Basic Attraction (15 page)

“I really like you, Sheri. And I could see it growing into love. I like you, all of you, just the way you are. Ugly flower dress included.”

She dropped her eyes to her dress in astonishment. “You think my dress is ugly?”

“Yes.” More than ugly. It was downright criminal to hide her breasts behind two giant sunflowers. “But it doesn’t matter to me. I don’t expect you to dress for me in a tight shirt and tight jeans. If that dress makes you happy, I’m happy.”

She flipped her hair nervously.

Truth time. “This is me. Luke Weiss. You either like me exactly like this, Sheri, or you don’t. Which is it?”

Her mouth opened. Then closed again. She shook her head slightly. His heart dropped as he realized what that meant. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bring herself to say that she cared about him no matter what he was wearing or did for a living.

He gave her another second, but she still said nothing. He spoke tightly, intent on getting the hell out of there now. “I guess that’s your answer then. Well, I’ll just take my cat and go.”

“Luke…” she spoke imploringly.

It wasn’t enough. She had already told him everything he needed to know. He had his answer. Leather and floral
didn’t
blend.

“Just forget it.” He stepped away and bent over to grab the cat. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but hey. Easy come, easy go.”

He was the worst liar. He clapped his mouth shut and concentrated on shoving a resisting Greedy into his cat carrier by the door. He needed to get out before he said something hateful or embarrassing.

She was crying now.

Greedy was meowing loudly in protest. “Quiet,” he told him angrily.

Sheri choked on her tears. “Luke, that’s not what I meant.”

He didn’t dare look at her. If he did, he would pull her into his arms and quiet her tears with a kiss. And he couldn’t do that. He would regret it later if he did.

He had told her how he felt, and she had just stared at him helplessly. He felt two inches tall right now.

“I know what you meant, Sheri.” He clicked the latch closed on the carrier and stood up, grabbing the handle. “It’s cool. We had some fun, and now it’s time for me to go home.”

He opened her apartment door and stepped out.

“Luke, wait!”

Chancing a glance back, he saw her standing there, arms hugging herself across her sunflower dress, tears running down her face. “See you around, Sheri.”

He took the stairs down to the parking lot at a jog, jostling Greedy about his carrier. In his SUV, he tossed Greedy on the passenger’s side, started the car, and searched out a CD to throw in. Something loud would do. With a little luck, it would drown out his thoughts.

What was he doing? Running, afraid of his feelings? Afraid of her feelings?

Maybe he hadn’t
really
committed himself to a relationship before was because doing so made him vulnerable and he struggled with that. He cared deep and hard, and he was nothing like his father. The danger for him wasn’t in that he would walk away too soon—it was that he would get hurt.

Rubbing his forehead with his left hand, he stared blankly at the road. He was an idiot. But that didn’t change the fact that clearly Sheri didn’t want to be with him either.

It was that thought that revolved around and around in his head for the twelve-hour drive back to Chicago.

Sheri stumbled into work on Monday with a massive headache and eyes nearly swollen shut from an entire weekend of crying. She met Rick in the common room, where they checked in for the day’s assignments.

“Sheri?” Rick said. “Are you okay?”

No. Her heart was shattered. She was the biggest idiot who had ever walked the face of the earth, and instead of making plans to seduce Luke repeatedly when he came back to town, she was contemplating an empty and meaningless existence alone.

“I have a little headache.”

“Did you take some aspirin or something?” He fell in step beside her as she headed to the bulletin board.

“Yes.” The maximum recommended daily allowance.

“We’re on kudzu together.”

Just great. She could take out her frustration on the unsuspecting weed. A little slashing was right up her alley today. Good thing they weren’t doing any controlled burning. She wasn’t in any condition to be setting things on fire.

What was wrong with her? She’d been so afraid of being clingy, of going all psycho-stalker on him that she had just sat there and said nothing when he’d been seeking her reassurance. She had been so glad, so damn
grateful
, that he liked her that it had actually horrified her, and she had realized she was not ready. Just flat-out not ready to date at a slow pace in a long-distance relationship like a normal human being.

“Okay.”

He took her arm and shook it a little. “You really look bad. If you’re sick, maybe you should just go home.”

And do what? Cry herself to sleep again? Watch TV twenty-four hours a day like she had been? Tears welled up in her eyes. “I’m fine. I don’t want to go home.”

He raised an eyebrow but let it drop. They headed out into the parking lot together to grab a truck and head out to the infested area they were working on. The hot sun hit her in the eyes and made her headache worse. Sweat rose on her forehead. She felt clammy and sick to her stomach.

He said, “Oh, yeah. Before I forget, Angel wanted to know if you wanted to come over for dinner tonight? She figured you’d be feeling lonely with Luke gone and everything.”

She couldn’t help it. She started sobbing. What had she been thinking? How could she have just stood there and stared at Luke like an idiot? She must have shredded his feelings. While Luke wasn’t what she had always pictured for herself, she did like him. More than like. Just the way he was.

He wasn’t the problem. She was. But how could she have let him walk out without explaining that?

Rick stopped opening the truck door and stared at her in alarm. “Sheri! What’s the matter?”

Since she had never cried in front of a coworker before, she was glad it was Rick and not her boss. She leaned on the passenger’s door and swiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry, Rick. It’s just that I really blew things with Luke. He left, and he’s not coming back.”

“Hey, I’m sorry.” The poor guy shuffled on his feet and looked in agony. “But you know, Angel and I split, thinking it was for good. Then we both came to our senses.”

Knowing that the chances of Luke forgiving her for insulting him were about none, she didn’t hold much hope for a happily ever after for the two of them. She struggled to get a hold of herself and cleared her throat. “Thanks, Rick, but I don’t see that happening.” She opened the door and climbed in. “I’m sorry. I’m fine now. Let’s go.”

“You’ll be at dinner tonight?” He got in reluctantly and stared at her. “It would be a good distraction.”

He was probably waiting for her to start wailing. She took a deep breath. “I’ll be there.”

Luke took a deep breath and prayed that he wouldn’t murder his sister. Why exactly had he thought it would be a good idea to let her waitress for him? Home for the summer from college, Dixie’s current interests were tanning and man hunting. Doing her job correctly fell to a dismal third.

Dixie sashayed up to the bar and said with a giggle, “Luke, you should throw that guy out.” She pointed to a customer sitting at a table watching her. He was dressed in a golf shirt, obviously on his lunch hour. He saw nothing to indicate that the guy needed to be tossed in the street.

Dixie continued. “He said he wants to have sex on the beach with me.”

Luke stared at his sister before asking slowly, “Is that exactly what he said?”

She tossed her blond hair back and said, “Yeah. And that’s sexual harassment. He said he wanted sex on the beach.”

He rolled his eyes and grabbed the tray she was spinning idly on the counter, annoyed beyond belief. “It’s a drink, Dix. It’s called Sex on the Beach.”

“Really?” She clapped her hand over her mouth. “Uh-oh. I just told him to kiss my…”

Oh, heaven help him. He growled. “Go apologize.” The dude had ridiculous taste in cocktails, but he was entitled to order whatever he wanted without being yelled at by Dixie.

She giggled. “Whoops.” Turning back, she waved cheerfully at the man she’d just insulted. “I’m not much of a drinker, you know. I don’t know these things.”

The world couldn’t handle Dixie drunk, so Luke had to be grateful for the knowledge that she didn’t indulge. Especially since she was only a month past her twenty-first birthday.

After he made the drink and handed it to her, he said roughly, “Give it to him for free.”

Her face was contrite. “I’m sorry, Luke.” Leaning over the counter, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Are you feeling okay? You’re grumpy today.” She laughed. “More than usual.”

“I’m fine. Now go.” He stepped back, shooed her in the direction of the customer, and busied himself with cleaning up a beer spill on the counter.

He did a respectable lunch business, focusing on burgers and fries and pub-type food. His brothers worked the kitchen and he had two other waitresses. Right now, he couldn’t have cared less if they all walked out. In fact, he’d prefer to be alone.

So he could wallow in his own self-pity.

Since he’d arrived home at four in the morning on Saturday, he’d done nothing else but wallow. Grumpy was a severe understatement. He was miserable. Mad as hell. Heartbroken.

Sheri didn’t dig him, and nothing else seemed to matter.

Except he had a business to run and bills to pay, and Dixie was on her way to sending him belly-up bankrupt.

He was pulling a Guinness on draft when Dixie returned. “Oh, what a sweetheart. He forgave me for the little slip-up.” She grinned. “In fact, I have a date with him tomorrow night.”

“How nice for you.”

Ignoring his sarcasm, she said, “He thought you were my boyfriend because I kissed you on the cheek. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

More than she knew. His taste ran to tall with chestnut hair. He handed a customer a few stools down his beer.

“So once I assured him that you were only my brother, he asked me out.” Dixie had herself just about draped across the counter, her head resting in her hand. She said suddenly, “I’m hungry. Can I take my lunch?”

“You’ve only been working for an hour.”

“I know, but I didn’t have time to eat breakfast.” She smiled sweetly at him. “And Hannah ate my last breakfast bar.”

He was a huge pushover. Or too tired to care. “Go in the back and have Eddie make you a burger. You can keep working while he’s fixing it.”

“Thanks, Luke.” She flashed dimples at him. “You know you’re my favorite brother.”

Scowling at her, he said, “When it suits you.”

She pranced off, Mr. Sex on the Beach watching her. Luke shot him a warning glance. Who did he think he was? And what kind of guy drinks a girl cocktail at twelve in the afternoon?

That was probably the kind of guy Sheri dated. That was who she wanted to live with, marry, share a cat with. He of the neatly pressed pants and above-the-ears haircut who shaved daily with an electric razor. They could share bottled spring water and take his-and-her yoga classes.

She’d never even asked him if he shared any of her interests. She had just assumed he didn’t. He thought he would actually enjoy a hike in the woods, but it had never entered Sheri’s mind. There was common ground between them, so to speak, but she hadn’t bothered to look.

She’d been too busy coming apart in his arms.

Damn. He pushed back off the counter and left the bar, stomping into the kitchen. “Jake! Watch the bar for me.”

He really needed to be alone.

“You can’t go on like this.” Angel directed this melodramatic statement at her as they sat on Angel’s back patio watching Kiri kick a ball around.

Sheri gripped her lemonade glass tightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s been three weeks since Luke left, and you’re wasting away.” Angel shoved her sunglasses on top of her head. “You’re pale. You’ve lost weight. Rick says you’re having trouble focusing at work. I’m worried about you.”

She was wasting away? She wasn’t sure how someone as tall and athletic as she was could be classified as wasting away, but she wasn’t going to split hairs. And she probably was pale. She had completely fallen off her jogging and spent all her spare time in her apartment brooding, watching TV, or reading.