Labor of Love Read online

  “True.”

  And his hair kept falling forward. I wanted to reach out and brush it back.

  “So you’re sitting here,” he said. “Coincidence or intentional?”

  That was a hard one.

  “It had to be intentional; I mean, I didn’t just discover the chair beneath my butt.”

  He smiled. So maybe I was going to get off easy, without having to actually explain anything about what I was feeling.

  “You said you’re not dating this summer,” he said.

  Okay, maybe I was going to have to explain after all. “Right. I’m planning on this being a dateless summer.”

  “Dateless summer? Wasn’t that a movie?”

  “You’re thinking of The Endless Summer.”

  “A summer without a date would seem pretty endless—or at least it would to me.”

  I smiled again. And maybe he even had a point. I didn’t want to think too much about that.

  “The movie was about surfing,” I said.

  “So we’re really talking about the movie here?”

  No, we weren’t, but it was a more comfortable topic than my whole not-dating thing. Before I could say anything else, he said, “You don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “No.”

  “So is there someone you’re interested in?”

  Was he hoping I’d say him? I swallowed hard. This was so hard to say, embarrassing even. “Look, there was a boyfriend.”

  He studied me for a minute and finally asked, “Bad breakup?”

  I nodded.

  “When?”

  “About six weeks ago.”

  “Okay.”

  “What do you mean okay?”

  “I get it now.”

  “What’s to get?”

  “You don’t want to date. And I’m okay with that. I don’t want to date either.”

  “Really?” Was I relieved or actually a little hurt? Yes, I think I was—hurt.

  “Look, just because you don’t want to date, and I don’t want to date, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to hang out,” he said. “Or even that we couldn’t hang out. I mean, look around. Everyone’s pretty much paired up already.”

  I did take the time to look around then. Yeah, I could see what he meant.

  “So, you’re saying we’re kinda stuck with each other?” I asked.

  “Is that such a bad thing? You’re fun. I’m fun. We could double our fun.”

  “You had better pickup lines the other night.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, but this isn’t a pickup.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure what this is. Maybe just trying to define what we’ve got going on here.”

  What was going on? A casual romance? A summer fling? Summer buddies?

  Tonight my thoughts were being influenced by the blues. The thrill definitely wasn’t gone. It was fun to have someone to share things with, and Jenna was clearly no longer available.

  So I could hang out with Brady. Nothing serious. Nothing permanent. At the end of the six weeks, we’d each go our separate ways. And in the meantime, we’d have fun.

  And wasn’t that the reason I was here?

  I mean, besides helping to rebuild, I wanted to have a great summer.

  “I’m not looking for anything serious,” I told him.

  “Not a problem. I know a thousand knock-knock jokes.”

  I smiled. “Seriously—”

  “Didn’t think you wanted serious.”

  “Look, nothing long-term. Just a New Orleans thing,” I said.

  “Okay.”

  I moved closer to him and moved my shoulders in rhythm to the music.

  “Then while I’m here in the Big Easy, only while I’m here”—I bobbed my head to the rhythm and blues—“we could hang out together. A friends-with-benefits kind of thing. The benefits being”—I couldn’t believe I was being this bold, but if he wanted the relationship defined, I wanted to make sure we were using the same dictionary—“occasional kissing.”

  That really nice smile of his spread across his face. Reaching out, he wrapped his large hand around my neck and brought me nearer. “I’m good with that. Definitely good.”

  And then he kissed me.

  Yeah, definitely good.

  Chapter 13

  “So…you and Brady,” Jenna said quietly later that night as we were lying in the dark.

  “Yeah. Me and Brady.” I went to sleep smiling.

  The next morning I woke up feeling…good. Really, really good. Great, in fact, not only in body but in spirit.

  Some of the soreness and stiffness had finally worked its way out of my muscles, mostly I think because Brady and I did a lot of dancing the night before. Dancing to the blues. Although it hadn’t really been any kind of dancing I’d done before. We’d just moved with the music and had a great time.

  I’d always thought the blues meant depressing music, music determined to make you blue, but I’d been happier last night than I’d been in a long time. Being with Brady was a lot of fun. He didn’t seem to take anything seriously, and that was what I needed right now. Someone who lived in the moment, someone who was all about fun.

  He laughed a lot. He was always smiling. He was nothing at all like Drew. I decided Drew had been a downer. I wasn’t certain what I’d ever seen in him.

  I thought I actually might be on my way to recovery. And I was loving it.

  I’d just pulled on jeans and was working my way into a ratty T-shirt—one I normally wore on laundry day, but decided I should wear for work because who did I want to impress anyway? Brady was already impressed—when my cell phone rang.

  I snatched it up, looked at the number, and answered. “Hey, Amber.”

  Jenna looked up from tying her shoes, a question in her eyes.

  “How’s it going?” I asked Amber.

  “Awesome! I wanted you guys to know that I panicked for no reason. Everything is totally cool between me and Chad. I feel like such a dummy for worrying.”

  “I’m glad everything’s okay.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes and went back to tying her shoes.

  “Things between us are stronger than ever. I just love him so much.”

  “Great.” I didn’t see any reason to remind her that the psychic hadn’t questioned Amber’s current boyfriend. She’d simply said that in college she’d find something better. Of course, that didn’t meant she wouldn’t find it with Chad. He could be even better as he got older. Or they could break up and another guy would be in Amber’s life. Who knew?

  “So what’s happening with you guys?” Amber asked.

  I filled her in on the fact that Jenna was definitely with Tank and I was sort of with Brady.

  “Any chance I could borrow your AeroBed if I decide to head on back to New Orleans?” Amber asked.

  My knees grew weak and I sat on the edge of the bed. Would Amber freak if I told her that Saraphina had seen her back here? Yes, she’d definitely freak.

  “Absolutely,” I said, pushing past my own discomfort with the fact that Sara could, in fact, see into our lives. “Are you going to come back?”

  “I’m thinking about it. Next week maybe. Or the week after. I don’t know for sure. I was telling Chad about how satisfying it was and how it made me feel good, so he’s sort of interested in maybe coming with me. I mean, we haven’t worked out all the details. But he has a car, so he’d drive us. I don’t know if we’d stay the whole summer, but maybe a couple of weeks. A couple of weeks are better than nothing, right?”

  “A couple of weeks would be awesome,” I told her. “Every little bit helps.”

  “Are y’all to the fun stuff yet?”

  “What fun stuff? Eating, dancing, shopping?”

  “The house. Aren’t you going to rebuild it, decorate it?”

  “We’re rebuilding it. I don’t know about the decorating part.”

  “If you’ll measure the windows, I’ll sew some curtains before I come back.”

  Amber was the only person I knew