From Temptation to Twins(47)
“Are you looking for my advice, or asking me the secret to changing a stubborn woman’s mind?”
Matt laughed, and they both glared at him. He quickly turned the sound into a cough. “She’s got you pegged.”
“We women aren’t stubborn,” Tasha said. “We’re smart. It just rattles you guys when we’re also self-interested. My guess is she’s right, but you don’t want to admit it.”
Apparently having said her piece, Tasha turned her attention back to Matt. “Orca’s Run is mechanically sound. You should back off now and let everybody do their jobs.”
She gave both men a nod.
Caleb watched her walk away. “Well, that was...”
“Emasculating? It happens to me all the time.”
“I was thinking illuminating.”
“You agreed with her?” Matt sounded surprised.
“I agreed with what she said to you. You do tend to meddle sometimes.”
“Ha. I agreed with what she said to you. It’s making you nuts that Jules is standing up to you.”
Matt was wrong there. Caleb had no problem with someone standing up for their own business interests. What was frustrating him was his hesitation to stand up for his own because he had feelings for Jules.
“I slept with her,” he said.
Matt did a double take. “What?”
Matt was a brilliant man and a good friend. Caleb knew he wasn’t going to be able to give Caleb decent advice unless Caleb was honest.
“In San Francisco,” Caleb continued. “She made me promise to forget it happened, and I can’t get her out of my mind.”
“Wow.”
“That’s an understatement.”
“She slept with you? Was it because of the earthquake?”
“Are you asking if I took advantage of her vulnerability after she was terrified for her life?”
Matt seemed to reconsider. “No. Of course not. You wouldn’t do something like that.”
“She likes me. I mean, on some level, I know she must like me. She’s definitely attracted to me. And she hates that. She fights it tooth and nail. She’s really funny. And she’s really smart. And sassy. Unlike you, I like sassy. Sassy is sexy.”
“I like sassy, too.”
That caught Caleb’s attention. “Tasha?”
Matt looked surprised. “No. Tasha’s...different. And we’re not talking about me. Are you falling for Jules?”
Caleb reached out to brace his hand against a pillar. “I don’t know what I’m doing. If she was anybody else, I’d revoke the easement, meet her in court, drain her resources until she was willing to make a deal.”
“But she’s not someone else.”
“That’s my problem. I don’t want her to hate me. And I don’t want to destroy her. Deep down, I’m hoping for the Crab Shack to succeed. Beyond Jules, there would be a certain justice in that for her grandfather.”
“Your family really did pull a number on the Parkers.”
“According to Jules, it might be even worse than I thought.”
“Yeah?”
“My father.” Caleb hesitated to share too much of what Jules had told him. He didn’t care about his father’s reputation, but it wasn’t really his story to tell. “Let’s just say Roland Parker might have had a really good reason to throw the first punch.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“Because you’ve met my father?”
The wind blustered across the dock, and the line of gleaming white yachts bobbed against the bumpers, making hollow clunks on the incoming tide.
“What are you going to do?” Matt asked.
“I truly don’t know. I’d considered reasoning with Melissa.”
“Melissa seems great.”
“She’s the more reasonable of the two. But Jules warned me off, and I promised I wouldn’t try to co-opt Melissa.”
“Why would you promise that?”
“It was the only way to get Jules to come to San Francisco.”
There was amusement in Matt’s tone. “You bargained away your best play to spend time with Jules?”
“I did.” It was as simple as that.
He’d wanted to be alone with Jules, but it sure hadn’t worked out the way he’d expected.
It had been better, so much better. It had been amazing. But the aftermath was killing him.
Eight
It wasn’t the first time Jules appreciated the pot lights along the trail from the Crab Shack to the house. It was nearly nine o’clock and full-on dark as she and Melissa made their way home. The sky was black, and the wind was coming up, a storm moving in from the Pacific.
The distinctive sound of Noah’s pickup truck faded to nothing behind them as he turned off their access road and headed up to the highway. They’d been refinishing the wood floor today, and the work was heavy. Jules was tired, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and wishing they had a proper bathtub at home. She’d give a lot for an hour-long soak before she fell into bed.