Sherryl Woods - Welcome to Serenity

She noticed that his hand was large and just a little callused, not the hand of a man who spent all of his time behind a desk. She could imagine this hand touching her. The thought made her blood heat again.

Oblivious to her reaction, Tom went on, “I found this in a file. It has the names of vendors going back for the past ten years. Any reason not to ask them all back?”

“None I can think of,” she admitted, a little taken aback that he’d actually listened to her and gotten down to business. She forced herself to focus, as well. “Should we put an ad in the area newspapers or send out a press release soliciting some new vendors? Otherwise it may start to seem as if no one else can participate. Plus, it’s always good to have new blood. It helps to shake things up. The more vendors the better, I always say. It gives people a reason to come back year after year to spend their money.”

Not that she was one of them. She hadn’t attended the Christmas festival once during the three years she’d lived in Serenity. Even so, as hard as she tried, it had been impossible to tune out all the chatter about it.

“Good idea about getting some fresh faces in here,” he said approvingly. “We’ll probably have to go the press release route, since I don’t think there’s money for that kind of advertising. We need to spend that budget on promoting the event itself.”

In exactly fourteen minutes, he snapped his briefcase closed and stood up. “Well, my time’s about up. Thanks for meeting with me.”

Jeanette was completely thrown by his abrupt end of the discussion, though she couldn’t imagine why. She was the one who’d put a time limit on the meeting.

“Did we cover everything you wanted to cover?” she asked.

“Pretty much. I’ll keep you posted on the responses. I suppose at some point we’ll have to start thinking about mapping out locations for the vendors to set up, but there’s no hurry on that. Howard would probably prefer it be done tomorrow, but realistically November’s soon enough. We should have all the vendor responses in by Thanksgiving.”

“Okay, then. Have a nice evening.”

“You do the same.” His gaze sought hers and held it. “Oh, hell,” he muttered, then bent down and kissed her, not on the cheek as she’d anticipated, but on the mouth…with feeling.

Before she could react, maybe slap him silly, he was gone. She released a deep sigh. It was probably just as well. One more second and she’d have kissed him back like there was no tomorrow. So much for her theory that she was totally immune to men in general and this man in particular. Apparently her hormones had not enjoyed the drought.

His impulsive decision to kiss Jeanette had been a very bad one, Tom concluded as he left The Corner Spa. He was restless and edgy with no way to work off the sexual tension. Since he wasn’t dressed for running, he decided he could at least walk back to the Serenity Inn, though he doubted that would help. If anything, it would give him too much time to think about how soft her lips had been beneath his, the way she smelled of flowers and sunshine, the little sound she’d made in the back of her throat that proved she wasn’t immune to him, after all.

“Damn,” he muttered, getting stirred up all over again. This was bad. He had plans for the rest of his life and they didn’t include staying in Serenity forever. He’d been very careful in the past to keep his relationships casual and uncomplicated. Jeanette had complication written all over her.

Thankfully, before he could get too worked up over the unexpected twist of fate, his cell phone rang, promising a distraction.

“Yes, hello,” he said, hoping he didn’t sound as desperate as he felt.

“Tom, it’s Cal.”

He nearly sighed with relief at the distraction. “Cal, I meant to call you earlier about your Little League proposal. I wanted to let you know that I haven’t had time to get to it, but I haven’t forgotten.”

“Not a problem,” Cal assured him. “Actually, I thought maybe you’d like to hang out with Ronnie Sullivan—you know him from the festival committee, I think—Erik Whitney from Sullivan’s and me tonight. We’re going to toss around a football in the park, maybe have a few beers after. Interested?”

“How soon?” he asked eagerly.

“Twenty minutes,” Cal said. “We’ll be by the gazebo. Can you meet us there?”

“Absolutely,” Tom said. “I just need to drop off my briefcase at the inn and change.”

Thank heavens, he thought as he stuck his cell phone back in his pocket. He hoped these guys took their games seriously. He figured it would take a solid hour of hard sweat and a whole lot of inconsequential guy talk to work the memory of that smoldering kiss out of his head.

Two hours later, Tom was drained of thoughts and energy. These guys played even a casual game of football with an intensity that had challenged him. He was also on his second beer, which had loosened his tongue.

“So, what’s the story on Jeanette?” he asked before he could think through the consequences of bringing up her name with these particular guys. “You all know her, right?”

Cal, Ronnie and Erik exchanged amused looks.

“Told you,” Cal said, holding out his hand to the others. “Pay up.”

Tom frowned. “Told them what?”

“That you had a thing for Jeanette and that it wouldn’t take more than two beers for you to start asking questions about her,” Cal said.

“You bet on this?” he asked incredulously.

“We bet on everything,” Ronnie said, handing over five dollars to Cal. “Keeps us on our toes. We’re a very competitive bunch.”

“I’m paying you under protest,” Erik said as he gave Cal his money. “The deck was stacked in your favor. You’ve seen the two of them together. We haven’t.”

“Stop whining,” Cal told him, seizing the five-dollar bill. “I know perfectly well that Helen and/or Dana Sue has clued you in about this. Probably both of them. And Ronnie’s on the Christmas festival committee, so he’s at least seen them together once.”

Erik grinned. “Well, maybe I had heard something, but I’m busy when I’m at Sullivan’s. I don’t always pay attention to whatever Dana Sue’s going on about in the kitchen.”

“And your wife?” Cal taunted. “Do you tune her out, too?”

“Helen?” Erik said. “Impossible! She makes sure I hear every word she says. It’s the lawyer in her.”

Tom held up a hand. “Can we back up the train a minute? All of you, your wives included, have been speculating about me and Jeanette?”

“True,” Ronnie said, giving him a commiserating slap on the back. “Welcome to the world of the Sweet Magnolias.”

“Damn,” Tom muttered. “She told me they meddled, but I had no idea to what extent.”

“Take it from the three of us, these women work as a team,” Cal reported. “You show a little interest in Jeanette, they’re going to be all over it.”

“I’m not sure if that’s good or bad,” Tom said. “It seems to be scaring off Jeanette. She claims she has zero interest in me specifically and in men in general.”

“Trust me, they were all skittish when we came into their lives,” Cal reported. “With Maddie and me, it was the age thing, plus my job was threatened by the whole supposed scandal of her dating a younger man, who also happened to be her son’s baseball coach. With Ronnie and Dana Sue, let’s just say there was some history he had to overcome the second time around.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Erik added, giving Ronnie a playful punch in the arm.

Cal continued, “As for Erik here, well, he was just about as reluctant to get involved as Helen was. Ronnie and I had a great time watching the mightiest of the mighty fall.”