Jack finally decided to order a bourbon on the rocks and when the waitress had brought their drinks Mike settled back in his chair and gave Jack a look that said, “Talk or else.”
But what he actually said, and in a very mild tone, was, “Okay, buddy, what’s going on with you? Give.”
Jack took a sip of his bourbon. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That is just so much bullshit. I’ll admit you have lousy luck at the poker table but usually you pay careful attention to everything. Which is why you get so ticked off. But tonight?” Mike shook his head. “You’re ten million miles from here.”
“Business stuff.” Jack hoped that would be enough to shut him up but he had a sick feeling it wasn’t.
“Business, huh? Well. Let’s look at the facts here.” He swallowed some of his drink. “First of all, you come to the barbecue Sunday night and my wonderful wife found you the woman of your dreams. Of your
dreams,”
he emphasised. “And you acted like you were hanging out with your sister. If you had one, that is.”
“I thought I was very attentive,” Jack said defensively.
“Attentive.” Mike snorted. “I thought you’d be all over her.”
“All over her? Like what? I took good care of her.”
Mike just shook his head. “Carly talked to Abby the next day and she said you didn’t even invite her out. What’s the matter with you?”
“I’m working up to it. Give me a chance here.”
“Working up to it? Jesus, Jack, You’re not sixteen. You just ask her to dinner and take it from there, right?”
“Okay, okay. I’ll call her.” He took a healthy swig of the bourbon. “Are we done here?”
“Not even half. Because from what Abby told Carly the only sparks between the two of you were coming from her. What’s that all about? She’s exactly the woman you’ve been waiting for all your life. At least that’s what you keep telling us.”
“Maybe I’ve changed my mind.” He really wanted to unload on Mike about Darcy but there were so many pitfalls in that direction.
Mike was silent for a long minute. “Okay, how about you tell me what’s really going on here.”
“I told you. Nothing. I’ll call Abby next week for sure.”
“Forget that. She told my wife she knows you’re not interested in her.” He leant forward. “Holy shit! You’ve met someone, haven’t you? That’s why Abby didn’t ring your chimes. Come on. Out with the details.”
“I’m not discussing this with you.”
“Better me than Carly. If I don’t get answers she’ll be at your front door first thing in the morning. You know her. She considers you her special project.”
“Just leave it.” Jack tossed back the rest of his drink.
“Uh-huh. If I don’t come home with details I’m in big trouble.”
Jack just stared into his empty glass. How could he describe Darcy to Mike? Or what they had? Or what he was afraid of?
“Okay, is there something wrong with her?” Mike signalled the waitress for another round. “We’re sitting here until I get some answers.”
Jack sighed. “She’s…different.”
“Different how? Is she missing vital body parts? Does she have two heads?”
“She’s just…not like the other women in the group.”
“Jack, my friend, that tells me nothing. Describe her.”
Jack sighed. “For one thing she’s very short. Just about five feet. For another, she dresses…weird.”
“Weird?”
“You know. Not the kind of stuff Carly wears. Or any of the other wives or girlfriends.”
“Where did you meet her?”
The waitress brought them their fresh drinks and Jack swallowed some of his quickly. “At Eli’s.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll just go ask Eli about her. What’s her name?”
“No.” Jack nearly shouted the word. “You will
not
dig into my business with Eli.”
Another drawn-out moment of silence, then Mike asked very quietly, “Jack, are you
ashamed
of this woman for some reason?”
“Yes. No. She’s…different.”
“That’s three times you’ve used that word. For a man with a very extensive vocabulary I’m wondering what it is about her you don’t want to tell me. We’ve been friends for twenty years, for shit’s sake. Come on. Open up. Do you like her? Want her? Have you had sex with her?”
”Yes.” He blurted the word out before he could stop himself. “Forget I said that. Just…forget it.”
“Oh my god.” Mike’s voice held amazement in it. “You’re in love with her.
That’s
what’s going on. How long have you known her? When did you meet her? Why didn’t you bring her to the barbecue?”
Jack held up a hand. “Stop. Give me a minute.” He took another drink. He knew Mike would prise it out of him or give him no peace. And truth be told, he had a real need to unburden himself. Maybe get some advice on how to get Darcy O’Connor out of his system. “Here’s how it went.”
He told him everything, starting with getting falling-down drunk at Eli’s and Darcy being coerced into driving him home, through Saturday night when they’d practically set the bed on fire.
Eli gave him a thoughtful look. “So what’s the problem? The zing is there. Sounds like you can’t stay away from each other. Why not take it to the next level? And bring her around so at least Carly and I can meet her?”
“Not possible. We’re completely wrong for each other. She is definitely not my type. I need to get her out of my system.”
“Well, we introduced you to a woman we were sure was your type,” Mike reminded him, “and that didn’t work out so well. Maybe it’s really true that opposites attract. Maybe you need a little…weirdness in your life.”
Jack ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I told you. She’s short. She wears strange clothes. She’s got this stupid haircut…”
When Mike didn’t say anything Jack looked at him and found his friend staring at him with a strange expression on his face.
“Jack? Are you embarrassed because she doesn’t fit the image you’ve carried around for so long? The one of the woman you told us all you’d end up with?”
Jack just shrugged and swallowed some more bourbon.
“You know,” Mike said slowly, “I thought I knew you as well as one person can know another. Maybe even better than I know my wife, and that’s going some. But if you won’t see this woman again or bring her around because she doesn’t fit some preconceived notion—”
“I wanted everyone to be jealous of me because I got the best.” Oh god. Had he just blurted that out?
“Jesus, Jack. I can’t believe you said that.”
Jack couldn’t, either.
“You either have a very low opinion of yourself or of your friends or both if that’s the way you feel.” Mike stood up. “I’m going back to the game and you, my friend, should go home. I don’t know anything about this woman but if she’s got you tied in knots like this then you shouldn’t be figuring out how to get her out of your life. You should be hanging on for dear life. If the only thing wrong with her is that she dresses weird and doesn’t have a hairstyle you like then you are seriously screwed up.”
And wasn’t that just the fucking truth.
* * * *
Across town Darcy was curled up in a corner of her sister’s couch drinking wine. The kids were in bed and Vic, Trish’s husband, was at a basketball game. It was just the two of them and Trish was being her usual relentless self.
“Let me get this straight. You met this guy who’s the king of sex and you want to ditch him?”
“I
am
ditching him,” Darcy insisted. “We are so totally wrong for each other. We might as well live on two different planets.”
“Darcy. My wonderful sister.” Trish was sitting at the other end of the couch, her feet tucked beneath her. “Listen to me. Forget about the button-down shirt. Forget about the arrogant attitude. Those are all things you can work with. If the chemistry is there, that’s what counts.”
“Yeah? What happens when we get out of bed? Which, by the way, we have to do on a regular basis. That’s where we run into trouble. We can’t even hold a decent conversation.”
Tricia laughed. “Why do I get the feeling that’s as much your fault as his?”
Darcy threw up her hands. “Okay, it’s my fault. It’s
always
my fault. Are you happy now?” She held out her glass. “More wine. I can’t do this totally sober.”
Tricia reached for the bottle and poured. “Maybe this is the relationship you were always meant to have. The one that balances you out.”
“Puhleeze. Are you hearing me? We have nothing in common. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
“You can find new things together.” Tricia leant forward. “You’ve been running from relationships all your life, Darcy. Deliberately dating men with no staying power. No future.” She reached across the cushions and took her sister’s hand. “You think I don’t know how Dad always got after you because you were such a rebel? How Mom compared the two of us all the time? Kept telling you to be more like me because she just didn’t know what to do with a daughter like you?”
Darcy made a rude noise. “That’s the damn truth. Poor Mom who wanted two golden girls and got one freak.”
“You’re not a freak, baby sister. But you do have a chance here to do something really for yourself. Something you want to do. Not because you want to stick it in someone’s face but because it gives you pleasure. Don’t throw it away.”
“I don’t know, Trish.” She gulped some wine.
“I do. If he doesn’t call you, then you call him. Do it, Darcy. Do it for yourself. Take a chance.”
“What if I do and he says he doesn’t want me? Agrees that we have nothing in common? That we’re all wrong for each other?”
“He might,” Tricia agreed. ”You said you made a definite point of telling him not once but often.”
“Well, then…”
“But you can always take it back,” her sister pointed out.
But did she want to? Jack Manning was unlike any other man she’d ever known. Sure, they couldn’t stay out of bed when they were together but what if he found her lacking in other areas? She was smart. She’d graduated college with high grades in her film major. She was very good at her job, regardless of how Hugh Rodgers might try to downplay her. But she knew nothing about Jack’s world or the people who were in it.
“Stop that,” Tricia said.
“Stop what?”
“Whatever’s put that look on your face.” She looked at Darcy over the rim of her glass. “I agree if you go for it you might end up with nothing. But if you don’t, then for sure nothing’s all you’ll ever have.”
Darcy thought about it on the drive home. She was pretty sure unless she called Jack herself they wouldn’t cross paths again. Or unless she went to Eli’s. And ran into him there. Maybe Tricia was right, but if she got together with Jack again she’d have to make so many changes in herself. Changes that were part of the wall she put up against the world to keep her heart safe.
And she just didn’t know if she could do it.
* * * *
“Come on, Jack. Come with me. You’re really good at looking at this stuff and telling me if it needs tweaking. Maybe you should have gone into politics yourself.”
Jack looked across the lunch table at his friend, Terry Millburn, who was running for a second term as county commissioner. Terry was due at a video production house in thirty minutes to tape one last political ad for television. Terry and Jack were old friends and Jack had been involved in the campaign from the beginning. A campaign that had been easy to work because, for one thing, Terry had a good track record during his first term and for another, he was sixth-generation Texan and it slithered from every pore. He wore the requisite cowboy boots and oozed Texas charm.
But Jack was in no mood to play television producer today. It was Friday and he just wanted to go home and hide for the weekend.
“Don will be there.” Jack slid his credit card into the folder the waiter had placed discreetly on the table. Don was Terry’s campaign manager and would be running the show.
“Yeah, I know. But you’ve got a feel for this stuff. I still don’t understand why you never wanted to go into politics.”
“Not me,” Jack chuckled. “I leave that up to you guys who love the limelight.”
“Well, limelight or not, I still want to stay on the commission and I could really use your input on this. You’ve been on-target with everything so far. Come on. We can walk from here.”
Jack really wanted to go back to the house and bury himself in work, try harder to get Darcy out of his mind. Mike’s words kept playing in his brain and Jack knew his friend was right. Still, old habits, old lifestyles were hard to change. He felt comfortable wallowing in them. Still, Terry was persuasive, which was why instead of going home he found himself walking the two blocks to HVR Video where the shoot would take place.
As they walked inside Jack suddenly got a bad feeling, his mind flashing back to that first night he’d met Darcy at Eli’s.
“I’m a technical assistant with a video production company… Actually, I’m a director.”
No, it was impossible. Life wouldn’t be that cruel to dump him right in Darcy’s bailiwick as he was struggling to wipe her out of his mind.