“Of course,” she said, cheerfully. “It was nice to finally meet you, Dilly.”
“You, too.” I hurried inside, Buddy at my heels, and shut the door behind us.
***
“I had a great time tonight,” a sultry voice murmured outside.
I looked up from my Kindle, blinking in the dim light of the setting sun, to see Oscar and a tall, curvaceous, blond woman, my physical opposite in every way, on the porch outside my open front window. I had pulled a chair up right next to the window to enjoy the cool spring breeze, and now I had a front row seat as the woman twined her arms around Oscar’s neck. He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers. Tightening his arms, he pulled her harder against him as he deepened the kiss.
I felt like a voyeur and I knew I should sneak upstairs, but I was frozen in place, curious and a little bit turned on as Oscar’s hands slid down over the woman’s ass and gripped hard. She didn’t seem to mind, she moaned as he pressed kisses down her graceful neck. Damn, I’d appreciated Oscar’s good looks, but I hadn’t expected him to be quite so…I mean I couldn’t know for sure, but the confident way he moved and the sounds the woman was making indicated that he was very good at what he was doing. He lifted his head and said something to the woman. She giggled and gave him a quick peck on the lips. I scooted further down in the chair, not wanting to be seen, but fully expecting the woman to leave. Instead, she turned in Oscar’s arms and the two of them walked toward his door together and out of sight. The sound of Oscar’s door closing shook me like an explosion. I waited to see the woman walk down the steps and to the street, but she never did. I could hardly breathe, I was in such shock to see Oscar and his date go inside his house, the house where his pregnant girlfriend was currently living.
Was he going to have sex with his date while his pregnant girlfriend was in the next room? I mean I could almost understand an open relationship, but that…Just, ew! And what a pig. I couldn’t believe how wrong I’d been about Oscar, more wrong than I’d been about my last boyfriend, more wrong than I’d been about any of my boyfriends and I’d been wrong about a lot of…Okay, fine, most of my boyfriends. I felt dirty just from having gotten so close to Oscar.
I pushed to my feet, my head still reeling and paced my living room for a few minutes. Buddy watched from his bed, his eyes half open. “Your daddy is a bad, bad man, honey. I’m sorry I ever met him.” And sorrier still that I liked him more than I’d liked just about anyone in a very long time.
I dropped my Kindle on the end table and went to my bookshelf. There was only one book that would make me feel better, only one book that would remind me that sometimes poor judgment works out okay, that sometimes people are good and moral and kind and don’t have secret wives in the attic who make you question everything…Ugh, Jane Eyre. I pulled down Pride and Prejudice. I got cozy on the couch and opened the book in the warm lamplight. The words washed over me, bringing me immediate comfort as I pushed all thoughts of Oscar and pregnant girlfriends and open relationships from my mind. I read about a simpler time, when yes there was no cure for syphilis and far too many women died in childbirth and far too few had freedom or any rights whatsoever, but a time when etiquette and rules and true love mattered.
I fell asleep on the couch reading, but I still dreamed of Oscar, with his aggressive kisses and his rough touches and his strong forearms in a bed full of naked, wanting women. I woke up the next morning exhausted and doubting there was a good man left anywhere in the world.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Oscar
I hadn’t seen Dilly in several days. Partly because I’d been busy with work and classes at the university, but mostly because I’d been avoiding her. I felt like an idiot for going all caveman about a phone call with her grandmother. It was a clear sign that I needed to take a step back.
I sighed and lifted my hand to knock on Dilly’s door. I heard Buddy’s nails skitter across the hard wood floor and then the door opened. Dilly was in a tank-top and sweat pants, her hair pulled up in a messy bun, not a speck of make-up on her face. Her tank was tight and molded to her slight curves in a way that had me focusing on her face so hard that my teeth ground together.
Even frowning she was so beautiful it took my breath, but she wasn’t just frowning, she was full-on scowling at me. “Hi,” I said, suddenly nervous. “The play’s in a couple hours, but I thought you might like to go to dinner first?”
Her scowl deepened. “So you can add me to your harem?”
Harem? Was this an inside joke I’d missed? “My harem’s full at the moment,” I said, because she couldn’t possibly be serious. “I just thought you might be—”
The door slammed in my face so hard I touched my nose just to make sure it was still there. Wow. Guess that was the wrong thing to say.
I turned and looked out at the mountains, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong, but I could come up with nothing. So, I spun back around and knocked again.
This time Dilly’s expression was anger, pure rage so fierce I thought her eyes might tint red. “Look,” she said. “I get that I might be old-fashioned, but I think a man should only date one woman at a time. Especially when one of his women is pregnant.” Her anger faded just a bit and she shook her head. “You’re going to have a child, Oscar. How could you…?”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. As far as I know, I’m not pregnant.”
Her anger flared again. “How can you joke about this? I thought you were a good guy and then I find out…” She shook her head, and tears sprang to her eyes. “I guess if Molly and that blond woman are okay with the arrangement…I want to be tolerant and…But I just can’t…”
“Molly? What does Molly have to do with any of this?”
She narrowed her eyes. “She’s having your child, Oscar. You’re going to be a father and you’re bringing another woman home for sex? It’s just…It’s not right.” She stomped her foot and put her hands on her hips. “I’m sure it works fine for all of you, but I just can’t…I can’t be okay with it. I know what it’s like to grow up without a dad around and I just don’t see—”
“Dilly.” I bit back a smile as I finally understood what was going on. She kept talking over me, so I held up my hands. “Dilly. Please. Just come next door with me. I want you to meet someone.”
“There’s another one?” she asked, throwing up her hands. “Oscar, really I—”
“Please. It will take two minutes and then I’ll never darken your doorstep again if that’s what you want. I’ll move out if you ask me to.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’d never ask—”
“Well, I’d do it,” I said, all amusement fading. “I’d do anything to make you happy.”
Her breath caught and she froze, before steel replaced her vulnerable expression. “Do not say things like that to me, Oscar. Not when you’re in an open relationship with two…” She frowned. “Or is it three women, now?”
“Just come with me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I thought I knew you, Oscar, but now I see I didn’t know you at all. You could be planning to lock me in your basement. I never did see that blond woman leaving.”
And now I was biting back a smile again. “Fine. You stay there and wait one minute. I’ll be right back.”
“Fine. But I’ve got pepper spray, and I’m not afraid to use it.”
I hurried into my half of the duplex, managing not to laugh until I was inside and the door was closed behind me.
“What’s wrong with you?” Molly asked from her seat on the couch. She’d told me that morning that she’d decided to keep the baby and was going home to Daniel on Monday. She would have already left, but Lara’s shouting had interrupted her sleep and she didn’t want to make the drive when she was so tired. “I thought you were finally making a play for the neighbor.”
That sobered me. “What?”
“It’s clear you’re still crazy about her,” she said. “Plus, I
’m not deaf. I heard Lara shouting about you having a thing for someone else.” Thank goodness there was a brick wall separating the two halves of the duplex, or Dilly might have heard that, too.
“Well, she’s my neighbor and she’s got a boyfriend and she thinks I’m a gigolo.”
“What?” she asked, her eyes going wide.
“She thinks you’re my girlfriend and that I brought Lara home for sex with while you were here.”
Molly’s face screwed up in distaste before she burst out laughing. “You? You’ve got less game than a mountaintop recluse with back hair. You’d be lucky to get one woman, much less two.”
“Very funny. Can you pull yourself together and tell her you aren’t my girlfriend?”
She pushed to her feet, still chuckling. “Yeah, I can do that.”
Dilly was still standing in the doorway when we walked over. Her anger was gone, now she just looked tired and sad. I hated that I’d had anything to do with putting that look on her face. I faced her and wrapped an arm around Molly’s shoulders. “Dilly Thompkins, I’d like you to meet my sister, Molly Bellington.”
Dilly’s eyes went wide and her cheeks reddened as she realized her mistake. “Sister?”
“I guess we were never formally introduced,” Molly said. “I can guarantee Oscar is my brother and had nothing to do with my current condition. I have a forgetful boyfriend to thank for that.”
“Forgetful?” Dilly asked, looking a bit dazed.
“I wasn’t on the pill, because it fucks with my moods, and it was Daniel’s job to buy the—”
“More than enough information,” I said, dropping my arm from around Molly’s shoulders and giving her a little push toward my half of the duplex. “You can go now.”
Molly gave me a wicked grin and held her ground. “Oscar broke up with that blond woman last night, so he’s totally single.” She gave me a fond smile and my stomach sank. She’d always been a good sister, but I wouldn’t put it past her to play a fourth-grade game of my brother likes you, do you like him? “And he’s one of the best guys I know.”
“Goodbye, Molly,” I said. She grinned and skipped back inside. I couldn’t even be mad at her, it was too good to see her happy again.
I turned back to Dilly, who was looking the opposite of happy. “I’m so sorry, Oscar. I can’t believe I accused you of—”
I held up a hand, hating her concern. “It’s fine. I should have introduced you to Molly weeks ago. Anyone could have made the same mistake.”
“After my last boyfriend and finding out that open relationships even exist, I guess I was seeing them everywhere. I should have known you weren’t the kind of guy who would do that.”
“It was a misunderstanding. Now, it’s cleared up. I’m not even offended. I think it’s hilarious.”
“You do?”
“More than hilarious. The idea that you think I could not only convince two women to date me, but to accept me dating other women, is more than a little flattering.”
She gave me a soft smile. Finally. “I don’t think it’s such a stretch.”
My heart lifted with hope, which I knew would only make things weird between us. “Do you want to get dinner before the play? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy.”
She glanced down at herself, which made me look down at her tight tank, which very clearly revealed she wasn’t wearing a bra. “I need a shower.”
I cleared my throat and forced my gaze back to her face with more than a little difficulty. I pushed all thoughts of her, naked and in the shower, from my very healthy imagination and tried to focus on her words. “You have time,” I said. “We can go to the Mexican restaurant on twelfth street. They’re always fast.”
“It’s right next to campus, too,” she said, her smile making my chest hurt. Living next to her and spending time with her, might just kill me. “I’ll hurry. Do you want to hang with Buddy while I get ready?”
“Sure. I haven’t really spent time with him in a few days.”
She frowned. “That’s not right. You know you can come over and visit with him any time, right?”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
She waved a hand and walked farther into her place. “It’s no intrusion, really. Come on in.”
I followed her inside and closed the door behind me. Buddy was sitting just inside the door, but he stood when I walked in and shoved his head under my hand. “Maybe I’ll take him for a quick walk while you get ready.”
“That would be great,” she called back, already halfway up the stairs. “Thanks, Oscar.”
***
“I’m ready,” Dilly said. I was sitting on the couch, Buddy next to me, when she walked into the living room wearing a white, lacy sun dress. Her hair was in a French braid and her eyelids sparkled with glittery make-up. I resisted the urge to ask her to go back upstairs and change because I didn’t think my heart could handle sitting next to her all evening when she looked so beautiful and sexy and perfect.
Somehow, I stood. “That was fast.”
She shrugged. “I don’t take long to get ready.” She kissed Buddy on the top of his head and we left.
On the porch, she linked her arm through mine. “Should we walk?”
“I don’t think there’s time,” I said. “I can drive.”
She smiled. “Great.” She lifted her left foot and twisted her ankle from side to side in her wedge sandals. “These are super cute, but hell on my feet for walking any farther than one end of the house to the other.”
I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I pushed the thought down. Together, we walked to my car and I opened the door for her, chanting to myself, this is not a date, this is not a date, this is not a date. I shut the door and got in behind the wheel.
“How has your week been?” I asked as I pulled out onto the street.
“Long,” she said. “Exhausting. But I’m working on a new project at the library and I’m really excited about it.”
She told me about her project connecting high school students with elderly residents. Her excitement was palpable and filled the car with a happy energy.
I parked in front of the Mexican restaurant and started to get out when her phone rang. She paled when she glanced at the screen. “I should get this,” she said.
“I’ll get us a table inside.”
She nodded, already lifting the phone to her ear. “I’m so sorry I forgot to call.”
I shut the door on her and walked toward the restaurant wondering if it was her grandmother again or if it was her boyfriend. I wanted to go back and wrap my arms around her and tell her that anyone who put that panicked look on her face shouldn’t be someone she allowed in her life, but I wasn’t the person who could do that for her. I was just the neighbor. Some guy who’d wormed his way into her life.
I was more than halfway through our basket of chips and beginning to think I was going to have to order something for both of us when Dilly plopped down in the booth across from me. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “Work emergency. Everything’s totally fine now.”
I didn’t know Dilly well enough to be able to tell when she was lying, but I wasn’t buying her story. Especially since I’d heard her apologize for not calling. “I didn’t realize the library had emergencies.”
Her cheeks pinked and she bit her lip before her expression closed off and her shoulders stiffened. “We have programs at the library all the time. People depend on us to be prepared and have the right materials. One of my colleagues couldn’t find something vital for a program.”
“Right.” I’d meant to sound agreeable, but the word came out harsher than I’d intended.
“It’s not as important as a salt spa program, I’m sure, but it matters to us at the library.”
Shit. She was getting pissed and she had every right to be. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me. “People do get fired up when their spa class is running late,” I said, giving her an easy smile. I needed to let it go. I didn’t know what was
going on with her and I had no right to judge. “I had to cancel yoga class once and barely avoided a riot.”
She gave me a small smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I can’t say I’ve ever had a riot over a library program.”
“Probably because they have you to keep things in line and make sure everything is running smoothly.”
She looked down at her menu. “What’s good? I haven’t eaten here in ages.”
“I’m an enchilada man myself.”
She didn’t seem to hear me, her eyes scanning the menu, her lips pinched tight. She stayed that way until the waiter stopped by our table and took our orders. She asked for the tacos and handed over her menu reluctantly.
After the waiter left, she stared at her hands for several long moments before she looked up at me. “I didn’t say congratulations before,” she said. “You’re going to be an uncle again.”
I smiled with relief. “Yes. I’m looking forward to it. I think I may have to start my own summer camp here for all my nieces and nephews.”
Finally, her smile reached her eyes. “You should. You’d be so good at that! You could take them hiking and swimming at the waterfall.”
I loved that idea more than I could say. “They’ll have to get a little bit older and I’ll have to make enough money to hire someone else to run the spa for a couple weeks, but it would be awesome.”
“You must be their favorite uncle.”
“My brother-in-law, Chip, buys them all pretty amazing gifts.”
“Time spent doing fun stuff is better than stuff you buy,” she said. “I bet they’ll love Buddy, too. Carrie’s kids were so excited to meet him.”
“I might have to take full custody of him the weeks the kids are here.”
Her smile dipped the tiniest bit and I wished I was better at reading her, wished I had some hint of what was going through her head. “Sure. I guess I’ve been hogging him lately. Would you like to have him stay at your place a couple nights this week?”
“Only if you plan to be out.” Of course, I’d love to hang out with Buddy, but my question might have been more about finding out how serious she was about her boyfriend.
The Good Guy on my Porch (Catalpa Creek #3) Page 12
