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A PERFECT FIT
by
MEGAN HART
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.amberquill.com
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A Perfect Fit
An Amber Quill Press Book
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.amberquill.com
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.
Copyright © 2006 by Megan Hart
ISBN 1-59279-539-0
Cover Art © 2006 Trace Edward Zaber
Layout and Formatting
Provided by: ElementalAlchemy.com
Published in the United States of America
Also by Megan Hart
Driven
All You Can Eat
The Clear Cold Light Of Morning
Convicted
Dream Upon Waking
An Exaltation Of Larks
Friendly Fire
From Distant Shores
Lonesome Bride
Love Match
Monster In The Closet
After Class
An Exaltation Of Larks
Opening The Door
Passion Model
Playing The Game
Pot Of Gold
Right To Remain
Riverboat Bride
Sand Castle
Emerald Isle
Trial By Fire
With Steps Like Knives
Dedication
To "Lance" and "Kira"
who made my birthday so much fun in 2005.
And to DPF, who watches
Nip/Tuck with me as much as I want.
A PERFECT FIT
* * *
A shadow fell across Audrey Winsom's textbook, and she looked up, shading her eyes against the early May sunshine. She smiled when she saw the man interrupting her studies. "Joel, hi. Have a seat."
He grinned down at her, his dark hair falling over his chocolate-brown eyes in the way that always had her itching to brush it away. "Audrey, my favorite head shrinker in training. How's it going?"
Audrey moved over so he could slide into the seat next to hers. She gestured at the book. "Just me and Advanced Developmental Psychology."
Joel made a face and reached across her to close the book with a solid thud. "Bor-rrring."
Audrey laughed, but opened the book again. "Maybe. But the final's in two weeks. C'mon, Joel, you need to study for it, too. Why not come over tonight? I know it's Friday, but we can order pizza, buckle down, crack open the books. Lauren's going with her dad until Sunday, and I plan to study all weekend."
Joel shook his head. "Can't."
"Ah." Audrey nodded. She studied his face, the high line of his cheekbones and the perfect curve of his mouth. Of course he wouldn't want to hang out with her on a Friday night. "Hot date? Who's it with this time? The cute blonde from Counseling Procedures? No...let me guess. It's the brunette who giggles at you in the café."
Joel laughed. "Jennifer is the blonde, and she's got a new boyfriend. Marianne's the brunette and no, it's not her, either."
Audrey pretended to study him thoroughly before saying, "Aha! I have it! Secret agent stuff, right?"
It was a well-worn joke between them. Secret agent or a gigolo, two careers that would suit him should he decide not to become a psychologist.
"Something like that. Not," he added, "that anything could be more exciting than a night with you, going over human development."
"Riiiight." Audrey rolled her eyes at his non-subtle flirting, which she'd steeled herself not to take seriously about two seconds after meeting him the first time.
They laughed together. Joel nudged her shoulder. Audrey turned to look at him.
"What?"
"Is that all you ever do?" he asked her, for once the teasing gone. "Study?"
Audrey closed her book to look at him. She sat silent for a moment, thinking. "It's important I get good grades, Joel. My future and Lauren's future depend on me being able to support us."
He nodded and did something unexpected. He leaned forward to brush a strand of hair that had come undone from her ponytail away from her face and tuck it behind her ear. The simple gesture, far less outrageous than some of the flirtatious things he'd said to her in the past, nevertheless made her catch her breath. She looked into his eyes.
"I admire you," Joel said.
She couldn't ignore the sincerity in his voice, but Audrey ducked her head, looking away. "Joel..."
He leaned back, effectively breaking the moment. "Maybe next week instead? There's plenty of time before the final. You can even cook me dinner. I'll bring a movie for Lauren, she'll veg out in front of the tube and we'll make a night of it."
It had become safe to look at him again, and she gave him a raised brow. "Sounds fine, except for that me making you dinner part."
Joel winked as he got up from the table. "I could make dinner for you instead. I'm not just a pretty face. I make a mean omelet, Audrey."
"Oh, yeah?" She laughed and threw a balled-up napkin at him. "Such modesty. Fine, I'll make dinner."
Laughing, Joel ducked the napkin and gave her a little wave as he walked away. Audrey stared after him a moment, admiring his long, lean form, the bag slung with such casual fashion sense over one shoulder, the confidence in his stride. She knew he was more than a pretty face. He had a great sense of humor and a real brain, too, beneath the perfect features and golden smile. They'd been paired off by chance in the first class they'd had together, and the easy way he broke down and absorbed even difficult concepts had impressed her from the start. Studying with Joel made her push herself, and they often vied for top position in their classes.
He was gorgeous, smart, funny...and an outrageous flirt. The sort of guy she'd avoided in college, setting her sights instead on the nice guy, the reliable one--Ted.
And where had that left her? Nice, reliable Ted had discovered the pleasures of constant one-night stands while on the road, the joys of corporate success that outweighed the quieter joy of domestic bliss. He'd left her for his secretary, a cliché so overdone Audrey had laughed when he told her. When she finally cried, it wasn't for herself, but for the dreams they'd shared. For her child, Lauren, who now saw her daddy every other weekend, which turned out to be more often than when he'd actually lived with them.
The divorce had been swift and equitable. It had left her with enough money to go back to school and get her Masters in Psychology, keep food on the table, clothes on their backs. She wasn't interested in much more, right now.
Not even if it came packaged in a six-foot-two, dark-haired, dark-eyed, swaggering bad boy who made her laugh.
* * * *
Joel wheeled the cart of magazines and games into the social room. "Hey, Morty, my main man."
"Joely," answered the older man with a grin that showed his straight white dentures. "How they hanging?"
"High and dry," Joel answered without missing a beat. Morty was his favorite resident at Country Breezes. The octogenarian had a wicked sense of humor and a weakness for butterscotch pudding, but along with that, he never seemed to assume that, because Joel was young, he didn't know what end was up. Morty never patronized him.
"Young fella like you? That's a shame." Morty chuckled, wheeling his chair closer to Joel's cart. "
I don't suppose you have any girly mags in that pile?"
"Sorry, man. Nurse Ratchett checks 'em out before I bring them in. I've got some the same old celebrity rags and the home decorating stuff. But I did manage to snag you a couple Weekly News of the Weird."
Morty laughed. "Oy, just what this old man needs, more news of the weird. As if living next door to Sasquatch Frank's not weird enough."
Joel laughed. "I haven't seen Frank in a while. How's he doing?"
Morty sobered a bit. "Failing. Been in bed with a cold that won't quit."
He didn't say more, but he didn't have to. Being constrained to bed was never a good sign in Country Breezes. Joel nodded and passed Morty a copy of the black and white pulp paper.
"Sorry, man."
Morty waved a hand. "It's what happens, right? You get old, you get sick...feh. Enough of that. What're you doing here? I thought you worked your second gig tonight."
"I do, but that's not until later. I need the cash, man." Joel shrugged. "School's not cheap, you know?"
Morty nodded. "Tell me about it. But working on a Friday night...no fun. No dates? No girls in your life? What's going on? I thought you were the Don Juan of Millersville University."
Joel shrugged. "There's a girl. But...she's not really into me. We're study buddies."
Morty looked so astounded Joel had to laugh again.
"Study buddies? What's that, some newfangled slang for...something?"
"No. It means we have class together. We study together. That's it."
"She invites you to her house?"
"Well...yeah." They usually studied a couple of times a week.
"She likes you," Morty said with an old man's self-righteous confidence.
Joel shook his head. "Nah, man...she's...different."
"Trust me, sonny, she's not that different." Morty shook a gnarled finger. "She's a woman, right?"
"Definitely."
"She makes you food?"
Joel laughed. "Sometimes."
"She likes you. Ask her out."
"I can't do that, man." Joel started tidying up the chair cushions someone had tossed about. "If I ask her out and she says no, it'll ruin our friendship."
Morty started to gasp, a hand over his heart, and Joel dropped the cushions and ran to his side. The old man grabbed his wrist. "Get me a magnifying glass, quick!"
Joel was already reaching for the button on the wall to call a nurse, but he hesitated. "What do you need a magnifying glass for?"
"To look for your balls, sonny!" Morty cackled, and Joel stepped back. "What's the matter with you?"
"Not funny, man." Joel put his hands on his hips and glared at Morty, who looked unrepentant. "You almost gave me a heart attack."
Morty waved a hand again. "Feh. This is not the Joely I know and love. What's different about this girl from all the others?"
Joel leaned against the window seat. "For starters, she's not a girl, she's a woman."
Morty nodded eagerly. "Oh, yeah? Older woman, huh?"
"She's not that much older. But she's not some silly kid either. She's..." He shrugged, not sure how to describe Audrey without sounding like a sap. "She's a hard worker. And smart...man, is she smart. And beautiful. She's just..."
"Sonny, you've got it bad." Morty sighed, shoulders hunching. "And you can't ask her out?"
"She's divorced," Joel said, like that explained it.
Morty wasn't appeased by such a throwaway answer. "So?"
"So, she's a little shy of dating. And she's got a daughter, a great kid named Lauren."
"So you've met the daughter?"
Joel shrugged. "Well...yeah. When I go over to study, she's usually there. And we've gone out for dinner or ice cream a couple of times after class."
"But those weren't dates?" Morty looked astounded, shaking his head.
"No, that's just hanging out."
"Times change, times change," Morty muttered, almost to himself. "Listen, sonny, she likes you. She invites you to her house, she lets you meet her kid, that means she likes you."
"She likes me," Joel countered. "That doesn't mean she, you know, likes me."
Morty laughed and set his chair in motion toward the door. "Only one way to find out, sonny. Ask her out."
"I can't do that, man!" Joel called after him.
"What a wimp!" came the old man's retort from down the hall, and Joel laughed, though the words had the ring of truth.
Yeah, he was a wimp. At least when it came to Audrey. Morty hadn't been far wrong, calling him the Don Juan of Millersville. Joel knew how the rumors had started. Date a professor, even one who taught classes you'd never taken, and you had to expect there to be talk. That he and Marlene had only gone to dinner and a movie hadn't seemed to matter, not when they'd been spotted by Suze Pennypacker, the girl with the biggest mouth and wildest imagination Joel had ever met. Suze had been the one start the rumor that Joel supplemented his income as a paid escort, and since he refused to give her the satisfaction even of denying it, the story had passed around and around until it became legend. It had followed up him from undergrad days until now.
It hadn't seemed to hurt him. Joel had his share of admirers. He went on dates. He wasn't proud of his reputation as a flirt, but he wasn't exactly ashamed of it either. He had fun with girls, and he liked to think they had fun with him. He didn't give them any reason to believe it was ever anything other than dinner and dancing or a movie. It wasn't like he took them out, seduced them into bed and then dumped them. Being labeled a man-for-hire had probably earned him more action than anything else...at least while he'd been looking for it.
The truth was, he hadn't been to bed with anyone in a little over a year--not since meeting Audrey. He'd had plenty of opportunities, but the appeal of the casual sex he'd once found so much a part of student life had palled greatly. He wasn't an undergrad anymore. But a reputation, once earned, is hard to shake, and even the professors knew him as Joel Goodman, the flirt. The guy with the golden grin.
It could be frustrating. Could he help it if he liked women? If he knew how to talk to them better than most guys his age? If it just came easy to him? What was he supposed to do, turn into the sort of doofus a lot of his buddies seemed to be around girls, when compliments came easier to his lips than playing it cool?
In high school, his best friend Gary had once asked how he managed to get even the hottest girls to talk to him, the ones who wouldn't blink an eye for anything less than a star football player or prom king.
To Joel, it had seemed simple enough. "Tell them the truth."
"But girls like that hear the truth all the time," Gary said.
"So find something true about them they haven't heard," was Joel's response.
"But you don't just flirt with the pretty girls," Gary had persisted. "You flirt with all of them. They all love you, man."
"Every girl has something pretty about her," Joel had told his friend, who never seemed to get it.
He'd meant it then and it still held true today. All women had something about them to enjoy. Was it his fault if he liked putting smiles on their faces? It had never seemed like a bad thing before.
Until now. Until meeting Audrey and having her think he was just one more smooth operator. Yeah, she liked him as a study friend, but it was always clear she kept him at arm's distance, and he supposed he couldn't really blame her.
Joel Goodman, the guy with the golden grin.
Sometimes, that really sucked.
* * * *
"Daddy'll drop you off on Sunday evening, okay?" Audrey stuffed the last of Lauren's clothes into her overnight bag and ran her hands over her daughter's smooth blonde hair. "You have everything?"
Lauren nodded. "Daddy and Tammy are taking me to the zoo!"
Audrey smiled. "That sounds like fun."
Lauren squeezed her mom around the waist. "I wish you could come, Mommy."
"Oh, honey –"
"I know, I know." Lauren rolled her eyes. "You and daddy are
divorced. I got it. But you'd like the zoo, Mommy. And you won't have any fun here alone."
Audrey kissed the top of Lauren's head and hugged her tight. "I'll be fine, sweetie."
Those words stayed with her, though, as she put Lauren in the back seat of Ted's expensive car and waved as they drove away. No fun. Was that what her life had become?
Studying, cleaning, taking care of her child. It left little room for much else, which had been fine for her. But no fun?
She'd just settled down at the kitchen table with her books and a pot of tea when the phone jangled.
"Audrey."
"Hi, Karen." Audrey poured steaming Earl Grey into her mug and added sugar. "What's up?"
"Cinco de Mayo, baby, that's what's up. Tonight."
Audrey capped her highlighter and tapped it against the thick book in front of her. She'd only made it through half the chapter so far. "What about it?"
On the other end of the phone, Karen snorted. "We're going out. You're coming with us. No excuses. I know Lauren went to Ted's this weekend. You're coming out with us."
"Okay."
"No ifs, ands or buts. It's time you got out and took advantage of being a single mom." Karen had been divorced for three years. She liked to say she was a serial monogamist with attention deficit disorder. One guy at a time, just a different one every month.
"I said all right." Audrey stuck her bookmark back in the chapter. "Where are we going?"
"Wait a minute. You said okay?"
"Yeah." Audrey frowned at her friend's assumption she'd resist. "You're right. It's Friday night, Lauren's gone for the weekend, and I can study all day tomorrow. Where are we going?"
Karen let out a little whoop. "Muy caliente!"
Audrey laughed. "I see your Spanish lessons are paying off."
"No, hon. Muy Caliente. It's a show."