Kristin Hardy - Bad Behaviour

“At fourteen? Gee, imagine that.”

“And his hair was so light and he didn’t have those…” she waved in the direction of her shoulders. And when had he gotten that voice, that husky voice that made her want to rub herself all over him like a cat? She took a swallow of her drink. “I still don’t quite buy that it’s him.”

But it was. Somewhere down in her gut she knew, because she felt that same twisting, flipping feel that she’d had for him in eighth grade. Before he’d broken up with her and gone off to private school. And now here, three thousand miles from either of their homes, she’d run into him. Sixteen years later, she had another chance, to laugh, to give him a hard time for the heartache. To boink his brains out.

And to be the one to walk away.

3

DELANEY TURNED AS JAKE approached with his friend. Giving the two of them a brilliant smile, she turned to the rest of the Supper Club. “Okay, guys, this is someone I knew from junior high school, Jake—”

“Dom,” he corrected.

“Right. Dom Gordon.” Humor leapt in her eyes. “I still think Jake the Snake suited you better.”

The guy with Jake—Dom—let go a burst of laughter. “Jake the Snake? ” he repeated.

Dom scowled. “It was a nickname. And this is Eric Novak, my sometimes friend.”

“Hi, Eric. I’m Delaney,” she said, “and this is my college gang—Sabrina, Cilla, Paige, Thea, Trish and Kelly. Pay attention, there’ll be a test after,” she added.

Eric looked like he couldn’t believe his luck. “Nice to meet you all.”

“To new friends.” Delaney raised her margarita.

“And old ones,” Dom added. With a clink of glasses, they all drank.

Eric put down his glass, still staring at Thea. “You used to be a model, didn’t you?” he blurted.

And all of them, the whole Supper Club, tensed a little. Maybe none of them knew quite what had happened to Thea back in New York, but they knew that any reminder of that time had a bad effect on her. Delaney waited now to see how she’d respond.

And to her everlasting shock, Thea smiled.

That was Brady, Delaney realized, the man Thea had fallen for just a month before. Somehow Brady and Portland—and love—had healed her.

“It’s been years since I modeled,” Thea was saying calmly. “Now I just teach tango.”

“And live with the best brew master in the Pacific Northwest,” Delaney added, seeing the adoration plastered all over Eric’s face.

He closed his eyes briefly. “That crashing sound you hear is my heat breaking,” he told Delaney. “But thank you.”

“Reality is sometimes painful.”

“How could you?” He turned to Thea. “Why didn’t you wait? You must have known I was going to be here.”

“Sorry,” Thea told him. “Poor planning on my part.”

“And I suppose you didn’t bring any copies of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit picture to sign, either.”

She spread her hands apologetically. “Fresh out.”

He gave a mournful glance at the flashes of gold and diamonds that adorned several of the other hands at the table. “Married, married, married,” he ticked off. “This is looking more tragic all the time. I don’t suppose any of the rest of you are single,” he added hopefully.

“Delaney’s the only holdout,” Kelly said with a wicked smile.

“And holding hard,” Delaney added fervently. “How about you, Jake the Snake?”

“Slipped the noose so far,” he said.

“I see. And what do you do with yourself when you’re not slipping the noose? Or is that a full-time job?”

“Oh, I—”

“He runs a garage,” Eric supplied, leaning over toward them for a second.

Delaney’s mouth curved with pleasure. “Stan’s? Your father’s old place?”

“You need your tires rotated, Dom’s your boy.”

“I’ll remember that.” Her eyes gleamed. “I’ve got great memories of the garage. Do you remember the day your dad came in and found us riding the lift up and down?”

Dom winced. “Hard to forget. You and your dares.”

“Admit it, you had fun. How’s your family, by the way?”

Dom moved his shoulders. “My mom’s good. She’s still teaching special ed at St. Joseph’s.”

“And the twins? I still remember them as babies, but I guess they’re not anymore.”

“Nope. They’re starting college in a couple of weeks.”

Delaney stared. “College?” she repeated faintly. “Now, that’s scary.”

“Tell me about it.”

“And how’s your dad?”

A beat went by. “We lost him about five years back. Mouth cancer.” He smiled briefly. “He never could give up those stogies.”

And she saw in his eyes what it cost him to joke. “Oh, Jake, I—” She stopped. “Dom, I mean. It’s hard to get used to.”

“It doesn’t matter. Dad still called me Jake even after I changed over.”

“I’m sorry,” Delaney said simply. “He was a good man. He made me laugh.”

And she was rewarded with a smile. “He always liked you. Gave me hell when we broke up.”

“Good for him.” She gave him a mock scowl. “He should have.”

“You still holding that against me?” he asked easily.

“Hell, yes. You walked off with my Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt.”

“Did I?” He suddenly found something in his glass very interesting.

“It was a collector’s item.”

“It was .”

Her eyes narrowed. “Define ‘was.” ’

“You can have it back if you want.” He cleared his throat. “Most of it.”

“Most of it?” she repeated dangerously.

“It got too small for me after a while. I’ve been using it to wax my car.”

Delaney breathed out through her nose. “I loved that shirt. You could have sent it back. My parents only moved away a couple of years ago.”

“Might be too small for you, too,” he said, studying her. “Although I bet it would look interesting.”

Something about the glint in his eyes had her swallowing. “Hmmph. You owe me, big time.”

“A drink?” he offered.

“More like free tire rotations for life.” He had good hands for rotating tires. And other things.

“All you’ve got to do is show up.”

“Don’t think I won’t, buddy. You’re responsible for burning out my CD player, too.”

“ I am?”

“After the seventh straight day of playing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’ it started smoking.”

The corners of his mouth twitched.

“My sister’s still scarred from it. She threatened me the last time we were out driving and the song came on the radio.”

“They say family members are the first ones the cops interview after a murder.”

“Better that than wasting away. I started to, you know, after you broke my heart. Laid on my bed weeping. Walked around looking tragic, wasting away to skin and bones.”

“How long?”

“Oh, most of a week, at least. Jeff Doane helped comfort me in my time of need,” she added wickedly.

“Now that hurts. You never told me you took up with Jeff Doane.”

“You never asked me,” she tossed back at him. “Besides, you were the one who left me at the altar.”

“At the altar?”

“You’d promised to be my date for the Sadie Hawkins dance, remember? No date, no one to French kiss in the corner, no one’s lap to sit in for the picture, just me in my Daisy Dukes and my red check shirt. My life’s never been the same since. In fact, I don’t know why I’m even talking to you,” she added, enjoying herself.

“I’d be happy to give you a reason to.”

He looked down at her, eyes hot and dark and that quickly the breath clogged up in her throat. She’d kissed him for hours, once upon a time, sitting on the bleachers at the school yard, hanging out behind the garage. It had been a revelation, that first kiss, the soft pressure, the sliding heat and the sudden, surprising taste of him. His mouth had been her obsession, his mouth and the places it could take her, by turns gentle and more urgent, though neither of them quite knew what lay beyond. And she’d dreamed of him since, vivid, startling dreams that took her to places they’d never gone together.