Page 3 of Love You
“Can I look now.” She said “yes” and when he turned back around the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was taking off her come-fuck-me stilettos. “Since you last got laid?”
“Not that long ago,” she said, clearly lying.
“So at two in the morning you got an itch to come over to my place?”
“Something like that. Could you please forget this ever happened?” She looked around his apartment.
It wasn’t the best but he didn’t need much, mostly just a place to sleep. He put in a fair number of hours guiding everything from extreme skiing expeditions to white-water rafting trips for Garner Adventure. Lately, he’d been thinking about taking on more responsibility at the family business to prove he was more than the Garners’ prodigal son. While he and his three brothers owned an equal share of Garner Adventure, everyone but Win had his own calling. Colt, the oldest, was Glory Junction’s top cop. TJ, next in line, was GA’s CEO and all-around business tycoon. Josh, just a couple of years older than Win, was a former army ranger and war hero.
Other than dropping out of the Olympic team ten years ago, Win’s claim to fame was . . . nothing. He was considered the family screw-up. And the Britney shitstorm hadn’t helped matters.
“You’re not hot in that?” He was sure the puffy coat came in handy during Glory Junction’s punishing winters. But even in his underwear, Win felt the cloying spring night on his skin.
“A little. But I’ll be home soon.” Darcy lived with her grandmother, Hilde Wallace, on the outskirts of town.
When Win was a kid, the widow Wallace had caught him and his buddies TPing her house. Out of guilt, he’d gone back the next day to clean up the mess and she’d made him cookies and hot cocoa. She’d pretty much been his dream woman ever since.
Darcy had come to live with her about a year ago. That’s really all he knew about her background. She hadn’t grown up in Glory Junction like the rest of them and they didn’t stand around GA, talking about their pasts. Although last winter she’d been the first person he’d confided in about the whole Britney fiasco. It had been the only substantive conversation they’d had since she’d started the job. Darcy was reserved and pretty much kept to herself. That’s why her coming here tonight was so out of character.
“Hang on a sec,” he told her as she started for the door, then rummaged through his closet. “You can wear this.” He tossed her a GA T-shirt that would be long enough to pass for a dress. At least on her.
“Can I change in your bathroom?” She pulled the puffy coat tighter as if she wanted to disappear inside of it and his eyes automatically moved to her breasts.
For a woman who was trying to get him in the sack, she wasn’t exactly pulling out all the stops. “Sure.”
She vanished inside the john and he took the opportunity to find his jeans and slip them on. When she came out, the T-shirt replaced the jacket, which was slung over her arm.
“You okay?” he asked, feeling like whatever happened here tonight might put a crimp in their work relationship.
“Of course.” She stuck out her chin but Win swore her bottom lip quivered.
“No hard feelings, right?”
“Nope. I’m sorry I forced myself on you.” And for the second time, those baby blues of hers wouldn’t meet his.
“Nah, it wasn’t like that. But, Darcy, be careful about whose apartment you break into. It’s really not advisable to solicit sex that way.”
“You think?” She gave him another classic eye roll. “I only did it with you because I thought you’d appreciate the element of surprise.”
Before Britney, before he’d started reevaluating the trajectory of his life, he probably would’ve appreciated it—and her—way too much. But the times they were a-changing. It was high past the point to show the world that Win Garner had substance, that there was more to him than what everyone chose to see.
“I’ll take you home,” he said.
“I drove.” She dangled her shoes from her finger, found her purse on the floor by the bed, and lifted her face to his chest, blinking a few times.
He went back inside his closet for a shirt. “We’ll take your car and I’ll jog home.” It was only about three miles.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s not like I’m drunk.”
He’d sort of wondered, only because this was so uncharacteristic for Darcy.
“I’ll at least walk you out.” Glory Junction was a safe town but California had its share of kooks, even in rural areas.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m good.”
He ignored her and found a pair of flip-flops near the couch, grabbed his key ring off the tiny kitchen counter, and put his hand at the small of her back. She led him to her car, which was parked on the street in the front of his complex. Four attached Spanish-style studios that made a square around a grassy courtyard. Not quite the big family home he’d come from just a few miles down the road but centrally located so that he could walk or ride his bike to Garner Adventure on Main Street.
“Careful,” he said because she was barefoot and the sidewalk was uneven. “No moon tonight.”
