“Okay…”
“How would you feel about…” She hesitated. “About me going out with Tyler?”
“Going out where?” He stood. “Can I have more chicken?”
“Sure.” She watched him move over to the stove and help himself. “Have more rice too. I mean, go out…like, on a date.”
He went still, his hand holding a spoon poised over the pan. “You want to go out on a date with Tyler?”
“Um, yeah.”
He turned and eyed her. “Why?”
His baffled expression made her laugh. “Don’t make me explain it to you. Please.”
“Ugh.” He shook his head and loaded his plate up with more chicken and basmati rice. “Why are you asking me this? Is this hypothetical?”
“We’re going out Thursday night.” She didn’t tell him they’d already slept together. So they’d done things backwards; Jamie didn’t need to know that.
He sat back down at the counter and met her eyes. “Again, I say…why are you asking me this? What if I don’t want you dating him?”
“I’m not asking your permission.” She held his gaze. “I’m trying to be open about it. And I do care about how you feel…but…”
“But you’re going out with him anyway.”
She bit her lip. “Do you really think it’s a bad idea?”
“Jesus. I don’t know. I don’t even know what I think about it.” He eyed her. “Are you ready to start dating again?”
“It’s just a date. I’m definitely not interested in a relationship.”
“Okay, whoa, whoa.” He held up a hand. “Hold the fuck up.”
“What?” She widened her eyes at him.
“Tyler’s a good guy.”
“I know.”
“You may not be interested in a relationship, but he’s a relationship kind of guy.”
She frowned. Her heart sank. Despite what Tyler claimed about not wanting that, Jamie was right. She dropped her gaze to her plate.
“I don’t want you to screw him over,” Jamie added.
Her insides squeezed up like a fist. “I wouldn’t.”
He rubbed his forehead. “I know you wouldn’t do it intentionally. But…”
She swallowed, her throat constricted. “You’re right. It probably is a bad idea.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“I get it, though. Really.” She forced a smile. “Forget I ever mentioned it.”
“What are you going to do? Cancel on him?”
“Yes.”
“Shit.” He looked away. “Did he ask you out?”
“Yes.”
“Shit.”
“I’m sorry, Jamie.” She slumped on her stool. “I didn’t mean to come here and mess things up. I’m grateful to you for letting me stay here.”
“You haven’t messed anything up.”
“I have. And I’m sorry. I love having your friends as my friends and hanging out with all of you and…and…even though I haven’t figured everything out yet, I will. I definitely don’t want to cause problems between all of you. Damn.” Her eyes stung a little in the corners, but she determinedly blinked away tears.
“Look, it’s none of my business, really,” Jamie said. “You and Tyler are adults.”
She nodded. She knew what she had to do. “Yes, we are.” She smiled at her brother again. “Don’t worry, it’s all good, Jamie. No big deal. Do you have room for dessert?”
“Hell yeah.”
“Good. I picked up raspberries at the market yesterday; they’re so good. And I made little meringues.” While Jamie cleared away their dishes, she set the meringues onto plates and topped them with berries and whipped cream.
They were just finishing when someone knocked on her door. They both turned as the door opened and Mila’s head poked in. She’d been out with Garth. “Oh hey. You’re both here.”
“Come on in.” Arden waved a hand. “Want some dessert?”
Mila walked in and instantly Arden knew something was wrong. Mila’s usual smile was absent, and she shook her head at the offer of dessert. “No thanks.”
“What’s wrong?” Arden asked.
Jamie frowned, apparently not picking up on Mila’s mood.
“Nothing.” Mila took a seat on another stool. She pointed at the bottle of Chardonnay sitting on the counter. “I’ll have a glass of that, though.”
Arden slid a sideways glance at Jamie, then back to Mila. “Sure.” She slipped off her stool and grabbed a glass from a cupboard. “Here you go.”
Mila emptied the bottle into her glass, nearly overflowing it, then took a big gulp.
Arden bit her lip. “Something’s definitely wrong.”
Mila’s head dropped forward. “Garth and I broke up.”
Arden sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh no.”
“What?” Jamie’s eyebrows flew up. “You broke up?”
“Yeah.” Mila sniffed, then squared her shoulders, lifted her head, and chugged back more wine. “But it’s fine.”
“Are you okay, hon?” Arden reached out to cover Mila’s hand with hers.
“Yeah. I’m good.”
“Why’d you break up with him?” Jamie asked, a perplexed pleat between his eyebrows.
“He broke up with me.” Mila shook back her hair. “He’s met someone else.”
“Motherfucker,” Jamie growled. “He was cheating on you?”
“I don’t know. He says he wasn’t, but I’m pretty sure this has been going on for a while.”
“Asshole.”
“I never even got to meet him so I could decide that firsthand,” Arden said. “But yeah, I agree.”
A tear slid out of Mila’s eye and down her smooth cheek. Arden’s heart clenched in sympathy.
Jamie pulled in a breath and his head jerked back. “Hell, Mila…don’t cry.” He looked like he wanted to bolt.
Arden took pity on him. “You can take off, if you want. I’ll take care of her.”
Mila just nodded glumly.
Jamie’s mouth twisted into a conflicted expression. Arden read his concern for Mila, mingled with discomfort. “You sure? I, uh, can stay…”
Mila waved a hand. “S’okay, Jamie. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ll be at work tomorrow.”
“Jesus. Take a day off, if you need.” He stood, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not worried about that.” He edged toward the door.
Arden would have laughed if she hadn’t been hurting for her new friend.
“You want me to go find him?” Jamie paused at the door. “Take him down?”
Mila snorted. “You’re not exactly a big bruiser.”
“Hey.” Jamie frowned and squared his shoulders. “I could do it.”
Mila tilted her head and gave him a sad smile. “Thank you. But it’s okay. Really. I signed him up for a bunch of newsletters about erectile dysfunction and penis enlargement. Also some gay porn sites.”
Arden choked on her wine.
Jamie grinned. “Attagirl. We could hack into his Facebook and Snapchat too, if you want.”
Mila’s head tilted the other way. “I’ll consider it.” Her smile warmed. “You’re a good friend, Jamie.”
“Yeah.”
Arden grinned at his agreement. “But not good enough to stick around to dry her tears.”
“I hate crying,” Jamie muttered. “But I am here for you.”
“I know.” Mila waved him out.
When he’d gone, Mila turned back to the counter and slumped on it. “Damn.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Do you have any more wine?”
“I do.” Arden retrieved another bottle from the fridge, this one a nice pinot grigio.
“Can I get drunk?”
“I think in this situation, you absolutely must get drunk. And probably eat some junk food.”
“What’ve you got?”
Arden wrinkled her nose. “Not much that’s junky. Vanilla ice cream. Cheese and crackers.”
“Th
at’s not good enough. I need potato chips. A huge bag of chips. And possibly peanut butter cup ice cream. That’s my favorite.”
“You want me to go out and get some?”
“No. Course not. You’re a good friend too, but I don’t need junk food. Wine is good.”
“I also have Jägermeister.”
Mila’s eyes widened. “Even better!”
Arden opened the wine. She’d look after Mila. Sure, she’d serve her a couple of shots, but she’d make sure she didn’t overdo it, and she’d make sure she made it safely home. All the way downstairs. She smiled. “Want to tell me about it?”
Mila sighed and drank again. “I don’t know. It’s done. Things weren’t great for a long time. You know that.”
“Yeah.”
“I kind of felt it was coming.” Mila moved the base of her wine glass in a circle on the granite counter. “It’s just…well, I told you and Emma…it’s just one more thing on my list I thought I’d checked off, and now it’s over.”
“You don’t need a man, you know.”
Mila straightened. “I know that. Don’t think I’m one of those women who thinks she’s not worthy unless she has a man. It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’m not sure.” Her shoulders slumped again. “I just always pictured my life with someone.”
“Yeah. I get it.”
Mila’s bottom lip pushed out. “I’m sorry. This must seem really trivial to you after what you went through.”
“Of course not. Heartbreak is never trivial.”
Mila nodded. “The thing is…I don’t think I’m really heartbroken. Guess I didn’t care as much about Garth as I did about the idea of having a boyfriend.”
“Well, that’s pretty insightful for someone who just guzzled down half a bottle of wine.”
“You exaggerate. That wasn’t half. Maybe a third.” She pushed her empty glass across the counter and Arden filled it up. “Where’s that Jägermeister?”
“I can’t go out with you tonight.”
Tyler frowned as he carried a sheet of drywall into Arden’s apartment on Thursday. “What? Why?”
“It’s just not a good idea.” She twisted her hands together, her stomach knotted. “I talked to Jamie about it—”
“Jesus.”
“He’s my brother. Anyway, he made me realize it’s not a good idea.”
“What the fuck?” Tyler dropped the drywall sheet to the drop cloth laid out on the floor, propping it against a wall. “Seriously? He talked you out of it?”
“No! No, he didn’t. It’s just that…I told you before…I’m not ready for a relationship.”
“I told you, I’m not looking for a relationship either.”
“Tyler. You said you don’t lie.”
His mouth tightened, then relaxed. He shook his head in mild exasperation. “It’s one date, Arden.”
When he put it that way…it did make it seem like she was being a little ridiculous. She nibbled her bottom lip. Tyler held her gaze steadily. “Okay,” she finally said. “Fine. We’ll go out tonight. Just one date.”
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic.”
“I’m sorry.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I don’t know how to do this. I haven’t been on a date in almost ten years.”
Tyler made a rough noise. “Yeah.”
“I didn’t mean to be insulting.”
“Okay. Well. Good. I made a dinner reservation for seven o’clock.”
“Okay. What should I wear? I mean, is it a fancy place?”
“Not super fancy. A little bistro not far from here.”
“Okay.” She hesitated. “Do you need help today?”
He paused. “I do, actually. I was going to wait for Jamie to help on the weekend, but you might be able to hold the drywall in place while I screw it to the studs.”
She blinked. Hearing Tyler talking about screwing and studs sounded sexual. She caught the gleam in his eyes. Her lips twitched. “Okay. I can do that. Screwing studs is always fun.”
“Oh, baby.” He grinned, and his tense shoulders relaxed. “Just wait.”
Her body tingled everywhere as she followed him to the bathroom. It had been over a week since she and Tyler had slept together, and although they’d seen each other several times, he hadn’t initiated anything more than a few kisses. They’d been amazing, melt-her-insides kisses. She’d spent a lot of time daydreaming about Tyler and the things he’d done to her, the way he’d made her feel, the things she wanted to do to him. She had to be honest and admit that she hoped their date was going to lead to more action of a sexual nature. Because she really, really wanted him.
She’d started to doubt that he wanted her though, except he still seemed to want to take her out for dinner, so…hell, like she’d admitted to him, she didn’t know how to do this.
She’d just go with the flow.
Tyler directed her on what to do in the small space of her bathroom. Finally it seemed they were getting somewhere, now that the plumber had been there. Twice. The first time he’d apparently cut out and removed water lines and plugged up the open drain lines to keep sewer gas out. Tyler had then worked on framing the walls of the bathroom, and the plumber had come back to do more work. Now Tyler was ready to drywall. He pulled out a drill and began noisily driving screws into the drywall piece that she was helping hold in place against the wall.
“Why is it green?” she asked. “Is the bathroom going to be green?”
“No. It’s green because it’s a special water-resistant drywall for bathrooms.”
“Oh. What color is the bathroom going to be?”
He smiled. “You want to pick?”
“Can I?”
“Sure. I doubt if Jamie cares.”
“How about pink?”
Tyler choked. “Yeah, he might care about that. Probably something neutral is better, in case you ever move out.”
“I was kidding.”
“Good.” He continued working, measuring, cutting drywall, hauling it in, and fastening it into place. She admired how he worked—not just his strong hands and arms, but his competence, measuring carefully, cutting precisely, taking care with every drywall screw. Competence porn was definitely a thing.
She focused on following his directions, helping him fit the boards and hold them in place. “How did you learn to do all this?”
“I guess I mostly learned from a buddy at work. He did renovations on the side, and I offered to help out. I learned a lot from him. He retired last year, but we still help each other sometimes if we need extra hands.”
“It looks like you enjoy it.”
“Yeah. It’s fun doing something hands-on.”
“You’re good at it.”
He eyed her, and her belly did a little flip at his intense expression. “Thanks.”
“It’s lunch time. Should I make us a sandwich?”
“That would be great.”
She left him to head into her kitchen, where she put together two toasted bacon, tomato, and avocado sandwiches. Then she made one more sandwich, with the feeling that Tyler probably had a bigger appetite than she did. “Okay,” she called to him. “Lunch is ready.”
He emerged and strode to her kitchen sink to wash up. “Do I smell bacon?”
“Yeah.”
He groaned. “I love bacon.”
“I think you mentioned that a time or two.” In fact, she’d remembered that he loved bacon, and had picked up a package at the store with that in mind, not sure when she’d get to feed him but wanting to make something he’d like.
He sat on a stool at her counter, took a big bite, and chewed. He closed his eyes. “This is so good.”
“Thanks.” She slid onto the stool beside him and picked up her own sandwich. “I like your bathroom, with the gray and white. I think that would be nice. Maybe with some black.”
He nodded. “Gray tiles too?”
“Maybe.” She pursed her lips. “I should look on Pint
erest for some ideas.”
“Or come with me to the tile store. You might see something you love there.”
“I guess I could do that.” She grinned. “Especially since Jamie’s paying for it.”
He smiled back at her. “Yeah. Not very often you get to decorate your place for free.”
She wrinkled her nose and looked down at her sandwich. “I feel a little guilty about that.”
“Hey, we talked about this before. He was renovating this apartment anyway, right? And you’ll pay rent when you can.”
“Oh hey, guess what? Jamie offered me a job catering a business meeting for him.”
“No shit?” Tyler cocked his head.
She told him about the plan.
“That’s really cool. And it’s something you enjoy.”
She ducked her chin and looked up at him through her eyelashes. He knew that about her? Warmth filled her chest. “Yes,” she agreed. “I do enjoy it.”
“What are we going to celebrate next?” He picked up a piece of bacon that had fallen from his sandwich and popped it into his mouth. “National Lemon Meringue Pie Day?”
She grinned. “No, that’s in May. I’m not sure what today is.” She picked up her phone and scrolled to the app she had. “National Chili Dog Day.” She lifted her gaze to meet his. “I think we’re going to have to give that one a miss. Unless the place we’re going to tonight has chili dogs.”
His teeth flashed white. “Nope, pretty sure that’s not on the menu at Bistro Noir.”
Their eyes met and held, the warmth of amusement sliding into something hotter…crackling sparks and a low-down kick of lust. His smile faded and she couldn’t help but stare at his mouth, those perfect, sculpted lips that knew how to kiss so well…and do other things so well.
Heat rose up around her and her lungs stopped working. Her own lips parted and the distance between them shortened as they slowly leaned in closer. Her eyelashes fluttered closed and her lips tingled in anticipation of Tyler’s touching them.
When his firm mouth met hers, a jolt of electricity pulsated through her, straight to her core. She leaned in more, and his big hand came up to cup the side of her neck, his thumb rubbing her jaw. A little moan mounted her throat and leaked into his mouth, and he deepened the kiss, tilting his head, opening wider over her.
Firecracker: A contemporary romance Page 18
