***
Unsure of their exact plans, she stuck with casual clothes. Despite her choice of dress, she took her time getting ready, although she figured she could show up downstairs wearing yesterday’s clothes, no makeup, hair unwashed and Sean wouldn’t care. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t notice, just that those things didn’t seem important to him. Unlike the guy at the store today when she’d stopped for a Diet Coke, Sean didn’t go out of his way complimenting her. While a compliment was nice from time to time, she didn’t need or want to hear it 24/7. In fact for the most part, Sean treated her like a regular plain Jane, and she loved that. She found it refreshing, almost exciting.
Later, as Mia leaned against one of the posts inside the gazebo behind the house, she said, “I don’t think I’ll ever get the hang of that game.” They’d played, or attempted to play, two games of pool before grabbing a little dinner from the kitchen and taking it outside. During her lesson she’d only managed to sink three balls on her own.
“You’ll get it. It takes practice.” Sean sat next to her, his long legs stretched out and his Irish Wolfhound, Max, not far away. “It took my sister a long time to learn, but she can hold her own now. Every once in a while she’ll even beat me.”
He grabbed a blueberry tart from the basket of food and offered it to her. “Have you tried one yet?”
“I’m good, thanks.” She gestured toward the carrot sticks on her plate. “Are you and your sister close?”
“More now than a few years ago.” Sean popped the tart in his mouth.
Mia watched as the end of his scar moved as he chewed. The thin white line started up near the end of his eyebrow and ended just above his cheekbone. Reaching out she traced it with her finger. “How did you get this?”
Beneath her hand, Sean became still. “A fight with Bruce Austen. He had a big class ring on.”
“What were you fighting about?” Considering Sean’s size she doubted many people picked fights with him and she remembered his comment from other night about learning to avoid fights .
“My sister and a friend of hers.”
She waited for more details, when they never came she spoke again. “About? There’s got to be more.”
“My sister turned Bruce down, which he didn’t like. As payback he started a rumor that he’d had a threesome with her and her best friend, Jessica, after the homecoming dance their sophomore year. I’d picked them both up that night before the dance even ended, so there was no way that happened. I confronted him, and he got in a punch.”
She could picture the scene well. “Just one? How did he fare?”
The corners of Sean’s mouth turned upward in a tiny smile. “Lets just say he looked much worse than me, and by the end of the week the whole school knew he’d lied about Charlie and Jessica.”
Mia leaned in and kissed the scar. “And you said you two weren’t close.”
“After the divorce I acted more like a father than a brother to her.” His voice took on a gruff tone. “Charlie was twelve when it happened.” The bottle in his hand crackled as his grip on the plastic tightened.
She ran a hand down his forearm, the muscles under her fingertips tight. Gently she caressed his hand until his grip loosened, then she slid the water bottle from his hand. “She was lucky to have an older brother like you. I could’ve used one from time to time.”
“She might disagree with you. She used to love to remind me I wasn’t her father.” The way he said father made her think he referred to some vile devil.
“You really hate him, don’t you?” She could understand being upset with your parents, but not outright hating them. “What happened?”
Sean stared forward for a long time, so long in fact that she assumed he didn’t plan to answer. Finally he blew out a long breath and began. “In the fall of my senior year, he left. He claimed he had to work and couldn’t make my football game. He never came back. About a week later, he called from Florida and demanded a divorce. After that we never saw or heard from him again except the one day at the courthouse.”
“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t imagine what Sean and his family must have gone through. “What did your mom do?”
Sean cleared his throat, and when he spoke again the emotion she’d heard before was gone. “She started renting rooms to college students from Salem State. She’d never worked outside the home. I took a part time job at Quinn’s Hardware until graduation. Then a friend’s father got me a job with the town highway department. I did that full time until we turned this place into a bed and breakfast.”
The selfishness of some people never ceased to amaze her. How could a father do that to his family? “You didn’t want to go to college?” Most people she knew would’ve run from town if faced with the same situation.
“I got a football scholarship to the University of Florida but turned it down. Ma and Charlie needed me here.”
The little she’d already learned about him intrigued her, drew her to him, but this new information strengthened that attraction. Family had always been important to her and for the most part she met few men who felt the same, at least up until now.
“Then both your mom and sister were lucky to have you.” Moving away from the side of the gazebo, she swung a leg over his outstretched legs and straddled him. Then she silenced him with a kiss. His strong arms encircled her waist as she wrapped her own arms around his neck. The kiss started off gentle, just the barest movement against his lips. Ready for the kiss to intensify, she opened her mouth, an invitation for him and he took it. Sliding his hands up her back he pulled her closer, crushing her against him as his tongue tangled with hers.
Thoughts of their previous conversation evaporated and she lost herself in the kiss. A kiss that not only had her body wanting, but also made her feel special. Two emotions she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Something moved against her leg and a few seconds later she heard someone clearing her throat.
“Sean,” Maureen said, her voice laced with embarrassment.
Mia broke away and noticed that the dog that had been near them now stood next to Maureen.
“I really hate to bother you, but the bathroom sink in the Hawthorne room is not draining and the guests are not at all happy.”
Sean’s chest moved against hers as he took in a deep breath, and Mia’s cheeks burned with heat as she recalled where she sat.
“Give me a minute and I’ll take care of it, Ma.”
“Thank you.” Maureen turned back toward the house, Sean’s dog beside her.
“Will it take you long?” She slid her hands down over his shoulders and to his biceps.
Sean brushed a stray piece of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Shouldn’t, but you never know.”
“How about I wait for you upstairs? The Sox game starts soon.” Only after getting his agreement and one more kiss did she stand. “Go on in. I’ll bring the rest of this food in,” she said.
His mother possessed perhaps the worst timing in the world, and that was just one reason he almost never brought his dates home. Somehow the idea of having sex while his mother, who until just recently slept only one floor down, was around doused his desire better than a fire hose. Even now with her living in the loft over the garage, he preferred to go to his date’s place rather than bring them back here.
His habit of keeping his dates away from The Victorian Rose wouldn’t work this time. Unless he and Mia checked into a motel somewhere, they had nowhere else to go.
Sean worked quickly. He’d taken apart every drain and sink in the bed and breakfast at some point. In fact, he figured he could do it blindfolded. A wad of dark brown hair stopped the water from leaving the sink today. Short of actually cutting your hair over the sink, he had no idea how that much hair had made it into the sink, and honestly he didn’t care. In the past few years he’d found everything from contact lenses and jewelry to gum in the drains. Each time he simply removed the foreign objects and moved on, wh
ich he planned to do now.
With the offending object gone, he reassembled the drain and let the guests—a dark-haired woman about his own age and her husband—know he was done.