by Tessa Teevan
Turning over with a groan, I refuse to open my eyes. Silently, I wish for my mom and one of her crazy concoctions that somehow always magically cure my hangovers. Yes, I’m twenty-seven years old and I want my mom. Instead, I opt for the next best thing and bury my head under my pillow, hoping to sleep it off. If I’m feeling this bad, I can’t imagine how Lucy’s feeling.
Just as I think I’m about to drift off again, goose bumps form as fingers trail the bare skin on my arm. With a jolt, I sit up quickly, knocking my head on the bottom of someone’s chin. Ouch.
“Shit,” the offender growls in a familiar voice.
My eyes pop open and I see Xavier leaning over the side of my bed, rubbing his chin with a scowl on his face.
“Good morning to you, too, sunshine,” he mutters.
I frown at him, look down at myself to ensure I’m dressed, and then back up to him. All of a sudden, memories from the night before start rushing in. Lucy. Tequila. Trying to remember how to do the Backstreet’s Back line dance and then it turning into some sort of techno rave shit.
“You stayed.”
“You said I could.”
“Funny, my memories may be a bit hazy, but I don’t remember you asking to climb into my bed, Cruz.”
He grins, and it’s gorgeous. Something he does for Lily often, but not for others. A sight I could definitely get used to seeing no matter how bad my head hurts.
“You didn’t tell me to go away, so I figure it’s close enough. Plus, I promised you no regrets. Don’t tell me you actually have them.” A look of worry crosses his expression, and it’s cute. It gives him a boyish vibe even though he’s anything but. I love the look. It’s less serious soldier, stern father. More relaxed, so incredibly sexy.
“The only regret I have from last night is not saying no to that last pitcher of margaritas,” I tell him, placing a hand against my forehead, hoping a temple massage will relieve some of the pressure.
He winces in sympathy then grabs something off the nightstand. My eyes widen when I see the smoothie in his hands. Relief swells in my chest as I lean forward.
“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, feeling hopeful that the answer to my hangover prayers is currently in his hands.
“Ginger’s magical hangover cure?” he asks as he leans over to give it to me.
I take it greedily with eager, grabby hands. “Yes! How did you . . .” I pause to take a sip. Even if it is just the placebo effect, I swear my headache lessens as soon as the liquid slides down my throat. I could kiss him for this.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a run to pass the time until you woke up. I was going to pick up breakfast when I remembered Kale telling me about your mom’s secret hangover drink.”
“Yeah, but how did you get it? She refuses to tell us.”
“Kalli, I’m a pretty charming guy,” he informs me, giving me a swoon-worthy smile. As if I didn’t already know that. “All I had to do was call her and tell her I needed to take care of her daughter. She handed the recipe over right away.”
“What?!” I exclaim, pushing his shoulder. “I can’t believe she told you! I can’t believe you told her you were with me. Do you realize what this means?”
“Umm, that she knows you drank too much last night?” he guesses with a silly grin on his face, faux wincing for me as if I’m a teenager who’s been caught drinking a few too many sips of Boone’s Farm.
I give him a dirty look then wince at the pain in my head. “Well, okay, there’s that. But she was probably on the phone with your mother as soon as she hung up. Your mom will mention you didn’t come home last night, and you know what kind of conclusions those two will come to.”
“I hate to break it to you, crazy girl, but they’re already thinking that. Hell, they’re hoping for it.”
“Last night, you said we need to talk,” I remember out loud, changing the direction of our conversation.
He nods. “We do. Ma’s got Lily covered, so finish that. I’ll just hang out while you shower and get ready? Then we’ll talk.” With that, he stands up and places his fists on the bed, leaning over to place a kiss on my forehead. He’s about to leave my room when I stop him.
“Does this mean I actually get you to myself?” The thought of finally spending time alone with Xavier is thrilling, and I’m anxious to start my day, hangover be damned.
He stops in the doorway and turns to look at me, cocking his head to one side. “It’s long overdue, isn’t it?” he asks.
“Let’s just say you’re lucky I’ve become a very patient woman.”
AFTER THE quickest shower I’ve probably ever taken, I towel-dry my hair, brush some mascara on, pinch my cheeks, and get dressed, opting for a casual pair of jeans and a knit top. We’re going to talk, and part of me hopes that it will lead to spending the day together. It’s probably wishful thinking on my part, especially since he’s already been away from home overnight, but perhaps this is the beginning of us. Whatever that means.
He glances up at me when I walk into the living room. “Feeling any better?” he asks, rising from the couch.
For the first time, I notice he’s in different clothes than the night before, so I ask about it.
“Yeah, I stopped by the house after my run so I could shower and change. Lily figured I’d just gone out before she woke up. She’s none the wiser that I didn’t come home last night.”
“Are you ashamed of me, Cruz?” I ask teasingly, which causes him to frown.
“Of course not. Lily misses spending so much time with you. I know she’d be upset if we had that sleepover without her,” he informs me, his tone serious.
“Ah, got it. You know, she’s welcome here any time. I’d be more than happy to have her. We still haven’t done a movie night school started.”
“Kalli, I love that you love my daughter, but she had you all summer. Now, it’s my turn.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s so,” he confirms. Then he holds his hand out for me. “Let’s go.”
“Go? I thought we were going to talk,” I ask, confused, but I still place my hand in his.
“We are,” he tells me as he leads me outside and to his truck. “We’re just going to do it elsewhere.”
Wrinkling my nose, I stop and pull my hand from his, placing it on my hip. “And you just assumed I didn’t have any plans or that I’d want to go somewhere with you? Maybe I wanted to stay in and talk on the couch in the comfort of my own home. Did you think about that?”
He turns to me, an amused expression on his face. “Okay, Kalli. I’ll play. Do you have plans?”
“No.”
“Do you want to stay home?”
“Not really. It’s a gorgeous day, and I’d like to experience the Tennessee autumn outside as much as I can,” I inform him, nodding towards a tree that’s prematurely changing colors already, even though it’s only early October.
He takes my hand with both of his and holds it up to his chest, straight over his heart. “Kalliope Montgomery, will you, my beautiful, crazy girl, spend the day with me?”
My heart leaps at the word “my,” and I give him a beaming smile. “I thought you’d never ask.”
WHEN I woke up this morning with Kalli wrapped around me like a fitted sheet, my initial reaction was to bolt. Doubts and questions started to formulate in my mind, and knowing she would probably be sleeping off her hangover for a little while longer, I knew I could slip out of bed without waking her.
Then she shifted, moving even closer to me, and my mood lifted. The fear melted away, and I didn’t want to run. Hell, I didn’t want to move from that spot until I absolutely had to. This was what I’d been missing for so long. Something so simple yet intimate in nature. Sure, all we had done was spoon and sleep in the same bed, but for me, it was a monumental moment. Hence the initial reaction to leave.
The longer I stayed there, however, the harder it became. The harder I became. And the last thing I wanted was for Kalli to wake up with my erection pokin
g her in the ass. Slowly, and very reluctantly, I was able to slide out of bed, opting to go for a run to work off some of my pent-up energy.
Heading home to shower was a gamble, but fortunately, it was one that paid off. Lily was none the wiser that I’d been gone the night before, and Ma—God love her—had already promised a girls’-only day out in Nashville, leaving me completely free for the rest of the day to finally—finally—spend some much-needed alone time with Kalli.
Now that she’s sitting next to me in my truck, however, I have no freaking clue what to do or where to go. I can’t remember the last time I took a woman on a date. I’m racking my brain for things to do when Kalli scoots across the bench seat to sit right next to me.
“Nervous, Cruz?” she asks.
I frown. “Why would I be nervous?”
“Well, your leg’s bouncing up and down, you’re staring out the windshield, and we’ve been sitting in your truck for three minutes and you haven’t moved.”
I cough, realizing she’s right and feeling foolish. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve done this.”
“You’re telling me you don’t have this whole thing planned out?”
Wincing, I shrug my shoulders. “The only girl I’ve had to worry about entertaining is ten, so I’m a little out of my element here.”
She laughs and places a hand on my knee, stilling my movements. “Relax, Xavier. Why don’t we head to the Riverwalk? I’ve been wanting to get down there and haven’t had a chance yet. I’m so used to living on the beach that I’m missing being outdoors so much. Being cooped up in that apartment all the time gets old. Plus it’ll give us a chance to talk without distraction, and then we can go from there.”
Why didn’t I think of that? “That sounds like a good idea,” I agree, grateful that she helped an out-of-practice guy out. As I pull out of her parking lot, I silently hope that being out of practice doesn’t cause me to screw everything up.
“SO, DOES this mean you’re done avoiding me now?” she asks, catching me off guard.
I take her hand as we start walking down the concrete path along the Cumberland River, feeling like a kid holding his girlfriend’s hand for the first time. Is my hand clammy? Am I holding too tight?
“I wasn’t avoiding you, Kalli. I promise. At least, not intentionally. I should’ve tried harder to keep in contact while I was gone. I guess . . . I was just really in my head. But trust me when I say I thought about you the entire time.”
“I’m just giving you crap, Xavier. I know you were working and in the middle of nowhere. And it’s not like we’ve had a defining moment in our relationship, friendship, whatever. You didn’t owe me anything. I was just having a drunken pity party last night.”
“I appreciate you saying that, but I still feel like an ass. We went from seeing each other every day for the entire summer and then weeks apart. Hell, I’d even told Ma the day I picked her up from the airport that I was going to pursue you, but before I could, I got called away.” I can’t believe I’m admitting this to her, but I want her to know where my head is at. Where it’s been this entire time. With her.
“I won’t lie. The longer I didn’t hear from you, the more I wondered if I was going to. But in the back of my mind, I knew you’d be back,” she says, shoulder-checking me.
“Does that mean I’m forgiven?” I ask hopefully.
“Are you still into me?”
“More than ever before,” I answer, and she smiles over at me.
“Then yes, you’re forgiven. This is a learning curve for both of us. We’ll figure it out as we go along. I’d say today is a nice start.”
I’m pretty sure our “talk” is over. It was simpler than I expected, and I wonder if things with her will always be this easy. While I’m relieved she’s not mad over the lack of contact from these past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about what she said about not having had a defining moment. We need to. But I don’t even know how to define it, so I’m not sure where to start. Or even if I should at this point.
“Okay, now that that’s out of the way, what would you like to do with the rest of our date?”
“Date, huh?” she asks, tilting her head to one side to look up at me.
“I wasn’t going to call it a date—at least, not yet. I didn’t plan on our first official date to be just walking around a park. But if we’re going to start dating, then I guess we should probably classify this as a date and not just two friends hanging out.”
She stops in her tracks and turns to look at me. “Run that by me one more time,” she requests, and I have to fight the urge to sweep her up into my arms, kiss her, and let her know just how serious I am.
“I know I’ve been hot and cold with you, Kalli, and you put up with my crap for longer than most girls would’ve. I won’t lie—jumping back into the dating pool scares the hell out of me. But at the same time, you know what doesn’t scare me?”
“What’s that?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.
“You. You don’t scare me at all. And it’s why I don’t want to do the friends thing anymore. We’ve both admitted that we like each other, and I want to be with you, see where things go.”
She nods when I pause.
“I do still want to take things slow, and maybe keep this under wraps while it’s so new.” I hesitate on that last part, cringing, hoping she doesn’t get the wrong idea.
“I get it, Xavier, and I’m on board. It’s no one else’s business what we do until we’re ready to tell them.”
“Thank you. I don’t deserve how patient you are with me,” I tell her, and she smiles at me warmly. “So, how about it? I’m a little late at asking, but Kalli, will you turn this day into a date with me? No matter how lame a first date it is?”
“Don’t be silly, Xavier. If this means we’re dating, then this is the best first date ever,” she says, linking her arm through mine. “Now, let’s continue it.”
As we start walking along the path again, a sense of comfort washes over me. For the first time in so damn long, I’m dating. There aren’t any lightning strikes. I don’t have the sudden urge to run away. There’s no tightness in my chest from the pressure. It’s just good, old-fashioned dating.
And damn, does it feel good.
THE MORNING passes too quickly as we walk along the path of the Riverwalk, talking about anything and everything. Even though we’ve known each other for years, we talk on a more personal level than we ever have before. She fills me in on her years in college, and I shake my head at the crazy things she and Kaylie have done over the years. I almost lose it when she tells me about the time she walked in on her mom having sex with her younger massage therapist boyfriend. I love Ginger Montgomery, and Kalli is a near carbon copy of her mother, but I don’t need that image in my head. She asks about the Army, and it’s refreshing being able to talk to her about it since Kale’s filled her head with enough knowledge that she understands what the hell I’m talking about.
Just as we get to the end of the path, her stomach growls. “Do you have time to get something to eat?” she asks, looking down at her watch then back up at me.
“I’m free until this evening. I told Ma I’d meet her and Lily for dinner after their shopping trip, so we have a few more hours.”
She smiles with what looks like relief. I feel the same way, knowing I’m not ready for this day to end.
“I haven’t really had a chance to explore the city much. Is there a good place to eat outside? It’s so nice out, and I’m not ready to lose the sun.”
I think about it before an idea pops into my head. Grabbing her hand, I lead her towards the parking lot, knowing the perfect place.
When I pull up to a market not far from the Riverwalk, I hop out of the truck and tell Kalli to stay inside. She gives me a quizzical look but nods anyway. Upon my return, a smile forms on her lips when she sees the grocery bags.
“Not exactly what I had in mind,” she says, “but I’m intrigued.”
Her eyes l
ight up when she sees the sign for Dunbar Cave State Park. It doesn’t take long for us to find a spot next to the lake to spread out the blanket I thankfully had in the back seat. We eat a picnic lunch of turkey and swiss—somehow I knew it was her favorite—as she tells me about her first graders. It’s warming to know she’s enjoying her job, especially if it means she has more of a reason to stick around.
“I’m stuffed,” she says, making a show of lying back on the blanket and holding her stomach. “A nap sounds so good right now.”
I gather up all the trash and throw it away before joining her back on the blanket and lying down on my side to look down at her. “A nap in the sunshine with a beautiful girl? Count me in,” I agree, and she turns her head towards me, a smile on her lips.
“Talk to me,” she says softly.
I furrow my brow. “We’ve been talking all morning.”
She sighs dreamily, and I can tell she’s getting sleepy. So much for exploring the park.
“I know that, Xavier. Speak to me in Spanish.”
Shaking my head, I lean across the blanket and press a kiss to her temple before my lips move down to her ear. “Eres loca.”
She pushes my shoulder and shoots me a glare as I try to hide my laughter. “Seriously? I know what loca means! And while I can admit that I do have crazy tendencies, that’s not what I meant. When I said to talk to me in Spanish, I meant say something sexy. Whisper dirty words in my ear. Don’t call me names,” she says, rolling her eyes at me.
“Basura,” I whisper, making sure to roll the R for emphasis.
“See? That was hot. Say it again.” Her eyes close and she looks completely content lying there on the blanket as the warm sunshine kisses her skin, which makes me want to reach over and do the same.
I bite my lip to stop myself from laughing. “Basura,” I repeat, a chuckle escaping as I finish.
She opens her eyes and sits up, looking at me suspiciously. “What does that mean?” she asks, and I know I’m in for it.