LITMIR.BIZ

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      “I asked whether you thought Chris would give me a job at Slow—”

      “No.” Zac closed his eyes, regrouping. Who was going crazy? “I mean, I think she has all the staff she needs.”

      “Uh-huh.” Luke was looking at him suspiciously. For all the stupidity he’d demonstrated in his own short life, he was annoyingly perceptive about other people’s. “So do you think she’d go out with me if I—”

       “No.”

      Luke raised his pierced eyebrow. “You were in a great mood earlier. What the hell happened?”

      “Sorry, man.” Zac rubbed his chin, glancing over at Chris, who was smiling up at Bodie as if he was her best friend. “I’m just...” Damn, that sweet, sunny smile pissed him off. If Chris was going to go for someone besides Zac, at least she could find a guy with a brain and respect for women. Bodie was so in love with himself he had no room for anyone else.

      “Oh, I get it.” Luke had followed his gaze and was now smirking triumphantly. “All is clear to the amazing Luke.”

      “What are you talking about?”

      “Her.” He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder toward Chris. “You’re into her. And it’s driving you crazy that she might be into Mr. Canned Beef over there.”

      “That’s not what is bothering me.”

      “Yes it is. Don’t BS me.”

      Zac took a deep breath. Early on in this intervention, he’d promised his brother total honesty as the only way they could trust each other. He hadn’t counted on the promise backfiring like this. “Okay, okay. Maybe you’re right.”

      “I’m right.”

      “You’re right, fine. Don’t push it.” He jabbed a finger at his brother. “And don’t ask her out again.”

      “Message received.” Luke held up his hands in surrender. “Your turf, I get it. I’ll stay away. After all, blood is thicker than semen.”

      “Oh, jeez.” Zac grimaced. “Do you have to say that stuff?”

      In spite of his crappy mood, he was glad to see Luke laugh. The self-conscious tough-guy image got hard to take after a while. When Luke smiled he was Zac’s kid brother again.

      “If it’s any consolation—” Luke motioned to Bodie contemptuously “—that guy’s got nothing on you.”

      “Yeah, thanks.” The compliment pleased him, but he would’ve preferred to hear it from Chris.

      “So? What are you going to do about it? What’s your plan?”

      “My plan?” Zac let his hand drop to the table. “I’m going to go back to work, and help you find a job around here, and I’m going to keep you out of trouble.”

      “Dude. I meant about her.”

      “Nothing.” Zac stood and set his coffee cup on the tray for used dishes, only slightly gratified when Chris glanced over distractedly. At least she was keeping track of him. “Let’s go.”

      “Nothing?” Luke got to his feet. “What kind of geek strategy is that?”

      “Mine.” He led the way out of the shop, not looking at Chris again, not wanting to see her going all dewy-eyed over Mr. Canned Beef, as Luke had appropriately named him. That kind of torture Zac could do without. He’d thought he was so smooth asking her for a date. He was never using the phrase Dinner sometime? again.

      “Are you going to ignore me for the rest of my life?”

      Zac made a sound of frustration and stopped among the shaded tables and coffee-sipping patrons outside the store, swinging around to face his brother. “No, no, I’m not. I’m sorry.”

      Luke peered up at him. “She’s got you, huh?”

      “I wouldn’t say that.”

      “Liar.”

      Zac shook his head and kept walking. “You’re pissing me off.”

      “Yeah? Where are we going?”

      “Home to pack up dinner, then we’re going to the beach to eat it.”

      “Beach in February. Cool.”

      “I’ll give you about ten days to figure out why I moved to California.”

      They passed a woman wearing tight jeans and a low-cut top with a push-up bra. Luke turned, lowering his sunglasses for a better look. “Dude, I figured it out already.”

      * * *

      THEY’D FINISHED DINNER—Zac in an only marginally better mood—and were sitting next to a bonfire on Aura Beach when Zac’s phone rang, making him tense and then instantly exasperated. When was he going to stop hoping that it was Chris calling? Chris texting? Chris emailing? He really needed to figure out a way to get this woman out of his head before he became unhealthily obsessed.

      Yeah, probably way too late for that.

      He hauled out his phone and broke into a grin when he saw who the caller was. Jackie Cawling, a friend from his years in the Peace Corps, in his late twenties. They’d both been assigned to Kenya and had dated for a year or so—long-distance, since their towns were miles apart. After their assignments ended, they’d realized their attraction had mostly been based on each other’s familiarity in a strange land, and they’d parted pleasantly. Jackie was still traveling, had never settled down and probably never would. Every now and then she’d call, occasionally even show up, and then disappear until the next time he heard from her.

      “Jackie! Where are you calling from this time? Italy? China? Australia?”

      “Much more exotic.”

      “Bali? Cook Islands? Venus?”

      “Even more out there. I’m in Los Angeles. I have a few weeks with nothing to do before I start a job on a llama farm in Peru and I’m sick of the city and craving the mellowness of the Central Coast. Want to see me?”

      “Absolutely.” He couldn’t stop grinning. “You need a place to stay? My brother’s here, but he would love to sleep on the couch.”

      “Hey.” Luke was indignant. “She better be totally hot.”

      Zac covered the phone to whisper, “Incendiary.”

      “Yeah?” Luke’s eyes lit up. “Couch works for me.”

      “Thanks, Zac,” Jackie said. “It’d just be for a day or two. I have a friend with a cabin in the middle of nowhere on the beach just up the coast from you, and I’ll want to hang out there and do my hermit thing for a few days. Then I have some buddies I’m seeing in Santa Cruz and blah, blah, blah, on up the coast. I plan to hit Carmia on Saturday. That’s the seventh, I think. That okay?”

      “That’s great.”

      “Awesome. I can’t wait to catch up. You finished your master’s yet? Wait, of course you have. Last time we talked you were about done. So, doctorate now? Where are you applying?”

      “Stanford, MIT, Columbia and Penn.”

      “Oh, my—” Her familiar deep laugh made him smile. “What, you’re not trying any good schools?”

      “Nah, wasn’t up to it.” He leaned back on the blanket, feeling much better. Jackie knew him about as well as anyone did. Kind of hard to play mind games or hang on to fake attitudes living in a remote African village. “So what about you, Jackie? Where have you been? What have you been doing?”

      “I’ll fill you in when I see you, at great length. In fact, I look forward to staying up all night over cups of coffee the way we used

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