The Family Gathering (Sullivan's Crossing #3)(34)

Yes, it had all been quite painful, to never feel a part of his life or even of her own life.

But things weren’t exactly like that now. Right now she was connected. It had been like training for a race—she came out of her quiet, preoccupied, serious place and learned to be more outgoing. She liked people, after all. Anyone who had engaged in a long and complex course of study could tell you about how easy it is to become hyperfocused. She’d had to learn the first way in order to excel in math and then computers, so she had to likewise learn the more extroverted way, getting out of her head a little and appreciating her enhanced social skills.

A few months with Rob and she hadn’t been lonely anymore. A few months behind the bar as a bartender and server and it brought such a relief to feel that people actually liked her. Of course, she felt they didn’t know the real her—the boring, fixated, dorky person she had left resting inside.

But there was no denying she still grieved the loss of her science. When she was making great strides in the lab, experiencing breakthroughs and making discoveries that could change the world, she felt huge. Inside, of course. But huge and important and confident. With her meltdown, she lost that. She wished she had not let it happen, but she wouldn’t know how to stop all the side effects of her personal crisis. Yes, even the most pragmatic scientist is vulnerable to emotional calamity.

She fled to Rob to rebuild herself from the ground up. Then Dakota came along and she felt an instant zing of energy. Well, she must have been ready. She was a woman, after all. She hadn’t stopped producing hormones. There was a certain biological science to it, wasn’t there? There were lots of theories about why a certain man appealed to a certain woman. About what made all manner of creatures desire the opposite sex. With whales, the males wanted the strongest, fittest females because reproduction was difficult and many cows died giving birth, which made perfect sense to Sid, considering the calf weighed about six hundred pounds. But the whales didn’t just mate with the most available female.

And so it was with men and women, she assumed. The right one at the right time with all the right biological configurations from looks to scent to prowess. Whatever the magic was, Sidney went to bed thinking she’d grow old in her brother’s house playing Auntie Sid and woke up one morning finding herself wickedly attracted to Dakota Jones.

It was going to be complicated.

*

Ever since the night his tire had been slashed, Dakota had been parking in a more public place on the street when he went to the bar for dinner. He risked running into Alyssa but he wasn’t about to sacrifice any more of his Jeep SUV to the manic charms of Miss Neely. And sure enough, Alyssa was sweeping the sidewalk in front of the beauty shop as he walked up. She stopped and leaned on her broom. He thought briefly of crossing the street, but that would be just plain cruel. He walked right up to her, smiling.

“Hi there, Alyssa,” he said. “Getting ready to close?”

“I have one more client. You can come to the shop for a trim if you like. I think I’ve gotten the message.”

“Hmm? What’s that?”

“You’re all trimmed up but I haven’t seen you. I get it—you found another place to get your hair cut. So I tried letting you know that I’m available to date if you’re interested, but you ran for your life. It wasn’t really necessary to hide your car to keep me from bumping into you at the bar.”

“I think you have the wrong impression,” he said. “I don’t believe I ran for my life—I got a job. And I don’t think I hid my car. I’m not parking behind the businesses anymore, that’s for sure. I had some damage one night. I’m sticking to streetlights.”

“Damage? In Timberlake?” she asked, surprised.

“It’s all right, I took care of it. Are there lights where you park?”

“Just over the back door, but we’ve never had a problem. So...you weren’t avoiding me?”

“Not at all. Just going about my business.”

“Ha, that’s a relief,” she said, smiling. “I thought you’d made up your mind about me before even getting to know me! In that case—”

“Alyssa, I’m not available,” he said. “I’m seeing someone. If you’re looking for a guy who’s available, it’s just not me. I hope I didn’t mislead you.”

“But you just got to town!”

“A couple of months ago,” he said. “Plenty of time to meet someone.”

“Well, for God’s sake, who? In Timberlake!”

He couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess the possibilities are pretty slim, aren’t they.”

“So, who?”

“Come on,” he said with a laugh. “It’s just friendly, but I’m trying to turn the heat up. The point is, my interest is somewhere else and it wouldn’t be nice of me not to tell you that.”

“I thought you heard something...” Her voice dwindled off and she looked at him nervously.

“What did you think I’d heard?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “A couple of years ago there was some nasty gossip about me. That’s hard in a small town.”

Dakota frowned. He assumed it was the usual sexual innuendo. Maybe some of those Vegas trips with the girls got caught on an iPhone when they were compromised. Women really took a hit for all the same things that tended to make men look like studs. He was instantly sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Alyssa. No, I didn’t hear anything. But gossip isn’t likely to affect me, anyway. You seem like a real nice girl but I have something going on.”