Chapter 9
NINE
AMY
Iclutched the tiny square of paper in my hand as if it was the solution to all my problems. It wasn’t, of course, but every time the doctor gave my mom some new meds to try or changed a dosage, it gave me a small sliver of hope that it would be the magic potion we were looking for.
I’d considered the taping of the cupboards extreme until she’d made cookies with snail poison.
While I hadn’t given the doctor any of the truly alarming details of her last few episodes, I’d mentioned that I was concerned she was hearing voices more frequently and that I thought a medication adjustment was in order.
He’d reluctantly written out a new prescription with the warning that it probably wouldn’t help and might possibly make things worse.
I had to promise that if things didn’t work out with the new meds, I would bring her in for an evaluation to be placed in a hospital setting.
The only bright side of having to deal with some major Mom problems was that I hadn’t had much time to think about Hunter. Not that I’d pushed him completely from my head but, for a change, he wasn’t front and center.
The local coffee shop was right next to the pharmacy, and the obsessed coffee patrons had lined up to taste a free sample of some fancy, frothy new coffee drink.
There was one parking spot left open. As I headed toward it, a shiny black convertible Jaguar with the top down and a surfboard jutting out the backseat came toward me.
The guy behind the wheel had long sun-streaked hair, a typical surfer hairdo, and black Oakley sunglasses.
Before I could turn my shabby little junkster into the spot, he swept in with his slick convertible.
The surfboard loomed over the back of the car, seemingly laughing at me for losing the spot.
But I wasn’t in the mood to be ridiculed by a damn surfboard or have my spot snaked by a rich, salt-coated surf dude.
I threw my car in park and, piece of shit that it was, it choked and coughed and stalled. I didn’t care. Surfer dude was just getting out of his fancy car as I climbed out of mine.
“Hey, Malibu,” I called, “that was my damn parking spot.”
He turned around. He’d pulled a shirt on over some nice muscles.
His board shorts still looked wet. He pushed his sunglasses up on his head and looked at me in a way that made me feel as if I’d stepped out of the car in my underwear, and I didn’t mind.
He had nice blue eyes and a strong jaw. I was always a sucker for a strong jaw.
It might have been the Jaguar talking, but suddenly, a little voice in my head suggested I flash one of my famous, come hither smiles. It had been so long since I’d felt free to flirt, I’d almost forgotten how. But this guy didn’t know me and he didn’t know Hunter, and I was going to go for it.
I shoved my hands in my back pockets but brought my shoulders forward to push my somewhat underwhelming boobs into view. “I just think if you’re going to snake a girl’s parking spot, you should at least buy her a cup of coffee.”
He stepped toward me, and he didn’t lose any of his appeal on closer inspection.
“I am sorry about that. I guess I didn’t notice you.
” He looked down at my body and then back up at my face.
“But I’m definitely noticing you now. And I think you’re right.
I owe you a cup of coffee.” He glanced around the parking lot.
“Looks like the free coffee offer is over and some spots are opening up. I’ll go in and grab a table. ”
“Sounds good.” I pointed back to my car. “I’ll just go park.”
“I’m David, by the way.” He reached out his hand.
I shook it. “I’m Amy.” He had a firm grip, but there was no exchange of those weird little electrical charges I always felt when Hunter touched me.
I brushed that silly comparison from my head.
If I wanted to try this, to be on my own to meet men and maybe even fall in love, I was going to have to stop measuring other men up against Hunter.
I parked and went into the pharmacy to turn in the prescription. I didn’t want to appear too anxious for my coffee date. The pharmacist raised his fluffy gray brows as he read the doctor’s writing. Never a good thing when a medication request made a pharmacist do a double-take.
I left the pharmacy wondering how on earth I could ever meet someone and bring them home to meet my family, a family that consisted of one loony woman who spent her entire day trying to keep out of the grasp of invisible aliens.
Between my mom and my menacing neighbor, there was no way I could ever bring anyone home, or, for that matter, let anyone pick me up for a date.
Pick me up for a date— what a foreign notion that was.
I headed toward the coffee shop. I was slightly nervous, and that really irritated me.
No big deal, Amy. A nice looking surfer with a spiffy, expensive car asked you to sit and have coffee.
He was probably going to turn out to be a jerk anyhow.
I seemed to be a magnet for jerks, especially oversized, hard-edged ones.
Once again I had to push Hunter from my head.
The Stone brothers had sort of warped my view of the world, and of men in general, but I was ready to branch out.
I’d just be myself, and if that didn’t fly, too bad. I could always live without a guy.
David waved to me from a table in the back corner. He leaned back and watched me walk toward him with an appreciative grin. He was smooth. I wasn’t completely sure I liked smooth. In truth, I wasn’t sure I even knew what I liked.
I sat down at the table across from him.
“I’ll go up and order our coffees,” he said. “What would you like?”
“A coffee mocha with whipped cream and an extra shot of chocolate. Oh, and see if they’ll put in a drizzle of caramel.”
He smiled. “Got it. Although it sounds more like an ice cream sundae than a coffee.”
“Trust me, if they had any ice cream behind that counter, I’d be asking for a scoop of that too.”
Stupidly, I looked around to make sure no one who knew me or Hunter was in the shop.
I’d had to drive to a neighboring town to get to a pharmacy that stocked the medication my mom needed, so I was out of Stone range.
I relaxed back in the chair and decided to stop being so damn paranoid.
Otherwise, I’d eventually be standing in an apron next to my mom making suspicious tasting cookies.
David was tall and nice looking, not Stone brother handsome, but then few were. But this guy might have had enough more gentleman-like qualities to make up for it. Maybe it was time to move away from the Neanderthal type and onto something a little more evolved. That thought made me smile.
David returned to the table with the coffee. He pointed to my cup. “Took the liberty of having some cocoa powder sprinkled on top. Thought you might appreciate it.”
“Good call. I like your way of thinking.”
“What were you smiling about just a second ago? Looked like something amused you.”
I picked up the cup and cradled it in my hands. “Guess I was just thinking how nice it was to have a good-looking guy bring me a cup of coffee.”
“Uh, I hate to break it to you, but that thing you're holding stopped being coffee three caramel squirts ago.”
I laughed. “Guess I do sort of order coffee that a ten-year-old might like.”
He took a drink from his cup and leaned back. “Actually, it’s refreshing not having my date order a cup of hot water with a side of lemon.”
I laughed again. “So, is that what this is? A date? I thought it was an apology for taking my parking spot.”
“I think this transitioned from an apology to a date when I watched you walk into this place and thought— holy hell, when did this angel land on earth.”
I shook my head with a smile. “O.K., that line just had more sugar than this cup of coffee.”
“Too much?”
I pinched my fingers together. “Little bit. Listen, you don’t have to try so hard.
My usual male companions think ‘hey, get me a fucking beer from the fridge’ is a term of endearment.
” I stuck the tiny stirrer into my cup and scooped up some whipped cream.
He watched with great interest as I licked it off the stirrer.
Apparently, I still knew how to flirt, after all.
Of course, whipped cream was always a good tool for drawing in a guy’s attention.
“So, there is a male companion? Actually, you said companions, didn’t you?”
I took a sip of my extra sweet drink and twisted my lips.
“Wow, that almost makes my teeth hurt. My kind of coffee.” I’d avoided his question, but he seemed to be waiting for a response.
It was a question that sort of hurt my head just thinking about.
I’d been so damn attached to Hunter and his brothers, that it was hard not bringing them up in every conversation.
“My neighbors,” I finally blurted. Sometimes in my own mind it was just easier to talk about Hunter as my neighbor rather than as the person I was more connected to than anyone else on the planet, my own mom, included.
“We all grew up together.” I shrugged to assure him that they were nothing more than acquaintances.
It was sort of like saying my nose was just the center point of my face, but I was going to have to stop thinking about Hunter.
And dismissing him as unimportant was the first idea I’d come up with in a pinch.
The last thing I’d expected on my way to getting my mom’s drugs was to meet a hot guy and have to discuss my personal life.
“Good to hear.” David seemed genuinely relieved. Or at least I convinced myself of it. Free coffee samples dispersed, the crowd in the coffee shop dwindled to just a few people working on computers and a couple of women who looked as if they could be sisters.