by C. A. Harms
“It’s okay,” I assured him in a shaky voice as he stepped back, allowing me to walk on. He and Andrew shared a simple nod in passing, but I noticed the twitch in Beckett’s jaw as Andrew led me down the stairs.
When we reached the bottom, I glanced back up and found he was still standing there, staring after us. He leaned against the railing, holding his beer in his hand and wearing that same intense stare that sent yet another burst of excitement through me.
He must have spent hours in the gym each week, because his build made Andrew seem small in comparison. His shirt stretched taut over his arms, shoulders, and chest, and I just knew what lay beneath was the stuff dreams were made of—the kind of dreams a woman with a mediocre sex life had, that is.
I hadn’t been with a man in a long time—a man worth talking about, anyway. But I had a feeling Beckett would make every man in my past seem forgettable.
When he lifted his beer bottle to his lips, I took in a deep breath and watched appreciatively. His shirt lifted slightly, showing off only a small sliver of what lay beneath, and I bit down on my lip to hide the whimper that bubbled up within me.
He was absolute perfection wrapped in the most appealing package, and it made my heart race.
“Are you okay?” Kim whispered as she leaned into me.
I was staring out the side window of the SUV, so lost in thought that her voice made me jump.
“I’m fine,” I insisted a little louder than I’d intended.
My mind was still racing in a hundred different directions, and curiosity outweighed all other emotions. The way Beckett stared after me as I left with Andrew left me feeling unsettled. His eyes were so intense that one look from him alone made me jittery.
“‘Fine,’” she said, sounding completely unsatisfied with my explanation, “sure.”
I didn’t argue with her. Honestly I had no idea how to explain what I was feeling. It was all so new to me. Sure, I’d been out with a few men who’d interested me, but this was different. A man I’d only gotten a glimpse of and who I’d never spoken with had my insides tied in knots. How was that possible?
Kim wasn't happy with my avoidant behavior, so in true Kim fashion, she had to keep pressing me for details until I was annoyed.
“Did Andrew say or do something to upset you?” she asked, and I shook my head. This was one of those times I wished she let things go. “Then what the hell happened, Elle?”
Silence set in over the car, and the fact Rick was sitting by her side made this even harder for me to explain. When I turned to her and saw the concerned look on her face, it pulled at my heart.
“Andrew was great, a complete gentleman. We talked, he made me laugh, and not once did he make me feel uncomfortable,” I said quietly. She remained silent, and her worried look didn’t falter. “It was that other guy, the one with Lex.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I could see her going into momma-bitch mode. She would be the first person to kick the ass of anyone who may have wronged me in any way.
“He didn't do anything, really.” I laughed at her pissed-off expression. “It was just the way he watched me all night, and the way he acted when he saw me leaving with Andrew,” I explained. “He looked pissed.”
A smile slowly spread across her lips and that familiar gleam returned to her eyes. “I bet he was thinking he’d be the one to take you home.”
“Obviously neither of them are taking me home,” I stated, shaking my head at how quickly she could move from angry to giddy. I turned to look back out the window and allow my mind to wander back to the man of mystery.
When the car slowed to a stop in front of my building, I was amazed the drive had gone by so quickly.
“Would you like us to walk you up?” I looked over to find Rick looking past Kim, his hand on the handle of his door. “It’s no problem at all,” he insisted.
I appreciated his offer, truly I did, but I was fine. “No, I’m good. You kids enjoy the rest of your evening—or should I say morning?” I leaned in and placed a kiss on Kim’s cheek. “I had a great time tonight,” I whispered. “And I promise you, I am okay.” Pulling back, I squeezed her hand and offered her a smile.
“Love you,” she said, and I may have teared up a bit, because damn it, I missed her. Yes, I saw her often and talked to her daily, but it wasn't the same as living together.
I used to love our girls’ nights, and I hated the lonely darkness of my place now. It felt so stale.
I stepped from the car and allowed the driver to help me up onto the curb. A smile spread across my lips as I remembered how he’d inspected Kim and my backsides earlier. I imagine he was likely repeating that action now. I moved toward the front entrance of the building and turned to offer a wave to Kim and Rick just before I stepped inside.
The doorman offered me a nod as I passed on my way toward the elevators only a few feet away. I tapped the Up button, stepped back, and waited for the car to arrive. The quiet of the lobby reminded me I was up way past my bedtime, triggering a yawn just as the elevator door slid open.
There stood Andrew, looking just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
“I swear I’m not following you,” he said with a smile as he held his hands up in defense. “I’m just heading up from the garage.”
“If I was a paranoid person, I would be very suspicious,” I offered playfully as I moved into the elevator and leaned against the wall at his side. “But I’ve come to the conclusion that you seem like an alright guy.”
“One step closer to dinner?” he asked as he turned to face me and rested his shoulder against the wall behind us.
The lighting brought out the deep green of his eyes, and for a moment I got lost in them.
“What’s a guy gotta do in order to score a real date with you?” he asked, regaining my attention. “We could go out, stay in. You choose.”
“I work a lot,” I backtracked.
“But you don't work every night,” he said as if he sensed what I was doing. “Hell, I’d even settle for coffee on your break.”
I tucked my chin down when his stare became too much. Being this close to him made it hard to focus. I was usually attracted to the bad-boy type, but Andrew’s sweet, charming, good-boy look made me think about crossing over to the other side. He wasn’t ruggedly handsome, but he was cute, with the kind of demeanor that made me feel weak and confident at the same time. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
“One date,” he added, holding up one finger. “If after that date you say we should just be friends, then that’s what we’ll be.”
He was persistent, I’d give him that.
Kim’s voice in my head, singing out over and over for me to climb out of my bubble, had me agreeing before I could think twice. The smile that spread out over Andrew’s lips made me happy my mouth had run off ahead of my brain.
“Thursday,” I said as we stepped from the elevator.
Side by side we walked down the hallway until we stopped at the door to my apartment.
“How’s seven?” Andrew asked while keeping a safe distance between us. “I could pick you up,” he added with a laugh.
“Seven sounds perfect,” I assured him as I reached inside my handbag for my key.
Once I unlocked the door, I looked back over my shoulder. “Until Thursday,” I said, hoping this wasn't going to be one of those weird moments where neither of us knew just how to end things.
“Good night, Elle,” Andrew said as he offered that boyish grin before walking down the hall toward his place.
I was thankful he didn't move in for a kiss or say one of those cheesy lines men throw your way when they’re hoping for a night cap.
BECKETT
“Mom,” I hollered as I walked through the kitchen and into the foyer in search of her. She had called an hour ago in a panic about the refrigerator making a strange noise. From the way she went on, I’d have thought it was glowing green and oozing slime.
And now she was nowhere in sight.
“What are you doing here?” we asked each other at the same time.
“Boys?” I spun around to find my mother standing in the doorway of the den with a pile of what looked like sheets folded in her arms. “It’s about time,” she added as she brushed past us like a whirlwind. “The fridge sounds like its revving up for takeoff or something.”
“She called you too?” Knoxville asked as he stepped up to my side.
“Yep.”
“Fifty bucks says she also called Ashton, and he just offered to have a new one delivered instead of coming over,” Knox added with a chuckle.
There was really no need to take that bet; I’d lose.
Not that Knoxville and I weren't successful, but our brother was playing in a whole different field. The guy paid people to shop for him. Hell, he paid people to hire people to shop for him. The first time I heard that Kinsley had forced him to go grocery shopping, I about fell out of the chair I was sitting in. I imagined him having an anxiety attack when he was forced to stand in line to pay for his food.
“The refrigerator is in here, boys, not in the foyer,” she called, and we both jumped to attention. All three of us thought our mother hung the moon. She was and would always be our number-one girl.
Though we’ve all had our share of one-night stands and random hookups, we never mistreated a lady. That was all Mom’s doing. She’d have our asses if she found out different. Hell, she even had words with Ashton when things went sour with Sloane. The first time she heard Ashton call her a whore, she chastised him like he was a child.
That didn’t mean the woman wasn’t a damn whore. We just learned we couldn’t say those things when Mom was around.
She’d raised us right.
Knoxville entered the kitchen first, and I followed closely behind.
“You hear that?” Mom asked as she leaned into the refrigerator and placed her ear against the door. “It’s this growling grumble.”
I chuckled at the sight of my hundred-pound mother leaning over with her ear pressed to the fridge like at any moment it would tell her some deep, dark, forbidden secret. It got even funnier when Knox joined her and they stood side by side, listening to the so-called sound. I stood back, arms crossed over my chest, trying my hardest not to laugh.
“I don’t hear anything, Mom,” Knoxville said, and she frantically flapped her hand for him to shush. I bit my lip as I chuckled to myself. Of course Knox glared over at me. I was just about to tell them how ridiculous they looked when a loud grinding filled the room and my mother jumped in surprise.
“That right there. What the hell is that?” she asked as she looked between Knox and me. “It’s getting louder.”
My brother opened both doors of the side-by-side fridge, with a determined look on his face. As the noise grew louder, he inspected the unit.
Had our father been here, he would have been just as bad as Ashton, and a new one would have been here already. But when he was out of town, she called Knoxville and me. The two of us were a little handier than Dad and Ashton when it came to things like this.
Knoxville popped loose the tray that held the ice, and my mother winced, as if he was attempting to detonate a bomb. “Well, don't break it worse than it already is,” she said, putting her hands on her hips, that familiar motherly tone taking the place of her earlier concerned one.
“I’m not breaking it, woman, I’m fixing it,” he assured her.
“If you can call that fixing it,” she said as she spun around and moved across the room to put some much-needed distance between herself and him. Knox and Mom butted heads often, probably because they were so much alike.
“When’s the last time you changed the water filter in this thing?” he asked as he popped the canister loose and shook his head. “Never mind,” he mumbled as he turned it around to show me the date.
“What filter?” Mom hollered out from across the room.
Knoxville groaned, and I laughed as he tossed me the canister. “Go get one of those while I clean out this line.” He paused, taking an even closer look at the item he held in his hand and then looked back at me. “Never mind, pick up a new water hose line too. This thing is limed up so bad it ain’t worth the time. No wonder it was making a noise. The damn thing was crying for help while trying to push the water through the pinhole to make ice.”
I didn't stick around to listen to my mother and Knoxville argue about maintenance. With those two it was best to leave them on their own to battle it out. I hoped there would be peace by the time I got back.
“It was funny, Mom. You should have seen the look on his face when the girl left with her boyfriend,” Knoxville said just as I stepped into the kitchen. “Beckett stood there pouting as he watched him lead her away.”
“You shouldn't tease your brother,” Mom told him, but I could hear the humor in her voice.
“Oh yes I should, and I did,” he assured her. “He’s always so sure of himself, and then he got shafted right there in front of us. Had our roles been reversed, he’d do the same thing if not worse.”
I rounded the corner holding the bag from the hardware store and narrowed my eyes at my brother. Had Mom not been sitting across the table from him, I would have surely torn into him.
“We don't know if that was her boyfriend,” I said as I tossed the bag at my brother.
He caught it with ease and began digging through it for what he needed. “Well whoever it was, she left with him,” he fired back as he stood from the table and moved toward the other side of the room.
“Did you talk to her?” Mom asked, and I hung my head.
Here we go.
My mother would never accept two things: one, nothing, and I do mean nothing, on television was better than the Cooking Channel, and two, no sane woman could actually reject one of her boys. We were her gems, her greatest creations, and she couldn’t understand why two of us were still single. It was never our fault; the women of the world were all just crazy, according to her.
“What is wrong with the damn women nowadays?” she’d say as she shook her head.
She truly believed we were saints, and Knox and I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that we enjoyed the single life far too much to make a commitment. We’d had plenty of chances, but no woman we’d ever met felt as if she were worth hanging on to.
But now Ashton had found the one, she expected the two of us to follow close behind.
Having a house full of grandbabies on the holidays was her daily wish.
“Well, did you?” she asked again, and I realized I hadn’t responded to her earlier question.
Of course, Knox jumped in before I could.
“He choked, Momma.” He made a gagging noise as he pretended to strangle himself. “He sat back and gave her that brooding look of his all night. As if the girl was just supposed to know that meant he was interested.”
“Beckett.” My mother turned her attention back to me as I struggled to keep from tackling my asshole brother in her kitchen. “How is a woman supposed to know you’re interested when you just stare at her?”
“Mother—”
“Don’t you ‘mother’ me.” She leaned over the table, placing her elbows on to the top. “You talk to a woman, tell her she’s beautiful. You don't sit there giving her the Beckett stare.”
“‘The Beckett stare’?” I asked with an arched brow.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I’ve see it. And I can assure you, sweetheart, it’s not attractive. It just looks like you’re constipated.”
My eyes widened in surprise, my dickhead of a brother broke out in hysterics, and all my mother did was continue to look at me with a concerned expression.
I couldn't take it. I was done.
“Mom, I love you, I do,” I assured her as I stood from the table and leaned over to place a kiss to her forehead. “But I’m out.”
She protested, and Knoxville continued
to laugh as I walked toward the front door.
Just as I was about to close it behind me, Knox hollered, “You should go straight for MiraLax. Ex-Lax gives you hellacious cramps.”
My jaw tensed as I walked down the drive toward my car, counting in my head to keep from going back and breaking the cardinal rule in the Montgomery homestead.
No rough play in Momma’s house.
SHANELLE
“Is it safe to say you had a nice night?” Andrew asked as he held my hand while we walked toward my apartment door.I couldn't help but smile, because yes, I had. “I had a great time,” I assured him, yet I knew that spark a woman felt when she was interested in something more with a man, just wasn't there. Though I didn't want to offend him, because he was a nice guy. “Dinner was amazing, and the walk after was great too.”
“The ice cream,” he added. “You had to love the ice cream.”
“Yes,” I assured him with a laugh as I stopped in front of my door. “I loved the ice cream.”
We stood there in silence facing one another, waiting for the other to speak.
Being truthful, I wasn't sure where I wanted this thing between us to go, or if I wanted it to go anywhere. Andrew was a great guy, nice, funny. I just didn't feel that pull I’d hoped to feel when I met a guy I wanted to spend more time with. It was more of a relaxed, friendly attraction, versus that “need to know more about him” feeling.
When he stepped in closer, my stomach tensed. Did I want him to kiss me?
But that choice was gone as the next thing I knew, my back was pressed against the wall next to my door. It was a gentle kiss, but still one I wasn't feeling.
I pulled back, letting my head rest against the wall as I took a moment to catch my breath.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the moment I first saw you,” he whispered as I opened my eyes and found his lips were still hovering over mine. “And now that I have, I just want to do it over and over.”
And just like that, panic flooded me.
“Well, there’s absolutely no reason to rush things,” I said, trying my best to remain calm, even though on the inside I was begging for any type of interruption whatsoever.