With Strings Attached (15 page)

“Yeah. I heard her.” What could he say? He’d nailed her that afternoon, all by himself. If Dylan wanted to ask her out—well, it was up to Corey.

And at that moment, the front door opened and Corey’s voice carried down the hall. “Matt? You home?”

“In here,” he called, watching Dylan’s face.

Corey appeared in the door with a small box in her hands. “Hi,” she said, taking in both guys sitting there. “How’s it going?”

“Great.” Dylan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “You?”

“Awesome. I just dropped by with these…” She held the box out to Matt. “Your favorite—espresso shot, dark chocolate truffles.”

He rose from his chair and walked toward her, smiling. “I love those. Thank you.” He kissed her forehead and took the small box from her. “What’s the occasion?”

“Just a thank you for fixing my car.” She looked up into his eyes, hers all green and sparkly.

“You didn’t have to do this.”

“I know. But I wanted to. It would have cost me a fortune to get the car towed and then fixed, and I know if I offer to pay you, you’ll be pissed off, so…here.” Her smile made his chest tighten.

Dylan made a noise and they both turned to look at him. “You’re gonna get fat with all the food women keep bringing you,” he said to Matt.

Corey arched an eyebrow at Matt. “Women are bringing you food?”

He grinned. “Mrs. K. She brought lasagna. Want some?”

“Ah. No, thanks, I already ate.”

She looked back and forth between Matt and still-scowling Dylan. Tension shimmered in the air around them. “Did I interrupt something? I can…”

“No.” Matt and Dylan spoke at the same time.

“Oh. Well…” Her white teeth sank into her plump bottom lip.

“I was going to call you,” Dylan said, also rising from his chair. He shot Matt a look. “See if you wanted to go out tomorrow night.”

She blinked. “Oh.” She glanced at Matt, then back to Dylan. “Go where?”

Dylan frowned. “Out. You know. Like, on a date.”

“All three of us?” Her brow furrowed.

“No! Not all three of us.” Dylan’s jaw tightened. He softened his tone. “Just you and me, babe.”

Once again, Corey sought Matt’s eyes with hers. He said nothing.

Corey swallowed, then smiled at Dylan. “Well. A date. Aren’t you quite the charmer?”

He gave her a lopsided smirk. “That’s me, all right. So how about it? Dinner? Movie?”

“I can’t tomorrow night.” Her smile faded. “I’m having dinner with Amanda and her family.”

“Oh. Well, then, we’ll do it on Wednesday night. But hey, that reminds me.” He stepped toward her. “When I went for my therapy appointment today, I was walking down Shore Drive and I passed a little empty shop. I thought that would be the perfect location for you. For your chocolate shop.”

She blinked. “On Shore Drive? Whereabouts? There’s never anything empty there.”

“Near the Black Bean coffee shop. And some place called Seaside Gifts.”

“Oh. Oh, I know! It’s where the cookie lady had her store. I heard she retired. I can’t believe someone hasn’t rented that space, though.”

“You should check into it.”

She nibbled her bottom lip again. “It’s probably way too much money. Shore Drive is a prime business location. Very tony.”

“Yeah.” He laughed. “Even the physical therapy clinic was posh. But you never know unless you ask.”

She nodded. “True.”

Matt could see the wheels turning in her head. It bugged him that Dylan had brought that up.

“I’ll take you by there on Wednesday,” Dylan offered. “Since my day’s wide open.” He grimaced. “There was a sign in the window and we can get the number of who to call. If you like it.”

“All right.” She nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

“And then we’ll have dinner,” he said with a smug grin.

Corey offered a knowing smile. “Okay.”

Damn. She was going out with him. The pasta Matt had just eaten churned inside him.

”I have to get home,” Corey said. “I have some raspberries to puree. Just wanted to pop by with these.”

Then she looked at Matt. And blinked. “Hell,” she said. “I can’t do this.”

Both men stared at her. “Do what, candy girl?” Matt finally asked.

“This.” She waved a hand back and forth between the three of them. “First Dylan was giving me the stink eye and now you are. What’s going on?”

Matt looked at Dylan. Who looked back at him.

“You guys are friends,” she said softly. She clasped her hands in front of her. “I don’t want to wreck that.”

“You’re not,” Matt said. “I mean, it’s not your fault…”

Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying, buddy?”

Matt rubbed the back of his neck and he met Dylan’s eyes. “I’m saying…you and I need to figure this out. Whatever it is.”

Corey’s anxious gaze traveled back and forth between them. “I thought we worked things out last night,” she said. “And if all three of us are together then there’s no problem. Right?”

“You’re saying you want him to come on our date Wednesday night?” Dylan growled.

“Why not?” She blinked innocent eyes at him. “Come on, you guys. I don’t want you pissed off at each other. I’m not going to come between you.”

Matt grinned. “I liked the way you came between us last night.”

He watched color flood Corey’s cheeks, but she laughed and Dylan’s mouth twitched into a reluctant smile, and the tension eased.

“Seriously,” she said. “If this is going to make you two fight, then I’m outta here. And I’m not coming back.” Then her tongue dragged across her lip in a sexy swipe that sent heat straight to Matt’s dick.

And guilt stabbed into his gut. Because he’d gone to her place without Dylan earlier and had that quickie and here he was pissed off because Dylan wanted to take her to dinner and a movie. He avoided Dylan’s eyes and turned to carry their plates to the dishwasher.

He sure as hell didn’t want her to leave and not come back.

“You’re not making us fight, Cor,” he said, the words dragged out from deep inside him. He turned back to her and smiled. “It’s no big deal if you and Dylan go out Wednesday night.”

“Um. Okay.”

“And we’ll all get together another night this week.”

“All three of us?” she asked hopefully. His dick twitched. He looked at Dylan who was grinning.

“Yeah,” Dylan said. “All three of us.”

Corey was on her way out the door to go over to Amanda’s place for dinner with her family the next afternoon when her business phone rang. She grabbed it as she tried to shove her feet into flip-flops.

“Decadent Indulgence.”

“Yes, hi.” The male voice hesitated. “I’m, uh…calling to order some chocolates.”

“Great. Have you ordered from here before?”

“No. First time. I’m not sure…uh…what I want.”

“Okay. We have a website if you want to go online and see the selection.”

“Yes, I saw that.”

“Perfect.” She grabbed a pen and the notepad by the phone. “Well, if you’re not sure what you want, maybe I can suggest something?”

“Please.”

She reeled off some of her bestselling combinations, including her latest creation, chipotle chili pepper truffles. “We use local honey, Mexican vanilla beans and nuts and dried fruits from California. Each piece is made by hand with the highest quality ingredients.” To every suggestion, the man kept saying, “Okay. Yeah. One box of those. And one of those. And I’d like some of the dark chocolate almonds.” She grinned as she scribbled down the order for ten boxes of chocolates.

“And where would you like these delivered?”

“I thought I’d pick them up.”

She frowned. She really didn’t encourage customers to come to her place. The building—hell, the whole neighborhood—didn’t really give off the image she wanted for her chocolates, which was classy, upscale and elegant. “I can deliver anywhere,” she said. “We ship all over the country.”

“I’m in San Amaro,” he said. “But I’m staying at a bed and breakfast.”

“At the White Jasmine B&B?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “I know the owner, she’s a good friend of mine. It’s no trouble to bring the chocolates there. When would you like these?”

“Tomorrow?”

She blinked. Luckily she had some of those on hand, but she didn’t have any of the dark chocolate almonds. She glanced at the time. If she was quick she could pick up almonds on her way over to Amanda’s house and then maybe even make them tonight if she didn’t stay out too late.

“That’s fine,” she said, not wanting to lose a big order. Somehow she’d get it done. “I’ll just get your credit card number.”

Silence. “I’ll pay cash.”

After one more beat of silence, she said, “Okay, then. Will you leave the money at the front desk of the B&B with Jasmine?”

“What time will you be coming?” he asked. “I can give it to you personally.”

She ran through her planned schedule for the next day in her mind. “How about three o’clock?” she said. That would give her a little more time to get the order together.

“Fine. Thank you.”

“I should get your name,” she said.

“It’s Neil. Neil Markham.”

“Okay, Mr. Markham. Thank you so much for your order and I’ll see you tomorrow at three o’clock.”

She hung up and studied the order to make sure she had everything but the almonds, then grabbed her purse and hurried out of the building.

She picked up Amanda from school as she sometimes did. They’d go for smoothies or mochaccinos at the Black Bean or walk on the boardwalk. But today Corey was just taking her straight home since Amanda’s mom had invited her for dinner.

Since she’d started mentoring Amanda she’d also gotten to know the rest of the family. They were good people, struggling with an awful illness, worried sick about their son, and Corey had found herself becoming friends not only with Amanda but also with her mom and dad.

But as often happened, being part of a family for a little while, even a family with problems like theirs, gave her an empty longing feeling for the family life she’d never had, and when she left their home later that night, she sat in her dark car parked on the street in front of their house for a few minutes. It made her feel good to help—to remind Amanda’s mom that Amanda still needed attention, too, when they sometimes forgot. To remind Amanda that Justin couldn’t help the way he was. They were small things, tiny things really, and if they helped in even a miniscule way, she was doing something good. But it also made her a little sad.

So she picked up her cell phone and called her mom in San Diego.

She’d been so freaked out about her father wanting to see her, she hadn’t even thought about how that had made her mom feel—the man who’d been her husband, who’d left her all those years ago, suddenly showing up out of the blue. Her mom’s psychological status was fragile to begin with. Something like that could be damaging. How had she dealt with it? And what a selfish bitch Corey was, to not have even thought about that until now.

“Hey, Mom,” she said when her mom answered. “How are you?”

“Corey! I’m doing well. It’s so nice to hear from you.”

Corey closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the car seat. She knew she didn’t call her mom or see her as much as she should. As much as her mom would like. It was still hard. Hard to get past all the awful memories, the fear, the anger, the loneliness. “I was thinking of coming to see you,” she said.

“That would be so nice.”

“I have a lot of work this week, but maybe next week? Would that be okay with you?”

Mom laughed softly. “Of course. It’s not like my schedule’s all that busy.”

Corey smiled a little. “Okay, good. I’ll call you and let you know when I’m coming. Maybe Thursday or Friday.”

She’d have to work like crazy now to get enough chocolates made for the farmers’ market plus the orders she had if she was going to go out with Dylan tomorrow night and then take some time off next week to drive to San Diego.

She was going out with Dylan.

She’d tried not to think about that, or to think about Matt and the way he’d looked last night, or the way Dylan and he had looked at each other.

Chapter Ten

Corey made one stop on her way to the White Jasmine Bed and Breakfast the next afternoon. The crazy idea had been circling around and around in her head the last few days and she’d decided to go for it. So she’d stopped at the local fitness center and signed up for swimming lessons.

Yeah, it was crazy. She was afraid of the water. But a pool seemed much safer than the ocean with its huge waves and riptides and undertows or whatever. She was an adult now, surely she could get over that fear.

Dylan had inspired her. The fact that he could bravely paddle out to sea and then jump up onto a board and ride a wave—and she’d seen those waves pro surfers rode, sometimes they rode
inside
the wave for God’s sake!—was amazing. And that he could fall and get back on and do it again, made her want to at least try to paddle a little ways out in the ocean without fear of drowning. Maybe that was an impossible dream. But she lifted her chin as she walked into the office and resolutely paid the fee. Lessons started next week.