LITMIR.BIZ

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about this,” she said. “My mother—”

      “Mothers like ours are forces of nature.”

      “She should have called me first, not you.”

      “It’s a done deal now, darlin’.”

      “It’s not that simple.”

      “It would be, if you’d let it,” he said. “You always complicate everything.”

      She inhaled deeply. As he sped down the familiar, oak-lined streets, she turned her back to him and stared out her window gloomily. “It’s just that I hate to owe a man like—”

      “Me? A man like me? What do you think a man like me will exact as repayment—a pound or two of your delectable flesh?” He grinned at the back of her head. “You can relax. No hidden camera today.”

      She whirled around, her face red. “See—this is why I always dread being anywhere near you. You make light of things that matter a great deal to me.”

      “I was just teasing,” he said softly.

      “I don’t like it.”

      “Sorry. I grew up with brothers.” He paused. “You smell good. Like jasmine.”

      “Would you stop?”

      “I can’t tease. I can’t compliment you. What does that leave?”

      “Nothing. I want absolutely nothing to do with you other than a civil relationship at work.”

      “Why?”

      “Why? We have this awful history, for starters—your stupid camera.”

      “Before that you had a crush on me in grade school.”

      “I did not!”

      “Did too. Okay, I know I should have ripped the negatives of those pictures to bits.”

      “You shouldn’t have plastered them all over the locker room!”

      He scowled at the bitter memory. “I paid for it.”

      She lapsed into silence. His temples were throbbing when she finally spoke to him again. “I don’t want to talk about it any more than you do. I just think we would both be happier if we never had to see each other—except at work.”

      “I wouldn’t be,” he muttered.

      “Don’t start.”

      “What?”

      “Doing what you probably do with every woman.”

      “Is that it? You’re jealous?”

      “Hell, no. But we’re competing for the same job, for one thing. We have to work together. But on a personal level we can’t…”

      “We can’t what?”

      “I—I don’t know.” But she did know. As always, ever since she’d come back to town, there was a hot spark of electricity between them. She hated it and hated him because of it.

      She continued to stare out the window. Her hands that were folded tightly in her lap shook.

      “Your mother told me to read the letters to the editor this morning,” he said. “Did you happen to see that anonymous love letter?”

      She blushed furiously, guiltily, and then shyly.

      His heart leaped. Had she written it? Did she feel that way about him but was so repressed she couldn’t face herself or him? This possibility was incredibly exciting.

      “That…er…anonymous person…is living with a lot of regret,” he said smoothly.

      She flashed him an odd look that seemed both vulnerable and desperate. “I don’t feel comfortable talking about it.”

      “Why the hell not?”

      “Because. Just because. I…I can’t believe it’s taking this long to get out of Red Rock.”

      Frankly, he’d been too absorbed with her to notice where they were. He’d never been this close to her for this long. She always ran. In his eagerness, he spoke before he thought. “Your mother said you don’t have a date to the Spring Fling. Well, it so happens that I don’t either.”

      “My mother should mind her own business!” she snapped.

      “A lot of people in Red Rock should do that.” He hesitated, grinding his teeth. “I was trying to ask you to go with me to the Spring Fling.”

      “What? Us? You and me?”

      “Why not us? Maybe we could get past the past if we did that—show the town we’ve buried what happened in high school.”

      She turned and her eyes narrowed on his face. “Did you ask me because you and I are both up for director of market research?”

      “Hell no.” He felt himself getting mad, too.

      “I don’t believe you,” she said. “You asked me before when we were kids deliberately to humiliate me.”

      “I did not.”

      “You snuck up on us and took those pictures. Then you—”

      “Like I told you then—I didn’t.”

      Like always when he defended himself, she glared at him.

      Damn it. He hadn’t. He clenched the steering wheel, remembering the stupid misadventure that had caused both of them so much pain when they were kids.

      J.K. had lured him into the cedar-brush country right behind the Snows’ place with the promise of some exciting wildlife. J.K. had been toting his .22-caliber rifle and Matt had his camera.

      “I don’t see anything worth wasting good film on,” Matt said when J.K. grabbed his arm and pulled him down behind a huge red rock.

      “Just you wait.”

      Sure enough, it couldn’t have been more than five minutes before they heard the Snows’ back door close. Next, leaves crackled in the direction of the Snows’ property. They heard giggles and a dog barking. Then the branches parted and Jane and Mindy Snow and their chocolate Lab, Grizzly, stepped out into the sun. The girls wore white T-shirts, and maybe, hell maybe—nothing else! A guy could hope, couldn’t he? Mindy was dragging a gushing hose, which she tossed into a bed of roses.

      Matt liked the way the wind blew the girls’ hair, especially Jane’s. When they opened their backpacks and pulled out two towels, the wind caught hold of the towels so that they flapped like orange and purple flags. Slowly, the threesome ambled over to some flat rocks sheltered by a high limestone cliff. The girls positioned their towels and then lay down on them with their legs in the sun and their heads in the shade. They began to read. Meanwhile, Grizzly ran about, sniffing rocks and chasing rabbits. Once when the Lab raised his leg on a rock not far from the boys, they were sure the dog would catch them. Fortunately, they were downwind from the beast, and the Lab trotted back to the girls, who petted him.

      Jane looked so beautiful and peaceful as she read and petted the Lab that Matt started snapping pictures of her. Her legs were long and slim and curvy. When she raised her T-shirt a little, he saw she was wearing a pink polka-dot bikini bottom.

      Her butt was tight and round, just great. He took a few more pictures and then stopped when she slowly got up and went over to where the hose was. She lifted it. Splashing her face first, she then began to sip.

      Then Mindy got up and snuck up behind her. Playfully grabbing the hose, Mindy sprayed her. Jane yelled and the girls began fighting over the hose, drenching each other.

      The wet T-shirt revealed Jane’s huge breasts, which she always took such pains to hide at school.

      “Hot damn,” Jerry Keith said. “Her nipples are as big as chocolate Oreos. Zoom in on ’em.”

      Matt

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