Chapter 24

"You don't have to stay," Star said as she reached out and snagged another smaller towel to wrap around her hair. "Just call one of my sibs to come up."
"Probably a good idea," he agreed. He wished - but no, nothing had changed between them. Even though the chemistry was still as strong as ever, their fundamental differences were just too big to overcome.
Neither of them spoke as they finished drying off. After wrapping a towel around his waist, he turned to see Star tucking in the end of the one she'd tied sarong-style above her breasts, covering her to her hips. "Ready."
She nodded and let him lift her into his arms. He carried her into the room he knew she shared with her sister and set her down on the big lower bunk. This was the bed they'd used when he'd spent stolen weekends here with Star. She hadn't been able to handle using her parents' bed for a lovers' tryst, so they'd used hers, even though it was really too small for someone Theo's size. His cock hardened again at the memory - not that it hadn't stayed quasi-erect even right after he'd come. He forced himself to turn away. "Bottom two drawers, right?"
"Yep, bottom bunk, bottom drawers. That's me, a true bottom, all the way."
Theo groaned. "Don't. Once barely took the edge off. Don't push your luck." He opened the third drawer of the dresser and drew out a pair of cotton bikini panties and a matching sports bra - thank god she didn't keep any of her sexy stuff here - along with a pair of fluffy, stretchy slipper socks. In the bottom drawer he found a pair of gray yoga pants and a pink sweatshirt.
She caught the items as he tossed them to her one by one. A sarcastic smirk curled her pretty, lush lips. "What's the matter, big guy? Guess you had a bit of a dry spell?"
"Yeah." He turned toward the door, intent on escape. "About six and a half months." He could almost hear her doing the math in her head. Star was a writer - numbers weren't her strong suit.
"No fucking way. You haven't been with anyone since we broke up?"
Her incredulous tone was more insulting than her sarcasm a few moments earlier. He grabbed hold of the doorframe to keep from turning. "You know, for a sweet Southern belle, you have a real potty mouth. I've been busy." Yeah, working eighteen-hour days just to try to keep her out of his head. Not that it had worked.
"Umm..." Her voice came out as a squeak. "I don't know if this means anything to you, but I haven't been with anyone either."
Yeah. It meant a lot - more than it had any business meaning, if it was true. Theo managed - just - to shake his head. "Not even Ben Casey?" That was the guy she'd gone out to the bar with just a few hours after breaking up with Theo - another uninhibited artsy type like herself, not a stuffed shirt like she'd called Theo.
She shook her head. "No. Honestly? All I did that night was mope about you. Ben dumped me for another girl not an hour into the evening and I went home alone."
Theo pondered that as he stepped out the door. Did it mean she had cared? Perhaps more than she'd wanted to admit? For the first time in months, he felt a stirring of something almost like hope. "I'm going to go get dressed. Then I'll call Sam and heat us up some soup or something."
"Thanks."
He hated that her voice sounded so small and lost.
The cabin had three bedrooms, and since Theo had been coming here with Sam for fishing weekends since college, he knew his way around. The three brothers shared another room, this one with a set of triple bunks. He tossed his bag onto the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a warm flannel shirt. Once he was dressed, he made his way back out to the great room, where he started a pot of coffee and put a couple of cans of soup on the burner. Then he picked up the phone.
"Damn it." Just as he'd feared, the phone line was down. There was no cell service here either - that had been part of the appeal of the cabin back when they were dating. After they'd eaten, he'd have to go out in the rain and take care of Star's car then stop in town to make some phone calls.
But now, while the soup cooked, he tidied up the bathroom and rummaged through the cabinets until he found an elastic bandage. Knocking on Star's bedroom door, he forced down an image of her naked against the sheets.
"I'm decent," she called, popping the bubble his imagination had created. He entered to find her fully clothed, still sitting on the bed with her injured leg stretched out in front of her.
"How's the ankle feel?" He sat down on the end of the bed and gently lifted it into his lap?
"Sore, but not unusable," she murmured. "I had way worse back in my dancing days."
Theo remembered the pictures he'd seen, back when he was in college with Sam, and Star was involved in jazz and ballet. Damn, she'd been cute in those costumes, even though he'd tried not to think about it at the time. Four years difference in age wasn't a lot now, but back when she was only sixteen, it had been. He probed her ankle again, noting only mild swelling and began to carefully wrap it with the elastic.
"So why'd you ever stop dancing?" he asked, mostly to keep the conversation flowing and stop the train of his thoughts. He'd never heard mention of it once she'd left high school.
Star shrugged. "I was never quite good enough to go professional, or even do much at the college level. I still dance some, just to stay in shape, but it's just for myself now. Besides, five-four is way too short to be taken seriously in the dance world, not unless you're a real superstar talent, which I wasn't."
"That sounds reasonable," he replied, securing the end of the bandage. "Sort of like me and track. Good enough to get a scholarship, not good enough to do anything with it in real life."
"Yeah, like you ever wanted to be anything but a vet," she teased. "I'm sure sports were always just a means to that end for you."
"Uh-huh." He picked up her stretchy sock and pulled it on over the bandage. "And a way to blow off steam. Running still works for me after a long day in the clinic."
"Same reason I do aerobics," she agreed. When he moved to pick her up, she shook her head and held out her hands instead. "And sometimes why I want to go out dancing at night."
While he wanted to relax at home after a long day at the clinic - another of their irreconcilable differences. He supposed he hadn't considered that her needing to unwind might have meant something other than not wanting to be alone with him. Maybe he hadn't always taken her needs into consideration.