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Dette scrunched her nose, jutting her hand out in frustration. “God, look at you. You’re hideous. Make it fifteen minutes and put some effort into your face. You’re going into town with Keith to run some errands.”
Keith? Crap. She wondered if he knew about this plan yet. After last night she couldn’t imagine he’d be interested in going to the corner with her, let alone a whole day on errands, which suited her just fine. “Hey, maybe Cal could come with me for the errands instead. Keith can do something here.”
“What? No.” Dette switched her weight to one foot and checked her nails as if she couldn’t be more bored. “Stay away from Cal. If something happened with you two yesterday, then today he’s probably going to be dodging you, which is for the best, so don’t make a fool of yourself chasing after him.”
“No, Dette. You don’t understand,” she said, trying to keep her voice low without clueing her sister into the fact that Cal was close by. “I’ll keep your secret, but I told you before, I’m not staying away from Cal. Something real is happening between us.”
Dette snorted through her nose, casting a sympathetic glance toward Lara. “Don’t be naïve.”
Hostility welled within her chest, her stare narrowed, visions of sabotaged Jordan almond favors skipped through her mind—and the bathroom door swung open as Cal walked out, a white towel hanging loose around his hips. “Hey, baby—oh crap, Dette.” He grabbed for the towel with one hand and ran his other through his hair in a sheepish gesture.
Lara’s eyes darted back and forth between them, laughter bubbling up in her throat as Dette stammered, spun on her heel and finally stomped out of the room without a word. Served her right to get a reality check like that.
Cal walked over to the bed and planted a kiss on Lara’s forehead. “Wow, she looked pissed. Is she very protective of you or something?”
“No, she just had some things for me to take care of in town this morning, and I didn’t realize the morning was almost gone.” She ran her palm against the stubbled line of his jaw. “Sorry.”
“Me too,” he said with a wink as he pulled his pants on and then his shirt. “How about I come with you and we get them taken care of together?”
She shook her head. “Nah, Dette wants me to go with Keith.”
“Why? What does it matter?” he asked, genuinely curious.
Lara laughed lightly. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a matter of Dette having it in her head that she wants it that way.”
Cal smirked. “Okay. See you in a bit, beautiful.” And he walked out of the room.
It was amazing how much she didn’t like to see him go.
***
Staring at the sky, Cal leaned against the bumper of the Sinclairs’ yellow H3 Hummer. It was a gorgeous day, warm with a light salty breeze and only a few steaks of soft white clouds to break up the flawless deep blue expanse beyond.
The front door to the house swung open. Lara danced out swinging a keychain around her finger and singing, hideously off key, Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon”. At the bottom step she stopped, smiling suspiciously. “What happened to Keith?”
“Had to bribe him with Lakers’ tickets. We switched errands.”
Her head fell back with a laugh and when she met his gaze her eyes were sympathetic. “I think you got snowed. Keith probably would have traded you Lakers’ tickets to get out of going… He hates stuff like this.”
“No big deal. I got what I wanted.” Which was as much having Lara to himself for a day as it was preventing Keith from being alone with her. He didn’t like the comments that little shit had been making about her.
Lara shrugged it off and beamed at him. “Boys love the Hummer. Want to drive?”
“You bet.” She was right, the bright yellow H3 was cool. He wanted to give it a go.
Lara lofted the keys into the air so they landed perfectly in his open palm. “Nice toss.” He rounded the passenger side to open the door for her.
“Thanks. No driving like an old lady though, traffic’s usually tight and we can’t be late.” She winked and climbed into the seat, her low-slung shorts and cropped top working in opposite directions as she twisted to snap the seatbelt.
Cal swallowed hard watching the creamy stretch of smooth skin, wishing they were headed to a hotel instead of picking up the tuxedos and gowns. Later. Closing the door for her, he circled back to the driver’s side and swung into the seat. “When are we supposed to be there?”
Lara riffled through her purse and pulled out a Chapstick. “The appointment is in thirty minutes.” She smoothed the balm around her lips in one continuous sweep.
It was damn sexy.
“Stop staring at me. You’re making me nervous.” There was a slight flush to her skin and slow tugging curve at the corner of her mouth. He was making her some
thing.
