fault she’d come up with this ridiculously impossible waterfall idea. All his fault she’d cleaned house. It was the woosh thing. His brothers were adorable, so at least if they caused that thigh-clenching heart-thumping response, she’d have understood it. She recognized those guys as hot, but not a problem.
Whydid she only feel that woosh and zing for the wrong guys? And, darn it, one short glance at his long, lean bones and her hormones were all a dazzle. Where was the fairness in life? The justice?
“Phoebe? I didn’t mean to barge in, but the bell didn’t seem to work, and no one seemed to hear me knocking. When I heard all the voices, I—”
“It’s okay,” she said swiftly, and zoomed forward—almost putting her bare foot in the broken porcelain but getting smart at the last second. A little smart, anyway. “These are my neighbors—Barb, Gary, Fred, this is Fergus—”
“We’re leaving,” Barb said again, as she pumped his hand. Fergus went rigid.
Phoebe saw his response and recognized that he was hurting. Thankfully that slapped a little sense in her head. “Y’all can take the rest of the coffee cake on your way out. And I’ll catch up with you later,” she said firmly.
It took a minute to clear them out, clean up the broken bowl, have a heart attack because she’d had no chance to brush her hair or put on makeup or real clothes, get Mop and Duster to quit behaving like puppies on speed, and then get back to him.
He was still standing exactly where she’d left him, looking around her massage room setup. “Phoebe, I really am sorry about interrupting you.”
“You didn’t. That was just a Saturday-morning neighborhood free-for-all. They eat me out of house and home. What’s wrong?”
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
He answered her slowly, quietly, his gaze directly on hers. “I was rude before. I wanted to apologize.
When I go through one of my bad pain stretches, I can’t seem to…think. My foot was so deep in my mouth, I’m amazed I could even get it out again. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings.”
“You didn’t. And it’s not a worry. I understand about pain.” She cocked her head curiously. “But you could have called to say you were sorry. Instead…you’re here.”
He tugged on an ear. “Yeah, well. Nothing I tried ever helped those headaches. You did. And if you’d consider taking me and my sometimes big mouth on as a client, I’d appreciate it.”
He obviously hated eating crow. She couldn’t very well hold a grudge when she hated sucking up after making a mistake herself. “I take it you’re having one of those headaches right now?”
“I’ve got one coming,” he admitted. “But that’s not why I came now. The headache isn’t that bad. And I didn’t expect you’d be working on Saturdays. I just came to apologize, and I figured Saturday morning you might not have clients, so it’d be a good time to ask if you’d consider taking me on down the pike—”
Before he could finish, she said, “All right.”
“All right, you’ll take me on?”
“Yes. If we can come to terms.” She perched up on a counter and crossed her bare feet. “If you want me to work with you, Fergus, my idea would be to sit down together with a whole program. Not just deal with those headaches when they’re tearing you in two, because that timing is way too late. You need to practice some techniques to make them go away for the long term.”
“Like what techniques? What kind of program?” he asked warily, but her attention was diverted when she saw him starting to sway.
“Strip down,” she said swiftly.
“Beg your pardon?”
“You’re on my turf now, Fox. Go behind the curtain, strip down—I don’t care if you keep on your underwear or go buff—but take off most of your clothes. I need two minutes to heat the sheet and prepare. When you’re done, come back in here, get on the table, cover
Andrew Kane
Guy Johnson
Andrew Martin
Erin M. Leaf
David Handler
Lisa DeVore
E. L. Doctorow
Jennie Jones
Joseph Mitchell
Jackie Moggridge