His body before me is hard, the lines of his muscles defined. His eyes match, an edge to them that tells me he doesn’t like something I’ve said. “I’m trying to be faithful to you—”
“Trying?” I don’t like that at all. “I don’t have to try,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “It’s easy to do. It’s what we decided when you had your unexpected wanderlust.”
“You remember that?”
“Of course, I remember that. Do you? Do you remember how you made the same agreement with me as I did you?”
He smiles, the expression much more attractive than the other, though some might disagree. His voice smoothes, becoming more seductive, and he says, “Angel, you’re in my home, which means you’re in my life. There’s no one else if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t break promises and our agreement was a promise.” His lips brush against mine. “We can talk about protection again soon, but right now I’m gonna remind you why you missed me so much.”
Closing my eyes, I smile just as his lips touch mine. He may have been upset about my reaction to no condom earlier, but I guess he didn’t think I would stay mad. He grabs a foil packet from the ledge and we make up by making love under the warm water showering down over us.
“It’s not a question of if they’re a friend or foe. It’s really a question of when the friend becomes a foe. At least in my experience.” ~Johnny Outlaw
On the eighth day, we rest. We sleep in until two in the afternoon. I haven’t slept past nine since I was in college, but with all the making up for lost time we’ve been spending together, our bodies and our minds need it.
You learn a lot about a person when you lay around in bed all day. Dalton tells me about his family and his childhood and I share my stories. Dalton’s dad worked construction and seemed to put all his dreams on Dalton to fulfill. His mother worked at a Texas college in the registrar’s office. He said she wanted him to go to that university, to bring baseball to the forefront for the school and win a much needed title. He was too determined to go to the University of Texas or University of Southern California; Those schools are where most pro ball players are recruited, so that’s where Dalton wanted to be.
I open my eyes though I’ve been awake for a while. “Do you ever go back?” I ask.
“To Texas?”
“Yes.”
He stays focused on the ceiling. “I haven’t been to visit my family since the band got big, but we’ve played shows in Houston and Dallas.”
“Not Austin?”
“I told Tommy no.”
“Too close to home?”
He sighs, closing his eyes again. “Too close to everything.” Reaching over, he grabs his phone from the nightstand. “I should get going.”
“Going where?”
Looking back at me, he says, “I have a wedding to go to.”
“What?” I sit up. “What wedding?”
“Remember that ex I told you about? It’s her big day.” His sarcasm is caught.
“I’m confused. You hate her.”
“I don’t hate her per se—”
“If you don’t hate her per se, that’s the same as saying you don’t like her either. Why are you going?”
“Because I have to. It’s PR that I committed to doing.”
After tossing the duvet off of me, I stand up. “Well maybe I don’t want you to go to your ex-girlfriend’s wedding.” I walk across the room to my suitcase. I dig through it and pull out some leggings and a big T-shirt, not caring how I look. I start to put them on while he sits up.
“What do you want me to do?”
Sitting down on the floor, I start to fold my clothes and pack them neatly back in the case. “I’m not gonna tell you what you can and can’t do, Dalton. Maybe you should go if you’ve already committed.”
“Do you want to come with me?”
I nod my head. “No, it’s not that. I just,” I start to say, looking at him, his bare chest distracting. “We’ve been holed up in this house for a week. The other times we were at my place.”
“So you want to go out… like in public? Be seen together?” I notice how he turns away from me when he says this and stares out the window.
“No, I don’t need grand statements like that. That would make it about everyone else. I think I need the little ones though. Ones like letting me know that you’re going to your ex’s wedding before you roll out of bed after making love to me.”
“I wasn’t hiding it from you. Tommy reminded me yesterday, and I forgot to mention it.”