with me and take the line on the other side.” He was damn well going to be the one to wait on Macey and her “non-date.”

Macey smiled and flipped her hair behind her shoulder as Derek watched. No question, she was trying to impress this guy.

And unless the dude lacked a pulse, she was likely doing a hell of a job.

Derek’s eyes were drawn to her repeatedly as he waited on the people in front of her. He told himself it was because he hadn’t seen her dolled up for years. And frankly, she’d never looked quite like
that.

When the customers before her were served, Macey stepped up to the counter and smiled. “Hey, Dare.”

“Hey,” he grunted.

“Been busy?”

“Slightly. What can I get you?”

Her smile slipped a notch. Sue the hell out of him if he wasn’t as cheerful as her.

Evan had been talking to someone he apparently knew, standing a few feet away, and now he returned his attention to Macey, moving up beside her at the counter. He put his hand on the small of her back. “How’s it going?” he said to Derek.

“Going.” Derek had to fight to be civil. If the guy wasn’t a firefighter, he wouldn’t bother to try.

Macey’s gaze narrowed in on Derek. “I’d like a strawberry margarita and a basket of cocktail shrimp, please.”

“I’ll have a double burger, loaded, cheese fries and a beer.”

“Draw or bottle?” Derek asked.

“Bottle of Bud,” Macey answered for him. Wasn’t that just cozy that she knew his drink.

Her date nodded to another couple who came in as he dug out his wallet.

“What are you doing here?” Derek asked Macey. “It’s your night off.”

“Evan asked where I wanted to go for a drink and this is about the only place I know. Besides, the food’s decent.”

Derek couldn’t help but be mollified a little by the smile she gave him. “Plus I make a mean strawberry marg.”

“That, too.”

“Thanks,” Derek said to Evan as he took his cash. “I’ll bring it out to you in a couple.”

And since he was so damn nice, he wouldn’t even mess with the guy’s food.

There wasn’t a thing wrong with him. Quite the opposite, actually—someone needed to fall in love with this man. Probably many women already had. Macey would be shocked if he hadn’t left a path of broken hearts in his wake.

He was a decent conversationalist and had a great sense of humor. Then there were his looks and that body. He was striking in an everyday, athletic, quarterback way. With muscles to match.

Yet there was no spark when she looked at him, no desire to take him home and talk for hours and then do something altogether different.

She wished there was because the whole point of going out with him was to see if he could help her forget Derek. If this man couldn’t do it, there weren’t likely many, if any, who could.

“There’s something I need to ask you,” Evan said as they strolled along the beach in the general direction of their apartment building, Macey carrying her heels. They’d stayed at The Shell Shack for much longer than they’d planned, talking their way through a couple more drinks.

“You make it sound serious,” Macey said, hoping he would lighten up in response.

He didn’t. He walked for several more moments before saying anything at all. “What’s going on between you and the ex-firefighter? Derek, is it?”

“Derek. Nothing’s going on.” She nodded once with conviction.

“Macey. As the guy stuck in the middle, give me a little credit.”

What could he possibly know? She always made a point of not showing how she felt about Derek. Well, except for the kiss, but that was just a giant error no one had witnessed. And Derek had initiated it, which made her feel not quite as exposed by it.

“What are you stuck in the middle of?” she asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. Were you two involved in the past?”

Only if you counted her dreams. “We’re friends. Good friends. We grew up together. Our moms have co-owned a restaurant for years and that’s how we met. When we were five. We’ve never been more than friends.”

“That’s a big explanation for a little question.”

She hadn’t considered it such a little question, but she supposed that was revealing in itself. “There’s nothing between us,” she insisted.

“I was right there. I’d have to be dead not to notice how he reacted to seeing you on a date with me.”

“
I
must be dead then. How did he react?”

“He staked his claim.”

“He doesn’t have a claim.” Her heart contradicted her words, constricting with the familiar ache.

“He’s got…something. Feelings for you.”

“Yes. Brotherly feelings. That’s all.” Just admitting it out loud was like a knife to the chest.

“So you’re trying to tell me the cold shoulder he gave me was simply a don’t-break-my-sister’s-heart warning kind of thing?”

“Yes.”

Again Evan didn’t speak for several seconds. Then he shook his head. “You’re wrong.”

Jeez. This wasn’t fair to Evan and she knew it. She stopped walking and he followed suit. “I care about him. Not as a brother. But it’s all one-sided and I’m embarrassed to tell you that, and so sorry I went out with you when I care about someone else and there’s really no hope of getting past it.”

Evan studied her as he absorbed her words. She reached out and touched his forearm. “I’m sorry. I’d hoped that spending time with you could change the way I feel. You’re so…” She felt her cheeks warming and hoped her blush wouldn’t be visible in the dark, big moon or not. “You know you’re good-looking.”

A cocky grin spread across his face and he stood straighter. The grin faded quickly, though. “I’d be flattered if you weren’t rejecting me. You’re hard on a guy’s ego.”

Macey tried to keep a straight face. “I suspect you have enough ego to get through just fine.”

“You hurt me with such cruel words,” he mocked, making her laugh.

She pushed her hair behind her ear and started walking again, watching the white glimmer of shells beneath her feet until she and Evan angled off the beach and cut across the pavement toward their building. “You’ll have a new woman next week.”

“I was hoping for tomorrow. You must not think much of me, after all.”

“If you take someone out tomorrow, she’ll just be a rebound girl.”

He chuckled. “And that would be a problem because…?”

“You try to sound like such a heartless jerk, but you’re actually a good guy.”

“And yet you choose him over me.”

“I knew him first,” she said, shrugging, as if it was as simple as that.

They’d arrived at the stairs to the second floor, and climbed together in silence. When they got to the top, Evan followed Macey to her side of the building. Outside her door, she faced him.

“I had fun tonight,” she said.

“Liar.”

She flicked him on the upper arm, which was hard as marble. “I did. I know you didn’t, though. Sorry about that.”

“Nothing to apologize for. I’ll see you at the pool in a couple days.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, and for a heartbeat, she wondered if she’d decided too soon she wasn’t interested. The notion passed and she was just glad he was understanding. “Definitely. Thanks, Evan.”

He squeezed her hand gently before walking off. When he was two doors down, he turned toward her but kept walking backward. “He does have feelings for you, Macey. And if I had to guess, there’s nothing brotherly about them at all.”

Evan was inside his own apartment before Macey could form a coherent sentence to set him straight.

She allowed herself to imagine, just for a minute, what it would be like if he were somehow right.

Before he started, he went into the kitchen and got the coffeemaker going. He’d had an extra hard time sleeping last night and would need as much help as possible getting through the wimpy eight-hour shift Macey had scheduled him for. He still wasn’t comfortable with not being here every hour the place was open, but he’d run out of arguments and had made her a promise that he’d only work the shifts she scheduled him. He wasn’t any better rested than he’d been when working open to close every day.

When he came back out of the kitchen, Gus was seated on his usual stool.

“It’s 10:00 a.m.,” Derek said. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s noon somewhere.” His uncle, wearing his usual bucket hat and a gaudy plaid, button-down shirt that tented on his bony body, spread out the newspaper in front of him. “Took the early shuttle today. Got me a date this afternoon.”

“You’ve got a date?” Maybe the sky was actually falling and those weren’t just heavy clouds out there.

“Don’t act so surprised, boy,” Gus said smugly. “I’ve had plenty of women in my time.”

“You haven’t had any since I’ve been here. You’ve been too busy watching over my shoulder to notice any besides Macey and Andie.”

“Thelma lives down the hall at the retirement home. Had my eye on her since she moved in.”

“Finally made your big move, huh?”

“We’re going to a matinee.” Gus’s excitement, or maybe it was self-satisfaction, made his eyes shine.

“Well, good for you. One of us should be getting some action.”

“Since when are you interested in action, boy?”

“I’m not.”

Something about seeing Macey out with what’s-his-name had jump-started a part of his brain that had been dead. Specifically the part that was concerned with getting some action. He’d woken up in a sweat—and not a cold one. He’d gotten up, taken an icy shower and gone running, even though it hadn’t quite been 5:00 a.m.

“You gonna help me with these things?” he asked Gus, carrying the plastic sheets to the outer wall where he’d opened the shutters.

“Wasn’t planning on it, no.”

Derek hoisted himself up on the wooden counter that lined the perimeter of the bar and started snapping the top of the plastic into place. “Too bad. Would’ve paid you in liquor.”

“Like hell you would’ve. Damn teetotaler,” Gus grumbled as he hobbled toward the opposite end of the opening and held the plastic in place.

“If I’m a teetotaler then you’re a saint.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

“Not until I get you your drink, you won’t,” Derek said, moving across to Gus’s side and working his way down to the bottom snaps.

“You’re awful crotchety today, boy.”

“I don’t have a date, remember?”

“Maybe you should get one.”

“Like hell.”

“I suppose you think that wouldn’t be proper because of what happened to your girlfriend.” Gus’s voice went soft, as if he was hesitant to bring up the subject of Julie.

“I suppose you’re going to tell me it would be.”

“I don’t know a damn thing about what’s proper or improper, but I do suspect she’d never want you to piss your life away because she died.”

“You done yet?” Derek asked, moving to the next set of shutters and unlocking them.

“Eh, I’m not done till I quit drawin’ breath.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

His uncle had made his slow way over to this opening and continued to help. Derek glanced at him as the older man stretched to reach the top. Gus’s arms shook with age and exertion and Derek instantly felt like an asshole.

“I got this,” he said. “Go sit down and I’ll get you your whiskey as soon as I’m done.”

Gus stubbornly continued snapping his side, and Derek shrugged and finished the bottom of the plastic.

A few minutes later, Gus had his drink and Derek was behind the counter slicing lemons.

“Can I ask you something without you biting my head off?” Gus asked.

“I’m not going to bite your head off.”

“The way you’re going after that fruit…what happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re worse than a scorned hormonal woman today. What’s going on?”

“Not a thing.”

Macey
.

It bothered him that she’d gone on a date. Wouldn’t have mattered if it was the firefighter or the pope. Seeing her out with someone made Derek want to punch things.

He was in no position to react that way.

He turned to the lemon supply and sliced two of them vigorously, taking pleasure from the sound of the knife smacking the cutting board and echoing through the empty bar.

Ultimately, though, the lemons didn’t make him feel much better so he wiped his hands clean and took out two shot glasses. He set them on the counter in front of Gus with a clank, then grabbed the top-shelf tequila and filled them.

“What’s this for?” Gus asked.

Derek leveled a look at him. “I don’t believe in much anymore, Uncle Gus, but I do believe in the power of tequila.”

Gus nodded. “I’ll drink to that. Here’s to the holy agave. Happy Sunday, boy.”

Three shots took the edge off and by the time Macey came in at noon, Derek felt as if he might be able to set aside his feelings about her and her date. In fact, he was determined to.