by Ali Parker
Kate shifted her weight to her other foot. “Then I don’t see why there’s a problem.”
“There isn’t. I don’t think. Maybe there is. Ugh.” I buried my face in my hands. “I don’t know. Why does this have to be so confusing? I can’t jeopardize this book deal, Kate. Mom and Dad need the money and—”
“I’ve told you,” Kate said, stepping forward and grabbing my shoulders. “Stop prioritizing them. You need to do what makes you happy, Elise. Please. You’re important to all of us. We want what’s best for you. Money or no money.”
“But—”
“No, I won’t hear about this anymore. Mom and Dad will make ends meet. They always do. It’s not your responsibility to step in. Or mine. We will help where we can, of course, but don’t let their situation impact your choices. If you care about Dallas, like really care about him, then the rest of it shouldn’t matter.”
I swallowed. “I don’t know how I feel.”
“That’s okay. You don’t need to know right now.”
I wanted to scream and let out all the frustration building up inside me.
“You said it was good?”
“It was better than good,” I said. “It was passionate. And fierce. And everything I’ve dreamed it would be.” Literally.
Kate nearly swooned. “I need to find a man like that to give my virginity to. Someone who sweeps me off my feet.”
I sighed. “Well, that’s what I was looking for, too. I gave mine to Dallas, and he stomped on my heart. It’s not what it’s cut out to be, Kate.”
“But maybe it is,” she insisted.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at you now. The two of you have come back together. It’s almost like it’s fate.”
“Stop it.”
“I’m serious,” she said.
“So am I.”
Kate scowled and put both hands on her hips. “Now you’re just being difficult.”
“I think I need to go home.”
“Oh,” Kate said, frowning. “Um. Okay. Can we say goodbye to the guys first?”
“Of course. I wasn’t suggesting we sneak out the back or anything like that. I just need to go home and collect my thoughts. Put some space between Dallas and me. I’m afraid if I stay any longer, I’m going to jump his bones again, and then everything will get even more messed up.”
“Or things will get clearer.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“All right,” Kate said. Her tone sounded disappointed.
“I’m sorry. You can stay. I promise I don’t mind. I know you’re having a good time with Elijah.”
She shook her head. “It’s all right. I have an early morning tomorrow. I’m covering for one of the other girls at my clinic. There will be plenty of time for me to spend with Elijah in the future. I hope.”
“Thanks, Kate.”
Kate gave me a reassuring smile before wrapping one arm around my shoulders. “I’ve got you, little sis.”
“Don’t call me that.”
She snickered. “Come on. Don’t be a sour puss.”
We left the bathroom and returned to the guys, waiting for us at the table. Luckily, Dallas hadn’t ordered us another round of drinks. I would have felt bad leaving if he had.
“Everything okay?” he asked, tipping his head to the side as he studied me.
I nodded. “Yes, I just have to go home. I’m sorry to bail early.”
Dallas slid out of the booth and put a hand on my wrist. “Can I talk to you for a minute before you go?”
I glanced at Kate. “Go ahead,” she said before sitting back down beside Elijah. She was probably grateful for the extra couple of minutes to say goodbye to him.
Dallas and I went to a quiet corner in the bar near the hall that led to the bathrooms. His wide frame and height blocked the rest of the bar from view as I put my back to the wall and faced him. I could smell his cologne.
I thought of his body beneath his clothes. The muscles. The taut skin. The muscles again.
“Did I do something wrong?” he asked.
I shook my head hurriedly. “No. No, not at all. I just… this was a lot for me. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I looked into his dark, warm brown eyes. “I’ll send you an email tomorrow with my decision.”
He stared at me blankly.
“About the job,” I clarified.
“Oh. Right. Yes. Sounds good.”
Had he forgotten about the job offer on the table? Maybe the sex had knocked some sense out of him, too. I kind of liked the idea of Dallas Jansen, sexiest man alive, having his mind muddled because of sleeping with me. I almost felt proud. My cheeks burned.
“How are you getting home?” he asked.
“Kate and I will share a cab.”
“Okay. Thank you for coming out tonight. I appreciate it. I know it wasn’t your scene.”
I smiled. “The party wasn’t, but the rest of the night wasn’t a total waste.”
He laughed. Oh, how I loved that deep, joyful sound. “Glad to hear that,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed almost as bashful as I felt.
It was adorable.
“Thank you for inviting me,” I said.
“I don’t know if I’d consider it an invite. It was more of a demand, I suppose.”
I shrugged. “Still. It wasn’t all bad. I’ll talk to you later.”
He nodded and let me slip around him. I inhaled deeply, relishing the scent of pine before I caught my sister’s eye. She gave Elijah one last wave, and the two of us left the bar to break out into the cold night air.
I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes as Kate flagged down a cab. I heard it pulling over and Kate talking to the driver. She said my name, and I opened my eyes. We got in the back seat, and I stared out the window into the bar, where Dallas was still sitting at the booth, watching us leave.
As the cab pulled away, the waitress returned to the table, and he smiled at her as she placed four more rum and cokes on the table.
Chapter 23
Dallas
Sunday mornings were one of my favorite parts of the week. Today felt especially significant because today was the day I would find out if Elise and I would be working together at Treo.
It was the first time I’d felt genuinely nervous in a while.
Maybe since the day Roy was born. That had been a level of nerves in a league of their own, but awaiting Elise’s decision filled me with plenty of anxiety. The fact that my stomach was swirling with butterflies confirmed one thing in my mind: I was starting to care for this girl again. Maybe even fall for her.
Maybe I’d never gotten over her in the first place.
Our sexual romp in my office the previous night played over and over again in my mind like a highlight reel. Elise unzipping her dress, one inch at a time, revealing smooth skin and a bare hip. No panties. My kind of girl.
Elise’s lips parting in a breathy moan before I silenced her with a kiss.
I thought of the way she watched me thrust in and out of her. The way she clung to me when she came. The way her eyelids grew heavy afterward and how pink her cheeks were and how—
A little bell dinged on my laptop, which was sitting open in front of me on the kitchen table. The butterflies in my stomach took flight. This might be the message I was waiting for from her.
The sound of little footsteps coming down the hall stopped me from opening my inbox. Roy came around the corner, rubbing sleep from his eyes and stifling a yawn. He was wearing his blue and black plaid pajamas, and his dark hair was a wild mess atop his head. He blinked slowly at me and gave me a sleepy smile.
“Good morning, kiddo.”
“Morning,” he said, yawning again. This time, he didn’t stop himself. He let the yawn overcome him as he padded over to the table and sat down beside me.
“How’d you sleep?” I asked.
“Good. Did Papa go home already?”
I nodded. My father had spent the night to watch Roy while I was at the Thanksgiving party last night. He had left early this morning, right after I got up and made a cup of coffee. “Yeah, he had to get some work done today.”
Roy nodded and crossed his arms on the table. He leaned forward to rest his chin on his hands. “What are you doing?”
“I was about to check my new message.”
“A new message?”
I nodded. “I find out today if one of my friends is going to be working with me or not.”
“Is it Elise?” he asked, sitting up straight again. “I hope it’s Elise. I like her, Dad. She’s nice. And funny.”
I smiled. “It is Elise.”
“Well, check the message already.”
I chuckled. “You’re sure? You won’t be disappointed if she says no?”
He shook his head, and his messy hair swished across his forehead. “Nope. It’s okay. Open it.”
Feeling like I was being bossed around by my five-year-old, I clicked my inbox and opened the new email from Elise:
Dallas,
After much consideration, I am pleased to inform you that I am prepared to entertain a realistic and appropriate offer. Thank you for your time these last few days. It helped me make my decision.
I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Elise Billingsly.
I grinned and resisted the urge to throw my fist in the air like a high school football player after scoring a touchdown.
“What did she say?” Roy asked eagerly, moving up to his knees on the chair and leaning on his elbows.
“She said she’s open to an offer.”
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“It means we only have to have one more conversation before she decides whether or not she’s joining the team. And I have a feeling things will go well, and she’ll be working with me within the week.”
He looked up at me. “You seem happy.”
“I am happy,” I said.
Roy grinned. “Me too.”
I clapped my laptop closed and rubbed my hands together. “Well, I think this calls for a celebratory breakfast, don’t you think?”
Roy beamed at me. “Pancakes?”
I nodded. “Pancakes.”
I walked to the cupboard to fetch the flour and sugar and then stooped to pull a big bowl out from one of the drawers. “Come over here, kiddo. Give me a hand.”
Roy slid off his chair and came to stand beside me at the kitchen counter. I pulled over his stool, which he used all the time to help me prepare lunches and all sorts of meals. He climbed up to the top step, and we began mixing all the ingredients in the bowl for pancakes.
“What about bacon?” Roy asked.
I playfully palmed myself in the forehead. “Bacon! How could I have forgotten? Yes. We absolutely need bacon. I think we have some in the freezer.”
We did, in fact, have some in the freezer. I let it sit and thaw as we mixed the pancake batter and preheated the oven. Then, when the pieces had thawed enough to be separated, I laid them out flat on the pan and put them in the oven.
I turned on the stove for the pancakes and greased the pan while Roy watched. I still wasn’t comfortable letting him help me around hot elements. It made me too nervous. Elijah said I was a helicopter dad. I justified it by saying I was just cautious. My son didn’t need burns on his hands because of my reckless parenting.
When the pan was hot enough, we poured the batter in, and then Roy brought over a bag of chocolate chips to sprinkle in his pancakes. He created happy faces in his—well, he attempted to. He wasn’t the best chocolate chip artist. They turned into crooked, demonic looking faces, but he loved them, and so did I.
As the pancakes cooked, Roy washed his hands, and I brewed coffee. I poured him a glass of orange juice, which he carried over to the table and set in front of his usual space. Then he dragged his stool over to the fridge and used it to reach the maple syrup, which he also put on the table, along with the butter container. Lastly, he put out the cutlery and looked up at me. “Is that all we need?”
“I think so. Thanks, buddy. You’re a good helper.”
“You’re welcome,” he said politely.
The pancakes finished at the same time as the bacon. I placed the strips of bacon on a paper towel and patted the grease off them. Then I took everything to the table. We sat down and dug in.
Roy smothered his pancakes in syrup. He always did. It was his favorite part. Since this was only a Sunday thing—and not every Sunday—I didn’t mind that he went a little overboard. His other breakfasts during the week were healthy, and this was our special treat.
“Are you going to answer Elise’s email?” Roy asked with his mouth full of pancake and chocolate.
I nodded. “As soon as I’m done doing the dishes after breakfast.”
“What are you going to say?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said.
“You should tell her you’re happy.”
I smiled at my son. Things through a child’s eye were so much simpler. “Maybe I will.”
“And maybe you could tell her what you think about her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean?”
Roy blinked innocently at me.
I chuckled and shook my head at him. My kid was too smart for his own good. It was starting to catch up with me, and he was only five. I was doomed when he became a teenager.
“So, it’s Thanksgiving week,” I said. “You don’t have to go to school. I was thinking I would work from home, and we can spend more time together instead of you having to go to Papa’s every day. What do you think about that?”
Roy’s face lit up. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really.”
“Can we go to the lake? And the movies? And the park? Oh! And that new game place. What’s it called?”
“The arcade?”
“Yeah! That place!”
I smiled and collected our now empty dishes and brought them to the sink, where I started rinsing them off before loading them in the dishwasher. “Sounds like a good way to spend our days to me. But don’t forget, I do have to get some work done.”
“That’s okay,” Roy said before finishing off the rest of his orange juice. He hopped off his chair and brought his glass over to put it in the top of the dishwasher.
“You run upstairs and take a shower. And brush your teeth. I’m going to finish loading the dishwasher and email Elise back.”
“Okay. Tell her I say hi.”
I smiled. “Sure, kiddo.”
Roy padded out of the kitchen, and I listened to his bare feet slap on the hardwood floors as he made his way upstairs. Once the dishes were all stacked in the dishwasher, I started its cleaning cycle and sat back down in front of my computer. I opened it up, read Elise’s email again, and started typing with a smile playing on my lips.
Elise,
I’m happy to hear you’ve decided to discuss doing business with Treo. I will schedule a conference call between us and my boss and will send you the details. I hope you are having a good rest of your weekend.
PS. I’m glad our time together made you want to stick around, rather than run in the opposite direction.
Regards,
Dallas
I was smirking when I hit send. She might not think my little joke was funny, but I certainly did, and it was worth the risk if there was a chance it would make her smile.
Chapter 24
Elise
“Shit,” I hissed as water bubbled up out of the pot and spilled all over my stove. I rushed over and turned the heat down on the element. The bubbles subsided, and I plucked a fork from the counter to plunge it into the hot water where the spaghetti noodles were softening. I stirred it around and found the noodles still more than firm. So, I stirred the sauce simmering in another pot and then covered it up with the lid again.
I was having a nice night in to
relax and collect my thoughts before my phone interview with Dallas and his boss. I had a figure in my mind of what I was going to ask for and another that I wouldn’t go lower than. I hoped desperately that they would jump at my first request, but I also knew Treo was a good business. They wouldn’t make reckless decisions, and hiring a new writer with no experience at top dollar was a risk.
But if Dallas was right, I was worth every penny.
Of course, he might have some bias, like the fact that he and I had just had sex the previous night.
“You should have waited until after you signed a deal,” I said to myself. It was the scolding I should have gotten from Kate but didn’t. “From the outside, it probably looks like you slept with him to get the job.”
I sighed and shook my head at myself. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what happened in Dallas’s office last night. And I didn’t really want to stop. It had felt so good, so right, that I was able to repress all the anxiety that had now gathered up inside of me over the last couple of hours.
Now I was itching with nerves that probably wouldn’t go away until after my call, and there was no way of knowing how long I would have to wait for that to happen. With Dallas calling the shots, I suspected it would happen sooner rather than later.
I let out a startled yelp when my buzzer to the front door went off. I crossed the kitchen and held down the button that connected to the speaker outside the building. “Who is it?”
There was a short delay. “It’s Dallas. And Roy. We were in the neighborhood. Can we come up?”
I blinked at the intercom. What the hell was he doing at my place? “Uh. Yeah. Sure. Hold on a second.”
I looked wildly around my apartment. Luckily, I’d folded up my bed and made it into a sofa because I planned on sitting on it all night while sipping wine and most likely thinking about my sexual adventure with Dallas. I had even entertained the idea of bringing my vibrator to the party, although that was still hidden away in its drawer. Thank God.