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  Mark takes a step or two away from us and retrieves his hand from Carter’s and tries to smile.

  “Of course, no, yes, I understand.”

  “Good,” Carter says with a friendly smile. Then he turns to me and gives me an even broader one.

  “See ya later, Iris,” he says with a low, sultry voice.

  After that, he shoots me one of his playful winks and leaves me there with my boss. Alone. I take in a deep breath of air and let it out slowly, trying to slow my pulse and regain my composure.

  “Nice guy,” Mark offers.

  I nod and try to hide the butterflies that are swirling inside of me right now. “He sure is.”

  Mark opens the door wide and gestures for me to go on in, first, so I do – and there might be a little more of an umph in my step too.

  Chapter 10. Carter

  Working on the house is sort of a safe haven for me, after I drop Iris at her job. I build some shelves for the family room and add some detail work that Frank taught me a few years back. I make a run to the closest hardware store for some stain and paint. I sand down a few walls with some classic rock playing in the background. I even manage to make an attempt at some wiring for the electric, and fail, but the truth is, all I’ve been able to think about, the entire time I’m working, is Iris.

  The way her lips felt against mine this morning.

  The sensation that shot through my entire body when my fingers touched her face.

  How easy it was to kiss her like that. And the way she responded to the kiss.

  Damn.

  The flush in her cheeks was enough to make me want to do it again.

  I can’t pinpoint when I’d made the decision to do it in the first place. It was kind of a spur of the moment type of thing. Maybe when I saw that dick boss of hers finding any reason he could to put his hands on her again. Maybe even before that, like when I watched her walk away from the truck. I haven’t wanted to kiss a woman that badly in a long, damn time.

  I only meant to scare the guy off from trying any of his bullshit with her again but then suddenly, when my lips met hers, it turned into a whole lot more than I had anticipated. And the way she looked at me when it was over. I fully expected surprise but what she gave me was flashing lights and spinning rooms and lightheadedness I haven’t experienced since . . .

  Was it like this with Cheryl? I don’t recall anything similar.

  Cheryl was so different from Iris. She was driven but not OCD like Iris, and she was very matter of fact about where her life was going. She knew what she wanted and she was going to get it, no matter what. It was comfortable, she made sense. At least I always thought she made sense.

  “It’s been a long time, Carter, that’s all.” I try to convince myself that how I’m reacting to kissing Iris is simple math. “You’re just a horny bastard.”

  I push the drill I’m using to screw two four-by-eights together and wind up splintering the damn corner.

  “Ow. Fffffffffuck!”

  I punch the wall with my other hand out of frustration and wind up putting a nice hole in the drywall I just finished.

  “Shit.”

  My cell phone rings as I’m about to kick the rest of the damn thing down and I know who it is. I don’t want to miss this call so I answer it and try to cover up the pain in my thumb.

  “Yeah.”

  “You okay there, Carter?” My buddy Mike from over at the Sacramento DMV laughs from the other end. I suck in another breath of air hoping it deflects from the pain shooting through my hand right now.

  “Totally,” I lie.

  He knows I’m full shit. He could give me hell right now, but lucky for me, he likes to get right to the point of his call. “Got your message. It’s all good.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like, my friend.”

  I love this guy. “Damn you’re like God these days.”

  “You know it,” he laughs. “Hey, so how long?”

  “What’s that?”

  “How long have you been dating this woman?”

  I let out a loud burst of laughter that makes me completely forget the injury to my thumb for the time being.

  Dating? Iris?

  “Not like that, man.”

  “Oh really,” he says and the sarcasm. It tells me what he’s really trying to say is, bullshit.

  “Yeah,” I tell him defensively. “Really.”

  Mike chuckles from across the country.

  “What?”

  “She must be pretty awesome is all I’m saying.”

  “And why is that exactly?”

  “I don’t know many people, much less women, that you’d call in a favor for.”

  “She’s just a friend, man.”

  I do my best to convince him, all the while though, I’m picturing Iris’s lips after I kissed them. Full and red. Inviting me back for more.

  “She’s, you know, nice, that’s all, had a bad day, I thought I’d make it better for her.”

  “Uh huh.”

  I don’t have much more to go on here so I put a stick in the ground with Mike. “O---kay. We done here?”

  “Done! I gotta get back anyway, downed phone lines. I’ve got seven locations that are useless right now.”

  “Say no more, and thanks a ton man. I owe ya one.”

  Mike huffs from the other end of the phone line. “When do you not owe me one, Carter?”

  We both have a good laugh over that one. It was because of Mike that I narrowly escaped more than my share of courthouse traffic citations while working at my dad’s firm. We go way back. Otherwise, I may have lost my license a long time ago. The call ends and I let a smile spread across my face knowing that, even if Iris is a little ticked off about that kiss earlier, which she may very well be, I now have an ace in my pocket that will make her forget it instantaneously. I hope.

  * * *

  When the clock hits Noon, I head over to Iris’s workplace. I make an assumption that she’ll leave for lunch since I don’t remember seeing a lunch bag or anything like that this morning. About a half hour after I arrive though, I think, maybe I was wrong.

  Another fifteen, though, when I’m contemplating trying this again some other time, Iris exits the building looking flustered and tired. She checks her watch. She looks around, inching up onto her tip toes to see over the cars. I wonder if she’s waiting for someone else. And who that might be.

  “Need a ride?” I push off the wall I’ve been holding up for almost an hour now. And man, my ass is numb.

  Iris whirls her head around. She gives me a tight smile, and then a sultry, “Hey.”

  Her lips.

  Those eyes.

  That look.

  It all makes me want to relive the moment I had with her this morning but as I walk toward her, I tread lightly in an attempt to gauge whether or not she’s perturbed with me over my grandiose actions, earlier. “Hey.”

  “What are you doing here?” she asks me. And although she looks slightly baffled, she’s got that sexy, half smile thing going on which tells me, maybe she’s not annoyed with me.

  “Thought I’d take you somewhere.”

  Her mouth twists up like she’s thinking about it.

  “I think you’ll agree with me when I say, you need to go to this somewhere.”

  Iris stares, with thoughtful eyes, for a minute. “Sure,” she says.

  I grab the bag she’s carrying from her and escort her to the truck. Inside, I can see her fidgeting in my peripheral so I know something’s on her mind. I’m pretty sure I know what something it is, too. I try to come up with the correct way to bring it up and get it over with. Usually I’m pretty damn good at pointing and laughing at the elephant in the room but with Iris, I’m not quite sure which approach is the best. Do I poke fun and blow it off? Or should I tell how much I’ve been thinking about her today? That might scare her off about as much as it scared you though, Carter.

  “So, you kissed me,” she says quietly when I’m
stuck at a traffic light.

  And there it is.

  “Yeah, about that.” I start slowly, still trying to come up with a game plan here.

  “Thank you.”

  I look over, tentatively. “Thank you?”

  She nods. “Mark didn’t give me one single inappropriate look, comment or sinister touch at all today.”

  “So, you’re not mad?” I push on the gas pedal.

  “Mad?” She laughs and I smile in response to the way it lights up her face. “How could I possibly be mad at you for doing something so thoughtful?”

  That last word leaves her lips as more of a whisper than the end of a sentence but I don’t let myself dwell on what that means. Instead, I let out a heavy, grateful sigh of relief.

  “Thank God. I thought for sure you’d be pissed.”

  I pull out to the main road and when the light turns green, I step on the gas as Iris giggles beside me. That sound is coming increasingly easier for her since we met. It’s nice.

  “Really.”

  “Yeah, you know, not too long after your boss gropes you, I do exactly the same thing.”

  “It wasn’t the same thing.” She’s not giggling anymore.

  “No?”

  “No.” She looks out the window, avoiding eye contact with me for some reason.

  The last thing I want is to make things weird between us. Especially since we just started getting along. “So, not gross?”

  Her body shakes with silent laughter and she chews on her bottom lip before she turns to face me again. “No, not gross.”

  “Good.” This is good. We’re still friends. Which is perfect. Right?

  “Okay, well, if that made you happy – there’s another reason I wanted to pick you up today.”

  “Oh really? What’s that?”

  “I had a talk with a friend of mine today over in California.”

  “California?” Her face scrunches up in curiosity.

  “Yeah, he works for the DMV there.”

  Blank stare. I love Iris’s blank stare.

  “Anyway, he knows a lot of people around the system, and . . .”

  “And?

  “He pulled a couple of strings. Not big ones mind you but he did get you an appointment today over here.”

  “He did?”

  I nod. “And he waived the late fee.”

  Boom.

  “Carter.” Iris’s eyebrows curl up and her forehead crinkles some. I get a sneaky suspicion she might cry or something and I don’t want this to be a big deal so I laugh the whole thing off.

  “Relax, Iris, it’s not that big a deal, I just thought you could use a little pick me up.”

  “You didn’t have to---”

  “Didn’t have to. Wanted to.”

  She closes her mouth and stops herself from saying anything else for the time being. Which would be okay except . . .

  “I do need your help with one thing though.” When she looks back over at me, curious, I add, “I don’t know where the DMV is.”

  And there’s the giggle again.

  * * *

  There’s no line to check in when we arrive at the Department of Motor Vehicles but there is a boatload of people waiting on the other side of the wall where you wait for your name to be called.

  “Iris Alden!”

  And when her name is announced, almost right away . . . Just in time. My job here is done.

  “That’s you.” I nudge her a little to make sure she heard the announcement.

  She looks at me cockeyed when the woman behind the counter calls her name again.

  “I’ll be over here.” I find a seat as Iris walks up to the counter to take care of business. It probably takes all of fifteen minutes for her to wrap it up and when she strides past all the patrons still waiting for their turn at bat, she’s bursting at the seams. I stand up and greet her.

  “All done?”

  She nods, and reminds me of a kid in elementary school who just got her first gold star.

  I give her a side nod toward the door.

  “Let’s get outta here.”

  Inside, Iris is calm, cool and collected. But outside, she turns to me, jumps up onto her tip toes and throws her arms around my neck. She hugs me so tight I think I’m going to choke.

  “I will never know how to thank you for that.” Her breath is hot next to my ear and the sensation is similar to the one I had this morning when we kissed.

  When I kissed her, that is.

  I pull her hands from around me and she slides back down, flat onto her feet again. She looks up at me, expectantly. I take everything in about her. The way her pupils dilate, despite the sun being out, still. The flush in her cheeks, the slight parting of her lips. It takes everything I’ve got not to grope her ten times more inappropriately than this morning.

  Breathe Carter. It’s just a woman. Nothing to be afraid of.

  “Okay well first of all,” I tell her. “It’s not like I saved your life, and secondly, although I hate to admit it,” I really hate to admit it. “I didn’t really do any of the hard work, here. I simply called a guy who knows a guy who knows a girlfriend of the woman in charge of licenses over here.”

  “Maybe, but you didn’t have to make that call,” she reminds me as she continues to hold my hands in hers. “Thank you Carter.”

  There’s something to be said for the harsh outside layer of Iris. Especially once you get underneath it and see the softness inside. When she says something, she means it. My lips curve upward in response to her sincere appreciation for such a simple task. “You’re welcome, Iris.”

  By the time we grab some lunch, Iris decides to call it a day. Her boss is okay with it so I take her home. On our way, I think about my life – then her’s.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  Iris’s eyes narrow over at me but she replies with a tentative, “Sure,” anyway.

  “Why do you still work for that guy?”

  She shrugs it off. “I don’t know.”

  I might have answered that question exactly the same way a little while ago, had someone asked me why I was working for my father. The problem back then was, no one bothered asking me. The closest anyone ever got was the secretary assigned to me directly after I was assigned my first solo case at the law firm. I was reading over the summary. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw it was Roy Silkensen I’d be defending. The same Roy Silkensen that my father had gotten off on a technicality a few years before. My admin brought me a glass of water. I downed it in five seconds. When I handed the empty glass back to her she gave me a sympathetic look. I thought she was going to ask me if I was okay, to which I would assure her I was fine but she didn’t ask me anything, she simply told me,

  “You don’t look like you belong here.”

  She didn’t know how right she was.

  “I think you do.” Maybe no one’s asked Iris this question before either, based on the deliberate look on her face right now.

  She thinks about it for a minute, then tells me in all frankness, “I guess I don’t feel like there’s much else I can do right now.”

  It’s a start.

  “What else do you want to do?”

  “Um . . .”

  “Come on, Iris, there’s gotta be something you’ve always loved.”

  “I’ve always loved Ally.”

  She puts it so simply, and it doesn’t surprise me. She doesn’t include the ex in that equation. I could ask her about it but I don’t want to. Who knows what kind of buttons I might push and I’m not in the mood for ruining her day so I drop it. It’s just as well because just like that, we’re back at my place. When I pull into the driveway, I notice another woman who’s entered my life recently.

  “Hey there, Alex,” I call over and wave as I get out of the truck.

  “Hey Carter.” She greets me with a huge, kid-like smile. When her eyes flick to Iris and back again that smile fades pretty quickly.

  “Iris.”

  “Alex.” Iris
sounds about as cold as Alex looks.

  I am not touching that situation with a ten foot pole. “Headin’ out?”

  Alex smiles for me again but this time, it’s not as meaningful. “Yep, gotta make the big bucks if I wanna stay in super awesome Spangler.”

  Whoa, the words are laced with sarcasm.

  “Why don’t you leave if you hate it here so much?” Iris suggests.

  Alex’s expression reflects annoyance and resentment. Her cheeks are turning bright red and her eyes look like they want to kill someone. She barely resembles the woman I met the other day. Her keys jingle as she sets a hand on her hip and glares at Iris. Her sickeningly sweet smile scares me. Not gonna lie.

  “Because my mommy and daddy weren’t made of money. Because when I came to live with my gran, it was only supposed to be temporary until she died and left me this place.” She waves a hand behind her. “And a mortgage and a boatload of other bills to pay off in addition to my college tuition. And with the housing prices skyrocketing like they have, I can’t afford to just up and move because I hate this shit hole. Now if you’ll excuse me, some of us have to go work our asses off at job number two.”

  The shock and awe expression on Iris’s face tells me that not only was she not expecting a comeback of any sort from Alex, but something the tiny spitfire said had hit a nerve.

  “You don’t know the first thing about me.”

  “Don’t want to either,” Alex says, before flashing me an apologetic look. “See ya Carter.”

  I wave but don’t dare say anything. One rant is enough for me.

  Iris gathers herself and starts to go. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “Your parents?” I blurt it out before I can think it over. I mean do I really want to start a conversation about parental units when I don’t have the first inclination about how to deal with my own?

  She still looks angry but she answers anyway. “Dead.”

  “The money?” I don’t know why I ask her this one other than the fact that there seems to be so much I still don’t know about her.

  “I have no idea where she got that idiotic idea.” She snorts. “I mean does she really think I’d be here, if . . .”

  Iris trails off and closes her eyes, tight.