Tempting the One (Meadowview Heat 4; The Meadowview 4) Page 7

  Of course, a short time later, the alcohol had hit her and she’d puked her guts out in Theo’s bathroom. He’d been a true gentleman and held her hair while she bent over the toilet. She remembered Theo perched on the edge of the tub as she upended her insides, nattering to her about the various men she could have slept with that night, including himself, if she hadn’t decided to drink too much and end up praying to the porcelain god.

  She also remembered repeatedly saying to Theo to shut up and that she’d never sleep with him for as long as she lived.

  “When’s the last time you got laid, anyway?” Theo’s question interrupted her thoughts.

  “What’s it to you?”

  “Humor me.”

  She bit the inside of her lip. Way too long. So long that she felt like she was starving. So long that she almost couldn’t remember what it felt like. So long that she was actually considering jumping on top of Theo the way he wanted.

  “A year. It’s been about a year,” she finally confessed.

  He let out a long, low whistle. “Are you serious? That’s like, forever.”

  “Tell me about it,” she said, dropping her head into her hands.

  “How old are those condoms of yours? The ones you ‘accidentally’ threw into my hospital room?”

  “Umm…they haven’t passed their expiration date yet.”

  He nudged her with his foot. “C’mon, Chessie, put a poor guy out of his misery. It’s not like you wouldn’t have any fun doing it, right?”

  She raised her head to look at him. All she’d wanted to do was fulfill a promise to Sadie—take care of Theo until he could care for himself. Being offered casual sex with an invalid had definitely not been on her agenda. Sex with spoiled, hedonistic Theo had never even been something she had thought about, and certainly wasn’t anything she had ever wanted.

  The man was a pill.

  A total, complete, and utter pill.

  However, the man did have a point. It had been an entire year since she’d done the dirty deed.

  And god…Theo was so…so…

  Delicious.

  Juicy.

  Available.

  And no matter how much she wanted to deny it, he made her insides quiver, her mouth drool, and her knees shake.

  “Chessie…” Theo drew her name out slowly, softly. He motioned with his chin toward his lap. “Do us both a favor.”

  She dropped her gaze back down to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Decisions, decisions…

  Thunk. A loud sound startled Chessie. She’d been about to give Theo her answer—which was going to be a rather unenthusiastic no—when something hit the window in her kitchen. “Hold that thought,” she said, her attention focused on the sound. As she stood, Theo banged her hip with his casted wrist.

  “Trying to avoid giving me an answer?” he asked.

  She shook her head quickly, pressed her lips tight before answering. “That sounded like an egg against the window. I need to check it out.”

  “Vandalism?” His eyes narrowed.

  “Teenagers demonstrating their hatred for country living, that’s all. I had some new neighbors move in a while back, and their sixteen-year-old daughter has made it clear she detests living hours from the mall.”

  “And you think she egged your house?”

  Chessie shrugged. “I got hit twice this week, and I’m figuring it just happened again. If it is an egg, I need to hose down the window and siding. That stuff sticks like glue if you don’t get it off right away.”

  With a few quick strides, she was in the kitchen, staring at a gooey yellow mess sliding down the window. Gross. And damn. Yep, the neighbor kids were at it again. She should be thankful it wasn’t worse, though. At least living in a small, rural town had its benefits: egging and TP’ing houses seemed to be the limits of teenage vandalism in these parts—unlike graffiti and gang violence and arson, like in the cities.

  In minutes, she’d used the garden hose to wash off the mess, and came back inside the house to find Theo hopping toward the front door.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, startled to see him up and worried to see his face had gone as grey as it had appeared in the hospital. “Get back on the couch. You’re not supposed to be up and about.”

  “I wanted to make sure you were okay. That the house was okay.”

  “Everything’s fine. I got egged, but no harm, no foul—no pun intended. Now for god’s sake, sit back down before you do injury to your foot. Six weeks, Theo. That’s the limit. No reinjuring yourself and stretching it out to eight weeks. Or ten.”

  Thankfully, he obeyed her and hopped back to the couch, where he plopped down and lay back. She came over and looked closely at him, realizing how pale he’d grown.

  “You okay?” she asked. “Need pain pills?”

  He closed his eyes, swallowed hard, then nodded.

  “Be right back.” She headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water and his medication. Did the man not think? What could he do if the vandals had been outside, anyway? Hop his way over and smack them upside the head with a cast?

  It dawned on her that Theo may not have had a plan of attack, but he’d at least tried to do something to protect her. Her heart softened. A little. Not a lot.

  Back in the living room, she placed a pill on his tongue and held the glass of water to his mouth as he took a sip, then swallowed.

  “You said it happened before,” he said, eyes still closed. “Did you call the cops?”

  “For a house being egged? Nope.”

  “I can make a call, pay someone to put up a security system. At least a video feed with a few cameras targeting the front, so you can get videotape of the kids as evidence.”

  “I’m not one of your Courant charity cases, Theo,” she said more sharply than she’d anticipated.

  “Never said you were. I’m trying to be a friend here.”

  “Money can’t buy everything.”

  “Oh, for god’s sake, Chessie, would you get off your high horse? In this case, money could buy you some security and get a couple of kids to behave. Is that so bad?”

  No, it wasn’t that bad. Not the way Theo had explained it. And she’d been on her high horse a bit, hadn’t she? But she still didn’t want to use money to solve the problem. As her own history had proven, money only caused problems, not solved them. “I’ll bring the family some of the flowers from my garden. Be neighborly.”

  Theo snorted. “Because fresh-cut flowers are such a well-known solution to teenager angst.”

  She huffed in his general direction.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be a shit. Flowers sound nice.”

  “Now you’re just kissing up.” Her stomach growled as she spoke and she realized how late it had grown. “I’m too tired to cook—think you can handle a drive? I could take us to the Goldpan for dinner.”

  “In that rickety truck of yours?”

  Rolling her head in his direction, she gave him a look. “I’m not a sadist, you know. I’ll do my best to avoid potholes. But don’t go suggesting you could rent a Mercedes for me to drive you around in.”

  Theo held up his casted hands in a gesture of submission. “Wasn’t gonna.” But she could hear him mutter under his breath, “Although a Tesla would have been nice.”

  * * *

  Theo cast his gaze around the Goldpan, taking in the new features. Not quite a year ago a fire had blazed through the space, thoroughly gutting the interior and almost taking Lia’s life, too, after she’d become trapped behind a wall of flames. Thank god Lia had been able to escape, running through the fire and straight into the arms of Jack, Chessie’s older brother. It had taken Jack all of a few days to propose to Lia and several months of working alongside his construction crew to renovate the burned interior of Meadowview’s social hub.

  Good work, Theo thought, taking in the mix of traditional and new architectural details. Hammered tin covered the ceiling, and the walls were exposed brick, dating back to the Gold Rush when the row
of buildings along Main Street was built. Fire had swept through Meadowview twice before, but both times during the late eighteen hundreds. The town had survived. Persevered. He didn’t come back to Meadowview all that often, but when he did, the quaint small town feel always seemed to set his psyche at ease.

  No matter how chaotic the world was around him, no matter how many tragedies he encountered during the course of doing his job distributing funds from The Courant Foundation, the warmth of his hometown could settle him. He’d have hated to see the town destroyed by fire.

  Chessie came to sit back down next to him in the booth, two beers in her hand, one of which had a straw sticking out of the frothy top.

  “I got you a pale ale and ordered you pizza. That okay?” she asked.

  “You gonna feed me?”

  She snorted. “Do I look like I’m a babysitter?”

  He ignored her. “When are Jack and Lia expected back?” he asked.

  She took a pull on her beer, then wiped the foam off her lips, first flicking the edge of her tongue out to catch a drop at the corner of her mouth. Down, boy, he mentally warned his dick.

  “In a few weeks,” she finally said. “A construction project Jack was working on got put on hold, so his schedule freed up. Lia’s never gone on vacation, and he wanted to treat her right. Lia has a great assistant at the Sanctuary, so the moms and kids she provides a temporary home for are doing fine. I miss them, though.”

  Had to be tough for Chessie, he figured, with both her best friends and her brother gone. And lord knows, he certainly didn’t help her life along any. And with the vandalism… Anger twisted his gut. People picking on other people just because their lives sucked was foul, in his mind.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the sheriff, Remy Toussaint, perched on a stool at the end of the long mahogany bar. When Remy caught his eye, Theo motioned the man over to their table.

  “Hey Remy,” Chessie said, smiling broadly when the sheriff came up.

  “You know each other?” Theo asked, then shifted as his shoulders tightened when Remy gave Chessie a warm hug before joining them at their booth. Had the two of them dated? He wouldn’t be surprised—Remy was single, decent looking, and had a nice career. Was well liked by the community, too. Just didn’t seem Chessie’s type.

  Although, truth be told, Theo had no clue what Chessie’s type would be. In fact, had he ever even seen her date anyone? A vague memory popped to the surface—she’d gone out some rich kid in college, a kid that had her brother Jack worried for his sister, scared she’d get her heart broken. And she had, right? The guy had dumped her for a skinny blonde with a trust fund, from what Jack had told him. Had broken Chessie’s heart.

  Dumb ass.

  “Did you two date or something?” he asked, the question blurting from his mouth before he could shut the fuck up.

  Next to him, Chessie laughed, the sound rich and rolling, like velvet. “Nope. I asked him out once, but he turned me down. Remy won’t date anyone in town,” she said, smiling at the sheriff, who grinned back.

  Good. Or not. What did it matter? Shit…why the hell was he thinking about who Chessie dated, anyway? Was it because he’d propositioned her with the whole Friends With Benefits thing and she still hadn’t responded? Was he just frustrated she hadn’t given him an answer? Or was it that he was frustrated sexually?

  He’d dated extensively, and had a reputation as a playboy, but even though people thought he was just shallow and playing the field, his decision to not settle down hadn’t anything to do with wanting to stay single, but because he’d never fallen in love. He’d always figured that being in a relationship meant he should be in love with the woman. And he’d cared, sometimes deeply, for the women he’d dated, but had never been in love.

  Not that he was all that certain he knew what love really felt like. Jack and Ethan, his friends, had both fallen in love over the last year and both swore it felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to the back of their heads. All thought had disappeared, vision had been reduced so that only the woman they were in love with was in focus, and everything tasted like cardboard except for their woman—Jack said Lia’s mouth tasted like a mix between cotton candy and popcorn, and Ethan had refrained to say what Sadie tasted like when he kissed her.

  Good thing, given that Ethan had fallen in love with Theo’s little sister. Some things were best left unsaid.

  But with his friends falling in love like trees falling under a logger’s chainsaw, he’d ended up thinking about relationships and women and love and other crap like that quite a bit lately, and because thoughts of love—or lack thereof in his life—had filled his mind, he hadn’t pursued dating with quite the same enthusiasm as before.

  Which meant it had been a few months since he’d gotten laid.

  And why he was eager to hear if Chessie was going to agree to his proposal.

  But apparently, she was going to do everything she could to avoid giving him an answer. Fine. She could sit in silence, but the next time his woodie rose to the occasion, she’d notice and she’d have to answer, right? For now, though, he’d let the proposal go. He had other things to worry about tonight…namely, making sure Chessie’s property was protected.

  “Chessie’s been having some trouble with vandalism,” he said, directing his attention to Remy. “I’m hoping you could help.”

  Chessie shot him her frowny look. He was getting awfully familiar with that look.

  “You don’t need to involve the law, Theo,” she said. “I can handle the neighbors myself. I told you. I’m going to—”

  “I know, I know. Bring them flowers.”

  “Hey—”

  “Sorry,” Theo quickly apologized. “I’m not mocking. I’m doubting, however, that this will stop a teenage girl from throwing eggs at your house. Remy can help. Let him, okay?”

  “You might be trying to keep the peace in your neighborhood, Chessie,” Remy said, leaning forward and placing his elbows on the table, “but it’s not helping the person who’s causing the vandalism. Kids lash out for a reason, and vandalism is an indicator that something’s wrong in their lives.”

  Chessie glanced away, her shoulders going tight. “I’d feel like I was tattling on her.”

  Remy continued, saying, “Making a report can actually help us reach out—see if there’s anything we can do before a little case of property destruction turns into something more dramatic and the kid ends up in serious trouble with the law.”

  “I get it,” she said, her voice missing its natural lilt as she stared down at a small puddle on the table. She reached a finger out and traced a pattern in the liquid—a heart. “I think I know who egged my place. She’s a good kid, part of a single-parent family who moved in down the street from me a couple of months ago. She’s just confused and angry at her mom for uprooting her from her life and moving her to Meadowview.”

  “Where did they move from?” Remy asked.

  “San Francisco,” Chessie said. “And for a kid who grew up in the city, Meadowview is like being sent to Siberia. I wish I could do something for her.”

  Theo frowned when Remy reached out and patted Chessie’s hand. The man was being entirely too comforting, in Theo’s mind. He cleared his throat. “So if it happens again, Remy, we should call you?”

  “We?” Chessie asked, drawing the word out and staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

  Shrugging of her sudden defensiveness, he added, “Hey, I didn’t offer to pay for anything. Didn’t want to completely offend you. Just offered to pick up the phone.”

  “It’s fine, Chessie,” Remy said, pulling her attention back to him. “If it happens again, call the office. I’ll go out and talk to the girl myself. See what’s up.”

  “I hate to bug you,” she said. “I know the department is so busy these days.”

  Theo let out a short laugh. “Busy? Crime in Meadowview? What, multiple instances of cow tipping?”

  His humor was met with steady silence. Uh oh. H
ad he said something wrong?

  Remy cleared his throat. “This town is still pretty much off the beaten path, and we don’t yet have gangs established here, but don’t let the sweet façade fool you too much. A façade is exactly that—a false presentation. We have our fair share of problems, just like any place.”

  “Drugs?” he guessed.

  “Meth, mostly. Some problems with big dope growers planting pot patches on US Department of Forestry lands. And the ubiquitous domestic violence issues.”

  That shut him up. And made him feel a little ashamed, too. He’d helped Lia Sawyer set up a sanctuary for women and children escaping a violent environment—and Lia herself had been the victim of domestic abuse. Chagrined, he sucked in a breath, then blew it out and said, “I didn’t mean to trivialize your work, Remy. I look out at Meadowview and see wooden sidewalks, shops where owners greet you with a smile, and happy tourists. I forget, sometimes, that life has its ugly side, even in a small town.”

  The man shrugged, but smiled, too. “That’s why it’s important to figure out early on what’s causing a teenager to lash out. If we know why a kid is behaving badly, we can sometimes eradicate the root cause. Get them help.”

  “Turn their lives around,” Chessie said, interrupting. “All right, I’m on board. If it happens again, Remy, I’ll call you. Unless I catch her in the act. If that happens, I’ll try to talk to the girl myself.”

  Something twisted inside Theo’s chest and the sounds and motion around him in the Goldpan faded away. No way. He didn’t want Chessie encountering a teenager bent on destruction—she could get hurt. God damn the fact that he was a total invalid. He should be protecting Chessie, not watching from the sidelines as she encountered some shit-assed teenager.

  “You’ll do no such thing,” he said gruffly, before he could think about how Chessie might react to his statement. When she turned and shot him the Chessie Gibson Death Glare, he almost regretted his outburst. Almost.