The Calling (12 page)

As she slid her heels back on, she asked, “Did you and Ty talk after I took off with my sister?”

Justin nodded. “He wanted to know if you and I were buddy-buddy again. When I didn’t answer him, he glared at me while I ate.” His expression turned smug, as if he’d enjoyed pissing off Ty.

Mandy was careful to show no emotion, though she was disturbed by how fast those two had gone from ‘
I got your back
’ to ‘
Don’t turn your back
,’ all because of her. If Ty had confided in Justin the way he had with her in her apartment earlier, would they still be friends? The possibility made her ache.

“Do you think you and Ty will ever become friends again?”

He grimaced as if he’d just bit into a lime. “Hell, no.”

“What if he didn’t leave me for the reasons you thought he did?”

Justin leaned forward. She thought he’d been hanging on her every word earlier, but he now appeared to be one giant listening ear. “What are you talking about?”

She took a deep breath, afraid to darken the perfect mood of their date. But if telling him about Ty’s visit could possibly repair their relationship, she was game. “Ty came over today.”

Justin tilted his head slightly, his face emotionless, but a fire sparked in his eyes. “What’d he want?”

“To talk.”

“About?”

“Why he left me.” She squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, realizing the conversation could easily go south. She chose her next words carefully. “He said he watched his dad die of cancer, and he was afraid to watch me die, too.”

“You believed him?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Justin studied her, as if deciding on her level of gullibility. When he said nothing, she asked, “You don’t believe him?”

“I lived with him for two years. I know the kind of shit he can pull.” Justin lowered his brows, the intensity of his expression suddenly fearsome. “What else did he want, Mandy?”

Heat crept up her neck and spread across her cheeks. She’d gotten in way over her head.

“Are you going to answer me?” Justin asked in a tone too even for his rigid posture. He picked up his longneck, tilted it up for a drink, then downed the entire thing.

She braced herself. “He wants to get back together.”

He slammed the bottle on the table. “Christ!”

Her heart skipped a beat. “You’re overreacting.”

“Am I?” He snorted.

“I’m not taking him back.”

He eyed her as if he wasn’t sure she spoke the truth. “Ty always wants what he can’t have.”

His words stung because he must have thought what she’d suspected all along— Ty only wanted her back because he was jealous. A heavy weight bore down on her chest, like bricks stacked higher and higher. “Could you even think for one minute that maybe he’s not lying?”

“He’s manipulative, and I don’t want him anywhere around you. Not after what he did to you.”

So much for mending their relationship. God, she had been stupid to try.

“Are you still interested in him?” Justin asked while he peeled the label off his longneck, his fingers working the strips of paper until nothing was left but smooth glass.

“I already told you no. I was just hoping you two could forgive each other. I hate that your friendship broke up because of me, but I should’ve kept my mouth shut about his visit. I’m sorry.”

The muscles in his forearm rippled with tension, as if itching for another label to make short work of. Instead, he balled up the pile of silver paper into tiny wads. “I’m having a hard time believing you aren’t considering his offer when you blush every time you say that asshole’s name.”

She pressed her palms to her cheeks. “I’m not blushing.” Was she? Her skin did feel hot.

“You believe Ty, but not me?”

“Okay, maybe I am blushing, but it’s because I’m annoyed with you.” She would have expected his jealousy after a few dates, but not after one dinner. Especially since she had every intention of taking things slow with him—really slow. Maybe he needed a dose of her reality to sober up his emotions. “I never planned to be with a man again, at least not until I had a clean bill of health.”

Justin leaned back, his tall body resting against the booth. “This is a date. You realize that, right? And as far as I know, your health bill hasn’t been issued yet.”

“I don’t understand what you expect of me.”

“I expect you to give us a chance.”

“I just wanted to enjoy an evening with you.”

“One evening isn’t enough.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip, his comment at the beach playing in her head.
I’m not asking you to marry me
. But if that were true, why was he acting as if he wanted a commitment? “Look, Justin, in a month, I may be back on the operating table. Based on Ty’s reaction, that’s not something men deal well with, and I’m not going to subject you to that.”

“You’re not subjecting me to anything I wouldn’t sign up for.”

Mandy rubbed her temple. “Cancer isn’t sexy.” And if he’d seen her naked, he’d know just how un-sexy it was.

He reached across the table and took her hand in his, his skin warm and his fingers firm as they clasped hers. “You realize Ty did this to you, made you feel diseased. Cancer’s not a death sentence, and it doesn’t make you unworthy of a normal life.”

She stared down at her nearly empty wine glass, not sure what to say. Wasn’t her goblet the symbol for her entire life? Enough wine for a taste, but never enough for a happy buzz.

He sighed. “You’re living in a brick fortress, aren’t you?”

That was putting it mildly. “You have no idea how thick the walls are.”

“I’ll buy a wrecking ball.”

She looked up and stared into his stoic eyes. “Why are you willing to put up with me?”

“Do you remember when that autistic boy came into the hospital?” he asked, studying her intently. “The one I rescued during the dead of winter?”

She couldn’t have forgotten that case if she’d tried. “His dad died of hypothermia. The son’s survival was a miracle.”

He squeezed her hand, and a shot of energy coursed up her arm to her heart. “I spotted you outside the boy’s room, crying. You were trying to hold it in, but the second you saw me, you let it all out. I asked why you were taking it so hard. The boy was fine. Do you remember what you told me?”

“I was upset because the boy needed his father. Bonds are difficult for autistic children.”

“You were mourning the dad’s death. I only mourn for the children, the ones who should’ve been protected, but their parents or guardians failed them. The father failed that boy and almost killed him. Even though he was dead, I was furious with him. You cried for him. You have the part of my heart I’m missing.”

Mandy stared at him, utterly flabbergasted. Was this man for real? At the moment, he seemed straight out of a fairytale.

Justin brought her hand to his cheek and brushed her palm over his lips. “You’ve got one minute to convince me you aren’t getting back with Ty. Otherwise, I’m going to find that fucker and encourage him to stay away from you, even if I have to chuck him into shark-infested waters.” His warm breath sent a shock of energy through her core.

Her heart accelerated uncontrollably. “I hope you’re kidding.”

He kissed her palm. “Do you really want to find out?”

A delicious tingle coursed up her spine. “I can’t think when you’re doing that.”

He laid her hand down, palm first on the table, and raised both hands as if he were being held up at gunpoint. “I’m waiting.”

“I asked Ty one time why he wanted to marry me. He told me it was because of my big ass. I think you’ve got him beat.”

The twinkle in his eyes finally returned. “Oh, your big ass is at the top of my list, too. In fact, we need to order dessert because some of the jiggle’s disappeared in the last year.”

She pursed her lips. “You men are all the same.” But she knew without a doubt that Justin wasn’t like any man she’d ever met, and even though she was scared to let him in, she wasn’t about to miss her opportunity to open the door.

Chapter 7

Mandy ran a fine-toothed comb through her hair before teasing the roots for body. She brushed it back, leaving a stray, sultry strand grazing her forehead. Just because her locks were short, didn’t mean they couldn’t be sexy. She thought of Marilyn Monroe in
Niagara
—sultry, but tastefully coifed.

Satisfied with her hair, she glanced at her watch. Justin was due at her apartment any minute. When she raised her gaze to the mirror to give herself a last once-over, she couldn’t help but stare in awe. The woman looking back was hardly recognizable, with rosy cheeks and a smile as wide as the Gulf of Mexico. Dear Lord, what had happened to the solemn girl who refused to date? She giggled, watching her chest shake from the laugh. That girl had been chucked off a cliff and replaced with a much happier woman.

“Good riddance,” she whispered.

Hearing the faint ringing of her cell, she hurried out of the bathroom to answer. It was probably Kirsten reminding her to stuff a few condoms in her purse, which was just silly. She’d only been dating Justin a little over a week, so the horizontal mambo was definitely not in the cards tonight.

But what if Justin thought it was?

Her body tensed, and she absently pressed her hand to her reconstructed breast, remembering the scar she so carefully hid. If she refused to get naked, maybe sex wasn’t in the cards at all.
Blah! No depressing thoughts tonight
. With a shake of her head, she flung the negativity aside and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“I have to cancel,” Justin said.

So much for stifling negativity. Her heart sank. “Why?”

“One of the guys came down with the flu, and they called me to take his place. A storm’s moving in off the Gulf, so they need a full crew. I’m really sorry.”

She sighed. “It’s okay. You can’t do anything about it.”

“We’ll go out Friday. You aren’t working, right?”

“Right.”

“We can hang at the beach in the afternoon, then have dinner afterward.” In the background, an authoritative man’s voice called Justin’s name. “I gotta go.”

She bit her bottom lip as worry crept into her mind like a cold fog. “Be safe.”

“Always. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Mandy tossed the phone onto the coffee table and slumped onto the couch. She should’ve realized something like this would happen when the rain first began pounding her window. How many times had Ty canceled plans because of a storm? In hurricane season, she’d hardly seen him. Justin wouldn’t be any different. He might even be worse since Corpus Christi employed so few rescue swimmers. Oh, well. She’d dealt with life as a Coast Guard’s girlfriend in the past. She could deal with it again.

She kicked off her heels, yanked the hem of her skirt down, and nestled into the couch. With nothing to look forward to except an evening of watching TV, her thoughts turned to her mammogram screening. “Friday,” she muttered under her breath. Only two days to go. The lump in her throat grew larger.

Desperate for a distraction, she found the remote and flipped on the TV—nothing like a trashy reality show to take her mind off her life. Just as she’d settled on the latest Bachelors, someone knocked on the door. Other than Justin, she hadn’t expected a visitor. Maybe Kirsten was making a pit stop to check Mandy’s date ensemble. Since the chemo, Kirsten claimed Mandy had the fashion sense of a ninety-year-old Russian woman. She shook her head as she headed toward the door, figuring Kirsten would probably be holding a micro-mini in one hand and a tube-top in the other.

She opened the door, about to welcome the reprieve from dwelling on her test results, when every muscle in her body locked painfully in place. She couldn’t move as she took in Ty standing on her doormat. He looked stunning in khaki slacks and a turquoise polo that showed off his golden skin.

He smiled and held out a dozen yellow roses in a glass vase. “For the most beautiful girl in Texas.”

Mandy blinked hard in disbelief. Ty had never brought her roses in all the time they’d been together. A stray wildflower was the best he’d ever done. He was upping his game.

His gaze washed over her outfit, lingering a little too long on her breasts. “You always did look good in blue. Brings out your eyes.” He pushed the bouquet at her, forcing her to step back to keep a petal from being shoved up her nose. Ty slipped through the gap her retreat had left. “Can I come in?”

“No!” she said, as he strolled into her living room. Who the hell did he think he was, barging in uninvited? She dumped the flowers on the kitchen table, sloshing water on the oak wood, and turned an annoyed gaze on him. It seemed Ty had gotten his cockiness back.

He raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seem happy to see me.”

No, duh
. She kicked the door shut. “What do you want?”