Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (27 page)

Rick!
he yelled inside his head.

“Okay, um, bit of a change of plans.” He glanced around, looking helpless, and combed his hand through his hair. “Maria has taken the kids to her mom’s in Puerto Rico. I’m working right through the holiday, so it made sense.” The lie came easy.
 

“Oh.” Jessie looked nonplussed.
 

Orga fought for her attention, and Rick remembered he hadn’t fed the dog.

“I know this isn’t what you came for, but is there any way you would dog-sit instead of babysit? I have to get to work, and I haven’t even given Orga her breakfast. If you could take her for a walk so she can get out for a while, we’d pay you the same rate.”
 

She smiled.
 

Jeez, she’s pretty,
he thought but then pushed the idea from his mind.

“I’d be glad to. I’m sorry, I had no idea Maria was going. She didn’t mention it yesterday, or I wouldn’t have come.”

“Why are you apologizing?” He laughed. “We’re the ones who forgot to mention it. This is great. You’ll walk Orga, then? Maria can deal with the finances when she comes back, because I’m rushing today.”

“Sure, but I’m flying out to South Carolina this afternoon for Thanksgiving, and I won’t be back till Saturday night, so I can’t help for the next few days.”

“Ah. Too bad. Who are you going to South Carolina with?” Had she finally been snatched up by some guy?
 

“My college roommate has invited me to her place. I couldn’t get home for a short break like this, but I hope to get back to England for Christmas.”

“Sure, I guess London would be fantastic around then.”

Jessie laughed. “Maybe, but to be honest, I’ll be at home in Dorking. We have a low-key family celebration, but it’s fun, too.”

She was so stunning when she laughed. Rick mentally reminded himself he was a married man, but then again, his wife had just run off. And for what? No, he was the wronged party. Maria was the bad guy here. He wasn’t doing anything wrong—was he?
 

“Okay.” He slapped his thighs with the palms of his hands. “I better get going. I’m late.”

“Um, I’m afraid your drive is still covered in snow. I’m not sure you’ll be able to get your car out.”

“What?”
 

“The snow’s stopped, and they’ve cleared the main roads and sidewalks, so I was able to walk no problem, but your driveway’s still blocked.”
 

Rick was furious. “I pay a guy to clear my driveway at the first sign of snow. He should have been here hours ago. How the hell will I get to work?” He headed out of the kitchen. “Damn snow,” he said when he opened the front door.
 

It was glorious. The sun was out and bouncing off the fresh blanket of white, making him squint. Orga rushed past him and into the light powder. Jessie chased after the dog but stopped at the door behind Rick.

“It’s okay. She’s just going out to pee. She’ll be back in a moment,” Rick said.

“Can I make you a cup of coffee?” she asked. “Just while you’re looking for the snow guy’s number.”

He turned and looked at the gorgeous babysitter. He was snowed in, his wife and kids were away, and she was offering to make him coffee. Where was the harm in that? Rick’s hangover started to fade, and his mood began to improve. He smiled at her and nodded.
 

They walked back into the kitchen together, Jessie going for the coffee machine and Rick for the milk in the fridge, but they arrived at the cupboard for mugs together. It was an innocent mistake. They both reached up for the handle at the exact same time, and his hand landed on hers. She turned to look at him, and their eyes met and locked. Her skin was so soft, so warm. He jerked back his hand and stepped aside.

“You know your way around this kitchen better than I do.” He forced a laugh, but it sounded weird to him.
 

She backed away then and bit her bottom lip. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Everything’s great.” He brought the mugs over to the coffee machine. “Don’t suppose you know if we have any cookies?”

She walked around him and over to a cupboard beside the fridge.

“So that’s where she keeps them.”
 

Jessie nodded. “Alice has a sweet tooth, but I don’t give her more than one a day.”

Rick grinned. “She’s a tough little nut—gives her mom a real hard time, but she seems to like you.” He didn’t mean it as a suggestive comment, but Jessie looked at him with a kind of guilty-as-charged expression and kept biting that damn bottom lip. God, she was cute. He wondered if she was doing it on purpose.

The percolator clicked. “Coffee’s ready,” she said a little too brightly but didn’t move. It would have meant getting very close to Rick. He took the hint and turned his attention to the machine.

“How do you like it?”

“Excuse me?”

“Your coffee? How do you like it?” Rick couldn’t tell if it was his imagination or not, but she seemed to be acting differently. There was something between them today. Was it chemistry? That would mean the attraction wasn’t one-sided. He didn’t know whether to feel relief or panic, but his heart rate was sure up.

“You know, I should really go walk Orga.” She gestured toward the door with her head.

Damn, she wanted distance. Hell, she was right, but damn all the same.

“You gonna be able to get out before they clear the drive?”

“Absolutely. I got in, didn’t I?” Again with the overbright smile.

“You sure did.” He looked at her square on. He didn’t mean to do it, but somehow they were looking straight into each other’s eyes. The tension between them was palpable. The time for games was over. They were locked together for a second, drawn in. Now he knew it wasn’t just his imagination. This was real. It would be to be easier to cross the room and take her in his arms than to break away from those magnetic blue eyes.

“Okay, I’ll go get my coat.” She broke the spell and looked away.

“You sure?” His voice was lower than he intended.

“What?” She looked a little dazed now.

He felt the electricity between them dissipate. There was no tension in the air now. They were back to being Rick and Jessie. He shook himself and coughed to clear his already clear throat. He became aware of Orga sniffing around the floor. A helicopter flew overhead. Normal life had returned to the kitchen.

“Sorry, yes, go,” he said and looked back down at his coffee mug.

Jessie headed for the door.

“Jessie?”
 

She turned back to look at him.

“Thanks,” he said.

She gave a half nod, whistled for the dog, and left the kitchen.

Rick wasn’t even sure what he was thanking her for. What in the hell was he doing? He took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Damn it, that girl had almost got him going—like really going. He was aroused and closed his eyes tight to bring himself back under control. God, she was gorgeous and his wife had just walked out on him, but he wasn’t the type of man to have an affair—or was he? Rick hit his head with his fist.

He heard the front door bang closed. Orga and Jessie had left the building.

“Get it together, man.” His mind tried to make sense of things. Okay, it was a damn mess that Maria had taken off to her mom’s. It was fair to say they were going through choppy waters, but there was an ocean of difference between Maria running away to her mother’s house and him hooking up with a younger woman. That would be a game changer. “You’re an idiot,” he said angrily under his breath.
 

Outside, he heard the familiar
bing bing bing
of the snowplow reversing down his driveway. The snow clearers had arrived. “About time, too.” He put the untouched cookies away.

So what if Jessie was a lovely girl who seemed to even maybe have feelings for him. So what? He was a married man and a damn fine husband, and he was determined to remain that way. The coffee machine pinged that it was good to go again. He drained the contents of his mug and switched off the machine. The last thing he needed in his life was an affair with Jessie Armstrong—or any more coffee.

Chapter Nineteen

Daydream Believer

After Maria’s lovely coffee with her mother, she was quick to shower, dress, and get out of the house. She drove her mother’s car into town and started her day in Old San Juan. Maria wandered around the maze of cobblestone streets that twisted and turned like a spider’s web. It had been years since she’d admired the beautiful white-washed, low-rise buildings of her hometown. Growing up there had made her immune to the incredible colonial architecture and historic fortresses. Now she saw them with new eyes. They were heart-stoppingly pretty, especially the Plaza de Armas, in the central square. That had been the meeting point for her teenage school friends a long time ago. As she walked through the streets of her youth watching a new generation of teenagers flirting, she wondered what life would have been like if she’d stayed, like her sisters. Paloma had told her the evening before that Carlos, her high school sweetheart, was single again.
 

There were no secrets in San Juan. Everybody knew everybody’s business. Poor Carlos. Maria knew he’d gone to Florida to study pharmacology and then come home to take over his father’s pharmacy. It had to be tough now that CVS was in town, but Paloma said his business was still good. During her walk, she narrowly avoided his street. The last thing she needed was to bump into an old boyfriend. Life was confusing enough without that added into the mix.

She found a lovely little coffee house along one of the side streets and stopped there around midmorning. That was when she got up the nerve to check her phone for messages from Rick. There were seven. The first was a little confusing. Rick was joking and laughing. Then he was anxious, and listening to it, Maria thought her heart would break with guilt. The next message was after he’d found her e-mail. He explained how it landed in his junk folder, and she could hear the annoyance in his voice. Her guilt evaporated, and then she felt as angry as his tone suggested he was.
 

Maria listened to the last messages—where it was pretty obvious he’d gotten very drunk. He vacillated from apologies to anger, but there was no suggestion of him leaving his blessed job to come get her. There was a new message from Cathi, too, asking her where she was and why was Ricky calling them in the middle of the night.

Sitting in the bustling little coffee shop, with the sound of Puerto Rican music in the air and people chatting in Spanish, Maria felt lonelier than she ever had before.

She threw the phone into her purse and, refueled with another stiff shot of local coffee, started to walk again. At least things were easier without the kids. She loved them, but Cody demanded so much attention. Of course, it was her job to listen to every word and admire every school project, but it was exhausting, too. Then there was her darling daughter. She loved Alice, naturally, but the baby cried so much and never seemed happy with her. It was breaking Maria’s heart and wearing her down.

She upped her pace. Parts of the Old Town had been founded in the sixteenth century, but as she walked now, she wondered how could she have forgotten that it was so darn picturesque? Eventually, she headed for the sea views and ended up at El Morro.
 

It was the jewel in the crown of San Juan—the largest fortification in the Caribbean. El Morro held a special place in Maria’s heart, too, because it was where Ricky had proposed to her. She hadn’t meant to walk back to the exact place, but her feet had decided for her. It was a round tower with a tall, thin vertical slit for a window. Maria wandered in to look out at the sea through the window, just as she’d done twelve years before.
 

She wrapped her arms around her body like she were cold, even though it was in the eighties. The last time she had been there, things were very different. When she’d walked into the lookout tower, Rick had walked in behind her. Instead of her own arms around her body, they had been Rick’s strong swimmer’s arms.

“This is where we watch out for invaders,” he whispered into her ear.
 

His touch was so thrilling.
 

“These mighty fortresses with their lookout towers are how we protect our womenfolk from marauding Caribbean pirates.” Rick squeezed her tighter. “I want to protect you forever, Maria Belen Garcia.” Then he turned her around to face him. In that ancient lookout tower, Ricky got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
 

She burst out crying, pulled him up, and said, “Yes, Ricky, yes, yes, I will marry you.”

The memory made her cry all over again, and she had to move on fast. Her next stop was a beautiful hotel she knew nearby. She only planned on heading in to use the restroom, but as she was walking out, the courtyard looked so inviting that she paused and sat for a while to admire the dappled shadows dance on the tables and cobblestone ground.

It wasn’t long before a waiter glided to her table and offered her coffee or perhaps wine.

“What the heck,” she said with a smile. “It’s the holidays, so I’ll have a glass of pinot grigio, please.” When he took his leave, her smile faded. First off, she’d had all the coffee she could manage in one day, and secondly, maybe a glass of wine would help her calm down. The morning had been emotional.