Well, shit.
He had no business being surprised by her chilliness, or disappointed by it.
“Okay, everyone,” said the tiny woman, clapping her hands. “Are we all set? Do you feel comfortable with this? Do you want to run it again?”
“We’re good,” Vivian said.
They all stepped from the archway, and Michael said, “Mack. Let me introduce you to Phaedra. Phaedra, Mack, Mack, Phaedra.”
His mouth was half open, ready to offer that they’d met, when she stuck out her hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Mack.”
Her expression was a complete blank. So blank that for a second, he actually questioned whether they had met. Maybe he’d mistaken her for someone else…?
No, that was bullshit. He had looked into those blue-green eyes and watched her come apart. You didn’t forget sex like that.
Apparently, however, she wasn’t going to give him any hint that she remembered it. She was going to pretend they were complete strangers.
Ouch.
Okay, that was not playing fair.
If she’d acknowledged him, he would have let it be. But she’d thrown down a gauntlet. Mack had a contrary streak, and now it was fully activated.
He was going to make her admit that she knew who he was.
Better still, he was going to find out why she’d run away—and stayed away.
And maybe…
Well. They would cross that bridge if he could lead her to it. He patted his pocket, the one with the hotel key in it.
Just then, Vivian reached into her own pocket and pulled out her phone. “Mom?” she said, holding it to her ear. “Wait. Where are you? Oh… oh, no. Okay. You stay put. I’ll send someone.” She ended the call and frowned at Phaedra. “Your grandmother is in Reardon Bay instead of Tierney Bay.”
“Oh no.” Phaedra clapped a hand to her mouth. Mack wasn’t sure if she was horrified or trying to keep from laughing. He was pretty sure it was the latter. “Poor Grandma.”
Vivian wrung her hands. “God! I knew I should have taken the driver’s cell phone number. The dispatcher swore he’d double check with the driver. I went over it twice—if she tells you something different, make sure you follow my instructions. I should have gotten her myself.”
“Aunt Vivi, don’t stress. I’ll get her here.” Phaedra patted her aunt’s arm. “Where’s Reardon Bay?”
“About an hour down the coast,” Vivian said.
“I’m on it—oh, shit.” Phaedra wrinkled her nose. “I can’t drive your car. It’s stick shift. But don’t worry. I’ll figure something out. I’ll borrow one or—hell, I’ll rent one if I have to.” She pulled her phone out and started tapping. “There’s got to be a rental place near here—”
The tiny woman—wedding planner, maybe?—was shaking her head. “Nearest one is Portland. Or Aberdeen. Let me see if I can figure something out.” She hurried over to the front desk and consulted briefly with the guy standing behind it. She returned and said, “Levi thinks he can lend you his truck, but his sister’s using it now, so it’ll be a while.”
Vivian and Phaedra’s faces went white. “Grandma’s a little—” Phaedra began, at the same time that Vivi was saying, “I don’t think she should be on her own—”
“I have a car,” Mack said.
They all turned toward him. Vivi was looking at him like he was a superhero, and Phaedra like he was a threat to the continued existence of humanity.
Well. He would find a way to change her mind. And a long car ride would be the perfect opportunity. “Happy to drive you down.”
Phaedra grimaced. “Uh—couldn’t I just, you know, borrow it?”
Mack felt triumphant, but wouldn’t let it show. He shook his head. “It’s an older model. It’s stick shift, too. But it’s not a big deal—I enjoy driving, and it’s a great stretch of road.” He looked at his watch. “If we leave right now, we can retrieve your grandmother and be back in time for photos.”
“But…” Phaedra turned to Vivi. “You need me for getting ready!” She turned back to him. “You could go by yourself.” Then her shoulders slumped.
“Phaedra?” Vivi asked.
“Grandma will be super confused if a random stranger picks her up, won’t she.”
“Your grandmother will be super confused no matter what,” Vivi said sadly. “But she might be more comfortable if you go along with Mack. I’ll be fine. Judy’s here.” She waved at a woman who was watching the rehearsal from a distance. “Judy’s my best friend,” she explained.
Phaedra took a deep breath, and blew it out. “Okay. Okay.” She turned to him, her eyes narrow. They seemed to say, You win. “Let’s go.”
He nodded.
But the truth was, he wasn’t going to feel like he’d won until she was looking at him very differently.
He wanted her to look at him with the same sense of possibility and wonder he’d seen as they’d stood talking on Kevin’s rooftop, while Puget Sound darkened to purple behind her.
3
“Oh,” she said, when she saw his car. “Yeah, you probably wouldn’t want me practicing my shitty stick shift skills on that.”
She was eyeing his red Audi TT RS Coupe—sold the last year Audi made a stick shift TT. The car was his one real self-indulgence, and his baby.
“Yeah,” he said.
No one but him was ever going to drive that car. Okay, that was a lie. He had let his dad drive it a few times after his cancer diagnosis. But that was what it would take. The threat of death and the guilt of a family member saying, “I want to drive that car once before I die.” Not that his father was going to die. In fact, among the first words his father had said to him after receiving word that he was in remission were, “I guess you’re not going to let me drive the car anymore.”
“Nope,” Mack had said. “Buy your own damn sports car.”
“Asshole.”
“Takes one,” Mack said, with a shrug, and gave his father a huge hug.
To slide into the passenger seat, she had to brush by him, and that made all the hair on his arms stand up. And brought a few other things to attention, too. What was it with her? She definitely had a mainline to his libido.
As she ran a hand lightly over the leather upholstery, he got hard. Not a-little-bit-heavy-heading-to-hard, but all-out, skin-too-tight uncomfortably hard. He’d been attracted to her from the first moment he’d seen her, but this was insane. It was because of how good the sex had been. His body remembered.
He went around to the driver’s seat and slid in, trying to ignore how delicious she smelled. Like strawberries and cream. He wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. Instead he said, “You mind navigating?”
“Nope,” she said, and took her phone out.
He started the car, 360 hp of turbocharged five-cylinder goodness roaring to life under them. He never started the car without feeling a thrill.
He turned and looked at her. She was grinning out the front window.
“You like it?” he said, as he peeled out just a little more sharply than was strictly necessary. He remembered: During sex, she’d egged him on until he’d worried aloud that he was hurting her, and then she’d said, I’ll never let you hurt me. Only probably she’d actually just said, I’d never let you hurt me, which was different. But for a split second he’d thrilled at the promise of that future tense, and the feel of her meeting him, stroke for stroke.