Buck Naked

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  To Opal, for introducing me to Rose and for being a wonderful friend

  One

  “This isn’t right. This can’t be happening. What the hell is going on?”

  Sadie Becker stood in front of the mirror on her fortieth birthday and stared at her reflection in disbelief.

  Her boobs were getting firmer.

  There was no doubt about it—it was true. She’d been noticing subtle differences ever since her divorce had been finalized about a week ago, but she’d put it down to the new diet and exercise routine. Now that her ex, Jeff, was out of her life, she was determined to start a whole new lifestyle. But no diet or exercise routine in the world completely erased stretch marks and molded your breasts back to where they’d been when you were in your twenties.

  “Just look at them,” Sadie muttered to herself. “They’re actually perky.”

  She wiped at the steam on the bathroom mirror and then decided she wasn’t getting a good enough look. What she needed was a full-length view. Luckily, there was an old-fashioned freestanding mirror in her bedroom. The mirror had a carved wooden frame and claw feet, matching the rest of the antique furniture in the cabin she’d inherited.

  The heavy carved oak furniture wasn’t much to Sadie’s taste but she wasn’t complaining. The cabin with its outdated furnishings and decorations had been a godsend—an inheritance from her mother who’d been dead for twenty years. Sadie hadn’t even known the cabin existed until after her divorce, when her mother’s lawyer had handed her the deed.

  She still missed her mom, even after all these years. She’d almost cried when she found out she had someplace to go. Someplace she wouldn’t have to see Jeff and his new, much younger girlfriend making a spectacle of themselves back in her hometown of Tampa. The only person she missed was her twin sister, Samantha—Sammie for short, but only to Sadie. No one else was allowed to call her by the cutesy nickname. But since Samantha was a busy trauma surgeon at Tampa General, it wasn’t like she had much time to hang out anyway.

  Speaking of Samantha, she ought to call her twin—it was her birthday too.

  I’ll call her in a minute, Sadie promised herself. First I need to figure out what in the world is going on with me.

  Wrapping herself in a towel, she padded from the bathroom to the bedroom and stopped in front of the ancient freestanding mirror. There wasn’t quite enough light in the dark bedroom and the bedside lamp only made more shadows. With a sigh, Sadie dragged the mirror, creaking and protesting, over to the window and opened the curtains.

  She wasn’t worried about anyone seeing her—the cabin was located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about ten miles north of the tiny town of Cougarville, North Carolina. It was quiet and isolated with only one road going in and out and a single neighbor—a surly giant of a man named Mathis Blackwell who had wild, tangled black hair, a close-clipped beard, and shoulders at least twice as broad as her own. Sadie had only seen him twice and both times he’d only grunted at her greeting and gone stumping off into the woods that separated his property from hers.

  At night she could faintly see firelight flickering from his cabin windows, which looked warm and cozy and reminded her that it was cooler here in the mountains than it had been back home in Tampa.

  No, this is my home now, Sadie reminded herself, frowning. Good old Cougarville.

  The actual name of the town she’d moved to was North Lewiston, though there wasn’t any South Lewiston that Sadie could see. Scrawled in looping graffiti on the green welcome sign that led into town were the words, Welcome to Cougarville!!! The name had apparently stuck since everyone she’d met since she’d gotten here had welcomed Sadie to Cougarville, rather than North Lewiston.

  Sadie was happy to be here—even if her new home was out in the sticks. In fact, she rather liked the solitude. It was different from the constant crawl of traffic on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. Also, where else could she feel free to walk around naked if she wanted to and not worry about anyone seeing her? Couldn’t do that in the city!

  As if to prove the point to herself, Sadie dropped her baby-blue bath towel, letting it puddle around her feet, and took a really good look at herself in the mirror.

  Sure enough, her breasts were definitely perky now. Perky like they hadn’t been since she’d breast-fed her twins almost twenty years ago. Graham and Anna—fraternal twins ran in Sadie’s family—had both gone off to college just a few months ago. Graham to MIT and Anna to Baylor, where she hoped to get into med school and become a doctor like her Aunt Samantha. Sadie was immensely proud of both of them, though having two at the same time hadn’t been easy. How many times had she joked about her crazy twins giving her gray hair?

  Speaking of gray hair . . . Sadie leaned forward, frowning at her face in the mirror.

  “Where is it?” she muttered, turning her head from side to side. “Where’s my gray?”

  The silvery strands that had begun showing up in her long dark brown hair around her mid-thirties were somehow gone, even though she was certain they had been there the night before. She’d been planning to go into town to pick up a box of dye, meaning to cover them as usual. But now, if her mirror was to be believed, there was nothing to cover.

  Not only that—her wrinkles were gone too! Or at least, they were fading. She could still see some tiny laugh lines around her eyes but the really deep line—almost a furrow—that had crept up between her eyebrows over the years was magically erased.

  What the . . . Sadie turned in front of the mirror, trying to see what else had changed. Well, for one thing the little pooch of her belly was nearly flat and the old pregnancy stretch marks had been smoothed away. Her ass looked higher and firmer too. And her thighs were cellulite-free!

  How could this be? How was it even possible?

  Sadie took a step back and weighed her breasts in her hands, checking to be sure she wasn’t dreaming or imagining it. Nope—as firm as could be. She’d always been a full C cup when she was younger, but after having her kids and breast-feeding both of them, that C had become more of a droopy D. Now she was back to where she’d been in college, before she met Jeff and let him talk his way into her panties one night, ending her dreams of being a high-powered attorney when she found out she was pregnant with the twins.

  What could be causing this? It was as if her body were magically reverting to where it had been in her early twenties. But that was impossible—right?

  Just then she became aware of a movement outside her window. There was so much wildlife here—deer and birds and squirrels. Just last night she’d been sure she heard a wolf howling and maybe some kind of wildcat screaming. It was—

  Sadie’s thought was cut off abruptly when she turned her head and saw it was no bird or squirrel looking in her window.

  Her surly neighbor, Mathis Blackwell, stood about fifty yards away by the line of trees that separated their properties. He had an armful of firewood and a surprised expression on his face as he stared at the extremely naked Sadie, who was still juggling her boobs in
her hands.

  “Oh my God! Oh, no!” she gasped, reaching down to grope blindly at the floor for her discarded towel. She wanted to look away from Mathis but for some reason, she found she couldn’t. Their eyes were locked together through the thin glass of her window as she scrabbled for the towel.

  At last she found the towel, but she was so freaked out she couldn’t seem to get it wrapped around her body again. Instead she clutched it to her chest, her heart pounding as she continued to lock eyes with her neighbor.

  Finally Mathis shook his head, like a man coming out of a dream, and gave her an awful scowl. Without a word—or another look—he turned and went stomping back to his side of the tree line, his broad shoulders hunched as though to ward off some kind of attack.

  Sadie snatched the curtains closed and sank down on the big, old-fashioned bed with its carved wooden posts, nearly hyperventilating.

  God, what must he think of me? What did it look like I was doing? Nothing very nice, that was for sure! Ugh, how absolutely humiliating—to be caught by her nearest neighbor examining herself naked in the mirror and playing with her boobs!

  Your only neighbor, whispered a little voice in her head. And there’s nobody else around to hear you scream if he decides what he saw was some kind of invitation.

  Somehow, though, despite his wild appearance, Mathis didn’t strike her as the type to break into her cabin and hurt her. Not that knowing he probably wouldn’t try anything made her any less embarrassed. She still felt absolutely mortified to be caught in such a position, especially since she was usually a very modest person.

  What’s wrong with me? My body is going through some bizarre change, I’m walking around in front of the window naked, I couldn’t look away when he was looking at me . . . I feel like I’m going crazy!

  Sadie put a hand to her drumming heart, trying to still her rapid breathing. Okay. Everything was going to be okay. True, the thing with her neighbor seeing her naked was beyond awkward, but he didn’t seem to want to talk or be neighborly anyway. So maybe if she just avoided him for the rest of her life—

  The shrill sound of her cell phone made Sadie jump. The Grey’s Anatomy ringtone was Samantha, probably calling to wish her a happy fortieth birthday.

  Or maybe she had sensed something was wrong.

  Sadie and Samantha weren’t identical twins—Sadie had brown hair and brown eyes and Samantha was blonde with blue. Sadie was a respectable five foot seven while her sister barely topped five three. Sadie, while never exactly skinny, was still more on the slim side, while Samantha was what she liked to call “curvy” with a defiant light in her blue eyes.

  Because of their physical differences they’d never been able to switch places with each other and they didn’t have a secret twin language or anything weird like that, but they were pretty close.

  Sadie could usually tell if something was wrong with her sister and Samantha seemed to know if there was anything amiss in her life as well. She’d called Sadie not five minutes after Jeff had shoved the divorce papers at her and stalked out of the house to be with his new girlfriend. Likewise, Sadie had called her sister just moments after their mother’s fatal car crash. Somehow they just knew.

  “What’s wrong?” Samantha asked the moment Sadie picked up the phone. “What’s going on with you?”

  “Nothing. I mean, I’m fine.” Sadie didn’t want to worry her twin—or tell her about the embarrassing incident with her neighbor seeing her naked.

  “Bullshit.” Samantha was always frank and to the point—a by-product of being a woman in a male-dominated field. “You’re freaking out about something—I can hear it in your voice. And, well, I felt it.”

  It was the closest that the practical, down-to-earth Samantha would come to talking about their invisible connection.

  “I, uh . . .” Sadie didn’t know how to say it. Finally she asked, “Is there any kind of disease that makes you look younger?”

  “A disease that makes you look younger?”

  “I know it sounds weird,” Sadie said quickly. “It’s just . . . I woke up this morning and all my gray hairs are gone—just gone. And my wrinkles and stretch marks—they’re gone too. Not to mention my chest looks like I got a boob job and my tummy is flat for the first time in years.”

  “So you lost some weight and you’re looking better? Sounds like a symptom of an ex-asshole-ectomy to me.” Samantha sounded like she was smiling.

  “Stop it, Sammie—I’m being serious!”

  “I am too! Of course you’re looking better—you finally got rid of Jeff! That asshole has been dragging you down for years.”

  “Actually, he was the one who got rid of me,” Sadie reminded her. “Traded me in for a younger model.”

  “So you do the same,” her sister shot back. “Look around for a little action in that tiny one-horse town you’re living in.”

  “Sammie, I’m forty,” Sadie protested.

  “So am I,” her twin reminded her dryly. “Forty isn’t dead. Why don’t you find somebody and have some fun? Aren’t there any hot guys around there?”

  For some reason the image of Mathis and his intense stare popped into her mind but Sadie pushed it quickly away. Besides being a grumpy loner, her neighbor was also at least ten years younger than her. At least she thought he was—it was hard to tell with the wild black hair and the beard.

  “Some,” she admitted. “But the ones my age are already married and taken. And all the rest are too young.”

  “Please—who cares about age?” Her sister made a raspberry sound on the other end of the phone. “It’s just a number.”

  “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?” Sadie asked. “Besides, you’re one to be talking about finding a guy—you’re married to your work. I bet you can’t even tell me the name of the last guy you slept with.”

  “It has been a while,” Samantha admitted. “But that’s only because I’m always so busy. You, on the other hand, suddenly have some time to get busy.”

  “I came out here to heal,” Sadie pointed out. “Not find a hot young guy to screw my brains out.”

  “Who says they’re not the same thing?” Samantha laughed. “So how’s the cabin Mom left you? I still can’t believe she kept it secret from us for all those years.”

  “It’s nice,” Sadie said, looking around the bedroom. “It’s kind of old and antique-y but not in a bad way. And it’s really quiet—at night you can hear all the animals moving around in the woods outside. And . . .” She winced. “There are, uh, plenty of windows. Lots of natural light.”

  “I bet it’s gorgeous.” Samantha sounded wistful. “You almost make me want to cancel the hip-nailing I have scheduled today and come see it.”

  “Come anytime,” Sadie told her sister. “You know Mom didn’t just leave it to me. She said in the letter that came with the deed it was for both of us if we ever lost our husbands and needed a place to stay.”

  “She’d probably be disappointed I never got a husband to begin with,” Samantha remarked.

  “No, she wouldn’t! She’d be incredibly proud of you for fulfilling your dream instead of getting pregnant before you even got through college.”

  It was an old sore spot with Sadie. She loved her sister dearly but she couldn’t help being a little jealous sometimes. They had both had big plans after high school but Samantha had made hers a reality while Sadie had wound up staying home to raise the kids. She had gone back when they were teenagers to get a degree in accounting, but being an accountant was a far cry from the high-powered corporate attorney she’d dreamed of becoming.

  “Are you kidding?” Samantha said. “She’d love you for giving her grandkids instead of wasting your best baby-making years in school.”

  “It’s not too late if you want to start a family,” Sadie pointed out. “Women are having babies into their forties now—you know that.”

  Samantha snorted. “Not this woman. You know I love Graham and Anna but being the cool aunt is as close to mothe
rhood as I ever want to come.”

  “I don’t know . . . rocking them to sleep, soothing them and feeling them snuggle up in your arms . . .” Sadie sighed. “Babies are sweet. It’s just too bad they grow up so fast.”

  “You sound like you want another one yourself,” Samantha remarked.

  Sadie shook her head, even though her sister couldn’t see her.

  “Nope, my baby-making days are done. And so are my man-chasing ones. I just want to settle down in this little town and make a new life for myself. One without any trauma or drama or craziness—you know?”

  Of course, she hadn’t made a very good start to her resolution—flashing her neighbor before breakfast—but that had been an accident. And what she told her sister was honestly what she wanted—just a quiet life by herself.

  “I can do without the drama but without the trauma I’d be out of a job,” Samantha said. “Speaking of which, they just brought in an emergency trauma consult. Looks like another kid jumped off a trampoline and landed wrong—might be a broken femur. I’d better go.”

  “Okay. Well thanks for calling. And happy birthday,” Sadie said.

  “Happy birthday to you. Go have fun for both of us—looks like I’m going to be in the OR all day.” Samantha didn’t sound unhappy about it. She loved her job with a passion.

  “Talk to you later and come up to see the cabin anytime,” Sadie told her.

  “Soon, I promise. But not until after my lecture at the trauma surgery seminar in Las Vegas. Sin City, baby—whoo-hoo! I might see action before you do after all.”

  “I have no doubt you will,” Sadie said flatly.

  Her twin laughed. “Either way it’s always fun to get away for a while—I’m looking forward to it. Oh, they’re calling me—I really have to go.”

  “Have fun in Sin City,” Sadie told her, but her twin had already hung up.

  With a sigh, she put the phone back down on her night table. She’d gotten up early with the intention of getting some exercise but the grandfather clock in the corner of the bedroom let her know it was time to get ready for work.