Her issues were obvious. She was in love with someone who was unattainable. Which she guessed was Krista’s problem too. She truly believed in her heart of hearts that Krista had never gotten over Chase Malone. The two of them had been together off and on for six years before he’d finally left and never came back.
Haley desperately wished her sister would move on, even though she knew that was totally a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Still, she was her big sister, so she got to be the pot. It was more of a ‘do as I say not as I do’ type of situation.
Haley knew for a fact that it didn’t help matters that since then, Chase became a bona fide rock star. There were reminders of him everywhere Krista turned. Plus, she knew, even though her sister didn’t talk about it, she still stopped by and checked on Mrs. Malone at least once a week. Krista had always had a soft spot in her heart for Chase’s mom.
Then there was Jessie. She kept everything so close to the vest that Haley had no idea what was going on in her love life, if anything. During high school, she’d casually dated but never seemed overly invested in any of the relationships. Now that she was in college thousands of miles away, Haley really had no idea. If Haley was an open book, then Jessie would be considered a closed book, with a padlock, kept in a safe that only Jessie knew the combination to.
As far as Becca went, well, Haley had always related with Becca more than either of their other sisters. Becca was truly a romantic at heart. Also, much like Haley, she’d always had her head buried in a book—for totally different reasons than Haley though. Haley read for pleasure, whereas Becca read to learn. School was always a top priority for her. Now that she was pre-med at Stanford, from what Haley could glean through Skype and emails, it was a top priority to her beautiful youngest sister now more than ever.
“Isn’t that just the cutest thing you ever saw?” Chelle asked with a smile in her tone. Haley turned to see what her friend was talking about.
Riley was outside, standing in the middle of the grass, tossing Mya up in the air and catching her. The baby was giggling, her chubby cheeks red with laughter. Chelle’s face glowed with happiness as she watched her husband with her daughter. Haley’s eyes, however, automatically locked on Eddie like a heat-seeking missile. The six-foot-four man of her dreams was kneeling beside the grill, teaching Emily how to barbeque.
Eddie was such a great dad.
When Em had asked her last week if she could come over to help get everything ready the night before their birthdays, Haley had happily agreed without so much of a passing thought that she should run it by Eddie. Now she wasn’t sure how Eddie felt about her being here. Tonight was the first time she’d been face to face with him since their bow-chicka-bow-wow, Al-Green-Let’s-Get-It-On-moment—or moments—two nights ago.
Tonight, she’d been a total spaz when he’d opened the door to let her in. She’d taken one look at him and had no idea how to act. So she’d gone with the always sexy awkward wave with a “Hi there,” like a total dork.
Haley knew she was being ridiculous. She’d promised him that nothing would change. When she’d made that promise, she’d believed in what she had been committing to one million percent.
But that was before. Before the best night of her life had happened. Before her soul connected to his in a way she never even knew was possible. The term soul mate had always struck Haley as people trying too hard. She’d never seen the shame in just saying that you loved the one you were with—until she’d made love to Eddie. Because somewhere between Eddie backing her up against that dressing room wall and Haley riding him so hard she had leather burns on the side of her legs from the chair they were sitting in, her soul met its perfect mate.
Haley had thought, fantasized, and dreamed about what being with Eddie would be like. So much so that she had her favorites mentally listed in alphabetical order. Usually when you built something up to that mythical epic proportion, reality failed to live up to your inflated expectations.
She had learned that lesson the hard way the summer they opened the Splash N’ Slide water park about ninety minutes from her house. All summer long, brightly colored enticing commercials were running on the local stations of kids splashing in the water, sliding down slides, and floating in tubes. Basically, having the flippin’ most fantastical time of their lives. She’d spent her entire summer wanting more than anything else to go to Splash N’ Slide. Finally, the weekend before school was going to start, she got the chance to go with a few of her friends.
Haley remembered that she didn’t sleep the night before. She couldn’t; she was just too stinking excited. Then, during the entire one-and-a-half-hour drive to get to the water park, she’d barely been able to contain her excitement. She’d bounced off the two girls she was squished between in the back of her friend’s mom’s minivan like a ping pong ball.
But after arriving at the gates, spending an hour in line just to enter, another half of an hour to get lockers, then two hours in line to go on the first waterslide, Haley was over it. She’d built it up so high in her head that she was just so disappointed at what it really was. So she spent the remainder of the day at the water park reading a book on a lounge chair beside the lap pool while her friends stood in hour-or-longer lines to go down a thirty-second slide.
Haley had had the thought that this could be something exactly like that and had tried to prepare herself at least a little bit for that very real possibility.
But the exact opposite had happened when it came to Eddie. It might have been a few years since she’d been up on a horse, but this wasn’t her first rodeo. She’d had sex before. Most of the time, she’d even enjoyed it. With the right partner, it could be good times. Sure, it hadn’t been like the romance novels that she liked to read. There had been no earth-shattering moments of wild abandon, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t had good, satisfying sex.
Of course, whenever she imagined herself being with Eddie, her fantasies leaned more towards the romance-novel encounters and less towards her real-life ones. But hey, they were fantasies. Not to mention, they were the only things she had to keep herself going over the last four years.
Never in her wildest imagination would she have thought that Eddie could not only live up to her fantasy, but blow it clean out of the water. Every moment, every touch, every time they’d made love it had been earth shattering. And she’d definitely experienced several moments of wild abandon.
The sliding door opened and Riley stepped in with baby Mya. “She’s stinky. Where’s the diaper bag?”
Chelle hopped up out of the chair, her brunette ponytail bouncing as she did. “I’ve got it. Come here, pretty girl,” she cooed to baby Mya as she took her out of Riley’s arms.
“You sure?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Chelle beamed up at her husband.
Riley held his hands up in surrender, shaking his head. “Okay.” Then leaning down, he kissed both of his girls on the forehead and went back out onto the deck.
Chelle took Mya into the TV room to change her and Haley found herself alone in the kitchen. She had to face the cold hard truth of the situation that even being at Eddie’s house felt different now. Everything had changed. In one sense, she felt closer to Eddie than she ever had before. On the other hand, she also felt like more of an outsider in his life than she ever had before.
Still, even with the turmoil and adjustment she was facing now, she wouldn’t take back the night they’d shared. No matter how this all played out, she’d always have the memory of the most amazing, life-changing night of her life.
* * *
“Man, I can’t believe she’s going to be eight tomorrow.” Eddie leaned on the railing as he watched his daughter doing cartwheels all over the backyard.
“I remember when you wrote me and told me Lacey was expecting.” Riley grabbed a water out of the ice chest. “I couldn’t believe you were going to be a dad.”
“That made two of us,” Eddie laughed.
“But you’ve done such a great job,
man. And by yourself.” Riley patted him on the shoulder.
Eddie felt like telling him that his pat on the back might be a little premature. He had a feeling that the toughest years with Emily were still to come. Just the past month or so had been bumpier than the last four years combined.
“So, do you know anything about some guy who owns a coffee shop across from Haley’s new place?” Riley asked as he pulled up a chair across from Eddie and sat down, propping his legs up on the fire pit.
“No. Why?” Eddie took a drink of water.
“Nothin’.” Riley shrugged. “I just heard Katie, Amber, and Chelle all talking about how perfect he would be for Haley. I think they might decide to play cupid. I just thought, since you’ve been doing some work over there, you might have run into him.”
“Nah, I haven’t seen him.” Eddie felt the muscles in his shoulder tense and his jaw lock at just the thought of Haley being set up with anyone. He’d never been a big fan of the idea, but after he’d made love to her, he couldn’t even imagine watching some ass clown pick her up for a date or, even worse, start hanging out at her house, showing up for family events. Eddie couldn’t stomach the thought of her actually being in a relationship with someone. Not after what they’d shared.
In those few hours they had been together, it had simultaneously felt like time had stood still and flown by. He’d made love to her two more times after their first time on the couch. The next time, they’d been standing while they watched their reflections in the mirror, which, on a hotness scale, was off-the-charts sexy. And last, but certainly not least, they’d had sex while he sat on one of the oversized chairs and she straddled him.
That night was by far the single most intimate, erotic experience he’d ever had.
His mind had been totally consumed with thoughts of it ever since. He’d thought he had been a fiend for Haley before they’d slept together, but that had been mild attraction compared to what he was going through now. Not a minute went by without him wanting her again. Not only sexually, but just missing her. Her smile, her laugh, her touch. He craved her.
The thing was, if she were a drug, he could just quit her cold turkey. But that couldn’t happen. He saw her almost every day and there were reminders of her everywhere. Even now, she sat in his house, happily giving up her Friday evening to help get Em’s party favors together.
When he’d opened the door and seen her tonight, he’d almost pulled her into his arms and kissed her. In fact, his arms had started to lift and the only thing that had stopped them was the nervous look in Haley’s china blue eyes as she’d raised her hand in a cute wave. He hadn’t been thinking at all about the fact that her cousin and his sister were sitting on the couch. Or that he didn’t actually have the right to do things like that because Haley wasn’t his girlfriend.
He’d just opened the door and seen her and his body had responded without running the play by his brain. What the hell was wrong with him? Eddie had been so worried that if anything happened between the two of them Haley wouldn’t be able to handle it. That things would be different between them and Emily would be affected by it. But Haley seemed to be handling things just fine. He, on the other hand, was not.
The sliding door opened and he turned to see the object of his tortured affections step out onto the deck. Their eyes locked for a moment. A blush rose up her cheeks before she dipped her head and then looked out over the grass.
“All right, pretty girl. Favors are all done. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
His daughter stopped mid gymnastics routine and ran up on the deck as he stood from his seat. “You’re leaving?” both he and Emily asked in unison.
Haley’s baby blue eyes darted between Eddie and his daughter. Leaning down to hug Emily, she said, “Yep. I gotta go, but I’ll be here bright and early to do your hair, princess.”
“Okay.” His daughter’s voice was filled with disappointment and she hugged Haley.
Eddie was definitely feeling his daughter’s pain. He even felt a twinge of jealousy in his chest because Emily got to hug Haley and he didn’t.
He needed help. Serious. Mental. Help.
As she stood and brushed her hair back over her shoulder, Eddie’s fingers itched to reach and touch its soft strands. If he closed his eyes, he could still feel it brushing across his chest as she moved up and down on him.
She smiled in his general direction without making eye contact. “All right. See you guys later.”
“You got a hot date or something?” Riley asked as he sat beside Eddie.
Eddie had always considered Riley his best friend. He would even go as far as calling him a brother. But he’d never loved him as much as he did in this very minute for asking the exact question he wanted—no, needed—to know the answer to.
“None of your business.” Haley’s voice was high as she lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers above her head.
Shit.
She passed Chelle, who was coming out with baby Mya as she headed back into the house, and said goodbye, giving the baby a kiss on the head as she did.
Emily ran back onto the grass to continue her flips, handstands, and back walkovers.
“Where’s she going?” Chelle nodded in the direction of the house after the screen door closed.
Riley shrugged as he pulled Chelle and Mya onto his lap. “She didn’t say.”
“Be right back.” Eddie had one foot inside when he called out as an afterthought, “Watch the burgers.”
Not waiting for a response, he rushed through his house and opened the front door just as Haley was almost to the end of his driveway. “Hales.” Stepping outside, he shut his door behind him.
She turned around, and when she saw him, her face scrunched in worry. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she rushed back up the drive.
Good question.
“Nothing,” he answered.
“Oh.” Now, instead of worry, she stood before him and just looked confused. “Are you okay?”
No.
“Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for coming over tonight.” What the hell? Had he really just said that? When had he turned into a nervous teenager? Shit, even when he was a teenager, he hadn’t been a nervous one.
“No problem. I was happy to do it. You’re sure you’re okay?” She smiled even as her brow furrowed. She tucked her hair behind her ear and tilted her head in a questioning pose. When she did, he smelled the fresh, fruity scent of her shampoo. God, he loved that smell.
“Yeah.” He stared down into the clear blue pools of her eyes and he knew, in that moment, he was lost. Totally and completely lost. And he had no idea how the fuck to find his way back.
“All right then.” She lifted her hand again in a slight wave as she turned to leave.
Reaching out, he caught her wrist in his and spun her back around. Looking up at him with wide eyes, she sucked in a breath. He backed her up against the cove of the garage door. Releasing her wrist, he cupped her face with his hands and covered her mouth with his.
A soft, needy moan escaped from her mouth as she parted her lips. Her tongue met his lick for lick as he ravenously kissed her, pouring every ounce of passion, need, and frustration into it. Her hands wrapped around his shoulders and she melted against him.
He heard the thumping sounds of Emily running through the house and knew that at any moment his little girl could open the door and catch them in this compromising position. Reluctantly, he broke their kiss, leaning his forehead against hers for a moment as he tried to steady his breathing.
Haley was doing the same as she asked, “Not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”
“I missed you,” he simply stated. It was the truth. He’d missed her so badly he’d felt it in the marrow of his bones. Stepping back before he missed her some more, he said, “Sorry. You better get going.”
Her lust-fogged eyes cleared as she said, “You don’t ever have to apologize for kissing me like that.”
“I wasn’t apologizing for th
e kiss. I was apologizing in case I made you late,” he explained.
“Oh. Okay.” A huge smile spread on her face as she brushed past him.
He stepped back up on the porch. The sun was setting. The smell of barbeque was in the air. And he had the best view in the world as he watched Haley walk across the street in her tight blue jeans.
He might not know what he’d gotten himself into, but life was still pretty good.
Chapter Seventeen
“I need to get in the bathroom.” Haley stood in the upstairs hall and pounded on the door.
The sound of the dryer stopped abruptly as her sister Jessie called out, “I’m almost done.” Before she even got the last word out, the muffled hum of the dryer flipped back on.
Haley closed her eyes and slumped back against the wall, sliding down until her rear hit the floor. “Almost done” in Jessie-talk could be at least fifteen more minutes. If there was one thing she did not miss about living in house with three sisters…this was it. Someone was always in the bathroom.
She tried to suppress her frustration. It wasn’t that big of a deal. She just needed to grab a quick shower before she put on her princess dress and headed back across the street.
This morning, Eddie’s house had been bustling and busy in full party readiness mode. The blow-up bouncy house castle had already arrived as well as the balloons and cake.
When she’d headed over to do Em’s hair, Eddie had been outside in the backyard setting up tables and chairs. Shirtless. Seeing Eddie doing manual labor, sans shirt, had not been a bad way to start her birthday.
Every time Haley closed her eyes, she could feel his skin against hers. Feel his hands touching her. His mouth on her. His length buried deep inside…
“Good morning, birthday girl!” Haley opened her eyes just as Becca plopped down beside her. Her sister’s dark brown hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she was wearing Lemonhead pajama bottoms and a yellow tank top. She was such a cutie pie.
“Good morning. Did you sleep okay on the couch?”
Tempting Love - Haley & Eddie Page 16