“This is getting where it needs to go,” I tell her, getting up and sitting right next to her. I bury my face in her hair and inhale her fresh, heady scent before I whisper, “Don’t act like you haven’t been thinking about that kiss every single day since it happened. Don’t pretend you haven’t thought once about what it would be like to do it again. To do more.”
I put my palm on her thigh and slowly trail it up but her hands are on my chest, pushing me back.
“We can’t,” she says.
“Oh yes we fucking can,” I tell her. I take her delicate earlobe between my teeth and tug until she lets out a small gasp.
“Not now, not here,” she says and there is a tone of panic in her voice.
She’s right. Not here. I sit up and move away from her a few inches before I look around the bar. She seems to be talking about Kayla and Nicola, but now I’m thinking about James.
Whatever happens between us, it would be best if James didn’t know. At least not at first, anyway. If I entertained the thought that he could possibly have feelings for her, then I wouldn’t be able to be with her at all, so I push that out of my head and make sure that whatever happens between us is only between us.
“Can this be our secret?” I whisper.
“There is no secret to tell,” she answers smartly.
“Not yet,” I say, holding her gaze. “But by the end of this night, there will be.”
Then she looks up and past me and I know that someone is coming. I quickly yet casually get to my feet and turn around just in time to see Nicola and Kayla approaching us with bottles of cider.
“I see you’re still alive,” Nicola says before she looks over the table. “And the cutlery doesn’t have blood on it.”
“It’s cool,” Steph says with a lopsided smile. She meets my eyes for a second before looking to the others. “We’re best friends again.”
“Just best friends?” Kayla asks suspiciously.
Before Stephanie can answer, I say, “Just the best.”
Then I give Steph a nod and head back to the other side of the bar.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
STEPHANIE
“What the hell was that all about?” Kayla asks.
“He better have had a great excuse for being such a douchepilot,” Nicola adds before she slams back her drink. Man, single moms sure know how to party hard.
“He kind of did,” I tell them. And it’s true. Actually after I had seen Nadine’s status update and sent him the ‘fuck you’ text, I talked to Penny and she filled me in on the entire situation. I understood it, I really did, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. Even though Linden was stepping up to the plate and being a good man about the whole thing, I was suddenly so afraid that this was the end. There would be no more chances. She would live with him forever, he’d fall back in love and whatever things he told me would be completely forgotten about.
I spent the whole week alternating between feeling sorry for myself and cursing God and fate and then Nadine for living in such a shithole that it had to be condemned.
Of course, because I was such a wreck and relegated to my eating ice cream in my underwear stage, I had to fill Nicola and Kayla in on what was happening. I didn’t really want to tell yet another person that I have a thing for Linden, especially since Kayla got to sample the goods already but it was nice to have a little woman support group in place. Actually Kayla had just broken off her engagement a month ago, so she was in a place where she really wanted to hate on all men and especially Linden who fucked her a few times and never called her again.
Saturday was our let’s-get-drunk-and-find-a-good-lay night, so I suggested the Lion thinking that there was no way Nadine would want to be there among Linden’s friends again, especially after last weekend. We’d only been there and hour and were nicely buzzed and gossiping about who knows what when I knew Linden was in the room. Seeing Kayla and Nicola’s faces only cemented the truth.
Linden walked toward me like someone out of a dream. He was wearing a tight grey t-shirt that showed off his big, sculpted arms and broad shoulders, dark jeans that fit in all the right places, had his leather jacket – the very one I gave him – slung over one shoulder like some wannabe Brando. And it worked. He even had on black leather combat boots for once, giving his already six foot something frame some extra height.
I cursed internally, rapidly, using every single swear word I could think of. I was angry that he was here and even angrier that I was just so fucking attracted to him that it was taking a lot of restraint to keep my eyes glued to anywhere else but his hard body.