Page 73 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

Find you a date? Someone to compete with in all the two-man events? Sure, Lucki, whatever you say.

Sam grumbled and punched his pillow. Three hours earlier Lucki had said those exact words. I’m sure you’ve got a friend somewhere you could fix me up with.

Yeah, right. And I’ve got a castle in Kalamazoo that I’ll make you a lovely deal on.

He’d thought about it for the past three hours. Had mentally gone through the list of his single friends living here in Harbor Falls. And one or two who lived in Memphis. But every time he imagined Lucki and one of his friends together, participating in silly, adolescent games like hip-to-hip Jell-O racing, he got all hot and queasy.

The mental pictures he conjured up literally made him agitated.

He didn’t want Lucki with any of those guys.

Fred Malone was the first guy he’d considered. Fred, now the owner of the best service station in town and the only wrecker for miles, had made a good life for himself. He’d known he’d wanted to take over his father’s station since he was eight years old. Sam could still hear Fred boasting, all through high school, that women loved a good mechanic.

“Service with a smile!”

he’d say, bragging that he was the bes.

“tool man” in town.

Sam crossed him off the list when he thought of Fred servicing Lucki.

Then there was George Murphy. George had left for college the same time as Sam but came home after one year of academic probation and his pockets empty. Today, he owned the pizza shop down the street from Sam’s clinic. Once, when Sam had stopped in late for dinner, George had invited him to the back to chat and catch up. Sam stood there watching George knead the pizza dough while they talked.

“How do you know when it’s ready?”

Sam had asked.

George just lifted his gaze and grinned.

“You just know, Sammy. Just like you know when a woman is ready.”

He slapped the mound of dough.

“They both get soft and pliable, smell sweet and musky. Feels like putty in your hands.”

On the remembrance of that conversation, Sam checked George off the list as well.

And on it went.

Mike West, an electrical inspector, always bragged about being a boob man. He didn’t want Mike inspecting Lucki’s boobs.

Curtis Back claimed legs were his specialty. Said the longer they were, the tighter they wrapped around him. Lucki’s legs were too damned long and too damned tight. No.

Earl Fletcher, a guy who moved into town right before Sam returned, played a little jazz trumpet at Shaky Jakes just out of town. Claimed the things he did with his lips could drive women wild.

No!

Finally, he eliminated every single bachelor in town, minus Lamar Thompson. Him, he nearly considered.

And then there was Reverend Peters.

Lucki would kill him.

Sam checked each of his single fraternity brothers off the list post haste. There were a couple of guys he knew in medical school, but they were married to their careers right now.

There was no one.

No one he would trust with Lucki.

Save himself.

Why in the hell had Lucki put herself—and him—into this stupid predicament?

He didn’t like the fact that Lucki had lied to her co-workers because some jackass was coming on to her. He didn’t like that, not one bit. And the fact that she hadn’t thought to ask him to take her to the Harbor Falls Parks Department Fourth of July picnic sorely aggravated him.

Come on, Kirk. She was only asking you for a favor. It wasn’t personal.

But if she needed some help, why didn’t she just come out and ask him to help her? To be her date? Was he not athletic enough? He tried to work out as often as he could. Even ran a couple miles a few times a week. Or was it just that she didn’t consider hi.

“date” material?

Hell, face it, Kirk. She still considers you the boy next door. Always had, always will. It’s time you get thoughts of Lucki and her thigh-cut bathing suit out of your mind. She is your friend, pure and simple, and the mere fact that she hasn’t asked you to take her to the picnic justifies that she thinks the same about you, old boy. You are her friend. End of story.

But you’ll be safe with me. Don’t you understand that, Lucki?

Or would she?

Sam rolled over taking the sheet and blanket with him. He’d never get to sleep. Thinking of spending the rest of his life as Lucki’s friend was a hell of a note to try to get to sleep on, anyway.

****

Sam half listened for the phone all day. When he was out of the examination rooms, studying patients’ charts and what not, he had lent half an ear to the conversations Kathleen was having at her desk. Not a single, one-sided conversation indicated that Lucki was having the least bit of problem with J.J.

Funny, his little brother was finally safe and cared for, so he could completely concentrate on the clinic, but he couldn’t get his mind off what J.J. and Lucki were doing all day today.

Actually, he couldn’t get his mind off Lucki. Any day.

It was becoming an annoying, pleasant, aggravating habit.

But he would deal with that later. Now, he couldn’t wait for them to get home, praying that J.J. had not wreaked havoc with the Harbor Falls Parks Department and Lucki Stevenson’s job.

The chime over the door sounded. Last patient gone. He glanced at his watch—ten minutes until five o’clock. Lucki should be home any minute. If he hurried, he just might make it home about the same time they pulled into her drive.

He tossed a folder on Kathleen’s desk.

“Can you finish up here, Kathleen?”

Glancing up from her work, Kathleen simultaneously pushed her glasses further up on her nose.

“Go home, Sam. I’ll lock up on my way out.”

“Sure you don’t mind?”

A sly grin broke her face.

“I said get outta here. You’ve been pacing the floor all afternoon.”

Sam lifted one corner of his mouth into a crooked smile and shook his head.

“I’m outta here.”

****

Lucki glanced to her right. J.J. sat with his head leaning against the passenger door window. His arms were crossed, and he was feigning sleep underneath his narrow, dark sunglasses. His ball cap slung low over his eyebrows. She knew he was faking it. And he knew she knew it, as well. The day hadn’t exactly gone off without a hitch, but she wasn’t worried. After all, boys will be boys. J.J. would settle into the routine eventually. Today was just an adjustment. A petty flaw. A tiny kink in the plans.

It was a minor disagreement between one of her boys and J.J.

Then why did she feel so damned guilty?

Because I promised Sam his little brother would be safe and well cared for. And now...now I’m going to have to explain this slight skirmish.

Or perhaps she could say nothing at all.

Groaning, Lucki faced the stretch of road in front of her. They’d left the parks department, located on the outskirts beyond the Old Harbor Falls section of town nearly twenty minutes ago. They should pull into her driveway on the south side of town in another few minutes. She’d better set things straight with J.J. before they got there. He hadn’t spoken a word since they’d gotten into her truck. And try as she might to ignore the rowdy situation she’d seen some of her tougher boys instigate, she’d had to intervene. J.J. was square in the middle of it, but she hadn’t gotten the entire story out of him.

Pulling over to the side of the road, she drew in a steadying breath and punched J.J. on the shoulder.

“Okay, let’s hash this thing out before we get home. Sit up, I know you’re not asleep.”

Lucki waited a minute then J.J. finally pulled himself upright and angled his face toward her. It was difficult to see his eyes through the sunglasses.

“I ain’t going back there,” he said.

Lucki turned to face him.

“You most certainly are.”

“No, I’m not.”

J.J. looked out his window.

“All right. Tell me what happened then, and I’ll see if I can make some sense out of all this.”

It took a couple of minutes before J.J. turned back to look at her.

“I don’t want to be your assistant.”

Lucki dropped her head into a slow nod.

“Okay. So, you’re not my assistant. What do you want to do then?”

“I want to stay home the rest of the summer and hang out with Spud.”

“You know Sam has put his foot down. That’s not likely to happen. Besides, I heard Spud’s mom was sending him off to summer camp.”

J.J. snorted.

“Tell me what happened.”

Lucki waited.

J.J. turned and faced her fully, angling his face more to his left. Slowly he reached up and removed first his sunglasses and then the cap. Lucki gasped.

“My God! Your eye!”

Reaching out, Lucki attempted to smooth the pads of her fingers over the swollen, bruised eye and cheekbone. J.J. flinched and Lucki jerked her hand away.

“I didn’t see it coming.”

“Who did this to you?”

J.J. shrugged.

Lucki narrowed her eyes.

“I repeat, who did this to you?”

She had the sneaking suspicion that she would never know. But it was one of her kids and she wanted to know who was responsible.

J.J. looked away.

“They said I was your flunky, your gopher. A wimp. They made fun of me when I was helping you set up the volleyball nets, especially when I got my feet tangled in one of them. And then they made nasty remarks about how I was playing. Can I help it if I have never played volleyball like that before? Last time I played was in fourth grade gym class, boys against the girls.”

“But what about your eye?”

J.J. heaved in a long breath then forced it out his mouth.

“Like I told you, I didn’t see it coming.”

“What provoked this?”

“They were making fun of me.”

“And you didn’t like that.”

“No.”

“So, what did you do?”

J.J. stared straight ahead for a minute. A slow grin meandered across his face.

“I called the guy a...”

J.J. lowered his voice and whispered the derogatory word.

Lucki jerked back and stared at him; her eyes wide.

“And then what?”

J.J. shrugged.

“That’s when he punched my lights out.”

Lucki stared straight ahead and blew out a lengthy breath. Sam was going to kill her.

“I don’t suppose you could cover up that shiner for a day or two, could you?”

After a minute of silence in the cab, she turned to J.J.

“Naw, never mind. No use both of us getting into any more trouble than we’re already in.”

She faced the steering wheel and twisted the key in the ignition.

“Guess there’s nothing left to do but tell him the truth.”

She heard J.J. groan and watched out of the corner of her eye as he replaced the sunglasses and ball cap.

****

Sam waited on the porch. Lucki was a good thirty minutes late. When she didn’t have activities at night, she was usually like clockwork, almost five o’clock on the dot when she’d pull into her driveway. It was nearly five-thirty and they weren’t home yet.

Something was wrong.

Why in the world had he let Lucki talk him into this hair-brained scheme of hers? It was just that he was at his wits end the other night. He’d needed some guidance and Lucki had damned near taken the problem off his hands. Only now, the problem was hers. How could he have let Lucki take on his responsibility of J.J. over the summer? It was too much for her to handle. He’d have to come up with another solution.

Maybe he could find J.J. some work to do downtown to occupy his days this summer.

The crunch of gravel alerted him to the fact that Lucki had pulled in the drive, stopping just short of his porch. Both she and J.J. slowly exited the cab of her mid-sized Chevy.

Sam stood and met them near the porch steps.

“Hey! How’d it go?”

He watched the brief exchange of eye contact that took place between Lucki and J.J. It gave him a bad feeling. Damn.

“Everything went pretty well, I’d say, wouldn’t you J.J.?”

Lucki pushed her hands in the pockets of her athletic shorts and smiled at Sam.

“Sure, everything went pretty good,”

J.J. echoed.

Sam inhaled and stared at the two.

“And both of you are full of hog manure.”

He watched Lucki’s eyes widen in surprise then slid his glance to J.J. He couldn’t see a damned thing behind those dark glasses of his, or through the shadow his ball cap had thrown over his face.

“What the heck are you talking about, Sam?”

Sam chuckled.

“Give it to me straight, Lucki. Something’s not kosher here. What did J.J. do?”

J.J. took a half step forward.

“I didn’t do anything, did I Lucki!”

Lucki reached out and grasped J.J.’s arm, pulling him closer. Sam still held her gaze.

“He didn’t do anything, Sam. Don’t assume anything until you know what you’re talking about.”

“Then what am I talking about?”

Lucki bit her lip and glanced at a silent J.J.

“There was a slight skirmish, today.”

Sam huffed, stepped back, and shook his head.

“A slight skirmish.”

“It was no big deal. It’s handled. It won’t happen again. And it wasn’t J.J.’s fault.”

“Yeah, right.”

Sam stared at the porch floor. Sure, it wasn’t J.J.’s fault. It’s never J.J.’s fault. He didn’t feel Lucki’s hands grasp his arms until she forced him to look at her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

she hissed. Sam stared into her blue eyes. They were flaring with anger.

“What am I doing? I’m facing reality here, Lucki. You need to face it, too. It was a bad idea. Let’s think of something else.”

Her fingernails bit into his upper arms.

“No, Sam. You have it all wrong. J.J. is not at fault here. And you’re being just a little bit arrogant.”

Sam huffed out a breath, and then sensing J.J. walking off, he glanced his way.

“Forget it Lucki,”

the boy said.

“Sam always thinks it’s my fault.”

Sam broke away and grasped his brother’s forearm, halting him.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not going to stomp out of here this time.”

Lucki pleaded from behind.

“Sam, stop. You have it all wrong, I tell you. J.J. did nothing.”

“Take off those sunglasses and that cap,”

he directed to his brother, ignoring Lucki.

“I hate talking to you when I can’t even see your eyes.”

After an instant’s pause, J.J. ripped off the glasses and cap and sent them both flying. His eyes and actions defied Sam to do or say anything out of line. Sam took one look at his brother’s face and felt nauseous.

“Who in the hell hit you and what did you do to provoke it?”

“Sam,”

Lucki interjected.

“I’ve been trying to tell you. He did nothing.”

J.J. glared back into Sam’s eyes.

“Forget it, Lucki. He doesn’t ever believe me.”

“Well, he’d better start.”

Sam whirled back to Lucki.

“Stay out of my business, Lucki.”

He watched her back jerk straight and her facial expression glare, hard as steel.

“This is my business, Sam. J.J. was with me today and what happened was not his fault.”

“He’s not going back with you. I’ll figure out something else.”

Sam paused at the pained expression that lanced over Lucki’s face. Damn, why am I being such an ass?

“You’re making a mistake, Sam. J.J. needs to go back. He’s got to get back on the horse and ride.”

Lucki pinned him with her gaze.

“Lose the cliche Lucki, he’s staying here.”

“Sam—”

“The decision is made.”

“No, it’s not!”

J.J. burst between his brother and Lucki, glancing from one to the other. After a minute, he turned to his older brother and said.

“Lucki’s right. I’m going back. I’m not going to take those guys calling me a wimp and a flunky. I’m going back tomorrow, black eye and all, and you’re not going to stop me!”

When J.J. finished, he was almost in tears. Sam stared into the boy’s face and saw a brief reflection of himself, when he was in his early teens, coming home with a shiner from fighting with Billy Martini, when Billy had called him the teacher’s pet. Suddenly that feeling washed all over him.

He closed his eyes and tried to let the memory pass. Sometimes, there were just things a guy had to do. He guessed J.J. needed to go back. Prove a point.

Sam knew he had to let this go. Apologize to everyone.

He faced J.J.

“So, you really want to go back?”

“Yes, I do. I didn’t think I did, but now I do.”

Sam exhaled deeply.

“All right. Go back.”

He watched a slight grin form over J.J.’s lips.

“And... And I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I’m going to do better.”

J.J. grinned fully and stepped on into the house. One small victory, Sam thought. When his eyes swung around to meet Lucki’s, Sam knew he’d done the right thing.

“I’m sorry, Lucki. I’ve been a bear’s ass all day thinking about how you two were getting along.”

“It’s okay, Sam,”

she returned softly.

“Now that you’ve made the right decision.”

She tossed him a wicked grin.

“But a minute ago I would have called you a horse’s ass, not a bear’s.”

Sam nodded.

“And you would have been right.”

When she stepped closer and put her arms around his neck and held him close, then planted a quick kiss on his cheek, Sam knew he’d won a small victory with Lucki today as well.

However, when she left his porch to put her truck in the garage, he felt the battle going on deep inside him raging up again. A battle he hadn’t clearly defined, yet.

And as far as that battle was concerned, he also knew he was a long way from final victory.

He wouldn’t allow himself to consider the possibility of defeat.