by Alexis Anne
“Thank you.” Those were the only two words I could come up with. I was honestly, truly, dumbfounded.
Had I been more obvious about my feelings toward the house than I realized? Or did Eve just know me that well? Did it matter? “This means a lot to me…” I finally said, staring at the blank walls.
“You like it? It wasn’t silly?”
“God, no. This is…” the words disappeared. I didn’t know how to say thank you for making our home more than it already was. “I didn’t expect this.”
“I know. That’s what made it even more fun. You don’t ask for anything, Jake. Ever.”
I knew she was trying to make a point, but I didn’t care. We could talk about it later. All I cared about were the two rooms I was looking at. “Do you like blue and gray?”
She laughed and slid her hands around my waist, tilting her head up to look at me. “Of course. I wouldn’t have picked colors I hated. I love you, but I do have to live here.”
I nodded and started picturing where I could put a couple of my things. “Then yes, blue and gray are perfect. Do we have surprise furniture arriving soon?”
She slid her phone out and pulled up her photo album. “Tell me whether you like option A, B, or C. I’m particularly in love with option B.”
There were pictures of her and Jennie in a furniture store, lying on couches. Option A was a tan microfiber couch and matching chairs. Option B was a rich brown leather couch with brass grommets. And Option C was an elegant white couch.
“I’m in love with option B, too.”
She smiled and took back her phone, bringing up a contact and hitting “send”. “Good,” she said smiling up at me. “I was hoping to make the room a little old school and sports themed.”
“What about the dining room?” I asked, wondering if I was getting a vote on that as well.
“That is picked by default. I had two options ready depending on which living room option you chose.” She held up her hand. “Hey Rick! Thanks…. Yes we’re home. He picked option B.” There was a pause while she listened to Rick. “Perfect. Yes, everything sounds perfect. Thank you.”
She ended the call and slid the phone back into her jeans pocket. “It will be here tomorrow afternoon. Now, before I go crazy and decorate you right out of the house again, pick out anything you want in here. Do whatever you want, change whatever you want to change, I’ll come in and finish it up when you’re done.”
“Can’t we do this together? Or is this woman’s work and I’m not allowed to really help out?”
She smiled and bounced her eyebrows. “Oh no, we can totally do this together. I just wanted to make sure you had all your options available to you. You know, since you never ask for anything.”
There it was again. I ignored her comment. I wasn’t letting her bait me into a conversation like that in our first thirty minutes at home. “Let’s order pizza and redo our house.”
A small look of disappoint flashed in her eyes, but she quickly hid it. “Pepperoni or supreme?”
***
The last thing I wanted to do was turn my phone back on. The second to last thing I wanted to do was get dressed for work. I hadn’t been shy at all about my feelings. In fact, I’d been so damn vocal about my disinterest in returning to our old lives I was afraid Eve was going to divorce me.
But ten minutes before my alarm should have gone off, I felt her curling around me, her leg wrapping around mine, and her hands gliding across my bare chest. I brushed back her hair, “You awake?”
She shook her head.
I laughed a little and kept running my fingers through her hair. Once I was awake I couldn’t go back to sleep, so instead, I debated getting up and facing the day head-on. But the minute I tried to move, Eve wrapped herself tighter around me like she didn’t want me to move. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She sighed and burrowed in closer.
Eve didn’t want to go back to work any more than I did, she was just going about it differently. I wanted to make new plans and refocus our goals. Eve wanted to debate and think while facing her life. I was an idiot for not realizing how different we were and assuming she wanted to jump back into the heart of her most stressful month at work.
So I decided to stop being the giant man-baby I was being, and make it easier on both of us. I held her close and brushed her hair while I ran my hand up and down her arm and told her a story. “I remember one morning, waking up early just like this. I was dreading the whole day. I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t want to think or eat or study. All I wanted to do was get to the end. So, I laid in bed, mad that I couldn’t fast-forward time and get to seven o’clock any faster.”
“What was going to happen at seven?” she asked sleepily.
I smiled since she couldn’t see me. “You’ll just have to wait and find out.”
I felt her smile against my chest.
I continued, “The whole day was shit. I don’t think I heard a single thing my teachers said,” I was purposefully using generic words like “teachers” so I could drag out the suspense. “I skipped lunch and moped around… I was useless, but at least I was something to keep me going. I got home and had nothing to do except get worked up. I changed my clothes three times.”
“Girl.”
“Do you want to hear this story?” I joked back. I waited for her nod. “After I changed for the third time—like a girl—I tried on all my hats. Then I practiced what I was going to say in the mirror. I smiled and tested all my looks out until I had it just right. And I still had an hour to kill… so I went out to the field early to practice. Normally I was a show-off, but that night I wanted to be extra awesome.”
I think Eve was holding her breath, I didn’t really feel her breathing. She had an idea of where this story was going. “Everyone started showing up and I couldn’t stop looking around. I mean, this was it. I’d waited all day long for this. And then there she was, and all that waiting didn’t matter anymore. She brought a friend—which sucked—but she was laughing and smiling, and looked just about as nervous and excited as I was, thank god. I jogged right over to her and kissed her on the cheek. I wanted to kiss her on the fucking mouth, but I didn’t want to scare her.”
Eve shook her head, “You should have kissed her, I bet she would have kissed you back.”
I sucked in a breath. “Seriously? You would have kissed me back? After one date?”
She ran her fingers up my chest and cupped my face. “We kissed twice the night before… why not?”
“We kissed more than twice.”
She propped herself up on her elbow, I could just barely make out her outline in the dark. The sun wasn’t even close to coming up yet. “No, we kissed twice. Once in the movie theater, and once at my door.”
“I kissed you a helluva lot more than once at the door.” At least it seemed like it to me.
She shook her head, her hair tickling the skin of my arm. “Nope. It was one fantastic, long, amazing, knock-my-socks-off kiss. And if you had kissed me on the lips the next night at the field, even in front of Jennie, I would have kissed you back. You weren’t the only one waiting all day…” she leaned in and kissed me tenderly on the lips. It took my breath away. “But to be perfectly honest, the kiss on the cheek was a brilliant move.”
“Brilliant, eh?” I liked the way that sounded. I was pretty bummed, even fourteen years later, to learn I could have just kissed the hell out of her—missed opportunities to have my lips on hers always hurt.
“Mmmm… Jennie thought you were so damn sweet she couldn’t stand it. And for that matter, neither could I. Do you know how happy you looked to see me?”
I ran my hand down her arm and around her hip. “I think I have an idea. It was probably pretty close to how ridiculously happy you looked to see me. You were vibrating and your smile was so big… there was no mistaking how you felt. Stephen even joked I was getting lucky that night.”
She kissed me again. “You didn’t get lucky, but it was a p
retty special night.”
I sighed and pulled her lips against mine again. They were simple morning kisses, but they were still sexy. I turned her head to the side and kissed her ear, “A very special night.”
“You remember?” I couldn’t believe she actually sounded surprised.
I rolled her underneath of me, she opened her legs so I could settle between them and kissed up her neck, “Darlin’, a man doesn’t forget the night he stakes his claim on the woman he wants. That was the night you said you’d be mine and I knew I had to go after you with everything I had.”
Her nails lightly scored my skin as she ran them up my arms and across my shoulders, tilting her hips up to grind against mine. “No regrets about that decision?” she was joking and begging me to show her exactly how happy I was to be her husband.
“The only thing I regret about that night, is not kissing you on the lips.”
She gasped as I wrapped my arm around her waist and began nudging my cock against her sex. She arched her back to accommodate me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders for leverage. Her skin against mine felt amazing, but my cock pressing into her warm and clearly aroused body was mind numbing. “You can make it up to me by giving me an orgasm before heading back to reality.”
I gave her a fucking mind-blowing orgasm, one that had her smiling all the way out the front door with her coffee in one hand and her work bag in the other. I followed her out the door and to the interstate where we went our separate ways. Every second I drove, I could physically feel the distance between us growing. I tried to comfort myself with the fact that I could still drop in and surprise her any time. We could still meet for lunch and she could still come surprise me at work. We had a good life here. We both had good jobs with enough seniority we could make our schedules fairly flexible.
But it wasn’t enough. Not for me.
Fuck, it wasn’t even close to enough.
I was so far up inside my head when I walked into work I almost skipped saying hello to Lisa and the rest of the staff, all of whom were waiting for me with ridiculous grins and lots of congratulations. “That was the most romantic wedding I have ever been to!” Lisa gushed.
“Thank you,” I replied. I really didn’t know what else to say to that. It wasn’t like I was going to talk about the lighting and flower arrangements.
“I’ve never seen two people so in love. You two are just perfect,” she said and grabbed a tissue. “I’m so happy for you, boss.”
I rolled my eyes and hugged her. “I really appreciate that.” Which I did. I wasn’t good at accepting the gushing praise people gave me about Eve because I was always so overwhelmed by their genuine emotions. I knew Lisa liked me, but understanding she cared about me and my well-being was an entirely different thing.
“Finally, the slacker is back!” Greg said loudly and obnoxiously. “How dare you leave me like that!”
“The building is still standing, so I’m pretty sure you managed,” I joked as we clapped each other on the back. “I just turned my phone back on and saw the number of messages. You’re lucky I’m here at all. I almost threw my phone in the bay, grabbed Eve, and kept driving.”
Greg laughed and started pushing me toward my office. “It’s not that bad, I promise. You can delete most of them, it’ll just take a few hours of your life to sift through them all.”
I waved at Lisa and the others as we disappeared down the hallway. I flicked on the light to my office and was actually a little happy to see it. It was the same shade of gray Eve just painted our living room, which was surprisingly comforting. My desk was clear and my work bench still had my little projects right where I’d left them.
Ok, so being back at work wasn’t nearly as horrible as I’d worked it up to be in my head.
Greg closed the door behind him and threw himself onto my couch. “Good honeymoon? You look good.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I set my bag down and sat at my desk. “It was perfect, actually. Almost didn’t come home.”
“I don’t blame you. If I had a woman like Eve on a tropical island, I might not come back either.”
I studied Greg trying to figure him out. He looked a little uncomfortable, which made me a little uncomfortable. “How were things here?”
“Smooth for the most part. You trained everyone really well. Only had a couple of hiccups.”
Greg continued to fidget and he wasn’t looking me in the eye which could only mean one thing. Something hadn’t gone well with Ashley.
“How are things with The Nugget?”
Greg leaned forward and cracked his neck, “Not as well as I wanted. I was hoping to have everything taken care of by now. There are only a few loose ends but… Ashley’s up to something, I think.”
“You always think she’s up to something.”
He glared at me. “She is always up to something.”
“Ok, let’s get to the point. Where are we at?” I didn’t want to get into a fight with Greg in my first hour back at work.
“Steele is doing due diligence. Ash has been meeting with them for the last couple of days and you have meetings scheduled with them for the rest of the week. If everything goes as planned, the contracts will be ready on Monday.”
That sounded great to me. “What’s the catch?”
Greg shrugged, “Nothing, really. Something just feels off. I almost called and told you to take another week, but Steele wanted to meet with you personally. Fuckers.”
“I can handle it. In fact, I’m kind of excited to put all of this to rest and move on with everything.”
Greg looked at me like I was crazy. “Whatever you say.”
There was a knock on my door and a second later Ashley poked her head inside uninvited. “Hey, I heard you were back.”
“Come in,” I replied, not really wanting her to come in.
She slid inside and closed the door. Greg glared at her so she stayed where she was, throwing an equally icy stare back at him. Clearly nothing had changed in my absence.
“So, Greg has been bringing me up to speed. We’re on track for Monday?”
She smiled, “Yes. You sure you don’t want to reconsider? Greg doesn’t need you here, you know.”
Greg rolled his eyes.
“Ash,” I replied. “I’m very happy with where I’m at. I like working with this big idiot.”
“Hey,” Greg scoffed. “This big idiot held down the fort while you took a vacation. Be nice to me.”
“And I’m very grateful. We had a perfect honeymoon.”
“Well,” Ashley interrupted, “now that the dream is over and reality is back, I hope it’s everything you’re looking for.”
I must have been feeling particularly fresh and confident because the next things out of my mouth were probably some of the dumbest things I’d ever said in all my life. “It will be. In fact, let’s have a celebratory dinner at our house tomorrow night. Everyone can make nice and part on good terms.” I wanted Eve to see for herself how little Ashley and I had between us, and I could make it clear to Ashley that this was the end of everything. It would be a perfect, clean break for everyone.
“Wonderful,” Ashley said with a smile. She opened the door, “Let me know if you need me to bring anything.” Then she left.
“You’re an idiot.” Greg sighed, standing up. “And I know exactly how this conversation goes from here so I’m going to save my breath and blood pressure. Check your calendar, everything is in there. Let me know if you have any questions.”
He slammed the door behind him and I knew in the pit of my stomach I was going to regret being a moron.
Chapter 25
~Eve~
Jake, Greg, and Ashley were up in Jake’s office going over the contracts while I was downstairs with Jennie and Andrew getting dinner ready.
“So that’s her…” Andrew drawled with a sideways glance as he mixed a pitcher of mojito’s. I was gonna need a nice tall glass of that. Or two. Hell, I wanted the whole damn pitcher. Having her in
my house, laughing and existing… I just wanted to float away on a cloud of drunkeness.
“Yep.”
Andrew cocked an eyebrow. “You like her that much, eh?”
I nodded as I finished chopping the last of the tomatoes. I was a notorious finger slicer when it came to prepping vegetables so I had to get it done before I got my greedy little hands on that first mojito.
“You’re doing great. I’m pretty sure we’d all feel the same way in this situation.”
I dumped the last of the diced tomatoes onto the avocado and onion mix already in the bowl. “There you go master chef. Turn that baby into guacamole.”
“Not gonna talk to me about this?”
I smiled sweetly, “Not if you want the roof to stay on this house.”
“Ouch. Ok…”
I didn’t waste any time pulling out a tumbler, filling it with ice, and pouring a nice tall glass. The taste was sweet and bitter as it hit my tongue and the mint aftertaste was refreshing. It was exactly what I needed to stay happy around her.
Jake had been pretty cryptic about the whole dinner thing, but the vibe I got off of him was weird. I knew he wasn’t telling me everything, but I also couldn’t find a single bad intention anywhere in his behavior. I got the distinct impression he really needed this night.
Why—I had no idea. But considering how many things I still didn’t understand about Jake’s past, I decided to take a leap of faith in my new husband and hope to hell he knew what he was doing.
With every sip my shoulders got a little lighter and my fake smile got a little happier, until the entire kitchen seemed to lighten up.
I would make it through the night with the help of my good friend alcohol.
Jennie walked in and stared at me. I could only imagine what I looked like leaned up against the counter with this ridiculous grin on my face. She shot Andrew a questioning look and he shrugged, “She’s self-medicating. I decided it was probably a good idea.”
It was a damn fine idea. Andrew and I had become excellent friends, and that was often strengthened by our silent understanding of each other.