The Ugly Truth (18 page)

As I undressed, I debated leaving on my bra and panties, but wet undies were more uncomfortable than wet outer clothes. So I stripped, dried off, put on the soft sweats that were probably six sizes too big but at least were equipped with a drawstring, and dried my hair with the other towel. Ah, much better. I was warm again.

There was a soft knock, and Jake peeked around the edge of the door. “Decent?”

“Sometimes. I’m dressed, by the way.”

He chuckled and walked into the room.

Abruptly I became very aware of my lack of undies. I could feel the cotton material of the shirt rub against my nipples. Jake’s clothes. That thought led very quickly to the idea of Jake’s hands. I swallowed so hard I think I scratched my throat.

“You’re adorable.”

I looked at him. His expression didn’t say adorable. His face seemed to tell another story altogether. Something closer to spice than sweet.

He moved closer, and I saw his eyes were dark; his chest moved with quickly inhaled and exhaled air, the artery in his neck pulsed.

My knees got weak.

Jake pulled me close and touched his lips to mine. I pretty much collapsed against him. “I want you,” I whispered. “Take me.”

He pulled his clothes off my body and lowered me to the bed. His hands caressed, his lips kissed, his body lit fires wherever it touched mine. I pulled at his shirt while he whispered sweet somethings in my ear. Now normally I’m a little shy, but I knew what this man could do to me, and I wanted a repeat performance.

Before I had time to consider the consequences.

He stood long enough to strip off his clothes and pull on a condom, and then he was back on top of me. And I couldn’t think at all. All I could do was feel. Trust me. That was enough.

The storm had long passed by the time I’d showered, my clothes had dried, and I grabbed my shoulder bag and headed down the stairs. An annoying beeping sound seemed to be following me as I went. By the time I reached the bottom, I’d figured out the sound was coming from my cell phone. I fished it out and listened to the messages. It was Maddie wondering where I was. I looked at the incoming calls and saw her number listed ten times. Oh boy!

I quickly dialed her.

“Where are you? I’ve been worried.”

“I’m sorry, Maddie. I got caught in the storm and had to find shelter. Besides, I tried to call you about a million times.”

“I’m at the courthouse square, where are you?”

Busted.
“At Blackwood Antiques.”

There was the sound of a sharp intake of air. “I’ll meet you out front.”

The phone clicked as I took the three more steps onto the main floor. I went over to the counter and leaned against it. “Oh boy.”

Margaret put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“I just got off the phone with Maddie. She’s picking me up out front.”

She sighed and shook her head sadly. “If my daughter gives you too much grief, you let me know. I’d be happy to turn her over my knee.”

She turned to greet a customer, and I chewed on my bottom lip to keep from smiling. Twice in one day she’d threatened to spank her big baby. I knew she’d do it too. Maddie was taller than her mom, but Margaret would find a way, of that I was sure. It was obvious she felt Maddie was acting like a child. I gotta say, I pretty much agreed. But then, I wasn’t exactly acting like a responsible adult lately either.

The sun was out, and I knew it would only take minutes for Maddie to get there, so I gathered my things and cornered Jake. “I have to go,” I told him.

I saw sadness in his warm, caring expression. “I really enjoyed today.”

“Me too.” I stared up into those hot obsidian eyes. I didn’t want to go. I wanted to head back upstairs, crawl back into his bed, and make love until sometime next week.

“Will I see you again?”

Reality swept through me with more intensity than the earlier storm. It wouldn’t be long before I had to go back to my job, my life. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, you will.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

His kiss was gentle, but the passion that sparked through it all but incinerated me on the spot. No other man would ever make me feel quite the way this one did, of that I was sure. I believe I’d have traded everything I’d worked for if I could just go back up those steps with him.

Then he pulled back, and I saw the regret in his eyes. It couldn’t be, and we both knew it.

“See you around,” I whispered, and he nodded.

I turned and all but ran out, sure if I slowed down, even a little, I’d never go. I fought the tears, but a few leaked out in spite of my efforts.

Less than three minutes later, Maddie pulled up to the curb. I jumped in and she took off before I had my seatbelt buckled. “You don’t look like you got caught in the storm.”

“Margaret made sure I got dried off.”

“Sounds like her.”

And then it was quiet.

To amuse myself, and keep my mind off the man I’d just walked away from, I watched the houses go by. Just like back home in Crooked Hollow, it was common for a large expensive house to sit right beside a tiny one. This mix seemed to be a peculiarity of the South, though both moneyed and not knew their places well. Maybe that’s why it worked in the South; knowing one’s place was a basic Southern trait.

One thing did surprise me; here there didn’t seem to be the kind of severe poverty I’d seen back home. There were no shacks, no 1970s’ trailer homes with broken windows and overgrown yards. No dirty kids in nothing but diapers, playing with secondhand toys in the yard.

I thought again of what the editor of the local paper had said, “We take care of our own.” Maybe they really did. That would be refreshing, uplifting.

Actually, that would be freaking amazing.

I was wondering what it would be like to live in a place like that when I saw it. “Perfect.”

“What’s perfect?”

“That house.” Happy she’d spoken to me, I pointed toward the modest brick rancher with a for sale sign in front.

She was frowning. “Perfect for what?”

I was beginning to wish I hadn’t said anything. But then, Maddie was my closest friend. If I couldn’t talk to her, who could I talk to? “It’s silly, but that house is exactly the kind I’d like to live in one day.”

She gave me a confused look, then shrugged. “Maybe you can find something similar near D.C.”

The realization that I didn’t want to move anywhere near D.C. scared me a little. Okay, maybe it scared me a lot. I was getting way too attached to this weird little town. What in the world was wrong with me? I’d set my goals in the ninth grade and hadn’t looked back.

Until now.

We went back to quiet, contemplative traveling, and I thought about how Maddie wasn’t happy with me just for being in Jake’s store. How would she feel if she knew I’d been in his bed? Twice. And what would she think if she knew I was actually giving thought to what it would be like to live here. What it would be like to be married—

Oh hell no! I was so not going down that road. Down that way was total, complete, insanity. Nope. Not going.

Stephie Blackwood. It did have a nice sound.

Stop, brain. No. Never happen. Not in a million years. My best friend hates him.

Maybe the plan would work.

Or not. Be realistic! I screamed at my brain.

The car stopped, and I had been so wrapped up in my guilty ruminations I hadn’t realized we had arrived at Margaret’s house.

Maddie said nothing to me, just grabbed her purse and headed toward the door. Kicking myself mentally, I took off after her.

She headed into the kitchen, dumped her purse on a chair, and poured herself a glass of orange juice. “We’re planning to leave for the carnival about five.”

“Maddie, I’m sorry about going to Jake’s to get out of the storm. I should have gone somewhere else.”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. My mom works there, after all.”

Her voice squeaked, and I knew the tightness was due to barely held in emotions. Oddly, that made me a little angry. “I did try to call you,” I pointed out. “Repeatedly.”

She dropped into a chair. “I’m sorry I stranded you. I just got to thinking and lost track of time. Then the storm hit and you didn’t answer.”

“Thinking?”

“Yeah. About my life.” She picked at the design on the tablecloth. “Dani Phillips was at the brunch this morning.”

“Your old rival? You tangled for the job of school newspaper editor, right?”

“Yeah. I won.” Her face lit for a second, then drooped again. “She’s lost a lot of weight and she’s got gorgeous curly hair like you. She’s beautiful.”

Huh? Me? My gorgeous what?

“The worst thing is that she just landed a job with
The
New York Times
. Do you believe it? Everybody always said I was a much better writer than her, but here I am working at
Spy
that’s one step above tabloid, and she’s with the freaking
New York Times
.” She groaned and lowered her face into her hands.

I just sat and stared at her. This development was too shocking for words. For emotions, even.

“What happened to the life I had planned?”

Okay, enough with the drama queen. “Wait a minute. I’m the insecure one. You’re the freaking ex-cheerleader! What’s going on here?”

She peeked out at me from between her fingers. “Coming back here just shook me up, I guess. In my daydreams I always imagined I’d return like some conquering hero, but I’m just a reporter. Big deal.
Dani Phillips
is the conquering hero.”

My brain was going to explode. I rubbed my throbbing forehead and worked at assimilating what I was hearing. “But, you always said you loved working in D.C. Finger on the pulse of the country and all that.”

“I did. I do. I don’t know.” She groaned.

This was. Just. Too. Weird. “Maddie, you’re a respected reporter at a major magazine that reports on the running of our country. You’re gorgeous, you’re smart, you’re talented. What more do you want?”

She let out a long, pathetic sigh. “I don’t know.”

I leaned back in my chair. “Maybe the carnival will cheer you up.”

“Maybe so.” She sniffed delicately. “I guess we should start getting ready.”

I started to get out of my chair, but she was faster. “I’m first in the shower,” she yelled, as she headed for the stairs.

I sat back down. How did she always do that? I grabbed her untouched orange juice and downed it. I couldn’t believe Maddie doubted herself. She was the one who’d kept me on track for the last few years. Without Madison Clark, I don’t think I could have survived the city and the back stabbing I’d landed in when I accepted the job for
Capitol Spy
. If Maddie was having doubts, what chance did I have of being sure what I was doing?

At least I was too freaked to feel guilty over my latest sleeping-with-her-enemy stunt, but I knew that wasn’t going to last long.

Chapter 13

Apparently, carnivals are the same everywhere. I find that observation oddly reassuring.

As I walked through the Ugly Creek Big Foot Festival Carnival (courtesy of a traveling carnival company), I felt like I was seventeen again and at the Crooked Hollow yearly carnival with my boyfriend at the time. I really cared for the guy, but my family argued he wasn’t good enough, which insulted his family. We tried, but the pressure was just too great, and eventually we broke up.

I ambled between the concession trailers and the booths where a guy could try to impress his date by paying a fortune to accomplish a damn near impossible task and collecting the bounty of a stuffed animal. Smiling, I watched one scrawny dude throw a wooden ring around the proper cone and hand his admiring girlfriend a pink pig. This was fun.

Two seconds later, I stepped in a mud puddle and changed my mind.

“I love the smell of cotton candy,” Liza said.

I turned to greet the group, who had gone to check out the rides while I sniffed out the games and prizes section.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “You do know that stuff is straight-up sugar, right?”

Liza gave her husband a smacking shove to the shoulder with her un-casted arm. “Bite me.”

“Oh, look. There’s Tina,” Maddie said.

With junior-high squeals, Liza and Maddie took off in Tina’s direction.

“You’re evil,” I told Steve.

He grinned. “Hey, I was just pointing out the obvious.”

Since Maddie and Liza were busy chatting with this Tina person and her buddies, I edged closer to Steve. “I have something I’d like to talk to you about.”

He adjusted his glasses. “Okay.”

“This thing with Maddie and Jake.”

His forehead pulled into an unsure frown. “What about it?”

Sudden nerves had my knees shaking, but I plowed on. “I think they just need to sit down and talk.”

Steve sighed. “I’ve been trying to tell Jake that for years.”

“Well, I was thinking… if we could… maybe
convince
them to talk.”

The slight shake of his head and the amused pull of his lips told me what he thought of the idea. “You do know those two are possibly the most stubborn people in the Western Hemisphere?”

I swallowed. “That’s why I was thinking of something a little. Well, drastic.”

His eyebrows shot up so high they were visible above the frame of his glasses. “I’m listening.”

By the time Liza and Maddie returned from their chat with Tina and friends, Steve had a cat-eating-mouse expression on his face, and I was beginning to think there might be hope for my crazy plan.

Three hours later, I was seriously sick of being the proverbial third wheel, or fourth, I guess, in this case. Maddie, Liza, and Steve had a past in common, and a good part of the time, I felt like I was eavesdropping. I didn’t know enough to care about the people they talked about, and I didn’t understand half of what they were talking about anyway. Eventually my comfort level passed wearisome and smacked right into depressing.

“I’m going to look around over here,” I told them. Maddie nodded vaguely, Liza didn’t seem to notice, and Steve gave me a sheepish grin. Poor guy, I don’t think his comfort level was much higher than mine.