by A. C. Arthur
“Hey,” he replied.
“I saw Mal.” She eased into the booth seat across from him without invitation.
“And he was still in one piece,” Del said, his voice deep and deathly slow. “Don’t know how much longer that’s gonna last if he keeps flappin’ off at the mouth.”
He’d discarded the pieces of the last straw and pulled another one from the canister at the end of the table.
“This is an old routine,” Rylan told him. “You know he’s all talk. Just trying to get under your skin.”
Del nodded but kept his focus on the straw. “I know all the right things. I’ve done all the right things. Stayed out of trouble after going to the House. Went to college, started a career. I sent money home to my mom to help with the house and my sister. And he’s still got a problem with me.”
“His problem. Not yours,” she said.
He shook his head and then dropped the straw staring down at it like he was wondering what the hell he’d been doing. Then he sat back heavily against the seat and shrugged.
“You’re right,” he said. “Shouldn’t let him get to me.”
“No. You shouldn’t.” She paused and then opened her mouth to say something else, only to close it just as quickly. Del was an incredibly attractive guy. He wore a cream-colored shirt, short-sleeved, so the sinewy muscled arms were on display. His black hair was cut low, the beard and mustache neat and sexy. When they were teenagers, he and Lance had their left ear pierced. Lance had since added a piercing to his other ear and wore two diamond studs daily. While Del never wore an earring anymore. He rarely ever smiled either. She wondered why she’d never noticed that before.
“What are you doing here? You said you were heading home when I saw you last,” he said, his deep voice interrupting her thoughts.
It was just as well. They were thoughts she definitely shouldn’t have been having.
“I was hungry,” she replied.
He shook his head. “You always did eat like you belonged on the wrestling team instead of under the hood of a car.”
“Starving is underrated,” she quipped.
The waitress showed up at that moment, handing Del a bag. He accepted it and said, “Add whatever she orders to my tab.”
The woman nodded and pulled a notepad from the front pocket of her apron. She looked at Rylan with a smile that asked for her order.
“Ah, I need a few minutes to look at the menu.” She wasn’t really hungry.
“You want a bacon double cheeseburger with everything, mustard instead of mayo and an order of fries with salt and pepper, no ketchup,” Del said dryly when the waitress was gone.
The fact that he knew her standing order at the diner was like another poke of the red-hot needle of embarrassment. It was also effective in reminding her why she’d really come to Margie’s tonight—to tell Del what an ass he was for tricking her.
“Not tonight,” she snapped.
“Oh really? What makes tonight any different than the last twenty years? You love cheeseburgers almost as much as you love tinkering with cars.”
He’d said it in such a matter-of-fact way that she’d almost agreed with him. Except she knew it was an insult. The girls Del went out with ate like rabbits, nibbling on salads or sipping on soups as if those items actually left their belly full. They laughed at his corny jokes and batted their long eyelashes when he ran up to them on the sidelines after a game. While it had taken years for Rylan to realize that didn’t make them bad people, it just wasn’t the type of woman she was meant to be. Which confirmed the fact that she and Del were never going to be an item.
“I’m here because I have something to say to you,” she started with determination.
Her arms had been resting on the table up to this point, but now she pulled them back, so that her hands fell in her lap.
“Say it,” he prompted. “’Cause I’m heading home. It’s been a really long day and I’m ready to unwind.”
She nodded. “With a beer and your newspaper?”
He blinked and then shrugged. “Yeah, probably. I don’t know. I might just toss this sandwich into the fridge and crash.”
“Really? What about getting online?”
“What? Why would I get online at this time of night?”
It was her turn to shrug. “I don’t know. You may be looking for someone…I mean expecting to hear from someone online.”
He didn’t respond but continued to stare at her.
It was now or never and she really shouldn’t feel anxious about saying what needed to be said. This whole situation was his fault, not hers. She took a deep breath and released it slowly.
“For instance, maybe you were sitting here tonight expecting to see MercedesGirl926. And because she obviously didn’t show up, now you’re going to head home, sit in your favorite chair by the window in your bedroom and pull out your phone. What will you say, “Missed you tonight?” Or maybe not, since, as it turns out, she did actually show up.” Her words stopped then, although her heart continued beat rapidly.
She lifted her arms again, this time folding them on the table as she leaned in to look closer at Del.
“I showed up to meet GCSports18 face-to-face,” she said and waited for his smart-ass response.
But it didn’t come.
Instead, a look she could only attribute to stark terror crossed Del’s face. His eyes widened, his lips parting as if he wanted to say something and then snapping shut as he began to shake his head.
“What? You didn’t think I was going to figure it out?” She huffed. “Well, I’ll admit I may not have, at least not for a while. But your bestie was kind enough to share your screen name with me tonight at the bar. So now I know.”
“You…know…what?” he asked, that ridiculous look of shock still plastered on his face.
“I know that you’re GCSports18. Or rather, you’re the big fat idiot who thought it would be cool to play another sordid joke on me. Even though we’re both grown and too damn old for your antics! Was Lance in on this too? Of course, he was, you’re twins and this is your niche.”
“Rylan, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said and then stood. “And I came here tonight to tell you to cut it the hell out! This was by far your cruelest joke yet. Making me…getting me to send you that picture and then…,” She paused because she couldn’t actually say the rest. She’d thought she was prepared to really let him have it, but the way he was looking at her, the churning of her stomach now that she was confronting him, and the stupid shaking of her hands, had her ready to bolt.
“Just stop it!” she continued. “I’m not going to be the butt of your jokes anymore.”
Rylan did walk away at that point, but she did it slowly and as normally as she could manage. She wasn’t running from Del or the embarrassment he’d made her feel. She was leaving him to stew in the fact that she’d found him out. And for a minute she’d thought she made a grand escape. She was halfway to her car when she felt his hand on her elbow, turning her to face him.
“What the hell are you saying?” His question coupled with the intent look on his face was more like a command.
“You heard what I said,” she countered and yanked her arm free of his grasp. Even though the warmth from the spot he’d touched had already begun to spread.
He was shaking his head again. “You’re MercedesGirl926?”
She stepped to the side and pointed at her car. “Mercedes.”
With both hands she gripped her breasts, a gesture she would later question. “Girl.”
“And my birthday is September 26th,” she told him as if her identity was a no-brainer.
It was then that she noticed his gaze had fallen to her breasts, which coincidentally were still being palmed. She immediately pulled her hands away and propped them onto her slim hips.
“Look, I’m not amused by this joke, Del. How could you do that to me? Whose idea was i
t to make me do those things and why did you think it was funny? It was cruel and—”
“Whoa. Wait a minute.” He took a step back, holding his hands out in front of him as if he thought she was going to move closer to him. “Stop. Just stop.”
She didn’t say another word because he actually looked as if he were ready to pass out. He’d stopped shaking his head as if the disbelief was finally wearing off, leaving what in its place? And why the hell wasn’t he laughing? That’s what she’d expected him to do.
“I didn’t do those things,” he said.
“Really, Del? That’s your defense? You’re going to stand there and deny it, even after Rock told me your screen name?”
“No,” he said, and then went back to shaking his head. “I mean, yes. Look, I didn’t know it was you. I had no idea that you were the one I was chatting with. Dammit! I knew I hated social media for a reason! Dammit!”
Wait.
He was serious.
Rylan knew the Greer twins very well, almost as well as she knew her own blood sister. They were guilty of doing a lot of things in their time but lying wasn’t one of them. Whatever they did, in the end, Lance and Del always owned up to it. That’s the way they were raised. She took a step back now, grateful for her reliable car that caught her from falling to the ground with dread.
“You didn’t know you were talking to me and I didn’t know I was talking to you,” she said quietly.
“No,” he replied in a similarly quiet tone. “I would have never.”
“I know,” she hurried to say because her embarrassment had now morphed into mortification. “Because you would’ve never talked to me that way. I know. Or I should’ve known.”
She was so not Del’s type. Had never thought she wanted to be his type. This was a mess.
“Okay, look,” she said and then paused to take a deep breath. She rubbed her trembling hands down her thighs and summoned the courage to continue. “It was a fluke. A misunderstanding. No need for us to make it any bigger. We’ll just walk away and forget it ever happened.”
Forget that the best orgasm she’d ever brought herself had been because of Del’s bare chest.
“You don’t tell anybody and I won’t tell anybody. That’s it. Done,” she finished. “Deal?”
Del nodded, still looking a bit dumfounded.
“Deal,” he said.
“Good. Deal. I’m ah, I’m just gonna go home now.”
And die a slow and mortified death.
“Yeah. Me too,” he replied.
“Yeah. Okay, so good night,” Rylan said and then for the second time tonight, hurried to get into her car and drive away from Del Greer.
6
The orange light on the console glared back at him. Del sat behind the wheel of his truck and stared at it. He needed an oil change. Normally, he would pull the truck into his driveway and spend a few hours handling the task himself. He was no mechanic, but there were some basic things he knew how to do and he was very particular about who he let touch his truck. There weren’t many things that Del was protective of—outside of blood-related family and the brothers—but his truck was one of them.
Which was why as soon as the traffic light on the corner of Penn Street changed, he lifted his foot from the brake and made a right turn down Linthicum Lane. Two blocks later, Del made another right turn onto the lot of Kent Automotive.
He’d taken his truck to one other mechanic since he’d purchased it in D.C., but Del wasn’t about to drive all the way back there to have his oil changed. No, it was probably time to find a new mechanic. This just happened to be the most reputable place in town.
It wasn’t because he wanted to see Rylan again.
They were into the first week of December now. Temperatures had dropped significantly and the town looked like a page out of one of those Christmas movies Camy loved watching. There was even a wreath hanging on the front door of the body shop, and garland stretched around the two automatic doors that led to the work bays. After parking his truck, Del walked to the door and entered the building, heat blasting his face the moment he stepped inside. There was also jazz music filtering loudly throughout the reception area where there should’ve been a receptionist or someone to greet him or offer assistance. Since there wasn’t, Del crossed the industrial carpeted floor. He pushed through the swinging door and walked down the ramp leading into the open garage space. He knew this place well as Mr. Will had been the only one able to keep Del’s first car—a royal blue ’68 Chevy Camaro—running back in the day.
The area seemed bigger now, tools lining part of one wall, tires stacked neatly in rows on the other side of the building and in between a host of other electronic and manual equipment. There were also two cars in the bay area, one already on the lift and the other with a great ass sticking out from beneath the hood.
Her jeans were ripped in strategic places, one being the left back pocket, but not all the way through so that he could see what she was wearing beneath the denim. The material hugged her long legs like a glove, perfectly outlining the roundness of her ass and the thighs he’d thought about multiple times via the picture saved on his phone.
But he hadn’t come here to see her.
It had been four days since that night at the diner where she announced their colossal mistake. And Del had needed a moment to recoup. Rylan hadn’t come into the bar during that time. For that Del was grateful because he wasn’t certain how he would react around her after jerking off to the picture of her one bare leg.
Now, he knew.
His dick grew harder than any one of the tools in this whole damn garage.
“Hey, Rylan,” he said when he felt like a total jerk just standing there gawking at her.
She moved slowly, easing up and then back, before turning to face him. She had a torque wrench in one hand, a dirty cloth in the other. Her gray t-shirt had seen better days, between smudges of dirt and oil and the rip on the right shoulder, but it still managed to look sexy. Today, her hair was pulled back into a messy sort of ponytail and her face was completely free of make-up. She looked far better than any woman Del had ever seen.
“What are you doing here?” she asked after the first few stunned moments of silence.
“I have a problem that only you can solve,” he said.
She arched a brow and leaned back against the car she’d been working on.
“I told you this is no longer funny, Del. Don’t come to my place of business with your little juvenile antics.” Her tone was icy, her gaze fierce and her stance was unbothered. Sexy. Sexy. And the sexiest.
He almost groaned.
“I’m serious. I need an oil change and you’re the only one I trust to touch my…uh, my truck,” he finished after struggling with his wandering train of thought.
This was insane. He’d told himself this every day since that night at Margie’s. He couldn’t be attracted to Rylan Kent. There was no way. He’d known her forever. He’d seen her wearing pajamas and hair rollers and almost falling down the stairs as she tried to walk in heels when going to her first school dance. In all those years, he’d never thought of her as anything other than a little sister. In the past four days he’d thought of her constantly and not in a way that any brother should think about his sibling.
“Again, don’t play with me, Del. I know you’ve been tending to your own precious truck since you came back to town. Why bring it to me now? And for just an oil change?” Her eyes narrowed as she asked that question, meaning she didn’t believe a word he’d said.
“The weather’s changed,” he argued. “I figured in addition to the oil change you could do a complete maintenance check. You know, like your sign out front says, “Be prepared for Old Man Winter, Get Your Vehicle Serviced Now!” I don’t want to take any chances especially since Ms. Margie’s arthritis has predicted a long hard winter for us.”
Everything he’d just said was true. He only left out the part where there were two other body shops and a Cadillac deal
ership in Providence. He could have easily gone to one of them. But he’d come here. Going anywhere else had never crossed his mind.
Because he wanted to see Rylan.
“Fine,” she snapped after a moment of contemplation. “Leave the key in that box over there. I have two before you, but I should get to it by the end of the day. I’ll call if there’s any issues, otherwise be here by 7 to pick it up.”
She turned away from him then, once again leaning under the hood of the other car. Del stood there staring for a few moments before realizing—for the first time in his life—he didn’t know what else to say. He knew what he was feeling at the moment, lust so thick and potent that it threatened to choke him. But he also knew what was at stake. She was his sister’s best friend and a pretty important person in his life as well. Sex—or rather, more sex than they’d already experienced together—would only complicate their existing relationship. And truth be told, it could ruin it. Del had some experience with ruining relationships with women, so he didn’t doubt that.
He should just walk away. Keep today’s interaction purely professional. That was the smart thing to do. Del hadn’t done too many smart things in the last two years and he’d vowed to change that. So, he took his own advice and turned away from the delectable view that Rylan was inadvertently offering. He dropped his keys into the box as instructed and left the body shop. And because he hadn’t really thought his plan of stopping by for an oil change through thoroughly, he zipped his leather jacket and pulled out his gloves as he prepared to walk the three and a half blocks to Camy’s so he could get her to drive him to the bar.
The cold air and brisk pace in which he walked would do him good. It would cool down the heat that infused his body whenever he thought about Rylan and that thigh pic she’d sent him.
Or at least it should have.
Del cursed as he stopped, waiting to cross the street, because walking in the cold with a hard dick wasn’t the most comfortable form of exercise.