she said, understanding. “Guess I should have bought a new stash for this trip. I had that in my bathroom cabinet at home and figured I would use what I already had.”
“Tell me you at least throw away expired medicine.”
“I think Granny Gert cleans it out every now and then.”
“It’s amazing you’re still alive,” he muttered, but at least he was smiling now. Then he looked up and his eyes seemed to fixate on her, all of her, since they moved down the length of her and then back up again.
Babette glanced down, and realized that the sleepshirt she’d donned gave the impression that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. She lifted it to prove she was. “I still have on my bikini.”
He swallowed. “Yeah.”
Suddenly uncomfortable, she started to sit on the loveseat across from the couch, then remembered that she still had the sunscreen on, even if it hadn’t been strong enough to do its job. “I need to get a towel,” she said, leaving momentarily to grab one, then returning to find him waiting, and still holding her piña colada.
She spread the towel on the loveseat, sat on it, then curled her legs beneath her. “Can I have my drink please?”
He looked at the glass as though he’d forgotten he was holding it, then leaned forward and handed it to her. “It might not be the best thing for you to have at the moment,” he said, but she was already sucking on the straw.
The delicious concoction of rum, coconut milk and pineapple juice was heavenly on her tongue, and when she swallowed it, it warmed her up . . . everywhere. “Mmm, I’m not driving anytime soon, or anything. Why wouldn’t this be the best thing for me to have right now?”
“Because it makes you horny.”
She sputtered on the straw, swallowed way too much and started to cough. And, of course, hearing him say the word had the effect of making it real. “What?” she asked, and did her damnedest to appear as though she didn’t suddenly picture herself standing, dropping her bikini bottoms to the floor and taking advantage of him on that couch.
“Piña coladas make you horny,” he repeated smoothly, and she literally felt her center pulse when she heard the word. Or maybe it was the way he said the word. Or something. “Could be that it’s only when you have them on the beach. I don’t know, but I do know that they make you want sex. Badly. Things like that, a guy remembers. And that may not be the best thing for you right now, given my proposition.”
Proposition?
“Your proposition?” she managed, pretty impressed that she was able to say it, given her current horny state of mind, and get all of the syllables right to boot. She sipped more piña colada. It was good, after all.
“Yeah, my proposition,” he repeated, nodding slightly as he said it as though he were still formulating the idea.
She drank more. Swallowed. “What proposition?”
“You want me to give Kitty another chance, right?”
She nodded, though it wasn’t exactly that she wanted him to; she needed him to.
“You do know that she left merely a month before the wedding.”
Ouch. It sounded much worse when he said it than when Clarise had relayed Kitty’s stupid move. Babette nodded. “Clarise told me.”
“And her leaving proved a theory that I’d had a while back, and now totally believe.”
Okay, now they were getting somewhere. “Theory?”
“That it isn’t men who can’t commit; it’s women.”
“Women—can’t commit,” she said, and suddenly recalled all the times when they were dating that he’d proclaimed emphatically that he wasn’t interested in commitment. Clearly, his feelings about it had changed when he met Kitty, for some strange reason, since he had attempted to commit with her.
“Right.” He shifted on the couch to face her more directly, leaned forward a bit, then asked, “You’ve never had a serious commitment with any man, have you?”
“No.” Easy question, easy answer.
“In fact, have you ever really been committed to anything, Babette? Not merely men, but anything in general?” He held up a finger as though just realizing something. “You know, you’re the perfect example to prove my point. You didn’t commit to one degree, or one job, or one man.”
Unfortunately, she had the straw in her mouth when he threw that thorny statement out there, and she sucked in way too much piña colada. The brain freeze that followed smarted. She put one hand to her temple. “Ow.”
“Sorry, that was cruel.”
She shook her head. “That