Taking Chances (The Chances and Choices Duology - Book 1 of 2 - Contemporary Romance) (9 page)

I was showered and somewhat presentable when it
was time to go meet Courtney at Joe’s for girls’ night, and I had transformed
from being desperately sad to totally
pissed
.
How could he not at least give me some
closure??

Being angry was probably overkill because Court
was mad enough for both of us. “What an ass!” she grouched as soon as I joined
her at our booth. “Give me your phone. I’m going to call and give him a piece
of my mind.”

I tucked my phone deeper into my purse,
determined to guard it from her reach. “I’ll call him later,” I promised her.
“I deserve better than just being ignored.”

“Hell, yeah!” she agreed. “If he wants to stop
seeing you, then he needs to at least have the balls to say so.”

“Talking balls tonight, ladies?” Neither of us
had heard Joe approach the table. He seemed to have a knack for sneaking up on
us and hearing key phrases.

“Yes, we are, and I’d like to have a pair on a
platter.” Court crossed her arms angrily as Joe visibly winced and took an
exaggerated step back.

“I think I’ll keep mine at a safe distance,
then. I’ll bring you the usual.”

We laughed as he pretended to place a protective
hand over his nether region and turned to flee. “I can’t even imagine all of
the crazy topics he has overheard us discussing at this table every week.” I
shook my head.

Court laughed in agreement and started listing
some, “tampons, sex toys, purses, bubble butts, shoes, boobs.”

When she paused, I listed a few. “Don’t forget
about waxing, plucking, trimming,
manscaping
. And
those are all just about pubic hair!” By this time we were both cracking up
with laughter.

When our giggles subsided, I turned serious. “My
non-existent sex life and my brief, but fantastic sex life, which I seem to
have ruined with my big mouth.”

Court looked down as she added, “my way too
promiscuous sex life.”

“Nothing scares Joe off, though.” I reached for
Court’s hand. “I think he’s one of the good ones.”

“Too good,” she nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Oh, rubbish!” I declared, in my best English
accent, and we both dissolved into hysterics again.

When we finished off our margarita pitcher, I
told Court I wanted to walk along the water for a while, rather than ride home with
her. She looked concerned that I was going to slip back into depression mode,
so I reassured her with a hug. “I just want some alone time, so I can work up
the nerve to call him to get some much-needed closure.”

She still looked skeptical, so I added, “I’m
okay. I promise.”

I must have seemed sincere because she hugged
me, whispered the words “Love you,” and jogged off to hop into her beat-up,
little car.

I moseyed along the beach until I found a good
rock to sit on. I stared at my phone for a long while, and finally decided that
I just needed to get it over with. Without knowing exactly what I was going to
say, I pushed the button to dial Seth, before I could chicken out.

It rang several times before his voicemail
picked up.
He’s probably screening his
calls, and I didn’t make the cut
. After the beep, I almost hung up, but I
knew that I needed to get this out.

“Hi Seth, it’s me. Um, Abby,” I stammered. This
wasn’t sounding at all like I had hoped it would. I wanted to come off as
confident and perturbed, so I changed my tone. “Listen,” I commanded, sounding
much more forceful. “It has become obvious that you don’t want to see me any
more. You should have just told me, instead of keeping me waiting and
wondering. I deserve better.”

With that, I hit the End Call button, without
saying goodbye, let’s stay friends or kiss my ass. Overall, it was a pretty
good message. Watching the phone shake in my hand, I was grateful that my voice
hadn’t betrayed my nervousness.

I decided to go for a long, cleansing walk. The
shoreline was beautiful in the twilight and I took deep, long breaths of the
detoxifying fresh air.

I don’t know how long I walked, but I made it to
a section of the sandy beach that I was not familiar with. When I noticed the
long trail of boulders leading out into the lake, I couldn’t resist exploring
it. The wet stones were slippery, so I made my way carefully. The rock path
jutted way out into the water.

When I reached the end, I turned to look at the
beach. With the water splashing up over the rocks, it almost felt as if I were
standing out in the middle of the lake. I turned a slow circle, admiring the
view from all angles.

That’s when I saw the house on the cliff. It
blended so well with the scenery that I hadn’t noticed it before. I craned my
neck to get a better view of the beautiful, gravity-defying stone and slate structure
that seemed to be impossibly placed, hanging out over the water.

It was an amazing house and I wondered briefly
if the owners would mind if I took a closer look. I didn’t see any lights, but
it was so secluded that I was apprehensive about approaching.

Just then, a big wave crashed over the boulder I
was standing on and knocked me sideways. As I fell, my ankle twisted painfully.
I went completely under in the frigid water and surfaced spluttering, cold, mad
and with a searing pain in my ankle.

I managed to climb back up onto the slick rock
and lay down. When I looked at the sky, I realized why the waves were kicking
up. A huge storm was rolling in.

“Great,” I muttered as I tried to stand up. I
wasn’t able to put any weight on my injured ankle, so I tried hopping on one
leg. I realized the rocks were too slippery for that when I almost slid in
again.

I sat down and reached for my cell phone. It was
waterlogged and completely dead.
Guess I
should have sprang for the expensive, waterproof case,
I chastised myself.

I looked around, considering my options.
Realizing there weren’t many, I started scooting on my butt towards the shore.
After what seemed like an eternity, I looked up, only to see that I didn’t
appear to be much closer to land than when I had started. I was cold and frustrated
and my ankle hurt. I just wanted to go home and relax by the warm fireplace,
but it didn’t appear that I would be doing that any time soon.

The closest house was the one on the cliff, but
I had no way to climb up there. My ass would be raw if I tried to scoot all the
way there, and the rocks were too slippery to try to hop on one foot. I really
wasn’t sure what to do. When the rain started, my tears started as well. It was
just too much.

When I saw the big, black head my self-pity
quickly turned to panic-stricken fear. I wasn’t sure what kind of animal it was
from this distance, but I could tell that it was huge, and it appeared to be
looking in my direction. We stared at each other for what seemed like a long
time as I tried to figure out what it was.

Do we have
black bears in this part of Michigan?
I wondered. My second guess was a wolf, and I
really didn’t want to come face to face with either of those animals,
especially in my injured state.

Suddenly, it began to run towards me. Fear took
my breath away until it got closer, and I could see that its tail was wagging.
A dog? This huge monster is a dog?
Relief flooded over me, but I almost couldn’t believe it because I had never
seen a dog of this magnitude. It appeared to be some sort of black lab on
steroids.

By the time it reached me, I could tell by its
body language that it was friendly. It plopped its big butt down right next to
me and began licking my face. “Stop that!” I turned away, but the silly animal
was adamant.

I laughed and started scratching its ears and
chest. We were getting along quite well, until I saw the figure of the man
standing at the edge of the lake looking at us. By now the rain and wind had
kicked up enough that I was having trouble deciphering if he was friendly.

At this point, he was my only option, so I
lifted a hand to wave. He didn’t wave back. Instead, he started walking towards
us. I wondered briefly if the dog would protect me from an attacker, but then I
saw it’s purple collar and realized the dog was probably the man’s pet.

As he stalked closer, I tried to determine if he
was a threat. His hooded, yellow rain slicker obscured his face, but I could
see by his walk that he was angry. When he came closer still, recognition began
to set in. “Seth?” I didn’t understand how he had found me or why.

The glare he gave me could have frozen hot
coffee.
 
His voice oozed annoyance
as he replied with an adamant “No.”

Sam
. My body was having its
usual reaction to his nearness, but I had chalked it up to fear. My breath had
quickened noticeably, so I attempted to slow it.

“What the hell are you thinking?” The level of
anger in his voice shocked me, and I reared back as if I’d been slapped.

What right
did he have to be mad at me?
“I’m thinking that I’m cold, wet and injured;
and the last person I want to see right now is you,” I snapped. It was probably
a little harsh, but his unjust irritation with me had set me off.

“Well then, I guess I’ll leave you alone.” He
turned to make his way back along the boulder path to the shore. The giant,
black dog gave me a bewildered tilt of its head, before turning to follow its
master.

He’s
bluffing.
I
told myself as Sam continued to walk away.
He wouldn’t really leave me stranded out here, would he?
I began to think
he might do just that when he reached the beach and continued on without so
much as a backward glance at me.

I was stubborn and pissed off, but I wasn’t
stupid. I didn’t want to take my chances out here alone and Sam was quickly
moving out of earshot. I cupped my hands and yelled, “Wait!” in his direction.
He stopped, but didn’t turn. “May I use your phone to call for help?”

He shook his head as if trying to talk himself
out of something, and I began to wonder if he really was going to leave me out
here. The rain had begun coming down in sheets, and I was already soaked to the
bone. Finally, he turned and walked back down the boulder path to me. The black
dog followed a couple of paces behind him.

When he reached me, he just stood there looking
down at me. I reached my hand up and said simply, “phone, please.”

“I don’t have my cell with me. Where are you
injured?”

I raised my affected ankle to show him. It was
already swollen to twice its normal size. “Jeez,
Ab
,”
was all he said before removing his parka and zipping me into it.

I was basking in the familiarity of the nickname
when he wrapped his hands around my waist as if to pick me up. “Whoa! What are
you doing?” I demanded.

“I’m carrying you to safety. You can’t walk on
that ankle.” At my frustrated look, he asked, “How would you propose that we
proceed?”

I rather liked his idea, but I wasn’t about to
admit that.
 
“I was thinking you
could call someone for me when you get to a phone,” I answered.

“You want to sit out here freezing in the
pouring rain, rather than go with me?” I could tell he was completely
exasperated with me. “Fine, have it your way,” he turned before continuing,
“I’ll go call my brother and have him come rescue you.”

Shit! I
can’t have him call Seth, only to be told that he’s actively avoiding me. How
humiliating.
“No, will you call my friend Courtney?”

I had barely rattled off her number before he
muttered, “Screw this,” and hauled me up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
I had never been manhandled like this, and I smacked at him hard. I whacked the
only part of him that I could reach and was rewarded with a handful of his
firm, mouth-watering ass.

“You like it dirty, huh?” he growled back at me.
“I can be a bad boy.” I was sure that he could, and I tried not to picture him
being bad, very bad with me. I couldn’t seem to stop the images from popping
into my head, and they were hot.

I was on the verge of struggling for freedom
when I decided that this was probably the best-case scenario for my situation.
I’d let him carry me to a phone, then thank him and send him on his way.

My body had almost relaxed when I felt him start
climbing. “Where are we going?”

“To my house,” he answered, pointing up to the
amazing house on the cliff. The dark, angular house suited him perfectly.

“You can’t carry me up this incline. I’m too
heavy,” I protested.

His pace didn’t slow as he answered me only with
a quick sigh. Rather than fight with him, I watched the big dog loping along
behind us as we made our ascent.

He wasn’t even breathing hard when we reached
the front porch. I looked at the glider and matching rocking chairs and
imagined what a fantastic place this would be to spend an afternoon reading and
watching the lake.

He pushed the unlocked front door open and
carried me inside and up a set of stairs. “Um, you can set me down now.”

He ignored me and continued on to a huge
bathroom. He used a foot to flick the lid closed and plopped me down on the
toilet. “I don’t really have to go right now,” I told him as he continued
ignoring me and started the tap on the biggest sunken, garden tub I had ever
seen. He went to a cabinet and retrieved a giant bottle of bubble bath and a
couple of fluffy, light blue towels.

I enjoyed watching him move. He was sleek and
graceful, and I wondered what he was up to. He took one of the towels and
placed it at the back of the tub for a headrest. Then he went back to the tap
to test the stream of water and adjusted the temperature before dumping a
generous dollop of bubbles into the water. He used a long, tan hand to swirl
the concoction around. The scent of the bubble bath was heavenly.

Once he was satisfied, he turned and caught me
staring. I looked away quickly and saw that the dog was sitting nearby watching
his every move as well.

“Do you need help getting undressed and into the
tub?” he asked me.

All of
this was for me? Wow.
“I think I can manage,” I responded.

“Happy to help,” he responded with a knowing
smile, the first remotely friendly look he’d given me all evening. I shook my
head, so he headed for the door saying, “Come on, Miss Dixie. I guess we aren’t
needed here.”

I snorted with laughter. He slowly turned to
look at me with a questioning raised eyebrow. “That behemoth’s name is Miss
Dixie?” I couldn’t help it, the giggles bubbled out.

“Spanking me and laughing at my dog’s name?” he
cocked an eyebrow at me. “I might just have to get even with you later,” he
promised before slipping out the door with Miss Dixie hot on his heels. She was
probably relieved the bath wasn’t for her.

I wondered what he meant by getting even with me
later.
Was it a sexual innuendo
?
You wish,
I laughed at myself. I
couldn’t get a clear read on him. He probably flirted with everyone that way. He
was a lady-killer. Besides, I had been with his twin brother.

I peeled off my wet clothes, hopped on my good
foot over to the tub and sighed as I sank into the warm, soothing bath. It felt
like heaven, and was just what my tired, sore body needed.