by Riley Murphy
He scooped up the items and shouted, “Thanks.”
He was just congratulating himself for getting out there without further incident when he exited and saw their table. “For fuck’s sake.”
“You swore.”
Ethan looked down at the kid standing beside him and frowned. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“That’s okay, my dad swears a lot too.”
He was gone in flash. Too bad the young crowd around Colin didn’t get the hint like that kid did. He handed over her lunch and made a face. “I wasn’t expecting guests.”
She accepted the tossed salad and pointedly eyed his Caesar. “You change your mind about the tossed?”
“Yeah.” He slid into the narrow space the three boys on his side of the bench had left him and added, “With a little help.”
“Help?” She popped her salad container opened and drizzled the lettuce with Italian dressing.
“It’s a long story.” She hadn’t mentioned anything about the iced tea. Was she ignoring the screw-up? Certain things could be ignored. Namely the boy directly to his left who was scrutinizing him with beady little eyes. Talk about no manners, but he felt bad about her iced tea. He knew how much she liked it. “I’m sorry about the drink mix-up.”
“No problem.”
Opening his own container, he started tossing the lettuce and dressing together and tried to ignore the ogling kid whose eyes were still peeled on him.
“Hey, mister.”
Ethan’s stopped tossing and stiffened. “What?”
“Are you guys dating?”
Only then did he turn and look down. “Sort of.”
“Huh?” The kid smiled and there were bits of burger bun and meat stuck in his braces. Delicious.
Ethan wanted to tell him to mind his own fucking business, but one look at Colin’s amused expression and he changed his mind. “We’re, ah, in the getting-to-know-one-another phase of a relationship.”
The kid made a face, wiped the ketchup off his chin with the back of his hand, and shrugged. Colin smiled and her eyes gleamed. A half a minute went by where they all ate in silence, but then the boy sitting on Colin’s right punched the kid to his left. That kid, in turn, punched him back, which caused the kid on her right to knock against her. She was just balancing a cherry tomato on her plastic fork when he slammed into her. She jerked from the impact and the tomato bounced across the table.
“Hey.” He shifted so fast his knee knocked the underside of the table and made everyone’s lunch bag jump.
“It’s okay.” Colin reached across and laid her hand over his. “He didn’t mean it, it was an accident.”
“Accident?” He grumbled with brows raised. He wasn’t buying it. He impaled the kid with his best intimidating glare until the message was clear and the little upstart apologized.
“Sorry, lady.”
“That’s okay.” She settled back in to eat her salad and Ethan was just about to do the same when he saw the lone girl in the bunch staring at him. “What?”
“Where are your kids?” She had light-blue eyes and straw-colored hair and she picked pieces of her burger off with her fingers before popping them into her mouth to eat while she waited for an answer.
“Didn’t you hear? We’re new at dating and certainly not married.” He speared a piece of lettuce on his fork.
“Yeah, I know.” She took a sip of her soda and then tore another piece of burger off one side. “You don’t have to be married to have kids. My parents aren’t married anymore and they have me.”
Ethan speared a second piece of lettuce on his fork, intent upon making a neat stack. “No, no kids.”
“So why are you here?”
He had the lettuce stack to his lips when he paused. Looking over his fork at Colin, he inclined his head. “Care to explain?”
“Sure. Simple.” She shrugged. “We came to see the animals.”
He imagined he could actually hear the crickets chirping after that logical announcement. Every kid at the table stared at her nonplused. No doubt wondering like he was why two grown-up people were at the zoo when they didn’t have to be, unencumbered by children as they were.
Colin didn’t notice the odd looks, but he did. With a sigh he put down his fork and announced to the group, “My favorite is the Burmese Python.” It really wasn’t, but he figured he’d say an animal that the boys could sink their teeth into. Maybe get them talking and focused on something else and get the mini-me Nancy Drew off the marriage shit.
“Cool,” the kid who’d bumped Colin said. “My cousin, who lives in Florida, had one of those, but it got loose and now it’s living in the pond on the golf course.” He bit into his apple pie and flaky crust fell all over him. “At least that’s where they think it’s living because there’s no more ducks.” He was just about to take another bite out of his pie when he stopped and added, “Oh, and the neighbor’s cat is missing too.”
“Awesome!” the kid next to Ethan exclaimed. “He’s eating them?”
The kid chomping on the apple pie nodded. “Yep.”
“I saw a picture of one that tried to eat a gator once. Only it exploded and its guts were spilling out all over the place.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Way.”
Although Ethan hated breaking up such a stimulating conversation, he figured he better before they started discussing more indelicate stuff than spilling guts while Colin was trying to eat. He was just about to redirect the conversation when she nodded.
“I saw that photo too. But you know? I read this article about how the last cold weather they had in Florida must have killed a lot of them because when the fish and wildlife people went down to the Everglades to catch them, they didn’t find any.”
The little girl piped up. “They haven’t caught the monkey either.”
Ethan looked at the little girl then back at Colin. “Monkey?”
“Yes, weren’t you paying attention in the primate pen? The guide was talking about Tampa’s cheeky little fellow. They’ve been trying to catch him for over a year.” She stuffed her hair behind her ear, cocked her head to one side, and smiled at him. “What?”
“Maybe next time I’ll take you to Florida where all the animals live outside the zoo.”
She laughed. “That would be great. But one of my favorites is the manatee so I’d probably want to go into the zoo to watch them.”
“We have some here, but our class hasn’t gotten to the water part yet.” The little girl was staring at Colin’s hair. Ethan didn’t blame her. Those soft, blonde waves were enticing. She brought her hand up and whispered, “Can I touch it?”
Colin grinned and leaned over. “Of course. It’s only hair.”
The way the little girl took a spiral curl between her forefinger and thumb and rubbed back and forth made Ethan smile. He’d done the same thing, more than once. Clearly, she was in awe. “It’s soft isn’t it?” The little girl nodded but didn’t look at him.
“Here.” The kid sitting next to him pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to him. At first glance, it looked like a gray plastic blob, but on further inspection, he saw that it was a manatee. “Give it to her.” He nodded toward Colin.
“Why?”
“She likes them.”
He looked down at it again and frowned. “Oh.” Shifting, he reached across the table. “Here you go.”
Colin accepted the gift and gave him a bemused smile. “Thanks?”
He nodded toward the kid. “He thought you’d like it.”
“I do.” She smiled that killer smile and Ethan thought the poor kid was going to pass out.
Leaning down he spoke into the boy’s ear, “Easy there, bucko, she’s taken.”
A whistle went off and mayhem broke loose. The kids at their table collected up their trash, grabbed their drinks and shouted their goodbyes as they exited their seats as if they were jumping ship or something. Five minutes later when they were gone, Ethan breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was, um, interesting.”
“It was great, wasn’t it? I knew you liked kids.”
He would have laughed, but then he realized she wasn’t joking. “I don’t like kids.”
“Yeah, right.” She snorted and looked down at the manatee with a smile.
“Do you want to go back and see the manatees again? I didn’t know they were your favorite. They’ll be feeding them now.”
“Sure, but you haven’t finished your salad.”
“That’s okay. I lost my appetite when that kid smiled at me. I didn’t think hamburger could look like that.”
She put the plastic manatee in her purse and then leaned across the table and closed his salad container. “Like what?”
“Like tiny ants crawling through a pile of tin.”
“Yummy.”
After she snapped the lid together she looked at him. Damn, she had the prettiest blue eyes. “You like kids.” His words came out like an accusation.
“Yes.” Her pupils dilated.
“I suppose you want some of your own one day?” Why was he pushing this?
She straightened. “I want at least three. Four, if I’m lucky.”
He nodded, ready to insist that he didn’t want kids. “I was thinking two.” Two? Thinking two? For whom? Where had that come from? “I mean, four would be too many for me.” What. The. Hell.
“Yes, but it wouldn’t be just you, right? Your wife would be there to help. Are you sure you don’t want,” she held up his salad container and jiggled it, “any more of this?”
“No.”
She frowned. “Are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
He nodded but he didn’t feel so good either. A wife? Kids? Fuck.
There was no room in his lifestyle for either of those things, so why was he thinking about them?
Because she matters to you.
Fuck.
She matters big-time.
Double fuck.
* * * * *
“You’re sure you don’t mind?” Ethan asked Colin a second time.
“Positive. Go. I need to do my blog post. We left for the zoo so early this morning I didn’t get it done. You go and do your thing and I’ll do my work and see to myself for dinner.”
Ethan nodded. “If you get tired don’t wait up.”
The last thing he felt like doing after spending a wonderful day with Colin was going to face Jade, but Alistair had organized the meeting and had told Ethan he best attend. His ex was making noise as if she were going to sue him for defamation. She had Alistair all worried, but he wasn’t. Jade wouldn’t want to go public like that. It wasn’t her style. Besides, he never lied about her. She’d gone into treatment and while in treatment she wasn’t healthy enough to be Topped. There was no way she could get around that truth.
Ethan was ushered to the booth in the quaint Italian restaurant and sat down opposite his attorney.
“Where is she?”
“She’s not coming.”
Ethan scowled and went to get up, but Alistair stopped him. “Wait, E. When I found out I didn’t cancel with you because we need to work out a strategy.”
“Strategy?” He sat back.
“Yes. Jade’s planning on forcing you somehow.”
“I know.”
“It’s not about money with her. I tried to buy her off. This is personal, you understand?”
“I understand and so will she when I get my hands on her.”
“You have to be reasonable. Let her show her hand before you do anything. She’s acting as though she’s got the upper part of the deck. Why don’t you just do what she wants on Friday so she can find herself a new boyfriend and all this will be behind us?”
“Because what she’s looking for is more than a boyfriend and I couldn’t, in good conscious, let her loose into an unsuspecting community. I’ll talk her out of this and get her to go back to counseling. That’s what needs to happen.” The waiter came by the table and Ethan waved him away. “She’s not thinking clearly.”
“She wants to participate Friday. That’s all she wants.”
Ethan sighed because Alistair was wrong about one thing. That’s not all she wanted. “She’s got my attention. Set up a meeting for tomorrow. Tell her to be to The Carlyn around noontime.”
“Where are you going? Aren’t you going to order some dinner? We can work out a plan on how to handle this.”
“I know what I need to do.” He also knew Jade wasn’t going to like it when he told her she could do as she’d ranted about doing when she’d showed up at the boathouse. She’d threatened to go to the papers and cry foul on him. The woman might have been given a clean bill of health from her therapists, but in Ethan’s mind she was still deeply troubled. Her trying to pull shit like this proved it.
“It might be wise if I was there.”
He stepped over and put his hand on Alistair’s shoulder. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think so. As you said, this is personal, but don’t worry, I’ve got Ted up here if I need him.”
“All right, but watch your back. She’s not very happy about you and the Reneaux woman.”
“I know.”
Before he got into the car he told Larry to swing by the cabin. Ted was supposed to have picked up the order that Ethan had placed a couple of days ago.
“That was fast.” Ted was shrugging on a shirt. “I wasn’t expecting you for another hour or so.”
Ethan took one look at the naked woman handcuffed to the kitchen chair and asked, “Should I come back?”
“No, I was just going to put her in time out. Give me a minute.”
When Ted came out of the bedroom, he had the package in hand. “Here it is. One early edition of Dylan Thomas’ poetry collection. You aren’t going all soft on me are you?”
“No.”
“Beer?”
“Sure.” Ethan put the wrapped book on the coffee table and took a seat. “Thanks,” he said, accepting the Sam Adams and taking a healthy swig.
“So what’s up?” Ethan stared at him and Ted shrugged. “I know something’s up. If it was nothing you’d have dinner with Al.”
“Jade is playing catty, jealous bitch and wants me to Top her in front of an audience at the opening and in exchange she won’t tarnish my reputation. She thinks if I do it she’ll be accepted into the community again and some unsuspecting Dom will take her under his wing.”
Ted sat down and asked, “Are you going to do it?”
“No.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Ethan leaned back and sighed. “I’m going to meet with her tomorrow and call her bluff. She’s not going to go to the papers and trash her ex Dom. That would defeat the whole purpose of her trying to get back into the community. Doing that to me would end any hopes she’d ever had of being decently Topped again.”
Ted thought for a moment and said, “One thing about you, E, you always pick smart women. Jade’s a smart woman. Don’t you think she’s already taken that into account?”
“I do, that’s why I want to meet with her tomorrow. I’d rather know what she’s planning on doing before the opening. I don’t want to be blindsided.”
Ted nodded. “Speaking of not being blindsided, the Dueschand Brothers Winery currently holds the highest escalated bid on Wakefield.”
“Interesting, you got them involved?”
“Yeah, it’s a little sleeper if you ask me. But E, there was one glitch to all this. She was a hundred grand shy of best.”
“But you submitted, didn’t you?”
“Shit yeah. It’s your money I’m spending.”
Ethan sat back and Ted whistled. “I get that you can afford to eat that kind of a loss, but what I don’t get is why? You were ready to do this the first night in with her. You like her that much?”
Ethan was about to tell him that Colin had touched a part of him that he’d thought was dead. That she’d reawakened that piece of him the night on the dock when she shared her s
ecrets, but then he decided if he started talking like that Ted would think the Dylan Thomas book was for him after all. So, he simply said, “Yes.”
“Are you planning on taking this relationship with her beyond the ten days?”
“I hope so.”
Ted grinned. “I must say I was stunned by her transformation. She doesn’t look like the same woman. I mean, who would have thought that those breasts and that ass were hidden underneath—”
“Ted.”
Ted’s grin deepened. “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re madly in lust with her.”
Ethan would have grinned back if he wasn’t sweating over the truth, which had nothing to do with lust. He thought about Colin at the table filled with kids the morning and wanted to pull on his collar, and he was wearing a polo shirt for fuck’s sake. He wasn’t just in lust with her…
Ted must have spied the word written all over his face because he wasn’t grinning when he warned, “Don’t fall in love with her, E. She’s not like us. She may have agreed to the experience, but she’s on a mission. A mission you’re tampering with. Remember that and don’t wear your heart on your sleeve. To her this is all new and exciting. It’s as if she’s been on a dirty vacation. But what’s going to happen when she returns to the real world? Her world. The one that doesn’t accept people like us. Think about it.”
“I have.”
“Do you even know if she can handle it? Have you had an official scene with her?”
Ethan shook his head.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, E, and it’s not very chivalrous either. I saw the way she looked at you yesterday. She’s falling. Fast. And you’re letting her tumble by being someone you’re not. Why? Are you worried she won’t like the real you? The total Dom you usually are?”
“No, I’m worried that when it comes to her, Dom won’t be enough.”
Ted fell back in his chair and scowled. Once he got his head around that bomb he said, “You better work this shit out, E. One way or another she needs to see the unbridled, no-holds-barred side of you. Better to do it now while she’s under your control than later when she’s home, you know?”
