A Life Less Ordinary (39 page)

“What?”
Manny demanded.

“I’d
prefer it if you did forgive him.  Or at least decide to tolerate him for a
while longer.  He may be a moronic asshole, but – and I realize this sounds
strange – I trust him.  To keep you safe, I mean.”

“Yeah,
when he decides to stick around,” Manny said bitterly.

“Well,
maybe it’s time for you to set down different ground rules.  Tell that if you
let him stay on the trip, he at least tries to think before he speaks.  Give
him royal shit for his double standards, and – I don’t know – say he can’t get
laid if you don’t get laid.”

Manny
was once more reduced to squeaking noises.

When
Daisy finally stopped laughing she said, “And dear God, tell me what he says! 
Take a picture of his face, if you can.”

“I’ll
see what I can do,” Manny replied drily.  “Thanks for your help.”

“I’m
always here for you,” Daisy said airily.

* * * * *

Zeke
saw the tall blonde man walk into the office ahead of him.  The blonde’s
uniform was crisply pressed, and Zeke supposed he could understand why women
would find him attractive.

He’d
surreptitiously watched Brett, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. 
Research for his blog, he assured himself, and had absolutely nothing to do
with his own confused feelings of anger, guilt and remorse.  He’d planned to
tell Manny the truth about the blog even though Leah wanted him to still keep
it secret, but their argument yesterday morning, and the revelation that Manny
had taken the first – okay, the second...possibly even the third – chance she
got to try and get laid – well, it had shocked him.  But that was no excuse for
his reaction, and even now, he wasn’t sure what had been driving him to insult
her the way he had.  He didn’t like what it told him about himself.

However,
none of that changed the fact that her behaviour was completely out of character
and he didn’t understand
that
, either.

Until
now, looking at Brett.

A
handsome thirty-year-old – what the hell was he doing with Manny, Zeke fumed as
he pushed open the door and entered the office.

The
blonde man looked up with a smile, and Zeke gritted his teeth as he got a good
look at the high cheekbones, clear blue eyes, and square chin.

“May
I help you?” Brett asked.

“Just
trying to get the lay of the land,” Zeke replied lightly and winced inwardly at
his unfortunate choice of words.  “Manny told me you had some maps of the
park?  I forgot to get some from the girl who was here yesterday.”

Brett’s
eyes widened, and Zeke was pleased to see him swallow as his smile faded.

“
You’re
Manny’s travelling companion?  The one she was meeting here?”

Zeke
grinned, a hard, predatory gleam in his hazel eyes as he walked to the desk. 
He was inordinately pleased to realize he had a couple of inches in height and
breadth on the younger man.

“The
one and only,” he agreed mildly enough.

“And...she
told you to come talk to me?”

Zeke
shrugged.  “Of course.  You’re the park ranger, aren’t you?”

“Yes. 
Yes, I am.”

“Great! 
We’re looking for a nice hike, not too strenuous, but which will give us some
great views of the park.”

“Oh! 
Yes, of course.”  Brett pulled out a map and proceeded to unfold a map and
point out a couple of trails that would meet those requirements.

Zeke
thanked him and as he refolded the map he casually added, “By the way, if you
come near Manny again, I’ll break both your legs.”

Brett
reared back.  “What?” he sputtered.

“She
told me you didn’t do anything she didn’t allow, but I’ve been watching you in
action.  I suspect you were amazingly persistent, and you dazzled her with
flattery and charm and attention.  She’s not like a lot of other women – she
would have thought you were sincere.  And then yesterday and today, you’re
sniffing around the two youngsters who’ve just arrived.”

He
steadily met Brett’s eyes.

“I
don’t like anyone hurting my friend.  So, I’d appreciate you staying as far
away from her as possible for the rest of our stay.  Got it?”

Brett’s
mouth opened and closed like a fish, but he couldn’t find anything to say until
Zeke was at the door.

“If
she’s sleeping with you, why was she in my cabin the other night?”

“She’s
not sleeping with me,” Zeke said without turning.

“Then
what’s it to you?”

“She’s
my friend, and she’s like -” he chuckled, “a babe in the woods when it comes to
men.”  Zeke turned, and now he looked dark and dangerous as he stared hard at
Brett.  “I don’t want her hurt any more than she already has been.  Do we have
a deal?”

Brett
gulped and nodded, his blue eyes wide.

Zeke
very gently closed the door on his way out.

~~~~~

“Are
you trying to kill me?” Manny moaned as she almost fell into her cabin.  She
hobbled to the couch and flung herself down.  “My feet feel like they’re on
fire.”

Zeke
shrugged sheepishly.  “I think I zigged us when we should have zagged.”

Manny
groaned as she eased off her sneakers and blissfully wiggled her toes. 

“
My own fault,” she
sighed, “I should have called a halt after I realized we were going straight
up.”

“It
wasn’t
straight
up,” he tsk’d as he sat beside her on the couch.  “A
sixty degree angle – tops.”  He motioned for her to put her feet up on his lap.

“Are
you nuts?” she exclaimed in horror.  “You can’t – my feet stink!  And they’re
hot and sweaty and -” she ended with a yelp as he reached down with an
exasperated sigh, grabbed her feet and plopped them on his thigh.

“I’ll
wash my hands later, Auntie Em,” he assured her impatiently and began to rub
her right foot.

Any
additional words of protest died on her lips as her eyes closed, her head fell
back and she groaned in a mixture of pleasure and pain.

“You’re
right – your feet
are
stinky and sweaty,” he teased.

“I’d
kick you, but that would mean I’d have to take my foot away.”  She didn’t even
open her eyes as she spoke.

“And
ruin any chances for the other foot to be rubbed, too?” he asked drily.

“That,
too,” she nodded as she flung one arm across her eyes.  Her shirt rode up
slightly to expose a thin band of pale skin above the waistband of her
low-slung jeans.

Zeke,
to his immense relief, had no reaction at all to her almost wanton posture. 
Leah was right, he mused as he moved his hands to Manny’s other foot.  He’d
been simply over-reacting to the fact that he really liked her.  He’d confused
it with falling in love because – as Leah had so accurately noted – he didn’t
have many female friends.  He simply hadn’t known how to define what he was
feeling especially since, until Manny, he could count his female friends on one
finger.  He simply hadn’t recognized his purely platonic affection as, well,
purely platonic affection.

He
considered her from under lowered brows and half-lowered eyelids.  The more he
looked at her, the more he realized Leah was right:  when it came to sex and
romance, Manny was
definitely
not his type.

Besides
the age difference, she wasn’t exactly beautiful.  Not the beautiful he
preferred, anyway.  She’d lost a little bit of weight on this trip but she was
still plump.  He’d just been thrown for a loop by her makeover, such as it was,
and then the news about TJ had really knocked him off-balance.  That was all. 
He’d just confused his natural liking for her as something...more. 

Yeah.

Leah
was right.  To his relief.

“You
look very focused.”

Zeke
glanced at Manny, startled.

“And
pissed,” Manny added.

“I’m
not pissed at all,” he assured her.

“Good
to know,” she yawned and stretched, then winced.  “Shit, I’m sore.  You seemed
to be a man on a mission on that hike.  Were you hoping I’d fall off a cliff
somewhere?  Just so you know – you’re not in my will.”

He
pressed tighter against her foot and she yelped, jerking her foot out of his
hands and off his lap.  She glowered as she heaved herself into a sitting
position.

“Did
I hit a nerve so you had to return the favour?” she snapped as she stripped off
her socks and dug her toes into the carpet, sighing with pleasure.

“No,”
Zeke said shortly.

“No? 
That’s it?  You just felt the urge to walk my feet down to the bone?”  She
looked at him steadily.  “You seemed pretty focused.  Are you worried about
TJ?”

“I’m
a little worried, yeah – he’s come down with a cold now.”

“
A
cold
?”

“
Yeah, the guy can’t
seem to catch a break.  But that’s not what I was thinking about.”

“
Oh?  Then what’s on your
mind?”

Zeke
sighed, leaning back and stretching his long legs out in front of him.

“
You’re
on my mind,” he admitted.

“Me? 
What?  Our fight yesterday?”  Surprise and confusion was vivid in her voice. 
“I thought we settled all that this morning.”

“We
did – although I didn’t appreciate you snapping that picture of me right as you
told me no sex for me if you don’t get any!”

Manny
laughed.  “I had to; I’d promised Daisy.”

“Thank
you so much.  Anyway, I wasn’t thinking about any of that.  I was thinking about
your...um...
unusual
behaviour with Brett.”

Manny’s
eyes dropped from his and she shifted uncomfortably.

“I
made a mistake,” she muttered.

“You
took a chance,” he corrected gently, “but what I don’t understand is why.  What
was it about Brett that drew you so far away from your normal behaviour?”

Manny
flexed her toes in the carpet, her eyes riveted on her bare digits.

“You
haven’t had sex in six years,” Zeke reminded her quietly.  “Why Brett?  He’s so
– so -”

“Smarmy?”
she asked with a slight smirk.

“Yes! 
And completely phony.  You know you would have been just another anonymous
notch on his bed post.”

“Like
you and Babe?”

Zeke
opened his mouth, then slowly closed it.

“You’re
not me.  Or Babe,” he said.

“I
know.  And I wasn’t trying to be like you.  Brett is smarmy, yes, but – it was
flattering, to be pursued so – well, not ardently, but – oh, hell,” she groaned
and buried her face in her hands.  “It was flattering to be pursued, no matter
how fake it was.”

She
lifted her head and leaned her chin on her hand with a rueful grimace.

“I
would have preferred someone a little less fake, but you know, it’s been a long
time since sex was even a remote possibility.  I thought I’d take a chance.”

“And
yet you couldn’t go through with it.  Why not?”

Manny
shrugged.  “I don’t really know.  Maybe because I’ve never liked sex without
emotion.  Maybe because he
was
so fake.”  She frowned, staring off into
space before she firmly shook her head and rose to her feet with a  groan. 
“Anyway, it’s not important.  I’m going to go soak in the bathtub.  Hopefully I
won’t seize up and drown, thanks to you.”

Zeke
also got to his feet.

“Okay,”
he said.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Not
too early, though,” she said hobbling to the bathroom door, “I need some time
to recover.  And plan my revenge.”

Zeke
laughed as he let himself out of Manny’s cabin and headed towards his own.

He
was grateful to Leah for setting him straight about his feelings.  His next
blog would now be a clear re-telling of this tale, not one clouded by misunderstood
feelings.

He
strode off, feeling at peace with himself for the first time since L.A.

* * * * *

Manny
heard the door open behind her as she smiled, thanked the girl behind the
counter and accepted the receipts for the cabin rentals.  She was folding them
to put in her purse as she turned, and met Brett’s uncomfortable gaze.  She
froze and flushed guiltily.

He
hesitated, then smiled tentatively at her.

She
shifted uncomfortably, then bit her lip, lifted her head, and smiled back.

He
hesitated again, then made his way to her.

“Hi,”
he said sheepishly.

“Hi.”

They
stood in awkward silence, Manny acutely aware of the girl’s avid interest
behind her.

“Listen
-” they both started, then stopped and laughed.