CHAPTER FOUR

Cody

I sat on my front lawn reading a book May had sent me. It was a good book and I really liked it, but I was feeling restless and I couldn’t seem to focus on the pages in front of me. I’d woken up that morning with a warm, beautiful woman wrapped around me and a dick so hard it could have cut through glass. I hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about it, because Carrie had woken up seconds later. She’d scooted out of that bed so fast, you’d have thought it was on fire.

Not the reaction I typically got from women whose bed I shared, but I understood. Carrie wasn’t a one-night stand or casual dating kind of woman, she was looking for a serious relationship and I was definitely not the guy for that job. I had too much on the line, too much planned, to get caught up in something with her. So I hadn’t made a move, I’d teased her plenty, but I hadn’t pushed and I hadn’t touched her. I’d walked away and I’d gone for a run and I’d lifted at the gym for over an hour, but I couldn’t burn away the memory of how she felt in my arms or work off the restless, needy energy that was pinging all over my body.

I bent my head over my book and tried to focus. Movement in my peripheral vision made me turn my head to see some guy, in jeans and a t-shirt and carrying a backpack, cross Carrie’s yard and step onto her porch. At first, I thought the dude must be one of her students, but he looked around while he waited for her to answer the door and our eyes caught. The guy was no kid, he just dressed like a kid. I’d never been the kind of man who considered how good-looking other men were, it’s just not something that ever crossed my radar, but I thought it was safe to say this guy was no threat to me.

Threat? That gave me pause. He could only be a threat to me if I was interested in Carrie and I was not interested in her. She may have been in my thoughts all day and I might have gotten into the habit of watching her comings and goings, but that was just because she was hot and I wouldn’t mind a good time between the sheets with her. I ought to be hoping she met a guy and got serious about him, because then I could write her off and focus on what should be consuming all my thoughts: my winery. Instead, I couldn’t look away as Carrie, dressed in that same outfit of pants and sweater set that should have indicated she was out of my league but only made me wonder what she was wearing under it, and her wannabe teenager crossed her lawn and got into her car. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about her getting stranded again.

I watched as she backed down the driveway, but I didn’t look at Carrie. No, I watched the guy in the passenger seat. I glared at him with the heat of a radioactive ray gun until he looked up and met my gaze. I narrowed my eyes and silently communicated to him that he better fucking treat her right or he’d be answering to me. Just like that douche canoe Jonas had answered to me this morning at the library. Oh, he’d claimed Carrie had chosen to stay behind to meet friends, but I wasn’t backing down. Carrie didn’t lie to me and she deserved to be treated right. I don’t know where this fierce protectiveness came from, but I figured it’d go away as soon as she stopped dating assholes. Jonas agreed to apologize, with a dozen roses and a promise never to say one mean thing to her or about her ever again. I would have preferred he never speak to her again, period, but that seemed like taking it a bit too far. They’d probably see one another at the library, judging by the book-filled, built-in bookshelves in Carrie’s bedroom and the stacks of books in her living room and dining room.

Carrie’s current date just looked confused. He said something to Carrie and she shook her head and took off. I watched until I couldn’t see her car anymore and then I wandered over to Betty’s house. Betty was the meanest woman I’d ever met, but she saw everything that went on in the neighborhood and she knew everyone in town worth knowing.

“What do you want?” Betty asked. She was seated on her front porch, stroking an overfed, white cat. Betty was a small woman, with a neatly coiffed hairdo and lipstick, her brown eyes sparkling. She tried to look nice, though she rarely had visitors.

“You know that guy Carrie just left with?” I took a seat on the top porch step and got comfortable. This was going to take a while.

“Carrie? Pah! She’s strutting around here like she’s too good for any decent man and then she takes you in her house and you don’t leave until morning.”

I ducked my head to hide my smile. Carrie would hate it if she knew Betty had seen that. I looked back up to find Betty narrowing her eyes at me. “And don’t think I don’t know what you are, with your loud music and your shirt-less lawn-mowing. You are a no good, worthless, good-time guy and you will most likely break Carrie’s heart.”

That one struck a little too close to home. “She didn’t look too heartbroken to me. She just left here with some other guy.”

“Pah! You know I sent her on a date with my grandson, a nice, good-looking, respectable young man who treated her to a lovely dinner. At the end of the date, she told him she didn’t intend to see him again. Can you believe that? Throwing away a perfectly good young man like that?”

“That does seem like a poor choice.” I was absolutely kissing up to get on Betty’s good side. “Do you know why?”

“My boy does like to go on a bit too much about his job. It’s fascinating work. She should have appreciated the lesson he’d given her, but she shooed him away like a dog. Like a dog.”

I shook my head in sympathy. “What is his job?”

“He’s a mortician, young man. A very respectable profession and a profitable one. Carrie’s not getting any younger and it’s no secret she wants a family. She can’t afford to turn away a man just because she doesn’t care for his dinner conversation.”

“Maybe it was more than that,” I said. “I’m sure she wants to click physically and emotionally with a guy. The problem might just have been that there was no spark.”

“Oh, you’d know all about spark, wouldn’t you, you filthy man whore. Taking advantage of our poor Carrie like that. It’s criminal.”

Amazing how quickly she could shift loyalties when it suited her. I could tell her the truth about why I’d spent the night at Carrie’s house, but I wasn’t about to let Betty put me on the defensive before I’d gotten any answers. “Maybe I’m not the man whore you think I am,” I said, trying to not to laugh at myself. “Maybe I’ve got a real thing for Carrie and I’m jealous of that guy she just left with. Who is he?”

“A better match for her than an unemployed playboy who’s only interested in her body.”

I pretended to be greatly offended. “I’m not only interested in Carrie’s body. And I’m not unemployed. I’m in town to find the right land to start a vineyard and winery. I’m an enologist.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Don’t use big words with me, boy, and think you’re going to distract me from the real facts. Fact: you are unemployed, no matter what kind of fancy label you put on it. Fact: You are not the settling down type and you are a downright nuisance. And fact: who Carrie dates is none of your business.”

“So she is on a date.”

Betty sniffed. “I don’t claim to know anything about that, young man. Now, kindly get off my porch and leave an old woman in peace.”

I stood and stepped down to the grass. “It’s just that her last date stranded her at Vince’s Italian and Barbecue all alone. I’m worried about her and want to make sure she’s going to be okay.”

“Stranded her at Vince’s? My grandson would never do such a thing. That child has no sense when it comes to men. None.” She gestured at me. “Case in point, standing on my lawn like a stray dog begging for scraps.”

“Okay,” I said. “I see I was mistaken. I figured you’d know who the guy is, but I’ll just mosey on over to Norma Jane’s. She probably knows the guy.”

Betty’s face turned an interesting shade of pink. “Norma Jane is a two-faced, gossiping, back-stabbing recluse who doesn’t remember half of what she once knew. If you want to know who that man is you need to speak to someone with all of her faculties.”