Resuscitate Me Read online

  “The whole summer? Do you come here every year?”

  I drank more water and shook my head while I swallowed. “No. This is the first time. My brother was deployed a month ago, so I came to help out with my nephew. They just moved here, and neither of them have family or friends in the area, so I volunteered to stay for a while.”

  He moved from the floor to the bench, straddling it in front of me. Our knees touched, but he didn’t seem to mind, because he didn’t back away. “You must have a nice job if you can take off for the entire summer…or a man who supports you well. Although, I have to admit, if I had a woman who looked like you, I don’t think I’d be okay going months without seeing her. Unless…he’s here with you?”

  I lifted my shoulder, and then let it fall. Realizing his knees no longer touched mine left my mind replaying the last ten seconds. He’d fished for information about a possible guy in my life, one serious enough to either support me or come with me.

  And how did I respond?

  With a fucking shrug.

  My gaze dropped to the plastic bottle in my hand, where I squeezed it hard enough for the crackling sound to fill the widening gap between us.

  My head snapped back just as he pulled himself completely off the bench, the smile no longer on his lips. His dimple gone, flush with his cheek. The light in his eyes dull and dim, and even though the creases that had fanned out beyond his inky lashes were prominent, they were no longer caused by carefree interest.

  His easy expression had hardened with one shrug, one lift of my shoulder.

  “It was nice to meet you, Tara. But I should really get back to work.” He spoke in a profound monotone. We may have just met, but not once had I heard him sound so serious, so professional, and I didn’t know how to take it other than with complete shock.

  I’d opened my mouth to explain my situation, but the words died on my lips when he glanced away. I shook my head to clear the confusion in my sluggish brain, and then readied myself to speak again.

  However, before any words escaped, he backed away another step and straightened his spine with his shoulders pulled back. “If you liked it here, stop by the front desk on your way out and someone can set you up with a summer membership. And whether you come back or go to another gym”—he met my stare once more—“please remember to eat well and drink plenty of water before working out.”

  And then he walked away.

  CHAPTER TWO

  It took me all of fifteen seconds to comprehend what had just happened, and then I was on my feet. The room spun a little as I chased after him, but I didn’t let that stop me. It might’ve slowed me down a bit, but I didn’t let it prevent me from catching up with him. I followed him into a hallway, probably one I shouldn’t have been in, but I didn’t care. By the time I rounded the corner, I watched him disappear into a room.

  I picked up the pace and pushed on the door he’d vanished behind. Every thought in my head had been to stop him, to find out why he’d left so suddenly. It wasn’t until I made it inside and took a look around that I realized this was not an office. It wasn’t another workout room or even a janitor’s closet. I’d found myself in the men’s bathroom.

  A gasp escaped before I could cover my mouth with my hand. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know my eyes were wide as saucers. A man, probably in his late forties, stood along the far wall with his back to me. He peered over his shoulder at the commotion and narrowed his eyes in my direction. On either side of him were empty urinals. He had his legs spread and his hands in front of him—it didn’t take a genius to know what he was doing.

  Especially since I was In. The. Men’s. Bathroom.

  “Oh my God,” I screeched and closed my eyes. I turned around, but other than that, I didn’t move, didn’t take one step toward the door. Didn’t flee, didn’t run, didn’t hide. I just stood there with my eyes closed and my cheeks on fire. “I’m so sorry. Oh my God.”

  Someone brushed against my shoulder and muttered beneath his breath, “I think you’re lost.” When I opened my eyes, I realized it was the man from the urinal, and my lips pulled up in disgust at the thought of him leaving without washing his hands.

  “If you’re looking for the women’s restroom, it’s across the hall,” Carter said from behind me as if giving directions to the local carwash. Emotionless. Not at all the way he’d sounded earlier.

  I covered my eyes with my hands and turned around. “Is it safe?”

  “You’re standing in the men’s room.”

  “I know.” Humiliation amplified my defensive tone. “I’m asking if there are any other guys in here.” When I was not given an answer, I parted my fingers to peek through, wondering why he hadn’t responded. I dropped my hands and found him standing a few feet away, cupping his groin. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking to make sure I’m still a guy. You asked me if there were any other guys in here, and I just wondered if maybe you were under the impression I wasn’t one.” The statement itself, coupled with his vulgar gesture, could’ve been taken as a joke had he not said it with such a bland, even tone.

  “I meant other guys. I came in here to find you. I’d hope you’re still here,” I sneered.

  He stepped forward and hunched his shoulders a few degrees to lessen the height difference. “It’s against policy for you to be in here, so my suggestion is to leave. If you want a membership or tour of the gym, there are people at the front desk to help you with that. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a piss.”

  His attitude didn’t seem justified, and it set a fire inside me. The fog in my head had lifted and my legs seemed sturdier. I straightened my back and squared my shoulders, my breathing coming faster with each passing second. “You don’t have to be so nasty to me. I didn’t know this was the men’s room when I walked in, and I only came in here because I was trying to catch up with you. You stormed off so fast I wasn’t able to ask why. But now…now I don’t care why you ran off. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm to stop me. It wasn’t rough enough to leave marks, but it was enough to catch my attention. To halt my departure. To steal the air from my lungs.

  “Why do you think I stormed off?” He hissed the harsh words through clenched teeth and I wondered just how hard his jaw was. But I didn’t know because my back was to him. His mouth was close enough that the heat of his breath fanned over my earlobe and soothed the prickles from his facial hair.

  My entire body quaked with nervous adrenaline, and when I finally opened my mouth to speak, my voice came out in a raspy whisper, giving away my trepidation. “You said something about my job, I shrugged, you backed away. Immediately after that, you left. Really, Carter…I have no idea why you left.”

  He tugged on my arm until I somewhat faced him, my shoulder perpendicular to his chest. He blinked at me a few times with his brow knitted and his teeth clenched. “You just said so yourself. You shrugged—which either means you don’t know or you don’t want to say. And I think it’s safe to assume you knew the answer, so that meant you didn’t want to tell me.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “The answer to what?”

  “If you don’t know, why’d you shrug?”

  “Because I’m a girl and that’s what we do.”

  He should’ve already figured this about the female population by now.

  I couldn’t seem to maintain his eye contact, the scrutiny too much to handle, so I dropped my gaze to the tiled floor at my feet and twisted my fingers in front of me. “It’s obvious your presence has left me looking like an idiot ever since I fell off the wall.” I glanced back up to make sure he heard the next part. “I fainted, Carter. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, I woke up in a room surrounded by strangers lifting weights. My head was still a little fuzzy, and then you came and sat so close to me. I was trying to formulate words that wouldn’t leave me looking like even more of an idiot.”

  “Formulate words?” He took a step b
ack and regarded me with squinted eyes. “I asked if you were with someone. You looked away and closed up; therefore, it seemed to me you just didn’t want to give an answer because you knew the flirting would end. That’s why I backed away. You seemed to welcome my earlier advances, and nothing repulses me more than a cheater.” He spoke slowly, as if needing to make sure I understood each and every word he said. “I had no reason to stick around.”

  I wanted to give up and leave, just brush it off as a misunderstanding. But I wasn’t that type of person—never had been. I hated to be misunderstood or for someone to have an unfair opinion of me. I felt the need to make sure, on some level, that I’d set the record straight. Even though right now, it would’ve been easier to simply walk away and never return to this gym.

  “You never asked me anything, Carter. I’d know because I’ve replayed your words in my head like a hundred times trying to figure out why you flipped your switch so fast. One minute you were close, teasing me, flirting maybe…and the next, you were moving, running away. You may have tried to pry, to open the door for me to tell you if I was single or not, but you never outright asked me anything.”

  His gaze narrowed even more, but not out of anger. This time, he regarded me with confusion. It lined his forehead, and the creases deepened next to his eyes, which had darkened several shades. Even his full, perfect lips flattened as he pinched them together in his study of me. “Tara…” It was sexy the way he said it.

  If only it was my name.

  I held up my hand to interrupt him in the event he had more to say. “My friends tell me I’m clueless when it comes to being hit on. Most of the time, I don’t even know that’s what’s going on. You gave me a compliment I was trying to process, while at the same time, I was attempting to read between the lines. The last thing I wanted to do was assume anything and end up looking like an even bigger fool than I already had. I was trying to avoid being that girl.”

  “And I was trying to avoid being that guy. I thought you were…I assumed…”

  I was in the midst of wearing him down. In the last sixty seconds standing in this bathroom, I was able to see he wasn’t the type of person who easily admitted fault or apologized. He had a wall built high around him. I knew someone just like him and could pick out the signs easily. But the one thing I had on my side was he didn’t seem to be someone who’d need much convincing to give in.

  “So, Carter, why don’t you try again. This time, make it a question. No skirting around it, no assuming, no taking off until you’ve heard my answer. Go ahead…ask me what you want to know.”

  A smirk tugged at one side of his mouth, even though he clearly tried to stave it off. “Did you come here alone?”

  My own grin spread, knowing I wouldn’t let him off that easily. “The gym? Yes. All by myself.” I flicked my gaze between his eyes, silently pushing him, while praying I didn’t upset him again. I wanted a peek over his wall, one small glimpse beyond this unique armor he wore. But if there was one thing I’d learned about dealing with the guarded…never push so hard you can’t pull them back in.

  “What about Florida? Did you come to Florida alone?”

  “Yes.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed with his drawn-out swallow. “Did you leave anyone behind?”

  “I left an entire state behind, Carter.”

  He took a step closer until he’d eaten up every ounce of breathable space between our bodies. “If I touch you right now, would you push me away?” He watched with hooded eyes as I shook my head. His voice dropped even lower when he asked, “If I touched you right now, would anyone find it offensive?”

  I broke our intense eye contact and glanced around the empty room. There were closed stalls I couldn’t see into, but if anyone had been in them, they’d managed to keep quiet for this long. My sight uneasily landed on his again, and my voice shook as I said, “Not as far as I know.”

  “If I touched you right now…would it make you a cheater?”

  “No,” I whispered with renewed confidence.

  One word.

  One breath.

  My heart pounded and the room began to spin again with anticipation. We were almost chest to chest, yet he hadn’t actually touched me. His hands remained by his sides, and mine picked at the hem of my gym shorts. My breaths trembled with every erratic inhalation, while his remained steady and in control. Carter was a hungry lion, waiting me out until he pounced and feasted on my vulnerability.

  “Are you going to touch me?” If I had bothered to process my words, I would’ve been embarrassed by how desperate they sounded. How unbelievably wanton they made me look. But he didn’t give me the time.

  His grin widened until I caught a glimpse of his perfect teeth behind the shadow of his neatly trimmed beard. It caused his eyes to squint and those lines—almost extensions of his lashes—to fan out. Even if I hadn’t seen his mouth, seen his sinful smile, I would’ve known it was there simply by the light in his eyes and the subtle creases on the bridge of his nose.

  He leaned forward until his breaths warmed the rim of my ear like a newly stroked fire in February. “By the time I touch you, you’re gonna be begging for it, Tara.”

  His words ignited a hungry flame inside, but before it could settle in the needy place between my legs, he uttered that name again. I wanted nothing more than to hear my name on those lips, whispered with the grit of his voice, felt in the heat of his exhales as he spoke into my ear while setting my body ablaze. I opened my mouth to correct him, but stopped before the first sound came out.

  Carter pulled away, strolled with the lightness of air over to the wall of urinals, and began to lower his zipper with elongated exaggeration. “Will you excuse me, please?”

  Lightheaded again, I turn around to leave to keep from passing out on the floor of the men’s bathroom.

  “I want dat one,” Logan, my three-year-old nephew, said while pointing to the most expensive chocolate bar on the entire shelf.

  “Of course you do, buddy. It’s gourmet; I want that one, too. How about we concentrate more on this section?” I moved my hand in a giant circle over the Kit Kats and Twix. “These probably taste less snobby.”

  “I wasn’t aware it was possible for something to taste…snobby.” The sexiest voice I’d ever heard rolled over my shoulder from behind me. I sucked in a sharp gasp and whipped around. Strands of my dark hair became trapped in my mouth, and I reached up and swiped them away.

  I’d gone into the gym two more times before the week was over. I’d seen Carter both times, but I wasn’t able to have a conversation with him either visit. The last time, he was at the front desk when I walked in, but soon after, he was with someone—it looked like it was to handle business. The other was more of a drive-by, more of a brief glimpse of his back as he strolled across the weight room.

  I thought if I had a membership, he’d be able to look me up and get my number. I’d spent days glued to my phone with the hopes he’d call. He never did. And then I thought maybe he couldn’t get my number because he was under the impression my name was Tara. But the last time I was in, he was the one behind the counter who had to scan me into the system. He’d taken the card from me and ran the barcode beneath the red laser, typed something into the computer, and then passed me a towel. He had to have seen my name on the screen, but that had been two days ago and still no call.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Carter glanced around and then met my gaze, his green eyes intent on me. “It’s a grocery store.”

  And there went the flaming cheeks again. I wondered if the intense passion I experienced caused my eyes to flare from their normal slate to blue.

  He ran the tip of his finger from the top of my cheekbone down to my chin. “Why do you always get embarrassed around me?” he asked in a low, husky voice with his attention focused on my face instead of my eyes. But he didn’t let me speak. Instead, he turned to the little boy in front of the candy bars. “This is your nephew?”

  �
��Yeah. This is Logan. Hey, Logan, this is Carter. He works at the gym I go to.”

  Carter’s lips twisted into a smirk. In an instant, he knelt down next to Logan and picked up a silver-wrapped chocolate bar. “This one’s my favorite.”

  Logan took the Three Musketeers from Carter and smiled up at me as he thrust it in my direction. “Dis one!”

  The cashier politely caught my attention by clearing her throat.

  “Oh, buddy, it’s our turn.” I took the candy from his tiny hand and passed it over the conveyor belt to be rung up with the rest of our groceries, and then promptly paid the woman. The entire time, Carter’s close proximity sent a blast of heat rushing through me until everything from my chest up was on fire.

  I rolled the cart outside, holding Logan’s hand. I’d just gotten to the car when Carter caught up to me. “Did you really just leave without saying anything?”

  Putting the bags of groceries into the trunk, I feigned being too busy to look him in his olive-colored eyes. “I said bye.”

  “Yeah, over your shoulder.”

  “I’m sorry. Logan doesn’t sit still for long periods and we’d been in—” Thick fingers gently wrapped around my wrist, cutting off my rambling excuse. I stopped moving—probably stopped breathing—and turned my head to look at Carter standing next to me.

  “You’re kinda throwing me mixed signals. Just tell me now if you’re not interested.”

  “How am I giving you mixed signals? I don’t understand.”

  He stepped closer, wedging his large, hard body between my significantly smaller frame and the bumper of the car. “I’ve called you, left you a message, and sent you a text. You never returned any of them. Yet you blush when we talk, and then you run away. At the risk of sounding cocky, I’m not used to that.” A short rumble escaped his smiling lips as he stared down at me.