She rolled her eyes. “Megan,” she whispered. She looked around the restaurant, her eyes scanning all the nooks and crannies and corners.
“Probably,” I said. I reached across the table and took her hand in mine. She almost jerked back, but I held firmly to it and she finally relaxed and let me keep it.
“Do you think we’re selling it? The devoted couple bit?”
I turned her hand over and dragged my thumb across her palm. She sucked in a breath.
I was selling the devoted couple bit, because I felt like a devoted couple. And what was fucked up about it was that I knew it was wrong. I knew that Shelly was trouble, and I wanted her anyway. My spending every waking moment with her had a lot to do with it. The more time I spent with her, the more I wanted her. And it wasn’t because I had to pretend to want her. I genuinely wanted her.
The waitress came and brought our menus and some water.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” I asked Shelly.
She shook her head. “I don’t drink.”
“Why not?”
“My mother was an alcoholic.” She shrugged. “I never was able to find the joy in it after watching her destroy herself the way she did.”
“I’ve never heard you talk about your mother before,” I replied, stunned at how much truth she was laying on the table.
“There’s not much to talk about.” She shrugged again, still perusing her menu. She looked up at me and whisper-shouted, “I want to try everything on the menu!”
I grinned and closed my menu, and I took hers from her when the waitress returned. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” I passed the menus to the waitress and said, “Can we get samples of six of your most popular dishes?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir. Would you prefer fish, chicken, or beef?”
I lifted a brow at Shelly. “Surprise us,” she said with a grin.
“How long have you guys been married?” the waitress suddenly asked, her gaze flipping from Shelly to me and back.
“Oh, we’re not—” I began, but Shelly cut me off by saying, “This our first date.”
“Oh!” The waitress stepped back in surprise. “You guys are great together.”
Shelly’s toe kicked mine beneath the table. “I know, right?” she said, and then she smiled as she lowered her head shyly, and one of those wisps of hair that had escaped her coiffure fell across her eyes. She reached up and brushed it back, tucking it behind her ear.
The waitress laughed and promised she’d be right back.
“So, you were talking about your mother,” I said, trying to get the conversation back to where we were before. Every little nugget I was given about Shelly was like a treasure map that led to something bigger, and I wanted to collect all the nuggets.
“No, I really wasn’t,” she said sweetly. Too sweetly.
“She was an alcoholic.”
“And now she’s dead.”
I remembered reading in Lynn’s file that their mother had died of liver failure when they were young.
“You didn’t live with her after the age of six, regardless, right?”
“Right. She drove me to my grandmother’s house and left me. She never came back.”
What was odd was that Shelly didn’t seem at all disturbed by this. I guess she’d had time to deal with it. Or not deal with it, as the case may be. It was hard to decide which.
“And your father? What happened to him?”
Her face went stony. “He’s dead too.”
“How did he die?”
She smiled and took a sip of her water, but she said nothing.
“Was he sick?” I pressed.
“He was born sick.” Shelly stared at me, her head cocked to the side. “But I’m pretty sure you know about that already.”
“He’s what made Lynn split into multiple personalities.”
She said nothing.
“So how did he die?” I asked again. I needed to know.
“He fell.”
Well, that was news. I knew I was treading in dangerous territory, but I couldn’t stop myself. “So he was just walking along and he fell down? Did he fall from a building? Did he fall from a bridge?”
“Why is this your business?” she asked sweetly. She looked around, like she was searching all the corners of the room for Megan again.
“I want to know everything about you.” Then I rushed on to explain: “That’s what people do on dates. They get to know one another.”
“Lynn doesn’t even know what happened to him.”
“Why not?” I took a sip of my water.
“What do you like to do in your spare time?” she suddenly asked, tilting her head like a curious puppy.
“I don’t honestly have a lot of spare time,” I admitted. This past week had been the most laid-back week I’d had in a very long time.
“What do you normally do?”
“I work.”
“And?”
“I work out.”
One eyebrow lifted. “You work out?”
I laughed. “A lot. I might not look like it, but I like to stay fit.”
Her eyes swept down my body. “You do look like it.”
“Thank—” My voice had gone smoky, so I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “So you work out. And you play cards with your friends.”
I nodded. “And I work. That’s pretty much it. I go home to MeeMaw every night, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“You’re lucky to have her.”
“Who did you have, Shelly?” I asked quietly, like I was talking to a scared puppy that would bolt if I made too much noise.
“I had Lynn. She was all I had.”
“But you didn’t really have her, did you?” I said. “You had her friends. But did you really have her?”
“I had what she was capable of giving me. That was all I needed.”
Her eyes grew hard and cold, and I knew I’d crossed the line.
“She loves you very much,” I said.
She said nothing.
The waitress appeared with a tray stacked with six dishes, and two empty plates, which she put in front of us. Then she arranged the food and walked away.
“What do you want to try first?” I asked.
“All of it,” she said with a grin.
Shelly ate with the same enthusiasm she did everything else. And it was honestly one of the best meals I’d ever shared with anyone.
“You met Marley at the diner?” she finally asked, startling me.
“Yes.”
“When did you meet Megan?”
Shelly was probably the only person in the world I could discuss this with, and I trusted that she could truly understand. “I met her when I was fucking Marley,” I said with a wince. Then rushed to add, “Sorry, that was really crass.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” she said, waving her fork at me. Then she dropped her voice down to a whisper. “So you were, like, actually fucking, and Marley left and you got Megan?”
I nodded, coughing into my fist. “This is a fucking strange conversation to have on a date.”
“Why?” She did the head tilt thing again.
Mainly because I was talking about having fucked one woman while I wanted to fuck this one. It was weird. “It just is,” I replied. “I’ve never told anyone about it.”
“So you were, like…behind her…and then you were doing it doggie-style with Megan?”
I coughed. “Something like that,” I muttered.
“How did you know there was a shift?”
“The look in her eye. I could always tell them apart. Even when Megan pretended to be Marley, I could tell them apart.”
“I could always tell Lynn from the others too,” she replied. And I knew she understood. “What did it feel like? When they switched? That’s an awfully intimate position to be in when you meet someone for the first time.”
“Tell me about it.” I lifted my cloth napkin and
wiped my mouth. “It was terrifying.” A shiver slipped up my spine.
“Did you ever think about trying to love them both, like Mason did with Lynn’s friends?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t even if I’d wanted to. Megan wasn’t good or kind. She’s devious. She’s not anyone I’d choose to be with. Ever.”
She laughed. “She sounds like me.”
I dropped my fork. “What do you mean?”
“Not good or kind? Devious? Malicious is a word I think you’ve used before to describe her.” She laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “That sounds a lot like me.”
“Is that how you see yourself?”
“It’s how everyone else sees me.” She shrugged again.
“I would have to disagree.”
“Just ask Mal or Aubrey. Or Mason. Or, fuck, you can ask Lynn for that matter. Even my own parents didn’t want me, Will,” she said. And my heart went soft when she used my real name.
“You just called me Will.” I smiled at her.
The corners of her mouth tipped up ever so slightly and she rolled her eyes at me. “Am I not supposed to?”
“No, I like it. You should do it more often.” Like when I’m inside you. I didn’t say that out loud, and I had to look away from her when the thought popped into my head.
“What was that look for?” she asked, her eyes narrowing at me.
“What look?”
She laid her fork down. “Don’t do that.”
I laid mine down too. “Don’t do what?”
“You gave me a look, but I don’t know what it was for. I don’t understand, Will. Could you please explain it?”
Shelly was worried, and I felt like the biggest asshole in the history of assholery. I coughed into my fist. “I like hearing you say my name. And I was thinking about how nice it would be to hear you say it when I’m inside you. Preferably screaming it, but hearing it on a moan or a gasp would be nice too.” I coughed again, and I reached down to adjust my junk. Her eyes fell to the tabletop, and they didn’t move for a moment. Then she looked into my eyes. “That was what I was thinking.”
“Oh,” she replied.
“Yeah.”
“Did you try the fish?” she asked, stabbing it with her fork. “It’s really good.” But there was color in her cheeks that wasn’t there before.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just crossed a line. And I’m sorry I’ve made you uncomfortable.” And I was sorry. I wouldn’t have been that forthright with anyone else, and I shouldn’t have said that with Shelly, even though she did demand for me to tell her.
“I’m not uncomfortable,” she replied. “What makes you think I am?”
I waved a hand. “The color on your cheeks. The hitch in your breath. The flush of your chest.”
“That’s not embarrassment,” she said.
“Then what is it?” I stared at her hard, and she stared back, refusing to break eye contact for even a second.
“That’s desire. I want you too, Will.”
Jesus. Fuck. I squirmed in my seat. “Shelly,” I said slowly.
“Yes, Will?” She stuck her fork in her mouth upside down and slowly pulled the tines out. I watched as she did it, fully enthralled.
“I have no idea what I was about to say.” I laughed, and she laughed too. I scrubbed a hand down my face.
“You were going to say that we should get out of here and go home.”
“I would love nothing more than to do that, but I kind of made plans for after this,” I said with a wince.
“What kind of plans?”
“Well, now I’m thinking that my plans are stupid, because your plans sound like so much more fun.”
“What kind of plans, Will?” she asked again sweetly.
“I thought we could go shoot one another.”
Shelly’s eyes narrowed.
“Paintball, Shelly,” I clarified.
She laughed, and it wasn’t a low chuckle. It was a loud laugh that made people turn in our direction. “You want to take me to play paintball?”
“I’ve wanted to shoot you almost every day since I met you, so I thought it might be fun.” I tried to bite back my smile, but it was impossible.
She reached out a tentative hand and touched the scar under my eye with the tips of her fingers, gently tracing the line that Megan had left. “I love it when you really smile at me,” she said.
“I love that you make me really want to smile.” And that was the God’s honest truth.
The waitress appeared and asked, “Can I get you guys some dessert?”
“We’ll take two of your most popular desserts to go,” Shelly replied.
The waitress boxed up our leftovers and brought desserts, and I paid the bill. Shelly didn’t do that thing women often like to do when they try to pay for half the bill, and she let me pay without a fuss. This didn’t surprise me, because Shelly wasn’t like a normal woman. She was so much more.
Jesus, she was more than I’d ever imagined.
Chapter 31
Shelly
I stumbled through the front door of Will’s house, still laughing, as he followed me inside. I bent over at the waist because I was laughing so hard, and the wrinkle that was Will’s scar was pulled so tight that it looked more like a crease than a scar.
“That was so much fun,” I said, as I grabbed the tail end of his shirt, which was hanging out of his pants. I reached up and brushed his forehead with my fingertips, bringing back blue paint that was now smeared across his shiny forehead. “I think I got you pretty good. You’re still blue.”
“You hit me so many times in the forehead that it ran down inside my visor,” he said, absently rubbing at the smear.
“I did tell you that I would hit someone directly in the forehead if I was going for the forehead,” I reminded him.
“I want to see you shoot in real life one day. Will you take me to the range with you?” he asked. He stared at me, his breaths still heaving from his laughter in the car.
“Well, someone needs to teach you to aim. Because your shots were shit at the paintball place.” I laughed and rubbed my ass cheek. He’d gotten in a few good shots to my rear end. “You could always sign up for my class. After all this stuff is over with Megan.” I cleared my throat. “It would give me an excuse to see you again when this is all over.”
He shook his head. It was a slow movement, with his eyes open wide. “You think you’ll be able to get rid of me when this is all over? Really?” He took a step closer to me. I took a step back.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I fully intend to kiss you,” he said, his voice soft and rough, and it moved across my skin like a caress. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you don’t want me to.” He stared at me, hard, so close that I could feel the warmth of his body.
“Do you think it’s a good idea?” I asked.
He grinned. “I think it’s the best idea I’ve ever had.” He inched even closer.
“Is this what normally happens on a first date?”
He nodded, and I could feel the warmth of his breath on my lips as he hovered his mouth over mine. He wasn’t touching me. Not yet. But God, I wanted him to. “This is what happens on a first date,” he said. But instead of kissing me, he ran his nose up the side of mine, gently and slowly. It was barely a graze, but I felt it. I felt it all over.
A bark down by my feet made me jump back a step.
“Channing,” I said, finally able to take a breath as Will stepped back.
“I hate that fucking dog,” he said, his voice droll and dispassionate.
“She probably needs to go out.”
“I’ll take her,” he said. Then he went to get her leash.
“I can do it,” I called back.
“I got it. She can stand me that long.” He walked back in and clipped her leash to her collar. Channing gave him a stare that would have felled a lesser man. He made a clicking sound with his tongu
e and she trotted behind him to the door. “Hey,” he said, turning back at the last moment. “Do you want to put on something more comfortable and watch a movie with me?” He stared at me, a slight smile playing across his handsome face.
My heart tripped a beat. “I’d love to.”
He grinned. “Good. Be right back.” Then he went to walk the dog, the door closing behind him.
I dashed to my room and took my hair down, letting it fall around my shoulders.
My phone pinged and I looked down, surprised to find that it was Aubrey, giving me instructions to call her. I dialed immediately.
“Is everything okay?” I rushed to ask.
“What?” she asked. Then she blew out a breath. “Everything is fine. I was just checking on you.”
“Why?” For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out the purpose of her checking on me.
“Well, it’s something friends do when another friend goes on a date. They check in. That way, if it’s going poorly, the other friend can come up with a reason to get you out of it.”
“Why would I want to get out of it?” I was still confused.
She laughed. “So it’s going well?”
“We just got home from paintball.” I sank down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The fan went around and around, and I couldn’t think of adequate words to describe our date.
“Was it fun?”
“It was the best day ever,” I said, being completely honest.
She laughed. “And the panties?”
I looked down. “Still on.” I waited a beat. “But I wouldn’t mind taking them off.”
She hummed a little in her throat. “Okay, well, if you’re all right—”
I suddenly blurted out the question. “Should I take them off?”
“Well, that depends.”
“On what?”
“Do you like him? Do you trust him? Do you want to fuck him? Do you want a relationship?”
“I like him and I trust him. I desperately want to fuck him. And I have no idea if I want a relationship.”
“Well, there’s no reason not to do it, if you feel like it’s what you want to do. Or you can wait and see how it goes. There are no hard and fast rules, Shelly.”
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