House Of Payne: Twist

by Stacy Gail

  She glanced up and saw Twist watching her with curiously intent eyes. “Nothing’s funny. I just really like your family.”

  His eyes lit up. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Then she tilted her head. “Does that surprise you?”

  “No, they’re great people, the most important people in my life. It means a lot to me that you think they’re great people too.”

  “Well, they are. I love the way they’re all so comfortable with each other. And I love how they don’t walk on eggshells or have any weird tension going on. They just happily barrel through and get neck-deep in each other’s business.”

  “You may have noticed they got neck-deep in my business too, which means they got in your business.” He turned her so that they faced each other, his arms looped around her back while hers came around his waist. “You didn’t mind that?”

  “It wasn’t comfortable at first, mainly because I didn’t know any of them, and I had no idea how welcoming they might be to someone new in your life,” she said honestly, remembering her flash of freaked-out trepidation over meeting his parents when she hadn’t had a chance to put on her best outfit and makeup. “But they were all so nice and casual about everything that I got over that in about a minute.”

  He gave her a squeeze. “And you didn’t mind when my mom took my side about throwing your so-called food in the garbage?”

  “Ugh. I have to admit, I was a little surprised she didn’t think your behavior was bullying.”

  “I wasn’t being a bully. I would never bully you. What I was doing was looking out for you.” He paused. “Vigorously.”

  “Uh-huh.” That had been the one heated moment in the getting-acquainted process. Luckily, everyone except Lynette had been on her side of that particular argument, with his father Ed going so far as to call his son a “boneheaded jerk” for throwing away the food of a fellow employee. “I’m actually cool with it because I’ve got your dad on my side. Don’t forget, he promised to personally pop you back in line if you ever even think about pulling something like that with me again.”

  His mouth flattened into a stubborn line she knew so well. “You do bring out the protective instincts in a guy, that’s for sure.”

  “I don’t think that’s the reason he offered. After all, he did say that if any of his fellow workers had done that to him when he’d still been working, he would’ve straight-up punched them in the face.”

  His frown vanished and a reluctant smile took its place. “I kinda doubt that any of those beefy guys down at the power plant would’ve been compelled to do that with my equally beefy dad.”

  “That’s not the point, and you know it.”

  His shrug was the only indication he gave that he knew she was right. “Are you going to take my mom up on her offer to teach you how to cook?”

  “I’d love to, but I don’t know if she was serious about it.”

  “She was, believe me.”

  “Then… yes. I’d really like that.” The thought of learning how to make Twist’s favorite dishes did something crazy to her pulse. By no means had she ever envisioned herself as a little homemaker. She’d always been too busy with creating her own space, and pushing herself to produce quality artwork in order to keep a roof over her head. But for some reason, the thought of being able to make a meal for her man that didn’t come out of the frozen food section made her warm all over.

  Her man.

  Inwardly she shook her head. How amazing her brain was. Only a week ago she hadn’t been able to tolerate the sound of his voice. Now it was hard to imagine being without Twist.

  And that reminded her. “You know, you don’t really look like an Oliver.”

  “Which is why I adopted the name Twist just as soon as I found out I was named after that character. My brother’s always been jealous that I got that particular Dickens work,” he added with an irresistible grin. “Being named after Nicholas Nickleby isn’t nearly as cool.”

  She laughed. “And your sister, Essie?”

  “Essie’s short for Estella, which comes from Estella Havisham in Great Expectations. My mom’s a Dickens fan the same way you’re a Lewis Carroll fan. I’m surrounded by well-read females.”

  “True, but I don’t think my fandom stretches so far as to be inspired to name my kids Rabbit, Cheshire or Jabberwock.”

  “Thank God.”

  “Though,” she added as a sudden afterthought, “I wouldn’t mind someday having a girl named Alice.”

  “Neither would I.” Before she could fully process what he could have meant by that, he bent to capture her lips. After a long, slow kiss that had her heart doing its best impression of an out-of-control elevator, he broke off and rested his forehead against hers. “I also wouldn’t mind not heading off to your parents’ house to clean out that one remaining room. Most of the morning is gone by now, thanks to the invasion of my family, so that means you’d only have a couple of hours to pack their crap up before I’d have to drive you home and go to work. Why don’t we blow it off for today and I introduce you to the non-ticking, noise-free digital clock in my bedroom? I can think of several ways we can pass the time before my shift begins.”

  She hesitated. “Did you contact the handyman about replacing the pantry doorframe at my parents’ house? I need to be there to let whoever it is in and make sure they don’t do any huge damage.”

  “I called him first thing after you gave me the number. He knows about it and he said he’d come prepared Monday morning at nine, just as your parents had scheduled.”

  “Same day as the movers, but they won’t be there until ten. Ugh, Monday’s going to be a crazy day.” She hesitated again. The sooner she got the whole mess of her parents’ place packed up, the better off she would feel, and now that she only had their office to go, it was so tempting to push through to the finish.

  But there was another temptation, and it had a lot more pull. Until that very moment she had never really wondered about Twist’s personal space—where he slept, what he liked to do in his private time. Seeing her own work in his studio was a stunner, but that was nothing compared to seeing the drawing of her that he had pinned up on the wall. When she’d seen her own face staring back at her—or what she considered to be an idealized version of her, complete with gorgeous angel wings and one hell of an impressive rack—she had forgotten how to breathe.

  He’d drawn her. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined he’d ever thought enough of her to take the time to sit down and draw her. Nor had it really dawned on her until very recently that he saw her as attractive, much less beautiful and desirable.

  But he’d told her that he’d wanted her the moment he saw her. As crazy as it seemed, that idealized vision of her that he’d created—and created some time ago, from the look of it—seemed to add proof to his claim. Oliver “Twist” Santiago wanted her in a deep and serious way.

  That realization melted some hard shell inside her chest that had been there despite the physical closeness they’d enjoyed this past week. That shell had been her defense against the inherent belief that he’d hooked up with her just to get a piece of ass in order to pass the time. She still wasn’t sure what was going on between them—she refused to put a label on it—but it was more than just getting a piece of ass. It was more than that to him… and it was more than that to her.

  So much more it frightened her.

  Without warning, his shoulder was in her stomach, his arms were wrapped around her legs and she was hauled up into the air.

  “Twist!” With a squeak she found herself hanging over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and an excellent view of his outstanding ass. “Put me down! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “You were taking too long to think things through,” came the calm response as he headed back up the walkway toward the house. “I hate it when you think things through.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because you usually get it all tangled up, and that tangle you make never
ends well for me. So I’m taking the decision out of your hands and telling you that you’re taking the day off from packing up your parents’ shit, and spending what little time we have left together in the sack.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Except for this one.” He gave her rump a playful swat that made her squeak again, and pushed through the front door. “As of now, this is the only butt I’m willing to talk about.”

  When they got dressed a couple hours later, and he’d dropped her off at her house before heading to work, she was willing to admit there was much to be said for not overthinking.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “So you met Twist’s family today.” Comfortably ensconced behind the wheel of Joey’s Escalade hybrid, Novak drove with one hand while holding a full-sized bottle of Gatorade in the other. It was two-thirds empty, and as Angel watched from the backseat, he raised it to his mouth for another long pull to fend off the cramps he was prone to get after a game. “Wow. That’s some serious shit right there, Ange.”

  Joey, in the passenger seat, glanced over his shoulder at her. “See? What did I tell you? I said the same thing,” he explained to Novak, who nodded as solemnly as if Joey had imparted the meaning of life, and took another deep swig.

  “I never should have told you about it.” With a grumpy huff, Angel munched on the last of her concession-stand popcorn. When Twist had dropped her off at her place that afternoon, she hadn’t been there more than half an hour before Joey was knocking on her back patio door to invite her to Novak’s last home game of the regular season. They had dressed warmly for the expected chilly autumn night temperatures, piled into Joey’s ride and headed to the stadium. They had awesome seats, mere yards from the soccer pitch and close enough to make eye contact with Novak whenever he was on the sidelines, but they knew better than to distract him when he was in a game. So as they’d watched Novak’s team blast their opponents apart, she had passed the time with Joey throughout the lopsided game by describing the unexpected Santiago invasion at Twist’s house.

  Instead of being entertained, however, Joey had decided the casual event she’d shared had all the weighty seriousness of nuclear disarmament negotiations. And now that Novak seemed to be of the same mind, it struck her that they truly were an excellent match for each other.

  “Do you remember what it was like when you thought it was time to meet my parents?” Joey shifted his attention to Novak, who made a sound that was something between a groan and a scoff.

  “God almighty, talk about a fucking nightmare. I never thought we’d get through that.”

  “You know that Novak and I met when I represented him and several other local athletes who wanted to come out while not having their civil rights violated, right?” Joey looked back to Angel, who nodded. “Here’s what you don’t know. Novak’s very comfortable in his own skin—he was born that way, brimming over with confidence and self-assurance. I thought I was too… until I met him.”

  Angel frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I always knew what was expected of me, sweetheart. I was going to follow in my father’s footsteps, go to law school and become either a lawyer or find a place somewhere in the political world. I knew I’d get married to a socially acceptable sorority girl with perfect teeth, a pedigree and a penchant for purse puppies, join a country club and settle down in a five-bedroom, five-bath mini-mansion on the back nine of said country club, and start the next perfectly groomed generation of Stepford clones.”

  For a moment she thought of her father, and how “smothered” that kind of life had made him feel. For some reason, she understood it better when this point of view came from Joey, and that made her pause. “I… I have to admit, that sounds terrible.”

  “Not to me, because I was totally okay with the idea of that Stepford way of life.”

  That made her blink, aghast. “Seriously?”

  “Absolutely. I love country clubs,” he added, clearly amused at her flabbergasted reaction. “All that wood paneling and fresh flowers, ambient music and cultured people… I love it. I’m also really good at Bridge, I kick ass at ballroom dancing, I have half a dozen pairs of Sperry topsiders to go with a wardrobe of plaid golf shorts and shirts, and every four years I get chills watching the Presidential debates.”

  “Goddamn it, Joe,” Novak muttered, handing him the Gatorade bottle so he could squeeze his partner’s knee. “You know how I get when you talk like that. I’m so fucking hot for you right now I’m scared I’m gonna crash the car.”

  Angel giggled, albeit nervously. “Uh, please don’t crash.”

  “My point,” Joey said while curling his hand over Novak’s, “was that I never looked beyond the expectations of that world, because I was happy there. It fit me, and I fit it. Then Novak swaggered into my life—“

  “I didn’t swagger.”

  “He totally swaggered into my neat and orderly life,” Joey went on with grin, “and blew it to pieces the moment he grabbed my ass during a private meeting.”

  “His ass is irresistible,” Novak confided and glanced at her via the rearview mirror. “You know what I’m talking about, Ange, I’ve seen you clockin’ Twist’s ass. You and I have the same healthy appreciation for that particular piece of anatomy.”

  “Until that moment, I had no idea that I wasn’t as arrow-straight as I’d always assumed I was,” Joey said over Angel’s laughter. “I mean, yes, I knew I hadn’t been able to get Novak out of my head from the moment I met him. But I believed my preoccupation with him had to do with the case I was putting together. And I figured the reason I stuttered and lost my train of thought whenever he looked at me was because of the way he looked at me. He’d always stare at me so intensely, like he was trying to read my mind. I just assumed that anyone would have been unsettled by that kind of focus.”

  Novak made a gentle sound of amusement. “My poor, beautiful Joey. He was so repressed he didn’t even know what the hell was right in front of his face.”

  “You were right in front of his face,” Angel said softly, remembering Twist’s words to her. I’m hoping you’re going to open those beautiful eyes of yours and see what the hell’s in front of you… Me.

  Her heart began to pound.

  “You got it.” Novak took back the Gatorade when Joey offered it to him. “I fell insanely in love from the first moment Joey looked at me, blushed bright red and stuttered out his name. Cutest fucking thing I’d ever seen, swear to God. But it was weird too, because from that point on he seemed totally oblivious to this amazing thing that was happening between us. So I figured I had to do everything I could to wake him up to what was going on.”

  Time to wake up, Alice.

  She heard Twist’s voice so clearly she had to stop herself from looking around for him.

  “It took Novak almost a year to wake me up,” Joey confessed, smiling over at his partner. “But when I finally admitted I’d fallen in love with him, the first thing he wanted to do was meet my parents. I said I’d rather be devoured by hungry lions, and it went downhill from there.”

  Angel leaned forward to look at Novak. “Why was it so important to you to meet Joey’s parents?”

  “The way I see it, it’s not really a serious, legit relationship until all the people who mean something to you meet up and get to know each other.” Novak slowed the Escalade down to pull into the entrance of their complex. “Otherwise, there’s no difference between being with the one you love, and tagging some anonymous ass. You sure as shit don’t tell your folks about gettin’ freaky with anonymous booty, because that no-name person doesn’t mean dick to you. But you do tell your folks about the person who’s become your world. I wanted to be that for Joey, just as I wanted my family to know that Joey had become the same for me.”

  “Makes sense.” Again, Twist whispered to her. It means a lot to me that you think they’re great people… “There’s just one thing. Twist didn’t take me to meet his family. They appeared on his doorstep while I just happened to be
there.”

  “Did he hide you? Try to shuffle you out the back without them seeing you? Did he shut the door in their faces? Tell them it wasn’t a good time and they had to leave immediately?”

  “No. Actually, I was the one who offered to hide in his studio until they left, but that seemed to offend him. So I smiled through it, spent the next few hours with almost his entire family and wound up having a great time. But it wasn’t anything Twist had set up.”

  “That doesn’t matter.” Joey shook his head as Novak aimed toward their building. “In the end, my parents dropped in for a surprise visit while Novak was staying over at my place. My first instinct was to beg him to hide in the bedroom until I could get rid of them, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t make those disrespectful words come out. That was when I finally realized why he thought this was so important. He wasn’t someone I needed to be ashamed of, and neither were my feelings for him. He’s the love of my life. So, I did the same thing your Twist did today—I opened the door and settled in for a nice, long meet-and-greet.”

  “Personally, I get the impression your meet-and-greet with Twist’s fam went one hell of a lot smoother than mine did with Crandall and Binky Verhaven,” Novak chuckled, glancing over at Joey, who groaned in a world-weary sort of way.

  “Don’t remind me of that train wreck. At least we’re all back on speaking terms.”

  “Yeah, and it only took four years. Doubt you’re going to have to wait that long to make nice with Twist’s mom and dad, Ange.”

  “Doesn’t seem like it, since his dad said he’d pop Twist back into place if he doesn’t treat me right, and his mother has offered to give me cooking lessons.”

  Novak stopped the car in its space with a jerk, then looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you serious?”

  Her brows shot up. “Yeah. Why?”

  “Twist’s mama wants to take you under her wing and teach you how to cook all of her baby boy’s favorite meals? Oh, man,” he said, giving the Escalade’s keys to Joey before opening his door. “Shit just got real, babe.”