Suddenly Sexy

chapter 11



Sam felt like he'd done ten rounds with Ali. He was dazed and his gut ached. Women! He'd dated his fair share but he still didn't have a clue how they ticked. Especially Maddie Clarke. Never in his life had he met a woman who confused him and turned him on at the same time.

He drove back to his mother's house on autopilot. He couldn't remember if he stopped at the traffic lights—he couldn't even remember if there'd been any. All he knew was that Maddie was a woman he wanted to see more of, but she wasn't interested.

Usually he was the one doing the brush-off, not the other way round. Now he knew why his ex-girlfriends used to throw things at him. He wondered if it was too late to ring any of them and apologize for his behavior. He hadn't meant to be callous, it's just that the relationships never felt right. And when something didn't feel right, he walked away, found something else, found something that did feel right. Like moving back to Melbourne and starting his own renovation business.

Like being with Maddie.

He thumped the steering wheel as he pulled into the driveway of his mother's Sixties cream brick house. He'd offered to buy her something more modern in a better part of town but she'd refused. She said she liked her place. She knew which creaking floorboards to avoid, she knew precisely where to thump the hot water system so that it didn't groan, and she'd spent years getting the garden just the way she liked it. Besides, his father's ashes were scattered amongst the roses and she didn't want to leave some of him behind.

Sam hadn't pushed the issue. Instead, he'd bought her a red Honda sports car. She liked to zip out to the shops and the tennis club in it, always ensuring she passed her friends' houses on the way. These friends just happened to be the ones who said Sam was a trouble-maker when he was a teen and wouldn't amount to anything.

He and his mother thought alike on some things. But not many.

"Sammy, honey, did you enjoy your jog with Pete?" she asked when he entered. She wore a powder blue suit with matching shoes, her snow white hair tied back with a bow of the same fabric. Not a hair was out of place. None dared.

"Yeah, the jog was fine. Lunch afterwards sucked."

She placed her arm around his waist. "Sit down and tell your old mother all about it."

He pulled away. "I don't want to talk about it. It's private."

"I'm your mother. Nothing is private from me."

Ain't that the truth. Back in school, she always seemed to know what he'd done the second he'd done it. Her network put the CIA to shame.

"If that boy, Pete Murphy, is giving you a hard time, you let me know. I'll straighten him out."

He sighed. "It's not Pete."

"I never did like him. He's a bad influence on you. I don't know how that Linda Clarke put up with him for so long. Not that she was much better," she said with a sniff. "Always getting into trouble. She used to give her poor mother a nasty rash every time she was caught escaping out the window. Definitely a bad influence. Not like that lovely sister of hers."

"Maddie. Yeah, she's just lovely." The break-your-heart-and-jump-on-it kind of lovely. "Mum, we're not sixteen anymore and Pete's an okay guy. Linda's a little loopy still, but I like her. And their kids are great."

She clicked her tongue. "Imagine two irresponsible people like Pete and Linda bringing up children. I shudder to think."

"Mum! They're great parents."

She didn't look like she believed him but he wasn't going to labor the point. She'd never change her mind about some things, nor would she believe that a wayward teenager could grow up to be a responsible adult and parent. Unless that wayward teenager was her son.

"Besides, I think I was a worse influence on Pete than he was on me."

"Nonsense. You were just going through a phase."

A phase that lasted nearly twenty years.

She patted his hand. "Anyway, you were going to tell me what's bothering you."

"No, I wasn't."

"Don't be silly. If it's not Pete, then what happened over lunch?"

He shook his head and started to stand but she said "Sit down" so forcefully and he wasn't in the mood to argue with her. He'd done enough of that as a teenager and it hadn't gotten him anywhere except away from Melbourne. He was ready to give her another chance. If he didn't pull out his hair and grind his teeth down to the gums first.

She tapped a manicured nail on the table. "I know what the problem is."

"You do?"

"It's the children. They were being obnoxious. All that shouting and running around—it's enough to give one a headache. Children should be—"

"No, Mum. The kids are fun. I told you that. I love kids, despite the shouting and running around."

She grimaced and he made a mental note that his mother wasn't ready for grandchildren yet. Just as well because if Maddie didn't back down, it was going to take a hell of a long time to find someone else he wanted to have kids with.

Whoa. The thought side-swiped him with all the force of a truck. Where the hell had that come from? He’d only begun to date her, now he was thinking about having children with her? Jeez, he did have it bad.

"So what was the problem?" she went on. "The food? Did that Linda Clarke feed you—"

"Enough." He held up his hands. The only way to get her to stop badgering him was to tell her. He sighed. "It's Maddie. She was there."

"Linda's sister? I thought you liked her. You went on a date with her yesterday."

"Yeah, I like her. She doesn't like me."

His mother shot up and stood ram-rod straight. She leaned forward slightly and placed her knuckles on the table. "How can she not like you! You're handsome, healthy, rich and you have all your own hair. What more would a woman want?" She shook her head and sat with a thud. She stared down at the table as if looking for answers on the spotless surface. "That's just ridiculous. Not like my Sammy? No," she muttered. "No, no, no. Not possible. All the girls like you. They always have. When you were a boy, I used to hang up on them all the time."

"You hung up on girls who called me? Mum!"

She waved her hand. "Only the ones I didn't like. Anyway I haven't done it in years."

"That's because I haven't lived here in years." He rubbed his jaw and closed his eyes. His life was disintegrating. His mother was more out of control than he remembered. Maybe he should go back to Sydney. At least that city didn't have his mother in it. Or Maddie.

Then again, maybe not.

"I think it's time I moved out," he said. "Get my own place."

"But you just got back. Can't you stay here a little longer?" She came around the table and touched his face with both hands. "It's been lovely having you home again. The house has missed you. I've missed you."

He sighed again. The woman was the world champion of emotional blackmail. "We're cramping each other's style, Mum. Just yesterday you said you were having a friend over, but when I came home early you changed your mind."

She straightened, a forced smile frozen on her lips. "Don't worry about me, Sammy, you just go about your business like this is your home again."

Just like his mother, avoiding the real issue. Which confirmed his suspicions that her friend was a man.

"Mum, I'm thirty-two. I need to have my own place and so do you. Besides, I've lived on my own for fifteen years and living here makes me feel like a kid again."

She looked at him blankly and gave a small shrug as if to say "So?".

"I need my space," he said.

"So you can have women over?"

"So you can have men over."

She spluttered something he couldn't make out and disappeared into the kitchen. He felt like saying "Gotcha", but didn't think she'd find it funny, so he let it slide.

He drummed his fingers on the table. At least his mother was dating again. That was definitely a good sign. Maybe. But what if it was serious? What did he do for a living? Was he an axe murderer? What were his intentions towards—

Ugh, he was turning into her—always prying and thinking the worst. Now he knew why she screened his dates first. But he'd never hang up on her boyfriends, and he would approve more of her dates than she ever had. He couldn't remember bringing a single girl home that she'd liked. Which made her approval of Maddie so much more amazing. Not that he needed her approval, but it was nice to finally have it.

Except Maddie wanted nothing to do with him. How the hell could he change that? Short of begging, he was all out of options, and he didn't think begging would work on her. Not that she was heartless, just stubborn.

He smiled, remembering the way she'd refused to jump into the lake with him. Stubborn all right, but damn hot too.

His mother returned, a plate of scones in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. He groaned. "Mum, I'm not a kid."

"Everyone needs their calcium," she said with a sniff, "including thirty-two year old men." She placed the plate and glass in front of him. "Now, tell me why Maddie Clarke doesn't like my boy. What did you do?"

"Nothing!" He frowned. "And since when is it my fault? Before, you said—"

"I know what I said, but now that I've had time to think about it, I realized you must have said something to upset her. Perhaps she's jealous. Women always liked you, and if she saw you with—"

"She's not jealous." Was she? No, not possible. He hadn't shown interest in anyone else while he'd been with her. He wasn't interested in anyone else.

"You must have done something. Sensible girls like Maddie Clarke don't break up with boys like you for no reason."

"Boys like me?"

"Yes. You know the sort." She eyed him beneath blue-shadowed lids. "Always getting into trouble, talking back to the teachers and parents. Girls always like those kind of boys. Even the sensible girls. And you were such a rebellious boy, and she was such a sweet girl."

He shook his head. This was surreal. Grown men should not have conversations about women with their mothers. "Well, she doesn't like me, but I like her. A lot."

His mother reached over and patted his hand again. "Then go talk to her. Trust me. She likes you. She's just playing hard to get."

He smiled. He couldn't help it—she was trying. "I doubt it, Mum, but thanks. I think I will go and see her. She's worth another try."

She gave him that benevolent smile she used whenever he took her advice. "Good. And when you get back we can go through the weekend papers and look for a house for you."

He cocked an eyebrow. "You've changed your tune quick."

"I thought about it in the kitchen and you're right. You are cramping my style."

He chuckled. "What's his name?"

She fingered the hem of her jacket, then sighed and looked up. "Kevin. Kevin Bowcher."

"That name sounds familiar." He frowned as he crossed the living room to the front door. "Didn't I go to school with his daughters?"

A flash of alarm crossed her face. "Uh, yes. You dated them both. More or less at the same time."

"Oh, yeah."

She shooed him out the front door, then closed it behind him. He studied the crisscross of the porch tiles, recalling the twins he'd dated in high school. They were cute, but hard work. One always had to outdo the other. He'd dated Kate for two weeks then had a brief fling with Miranda after she threatened to tell her father he'd taken her sister's virginity if he didn't. And Kevin Bowcher wasn't a man to take lightly. The ex-con had a reputation for—

Ex-con!

Jeez, his mother was dating a criminal. And she thought he was the rebellious one.