Page 6 of Refuge for Ailsa

“If you weren’t single, you’d have two incomes.”

Jesus! She never stops!he wanted to scream to no one in particular. He’d liked her well enough, but they went out twice and she was making wedding plans. “Yeah, but this way I have my freedom.”

He heard her snort on the other end of the call. “Freedom is highly overrated, you know.”

“Not from where I sit. Hey, I’m where I’m supposed to be going, so I gotta get off here. Tell your mom and dad I said happy anniversary and I hope their party is fun.”

“I will.” There was a moment of hesitation as though she wanted to say something else, but she just said, “Bye, Tav,” and the call ended.

Damn. All the women around there were so… desperate. That was the word he’d use. Totally and completely desperate for a man. Bridget was no exception. It had been tempting to sleep with her on the second date, but he’d decided against it. That would’ve just given her false hope, and there was none. Under no circumstances was he interested in getting hitched to any of the women in that town, no way, no how.

And then a face drifted across his mind, a face with blue-white eyes and long, spiraled, red hair. If her family had been there all that time, how had he never met her? Of course, if she lived in Garrard or Mercer counties, he wouldn’t have known her from school, or much else, for that matter. And if they were from farther out, like LincolnCounty or JessamineCounty, it would be no surprise that he’d never met her. Then the craziest thought ran through his mind.

Was she married? Would she say yes if he asked her out? The thought had no more than passed through his mind than he thought about Claire. She’d ruined his chances of ever having a good relationship with anyone, or at least it felt that way. Claire had been his dream girl, the girl he’d always wanted, just kinky enough to be fun without being totally wild. Or so he’d thought.

It all headed south with Jason. They’d been college buddies, watched sports together, played baseball together, were on the rifle team together. The night she showed up while they were watching that basketball game and talked them into climbing into bed with her was the beginning of the end. Fucking her from behind while she sucked Jason’s cock had been hot at first, but after that, it seemed like every time they were together, she wanted Jason there too, and his friend was all too happy to oblige.

But the night they’d been hot and heavy at it and the door opened, he’d had enough. Miller, a friend of Jason’s and a guy Tavish absolutely could not stand, strolled right in, stripped off, and turned it into a vacuum-sealed party. That was it for Tavish. The minute Miller’s dick disappeared into her ass, Tavish lost any hardness he could’ve hoped for and it was over for him. But when she started whining and Miller made that snide comment?“Not man enough for it?”?Tavish lost it. What started out as a four-way fuck turned into a two-way brawl which Tavish won handily, with Jason holding Claire back as she tried to throw herself into it. Who she intended to defend, Tavish didn’t know, and he didn’t care. He didn’t want her. He didn’t want that. He was done.

Two weeks later, she’d stopped calling him and begging him to come back, and he heard he’d been replaced with a guy named Lenny who played bass for a band in town. Tavish found somebody to take over his part of the lease on the quadplex, found a small one-room studio apartment, and moved to the other side of campus. That was that. He finished school without having dated another woman and took the job with the state that put him in his home region. No worries about running into Claire?she was from Ohio, Jason was from Tennessee, and Lenny was straight from Hell, as far as Tavish was concerned. He had no idea where Miller was from, and he didn’t care. If he ever saw that motherfucker again, he’d break the asshole’s nose.

So why was he thinking about that red-haired temptress? Tavish let out a little laugh. She wasn’t a temptress. She’d been nothing but polite to him, but he felt… something. Something between them, some kind of current, some kind of excitement from looking into her eyes. Had she felt anything? Or was it all his imagination?

The Dodge Ram pickup rolled to a stop in a parking area near DixDam and Tavish was about to step out when his phone rang again. But that time, he smiled. “Hey, girl!”

“Hi! Whatcha doin’?”

Tavish chuckled. It seemed like every woman under the age of fifty in that area started every phone conversation that way. “Working. What’re you doin’?”

“Calling you.”

“Oh, ha-ha, smart girl. What’s up?”

“I guess Mama told you I’ve been seeing somebody.”

“I wondered how long it would take you to finally tell me yourself. What’s wrong, he’s a dick and you need me to kick his ass?”

Maureen laughed. “No! Not at all! I think you’ll like him. He’s kind and sweet and really, really hot.”

“Oh, I needed to know that. I mean, don’t you think I could’ve figured out he was really, really hot on my own?”

“Oooo, Tav, I didn’t know you were turned that way!” Maureen said, laughing.

“You don’t know me very well, do you?” he answered in his best girly voice, then laughed back at her. “So I guess by hot, you mean he’s… No. I don’t want to know. Too much info.”

“Yeah. Way too much.”

“What hasanyof this got to do with me?” he asked, still chuckling.

“I want you to meet him. And he wants to meet everybody. So I think Mama’s gonna cook a big meal and invite him. He has a sister, so he wants to invite her too so everybody can meet her.”

“Sounds good. So when is this big meeting taking place?”

“Sunday afternoon? Is that good for you?”

“Sure. I’m off, so that should be fine.”

“Good! I think Mama’s making fried chicken and sawmill gravy and?”

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