Second Opinion

by Suzanne, Lisa

  I liked the sound of Plan B much better.

  I brought my shit down to my car and went to the front desk to check out, and then I headed toward the room where brunch was being catered and all of the wrapped gifts had been transferred the night before. My parents were already there, as were Paul, Veronica and Jesse, and Reese.

  “Good morning,” my dad boomed at me as I walked into the room.

  “Sure is,” I grinned, and my dad clapped me on the shoulder.

  “Good night?”

  Could he somehow tell I’d spent the night hooking up with Avery? “Yeah. Great night. You?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “Nice wedding,” I said.

  “Expensive, too.”

  “Nice of you to pay for it.” My parents did alright for themselves, but they weren’t rich by any stretch of the imagination. You’d never know from the beautiful wedding they had pulled together, though.

  “Your daughter only gets married once, you know.”

  “With those two?” I asked. “Yeah. I think we’ve all got our bet on it lasting forever.”

  “Speak of the devils,” my dad said, motioning to the doorway where a very tired Quinn and Reed were standing. They held hands, and Reed leaned in and whispered something to Quinn. She giggled, a slight blush gracing her cheeks, and then they walked into the room. Someone started tapping the side of their water glass with a spoon, so Reed leaned in and planted a kiss on my sister.

  It was a little disgusting from a brotherly standpoint, but like I’d said in my speech the night before, the two of them together really did give people around them hope.

  They’d fought hard to get where they were, and they deserved all of the bliss their future surely held.

  A vision of beauty appeared in the doorway just as Reed pulled his lips from Quinn’s, and I couldn’t help finding her eyes from across the room. I saw a secret smile turn up her lips, and then she looked away as Reese moved toward her and engaged her in conversation.

  But that one moment held a lot of meaning between us.

  She had purposely sought out my eyes from across the room, and I’d done the exact same thing to her.

  This was dangerous.

  I had girls on speed dial who were suddenly forgotten. Girls who were always up for a good time, girls who sent naked texts, girls who wanted more with me.

  But none of them had been anywhere near my mind. Somehow Avery had taken over my thoughts, and I was a little terrified she was working her way into my heart, too.

  “Dude, stop staring. People are going to start putting it together.” I heard a voice next to me, and I glanced over to find Jesse.

  I gave him a dirty look.

  He held up his hands. “V told me what you two talked about when you danced last night.”

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t staring.”

  He ignored my denial. “Avery’s a handful, but she deserves happiness. And from everything V’s told me, you do, too.”

  “Everyone does, man. But I’m not looking for something serious.”

  Jesse laughed and glanced across the room at his gorgeous wife. “Neither was I. But we have no control over it.”

  I looked at him and nodded. I got it. He was absolutely right.

  “One more thing. V said she couldn’t take anything away from Quinn’s day, but the day’s over.”

  I had a feeling I knew where he was headed. I raised my eyebrows at him.

  “We’re expecting.”

  I grinned. “Congrats, man.”

  “Thank you. Only about six more months until we’re a family of four.”

  “And you weren’t expecting it when she crashed into your life?”

  “Fuck no. But I haven’t once looked back. I can’t imagine my life without her in it, and I don’t want to.”

  “Two kids.”

  He chuckled. “We had a night in a hotel last night, and we used it to sleep.”

  I laughed. “You’ll need it.”

  “No shit. But I’m telling you, man, there’s nothing like it.”

  Veronica walked over to us, smiling at her husband before smiling at me.

  “He told me,” I said, jerking my thumb toward Jesse.

  She smacked his arm lightly. “I thought we were waiting.”

  “You’re waiting. I want to tell everyone.” Jesse smiled down at his wife, and I couldn’t help but think about how close to my age and happy they were. Why couldn’t I have that? Why was I continually sabotaging myself?

  Did I want kids? Did I want what Jesse and Veronica had?

  I wasn’t sure.

  But I was pretty sure.

  “Don’t tell,” she grinned over at me.

  “Your secret’s safe with me,” I said.

  “Yours is safe with us, too,” Veronica winked at me.

  Great. Our secret was already out and there wasn’t really anything to talk about.

  Okay, our night of fantastic sex followed by that extraordinary shower blow job was kind of something to talk about. Not with other people, but maybe with each other.

  Waitresses started bringing plates of food to the tables. Brunch was served, so I took a seat next to Jesse and Veronica. Avery slid into the chair directly across the table from me, a wicked gleam in those brown eyes I’d somehow started searching out in every room I entered over the past couple of months. I couldn’t help the grin aimed squarely at her.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Yes it is,” I grinned. Jesse quietly shook his head with a smile aimed down at the table as Veronica started giggling.

  I rolled my eyes. “They know,” I mouthed to Avery, trying to be discreet even though our tablemates weren’t. It was a six-top, with Jesse in the middle, Veronica on one side, and me on the other. Paul and Dean claimed the final two chairs at our table, and I dug into the pancakes the waitress set in front of me. Avery poured coffee from the carafe into her cup before offering me some.

  “I’d love some,” I said.

  “Rough night?” she asked with a secret smile.

  “Incredibly. I hardly slept at all.” I hadn’t meant the slip, but I was dying for some coffee.

  She looked up at me with curiosity, obviously remembering our conversation when we first woke about how good I’d slept. I couldn’t very well admit to her I’d lost sleep because I’d been busy thinking about her all night.

  I averted my eyes to my coffee, pouring in cream and sugar and stirring it like my life depended on it. I felt Avery’s eyes on me, but while I was trying not to be obvious, she didn’t seem to care.

  And then I felt her foot bump mine under the table. It may have been an accident, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe she thought her foot was resting on the leg of the table, but it wasn’t. It was resting over mine.

  I felt my dick harden.

  It was her goddamn foot. Feet were disgusting. But hers resting on mine apparently caused all of the blood in my body to rush back down to one place.

  This was getting stupid. This couldn’t be healthy.

  Trying for a relationship with her might cause me fainting spells with the constant rushing of blood out of my brain.

  Her foot nudged mine, and I glanced up at her. Her eyes were smiling, like we shared an inside joke. Over the course of the meal, our eyes met more times than I could count. We shared a secret, and even though Jesse and Veronica had some idea we had hooked up, they had no idea the strength of feelings we started the night before.

  I wasn’t even sure if I understood it yet.

  We watched Reed and Quinn open their gifts, and I wished Avery was sitting beside me. I wanted to toss a casual arm around her shoulders just to feel her next to me. Across the table felt like a mile.

  If a buddy had told me he was having thoughts like that, I would immediately have called him a pussy. So I was by my own definition being a complete and total pussy, but I wasn’t sure how to stop it.

  Quinn and Reed were going on a Caribbean cruise for their honeymoon. It w
as perfect timing with Quinn’s fall break from school, and their flight went out later that night. Reed gave me his room key so I could grab his tux, and then the two of them left after my parents guaranteed we would get their gifts home safely to their house.

  I helped load the car, passing Avery a few times as she helped gather some of the decorations Quinn had brought. Once everything was loaded, I headed up to the bridal suite to get Reed’s tux.

  I slipped the keycard into the slot and opened the door once I got the green light.

  I’ll give you one guess as to who stood in the room, smoothing out Quinn’s wedding dress as she zipped up a bag to safely transport it.

  Avery Peterson.

  Her eyes met mine across the room, and I couldn’t help my smirk.

  “I feel like they’re doing this to us on purpose,” I said.

  She shrugged. “V was supposed to get the gown, but she wasn’t feeling well so I said I would do it.”

  “I can take it back to my place if you don’t want to store it. I have to get Reed’s tux anyway.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said, zipping the bag up carefully over the top of the dress.

  “I don’t mind.” I glanced at the clock in the room. “We’ve only got five minutes until checkout.”

  She sighed, and then she turned to face me. “Are we really doing this?”

  “Doing what?” I asked, totally confused.

  “Pretending like we didn’t have the world’s most mind-blowing sex last night? Pretending like everything’s normal?”

  “Everything is normal, Avery.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  I sighed, too. I wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear. She was one of those rare women who I wasn’t able to read. Did she want the asshole? The nice guy? I presumed the asshole, but I kind of just wanted to be me with her.

  Whoever that was.

  “Look, Grant. I’m well aware of your reputation,” she said, taking a few steps toward me. I couldn’t help it. I took a few steps toward her, too. “And I’m sure you’ve heard a thing or two about me. I don’t want a relationship.” She looked up at me. We were a breath away from kissing. I cupped her neck with one hand. Her voice was breathy and soft as her hands came to a rest on my biceps. “I just want you to fuck me again like you did last night.”

  I grabbed her closer to me as I lowered my mouth to hers. I wanted that, too. Fuck, it was all I wanted. I wanted to feel her body sliding against mine, slick from sweat and sex. I wanted to kiss her the way we were now, but without time constraints or limits. I wanted to hold her until she fell asleep.

  I wanted to lose sleep over her. Again.

  “When can I see you again?” she asked, her voice raspy.

  “Fuck it. I’ll leave Andrew’s at halftime. Where do you live?”

  “Just down from Quinn’s old apartment. I’ll text the address.”

  “I’ll be there around seven. Be naked.”

  “Get there at the beginning of halftime if you want me naked. I don’t want to miss the second half of the game.”

  I laughed and kissed her again before backing away. If we kept that shit up, we’d be late checking out and I’d have to pay for an extra day in the bridal suite.

  I located the tux and Avery picked up the dress, and then I kissed her one more time, just a light peck that promised more.

  The strangest feeling hit me as my eyes swept the room one last time. It felt like déjà vu, but in reverse. I felt like I was glimpsing my future before it happened.

  Avery had a wedding dress draped over her arm. I was holding a tuxedo. We were leaving a bridal suite.

  It all felt very strange. The immediate need to slow things the fuck down tugged at me even though I’d literally just made plans to see her again that night.

  We took the elevator down together. It was harder to make out when she was cradling a dress in her arms and I was carrying Reed’s tux.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind taking her dress?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

  The doors opened and we walked toward the front desk. I turned in Reed’s key and checked out of the room for the bride and groom, and then we set the clothes in my car that was already filled with wedding presents.

  She left, heading toward her silver Mazda, and I sat on my bumper for a minute. Rachelle lanced through my mind again, but there was nothing abnormal about that. She was usually lurking around there somewhere.

  My sudden feelings for Avery were different from what I felt for Rachelle.

  Rachelle and I had developed slowly, but I credited her as the woman who taught me how to fuck.

  We’d met my freshman year of college. She was a junior who’d just transferred into my speech class. Even though she was only two years older than me, she seemed so much more… worldly. I was immediately attracted to her, but she had been so focused on academic success that she hadn’t looked at me as anything more than a friend.

  It wasn’t until my sophomore year, in fact, that we started dating. She’d become a close friend. We confided in each other, and while she’d gone on a few dates here and there, she never got into a relationship. So I played the field, hoping someday she’d see what was right in front of her.

  The day I confessed my feelings was the day she admitted she’d always felt something more than friendship for me, too. We’d gotten too close as friends, though, and she’d been scared to ruin that with a relationship. We made love that night, and it marked the first time I’d ever actually “made love” to a woman. I’d fucked around a lot, but with her, it was different. I was gentle because I was in love with her and probably had been since the moment I had first seen her across the classroom. I wanted her to know how I felt, so I took things slowly and showed her through the way I kissed her, the way I held her, the way I touched her.

  She was still the only woman I’d ever “made love” to. I never considered calling it that with any other woman because I hadn’t loved any of the others before or since her.

  But it wasn’t all gentleness with her.

  She was disciplined and controlled, and that extended to the bedroom. She told me what she wanted and how to pleasure her, and it became my goal to do just that.

  Making her happy was all I thought about. And that’s what fucked me in the end. I was an idiot for believing her happiness came first, and that’s why I’d put my own happiness first ever since.

  Even still, I will always credit her with the precise training that led to my sexual prowess.

  My dad exited the front lobby of the hotel and caught me staring off into space.

  “What’s up, kid?” he asked me.

  I shook my head. “Nothing. Fun night last night. Just paying for it this morning,” I said, faking a hangover so I didn’t have to explain I was lost in thought about a girl I’d once loved so much I thought I’d be spending my life with her.

  “I hear that. Did you see how drunk Robby got?” he asked, referring to his brother.

  I chuckled, pretending I had. The truth was I’d been so focused on finding Avery in the crowd, I hadn’t noticed much else going on around me.

  “You got plans today?”

  I nodded. “Heading to Andrew’s to watch the game tonight.”

  “Think Brady’ll win?”

  “Against those assholes from New York? Piece of cake.” I grinned even as I realized I’d quoted Avery.

  Quoting a girl in a conversation about football. Something was very wrong with me.

  CHAPTER 9

  It was the middle of the second quarter, and I’d spent the entire game thinking about Avery. I was so caught up in my own head, in fact, I didn’t really even know who was winning. I had a hundred bucks on this game, but I didn’t care if I won or lost.

  All I cared about was getting to her place before halftime ended.

  “Dude, I gotta take off,” I said to Andrew during a commercial break.

  He glanced over at me. “Girl?” />
  I nodded. “You know it.”

  “Worth missing the second half of this game?”

  I shrugged. “We’ll see.” I didn’t want to get into it with him. I didn’t want to tell him I was going to watch the second half of the game with Avery and her perfect afterglow in my own afterglow-ing arms.

  He chuckled, and I let myself out. I whistled as I headed to my car, and my phone buzzed in my pocket with a text just as I started the engine. I checked it before shifting into reverse.

  Checking it may have been a mistake because I was forced to drive with a fucking hard-on.

  It was from Avery, and it was a picture of the clothes she had been wearing earlier, complete with her bra and panties, thrown haphazardly on the floor. There was a message accompanying the picture.

  Halftime starts in about five minutes. I’m ready. Are you?

  I was now that I’d seen her text.

  Jesus, the things this girl did and said. She wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before.

  Most of the women I’d been with had allowed me to call the shots. I enjoyed knowing a woman would do what I told her to do. I was disciplined, mostly as a direct result of allowing myself to fall for Rachelle only to have my heart shattered by her more than once. I didn’t allow myself the chance to feel emotions for women because I knew it would only end one way. I couldn’t let that happen again.

  Unfortunately, Rachelle’s actions also led me to have major trust issues. This wasn’t just with women, either. I didn’t really trust anybody with the exception of myself and my family. And now my family included Reed, who I also trusted explicitly.

  My thoughts of Rachelle on my way to Avery’s confused the hell out of me. As soon as I noticed I was starting to feel something for Avery, thoughts of Rachelle came along and attempted to put a quick end to it.

  I pulled into Avery’s parking lot. The buildings in her apartment complex were clearly marked even at night, and I found myself knocking on her door a few minutes later.

  The door opened just a crack, and I saw her eyes peeking through that crack. I grinned, knowing she was stark naked on the other side of that door, and the door opened a little wider.

  “So modest and innocent,” I said as she hid behind the door. She slammed the door and stood before me, a naked temptress. “So unlike you.”