was a trap made in hell. And damned if he wasn’t tempted. “Of course not, but—”
“I need a nice man, Mac. Somebody who can take care of this problem for me before I leave.”
Oh, God. She was going to ask him. His heart hammered as he wondered if he’d have the strength to refuse her. “Listen, Tess. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I know exactly what I’m saying. And you’re the only person I trust to help me find that man.”
2
“ARE YOU CRAZY?” Mac leaped to his feet so fast he knocked Tess over. The only thing worse than imagining him involved in this dirty deed was imagining some other guy involved. “Sorry.” He reached down and gave her a hand up. Once she was steady on her feet, he released her hand quickly.
She dusted off the seat of her jeans. “Mac, please. I can’t stay a virgin forever.”
“Why not?” So he was being unreasonable. He couldn’t help it. And dammit, now he’d caught himself watching her dust off her fanny and thinking that it was a very nice fanny. Dammit.
She sighed and lowered her head. “I was so counting on your help.”
“Aw, jeez.” Not only was he having inappropriate thoughts about her, he also felt as if he’d abandoned her. But he couldn’t imagine how in hell he could diffuse either situation. “Tess, you know I’d do anything in the world for you, but I can’t see how this would work.”
Her head came up, and hope gleamed in her gray eyes.
He backed a step away from her. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Here’s how it will work. We’ll brainstorm the possibilities and come up with a shortlist. Then you can find out if any of the guys are seeing anyone, because I don’t want to break up any—”
“Whoa.” Panic gripped him. “I never said I’d do this.”
“You said you’d do anything for me.”
“Anything but find you a lover!” Just saying it gave him the shivers. He’d worked so hard to keep from thinking of Tess in a sexual way, and now the barriers were coming down. For the first time he acknowledged the sweet stretch of her T-shirt across her breasts and the inviting curve of her hips. “I think that’s a little more than a reasonable person should expect, don’t you?”
“This is perfectly reasonable! Why should I search around on my own and end up with some clumsy nerdling who makes my first experience a nightmare, when I can rely on your advice and have a really nice time instead?”
There had to be a good answer to that one. He just needed a moment to think of it. And he couldn’t think while he was picturing Tess having a “really nice time.”
“See?” She gave him the superior little smile that she reserved for the times she’d won either an argument or a game of Monopoly. “You have to admit it makes sense.”
“I don’t have to admit anything. And why me? Why not one of your girlfriends? I thought women exchanged notes on guys all the time.”
“They do, but you’re a better source of info.” She stuck her hands in her hip pockets. “You’ve dated more people around here than anyone I know. You’d know what women say about a guy, and you’ve had a chance to get to know the guys themselves and what they’re really like. You’d know if they brag in the locker room, for example. Besides all that, there’s not a single person, man or woman, I trust to keep my secret as much as I trust you.”
He gulped. When she put it that way, he didn’t know how he could refuse. And he wished she wouldn’t stand like that, with her hands in her hip pockets and her chest thrust forward. He didn’t like it. Okay, he liked it too much.
“Mac.” She reached out and put her hand on his arm.
He tried not to flinch. Tess had put her hand on his arm a million times. She’d grabbed him for various reasons, usually to inflict injury, and he’d grabbed her back. He’d held her hand when she was a little kid and they’d gone trick-or-treating, and they’d clutched each other and screamed when they rode the Twister at the state fair. Touching had never been a big deal. Until now.
“Listen, Mac,” she said. “You pulled out my first tooth, remember?”
“Different case.”
“And you taught me to drive.” She grinned. “You also gave me my first drink of whisky.”
“You begged me for it, and then you threw up.”
“And you held my head. You see, at all those important moments in my life, you were there to guide me.”
“This is way different.”
“Not if you stop being a prude.”
“I’m not a—”
“What about Donny?”
“Donny Beauford?” He snorted. “You can’t be serious.”
“Why? What’s wrong with Donny?”
Mac couldn’t say exactly, except that when he thought of Donny in an intimate embrace with Tess, his skin began to crawl. He passed a hand over his face and gazed up through the leaves of the sycamore. Finally he glanced at her. “He wouldn’t…take care of you.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks grew pink, but she faced him bravely. “You mean sexually?”
“In any way.”
“Oh. Now, see, that’s exactly what I need to know. How about Stu?”
“Oh, God, he’s worse.”
“Buck?”
“Nope.”
“I know who. Jerry.”
“Definitely not! Jerry’s a dweeb. He’d probably—” Mac thought of some raunchy revelations he’d been privy to and decided to censor them. “Never mind. Not Jerry.”
“Okay, then you make a suggestion.”
He gazed at her as the silence filled with the sound of the river and the shuffling hooves of Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown. The horses were becoming restless in the growing heat. Moisture trickled down his back, but he didn’t think it was only the weather making him sweat. “I can’t think of anybody.” The truth was, he didn’t want to think of anybody.
“Maybe you just need some time. I caught you by surprise.”
“You certainly did that.”
“Tell you what. Let’s postpone the discussion. Maybe we could meet for dinner tonight.”
“It’s poker night.”
“You’re right. I can’t, either. I’m playing pinochle at Joan’s. Okay, then tomorrow night.”
He decided a delay was the best he could hope for. He couldn’t imagine what would occur to him to get him out of this mess in thirty-six hours, but maybe he’d stumble onto a miracle. “I’ll meet you at the Nugget Café.” He smiled. “It’s meat-loaf night.” Meat-loaf night at the Nugget was one of their shared treats.
“So it is. About six?”
“Yeah. Sounds good.” He glanced up at the sun. “It’s late. We’d better get back. I’ve got tons to do today.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
“Like what?”
“Research. I bought some books in Phoenix.”
Mac had a feeling he shouldn’t ask the question, but he did, anyway. “What sort of books?”
“On sexual techniques. When the time