Thomas stares at me. “Did I say something wrong?”
On the contrary. Looks like you said just about everything right.
“No, Kay’s a bit touchy today. She’s been driving all day and it’s been a stressful time. She has a lot on her mind.”
“Do you think I’m invited for tri-tip? Because I’ve morphed into Pavlov’s dogs at the hint of a good steak.”
“Of course you are. Kay never lets anyone leave hungry.”
“So what you’re saying is I’m not special. I’m just invited?”
I know what he’s asking. But to give it to him is one more betrayal of Kay—and I cannot afford that. “Kay believes everyone is special.”
“I can’t believe she cooks and looks like that. I’ve never seen calves curve so beautifully.” He makes a shapely motion with his hands, and then catches himself. “I’m sorry. I’m creeping you out, right? I swear, I’m not normally like this. When I saw her—” his mouth is still open. “Never mind.”
“She runs.”
Thomas rubs his chin thoughtfully. “I’m sorry?”
“She runs. That’s why her calves are like that. Her life has really come together since I left here. I might be a jinx.” I offer him fair warning.
“Right. Did you look over the preliminary prospectus?”
I shake my head. “I haven’t really had an opportunity.”
“Of course. You’re on vacation. I should have realized—we have a shot for three more potential customers, and I think you’d be perfect for them. They’ve all got funding behind them, but these lawsuits could send venture capitalists running. Matt told me you’re into fashion, and one of them sells designer bags.”
My eyes pop. “At a discount?”
“Well, no. But their specialty is the way they work with the customer. That software process is patented, and it’s being violated, but they’re only two years’ old. They can’t afford to fight the legal battle.”
“Oh my gosh. I could be like Wonder Woman saving quality handbags for everyone!” I stab both hips with my fists.
“I would have to object to a costume.”
“Buzz kill.” I push the half-open door. “Come on in. This idea, while intriguing, requires a lot of travel, obviously. I’m not ready to give an answer. Not even close.” Considering my husband doesn’t return any of my phone calls, discussing this with him isn’t exactly an option.
Thomas follows me in the house, and I see him peeking around for Kay. When he spots her, I may as well have evaporated. He’s speaking to me, but he’s hardly present. “Sometimes,” Thomas says half-heartedly, “when you don’t know exactly what you want? You have to rule out all the things you don’t want. I don’t hear you ruling this out.”
“That’s profound, and far too much for me to think about on an empty stomach. Let’s go see if Kay needs help with the steak.” I’ll admit it. Maybe I’m a bit of a matchmaker, which would be wrong with Matt in the picture. Not that I have any loyalty to Matt, but I’d like him cut from the picture before Kay moves onto the next thing.
Then again, all’s fair in love and war—which seems to be Matt’s own mantra.
Before we enter the kitchen, Thomas taps me on the arm, and I turn. “Matt Callaway is not dating her. I refuse to believe it.” His eyes are fixed on the kitchen window where Kay is in her eagle’s nest over the sink. “She’s far out of his league.”
I hate to burst his bubble, but it must be done. “We were nearly blown up yesterday shopping for an engagement ring. Don’t you watch the news?”
“No, I don’t watch the news because I’m not 70-years old.” Thomas’ expression falters. “Engagement? Matt Callaway plans to be engaged?”
Come on—we were almost blown up, and he leads with engagement?
“There is no humanity left in Silicon Valley. I’m convinced of it.”
“Wait, what?” Thomas pulls me toward the yard, away from the kitchen. Recognition dawns. “I’m sorry. You were almost blown-up and I was focused on Kay.” Gone is the happy-go-lucky smile, and a cloud of darkness hangs over his brow.
“Thomas.” I snap my fingers in his face twice. “Come back to me here.”
“I’ve never felt anything like that.” His jaw is set. “Kay is not marrying Matt.” He looks at me with anguish. “Can’t you feel that? It’s wrong in every way.”
I suddenly feel for Matt. Though I have no idea why. Didn’t Matt once tell me that no one else wanted Kay? Isn’t there the question of the orange underwear of undetermined origin? Though– though I hope to never discover its owner.
This is but an innocent flirtation. It’s a universally acknowledged truth that a person in possession of a boyfriend must attract another suitor—just to make things interesting.
As Thomas stares into the kitchen window as if he’s seen a falling star and it’s close enough to capture, I realize I’ve been here before. The first time Seth saw Arin, I bore witness to the magic—the way he gazed at her as if she held the last piece to an impossible puzzle. It was as if I’d never existed. Somehow, I fear—if Thomas’s relentless pursuit and lack of a bro-code, is any indication—Matt is about to find himself in the doghouse. Or pergola, as the case may be. Which is exactly where he belongs.
“It’s your friend’s girlfriend. The guy you work with—aren’t their rules about that? You see, I loved a guy named Seth. I can’t exactly remember why I loved him, but I did, and the second Arin appeared, that’s his wife now, I faded into oblivion and ceased to exist in the world. Doesn’t Matt deserve that? I mean, you don’t even know who Kay is—this is just—”
“Ashley?”
“Hmm?”
“I asked you if you believe in love at first sight?”
“No. I believe in lust at first sight. Seth fell in lust, and now he’s paying the price.”
“Then, you don’t know me very well.” Thomas looks down on me with intense, gray eyes. “Sounds like Seth believed in love at first sight, too.”
“I don’t know you at all. I admit as much, but I do know Matt’s your business partner, and I assume there’s some kind of guy code that prevents this type of thing from happening. I’m not saying never. I’m just saying, maybe this needs to be put on the backburner for now.”
He grins, and the innocuous, nerdy businessman disappears, and I spy a warrior in his place. I want to clasp my eyes shut, put my fingers in my ears and pretend I never heard or saw a thing.
Thomas struts into the kitchen, and I follow closely behind and nearly get tagged by the swinging door, which he’s shut behind him. Kay is patting the meat with more dry-rub over the sink. Thomas stands mesmerized as if she was flying on gossamer wings, but it’s not the sexiest pose—although who knows? Maybe it is. Maybe a guy likes to see a woman who knows how to handle a hunk of beef. What do I know? The kitchen has never been my natural habitat.
He scuttles past me and farther into the kitchen. “Can I help in any way?”
Kay stares up at him, and that’s shocking in itself, because Kay is very tall. When she sees the intensity in his eyes, she immediately looks back down at the sink. “No, thank you,” she says quietly.
Shyly
.
He mumbles something I can’t hear, and her eyes meet his again. The door presses open behind me, and I grab at my throat. “Why are you standing in front of the door?” Matt Callaway pushes through the door jam, moving me out of the way with his efforts.
“No reason,” I say with a crackling voice. “And could you wait rather than ram the door into me? Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?”
“No, but she taught me not to stand in front of doors. What’s the matter with you? You’re like a scared cat on his last life.”
“I—uh—” I try to keep his attention off of the kitchen. We push through the door and into the dining room.
“How’s your arm?”
“No, it’s fine. It’s fine.”
“I picked up the engagement ring,” he whispers as he presses his chest twice. “You need to help me with the right way to ask. It has to be over-the-top romantic, and a complete surprise.”
“Oh, I think it will be.” I stall for time. “So…is that a new tie?”
He tugs at the knot. “No.” His brows furrow a bit. “Who’s that with Kay in there?”
I nod. “Yeah. Kay’s marinating the steak, a massive chunk of beef—” My cell phone trills. “So it’s not a new tie. It’s a good color on you. You should wear that more often.”
“Aren’t you going to answer your phone?”
“Is that mine?”
“It’s a Christian song for a ringtone. It’s definitely not mine.” He rolls his eyes.
“Matt, that’s hysterical!” I say far too loud as I slap his bicep. The swinging door opens again, and I see Kay turn towards me.
Before I can see any fallout from everyone’s position, I answer my cell phone. “Hello?”
“Ashley? It’s Emily.”
I exhale.
Like that’s any better
. “Emily, is everything all right?”
“I’m in a Napa Valley mansion, what could be wrong?”
“Good point.”
“I just called to tell you that Kevin says he’ll call you tomorrow.”
“You talked to Kevin?”
“Yeah, he called to check on me, but he had to go right back into surgery. So he wanted me to let you know that he’s okay and you’ll connect tomorrow.”
“Oh. Yeah. Thank you.”
“I also wanted to say that I think you left your underwear here. They were in a pink, lacy wad under the bathtub, and naturally, they were soaking wet. Are yours pink?”
I clutch my phone tightly and turn away from Matt. “Um—”
“You did!” She starts to laugh. “First, you fall into the pool. Then, you leave your panties at someone’s house. I cannot wait to tell Mothah, she gets such a kick out of you.”
Read: Mourns for her son.
Oh. My. Goodness. I have instantly become one of
those
women, which is totally what I get for judging. When you judge, it’s inevitable that life is going to bite you in the behind. You’re naked, chone-less, behind. “I did drive you all the way up to Napa and find you a place to live. What do you say that we keep this between us? Like a sister secret.”
“But it’s so delicious. I mean, you’re so smart, Ashley. Everything you do is like something they give a degree or a trophy for. But to fall into a pool and leave your pah-an-tees,” she stretches out the word to all its southern glory. “In someone’s mansion? How can I possibly keep that to myself? It’s so delicious.”
“You know, you can just get rid of them. I have plenty with me.”
“Consider it done. I do have to tell you that it was kind of traumatizing to know my husband’s wife wears lacy, pink panties. These are things one should keep private. Does Kehvin like that?” She stops herself. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want the answer to that question.”
“Anything else, Emily?”
“Well, if they weren’t yours, I didn’t know whose they could be, and I didn’t want to throw Mrs. Bowman’s out by accident. I should have known they were yours. I mean, they were wet, and who else went into the drink?” She giggles again.
All I can think is that soon, there will be two of her. “Sorry to have scarred you, Emily, but yes, I do wear panties. I know, it’s scandalous, but it could be worse.”
“I didn’t take you for the commando sort.” She laughs again.
“Just throw them out.” I roll my eyes, even though she can’t see me. Seriously, it’s a pair of panties—it’s not like I left a dirty drug needle in the bathroom. They were clean! They’d just come out of the pool.
“Hmm,” she miffs. “I just thought you’d want to know.” She hangs up on me.
I’m standing in front of Matt with his expectant eyes, and it dawns on me that I just need to mind my own business.
“Everything all right?” Matt asks me.
“Yeah, I just left something where Emily is staying.”
“So are you going to tell me what Thomas is doing here? Is he taking a cooking lesson, because it looks intense in there?”
“Kay invited him for dinner.” I nibble on my bottom lip. “I think.”
“Why?”
“I suppose because he was here on the front porch when we arrived, and that’s what Kay does. She invites people for dinner. Have you two actually met?”
“What’s he saying to her?” He gives a short shrug. “I’ve never introduced them to each other.”
It dawns on me that Matt isn’t remotely jealous. He never even considers the possibility that Thomas might be attracted to Kay, because he’s so full of himself. I decide to test this theory.
“I don’t know, maybe he thinks she’s hot.”
Matt laughs. He laughs!
“What’s so funny about that?” I demand.
“Kay’s with me,” he says, as if that’s the end of such ridiculousness.
“I imagine he’s just making small talk while she cooks.”
“He seems really into what she’s saying.” He’s watching the two of them through the window, and it feels illicit. Almost stalkerish.
“I would imagine Thomas is fascinated by watching a woman cook in the Silicon Valley. That’s not all that common, almost like an endangered animal, you know?” I open the front door and head back inside.
Matt glares at me. “She’s patting a piece of meat.” The way he says this, with more ego than I can stomach—like the act is disgusting—makes me want to slap him.
“Do tell, what does a man love more than a hearty steak?”
“I only meant he’s supposed to be here pursuing you for our business venture, and he’s in the kitchen watching my girlfriend wash a hunk of meat. You don’t find that strange?”
“You really don’t think she’s sexy at all, do you? That’s why you’re questioning Thomas in the kitchen with Kay? You can’t imagine that anyone on earth might find your girlfriend attractive.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You told me that no one else wanted her. I can’t get that out of my head. Who marries someone that no one else wants? Kevin believed he’d won the lottery by marrying me.”
“Well.” He rolls his eyes. “Kevin.”
“You don’t get it. I’m not supportive of this marriage, not because you’re not a Christian—which I know you want to use as your excuse. That way I’m just some religious crackpot whose opinion doesn’t matter, but in all honesty that’s not my reason.”
“I suppose you’re going to tell me. Even though you might want to take note that I’m not asking.”
I let out an exaggerated sigh, jutting my chin forward for affect. “I’m worried you’ll make a terrible husband for Kay because you have no idea how fabulous she is, and that makes you unworthy of her.”