Chapter 6 Caroline #3
Shaking my head once again, I guzzle the rest and slide the mug onto a high top next to us.
“I’m thinking it’s a bad idea—wait, scratch that—a horrible idea for me to get entangled with you.
You’re going to be working at my airport.
What happens when it doesn’t work out? I have to look at you,” I say, waving my hand down his body.
“I’ve seen the muscles under those clothes.
You’re enormous.” His grin widens—eyes dancing across my face in complete amusement.
“I’m also thinking I have no idea how to be a girlfriend.
Your girlfriend. I’m kind of hoping you were joking about that back in the truck.
Are you asking to hang the lighting fixture, or are you asking to hang my lighting fixture?
I need you to be upfront with me because I’m bad at this.
” Covering my face with both hands, I let the mortification seep in, then peek around briefly to see who is around. “I can’t shut up. This is horrible.”
“No one heard your tirade,” Tahoe assures, narrowing his eyes. “Though, take heart. No one knows how to be my girlfriend, Caroline. I’ll let you define how to do that,” he says, one dimple rippling next to his smile. “If you’re interested in the gig.”
Looking off to the side to avoid the power of his gaze, I blow out a breath. “And the lighting fixture?” I ask, furrowing my brow.
Tahoe laughs. “Needs to be hung?” he asks.
It does. My god, does it ever. “You realize how intimidating it is being in your proximity, right?” I ask.
Shaking my head, I say, “I’m glad you used it earlier with Whit, but turn it down a little right now, okay?
” I think about the first time I saw him.
How I pegged him for a man I wouldn’t approach if my mama’s life was on the line.
Tahoe rests his hands on my shoulders. “You’ll get used to it,” he says, lips wet and shining. I swallow hard. His hands slide from my shoulders, down my arms.
Shirley clears her throat next to me. “Don’t mind me. I’m just living vicariously through you,” she says. “He’s touching you.”
Tahoe drops his hands and pulls me to his side. “I’d like to touch more of her, but we’re sitting here talking about hanging light fixtures,” he says to my friend, squeezing me a little bit harder for a second or two.
“Shirley, don’t be so insane, please. I thought you were hanging out with Caleb tonight,” I edge, trying to change the subject.
She shrugs. “He’s over there talking to Malena. You know when she gets her claws out, he has no choice but to reminisce with her.” Caleb and Malena have had a few passion-fueled nights in the past. “Plus, everyone is talking about how Hulk was a jerk to Whit, and that’s way more interesting.”
“He wasn’t a jerk,” I exclaim. “I mean, not really, anyway. Whit is incorrigible,” I hiss. High school drama as adults is one of the things I wouldn’t miss about this place.
Shirley takes this opportunity to tell Tahoe about Whit’s permanent crush on me throughout high school and beyond.
On one of his breaks from Britt, he pursued me so hard I was confident Britt was going to find out and have her posse pummel my face into pulp.
I almost gave in just so Whit would leave me alone.
Luckily one of the other wallflowers in our graduating class ended up fooling around with him every Wednesday behind the greenhouse, and he seemed to forget about me for the moment.
Anytime I had a date to a school event, Whit made it clear he wasn’t happy.
It was like I was choosing someone else over him, and that’s something he’s not okay with.
I saw it tonight. At his own engagement party.
Shirley had it right, and everyone knew it.
“Whit wants the wrong things,” Tahoe says, breaking up the lull in conversation.
Shirley harrumphs. “You got that right. Maybe once they get married they’ll keep their evil contained in the confines of their marriage,” Shirley muses. “Wishful thinking, though. I’m sure he’s in the bathroom getting blown by Britt’s best friend right now.”
“This town is far more scandalous than anyone lets on,” he replies, amused by my friend’s musings.
I stay silent, in favor of playing back memories from the past.
“It is Bronze Bay, Tyler Holiday. We keep our tan secrets in the Bay water. Don’t swim here too long. You’ll never be able to scrub the dirt off,” Shirley says, winking at me. “They’re not the type of secrets that wash off with soap.”
“Deep insight, Shirley,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. Looking up at Tahoe, I say, “I’m squeaky clean. Don’t worry about having to hose me off.”
Shirley and Tahoe laugh, like they’re in on some joke.
“Fine,” he says, biting his lip. “I won’t hose you off…right now, but I do want to know which of the men in here are your exes.” His expression grows wary as he surveys the room.
“None of them,” I nearly bark out the words. A few people look our way but pretend they’re not interested in what we’re talking about. “Of course none of them, I mean,” I say, keeping my voice lower.
Shirley confirms my truth. “Why are they all looking at me like they want to kill me then?” Tahoe says it with a smile on his face, gaze bouncing from one Bronze Bay man to the next.
I try to see what he sees, but I can’t make out anything except the normal people who are in my life in some form or another almost every day of my life. “They aren’t jealous because of me,” I reply. “Probably that muscle we were talking about earlier. Muscle envy.”
Tahoe raises his brow and looks between me and Shirley. “She really has no clue, huh?” he asks when his gaze lands on Shirley.
My friend cackles. “She never has and never will. It’s part of her charm.”
“Excuse me. I am standing right here,” I say, trying and failing to pull away from Tahoe’s grasp. “Just because I don’t date around doesn’t mean I’m completely oblivious to…male attention.”
Tahoe clears his throat. “Male attention?” Stifling a laugh, he coughs.
Shirley hits Tahoe on the shoulder. “Show her the ropes,” she says to him. To me, “I expect you to be less oblivious and not hungover during our shift in the morning.” Then she disappears for what I’m sure is the last time tonight. She’ll be afraid of me when I clock in at the diner in the morning.
Tahoe moves us closer to the door, and I can’t let another second pass without telling him. “I’m not na?ve. I’ve already told you I don’t have time for a relationship.”
“But you’ll make time for me?” It’s not really a question with the way he’s smiling at me. Like he’s just won the greatest victory in the history of victories.
I roll my eyes. I’m doing this. “Only because you’re good-looking,” I say, lacing my fingers through his.