The Perfect Match: A New Adult Erotic Romance (Inseparable Book 2) Read online

  “Mine is the boat that Uncle Kurt took us on,” Jen said. “See? There’s him at the front driving, and there is you, and me, and Lisa, and Aunt Charlotte.”

  “That’s amazing,” she gushed, holding the picture still so she could see it. “Is that one of the birds we saw diving in the water?”

  “Yes! I haven’t finished drawing the wings, though.” She grabbed a crayon and began to draw them on the body immediately.

  “Tell me about your picture, Lisa,” Polly said as she moved around to the younger girl and bent down closer to see better.

  “It’s you and Uncle Trey kissing,” she sputtered out through a giggle.

  “Oh god,” Polly mumbled as she felt her face turn red. It was just stick figures and lines, but Lisa had certainly captured the moment. “Who are these other people?” she asked as she pointed to some other figures on the page.

  “Aunt Charlotte!” Lisa smashed her glitter covered finger on some blue lines with a circle on top. “Daddy!” The figure she pointed to was bigger and green. “Uncle Kurt!” His figure was black with little red dots on his circular face.

  “What’s that on his face?” Polly asked Lisa.

  “Those are tears ’cause he was sad,” she explained as she picked up a red crayon and began to add more tears.

  Polly felt chills at the perceptive insight. “Why was he so sad, Lisa?”

  She looked up at Polly, confused. “’Cause you didn’t kiss him goodbye, too.”

  When Polly stood back up, she saw Julie staring at her with a wry expression. “Thanks for coming over on such short notice.”

  “My pleasure. You know I love your kids,” Polly said as they embraced.

  Julie whispered in her ear so the girls couldn’t here. “Isn’t she perceptive?”

  Nodding with embarrassment, Polly put her purse down on the kitchen counter and showed Julie the text from Trey on her phone.

  “Well, I’ll give him points for persistence and a half-point for cheek.”

  “It was cute!” Polly said as she dropped her phone in her purse.

  “You’re not going to text him back?” she asked as she walked toward her bedroom with Polly following along behind.

  “Right away? Do I look desperate?” Polly laughed and shook her head. “Where’s Jackson?”

  “Sleeping already. Jack swears he’ll be home by eight, but if he gets tied up I’ll be back no later than nine. Give me a sec to change.” She went into the bathroom while Polly sat on the end of the king-sized bed.

  “Have the girls eaten yet?”

  “Yes, they just need to clean up the mess on the table, take their showers, and go to bed. Don’t let them tell you they’re hungry, either.” The water started running for a moment then stopped again. “So have you given in and gone out with him yet?”

  “No,” Polly sighed. “He’s nice and all, but there’s just something—” Julie came back out wearing a stylish skirt and top. “Man, have you changed.”

  “I told you I was going to,” she said as she put on an earring.

  “No, I mean... that!” Polly gestured to her outfit and shoes. “What happened to the girl in the Bigger Bounce uniform? Where are the sparkly t-shirts with the snappy sayings over low rise jeans?”

  Julie stopped for a moment and smiled. “I know. Sometimes I stand in front of the mirror and laugh. It seems crazy when I think about it. I’m such a mom now.”

  “It’s like you’ve bloomed and grown into yourself,” Polly whispered to her as she stood.

  “Watch the fertilizer you’re flinging,” Julie said with a wink.

  Polly hugged her friend. “Go win that client. I’ve got your back.”

  “Thanks again!” Julie said. Then grabbed her purse, dashed to kiss the girls, and went out the back door.

  * * *

  Getting the girls to clean up and in bed was an exercise in diplomacy, bribery, and stubborn willpower. By seven o’clock, the house was quiet and Polly pulled out her laptop to work on the drug interaction report that was due on Friday. She sat on the floor in front of the coffee table and leaned against the couch as she worked. After getting into the flow and typing fast, there was a quiet beep from her purse that made Polly absently pull her phone out and unlock the screen.

  The text from Trey read, “Seriously, truth or dare?” echoing his previous text. She sighed and shook her head, but couldn’t suppress the grin that lifted one corner of her mouth.

  She texted back, “Working on my report, TTYL.” After setting her phone on the coffee table with a sigh, she went back to her report and read the previous paragraph again to get back in the flow.

  The beep was louder outside of her purse and made her jump. “TRUTH OR DARE?”

  “Fine,” she muttered, and sent him, “Truth.”

  She had just started typing when the phone beeped. Trey wrote, “Why won’t you go out with me?”

  She stared at the text and tried to put her hesitation into words. He was too smooth. He never seemed to get flustered or frustrated like a normal person. It made her uncomfortable thinking he was carefully weighing everything he said or did around her, like she was a wild animal he was trying to tame.

  He’d called her twice since she’d gotten back from Morgan City. Both times she felt like the customer getting the hard sell from a high-pressure salesman. If he would just relax around her, scratch or fart or something real, she might have said yes already.

  She dragged her finger around the virtual keyboard spelling out an abbreviated version of the truth. “You’re trying too hard and it makes me nervous.”

  She held the phone, counting the seconds for his reply. “OK. Your turn, I pick truth.”

  “Why are you so interested in me?” she asked, apprehensive of his answer.

  This time the reply took longer. “It’s not too complicated. You’re cute and I’m lonely.”

  “That doesn’t jibe with your actions,” she sent, irritated by his glib response. Being attractive and rich, his attention wasn’t unwelcome, but she wasn’t interested in a casual relationship and doubted he wanted anything more. If that was all he was looking for, she wished he’d take the hint and move on.

  Polly had only been with three men in her life, but regretted none of them. Her first was her high school sweetheart, the second a college fling, and the last was a friends-with-benefits arrangement with a painfully shy co-worker, Scott.

  Remembering the context of her last relationship, it was impossible to imagine being with Trey like that. Unlike Scott, Trey exuded a sexual magnetism like a strong cologne. There was no question in her mind he was experienced and knew exactly what he wanted from her.

  At first his attention had been flattering, even overwhelming. When she got far enough away to think clearly, she realized he was aware of his power over her and was using it skillfully. She didn’t really trust herself around him, and it didn’t help when Julie pointed out that avoiding him was taking the coward’s way out.

  When her phone’s beep brought her back to the present, she read his latest message. “How can you get to know me well enough to trust me if you don’t spend any time with me?”

  He had a point, but she still didn’t want to give him free reign. Her finger flew across the screen as she wrote, “Fine. Lunch. Noon on Saturday at the Galleria Mall. I’ll meet you by the ice rink.”

  Her finger hovered over the triangle button to send the message. Steeling herself with a deep breath, she pushed send and shut her eyes. It only took a moment for the phone to beep in her hand.

  “Perfect! See you there.”

  Just when she returned to her report on drug interactions, the front door opened and Jack came in looking wrung out. With his wrinkled suit coat and red tie hanging loose around his neck, he plodded towards his recliner and collapsed into it with a sigh.

  “Hey, Polly, thanks for staying with the girls tonight. We owe you big time.”

  “Not a problem,” she said as she shut the lid on her laptop. Sittin
g back with a smile, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes. “Are you doing okay?”

  “Yeah,” he said as he rubbed his temples. “Just lots of work stuff going on.”

  “Wanna talk about it?” she offered.

  He chuckled sadly and looked over at Polly with bleary eyes. “Well, I’ve doubled our sales over last year, but the growing pains are about to kill me. Our warehouse is working double-shifts to get the inventory in and out the door when we promised. The accounting department can’t ever seem to cut an invoice correctly the first time. And our transportation costs are eating up all the profits. I’m spending most of my time fighting fires now instead of selling, and I don’t know how to fix any of it. I mean, I’m just supposed to sell stuff, but I can’t do my job without everyone one else doing their’s. Now the owner wants recommendations from me on how to fix it all.”

  “Damn,” Polly whispered. “I didn’t know things were that bad.”

  “Well, I’d rather have these problems than no sales. The trouble is I’m still the new guy and some of the older employees resent when I suggest changes.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The accounting and inventory issues are just process fixes mostly, but the transport shit is what’s really pissing me off.”

  “What’s wrong there?”

  Jack leaned forward to put his elbows on his knees. “Most of the products we sell aren’t the kinds of things you can just put on a UPS truck. We had contracts with specialized trucking and shipping delivery services, but when the contracts came up for renewal a couple of months ago, all the bids came back twice what they were last year.”

  “Is it because of the fuel prices going up?”

  “Some, but not entirely. It’s feels like a setup, but I can’t imagine six competing companies getting together to fuck us over. I’ve got enough friends in the business to know that no one else is getting hit like we are. What I need are some spies in the transport companies!” With a laugh he stood up and stretched his back. “I’ve kept you long enough.”

  “Jack, I need to ask you something before I go,” Polly said as she stood to gather her things. “Why don’t you like your nephew Trey?”

  Jack looked guilty for a second, then frowned. “What makes you think I don’t like him? I brought him in as an intern this week and he’s doing a good job so far.”

  Polly arched an eyebrow at him and said, “Seriously? I just spent the weekend watching you avoid him and his family like they smelled bad.”

  “Fine,” he said with a dismissive sigh. “Laurie and I are oil and water. We always have been. It goes way back to when I was five and she pinched me all the time when no one was looking. So I kept calling her boyfriends the wrong names on purpose. It wasn’t my fault she dated two or three at a time.” The grin on his face made him look like the five year old boy he’d been.

  Chuckling as she walked to the door, Polly asked, “But what about Trey?”

  “It’s probably nothing, but he reminds me too much of his mother, I guess. Why?”

  “We’re going out for lunch on Saturday,” she said as she watched for his reaction.

  There was a moment when he almost winced, but his furrowed forehead cleared so quickly she might have missed it. “Have fun, but be careful,” was all he said.

  “Thanks,” she said as she gave him a friendly hug. “Tell Julie to text me when she gets in! I want to know how her meeting went.”

  “I will,” he said. “I hope the girls were good for you.”

  “Oh, of course they were, and Jackson hasn’t made a peep. I had to go in and check on him a couple of times to steal a kiss, but he didn’t stir.” She stepped through the door and grinned at him standing there. Julie’s a very lucky woman, she thought to herself.

  “Come by on Sunday and I’ll grill ribs or something,” he said. “You can even invite Trey if you want.”

  “I don’t know about Trey, but I’ll definitely see you then!”

  Chapter 6: Kurt

  The sky was dark by the time Kurt got the St. Marie docked. While the hands tied up the ship and got the rig workers off safely, he shut down the engines and did the final checks before locking the pilot house. He’d spent a grueling two weeks delivering the last of the materials and crews to the production platforms before they went into their annual maintenance periods during the last two weeks of the year.

  Kurt grabbed his duffel and headed to the parking lot when his cell phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, he saw his sister’s name on the screen.

  “What’s up, Charlotte?” he asked into the phone.

  “Just checking to see if you made it back safe,” she said. He could hear something in her voice that implied there was more to the call than that.

  “I stink, but I’m back in one piece,” he said. “I’m getting in my car now.” He threw his duffel across to the passenger seat and sat down with a grunt.

  “I just got home from school for Christmas break today,” she said. “I’ll talk to you when you get home.”

  “Naw, you spill it now,” he said. “Why’d you call me instead of waiting for me to come home.” The car rumbled to life and he put it in gear to drive out of the parking lot.

  She hesitated for a second. “Mama invited Mandy over to visit and Kendall came with her.” Mandy was Mama’s best friend and the troublesome Kendall was her daughter.

  “Fuck me,” he muttered. “Did Mama ever admit telling Kendall that we went to the Carillon Tower yet?”

  “No, but I believe her now. Kendall cornered me to find out when you were getting back and I got her to admit it wasn’t Mama that called her.”

  “Who else knew we were going?” Kurt asked as he thought about that day.

  “Trey did. Polly told him before we got there,” Charlotte suggested quietly. “When I guessed his name, Kendall changed the subject. I think it was him.”

  Kurt gripped the wheel until his knuckles were white. Polly had been on his mind almost constantly the whole two weeks out. The idea of her being with Trey haunted his dreams until he hated going to sleep. He’d spent the long, boring hours in the pilot house dreaming of his revenge.

  “Kurt, are you there?” Charlotte asked.

  “I’m here,” he said. “I guess I owe Mom an apology.”

  “Yeah, but do it tomorrow. I just heard Mandy say that she and Kendall are staying for dinner.”

  “Where the hell am I supposed to go tonight?”

  “Meemee always loves to see you,” Charlotte said with a laugh and hung up.

  * * *

  Kurt gave Meemee a big hug when she invited him stay the night. After a hot shower, and borrowing a clean pair of sweats from his Pawpaw, Kurt went into the kitchen to visit and raid their refrigerator. He had just pulled out some leftover jambalaya when Meemee came out of the laundry room.

  “I put your clothes in the dryer, sha,” she said. “Everything okay at home?”

  “It's fine, Meemee,” he said as he spooned some jambalaya into a bowl to heat up in the microwave. She gave him a penetrating look, then reached over to touch his cheek gently.

  “You been all out’a sorts since before Thanksgiving. Tell me about it, mon p’tit-garçon.”

  Kurt put his bowl in the microwave then put the rest of the jambalaya back in the refrigerator. Trying to find a way to explain what had happened made him realize how absurd it would seem to her. He shook his head and turned to her with a sad smile on his face.

  “I feel trapped, Meemee, even though nothing is holding me here. The girl I’d been seeing for a year went crazy, and then I ended up falling hard for a girl I barely know. The cousin I grew up with sure as hell ain’t the person I thought he was. And now I’m standing here in your kitchen trying to explain all this without sounding like I’m losing my mind.” Saying the words out loud made his chin quiver and eyes feel full.

  She touched his arm and said, “Child, I knew this day was comin’ for a long time.”

  His forehead wrinkled as he c
onsidered her comment. “I don’t understand.”

  “Your mama used to sit at that table while you were strugglin’ in school tryin’ to figure out how to help you. When you gave up and quit school, we called my brother Charlie. You’re jus’ like him when he was your age. He helped you grow into the man I always knew you’d be, but now you’re like a houseplant gettin’ too big for its pot.”

  Her words were so surprising and true that he had to put his hand over his mouth for a moment to keep control of himself. Finally he whispered, “I never knew. You been watchin’ over me all these years.”

  She took his hands in both of hers and looked deeply into his eyes. “You need to get away for a while and let your heart rest. Find something to do that makes you happy. Then when you know what you really want, you go out there and get it, child. It’s waiting out there for you.”

  The microwave beeped as the kitchen filled with the smell of his grandmother’s jambalaya. With one last squeeze she released his hands and let him go to collect himself and get his dinner. He was still thinking about what she’d said as she began putting away the dried dishes and cutlery next to the sink.

  “Thank you, Meemee,” he said. “For everything.”

  “I love you so much, sha,” she said without looking his way, but the quaver in her voice said as much as her words. “You gonna be jus’ fine. You’ll see.”

  He’d just taken the last bite when his cell phone rang. When he checked the screen, he was surprised to see his Uncle Jack’s name. “Whassup, Uncle Jack?” he asked by way of answer.

  “Hey Kurt, I’ve got a huge favor to ask you...”

  * * *

  The next morning, Kurt got out of his car in front of his house, grabbed his duffel full of clean clothes out of the back seat, and headed to the front door. When he stepped inside, his mother came out of the kitchen drying her hands on a dish towel.

  “Where you been all night? Charlotte said you was getting back yesterday.”

  “I stayed over at Meemee and Pawpaw’s last night when I saw you had guests,” he growled as the irritation he felt escaped his control.