Welcome to Serenity

Though her dark eyes were wary, she smiled and said, “Nice to know my first impression wasn’t too far off the mark.”

He blinked. “Oh?”

“I told Elliot, our personal trainer, that you looked trustworthy,” she explained. “Even though you’d been peering in the windows of the spa alarming the women.”

Maddie regarded him with shock. “You did what?”

Tom winced. “It wasn’t the way it appeared. I was looking for a place to have a good workout. I was told the spa was only for women, but I wanted to see for myself if I could join. Jeanette intercepted me outside and made it very clear that I couldn’t.”

“Sorry,” Jeanette said, though her voice lacked sincerity. “Just enforcing the rules.”

“Maybe you and Cal can team up and get something similar going for the men in town,” Maddie suggested. “That way I won’t have to pretend I don’t know he sneaks in there late at night.”

“I don’t suppose you’d let me sneak in with him, would you?” Tom asked wistfully.

“Not a chance,” Jeanette said sharply, drawing a look from Maddie. “I just mean, Cal’s one thing. He’s married to an owner. But if we let you sneak in, then someone else will ask, and the next thing you know we won’t have a special place for women.”

He grinned at her rapid-fire explanation. “For a minute there, I thought maybe you had something against me personally.”

“How could I?” she said. “I don’t even know you.”

“We could change that,” he suggested, and had the satisfaction of seeing her blush.

“I don’t think so,” she said tightly, though yet another sharp glance from Maddie had her adding, “Thanks, anyway.”

He just stared at her for a moment before pulling out the chair next to his. Before Jeanette could sit down as he’d hoped, Jessica Lynn scrambled onto it and tugged on his arm. “I’m hungry,” she announced. “Where’s my doll?”

“Right here,” he said, picking it up off the seat of his own chair and handing it to her. Conceding the fact that Jeanette would be sitting elsewhere—probably as far from him as possible—he leaned down and confided to Jessica Lynn, “I’m starving, too.”

“Count me among the starving,” Jeanette chimed in, surprising him.

“Then let’s order,” Maddie said. “Cal should be here any minute with the boys.”

“Where’s Katie?” Jeanette asked.

“At a friend’s house, in theory doing homework. I have my doubts—the Grahams have a pool.”

Tom regarded Maddie with curiosity. He’d already digested that there was an unmistakable age difference between Maddie and her husband—probably a good ten years—but it also sounded as if they had a large family. And Cal was only around his age—early to midthirties. “How many children do you have?”

“I have five,” Maddie told him. She gestured at Jessica Lynn and Cole. “These two are mine with Cal, but I have three from my first marriage. Ty’s a sophomore at Duke. Katie, as I mentioned, is with a friend tonight, and Kyle will be here any minute with Cal.”

“And you manage the spa full-time?” Tom asked, impressed.

“And does an amazing job of it,” Jeanette added. “Women are great multitaskers.”

Tom frowned at the note of censure in her voice. “I’m aware of that. I’m just trying to learn who does what in Serenity.”

After shooting a bewildered look in Jeanette’s direction, which suggested there would be questions for her later, Maddie said, “Well, you’ll be happy to know that Jeanette is an organizational wizard herself. She’ll be our representative on the Christmas festival committee. Will you be chairing that?”

“Yes,” Tom said. Suddenly the prospect of planning the town’s holiday celebration didn’t seem as dismal as he’d anticipated. He still thought there were better uses of his time, but if it threw him together with Jeanette, it couldn’t be all bad. Right now, though, she was regarding him with undisguised suspicion.

“Since you and Maddie clearly don’t really know each other, what are you doing here?” Jeanette asked as if he’d crashed the party.

Maddie’s expression went from bewildered to dismayed at Jeanette’s rudeness. “I invited him,” she said. “And before you ask, it was Cal’s suggestion. He called on his way home and said he’d run into you at the movies and invited you to join us. He thought it would be nice for Tom to get to know a few people in town.”

Jeanette didn’t look entirely satisfied with the answer, but she sat back and hid behind her menu. The continued high color in her cheeks was the only thing that gave away her embarrassment.

Once Cal arrived with the boys, the tension at the table dissolved, primarily because there was no way Tom and Jeanette could be expected to communicate with each other. It wasn’t until they were on their way out to the parking lot that he had a chance to speak to her privately. As the others drove off, he deliberately lingered beside her.

“I’m sorry if my being here tonight was a problem,” he said, studying her intently. “Have I offended you in some way? When Maddie called, I had no idea who else would be here. I was just tired of staring at the four walls of my room at the Serenity Inn, so I seized on the chance to get out for a meal and some conversation.”

She sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. I know I’ve behaved like an idiot, but you don’t know Maddie that well yet, or her partners. They…meddle.”

Ah, the picture was getting clearer. “Inveterate matchmakers, huh?”

“You have no idea. It was amusing when they were focused on each other, but now they seem to be turning their attention to me. It’s humiliating, to say nothing of unwelcome. And it’s really embarrassing to see you put on the spot the way you were tonight.”

“I wasn’t embarrassed. It made my day when I looked up and saw you crossing the restaurant. I’d been hoping to run into you again.”

His response only seemed to aggravate her. “I don’t date,” she said emphatically.

Tom wasn’t half as put off as she’d clearly intended for him to be. She’d inadvertently created a fascinating challenge for him. He’d always excelled when told that something was beyond his reach.

“I imagine there’s a story behind that,” he said, holding her gaze until she looked away.

“Several of them, unfortunately.”

She started to walk away, but he stayed in step with her. “We’ll have to get together sometime so you can tell me about it.”

Her lips twitched. “Wouldn’t that constitute a date?”

“Not if we don’t want it to,” he said seriously. “Two friends commiserating over a good dinner and a bottle of wine could be perfectly innocent.”

“Not if one of those ‘friends’ is you,” she said. “I may be wrong, but somehow I don’t think there’s anything innocent about you.”

Tom didn’t even try to deny it. “It’s the dimple, isn’t it?” he said with exaggerated dismay.

“You, Mr. McDonald, are entirely too full of yourself. Something tells me you’re a player.”

“I was always told that self-confidence is a good trait. Did I get that wrong?” he asked worriedly.

“You say self-confidence,” she teased. “I say arrogance.”

“I’ll work on that,” he promised.

“We’ll see.”

“Hey, I’m all for self-improvement, especially if it means you’ll eventually say yes to having dinner with me.”