Soft Sounds of Pleasure Page 3

  He stripped off the condom and tied the end, picking up his clothes and holding his tongue as he trailed her into the house. She hadn't brought so much as a robe outside, he realized as he watched her very nice ass precede him. This proof that Lila was comfortable in her own skin was such a fucking turn-on. Colton was sick of neurotic women, always seeking reassurance about their supposed defects.

  Stepping into the kitchen, he dropped the condom into the waste bin and looked around. She was in the laundry room to his right, tying the belt on her robe. She stood there playing with the ends of the sash, the gesture telling him she was wrestling with what they'd done.

  His heart did a funny stutter as he thought about the fact that she had made him the first man she'd been with since Pete.

  "Would it be all right if I showered?" he asked. The coconut-scented oil was clinging to his skin. There was no way to explain smelling like suntan oil back at the garage. He wasn't ready to leave her, but he needed a minute to think about what had happened between them, and from the look of her, she did too. "Then, we'll talk."

  Not that there was much point to his errand if Pete was dead, but telling her why he'd come allowed him to spend a bit more time memorizing Lila.

  * * * *

  "Oh, how horrible," Lila gasped, after Colton fell silent, shocked by the news that Sarah De Marco had been murdered during a car-jacking. She remembered Sarah, a beautiful girl if Lila had ever seen one. About five minutes after she'd graduated high school, Sarah had jumped on a bus bound for Los Angeles. Not long after, Lila had seen the first picture of Sarah's infant son hanging on the wall behind the counter at the De Marco family garage. Now the lovely young woman was dead and her son had come to live with his only remaining relatives. The photo in her hand was recent. Jonah had reddish tints in his version of the trademark De Marco dark brown hair, otherwise he looked like a younger version of Colton. The picture didn't show whether his eyes were the same attractive hazel as the rest of the men in his family, but it showed well enough the kid was going to be just as good-looking.

  "He's gonna be a real heartbreaker." Lila handed the picture back to him, and impulsively put her hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry you lost your baby sister, Colton. Sarah was a lovely girl and I know your entire family must be devastated. How is Jonah adjusting to her loss?"

  Lila had learned the hard way that death was about the survivors.

  Colton covered her hand with his, giving her a gentle squeeze that she felt to her toes, but his expression became even more troubled. "Jonah isn't adjusting, Lila. He hates it here. Apparently this town is sadly lacking compared to life in California. He's not trying to make friends because he says he'll just have to start over next year at the high school. He doesn't want to do anything I suggest. All he does is bury his head in a video game or sit around looking miserable. I'm trying my ass off to just get the kid to smile, and finally, he opens up and tells me one thing he'd enjoy doing, and I cannot seem to make that happen."

  Lila couldn't suppress a twitch of her lips, earning a questioning look from the handsome man across the table. "Before you start kicking yourself too hard over not living in the world's most exciting spot, allow me to point out nothing is ever quite right in the world of a thirteen-year-old. What is it he wants? A horse? A skateboard park in the backyard?" Her smile became wider as she recalled what Charlie had wanted at Jonah's age, and thank God Pete had said 'no', otherwise there'd be one more thing she had to find a way to look after. "A pool?"

  Colton's dark hair gleamed wetly as he shook his head. "Baseball. He wants to play baseball. But we missed the tryouts by a week because he wouldn't talk to me."

  Ah, it made sense to her now, why he'd come here. If anyone in the world could get a thirteen-year-old kid a spot on a baseball team after tryouts had ended, it would've been Pete. Pete and Tucker Sizemore, the Athletic Director at the local Parks and Recreation Department, had been best friends. Pete and Lila had once been very active with the competitive league Jonah De Marco would be in, back when her son Charlie had been Jonah's age. Pete had kept his position on the board of directors of the league right up until he'd become unable to attend their meetings.

  "You talked to Ken Davis?" she queried, knowing Ken was still the league president from talking to her best friend Amy, who happened to be Tucker's daughter.

  Her new best friend.

  Her old ones had kicked her to the curb for reasons Lila still didn't quite understand.

  He nodded, lifting his hand from hers to rake his fingers through his damp hair distractedly. Much longer then she was used to seeing on a man, his hair hung well past his shoulders, but the look suited him. It was the exact shade of her treasured black walnut ladies' desk, right down to the amber highlights, which matched the ones in his eyes. He usually wore it in a neat ponytail, but seeing it loose was like getting a peek at some kind of secret.

  Lila longed to have his hand back on top of hers so much she ached, but she made herself pull her hand away from his arm. It was a shock to realize how much she had missed such a simple caress, almost as shocking as what she'd done to tempt him into having sex. His small, tender gesture did something to her, but there was no sense in getting carried away and pretending this was something it wasn't. He was only here because he needed a favor. "So you came here to talk to Pete, to see if he could get them to make an exception?"

  "I'm sorry about Pete," he burst out, his voice sounding about as ragged as she felt. "I'm sorry I didn't know, Lila. Are you… are you okay?"

  She was, if you didn't count the fact she had house payments to make and Pete's life insurance wasn't in any hurry to pay up. She was doing fine if you didn't count the fact all her old friends had deserted her. She was absolutely peachy as long as her mother-in-law kept her distance. She was just fucking fabulous if she didn't let herself think too much about her only child being deployed to Iraq.

  "What choice do I have?" she said aloud. Fixing Colton's problem would be easier than tackling any single one of her own. "I'll talk to Ken," she offered. "And I can't promise a thing, but if I'm good at anything, Colton, I'm good at not taking 'no' for an answer if it's something I believe in." She tilted her head and felt her cheeks warm up as she met his eyes. "But I need to ask you a favor, too."

  He only nodded. Colton was the quiet, observant type, so quiet that whenever he spoke to her, Lila had always felt special. So quiet he made her babble at times, to fill up the silence. A habit she feared she'd gotten from Pete.

  "God knows, in the last few years I've handled some things I never suspected I'd be able to handle, and I guess being gossiped about if you tell anyone we did this would be just one more thing to handle, but to be honest, I've been through so much lately that I'd just as soon not have to deal with the repercussions if word of this got out, so—" Her eyes filled, but she blinked her tears away. "It's not that I'm ashamed for people to know I was with you, but I loved Pete, but most folks would think I didn't wait long enough before I—"

  "Lila, four years is long enough by anyone's standards," he said in a gentle tone. He frowned so fiercely, she feared she'd made him mad. "But for the record, I don't kiss and tell."

  She gave him an assessing look, uncaring if his feelings were a bit hurt. People wouldn't count from the day Pete had ceased to be a real husband to her; they'd start the clock on how long she mourned for Pete from the day he died.

  "I apologize if you feel I'm underestimating you. It's just that once Pete got hurt, a lot of our friends came by to check on us, and a few of the husbands made a point to ask if there was anything they could do to help me." Her laughter was mirthless. "Well, it took a few awkward conversations for me to figure out none of them were worried about how my grass was getting cut or who hauled off the trash once Charlie left for Parris Island."

  "I turned down every last one of them." Her voice became fierce as she stared across the table at him, wondering why he didn't look surprised, because she'd been shocked as hell. "But their wives cut me
off at the knees anyway. If my husband wasn't giving me sex, then I guess they were worried I might ask their husbands for it." She knew her smile didn't reach her eyes. "I suppose it never occurred to them it happened the other way around, or that I was too exhausted to care about such, but I've already lost enough, if it's all the same to you."

  Chapter Four

  As he reversed out of his parking spot, Colton was already dreading another long evening at home with a sullen Jonah, slouched in the truck at his side, when he caught sight of Daniel's beefy frame jumping up and down outside the front door to the garage, waving his hands over his head like a flagman at the finish line of Lowe's Motor Speedway.

  With a glance at the young man huddled in the passenger seat, Colton threw his truck into park and turned off the switch, removing the keys. He worried constantly the kid might try something stupid, like trying to drive back to the only home he'd ever known.

  He took the phone Dan handed him. "This is Colton," he said, watching his oldest brother's elaborate shrug in confusion.

  "This is Ken Davis," the man on the other end of the line introduced himself. "Do you know where Berry Field is located?"

  Colton thought the question silly. His company car was a wrecker. He knew where everything was located. "Asheville Highway, across from Cleveland Park," he snapped back, annoyed by the man's tone and the quiz.

  "Have your nephew here in an hour, dressed to play. I'll take a look at the kid. But I'm telling you now; I'm only doing this as a favor to Pete's widow."

  The line went dead. Colton placed the cordless phone back on the charger with a frown. What a jerk. But it looked like Lila had done what she'd promised.

  "Was that what I think it was?" Daniel asked, grinning broadly. A step behind him, his middle brother Eric looked excited as well.

  Colton grinned back, feeling hopeful for the first time since Sarah had died and he'd made the cross-country trip to bring her body and her son back home. "Looks like Jonah gets a try-out after all." The brothers high-fived all around and then followed him as he jogged out of the garage, all three of them delighting in the big grin that crossed Jonah's face when he heard the news.

  * * * *

  Colton lounged on the wide concrete steps comprising the tiered seating at Berry Field, taking in the surroundings. He'd never actually been inside the gate, but he had picked up a few cars from the parking lot with the wrecker over the years.

  An eight-foot concrete block wall, painted forest green, curved around the close-clipped outfield grass. White numbers were stenciled in three different places along the top of the wall, marking the distance from the plate, he guessed. Baseball was not his thing. The facility had been around a while, though, judging from the way a couple of the majestic river oaks leaned over the wall as if watching the action like the scattered groups of parents.

  The women were seated in a big group, far to his right in the shadow cast by the sun setting behind the concrete risers, while the men stood in groups of two or three, scattered along the tall protective fence separating the spectators from the action on the field.

  Berry Field wasn't a big park, but the field had a certain charm, he supposed. Jonah had turned up his nose at the place when they'd first walked up, but as far as Colton could tell, the kid thought everything was better on the West Coast.

  While part of his brain tracked his nephew's actions as the boy did some stretching exercises, another part of his mind conjured the image of Lila all buttered up on her deck.

  Colton jerked forward suddenly, placing his forearms over his knees and surreptitiously trying to adjust his jeans as he glanced around. This was not the place to pop wood. Some parent might think he had a thing for little boys, damn it.

  He had trouble losing the hard-on though, because every time he blinked, he saw her. And sure enough, before he got his problem under control, some guy tapped him on the shoulder.

  "You must be Jonah De Marco's uncle?" the stranger asked, reading from a piece of paper in his hand.

  "Yes," he answered, wondering how the man knew that, since he'd told Dan there was no way he'd ever wear one of those ugly uniform shirts with embroidered names. The guy's shirt said 'Parks and Recreation' and 'Athletic Director'. Surely nobody had seen his erection and reported him. Were parents that paranoid these days?

  The man gave Colton a friendly grin. "Had to be, you're the only guy here I don't know. Which kid is he?" the stranger asked, dropping down to sit on the concrete step beside Colton, looking through the fence at the field.

  His dilemma was almost, but not quite funny, Colton thought. But his problem was sure enough cured for the time being. "The one in the Dodger's jersey."

  The man chuckled, his eyes riveted to the activity on the field. "Should've figured that one out on my own, since he lived in L.A. That's a nice stadium, though. I went to a couple of games there once."

  It took Colton a second to realize the man meant Dodger Stadium. "Never been, I'm not a baseball person."

  "But you know one," the man replied. "And, it sounds like you signed up to raise one. You'll catch on soon enough."

  "I know one?" Colton repeated, figuring the other part was more or less a given.

  The man turned his attention to Colton now, giving him an assessing gaze. "I had a visit from our former league secretary Lila Walker today, about your nephew. It's a shame about your sister. That's why I like smaller towns, myself."

  "Yeah, my Dad was pretty upset when Sarah announced her plan to go to L.A., but she was eighteen. Sorry, I didn't get your name."

  The man laughed and turned to stick out a hand, glancing down at his shirt before meeting Colton's eyes, his ruddy face reddening a bit more. "Tucker Sizemore, sorry," he apologized with a rueful chuckle, "I thought this shirt had my name on it."

  They shook hands and Tucker stood up. "Watch for a guy about five-two or five-three, driving a white Ford Ranger, would you? Introduce yourself. His name's Reggie. I see somebody who wants a piece of me. If I move now, maybe my blood won't get on your shoes."

  Colton was trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to see this guy's truck from his seat inside the field, let alone why he needed to introduce himself, but he nodded as the Parks and Rec Athletic Director walked away and watched as one of the women stalked up to the man. Judging from the way she was pointing her finger in the poor guy's face, Parks and Rec wasn't all fun and games, he thought with a smirk as he memorized the woman's face so he could make sure Eric got her service ticket if she ever showed up at the garage.

  He caught a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye and watched as Jonah ran across the infield to stand on the mound. After a few pitches, even the Tucker guy and the angry lady stopped their debate to watch, so he figured the kid must be doing something right. Like the man said, he'd catch on. All three of them would, he vowed grimly. Eric and Dan thought the world started and ended with cars.

  "That your kid?" he heard from his left.

  Looking around, he assumed this could only be Reggie, since the guy wasn't quite as tall as Jonah. He used such a wide-legged stance it caused Colton to wonder if he subconsciously took up a lot of horizontal space to compensate for his vertical lack. "Nephew, but he's mine," Colton agreed.

  Reggie, if that was who the guy was, didn't say another word. The practice continued, another kid eventually replacing Jonah on the mound, but instead of coming off the field, the kid ran to stand beside third base, knees bent, pounding one hand into his glove.

  A few minutes later, after taking a few swings and hitting several balls, Jonah came off the field with his equipment bag and took a seat beside his uncle. "He said to wait here," his nephew said with a small shrug. Colton nodded. A silent minute passed. Jonah looked at Colton, who was dismayed to see the usual frown back on his nephew's face. "I could've done better, you know."

  Colton felt his eyebrows go up. "So why didn't you?"

  Jonah kicked the bag at his feet. "Before I even got warmed up, I heard that K
en guy say this was just a waste of his time. It's too late to add anybody." The kid's thin shoulders hunched and he continued sending vicious kicks into the heavy vinyl bag.

  At a complete loss for words, Colton watched Jonah wipe his face against the shoulder of his jersey. Getting a fake try-out was worse than not getting one, he realized.

  The man to his left spoke up. "What, exactly, could you have done better, kid?"

  Jonah gave the battered bag another savage kick, addressing his words to the beleaguered bag. "I wasn't throwing as hard as I can. Why risk my arm? And my curve wasn't breaking today either. It's been a while since I had a catcher to throw to."

  Note to self, Colton thought. Learn to catch. How in the heck had his sister managed alone? Somehow he couldn't picture Sarah in the padding and helmet the kid behind the plate wore. She'd shrieked bloody murder every time one of her brothers threatened to wipe a little grease on her. Squat in the dirt? Not likely. "Do we stay or go?" he asked, squeezing Jonah's shoulder and feeling helpless.

  "We stay," Jonah said, jerking away from Colton's hand but looking up with angry eyes that borrowed their color from the outfield grass. "But I dare him to say it's because I'm not good enough. Even on an off day like today, I'm better than his best guy."

  Out of the corner of his eye, Colton saw the Reggie guy smirking.

  The practice broke up and suddenly, Tucker was back. "Good job, Jonah. Couldn't get your curve working, huh? Some days it's like that. How you doing, Reggie?"

  "Am I here for a reason, Tucker?" Reggie asked belligerently. "Because based on what I see out there, I need to spend my time with my own team. Ken's loaded for bear."

  "Hang on, let's wait for Ken to get over here," Tucker soothed. "What did you think of Jonah, Reg?"

  "He can play," Reggie said. "But like the kid said, it's too late. Wish he'd shown up at my tryout, though. I could use another pitcher, for sure."