by LJ Evans
You frowned. “I’m sorry. I forgot I didn’t have my car.”
“It’s not a problem.” Because it wasn’t, but you didn’t like it because you detest feeling dependent on others.
“I hate to make you run around.”
“I wouldn’t care if I had to drive you to Vegas and back every day if it meant I got to spend time with you.”
I said it and meant it with all of me, and you seemed to believe me. Then you smiled your sassy smile at me.
“Why don’t you just work out at the gym?”
“What? Do rock climbing?”
Your annoyance flared immediately, pissed that I was underestimating what you did at Freestorm. You put your hand on your hip and challenged me. “I bet I can put you through a harder workout than your boxing coach does.”
And what could I say to that? I could only pull you back to me with a gruff, “I bet you could.”
You laughed. “You know that’s not what I meant. And you’ll have to wait until I’m done with the classes.”
“Do I get to watch?”
“Well…maybe…I don’t know.” Your hesitation only made me rumble a protest and bite your neck. You laughed and swatted me away. “Fine. Fine. But don’t make me blush.”
“That’s pretty much an impossibility.”
You punched me lightly. “Go change.”
I didn’t even protest. I just did as you asked because it meant that I didn’t have to let you go. Not yet.
♫ ♫ ♫
Your last tween class was almost finished. The girls were sweaty and exhausted but still smiling. They seemed to take great pleasure in being stronger, faster, and more agile than many of the boys in the class that the weasel was running for Justice that day. I continued to be impressed by what you and Justice did at the gym.
I was sitting on the bleachers in the parent waiting area. I’d stretched out with my legs in front of me and my arms crossed over my chest while I watched you with my back against the wall. I had the hood of my sweatshirt up so that you would think I was sleeping instead of tracing your every move with my eyes. I’m not sure it worked with you, but it worked on the weasel because he didn’t know I was there. He’d shown up just as his class had started.
The girls thanked you, grabbed their stuff, and then flirted with the boys from Stupid’s group as they exited. As they left, he crossed the floor to you, and I was instantly on my feet and moving.
“So, Justice is back on Monday?” he asked, trying for nonchalance, but I could read the other emotions that were drifting off of him as you both picked up the equipment.
“Yep,” you responded, oblivious.
“How’s the baby?”
“Cute as a button. I can’t wait to see him climbing all over the stuff here at the gym.”
“Yeah. That’ll be great,” Stupid said. He was not quite nervous, but something close. He kept going, “Hey, listen, we’re almost done here. Would you like to grab a late lunch?”
You stilled, as if you were surprised by his asking you out even though I’d already warned you that he wanted you. Your embarrassment was written in the color that lit your face.
“Um,” you stuttered.
“She already has plans,” I said coming up next to you, reaching for your fingers. You both looked up in shock because neither of you had seen me move across the floor. The weasel’s face turned from shock to resentment at my interruption.
“What the…?” he huffed out.
“She. Has. Plans.” I took a step toward him, and you stepped in between us, pushing at my chest and turning so that your back was leaning up against me. It was as if you knew that I needed your touch to calm me down. And it did. But only slightly, and some days I still wish it hadn’t.
“Sorry, Michael. Thanks for the invite, but Seth and I are going to stay and go through some courses.” You gave him an apologetic smile. But I knew you weren’t happy with me either. Your face was aflame with your opinion.
“Uh. No problem. It’s okay. I’ll see you next week.” And the weasel stalked off, picking up his bag and heading for the door.
You turned to me with that pixie annoyance in full bloom.
“What was that for?”
I wanted to smile at your adorable temper, but I didn’t think that would help. So I just spoke the truth as I always do. “He needed to know you weren’t available.”
“I could have handled it.”
“Like you handled the guy at the bar last night?”
“Seth. You have to trust me. I don’t want to be with another guy. If I wanted to be with someone else, I wouldn’t be with you.”
“I do trust you. It’s them I don’t trust.”
“You can’t walk around scaring the bejesus out of everyone, acting like you own me.” You stomped your foot as if to make your point.
I couldn’t help it, all my anger faded away and in its place was my grin, which just made your annoyance flare more.
“Is this you being mad at me?” I teased.
“I’m serious. I’m not for sale. Not for even a bazillion dollars.” You went to move away from me, but I caught you.
“How about for this?” And I was kissing you to make you forget everything and everyone but me.
You let me kiss you briefly, and then you fought your way out of my arms.
“Not for sale,” you said grimly. But I just smiled because I could see that you were already losing your steam. And you knew it too, so you escaped to the rope course, looking back at me with a taunt that I was unable to resist.
“But if you catch me, you might get a reward anyway.”
Then you were gone, and I was chasing you. You moved through the rope course faster than I expected. Strong and lean and so incredibly gorgeous as you swung yourself with ease through a course that would have challenged any pro athlete.
At first, I kept up pretty well. My muscles from boxing and running helping me keep your pace. When you flung yourself from the rope course to the rock wall, I caught my breath and followed you, barely grabbing on. You seemed surprised that I’d made it, but I was determined to not let you go. Like always. Like even now when you are miles away.
At the top of the rock wall, you caught the edge and worked your fingers along the top until you got to the tire swings, and I knew then that there was no way that I was going to be able to follow you that way. But I wasn’t going to lose either. You didn’t know it then as well as you know it now, but I don’t play fair. I don’t play by rules that other people set for me.
While you hit the tires, I dropped down and watched your toned body move through the obstacle. My body responding to yours with a familiar tightening. When you did a forward roll from the swings onto the mat, I was ready, and I pounced, my body capturing your tiny one. I was smiling at you because I couldn’t help it. Because you were ravishing and you were mine.
“You didn’t do the tires. That isn’t fair.” You scowled up at me, breath coming fast after all the energy you’d exerted to outpace me.
“Life isn’t fair, Bella,” I said as I grinned at you.
“Cheater!” You tried to push me off, but I had you pinned, arms spread out, and even as strong as you were, you were still half my size.
“The conditions you set were, ‘Catch me and get a reward.’” I bent my head and nipped at your bottom lip with my teeth.
“I said you ‘might’ get a reward,” you reminded me, trying to keep your lips pressed together.
I just moved from your closed lips to your neck, because I knew that as soon as your body took over from your brain, that you would give in. And you did, body relaxing, legs surrounding me. Your hands and tongue keeping pace with my own.
♫ ♫ ♫
It was much later than I expected when we exited the gym. We’d used the showers in the women’s locker room in ways that I was pretty sure your brother wouldn’t have approved. But you were smiling, and I had a rare moment o
f peace.
You stopped at the office as we left, gathering a bank bag up with your things, and at the Porsche, you said, “I want to run the receipts and cash over to Justice’s so he can make the bank run on Monday. Do you want to drop me at my car?”
“No.” Because I didn’t.
“Seth, you’re going to have to take me back at some point.”
But you didn’t seem annoyed by my answer, so I just stared, and you just got in the car and gave me directions to your brother’s house. It was a small victory because you didn’t let me do many things for you.
Your phone dinged while we drove, and when you looked down, your face went white before turning red, and worry instantly coursed through me.
“What is it?” I asked.
You looked up as if I’d startled you away from a bad dream. Your shield came down over your face, and you lied to me. You didn’t think I knew, but I did.
“Just Claire being Claire,” you said and tossed your phone in your bag as if you could ignore it.
I wanted to push it, to demand the truth out of you. But I’d already pushed you so many times that day that I was afraid if I pushed again, you’d run when you’d just agreed to stay. Now I wish that I had pushed you because I know what that text said, and I hate it just like I hate him.
Foolishly, I turned my attention to driving instead of talking. We did a lot of that, didn’t we? Silence instead of words.
We pulled up in front of a tiny cottage from the fifties that you told me you’d lived in since you were sixteen. Justice had bought it using the proceeds from your parents’ house in Seattle so you’d have a place to call your own. But I noticed that you still didn’t call it home.
You said it was tiny and old, as if making excuses for it. You explained that Justice and Liv had worked hard to renovate it once Liv had moved in while you were at college.
I got your car door, and you led me up the steps. You knocked before letting us in with your own key. “Hello everyone! Make yourself decent. You have company!”
“Peej!” Liv responded from the back. “In here.”
We went through the tiny, clustered living room into the kitchen near the back of the house. You watched me as if I’d look at the place and make a poor judgement of you or your family, but to me it just looked like somewhere a family lived. A real family with real lives.
Liv was at the sink washing bottles. The baby monitor on the counter was turned on. You hugged her, and Liv returned it with warmth. Her eyes lit up on seeing me behind you. Like she wanted to tease you again about the choices you were making. It didn’t send me over the edge like usual. Probably because she was smiling, and for some reason, I liked her for it.
“Hello again!” Liv said to me.
I just nodded.
“What are you two doing today?” Liv asked.
“I brought the receipts and cash for Justice so he can make a deposit,” you told her.
“Thanks, that’s perfect. He just went to get a pizza. Let me call him, and he’ll get another.”
“No, no, we aren’t staying.”
“PJ, we’ve hardly seen you all week.” She had the phone out and had hit the call button before you could protest again. “Hey hun, Peej and her hunky man are here, can you order another pie?” She looked at us, “What do you want?”
“Veggie?” you asked, looking at me. I didn’t want to stay. I wanted you all to myself, but you’d already accepted and I wasn’t going to be the asshole who took you from your family.
“Sure,” I said.
Liv got the pizzas situated and hung up. She went to the frig. “Beer?” she asked.
“Not for me, thanks,” I responded automatically.
“Peej?”
“Nah. I’ll take a Coke though. Seth?”
“Sure,” I repeated.
We settled at the kitchen table. “So? How’s it going?” Liv’s eyes twinkled with mischief.
You blushed. It was built into you. “Don’t start.”
The baby took that moment to wake up and let out a little pitiful cry that could barely be heard. Liv was up and out of the room like a jack-in-the-box.
“I’ll be back, give me a few minutes to nurse him and bring him in,” Liz hollered over her shoulder.
When she left, you turned back to me. I took you in. You were more relaxed here than anywhere I’d seen you, except in my bed. I was jealous of that. I can’t deny it.
“What?” you asked as I stared.
How could I respond to that? So I didn’t.
“Don’t do that. Out with it, Mr. Carmen,” you said, and my chest tightened at my shit-for-brains father’s name.
“We agreed that dickhead was better than Mr. Carmen.”
“But it gets a reaction out of you at least,” you countered with a satisfied smile that twisted my gut.
“There’s a better reaction you can get out of me,” I said as I pulled you from your chair onto my lap.
“Seth. Stop. Liv will be in any second and Justice is on his way,” you protested weakly.
“Nursing a baby takes some time,” I replied as I began kissing your neck and running a hand down your side.
“How would you know?” you asked.
“I read a lot of books.”
“About nursing women?”
“Shhh. Stop talking.” I kissed you again so that you were breathless and panting even though we’d barely gotten out of each other’s skin less than an hour ago.
A car door slammed outside, causing you to pull away. You barely had time to put space between us when Justice opened the back door.
You grabbed the pizza boxes from him. “S&M!” Justice said, giving you a hug, as I winced at the nickname.
“Hey,” you responded, hugging him back.
Justice turned to me, and I rose to shake his hand because I knew that you wanted me to play nice. “Good to see you again,” Justice said, although it didn’t seem like he was really sure about it. That was okay, I wasn’t either.
“You too,” I replied dryly.
Liv came into the room with the baby swaddled and hugged tightly against her chest. “You’re home!” Liv said with a smile, kissing Justice and handing off the baby to him. “Look who just woke up.”
Justice took the baby and made googly eyes at him. You were watching it all with a wistful look on your face like you’d just been left out of a holiday dinner, and I was about to pull you back to me when you went for the baby.
As you held Cole, Justice and Liv got out plates and napkins and more drinks. Justice brought back two beers.
“Beer?” he offered to me.
“No, thanks, your lovely wife already asked,” I responded, meeting the challenge in his eyes with coldness.
Your eyes narrowed at the interchange.
“What gives?” you asked, pulling the beer out of his hand and putting it back in the fridge.
“What?” Justice was all fawned innocence.
“Don’t give me that. Spill it.”
“Your brother is wondering if I’m really a recovering alcoholic or an alcoholic that’s covering,” I told you.
“You are not?” You turned indignant eyes on him.
Justice shrugged. “Locke told me he’d been in AA.”
“Let’s go.” You handed the baby back to Justice, picked up your purse, and headed toward the door, but Justice’s voice stopped you. I hadn’t moved. I couldn’t blame your brother for looking out for you.
“Stop. I’m sorry. I just…” Justice ran his hands through his hair. “You know I can’t stop looking after you just because you’re all grown up.”
You looked at him angrily. “You have to butt out of my life.”
“I know. I know. I promise when you move back, I won’t interfere,” Justice said apologetically.
“Wait. What?” you said in surprise.
“Claire came by to see the baby today. She said she was moving in wit
h her aunt, so I assumed you’d be moving back,” he explained with a sheepish smile.
“I can’t believe she told you that.” You were stunned.
“She’s not moving in here,” I intervened.
“What?” Liv and Justice said at the same time that you said, “Seth!” in warning.
“She’s moving in with me,” I continued as you huffed and your family stared in disbelief.
“Bullshit,” Justice said and turned to you, “Peej?”
You didn’t respond, you didn’t have to. The color creeping over your face said it all.
“Well,” Liv said, clearing her throat. “Now that that’s resolved, can we please eat? I’m starving. Breastfeeding is like running a marathon.”
I liked Liv even more for her ability to take the pressure off you. She put a plate in my hands, forced her husband to take a seat, and the tension in the air slowly loosened up.
“So, PJ, where are we celebrating your graduation?” Liv asked.
It was your turn to shrug, and I could see how you were undervaluing your achievement. As if it wasn’t something to celebrate. As if it wasn’t a big deal.
“When do you graduate?” I asked, and it made us all aware of just how little we knew each other. I didn’t miss the look that Justice gave you that said “see” without saying a word. But the thing he didn’t know was that I already knew the important things about you. I knew your heart and your soul.
“Next month. The 18th of May,” you told me.
“We can do a party here if you’d like,” Liv offered.
You shook your head because you didn’t want them to do anything for you. But they weren’t letting you off the hook and it made me like them more than I wanted to. This family of yours that actually knew how to be a family. I hadn’t walked for my graduation because there was no reason to do so. There would be no one in the stands calling my name.
“Nah. Why don’t we just go to La Traviata afterwards?” you said when they hadn’t relented.
“That doesn’t seem like enough to mark this auspicious occasion. Locke and I have been making bets for years on whether you’d actually go through with it or not.” Justice grinned.
You threw a mushroom at him.