We had already started making our way down the street toward my side of town. “You have a reason for it, but you’re not telling me.”
“I’m not sure why there needs to be more of a reason besides the fact that getting you to explode is sometimes nice to see. You always try to maintain this calm exterior, and I’m sure it’s because your mom taught you that’s what southern gentlemen do. But, I know you, Dodger Brooks. You’re anything but calm.”
He briefly took his eyes off the road to look at me. “Only with you, Mace, only with you.”
His cell phone started ringing and it connected to his Bluetooth in the car. He pressed the button on his dash and a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard sounded through the speakers.
“Hello?”
“Dodger, it’s Dana. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
I bet you didn’t. I gritted my teeth and my hands formed into fists on my lap. That feisty fun atmosphere quickly shifted. I noticed even he sat up a little straighter. Why?
“I told you I’d be out looking at houses today and to take down any messages.”
I could hear the cold bitch’s smile on the other end. “Oh, I know, and I apologize. But, one of the doctors called, and they want to send in one of your clients. Apparently he twisted funny while in the shower, and now his neck is acting up again. It’s Mister Risen. Would you be able to work him in today?”
Dodger audibly exhaled. He was frustrated. I wondered if it was because he knew he couldn’t brush off his patient, or if it was because Dana called and I was sitting here with him.
“Tell him, if he can be in in the next hour and a half I’ll be there.”
“Okay, will do. And again, sorry for interrupting your day. I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t important.”
Oh my god, if she was standing in front of me right now, I’m probably hit her with one of the gym dumb bells.
Dodger didn’t feel the need to continue the conversation and he hit “end” on the screen. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him working his jaw. I was slightly shocked to see that he may be just as angry, if not angrier than I was.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. You have people depending on you, it’s fine.”
We rounded the corner just a few houses down from my parents’ place.
“If it was fine, you wouldn’t be digging your nails into your palms.”
What? I looked down. Yikes. Little half-moon prints were imbedded into my skin.
“Eh, involuntary reaction.”
“If you say so,” he replied in a clipped manner.
He stopped just in front of my house and put the car in park. We both sat there for a minute. My mind was racing. I didn’t want to think about the Whore of Babylon that worked with him, and how deep she just might have her claws in Dodger. I had bigger things to worry about. Much bigger things. A baby and a house. Did I really have time to be playing the elusive wannabe girlfriend to a Brooks brother?
“Macie, stop it.”
His voice filtered through my thoughts. “Stop what?”
“Someday you’ll understand.” He shook his head. “Your face is practically a teleprompter. I’ve told you before, there’s nothing going on between us.”
“Maybe not to you.”
“Uh, last I was aware of dating etiquette, it was a two-way street. I don’t know what Dana may think is going on, but it’s certainly nothing from my end.” He twisted to face me. His hand shot out, and he grasped mine tightly. “This is where I want to be.”
I looked down at our joined hands. I couldn’t deny that there was something here. And I wasn’t sure I really wanted too. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a horrible thing to try and make this work. But we’d have to take it slow. And that kiss, well, I needed it to happen again.
“Okay.”
“Okay what?” he said, not sure what I was getting at. It wasn’t every day that Macie Rosewood conceded.
“I mean, we can try again.” His face lit up like a Christmas tree. “But I have some stipulations that need to be in place, and I don’t think you’re going to like them.”
“I’m listening.” His thumb rubbed back and forth on my skin. It was sending tingles down my spine.
“The first is that we take this very slow. Last time we just dove in head first and I don’t think either of us knew what we were getting into Second, the house that I’m buying, it needs to stay that way, it’s mine. I need to have some form of separation just in case this doesn’t work out. Who knows, maybe it will lead to you moving in, or maybe it will lead to us being apart. Third, no sex.”
A strange noise came out of his mouth. “No sex?”
I almost laughed. “No. Sex is what got me into this mess. I’m not trying to go back to virgin status here, but I need to think about what’s best for me and what’s best for this baby.”
He grimaced. “Fair enough.”
I could tell he’d be poking at my resolve on that one. Just the way his fingers were brushing my skin, even if he tried to take a needle to my “no sex” bubble, I may be the one to burst.
“And lastly, Dana has to go.”
Dodger shook his head. “Macie, I can’t just go firing people because you don’t like them. Besides, she doesn’t just work for me. She’s one of Camden’s employees too.”
“I understand that. But you don’t need her. Someone else can be hired in her place for your side of the business.”
“I don’t know where you think I’m going to find someone to work on such short notice. On top of finding someone that’s eighty years old and wears skirts past their knees.”
I rolled my eyes. “Dodger, I’m not asking you to hire a saint. I need you to understand that I know girls. And Dana’s intentions aren’t good. That girl is going to do anything she can to make sure that your attention is on her no matter the cost. Look at what she just pulled today. She knew you were with me.”
“There was a patient that needed me.”
“No. That patient could’ve easily seen one of the PT’s in the hospital for today. You were out of the office. Don’t you see it?”
“No, I don’t. But I’ll think about it okay?”
My mouth thinned into a line. “Thems the breaks, Dodger. I’ve told you what I want. You want to make us happen, then you need to make it work.”
I gathered my purse and my coat I’d sat on. Swinging my door open I stepped out.
“And if I don’t?”
I bent at the waist and looked at him. “Then we will have to figure out how this baby thing between us is going to work, but there will be no ‘us’.”
“Always a struggle with you.”
“Nah, I just know what I want.”
I shut the door and walked up to my porch. Instead of giving him the satisfaction of a final look, I kept my eyes forward and walked into my house, slamming the door shut on him and this conversation.
LORD HELP ME, this was probably the worst idea I’ve gone along with in a long time. And considering I was currently pregnant because I didn’t use a condom, that was saying something. My hand was just raising to knock on a door of a home I’d not been too in a couple months, when it was flung open and I was being pulled into the arms of the most ecstatic southern woman I’d come across.