by Cara North
Dagney was a straight shooting gal. She said, “Soooo, this is awkward.”
Everyone was spared a response when the waiter approached to take the order. She was sure the guy must have thought he was in the wrong neighborhood. A few blocks down, it was normal to see celebrities everywhere living their lives without much interruption. This neighborhood was a great place to live, had similar amenities, it just housed a decently paid working class of customers not lead singers and pro-football players. “Why did you retire?”
Everyone looked up from the menu at the guy. He said, “I’m sorry. I’m from the East coast. You’re one of the best wide receivers in the league.”
“Thank you,” Bruce said humbly. “I shattered my ankle in that last game. I realized even if it healed, at my age, I’ll never be better than last season. It only gets worse from there. I had to choose, my team or my ego. I did what was best for the team.”
“I get it.” The guy nodded. “Did you sign the jersey?”
“I did.” Bruce smiled and nodded. A faint tint of blush touched his cheeks. She liked that he was shy, humble, kind.
“Well, I guess I should take your order then.” The guy shrugged and then looked from Bruce to Foster. “Holy shit! You’re…”
“Starving, mate.” Foster smiled at the guy. “I’d bloody well sign your arse if you wanted me to for a coffee at this point.”
“Of course.” The guy nodded. “Anything else to drink? I’ll run grab those and then get the food order.”
Once the guy was out of earshot Dagney turned to Foster and said, “Sign his arse?”
“You’re out of coffee, luv. I need my morning cup.” Foster stretched his arm out and put his hand on her back. “Don’t be cross with me, luv.”
Dagney smiled and said, “Don’t give me that look. That’s not fair.”
Foster slid his hand up to cup her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. It wasn’t a tongue swapping make out session, but due to the circumstances Harmony was feeling a bit awkward. She looked at Bruce through her peripheral vision. He was looking directly at her again. She gulped. She noticed movement from him, but couldn’t tell what he was doing. Then her phone vibrated in her pocket.
She looked at the screen. It was from him.
Bruce: I’m sorry you are so uncomfortable here.
She looked at Dagney and Foster who were done kissing, but now whispered to one another.
Harmony: I don’t want you to feel like you have to talk to me. I know last night was just
Bruce: Just what?
Harmony: One night.
“Bullshit,” Bruce said and everyone looked at him including the waiter who had returned with the drinks. He snickered and said, “Sorry. That wasn’t meant for everyone.”
The guy took the breakfast order and if there was any doubt about whether or not Bruce King cared if his sister knew about them it was erased when he said, “You don’t want blueberries? After that fuss you made last night.”
She could feel her entire body warm. “I had blueberries last night. I don’t want them again this morning.”
She was only talking about the pancakes, but because she was looking at him she knew he thought she was talking about him. “I wish you would have told me that.”
Harmony looked from Bruce to Dagney and then to Foster. They were interested because she was sure they were wondering if the disappointment was over actual blueberries or if they had become a metaphor for something else. Fuck it. She had nothing to lose. Dagney was leaving in a month. Foster probably didn’t know she existed before yesterday, and Bruce, Bruce King was sulking.
He was sitting to her left. She took the seat to be on his right intentionally for that very reason. Her hand reached over to his arm and touched it. “I don’t like to eat the same meal twice in a row. I did that so often when I was broke and in college I refuse to do it now. I am still navigating the use of this left hand and don’t want to make a mess with anything else, so I got regular pancakes. I don’t really want to eat them either, but it is a compromise.”
“What did you want to eat?” he asked.
“Biscuits and gravy.” She hadn’t even completed the words before he was on his feet and heading into the restaurant. It was a kind gesture. It also left her facing his sister alone. “He stopped by with flowers to apologize and he…uh, made me pancakes for dinner.”
Foster had a cheeky grin before saying, “You pay for all pancakes with knickers?”
“What?” It was amazing how the man could sing in English and without an accent. She could barely understand him when he said anything else. She looked at Dagney for explanation. Her face had a hint of blush in it.
“We know.” Dagney got straight to business.
“He told you?” She was a little mad at him now. What she did with him was her business not fodder for conversation.
“No. I felt bad that I told him I was moving in with Foster. We came back to the house. He wasn’t there. I tried calling him. I got worried. I was waiting up when he came strolling in at three in the morning twirling your panties on one of his fingers,” she had said it all so matter of fact like.
“I…don’t know what to say.” Harmony wasn’t sure how she felt about all this. “Why did you invite me to breakfast?’
Dagney looked at the man who was walking out of the restaurant and said, “Because he asked me to.”
***
Harmony had done a decent job of wounding his ego and his pride within a short period of time. She didn’t look at him, talk to him, or even acknowledge he was there next to her. She didn’t want pancakes but was ordering them because she didn’t want to ask for help if she needed it. He watched her fight through the ones he made her last night because she insisted she needed to learn. Her cast didn’t stop at her wrist; it was all the way up to the knuckles on her fingers so she couldn’t bend them.
When he returned to the table after changing her breakfast order, he noticed the vibe of the table had changed from a little awkward to downright uncomfortable. Except for Foster, who didn’t seem to be fazed by it as long as he had coffee.
“What did I miss?” Bruce asked as he took his seat.
“Dagney told her about the knickers,” Foster said. Dagney looked at Foster like she was going to strangle him. “What, luv? You did.”
“Seriously, Dags.” He looked at his sister. She shrugged. He looked at Harmony. She was looking at her iced coffee. “I’m sorry.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” She looked up at him. Her hazel eyes stormed with hurt and anger he was sure of it. “Why did you have her do it?”
“Honestly?”
She nodded. He admitted, “Because if you said no, you were saying no to her and not me.” He lifted his left shoulder in a half shrug. “I wanted to see you, and I couldn’t wait for you to come to me.”
“If it’s any consolation.” Foster with a cup of coffee in him was awake and interactive now. “I’ve done far worse to talk to Dagney before I even got to see her knickers.”
The food arrived just in time. Harmony looked at the plate and picked up the fork. He reached for her plate and pulled it towards him. She looked up at him and he winked at her. He picked up his own fork and knife and cut the biscuits and gravy into bite sized chunks. He pushed the plate towards her.
“I feel like a child.” She looked at the plate.
She didn’t get up and run away once she knew everyone knew they had been together. He took that as a positive sign. He wasn’t going to hide his affections towards her. He leaned in close to her ear and said, “You look like a gorgeous woman to me.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek. As he started to eat, he looked at the peanut gallery across the table. Foster smiled that commiserating smile guys shared when it came to complicated women. Dagney nodded. He suspected she only really wanted to know if he was going to ruin her good name with Harmony and everyone else at her job, or if he held a real interest in her. Satisfied he wasn’t just fucking her friend, sh
e settled down.
Dagney had driven with him and Foster to the location though it was just around the corner from where they lived. The two of them had plans to tend to after breakfast. It suited Bruce just fine. “May I escort you home?”
“You’re going to the same place.” She smiled at him.
He moved to stand on her left side. He boldly stretched his hand out to grip hers. She looked at him and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Holding your hand.” He was simply going to force his way into her life. He played offense; surely he could be aggressive though it wasn’t in his nature off the field. He had always been awkward as a teenager, bigger than most of his peers. Shy in college, though he had his share of experiences, he wasn’t usually the one to initiate this stuff.
“Why are you holding my hand?” she asked, but she didn’t let go.
“I’m new around here. I don’t want to get lost.” He winked at her.
She laughed. “So it was that good for you?”
“It’s not the sex. Well,” he corrected. “It’s not just the sex. You’re…someone I want to know. You’re brave, determined, and independent. You speak your mind, but you are considerate of others.”
“You got all that in the last twenty-four hours?” She stopped and they faced one another.
“I pay pretty good attention when something interests me.” He tugged her a step closer.
“You know I’m just a regular girl, right? I work a full-time job, usually at night. I was covering someone else’s shift the other day. I work in the evenings so I can go on auditions when I get the opportunity to during the day.” She was trying to give him reasons not to pursue this. He was sure of it. Her lips were moving but he was not listening. She was in the middle of saying something and he leaned in and kissed her.
“You know that kiss—” He cut her off again with another kiss.
“That’s not—” Another.
“And if you think…” She started but he cut her off.
“I can do this all night.” He took a step forward, put his arms around her and planted one on her good. He didn’t settle for a smooch this time. He opened his mouth, licked her lips, pressed his tongue between them, and the moment she let him in he knew she was going to let him into her life as well.
He pulled back and looked down at her. She was breathless and whispered, “I know.”
“So tell me about your auditions. Have you gotten any roles?” He smiled down at her. He reached for her hand again and she let him slide his fingers between hers for a firmer grip. She wasn’t a supermodel, six-foot something and all legs. She was close to that height. He stood six-two according to his stats. She wasn’t just legs either. She had a body he could explore for days, weeks, maybe even a lifetime.
“I’ve been an extra in a few things. No lines. No SAG card.” She shrugged.
“What’s the SAG?”
“Screen Actors Guild. Don’t you know anything about the business you are getting into?”
“I know my sports agent helped transition me to The Harvey Agency.”
“You got on with Harvey?” That must have been a bigger deal than he thought it was. She stopped and turned to look at him. They could see the apartments from where they were standing.
“It’s not a big agency.” He assured her.
“No, it’s an exclusive agency. They hand pick new clients. Whoever your sports agent is, you need to send that guy something nice. I don’t know what I would be willing to give just to get in the door to talk to them.” She was so animated about it all. He wondered if he couldn’t get her in the door to talk to someone and negotiate his reward for making it happen.
“When do you go back to work?” he asked as they entered the apartment complex.
“Next week. Bo told me to take the week off. I have sick days I have never used. I have vacation time, too. I just don’t have anywhere to go anymore.” She laughed but it wasn’t a fun laugh it was a sad laugh. “It’s funny that when I didn’t have the time or money I had lots of places I could have gone to. Now that I am doing okay on both accounts, I have nowhere.”
“You have the whole world, though I don’t recommend some parts of it.” He let her hand go as they stood in front of the elevators. He looked at her and her adorable outfit. She probably wore a dress because it was easier to put on. The shoes were also easy to slip into. “Hey, how did you get your hair like that?”
“My neighbor, Melody stopped by this morning.”
“I would have come down. I don’t know that I could manage to get it up there like that, but I could have put it in a ponytail for you. Or a braid, I think I still know how to do that.” He thought back to when Dagney was little and visited.
“How?” It seemed she was shocked he could do either.
“Dagney. She was such a rough little kid, but our mom always made her keep her hair long, so she pretty much kept it pulled up in a ponytail or hanging down her back in a braid. Two styles a big brother learned to navigate thanks to a little sister.” He walked with her to her door.
“Are you coming in?”
“Can I?”
She nodded.
***
Harmony let him in. He locked the door behind himself. She hung up her keys and tried to figure out what to do next. “It’s early.”
He yawned. “I know. I’m still adjusting to the time zone change.”
She took a seat on the couch and he sat next to her. “Well. Here we are.”
“Where is your family?” he asked and turned his body to face her.
“Here. My parents are anyways. My mom and dad have a restaurant. It was always their dream. When my brother was killed in action in the war they got his life insurance money and in his will he said he wanted them to use it for that. Casa de Carlos was opened a year later.”
“I’m sorry about…”
“It’s been five years. The rest of my living family is in Puerto Rico or scattered in different states. After my grandma died, I stopped going. I was never that close to anyone other than her.” He let her skip past the grief and she was grateful. Her big brother had been everything to her. His loss was still a wound that would never fully heal.
“So the tall guy in that picture is your dad.” He pointed to the family portrait. She was instantly mortified. She forgot her mom had sent that to her and she sat it on the bookshelf thinking one day she would take it out of the frame and put it in an album.
“Yeah. We got all of the height from him if you can’t tell. Carlos and I were both taller than my mom by the time we were in middle school. That picture was taken when Carlos was a freshman in high school and I was in seventh grade.” She looked at the lanky, frizzy haired girl with braces smiling big for the picture.
“You look happy.”
She thought that sounded nicer than crazy because the combination of the hair, braces, and height was only surpassed by the outfit she had on in that photo.
“I was.” She looked at him. He had noticed qualities in her she felt sure she had. He didn’t make fun of her childhood, didn’t press for her to enter the grief, and he obviously didn’t care if people saw them together in public. “It’s been a long time since I was that happy.”
“Tell me about it. If I knew then what I know now…” He shrugged. “I guess I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Really? I would change lots of things.” She kicked off her shoes and decided to settle in. It was nice just talking with him.
“Give me that.” He pointed to her foot. “Give it. Thank you. I guess I would like to alter a few things, but I wouldn’t because if I did I wouldn’t be here right now with you.”
His large hands gripped and then pressed his fingers along her foot. It had been since never someone had massaged her that wasn’t paid to do so. She didn’t even ask. He just did it. Her eyes closed as his thumbs ran up the sole of her foot. Her entire body tingled from it. “Your hands are magical.”
He laughed.
“Serio
usly. I’ve only had that done by a professional and her hands never feel that good.” She sighed a long lusty sound of pleasure as he did it again.
“You look tired,” he said as he yawned.
She was certain he was still tired. “You don’t have to stay here with me. You can go back to your place. You obviously need a nap.”
“You don’t want to take a nap?” he asked.
Then she realized he wanted to sleep with her. “I might be ready for another round by this evening, but I’m not ready now.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Ready for what?”
“You’re trying to have sex with me. You want to lure me into bed under the false pretense of sleep.” She crossed her arms.
“Admittedly, I am trying to lure you to bed. Not for sex. At least not right now. I tossed and turned all night. I kept thinking about you. I worried about not being here if you needed something…I know. I know it’s ridiculous. I just met you. It doesn’t change the fact that I slept like shit because I was worried about you.”
She watched his hands push into her other foot. She did feel a bit more relaxed now. She had nothing to do since she had a week off from her regular job and no auditions lined up so far for her dream job. “What makes you think you will sleep better with me than you did without me?”
“Two reasons. First, you will be there so I know you’re not setting your cast on fire trying to cook something. Don’t laugh at me. I woke up in a panic. Second, stop laughing. Second, if you did need me I would be right there.” He batted those big blue eyes at her and she was absolutely unable to resist him.
Chapter 3
Two weeks later…
Bruce had talked her into it. He didn’t think she would move in with him right away or anything, but he wasn’t satisfied with Dagney’s apartment. They walked into the third condo and he knew right away this was the one.
“Oh my God, Bruce. Look at this place.” She surveyed the kitchen first. He had learned in the past two weeks that she really enjoyed cooking. She also really missed being able to cook the way she used to. She was getting better with her left hand and the cast would come off soon.