KRISTI GOLD - The Only Man for Her

Jess laid a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t wait too long before you work things out. Take it from me, time is a precious resource that once it’s gone, you can’t get back. Just think of all the years I wasted.”

“That’s different,” Rachel said. “Chase was off fighting a war, and you were married to my brother. It wasn’t possible for the two of you to be together during that ten-year span.”

“If I hadn’t stayed in a marriage that was a dead end in the beginning, I wouldn’t have squandered that time.”

The comment threw Rachel. “Are you saying I should divorce Matt?”

Jess looked appalled. “Heavens, no. Dalton was a jerk and Matt is a great guy. I’m saying life’s too short to let pride or fear or stubbornness keep you from being happy. You and Matt have so much invested in your marriage, I know you can work it out if you try.”

Rachel understood what her friend was saying, but lately she hadn’t been at all pleased with her husband’s behavior. She hadn’t been happy with much of anything since the day she lost her child and hadn’t been given the opportunity to say goodbye. Oddly, when the tragedy should have brought them closer together, it had only driven them apart.

Savannah returned once more, fully clothed with her wedding dress bagged and draped over one arm. “Change of plans for the evening regarding dinner.”

“I have to eat soon,” Jess said, sounding borderline desperate. “This baby is determined to be fed on a regular basis.”

Savannah’s eyes went wide. “Jessica!”

Jess waved a dismissive hand at Savannah. “Calm down, Savvy. She figured it out after I tossed my cookies a few minutes ago.”

“Oh.” Savannah sent Rachel a sympathetic look. “Are you all right?”

She wished everyone would stop asking her that. “Yes, I’m fine. Life goes on and I’m excited for Jess and Chase.”

“Good. We were worried.” Savannah dropped her cell into her purse and slid the strap over her shoulder. “Anyway, after we stop by the bakery for the wedding-cake tasting, which shouldn’t take more than an hour or so, we’re going back to Placid. Sam’s making dinner.”

Jess scowled. “What about us?”

“The cake samples should tide you over,” Savannah said. “And Sam is making dinner for all of us.”

Rachel had never known Sam to be much of a cook. “Mac and cheese?”

Savannah grinned. “He says it’s a special dinner in a special place.”

A special place? Rachel didn’t like the sound of that. “Then we’re not going to your house?”

“Who cares where we have dinner, as long as we have it?” Jess came to her feet. “Right now I could eat this chair, so let’s go.”

Rachel stood and followed her friends out the door, a multitude of concerns bouncing around in her brain. Surprises weren’t always good, and her instincts told her that could very well be the case with this one.

* * *

THE GUYS HAD PULLED a fast one. Matt realized that the minute he heard the car doors slam and the sound of feminine voices. So much for a simple fishing trip down at Potter’s Pond.

When Jess and Savannah entered the clearing alone, Matt figured Rachel had bowed out when she’d learned he’d be there. Then he caught sight of her standing beside the old oak tree where they’d met in secret during their youth. She balled her fists at her sides as if she wanted to punch someone, glanced at the beer in his hand and sent him a glare hotter than the fire pit.

She’d obviously been blindsided and probably assumed he’d had a hand in pulling this little shindig together. She was dead wrong, and he planned to set her straight if she didn’t turn tail and run before he had the chance.

Matt came to his feet and waited while the other two couples delivered hello kisses and endearments, the same way he and Rachel used to carry on not all that long ago. Now they remained yards apart, in a virtual standoff that wasn’t lost on their friends.

After a round of uncomfortable quiet, Sam gestured toward the portable table holding all the food. “There’s hot dogs and some wire to roast ’em. You’ll find beer and sodas in the cooler. Help yourselves.”

To Matt, Savannah’s and Jess’s mad rush to the table, with Sam and Chase trailing behind, looked more like the result of discomfort than starvation. Not one of the foursome even sent him or Rachel a passing glance. Served them right. They should’ve known better than to try to play mass matchmakers.

When Rachel failed to move, Matt set his beer on the ground beside the lawn chair and approached her, keeping his distance in case she decided to throw that punch.

Before he could say a word, she clenched her teeth and spoke through them. “Did you have something to do with this?”

Exactly as he’d predicted. “Nope. I was as surprised as you were. Sam invited me to a guys-only fishing trip and said you and the girls were in Memphis. I just figured you’d be there most of the night.”

“You figured wrong.” She wrung her hands like an old-time washer. “One of us should leave, and I think it should be you. Don’t you need to go inoculate a cow? Or maybe that dive on the county line is calling to you?”

That just plain pissed him off, even if she did make a valid point about the bar. But when home was no longer a haven, a man had to do what he had to do. “No, sweetheart, I’m free for the evening. But I wouldn’t mind taking you home.”

“No, thanks, but you can take yourself home.”

With that, she brushed past him and joined the others at the table.

As usual, he couldn’t leave well enough alone. When he walked right up beside her, the others scattered like crows and returned to their seats around the fire.

Rachel’s refusal to look at him spurred his determination to tease a smile out of her. In order to garner her attention, he reached in front of her, speared a hot dog with a wire and held it up. “Could I interest you in a—”

“Don’t say it, Matthew.”

“Hot dog?”

“That’s not what you were going to say.”

So much for that strategy. “Didn’t know you could read my mind.”

“I’m no mind reader, but I know you. You’re an expert at double entendre.”

Time to bring out the big guns—a little soda with a side of seduction.

He moved behind her, rested a palm on her hip and leaned over to withdraw a drink from the cooler set on the end of the table. Then he straightened and touched the can against her neck where her blouse opened right above her breasts. “Here ya go, sweetheart. A nice cold cola to help cool off your temper.”

She took the can and gave him a sugary-sweet smile over one shoulder. “Here’s a news flash. I’ve become immune to your charms.”

She spun around, leaving him holding an unwanted hot dog and the urge to prove her wrong. He left the speared hot dog and went back to his chair that had conveniently been positioned next to Rachel. She didn’t hesitate to pick hers up and move it to the opposite side of the fire pit and him. If their friends hadn’t gotten the hint that this was a bad idea, they’d surely figured it out now.

Sam cleared his throat around the awkward silence and smiled. “This reminds me of old times. Remember when we ran off to Nashville that Sunday for the football game without telling our folks?”

“Who could forget?” Chase said. “We didn’t have the money to buy tickets, so we spent the day in the parking lot, tailgaiting.”

“And Matt was the only one who didn’t get grounded,” Savannah added.

Because his dad hadn’t given a rat’s ass what he did. “We should have all gotten our stories straight and then none of us would have been in trouble.”

Rachel gave him an accusatory stare. “I believe it was Matt who told Chase’s dad we went to the lake right after Chase had told him we were at the fall festival in Yazoo City.”