I kept walking, picking up my pace to get out of the rain and away from him.
“Fuck, Brooke, please wait!” he shouted.
I heard footsteps splashing in the rain as he neared. He grabbed my right arm, spinning me to face him.
“Baby, please stop. It’s not what you think.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Yes, you saw me flirting, but that’s my job.”
“Are you serious?” I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest and looking to the side, not wanting to look directly into his beautiful face. “How is flirting part of your job?”
“I have to flirt to get tips.”
“Really? You expect me to believe that?”
Both of us were drenched from the storm. People were trying to step around us with umbrellas as we stood in the middle of the sidewalk.
I didn’t care.
I didn’t move.
“Ask Avery. Ask any one of my bartenders. If we flirt, we usually get bigger tips.”
“I—”
Easton stepped forward, grabbing my face with both hands, and kissed me. The moment his tongue entered my mouth, my body relaxed. I remembered how he’d surprised me last week, how we’d made love for hours, and how he’d stayed by my side at the hospital. I even remembered about the cruise and how he’d had every opportunity to fuck any girl on that ship, but hadn’t. He stayed with me—someone who didn’t drop her panties for him (even though I’d wanted to).
As we kissed, the rain beating down on my face as he tilted my head up to his mouth, I remembered about Cheyenne. He told me he wanted me to meet her, but was that just a line?
“Will you listen to me now?” he asked, pulling his lips from mine.
“Yes,” I said, breathlessly.
He held my face in his hands as he spoke. “I flirt to make more money. None of those women mean anything to me. I haven’t looked at another woman since I first saw you—except the ones you were trying to hook me up with on the cruise, but you know I didn’t do anything with them.” He laughed, trying to lift the tension between us.
“I haven’t needed to look at another woman because all I do is think about you. From the moment I wake in the morning until I go to bed—I think of you—and it doesn’t stop there. I dream about you, too. My father once told me that I would know who I was meant to be with when I couldn’t get her out of my head. And you know what? He was right. I love you, Brooke. I fucking love you.
“I never thought I would love anyone after Dana—I didn’t want to, but then this tiny brunette entered my life, and now I want to introduce her to my daughter. I want to pack her shit up and move her in with me. I want to spend forever with her, and I want to be someone who she can lean on.
“I love you, and I don’t want to waste any more time without you. You’re my Superwoman, and I want to care for you. I want to love you. I haven’t felt like this in a long time. Please. You’re my best friend, and I don’t want you to think that just because I flirt to make money means I’m cheating on you. I’m not that person anymore. Life with you makes perfect sense—not some skank in a bar. I love you.” He wiped rain drops from my eyelids allowing me to see him better before he continued.
“God, I’ve never met anyone like you. You make me want to be a better man—a better father. You’ve got me thinking all these crazy thoughts, and I don’t even know where you stand.”
I tried to wrap my head around everything he said, but I could only remember three words. “You love me?”
He grinned. “Fuck, I’ve loved you since day one. You didn’t hold anything back the first night. You flipped my world upside down.”
“I love you, too,” I said, giving him a smile.
His hands tightened on my face, and he kissed me hard. I’d never had anyone ever profess their love that way, and I felt like a fool for jumping to conclusions and assuming that he was cheating on me. I still didn’t like the fact that he flirted with random chicks at the bar, but I would work on it.
“Get a room,” someone shouted as they passed us.
We smiled, our lips still pressed together, and then we held each other in the rain a few minutes more.
“Come on, I have someone you need to meet.”
Professing my love to Brooke was liberating.
I hadn’t expected to tell her in the pouring rain when she thought I was cheating on her. I’d wanted to do it right. I’d wanted to light candles, buy her flowers and all that shit people do in movies. But as I’d kissed her in the rain like Spider-man and Mary Jane (despite me not being upside down), I needed her to know.
When we walked back into Halo, Nicole was leaning against the bar in the corner while Avery made drinks for customers. As we got closer, they both gave us a questioning look.
“It’s raining outside,” I said over the loud music.
“I can tell.” Avery smiled.
“It’s getting late, and I want her to meet Cheyenne before she goes to bed. Do you mind if I take off?”
“My girl is here, too, man,” he said, motioning to Nicole.
“I need to talk to you then. Let’s go to the office.” I turned to Brooke. “Baby, have a drink, I need to sort this out with Av.”
“Okay.” She pulled me down by my shirt and kissed me like we’d kissed in the rain. When she let me go, all the women who I’d flirted with that night to get tips were staring.
“I see what your plan is, baby,” I said, giving her a knowing smile. “Bethy, can you make Brooke whatever she wants to drink?”
“Sure thing. Sweetie, what will it be?”
Avery and I took the steps two at a time until we stepped into our office. “Hear me out …” I said, raising my hands defensively.
“Nicole is here, too. We need to have a better system.” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Dude, Brooke walked in and thought I was cheating on her.”
“So you decided to fight in the pouring rain?”
“She went to leave. I couldn’t let her just walk away. Also, I told her that I loved her.”
“You did? I thought you were going to wait?”
“I had to do something. I needed to tell her the truth.” I ran my hands through my wet hair.
“I see,” Avery said with a nod, rubbing his hand over the stubble on his chin.
“So let me have tonight, and I’ll let you have next week.”
“You’ll just call in Bethy again.” He laughed.
“Fuck you. You know why I did it, and you would do the same thing.”
“All right, get out of here, but you owe me.”
“Thank you,” I said from the hallway. I squeezed my way through all the bodies. I saw Brooke at the bar, talking to Nicole. Her hair was starting to frizz and I laughed to myself, remembering how hot it was kissing her in the rain.
I came up behind Brooke and leaned down to her ear. “Ready?”
She jumped slightly, and then turned to face me. “Yep.”
She drank the rest of what looked like a vodka cranberry and then told Nicole that she would see her later. “Wait, my bag,” Brooke said, looking between Nicole and me.
“I’m not going out there in the rain.” Nicole shook her head.
“I’ll bring your keys back,” I said, gesturing for them.
Nicole dug in her purse for her keys and then handed them to me. I turned and gave Avery a nod as he leaned on the bar near Nicole. The rain hadn’t let up as we ran towards my BMW. I opened the door for Brooke and didn’t care that she was soaking wet when she slid onto the leather seat. All I cared about was being with my girl—and her not thinking I was a cheating bastard.
I ran to Nicole’s car, popped the trunk, and pulled out the green bag that Brooke told me was hers. I ran back to my car, threw her bag in the backseat and handed Brooke a sweatshirt that I’d grabbed from the back. I looked at the clock. It was past eleven. “Maybe it’s not a good idea for you to meet Cheyenne tonight.”
“Oh …” She looked
disappointed. “I didn’t realize how late it was.”
“You know, I have new sheets that need christening, too.” I smirked.
“Oh, is that right?” She laughed, making my dick instantly hard.
“Yeah, Cheyenne made me buy new ones after I told her about you. I didn’t realize that mine were so old.”
“You told her about me?”
Once the car had finally heated up some, I turned on the heater and put the car in reverse. “I did. I think she’s excited.”
“Really?”
I pulled in front of Halo, putting my hazard lights on as I parked in the middle of the street. I ran to the door, handing my bouncer Nicole’s keys, and told him to bring them to the feisty blonde at the bar near Avery.
I slid back into the car and headed towards the freeway. Reaching over, I grabbed Brooke’s hand—I always wanted to touch her in some way—and proceeded to describe how I told Cheyenne about her:
“So you want to hear about the girl I met?” I asked, taking a bite of garlic bread.
Cheyenne and I were sitting at the dining room table, having dinner after we arrived home from softball practice.
“I guess.” She shrugged and slurped a noodle into her mouth.
“Well, I met her on the cruise Uncle A and I went on.”
“So she lives in California?”
“No, she lives in Boston.”
“Oh … Why was she on the cruise then?”
“Same reason Uncle A and I were.” Well, technically she wasn’t on the cruise for the same reason, but I didn’t think my ten-year-old needed to know the details.
“Did he meet a girl too?”
“He did.” I nodded. “She’s actually best friends with the girl I met.”
“Oh, like me and Courtney?” she asked, continuing to slurp her noodles.
“Exactly.”
“What’s her name?”
“Brooke.”
“What’s her friend’s name?”
“Nicole.”
“Can I tease Uncle A about having a girlfriend?”
I laughed. “Yeah, Peanut, tease him all you want.”
“Do girls have cooties like boys?”
Oh Jesus Christ!
“Um … well … shi—” I almost cussed in front of her. How do I answer this question? “Um … no?” I didn’t mean for it to be a question, but I wasn’t expecting this conversation to go in that direction.
“I don’t think boys have cooties either. Courtney tries to tell me that they do, but I think it’s because she likes the same boy as me.”
I dropped my fork.
“What? You like a boy?”
“Yep,” she said, taking a bite of bread like it was no big deal.
“You’re ten. How can you like a boy?”
“I don’t know, he’s cute.” She shrugged.
“Cute? No, no, no, no, no!”
“Daddy, calm down. We’ve only kissed once.”
“Oh my God, I think I’m having a heart attack,” I said, clenching my chest.
“Why? Do you kiss your girlfriend?”
“Peanut, I’m thirty-one. You’re ten.”
“So? When did you have your first girlfriend?”
Lie, Easton. Lie!
“Your mother and I started dating when I was sixteen.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, your mother has been my only girlfriend until now.”
“Hmmm,” she sighed.
Oh dear God, I can’t handle raising a daughter on my own anymore. Brooke was right. Cheyenne needs a mother to talk to her about this. The more she talked, the more I saw red. She had already kissed a boy! Granted, I was probably six when I first kissed a girl, but this was my little girl—my peanut.
“Let’s go back to Brooke. Maybe she can talk to you about boys.”
“When do I get to meet her?”
“I’m not sure, Peanut. Maybe in a few weeks?”
“What does she look like?”
“Here, I have a picture.” I showed her a picture that we had taken on the cruise. We had just gotten out of the pool and Brooke was in her bikini on my left, my arm draped over her shoulder. Hers was behind Nicole’s back and Nicole was clenched to Avery’s waist.
“She’s pretty.”
I smiled. “She is.”
“So, can you talk to her about boys?” I asked Brooke.
“I can try, but I’m kinda nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?”
“What if she doesn’t like me?”
“She will, I promise. I told her all about you and how you played softball. Right now, anyone that can help her with softball is a hero to her.”
“I can’t help now with my stupid tumor.”
“Baby, she’s ten. You have her whole life to help make her an all-star.”
We started to drive out of the city to my house. Somehow, God was looking over me because I’d washed my sheets today. I would have been mortified if Brooke had to smell my stinky man sheets—even if they were new.
“I like when you say stuff like that.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek.
“Say what?”
“Talk about us and the future.”
“Oh, well, there’s definitely an us and a future,” I said, kissing the back of her hand.
“Good.” I saw her smile glow with the light from the passing streetlights.
“So, if Avery asks, we went by my parents and all the lights were off, okay?”
“Why is that?”
“I talked him into letting me go because I wanted you to meet Cheyenne to prove that I love you.”
“I believe you love me.”
“You know what I mean. Cheyenne is the final puzzle piece.”
“That’s true, but don’t you own the bar with him?”
“Yeah, but it’s Friday and busy. Kinda putting him out with me gone. Plus, he wanted to leave too since Nicole is there.”
“Shit, now I feel bad.”
“Don’t feel bad. He can handle it. It will give him a push to hire more bartenders for the weekends so we can spend them with you and Nicole.”
“I thought you worked the weekends to make more money for Cheyenne?”
“I do. I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay. Well, Nicole would kill me if she knew, so your secret is safe with me.”
“Good.” I kissed the back of her hand again.
I was nervous as Easton pulled his car into his garage. Why was I nervous? I followed him up two steps from his garage and into his kitchen.
“Geez, no wonder you have to work weekends,” I said, looking around in awe. Dark cherry hardwood floors were throughout with white cabinets and white marble countertops. There was light green tile backsplash along the walls under the cabinets that led to a stainless steel gas stove with two ovens.
“When Dana died, I got money from her life insurance.”
“I thought you were getting divorced, though?”
“We were, but she never changed the policy, and we were technically still married.”
“It’s beautiful.” I could picture myself living in a house with that kitchen. It was breathtaking. “No wonder you like to cook.” I gave him a smile.
“Like isn’t the word I would use. I have to cook because of Cheyenne.”
“Well, I would love to cook in here,” I said, still looking around the room and running my hand along the marble.
“Are you hungry? I’m starving.”
“I am. Nicole and I came straight here. We were going to stop for food, but with the storm, we didn’t want to chance it.”
“I know just the dish to make us,” he said with a wink. “Let me throw some bacon into the oven and then we can shower and get into dry clothes.”
“We?” I asked, biting my lower lip.
“Yeah, to save water, of course.” He smirked.
“Of course.” I laughed. Easton was always making me laugh. It was refreshing being in a happy relationship.
I grabbed my bag that Easton brought in and followed him to his bedroom. I tried peeking in the dark rooms but didn’t see anything other than his living room. It was just as nice as the kitchen. The hardwood floors continued throughout, and a brown suede sectional faced a massive size flat screen TV, which hung over built-in bookshelves that were painted white like the kitchen cabinets.
Easton turned on his light in the bedroom.
“Zebra print, huh?” I said, motioning to a small ottoman between two grey chairs at the end of his king-size bed.
“Yeah, I hired a decorator.” He laughed.
“Oh, well that explains it all,” I teased.
His home put my tiny one-bedroom apartment to shame. Mine was so bland with white walls, beige carpet, beige linoleum, light oak cabinets and white countertops. I had no clue what they were made of, but it wasn’t marble or even granite.
And Jesus, his master bath …
A large walk-in shower with a glass door sat adjacent to a large Jacuzzi style tub. The cabinets were a dark cherry wood, and the countertops had his and her sinks with a darker shade of slab than the ones in the kitchen.
“Damn, I bet the girls never want to leave this bathroom,” I said, placing my PJs on the counter.
“What girls?”
“The girls you bring home from the bar.”
“I’ve never brought any girls here—until you.” He turned on the shower. “Let me go put the bacon in the oven. It should be almost pre-heated. Go ahead and get in. I’ll be back in a minute.” He lightly kissed my lips.
I piled my damp clothes in the corner and stepped into the shower. The warm water was perfect after the cold rain. I thought about Easton’s confession that he’d never brought a girl home before. It made sense because of Cheyenne and because of his crazy hours at the bar. Knowing that I was here gave me those butterfly feelings again. I felt special—loved.
I heard Easton enter the bathroom a few minutes later and I turned to face him.
He started to undress, stripping off his wet clothes like I had. I would never tire of seeing his perfect body. Each part was chiseled just right. His chest was smooth, his pecs firm, his biceps were hard as rocks, and he had an eight-pack that I wanted to lick every time I saw him shirtless. The eight-pack led to the perfect V that connected to his magic stick that worked wonders.
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