by Piper Rayne
“Anyway, back to the steak.” Hannah’s gaze shoots my way.
“The steak will remain untouched.” I sip my drink.
Chelsea scoffs. “Please, I guarantee you’re gonna to have that meat in your mouth at some point.”
I almost spit my drink all over the table I laugh so hard.
“Does the steak have a name?” Hannah asks after we’ve settled ourselves.
“Reed.”
“Is he still close to your ex?” she asks in response.
“He says no. I haven’t seen him since we moved out of Chicago to Los Angeles, so he’s probably telling the truth.”
“Then go for it. If anything, it might get to your ex.” Hannah waggles her eyebrows and grins.
I never knew she could be so spiteful, but from what I gather, her divorce was really nasty.
She has a point though. Anything that would annoy Pete has its benefits.
“I have too much on my plate right now to worry about getting back at my ex. This will have to be platonic.”
“Let me take Jade for a weekend. Have a weekend full of hot sex, leave your love bites on him, and get it out of your system.” Chelsea finds her voice once again with advice I won’t be taking.
“With how he’s inserted himself in my life already, I’m thinking he might want to put a ring on it if I sleep with him.”
The girls laugh, and we go back to our lunch. I’m hoping the topic of Reed will be tossed into the garbage along with our trash.
We’re almost finished eating when a gorgeous guy with olive skin, perfect dark scruff on his chiseled jaw and the darkest brown eyes I’ve ever seen walks in. Chelsea’s smile turns up to full wattage.
“Luca!” she says, standing and embracing the prime rib in front of us.
Hannah knocks her knee to mine and we share a look.
“This is my co-worker, Victoria and my boss, Hannah.” She swivels him toward the table. His chocolate gaze lands on us and I take in his paramedic uniform. “This is Luca.”
“Hi.” He puts out his hand to shake both of ours. “Chelsea told me your office is just upstairs.”
“If by upstairs you mean twenty floors, yes.” I smile, and he does, too.
He’s handsome, but the grin on his face says he’s Chelsea’s match in the partying arena.
He turns his attention back to Chelsea. “I meant to ask you, I saw on Instagram that your cousin is getting married.”
“Are you still stalking her fiancé?” Chelsea jokes and his shrug and his smile says he’s got no shame.
He turns to the table again. “Do you know that Chelsea’s cousin is a Winter Classics skier and she’s marrying a Classics snowboarder?”
Chelsea shrugs, but her proud smile says she’s not embarrassed by it.
“Really? Who? I was glued to the screen this Winter Classics,” Hannah says.
“Skylar Walsh is my cousin,” Chelsea says.
They share the same last name, so we should’ve guessed.
“That’s awesome. Do you think she’d be willing to speak at the gala?” Hannah asks, ever the opportunist if she sees something she thinks will help raise money for the charity.
“She knows all of them. Mia Salter, Demi Harrison.” Luca nudges his shoulder to hers like ‘why didn’t you share that you know all these famous athletes.’
That’s not Chelsea’s style and even I know that.
“You’re holding out on me girl,” Hannah says.
Chelsea eyes Luca. “I’ll make some calls. See what I can do.”
“Oh, it’s too late to get something together for winter and have them do a day on the slopes, but it’s something to think about for next year.”
The older woman who called out our numbers walks around the back counter and over to our little group where she hits Luca over the head with a menu.
Hannah and I stare on wide-eyed.
“Ouch. Mama.” He holds out his hands.
She shakes her head, her eyes piercing into him. “Don’t give the phone number out again.”
Chelsea laughs, obviously understanding whatever it is that’s going on here. “Still?” she asks him, and he shoots her a smirk as if to say, can you blame me?
“It was nice meeting you.” He swings his arm around his mama’s shoulders and the two of them walk away, speaking Italian.
“Cute,” Hannah says. “Too young for me, but you two should think about it.”
“You couldn’t be more than five or six years older than him,” I say.
“Doesn’t matter how old he is, that’s a big N-O from me,” Chelsea says.
“A paramedic with a body and face like his? I imagine there’s a lot of competition and he probably likes it that way,” I say.
Chelsea points at me. “You have good intuition, Vic. His mom is mad at him because he gives all the women he meets at bars the deli phone number.”
Hannah wipes her mouth. “Never mind then. He’s not the one for either of you.”
We all stand and dispose of our trash. Chelsea runs over and gives Luca a quick hug goodbye. He raises his hand in a wave to us and we each smile with a wave back as we’re exiting the door. I turn and run smack dab into a man wearing a suit and my heart halts for a moment before I realize it’s not Reed. Why would it be?
“Excuse me,” I say, sliding by the man.
“No, excuse me.” His eyes flit over my body like I’m on the menu.
“Is that the steak?” Chelsea jokingly asks as we walk by, ignoring the guy.
“Yeah, baby. King cut T-bone. Want a bite?”
Hannah and I stand there with our mouths ajar. Seriously, a little kid just walked by.
“I’d have to douse it in A1 sauce before I could even stomach looking at it.” Chelsea lets the glass door shut behind her and we rush to the entrance of our building laughing uncontrollably.
It really is good to have girlfriends again. Just another reason to stay single. I let a man distract me from growing new friendships before. Never again.
Chapter Six
Eleven-fifty-five Saturday at the McDonald’s on Peterson, Jade and I walk in, hand in hand. I glance around, not seeing Reed or Henry, so I order a happy meal for Jade and a meal for myself.
We sit down with our food in a booth that Jade picks out. So far everything’s going great. Until the door opens behind me and Jade’s eyes widen, a huge smile overtaking her small face.
“Henry!” she exclaims, her hand up in the air.
Like the other day, I smell him before I see him. That musky and citrus mix that’s like a heat-seeking missile right between my legs.
“I would have bought you lunch,” he says, arriving at the edge of the table.
Henry and Jade talk about the play area and I take him in. Faded jeans, a black pullover jacket, and a pair of soccer sneakers. A memory of going to one of his soccer games at a park once flashes through my mind. It was like a rec league or something. I thought he was jaw-dropping in a suit but his casual look makes me want to nuzzle into him on a Sunday afternoon all day.
“Don’t you know yet, Mr. Warner, I’m the independent type.” Jade glances over to me with a strange look on her face.
A smile creases the edges of his eyes and an embarrassed flush, runs through my body. How stupid did I just sound?
“I do know that Ms. Keebler.”
“Clarke now.”
He rocks back on his heels, a look on his face to suggest he had wondered.
“So, you’re not the cookie maker anymore?” he chuckles, and I eye Jade because the poor girl still holds her father’s name. “Who doesn’t want to be associated with E.L. Fudge? He’s the best.”
Jade smiles and then goes back to her conversation with Henry.
“Usual, Henry?” he asks the little boy.
He nods at Reed and I really need to finalize who he is to him.
“Great, I’ll be right back.” He taps the table with his knuckles and then heads around the row of tables to the front.
“After you eat. Come over here, Jade.” I slide closer to the wall, waiting for her.
Her face loses the excitement. “I’ll sit with Henry.” She situates herself and I wonder how the fact that she picked out a booth did not set off any alarm in my mind.
“Um, no Jade, just while we eat.” I pat the spot next to me. Henry looks at me like I have three heads and what’s the big deal if he sits next to Jade.
The kid will understand one day it’s not Jade sitting next to him I’m worried about, it’s the fact that--
“Perfect.” Reed slides in next to me, his strong thigh pressing against mine. “Couldn’t have set this up any better if I’d tried.” He winks, and I slide until my entire left side of my body is pressed to the wall.
Jade slides down into her seat across from me, focusing on her meal again. Henry sits down next to her and Reed hands him his meal. He doesn’t open the sauces, doesn’t put the straw in his cup, which I believe might be soda and he lets the kid set everything up himself. My eyes glance to Jade’s spot. Her nugget box is opened with the fries in the lid, sweet and sour sauce open and sitting next to her ketchup. I added the straw to her milk and have a napkin there for her to clean up after. The toy is tucked into my purse until she eats.
“Looks like a car.” Reed tosses Henry the toy and the little boy catches it.
“Have it.” Henry shrugs and sets it between him and Jade.
“What did I get?” Jade sets her eyes on me.
I shoot her my non-verbal ‘you know the rules’ look.
“Henry got his. Can I have mine?”
My eyes look over to Henry and Reed, both looking between us. Not judging, just intrigued.
“Eat some nuggets.” I nod my head to her uneaten food.
“Come on. I want to know what I got,” she whines, and I close my eyes because the last thing I want is for this to become a whole thing over a McDonald’s cheap toy.
“Jade,” I give her my warning tone, but I can already tell it’s not going to work today. “Eat.” I’m a little more curt this time around.
Reed gets the hint. “Henry, eat your meal.”
Henry’s eyebrows crinkle at Reed’s authoritative voice. I’m sensing whoever Reed is to Henry, he’s not an authority figure.
Henry does take a bite of his hamburger.
Meanwhile, Jade crosses her arms over her chest in defiance.
“If you don’t eat, you don’t play.”
A small sound escapes Reed, but thankfully Jade didn’t hear it because her eyes are set on challenging me. I play her game, not really caring what Reed thinks. I want to drive him away anyway. Maybe I should hold the toy hostage longer, so she throws a tantrum and then he’ll realize he doesn’t want a ride on our crazy train.
Jade slides forward, picks up a nugget and then nibbles it.
Once she’s finally eating, I look at my plate no longer interested in eating with Reed right next to me. I pick up a fry and eat it, then take a sip of my soda. This is not a first date. This is nothing. After repeating that a few times, I finally pick up my chicken sandwich and take a bite. When the tomato and lettuce slide out of the sandwich because of the abundance of mayonnaise and it lands in my lap, I repeat to myself that this is a good sign. After all, we want Reed to run far far away.
“Shit.” Reed’s hand moves over to pick up the vegetables out of my lap.
“You said a bad word,” Jade scolds him.
His head flicks her way at the same time my hand grabs his wrist to stop him from plucking something out of my crotch. An electric current shudders through my body.
“Sorry.”
“He says that all the time,” Henry says and him, and Jade talks about parents swearing. “My grandpa is the worst. He says the f word.” He lowers his voice once he gets to f.
Jade’s jaw opens although I’d bet the house in Vegas her dad uses that language around her.
“Once my dad put up the finger at someone in the car next to us. Then the guy rolled down his window and if I’d collected money for a swear jar, we’d be going out for ice cream after this.”
Reed chuckles lightly to himself and excuses himself.
“My grandpa yells at his neighbors, saying get the potatoes out of your damn ears.”
Jade laughs uncontrollably, rolling all around the booth. “I don’t have a grandpa.” She doesn’t say it in a mean way,, she says it like it is the way it is. “I have a grandma though.”
“Does she say funny stuff?”
Reed returns with some napkins and water. “Here.”
“Thank you. It’s not too bad actually.” I focus on the stain on my jeans which thankfully, should be fine once they dry.
Jade continues telling Henry things my mom says. Reed is soaking in their conversation with a few looks my way.
“My grandma says it’s a good thing my mom left my dad because a rotten apple spoils the whole barrel.” Jade shrugs not understanding exactly what it means.
“Your parents are divorced?” Henry asks as though we’re not sitting right across from them.
“Come on you guys, eat up.” Reed encourages them, now willing to set some rules.
The two take a bite of their meals, but I know my daughter. “Yeah.” She looks at Henry. “Yours?”
Henry looks over to Reed, not for permission, but something else. I just can’t put my finger on the way he looks at him.
“My parents died.”
Chapter Seven
Jade’s eyes find mine and I honestly have no idea what to say.
“I’m sorry, Henry.” I find my voice, wishing I had something more comforting to offer.
Reed just smiles at Henry almost proud that he said it.
“Who is he?” Jade asks, nodding toward Reed.
Thankfully, I don’t have to do it. The boyfriend of the mom is out of the question.
“He’s my big brother.”
I nod, it all clicking together now. He took custody of his sister or brother’s child. Another check mark under good guy.
“He’s old.”
“Jade!” I widen my eyes at her.
“Sorry,” she mumbles, her eyes peeking up at Reed.
“It’s okay, I suppose I am to you.” Reed takes it all in stride, balling up the wrapper of his sandwich and then laying his arm along the back of the booth behind my head.
“He’s not my actual big brother.” Henry shakes his head like she’s crazy to believe him.
I guess I’m just as naive as Jade.
Reed says nothing, letting Henry tell us everything and I admire that in him. He lets him dictate what he divulges to us.
“I don’t get it?” Jade’s eyebrows crinkle.
“I live with my grandparents, so they signed me up with a program and I got Reed, he teaches me how to be a man.”
I spit out my drink and little droplets of Diet Coke splash on the table.
“Dirty mind,” Reed whispers, blotting up my mess with a napkin.
“Oh, I want one to teach me how to be a woman,” Jade says, and I close my eyes.
“Why don’t you guys go play and if you get hungry, come back.”
The two forget the conversation they were just having and run over to the play zone.
I fall back to the booth. “I feel like I just went through therapy.”
Reed laughs but doesn’t move from his spot.
“You can slide on over to the other side.” I point, but he just smiles.
“Would that make you more comfortable?” He waits for the answer. His arm still stretched behind me, his fingers dangerously close to my skin.
“Yes.”
“One day, you’ll want me here.” With his promise, he throws away his finished containers and slides into the other side of the booth.
“You’re part of the Big Brother Foundation?” I ask just to clarify I caught on while Henry was talking.
“Yeah.”
“Admirable.
” So admirable it might give him two check marks next to good guy.
He shrugs. “Well, if you knew how I started you might not think so since my intentions were purely selfish to begin with.”
I wait for him to tell me more.
He blows out a breath. “In high school, my parents wanted something good on my school applications, so I signed up for the mentor program at sixteen. At first, I felt so out of place and thought I had nothing to offer these kids. I mean, a rich kid from Winnetka who got everything they wanted? The more I did it, the more I enjoyed it. Once I turned eighteen, I decided to become a Big Brother and I’ve done it ever since.”
“Jeez, I’m kind of blown away right now.”
“Well, it shot my parents in the foot.”
“Why? You’re a lawyer. What kind of parents aren’t happy with a son becoming a lawyer?” I sip my drink.
“Victoria, Victoria, Victoria.” He shakes his head. “In my parents’ minds, I’m not a lawyer, I’m just an assistant district attorney on the government’s payroll.”
Shit, I didn’t even know that. I figured he was like Pete, a defense attorney.
Another check mark for Reed. But he is still a lawyer so that’s an X. Maybe the two cancel each other out.
“Point?”
“Families like the Warner’s don’t go into public law, we should be in the private sector making lots of money with which to rule the world.” He says it with a tone of arrogance he clearly doesn’t possess.
“Well, sorry to offend.” I use the same accent and he laughs.
“You’d fit right in.”
“Well, I didn’t know any of that. I didn’t even know you were Reed from the Warners of Winnetka.” He points, clearly enjoying the fact that I’m playing along.
“Get with it, Victoria.” He pretends to stand the collar up on his pullover, but it flops back down. “See, even my clothes rebel.”
I glance over to the play zone and watch for a minute as Jade and Henry chase one another around. “How long have you been Henry’s big brother?”
He follows my line of vision. “Two years. His grandparents raise him now. That’s why I drop him off on Mondays at school. Ned and Helen usually meet their friends for coffee Monday mornings.”