by Emilia Finn
“Aw, now you’re just fishin’ for compliments. You’re super pretty, even if you looked like a cat that was tossed into a bathtub last night.”
“Go away!” She slams her fist on her side of the door. “I’m calling security if you don’t leave in one minute!”
“I promise not to dunk you in the lake tonight.”
“I’m not opening this door!”
“I promise not to even mention going for a ride. Unless, ya know… dick meet vagina.”
“No!” She’s laughing, I fuckin’ know she is. “Go away, Tucker Morris! I don’t take visitors once the sun goes down.”
“I’m not a visitor. We practically live together. Our beds are twenty feet apart.”
“So you go to yours, and I’ll go to mine.”
“Or…” I laugh when she growls. “You could let me in. Come on, beautiful. I have something for you, but it’s gonna be spoiled soon. It’s almost my bedtime, and my mom’s gonna be hella mad if I’m up all night, screwing around with the neighborhood riffraff again.”
“Tucker…” She whines in loud, dramatic sobs. “If one of us is the riffraff…”
“Such a snob! Open the fucking door before I kick it down.”
“Kick it,” she challenges. “I dare you. Then you can enjoy the feeling of Spencer shoving a cattleprod up your ass.”
“He will not. Spencer’s my friend. Last chance, Nora! Or I swear by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin…”
“It’s late,” she protests. “I have to work tomorrow.”
“I know, baby. Me too. Let me in.”
The longest minute of my life passes. Silence… loaded, expectant, tense silence. But then the locks snick, and the door cracks open. Her hair hangs loose so the messy waves frame her bare face and make her light eyes sparkle.
“Hey there, beautiful.”
“You’re in your jammies.”
I cast an eye along the two inches of space she allows with the door. “So are you. You look warm and cozy.”
“I was sitting down to watch a movie before bed.”
“I know.” I lift the mugs of hot chocolate and study her eyes. “No shenanigans, just a friend.”
“I’m watching The Last of the Mohicans.”
“Coincidence,” I grin, “because I was planning to watch the same thing.”
“Such a liar. Galileo,” she sighs. “Come.” She jockeys her overgrown dog back, then opens the door so I can step in.
The moment I cross the threshold and know she can’t boot me back out, I step into her space and press a long, close-mouthed kiss to her plump lips and feel the anxiety I didn’t even know I’d been harboring all day, dissipate.
She’s my uptight neighbor, she’s a scared woman who needs equal amounts gentle care and a solid shove into new territory. She’s everything I could have sworn I didn’t want, but here I am in my punk-ass pyjamas, with hot chocolate in my hands, a romance movie cued up, and for the first time since I saw her last night, I can finally breathe freely.
“I missed the shit out of you today.”
“Yeah?” Heavy-lidded, her eyes flicker over my face. “I kinda missed you too.” Stepping away when I give her space, she closes the door and triple checks the locks. “How was work?”
“I’m working on this chick’s fucked up SUV.” I follow her and Galileo into the living room.
Our apartments are exactly the same build, the same layout, but where I have a ratty pull-out sofa that I was given second or thirdhand a few years back, Nora has a fancy faux-leather couch. She doesn’t need expensive, but she needs smooth lines. No mess. No complications. Where I have a couple pillows tossed on mine, she has none. And where I have no rugs, she has one in an earthy brown tone – similar to her eyes, I suppose – that compliments the couch and the stand that holds the TV.
When we stop beside the medium-sized, rectangular coffee table, she sets out brown coasters, and nods at them for me to set the mugs down – ‘Don’t you dare put marks on my table, Tucker Morris!’ Finally, she turns away from me with a gentle shake of her head. But her lips creep up.
She’s entertained by me. She just doesn’t want to be.
Taking my cue while she moves around her apartment and flicks the lights out, I drop down on the couch and kick my feet up so the Green Lantern slippers rest by my mug. Galileo circles the room for a moment, checks that there are no monsters lurking behind the tall lamp, then he comes and lays on the floor beneath my legs. He lets out a heavy sigh, flicks his ears while he settles in, then finally, he and I both relax when Nora comes back to the couch with a blanket in her hands and a shy smile.
“Wanna snuggle?” she murmurs.
I flash my most playful grin and scoot an inch to the left. “Despite the mom that picked her car up today and tried to hump my leg, and the meatball subs Ang brought me for lunch, and the time this morning when Mac told me to fuck myself with a wrench, that’s the best offer I’ve had all day.”
I pat my thigh and catch the blanket when she tosses it with a huff. Unfolding the heavy, silver-gray fabric, I pull her under my arm, and settle the material over our laps until we’re both tucked in.
“Comfy?”
Nodding, she reaches forward and snatches up the mugs, then, sitting back, she passes mine in silence, and stares into my eyes as the opening credits of our movie begin, and the lights reflect off the side of her face. She tries her best to smile when I tap the mugs together. Tries to be strong under my study.
“I’m scared,” she admits on a shaky whisper.
“You don’t have to be scared,” I whisper back. Placing two fingers under her chin, I pull her face up and press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “You can relax, because I’m right here. I’m on duty now, which means you can get a solid eight hours sleep, and I’ll hold the line.”
She turns back to the TV with a subtle nod, lifts her knees, and leans to the side to rest against me. “That’s why I’m scared,” she qualifies so quietly, I’m certain she’s hoping I don’t hear. “Because you’re here, and sometimes, good things don’t last.”
Nora
Surprise
“So the way it’s set up is that each fighter walks through, and they press their hand to this…” I pull an iPad-type tablet from my bag and set it on the table. “First time will take longer, since you’ll have to manually place a name with the print.”
“But you’ll be there, right?” Evie watches me with genuine panic in her eyes. “You have to help me.”
“At the tournament?” My heart races with nervous flutters. “No, but—”
“Nora!” she explodes. “You have to be there. I can’t do this shit on my own. You know I can’t do the techy stuff.”
“You only have to get their print,” I explain. “Then ask their name. Match the print to the name, that’s it. All of the metadata will already be prefilled, so it’ll drop down, and voila, all done.”
“You know I’m gonna mess it up,” she groans. “You know I will! And then it’ll take you weeks to undo all of the screwups. The wrong print will go to the wrong name, so next year, no one will be able to sign in. It’ll take even longer to fix than it would if you just came this year.”
“I’m not coming to the effing tournament! It’s not my thing, Smalls. I’m a behind-the-scenes kinda gal.”
“But…” In such a short time, Evie has learned how to do the tear-filled eyes on demand. She looks at me now, turns the waterworks on, and pats her belly. “I need your help, Nora. You know I need you.”
“You’re a jerk,” I huff. “Sophia will be there.”
“Sophia’s working on the security,” she counters. “She’s busy with that, plus, this is your software. It’s your hard work. It would be faster and easier for you to just be there to help me.”
“I’m not coming to your fucking tournament,” I grit between my teeth. “I refuse. And your baby eyes aren’t going to work on me.”
“You’re grumpy today.” She cuts the tears, just like
that. “You’re not normally so mean to me. It’s the weekend, and you have a cute guy sniffing at your legs every two minutes. You’re supposed to be nicer by now.”
“Leave her alone,” Ben grumbles as he passes through the room. “Nora doesn’t have to come to the tournament if she doesn’t wanna.”
“She’s coming to the tournament, Sasquatch, because if she doesn’t, I’m gonna mess up all of her work. That’ll piss her off enough to ensure she comes next year.”
“Don’t mess up my work!” I scowl. “Why are you trying to annoy me?”
“Why are you so grumpy today?” Her blonde curls swing around her face as she gets mad with her whole body. “This is your year, right? The year of being daring and wild. The year to show the world you’re back and ready to drop fuckers when they wanna cross you.”
“I’ve been brave! I’ve been doing lots of wild and cool things.”
She only rolls her eyes and turns to Ben. “She swam at the lake, Sasquatch. Somebody, buy her a trophy.”
“You’re a jerk,” I growl. “This—” I point a finger and wag it from her head to her legs “This is why I hated you in high school. You’re mean and pushy when you want to get your own way. Your daring and my daring are two different things, and that’s okay, ya know? It’s better than me still hiding in my mom and dad’s house.”
“Sure, it’s better.” Patronizing ass. “But why not continue to spread your wings, huh? You have a whole weekend ahead of you, a sexy man knocking on your door every damn night, you have two apartments to choose from, two beds, several couches—”
“Eve,” Ben snaps. “Quit it already.”
“You could use a bed or couch here, too, I guess.” She completely ignores her husband and smiles for me. “Do something daring, Nora. Then do something X-rated and sexy.”
“He’s going to the tracks tonight.” I drop my gaze and study the tablet on the table rather than face her. “He’s going to race his bike tonight. I can’t… I don’t…” I shake my head.
“Ah, there it is.” Evie’s tone turns softer. “I knew there was something going on in your head.” She brings a finger under my chin and pulls my face up. “That’s why you’re not very happy right now?”
“He and I…” I swallow. “We can’t be compatible. We can’t… He races motorbikes for fun. He seeks danger, he laughs about it. He… What if he gets hurt?”
“I mean…” No teasing, no taunting, she gives genuine thought to my question. “Some could say the same about fighting, right? It’s kind of dangerous. It’s loud, and often dark outside while we’re doing it. It’s just lucky my man is a fighter too, that our world is fighting, because if I met a random guy and started dating him, he might consider what I do too dangerous.”
“You’re not allowed to date anyone else.” Ben passes back through the room. “Hard rule.”
Evie only rolls her eyes. “Noted.”
“I’m not a fighter,” I croak. “And I’m not a racer. So it doesn’t matter.”
She arches a challenging brow. “You work in an office filled with armed thugs. We know who they are, but on the outside, your workplace looks pretty damned dangerous, Nora.”
“They’re not a danger to me. They’re not… they’re my security.”
“But on the outside…” She shrugs. “Anyway, Chuck is racing tonight, and you’re feeling a little sad about it?”
I turn back to the files of paperwork I brought with me today. Stacks and stacks of printed fighter bios. All of these people hoping for a title win, all of them traveling across states and countries to visit this small town, and hope Evelyn “Smalls” Kincaid and her family notices them.
“It’s nothing. It’s fine.”
“Did he say no when you asked him not to go?”
“No, I…” I shake my head. “I didn’t ask. That’s crazy. That would be like your new date asking you to not go to the tournament.”
“She’s not allowed to date anyone new.” Ben comes back into the room with mugs of coffee. He sets them on the table, despite the fact neither of us asked, slides them in front of us, and presses a kiss to Evie’s lips when she stretches her neck in his direction. “Half strength for you.”
Evie’s smile turns to a ferocious sneer. “Half?”
“You’ve gotta turn it down,” he reasons. “Too much caffeine is bad for the baby.”
“Not enough coffee is bad for everyone,” she counters.
“It can cross to the baby! The caffeine will cross the placenta, and then you’re creating a coffee addict before it’s already born.”
“It’s gonna be a coffee addict anyway!” she argues. “Come on, Sasquatch. Whose family is Squish being born into? We baptize with coffee!”
“You’re intent on creating another high-energy crazy? You really want to do that to us?”
“It’s inevitable.” She presses a second kiss to his lips and murmurs, “Fuck with my coffee again, and I’ll take you out.”
Instead of arguing back, he only grins and ruffles her hair like a good-natured uncle. “I’m saving you from yourself.” Then he winks. “Love you.”
“Love you too. Now let’s talk about Nora.” She turns to me with sparkling eyes. “So you’re mad your man is going out to have fun?”
“He’s not my man,” I argue, “And I’m not mad. I’m worried.”
“He’s totally your man,” she volleys back. “We’ve all been tuning in each night to watch your show.”
When the front door of Evie and Ben’s house opens, Ben leaves the room and meets his noisy guests in the living room. Mac’s voice. Bean’s voice. Footsteps come our way.
“Not my man,” I repeat quietly before our visitors arrive. “And mind your business. Mac and Tucker are friends, so don’t talk about him while Mac’s here.”
Ben stops in the doorway to the room – the office, the maid’s quarters in another life, the poker room, though we rarely play poker. My brows furrow at his frown, but then I understand why it’s there when Tucker walks through the door and heads toward me. Full smile, spot of grease on his nose as he crosses the room.
Mac and Bean come in too, they take a seat at the table. Bean steals Evie’s coffee, takes just one sip before scowling and taking mine, then when she’s happy with the full strength, she sits back and watches the color drain from my face.
“Tucker?” I turn in my seat as he comes around to my back.
I feel the heat from my friends’ stares, but Tucker doesn’t seem to care. He stops behind my chair, pulls my head back so I have to look at him upside down, then he presses a smiling kiss to my lips and swallows down my startled gasp.
“Guess we’re doing that, then,” Mac grumbles. “Nora and Chuck are a thing.”
“I think it’s nice,” Bean murmurs. “They’re cute.”
“Seconded,” Evie says. “They look good together.”
Tucker disconnects his lips from mine and studies me. “I think we look good together too.”
“Um…” I swallow. “Uh…”
He flashes a wolfish grin. “You snuck out this morning.”
“I had places to be.” My heart pounds until I turn dizzy. “I had work to do.”
“You snuck out,” he presses. “Because you’re kinda sorta mad at me, but you feel weird about it. Hop up.”
When I do nothing, he merely comes around my chair and plucks me up.
My breath comes out on a squeal, my arms swing around his neck because I worry he’ll drop me. But without a care in the world, he plops back down in my chair, sets me in his lap, and wraps an arm around my stomach when I try to scurry away.
He looks around my friends with a carefree smile. “You guys wanna play cards?”
“Sure.” Evie grabs my paperwork, my tablet, all of the work we’ve been doing, and tosses it to the floor without remorse, then she snags a pack of cards, tosses them at Mac, and steals my coffee from Bean. “Let’s play Bluff.”
Hours later, hours of fun and laughter – mostl
y at my expense – Tucker leads me through Ben’s house and onto the front porch. His hand wraps around mine, his musky scent fills my lungs until I’m not sure I know how to live without it anymore.
Stopping at the top of the steps, he glances down at me when my eyes go to the battered motorcycle. “Come for a ride with me?”
“Why aren’t you at work?”
“Ang tends to close the garage early on Fridays. Since I was already with Mac, and Bean came to the garage to tell us she was coming here, I followed.” He leans in and presses a gentle kiss to my lips. “You need to relax. Everything’s okay.”
“Are you… um…” I look to the waning sunlight. We have another hour or two before darkness descends, then the elephant in the room comes back. Tucker will get on his bike and head out to race, and I’ll be left home alone, to wait for him. To pray that he’s going to be okay. “Where are you going now?”
“Well, I was thinking we could go for a ride.” He tugs me down the stairs and heads toward the dented bike. “I wanna hang out with you a little longer, so wherever you go, I wanna come.”
“I was going to see Lisa.” I swallow the lump of nerves that lodge in my throat. “At the cemetery. I didn’t end up going last weekend, so…”
“Can I come?” He passes his helmet and helps me fix the straps. “I won’t even make sex jokes while we’re there. Ya know, because of being respectful and all that.”
I hate that he’s so charming. I hate, hate, hate that he makes my heart race, even though the words he speaks are crude and silly.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be tonight?”
“I guess I do.” He stops what he’s doing for a moment, and gazes into my eyes. “But I’d still rather come meet Lisa first. Just wait here a sec?”
“What?” My gaze whips around to follow him as he dashes back up the porch steps. “Tucker?”
“Just wait a sec!” He pushes through the front door without knocking, races through the front room, only to sprint back outside a moment later, seemingly unchanged. “Okay, let’s go.”