by J. Daniels
My body instantly relaxed.
“Night, babe,” he murmured.
“Night,” I murmured back. I closed my eyes with Jamie McCade in my bed, and although this wasn’t the first time he was sleeping over, not even the second, it definitely felt like it was.
* * *
It was the next day, the lunch rush was starting to pick up, and I was having the best time working alongside my best girl.
We didn’t get many shifts together now that Syd worked full-time at the hospital, so when we did, I cherished them.
No way was anything getting me down today.
“So Sunday dinner is canceled this week,” Syd informed me, coming to stand behind the bar, where I was currently pouring drinks.
I set the pitcher of water on the counter, turned my head to look at her, and frowned. Well, okay, maybe there were some things that could get me down today. I loved Sunday dinner.
“Why?” I asked. “Do you need to cover a shift?”
Syd shook her head. “My mom wants to meet Brian.” Her eyes widened and she laughed lightly. “Crazy, right? I wasn’t expecting it either.”
I turned to face Syd, giving her my full attention. This was huge.
“She does? What happened to her not being supportive and a massive bitch about the whole thing?” I asked.
Syd’s mom completely shut her out after she found out her daughter was living with Brian and moving on from Marcus, her ex-husband, who she was separated from. Didn’t have any interest in meeting the man who made her daughter the happiest she’d ever been and made that known.
I hated watching Syd go through that.
“Apparently she saw Marcus out with my replacement and let him have it right in the middle of a Sonic parking lot,” Syd replied.
A laugh erupted in my chest. “What? Really?”
She nodded, smiling a little. “Yep. When she got home afterward, she called and said she saw Marcus eating hot dogs and looking happy about burning in hell for his sins.”
“Oh, good Lord. Your mother.”
“I know.”
We both started laughing.
Syd shrugged. “Anyway, she said she’d like to meet Brian, and I thought we’d go up Saturday and maybe spend the night and come home late on Sunday. I want to show Brian where I grew up.”
She sounded disappointed, even though I knew she was bursting with joy inside about her mother coming around and possibly wanting to rebuild their relationship.
I reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “This is way more important than dinner, hon.”
Syd smiled. “I’m glad you think that,” she replied softly. “I think so, too.”
“We’ll skip a week. No biggie,” I assured, releasing her and grabbing the glasses I’d just filled. “Or maybe I’ll host it. That could be fun.”
“I’m sure Jamie would think so.”
I turned my head and looked at Syd, keeping a straight face while she offered up a gleaming smile and bright, knowing eyes.
“You need to spill the beans,” she added, stepping closer and pressing her fingertips to her mouth. Her voice raced with excitement.
“None to spill, hon. And I got tables.”
Syd narrowed her eyes. Her hands fell, revealing the smile she was still wearing. She held her hip with one hand and lifted her other to point at me. “You had a sleepover with Jamie McCade. I know you did. And you’ve been mysteriously quiet the past few days, which leads to me thinking you’ve now had several sleepovers with him.” She tipped forward, hand flattening on the bar and voice lowering when she added, “You have so many beans to spill, they are practically coming out of your eyeballs.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I returned, playing dumb as I stepped out from behind the bar.
I glanced at her as I walked past. She wasn’t smiling anymore. She was grinning. Big-time. Typical. Team Jamie all the way.
Shaking my head, I left her goofy grinning ass standing there and carried the drinks to the customers waiting on them. As I was checking on another table, giving them more napkins before they had the chance to request any, movement at the front of the restaurant caught my eye and I looked up.
Jamie walked up to the hostess podium and greeted Kali, who was standing there. Then his eyes met mine and held while he continued speaking.
My heart became one of those cartoon drawings with the arms and legs, waving at Jamie while it jumped up and down fanatically.
He was wearing a bright yellow O’Neill tee and cargo shorts. Typically, when Jamie came in here for lunch, he’d be wearing a pair of board shorts, either getting ready to give a lesson or coming from one. But I knew he had that interview this afternoon so I was figuring that was the reason for the shorts he was wearing. And even though he’d finished with his lessons for the day, his hair was definitely still damp. It had extra curl and looked darker at the roots.
I knew he smelled like sunscreen and the summer breeze, but a huge, pressing part of me wanted confirmation on that. My face buried in his neck would provide that confirmation.
After Jamie claimed a vacant booth in my section, I walked over, pen and ticket book at the ready.
“You know what you want?” I asked, skipping introductions and now beating Syd out on goofy grins, I was sure of it. I had to be taking the cake on the one I was currently wearing.
Jamie grinned back, head tilting to the side and arm coming up to lay across the back of the booth. “Yep,” he replied.
“What?”
“That sweet fuckin’ mouth.”
I scrunched my nose up and shook my head, telling him, “Ah sorry. I think Nate took kissing off the menu last week.”
“Yeah? It ain’t a special today?”
Lips pressing together, fighting yet another goofy grin, I slowly shook my head.
“Right.” Jamie kept his grin. He didn’t fight it. “I’ll take two spectacular tits in my face and a handful of that ass, babe.”
My eyes widened and a giggle caught in my throat. He was completely serious. I just knew he was.
Face burning, my stomach fluttering, and my heart reaching out, no longer waving but wanting to touch, I asked him, “How about I just surprise you with something?”
“Fine by me,” he replied. “Not really here for the food today anyway, so it don’t matter.”
I held his eyes for a breath, wondering if I’d ever seen a pair so blue, then scribbled down Jamie’s order, which I’d decided was going to be the BBQ chicken biscuit since I knew he liked that. With extra sauce.
“I’ll be back with your drink,” I said, looking up.
“I’ll be here,” he said back, smiling, looking happy and making me want that kiss, right here, out in the open in front of everyone.
I quickly spun around before I lost all of my sense, and made for the kitchen, ticket ripped off and pinched between my fingers.
“Here you go, Stitch,” I said, sliding the paper across the metal lip of the window, then once I got the head jerk, meaning he’d heard me even though I was speaking to his back, I spun around and grabbed a glass and the bottle of grenadine from beneath the bar.
“Hmm. Interesting,” Syd murmured, moving to stand beside me again.
“What?” I asked. I scooped some ice into the glass and started filling it with Coke.
“Oh, nothing,” she sighed. “Just that you put in the order for Jamie without adding on the Loser Special. That’s all. No big deal or anything. Except it totally is a big deal. A huge deal.”
I stopped filling up the glass with Coke and held it there, finger on the dispenser button but no longer pressing.
She was right. She was totally right.
I always added on the Loser Special to Jamie’s orders. Always. Since that very first day. And now I wasn’t. Never again.
I was done asking Stitch to mess with Jamie’s food, because I was done wanting him to catch something, get sick, and never return.
I was done running
away, avoiding, and trying my hardest to keep Jamie from seeing me. And I was done trying to convince myself I didn’t want to see him. I wanted him coming here. I wanted him coming here for me.
If my heart had a mouth, it would totally be saying “I told you so” right about now.
Lips curling up, I finished dispensing the Coke into the glass. Then I spun around and reached for the bottle of grenadine, my eyes lifting to look at Jamie since I’d just had a revelation, and hell, I wanted him seeing how I felt about it.
The hand reaching for the grenadine bottle gripped it, but didn’t raise it up.
I blinked. My stupid, quick-beating heart curled into a ball and sank into the pit of my stomach. And I was transported back to that night I stood in Jamie’s bedroom doorway and watched him engage in a foursome with those women.
The same ones who were apparently joining him for lunch.
Chapter Fourteen
JAMIE
“Well, look who it is.”
Dragging my eyes off Tori as she walked away, I turned my head and tipped it back, looking at the three faces smiling down at me and not having any fucking clue which one of them just spoke.
Not really caring either. What the fuck were they doing here?
“Mind if we join you?” Amy Baker asked, moving before I answered and sliding into the seat across from me.
“Yeah, I do fuckin’ mind,” I shot back, not sounding like too much of a dick but making it known I wasn’t feeling having them join me.
Amy laughed. So did her sisters, Becca and Sue, who apparently couldn’t hear for shit or were just choosing not to listen. Becca slid in next to Amy, and Sue squeezed onto the five inches of bench seat I had vacant on my end.
Didn’t have much opinion of the three of them after our night together. Didn’t have much opinion of any hookup, if that was all it was. And these three were definitely a hookup. Nothing more. Stepsisters wanting to pass me around and do a little sharing and not giving a fuck they were sort of related.
Knew I’d see them around again eventually, but here? I did not need to be seeing them here. And I sure as fuck didn’t want to share a meal with them, which looked to be their agenda.
“You deaf?” I asked Sue, glaring at her and not scooting over to give her room, which meant she stayed pressing against my side to prevent from falling off.
She rolled her eyes, huffing, “Fine.” Then she stood up and squeezed onto the bench with her sisters.
Jesus. Here we fucking go.
“We wanted to talk to you about surf lessons,” Amy informed me. “We were going to call Wax but since you’re here—”
“Call Wax,” I interrupted. “Talk to Cole about it.”
“But Cole isn’t here,” Becca pointed out, a smile slowly lifting her lips. “You’re here.”
“Why I said to call,” I returned coldly.
Becca stopped smiling.
“Jesus, Jamie. What’s crawled up your butt?” Amy griped, acting like I’d invited her ass to sit down and now all of a sudden I was giving her shit about it. “You can’t answer our questions? Why? ’Cause you’re off the clock or something? That’s crap.”
“Yeah. And bad business,” Sue added.
I filled my lungs with air, releasing it slowly as I looked between the three of them. Guess I could answer their questions if that was all they were wanting. Maybe if I did, they’d get the fuck up and leave.
“What’d you wanna know?” I prompted, keeping my one arm on the back of the booth and bringing my other hand up to rest on the table, cracking my fingers one at a time.
“How much are they?” Amy inquired.
“One-fifty per lesson for private. We got package deals where you can book three to five. Those are four twenty-five and seven hundred. We offer group lessons as well.”
“And how much time do we get with you?” Becca asked, resting her chin on her hand.
“None,” I replied.
“What do you mean? Why not?”
I looked at Sue after she spoke. “Lesson times run about an hour. You wanna talk specifics, you can talk to the man who’s gonna give them to you. That ain’t me. Only other option you got is Cole and he’s at the shop, which is why I said to call Wax. Don’t know his schedule so talkin’ to me about it is a waste of time.”
“But why can’t you give the lessons? You’re the best,” Sue asked.
“Yeah.” Amy bit her lip. “The best.”
Becca covered her mouth and giggled. Sue was smiling and Amy was practically eye-fucking me across the table.
My gaze hardened. Jesus. This wasn’t about lessons. They were looking for a repeat.
And I had zero fucking interest in partaking in that even though I knew exactly what a repeat with the three of them would involve.
Wait…
I blinked, scanning their faces again while remembering what was being offered up. Really remembering. Yep.
Zero fucking interest.
My mouth twitched. Motherfucker. I’d been claimed. Tori Rivera owned my shit. And I was more than okay with that.
“Jesus,” I muttered, shaking my head through a laugh.
“What?” Becca asked shyly.
“Yeah. What, Jamie?” Sue asked, leaning forward with curiosity.
Movement caught my attention, and I turned to watch Tori take the remaining steps to reach the booth, eyes holding mine, looking hard but also looking filled with hurt, lips pinched together, cheeks hot, and my glass of Cherry Coke in her hand.
“Here.” She leaned down and sat my glass in front of me. “Your order’s just been put in. It’ll be out in ten and Syd will bring it to you,” she said, voice shaking a little.
Syd will bring it to me? What the fuck? Brow furrowing, I reached for her. “Babe.”
Tori straightened, stepped back so I couldn’t touch her, and then turned to Sue, sticking her hand on her hip and raising a finger to point directly in her face. “You need to leave,” she snapped, voice shaking for a different reason now. She was pissed.
“Excuse me?” Sue asked, looking offended.
“Leave. None of you are getting served,” Tori continued. “And if you ever come back here, you aren’t getting served, so don’t bother. We keep the garbage out back. You’re hungry? Go ahead and pick through it. I’m sure you’ll feel right at home.”
“Legs, what the hell?”
Where the fuck was this coming from?
“Hey, you can’t talk to my sister like that,” Amy hissed, sitting taller like she was fixing to climb over the other two to get to Tori, who when I looked at her was standing less defensively now, her one hand sliding off her hip and the other pressing flat to her stomach.
She blinked, her chest rising and falling severely. “She’s your sister?” Tori asked quietly.
“Yeah,” Amy replied, heavy on the attitude. “They both are. And you aren’t going to talk to them like that.”
Tori ignored Amy and turned her head to look at me instead. The hurt was back in her eyes but it was mixed with something.
Disgust.
I stared at her. I didn’t understand why she was looking or acting the way she was. Wasn’t like I was flirting with them or appearing the least bit interested.
“Hey, don’t I know you?” Becca questioned, speaking up for the first time. “You look really familiar…”
I watched Tori slowly turn her head and glare at Becca. Her nostrils flared. They stared at each other for several breaths, then Becca snapped her fingers and pointed, waving at Legs.
“Ohhh, that’s right.” Becca dropped her hand to the table and nudged Sue, leaning into her to ask, “Remember I told you I saw that girl watching us the night of the party?”
My eyes sliced to Tori. Something pinched in the center of my chest.
Fuck. She saw me with them. She came looking for me that night.
“Oh, yeah,” Sue replied, appearing to think back to that conversation. “That was you?”
I watched Tori
squeeze her eyes shut and draw in a breath, then she turned her head and slowly looked at me as Amy muttered an indifferent, “Huh. Small world.”
Heat burned across Tori’s cheeks. She was embarrassed. And I knew why.
God-fucking-damn it.
I slid to the edge of the bench, moving to stand so I could explain and do it touching her.
“You can leave, too,” Tori informed me.
I froze, held her eyes for a breath, then wiped my hand down my mouth. “Babe, look—”
“I’d like you to leave, Jamie. I’m asking you to leave,” she repeated, her voice back to shaking again. She turned her head and glared at the Baker sisters. “Get out,” she snapped. “Or I’ll have Stitch remove you.”
“Who is Stitch?” Sue asked, but Tori was already moving away, fleeing in the direction of the kitchen but she wasn’t stopping there.
I knew where she was headed.
“Jeez. What was her problem?”
I looked to Amy after she spoke, eyes hard and jaw tight. “Get the fuck outta here,” I ordered.
Amy blinked. Her face went slack, wiped clean of attitude, and she pushed into Becca with her shoulder, saying, “Get up,” on a hurried voice.
I was standing before Sue had a chance to get up and pushing past her when she finally stood, causing her to gasp and lean back into her sisters so she wouldn’t collide with me.
Smart move.
I kept walking, heading to the back of the restaurant and passing Syd, who was standing behind the bar, arms crossed over her chest and face in a scowl.
“Check that attitude, Sunshine. I’m handlin’ it,” I called out.
“I’ll check it once it’s handled, thank you very much,” she returned at my back, possibly going heavier on the attitude since I was telling her to do the opposite.
Jesus. Forgot how good she was at hating on me. Between Tori and Syd, I was sure they could teach a fucking class on it.
I reached the back of the restaurant and the door to the employee lounge I saw Tori disappear behind, and pushed through it. Legs was pacing in front of the lockers but stopped when she saw me, head lifting, breath getting pulled in sharply and eyes going round with alarm.