Читать книгу 8 Brand-New Romance Authors - Avril Tremayne - Страница 14

FIVE

Micah had been avoiding him for almost a week now. She wouldn’t take his calls and responded to his texts with one-word answers. Finally he just stopped trying to talk to her. Obviously, she had changed her mind after their talk the other day. What happened to “I can’t imagine life without you”?

Had she been serious when she told him she needed space last week? He was so confused. If she wanted space, he would give it to her. But what if she needed a friend more and just didn’t realize it?

Things had been slow lately at work, which at a fire station was a really good thing, except for the fact that it gave him more time to think about Micah and wonder what she was up to. They had been friends forever. Rarely had a day passed in the last several years that they didn’t talk to one another. It was just how their relationship worked. Best friends. Always.

Josh had the day off, so after calling up Jamie, he decided to head up to his place for a long overdue visit to the farm. He knew after Jamie had cut out early the other night that this anniversary had been hard on him, too.

Drew and Jamie had been cousins, but acted more like brothers. He knew it was hard on Jamie, but the man refused to talk about it. Talking about his emotions was just something Jamie would never do, not that Josh would ever force him. Two men talking about their feelings could get real uncomfortable, real fast. But helping him out at the farm for the day would at least show him he cared. That was enough. At least he hoped it would be.

Josh took the longer way around the city to avoid traffic and headed north. Jamie’s family farm was almost an hour outside of the city. Just close enough to enjoy the city, but far enough away to enjoy the country. That’s just how Jamie liked it. None of it appealed much to Josh, though. He preferred the hustle and bustle of Boston. He wouldn’t trade it for anything. But he had to admit, it sure was pretty this time of year.

Jamie’s house was surrounded by heavily wooded areas, all painted in the shades of fall. The trees grew tall, arching over the road Jamie lived on. Micah would have loved taking this drive and seeing all the leaves changing colors. Man, that girl had a way of creeping back into his thoughts.

He shook his head, clearing his mind as he turned down the long driveway to Jamie’s house at the back of the property. The heads of horses and other random farm animals popped over the fences to check out their visitor. The smell smacked him in the face long before he parked the truck and got out.

“How do you handle this smell?”

“It’s nice to see you, too!” Jamie laughed as he came out the front door and stood on the deck. His flannel shirt, torn and dirty, showed he had already put in a lot of work today.

“How are you doing, man?”

“Good. You?”

“Doing all right. No complaints. Thought I’d come help you out today. Get my mind off some stuff.”

“Sure. Could always use some help.”

They fell into an easy rhythm feeding the animals and cleaning out stalls. There wasn’t any reason to talk, but for some reason Josh couldn’t help himself. “Micah was really upset you left early the other night.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. Figured it was time we all moved on, anyway.”

“Yeah. We were thinking the same thing.”

“Is she doing okay? Every time any of you bring her up, you sound worried. I haven’t really talked to her in forever. I feel kind of guilty.”

“We’ve all been worried, but then she woke up one morning last week and seemed over it. Now I can’t get her to return my calls.”

Jamie stopped what he was doing and looked at Josh.

“What?” Josh stopped as well and leaned on the pitchfork he was using.

“Is she dating?”

“Don’t know.” His shoulders moved up and down in a careless shrug. “Sabina insinuated that she was going to be setting her up.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“Seriously? You gonna go all Dr. Phil on me?” Josh dug the pitchfork back into the hay, this conversation passing the point of ridiculous.

Jamie laughed and went back to work. “Don’t need to. You just told me all I needed to know.”

“What are you talking about?” He stopped again. The horse in the stall next to them peeked over as if curious about Jamie’s response as well. He had been right—when men talked about their feelings, it got awkward.

“You have feelings for Micah.”

“Wha—?” Josh was dumbfounded. “No way.”

Jamie continued his work, moving on to the next stall, while Josh just stood there speechless, the horse nudging him with its nose. Josh ignored the horse, too caught up in Jamie’s words.

“You’re jealous. That is what you are currently feeling, but too dense to realize. Sabina tells you she’s setting Micah up on some dates, and you got jealous.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s all over your face, not to mention the fact that you only come to visit me when something is bothering you.”

“I do not.”

“Stop lying to yourself.”

“I can’t have feelings for Micah.”

“Why not?”

“Because she belongs to Drew. That’s why.”

“She belonged to Drew. Past tense.”

“He may be gone, but one, she is obviously still in love with him and hung up on him. And two, he was one of my best friends. That’s like breaking some kind of bro code.”

Jamie shook his head. “Sounds like a bunch of excuses to me.”

* * *

Micah was on the road to recovery. Finally. She had a plan in place and would have this conquered in no time. First things first. Her job.

She had worked as a nanny since she was in college. It was comfortable. It represented complacency and security, things that no longer had a place in her life. So she quit.

She had a business degree. It was time to put it to use. After a quick call to Hanna, who used her connections, Micah scored a great interview.

Her second part of the plan was to start taking better care of herself. It was time to get rid of the ice cream. No more crying into a tub of chocolate with marshmallow swirl.

She was also in desperate need of a haircut, and maybe even a little update to the wardrobe. Sabina went shopping with her and helped her out. She fought past the urge to reject every suggestion her roommate gave her, but she had to face the truth. The girl was doing something right, and maybe, just maybe, some of that might rub off onto Micah.

It felt good, as though she was recapturing some of her old self little by little.

Micah used her knee to bang on the door of Josh’s apartment. It was Sunday, which meant an afternoon of football and food with her friends. She had spent the last few days avoiding Josh, but it was time to face him. She couldn’t ignore him forever.

The girls were responsible for the food this week and somehow she had gotten saddled with the task of picking it all up. Her arms were heavy-laden with the grocery bags, as she hadn’t wanted to take more than one trip up three flights of stairs.

Jamie answered the door. “Oh, hey! Let me help you with that. Why didn’t you call? I would have come down and grabbed them for you.”

“You know I like to pretend I’m fiercely independent.” He transferred the bags from her arms to his as she shut the apartment door.

Micah entered the living room area and saw Josh sitting on the couch, with his three-year-old niece cuddled up on his lap. She wasn’t prepared for the rush she felt at seeing him again. She had told herself her initial reaction the other night had been completely imagined. After one too many drinks, she had misconstrued an accidental brush of lips and made it in to something more. There was no way she felt anything more than friendly toward Josh. The only emotion she was currently feeling was irritation or frustration or something like that.

Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that.

She took in his hair, purposely tousled in its usual fashion, and the color of his shirt, which made his eyes stand out even more. Everything she had just told herself had been a lie.

You might be a little out of practice, but this is lust, honey. Pure and simple. Now wipe the drool and smile like you mean it.

His face lit up when he saw her enter the room. “Hey.”

Suddenly she didn’t know how to act around him. Smiling was not as easy as it once had been. She now knew what it felt like to have those lips on hers.

Instead, she focused on his niece. She could do this.

“Lily, I didn’t know you were going to be here today.” The little girl turned to her and her face lit up. She jumped off his lap and ran over to Micah. She picked her up and gave her a big bear hug. “Is your mommy here, too?”

“No, Unca Joshie watchin’ me.”

“Oh, well, that’s fun.”

Josh stood up and walked over to her to grab the remaining grocery bag. “Here, let me.”

He tried to take the bag, but Lily wanted her uncle back and lunged toward him. He abandoned the bag and caught her just in time, leaving Micah awkwardly grasping at both the girl and the bag wedged between them.

“Silly girl.” He placed a raspberry on Lily’s cheek before turning his attention back to Micah. Once he had the little girl in check, he grabbed hold of the remaining groceries with his free hand.

His eyes seemed to question her, gauge how she was doing, but she seemed to pass inspection. “What are we having today?”

“All kinds of goodies.” Breathe, Micah. One kiss and suddenly she could no longer function. Apparently the frustration she’d felt had overshadowed this new emotion the other day when he came over. She might need to find something to get angry about again.

“Looking forward to it.”

Micah headed to the kitchen and began to organize everything to make quick work of the food preparation. Josh stood in the kitchen, making it seem much too small all of a sudden. He drew close and peeked over her shoulder to see what all she had.

He was so close she could smell him, feel the heat radiating off his body. Lily’s giggle broke her spell.

“Let’s see what she’s got here, Lily.”

“Ooh! Chips!”

“You want some?” Micah opened the bag and held it out for the little girl. Lily grabbed a handful, which with her tiny chubby fingers meant two. Kind child that she was, she shared with her uncle, feeding a chip to him. He opened wide, pretending he was a monster devouring the chip. She giggled and fed him the other chip, too.

“You’re gonna give Joshie all your chips?”

“He’s hungry monstah.”

“Well, then you need to keep feeding him.” She handed Lily a couple more chips.

“No. You feed him!” Lily, with a big smile on her face, pushed the chips back at Micah. “I scared.”

Scared? Yeah, you and me both, kid! Josh looked at her over Lily’s head, mouth wide open, waiting to be fed a chip. Micah placed the chip in his mouth, her fingertips grazing his lips. Something flared in his eyes, but quickly disappeared. Instead he winked at her as he chomped down on the chip. Monstah, indeed.

“Now get out of here, you two. I have some food to prepare.” She balled up her tingling fingertips before trying to shake the feeling from them. Snap out of it!

Hanna arrived a few minutes later and together they were able to get lunch and snacks going quickly. The game had started already and the boys were watching while the girls remained in the kitchen.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What was that? Come on, ref!”

“Unbelievable!”

The guys were shouting and yelling at the television as if the referees could hear them. The same thing happened every week. It was typical guy behavior during a football game. Josh was on his feet, one arm raised in the air as he accentuated his words to the referees, while the other arm had a giggling Lily in a football hold.

Micah smiled to herself.

“You would think with three of us against the two of them, we wouldn’t have to watch football every Sunday,” Sabina complained as she gnawed on a carrot stick.

“Oh, come on. It’s a tradition we’ve had every season for as long as I can remember,” Hanna defended.

“Yeah, and baseball, basketball and hockey, too.”

“Well, it comes with living in Boston. We love our sports.”

“While we are on the subject of traditions, I think we have too many. We need to reconsider some of them.”

“What’s wrong with traditions?” Micah felt a little offended by Sabina’s comments. They always had fun no matter what they did together. Although, she was sure there would be complaints if they started attending fashion shows and operas.

“No need to get defensive. Jeez! I was only stating my opinion. Don’t worry. I don’t think any of your precious traditions will be messed with.”

“Hey, is the buffalo-chicken dip finished?” Hanna had her arms full of chips to take out to the guys.

“Just about. You can take the veggies and dip, if Sabina would stop eating all of them. Oh, and the pizza bites are ready, too.”

“No wonder I can’t stick to my diet.” Hanna rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, you and me both.”

“Oh, I love when you girls are in charge! We get the best football food.”

“How about you guys pick something different than pizza next week?”

“Like what? Calzones? Hey, Josh, we can go to that place around the corner. That chick was really diggin’ me last time.” Jamie stuffed his face with a chip overloaded with buffalo-chicken dip.

“Yeah, right. She was so into me. Even gave me her number.”

“Seriously?” Jamie’s brow furrowed as he sat forward and looked at Josh.

Josh nodded, showing he was participating in the conversation, but the whole time he was playing a staring game with Lily. She sat on his lap, her little hands framing his face, her forehead resting on his. It was the cutest scene, but nothing new to Micah. Josh had always been like this with his nephews and nieces. Unca Joshie was the best.

“Can’t believe it. I thought she was hitting on me! Man, I was really into her, too.”

“You want her number?” Josh ended the staring game, kissing Lily on the nose. She let out another string of giggles.

“No. Not now. I’m no one’s second choice.”

The girls could not help it; they were dying laughing listening to the conversation between the two guys.

“I’m at the top of your list, right, Mike?” Jamie grabbed her hand as she tried to pass him en route to the chair on his left. Instead he pulled her down to sit on the couch between him and Josh. As her thigh brushed up against Josh’s, an electric current sizzled through her.

She held her breath and looked up to see Josh’s eyes upon her. There was nothing in his gaze that said he had felt it, too. This was ludicrous. She felt like such a fool. Of course he didn’t feel the same electricity. She was his best friend. That was all.

She turned her attention back to Jamie. “Yes. You’ve always been my number one.”

Micah leaned forward to grab her drink at the same time that Josh moved, causing them to bump arms.

“Sorry.”

“Go ahead.”

Micah wanted to go and hide somewhere. It was all so weird between them. Why couldn’t she act normal around him? Why was she suddenly bumbling and clumsy in his presence? And she followed each with a round of awkward apologies. Surely everyone noticed the tension and weirdness happening so blatantly in front of them.

“Josh, what kind do you want?” Sabina held up two different types of beer for him to see.

“That one.” He pointed to the one on the right. “And can you slice up one of those green lemons and stick it in the top?”

They all broke out in laughter, but Sabina rolled her eyes. It was a long-running joke with them. Seemed like forever ago, Sabina had made one of her silly comments about green lemons and no one had let her live it down since. You mean limes, Sabina? Josh couldn’t help but be the one to point it out while the rest of them were snickering, leaving her clueless.

“Will you guys ever let that one go?”

“No.” Josh came to get his own beer, because after that Sabina’s generosity had run out. “You know I can’t help teasing you about that one.”

“Josh, one day you are going to say something stupid and I am going to have so much fun making fun of you.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“No. I will.”

“Oh, I’m sure you would, but I’m saying that I seriously doubt I will say anything that stupid.”

“Oh, leave her be.”

“What the—!” Josh bolted upright, causing the other four to turn their attention back to the television, and Lily giggled as he held her sideways under his arm like a football. Their team intercepted the ball and headed toward the red zone. All of them were on their feet, cheering the player on.

“Go! Go! Go!”

Then suddenly, ten yards from the end zone, the screen went black.