“Really? I’ve only seen you there once … the other night, when we watched the game.” And then I ran off like an idiot because his touch set off Fourth of July fireworks throughout my body.
“So you did notice me. You thought I was a creeper though, didn’t you? You ran away before we could properly celebrate your win.”
He has the sexiest smile I’ve ever seen, flirty, yet sincere. It truly brightens everything around him. Now that tone of voice of his is entirely different. It’s not soft and sweet. It’s more like strong and commanding, causing every part of my being to stand up and takes notice. Yeah … I’m quickly coming to enjoy the low rumble of his voice.
“No, I didn’t think you were a creeper. I just had somewhere to go.” I pause. “In a hurry.” He has my tongue-twisted, suddenly feeling like the dork I was in high school. “Well, thank you for the ride home. I really appreciate it.”
As much as I don’t want the night to end, I can’t think of anything else to say. And I’ve never invited a guy “in” before. I’ve seen it done in a million movies, but never had the opportunity to do it myself. I’m way in over my head on this one. I should have told Mel that before she got me into this. They’re going to be so disappointed when I don’t have any dirty details to share.
“Here,” he says, handing me his phone, “put your number in there so I can call you in the morning.”
“Huh?”
He smiles. “To get your car, silly.” I take his phone. “And maybe some breakfast, if you’re interested.”
After tapping the screen with my number, I save my contact info and hand it back to him. Our fingers brush against each other, and I can almost hear my skin sizzle. “Yeah, that sounds nice. I’m interested.”
Very interested.
My keys tremble in my hand as I try to unlock my door. I’m so excited by the thought of Dean, I can barely control my limbs. I’m ready to slither into a liquid pool of heat right here on my doorstep.
“You lied.”
My hand flies up to my mouth to keep myself from screaming and alerting the neighbors. I whip around on my heels to face him. “You scared me half to death. Are you crazy? What are you even doing here?” I could just kick myself for allowing him to bring by the last of my things. I was just tired at the time and I didn’t want to step one foot in our old place again.
“You lied.”
“About what, Chase?” My patience is wearing thin. Maybe I should scream. Maybe that will get him out of my space.
His eyes narrow on me, and I can see his jaw grinding together through his thick skin. “You said you weren’t seeing someone, and clearly, that’s not true.”
Dean. Shit. Great. I seem to have added a new word to my vocabulary. “I didn’t lie. Not that it’s any of your business. Now, you need to leave. And while you’re at it, don’t come back. Not unless you’re invited, which will be … never.”
I turn back to working at getting my door open. A grip tightens on my bicep and turns me around.
“Dammit, Chase. You’re hurting me.”
“I’d never hurt you, Summer. You’re the one who’s hurting me.” His grip tightens.
“Chase! What the hell?” I cry out, and for the second time in one night, I’m afraid of him. Again. Before tonight, he was just nagging me. Now, he’s scaring the shit out of me.
“Open the door so we can talk. I’m coming in.”
“Like hell you are,” a voice booms through the air.
Chase doesn’t release his hold on me, just turns around to see Dean standing there with his hands on his hips, looking annoyed and pissed off. Chase looks at me. “Dean Michaels, Summer? Are you fucking with me?”
“Let her go, jackass. She said you’re hurting her.”
He looks down at his grasp on me and his hand drops to his side.
“Good,” Dean says, “Now, go.”
“You can’t tell me to leave. Who the fuck do you think you are?” Chase steps toward him.
“I can,” I say, trying to diffuse the situation I’m afraid is about to get out of hand. “So leave before I call the police.” I hold up my phone for him to see. He looks at it, then me, and storms off, making sure to bump into Dean along the way. I finally exhale the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Thank you.”
Dean comes closer, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
I look up into pools of tropical sea water and just about die. I hate that he had to see that. “I’m fine.” The frog in my throat says differently. “Thanks for that. I feel like such a baby. That’s the second time tonight someone has had to save me from him.”
He runs his right hand down my arm, lightly rubbing the spot where Chase had hold of me. “Are you hurt?”
I tense at his touch. It is sore. “I’m good.”
“Why don’t we go in and put some ice on it just to be sure.”
I turn back to my door and work to get the key in the lock. Dean takes them from my hand and has it unlocked in no time. He pushes it open and steps aside for me to enter first. Wow, I guess Chase is the only guy who thinks chivalry is dead.
He shuts the door behind us and I walk around the small living room turning on two table lamps and the hall light. My apartment is small, with only enough room for a love seat and two tables, plus my bookshelves, full of hundreds of romance novels. I have an electronic reader, more than one actually, but I still continue to buy paperbacks. I love getting them signed and placing them on my shelves. I have an entire section dedicated to autographed copies.
“Come on.” Dean takes my hand and guides me toward the kitchen, which is just off the living room. The only thing that separates the two areas is a granite countertop. On one side of the island is my kitchen with a dining nook off to the side, on the other is my living space. One small bedroom and bathroom are down the hall.
He opens the freezer and takes out a bag of frozen strawberries. He releases my hand and grabs the kitchen towel hanging from the stove, wraps it around the fruit, and places it on my arm.
“Whoa. That’s cold.”
His face is within inches of mine and he smiles, with eyes like twinkling stars that beam down at me. “You’ll get used to it.” He moves the berries so they can wrap around my arm. “There.” He pauses, looking down. “I really wanted to hit him. Took everything I had to stop myself from tackling his ass to the ground and beating the shit out of him for hurting you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. It’s not like he punched me. He grabbed my arm. I doubt he meant to hurt me. He’s not like that.”
“But he scared you. I could see it.”
I glance up, and I can tell he’s searching my eyes for the truth. “Yes. He scared me.”
“Do you think he’ll come back?” he asks, stepping back and leaning against the counter across from me.
I shrug, holding my frozen fruit in place. “I don’t know. Before today, I wouldn’t have expected it. Now, though. I just really don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me, I guess.”
“How about I stay for a little bit? Maybe it will wear him down. He might get tired and leave, if he hasn’t already.” I hadn’t imagined I’d get Dean in my apartment so that he could babysit me. “I have the growler in the car. I can get it and we can have another beer.”
“No, I don’t want you to go out there right now. I have my own stash.” I open my fridge to reveal a variety of beers from the brewery. A 12-pack, in fact. “I also have iced tea, if you’d like.”
“How about a beer? We can drink some tea later.” Later? I guess he does plan on staying a while.
Chapter 6
Shelly
“Do you think we should’ve told her about Chase and Dean’s history?” I ask Mel and the guys. When Mel called my brother to tell him we were getting a ride home from Dean, he let her know that my husband had gone to their house with the baby. So like many nights, we’re all gathered at their place and the babies are fast asleep in Mia’s nursery. When we stay, Noah slee
ps in a pack-n-play bassinet fit for a king. Or a prince. He’s my little prince.
“No way,” Mel shouts. “Are you crazy? She wouldn’t give him a chance if we did.” She licks her fingers clean from the Cheeto fibers stuck to her skin. “On second thought, she might not have cared. Did you see the way she looked at him?”
“Yeah, she was in love before she even saw him again. I thought she was going to orgasm just telling us about him. Her Sexy Guy.”
Mel laughs herself into a snorting fit. “Sexy guy? That was funny. She almost died when we started in on telling him we never noticed his chocolaty thick hair and crystal blue eyes.”
I start laughing now. “That was funny.”
“Sometimes they talk like they’re in their own little world.” Ty chucks a plush bear at me. “Uh. We’re here too.”
Melly stands up, walks over to my brother, and plops herself down onto his lap. “Awww, baby. Don’t be jealous. I need you for so many things you’re sister could never do for me.” She kisses him on the mouth, playfully slaps his cheek, and then slides down his body and sits between his legs on the floor, facing me.
“Now, back to Summer and Dean,” she says.
I glance over at Matty, who’s sitting in a rocking chair a few feet from me, and he’s shaking his head. “Do you want me to go over there and kiss you too? I don’t want you to feel left out?”
He arches a brow at me with a ridiculously sexy grin spread across his lips. “Sure, babe. But don’t slap me. You can save that for when we get home.” His brows bounce up and down and suddenly I feel the urge to take my family home instead of continuing this sleepover.
Ty breaks the love spell Matty has put me in. “So what exactly happened with Chase and Summer?”
Mel tells them about the cheating and about Chase getting all jerky because he thinks she’s seeing someone.
“So where does Dean come into all this drama?” Matty asks. He stops rocking back and forth, stands and comes over to sit next to me on the couch. I sit up so he can get comfortable. He lifts his arm, letting me know he’s waiting for me to snuggle into him, which I do. There’s no better feeling, except for being a mom, than being wrapped up in the comfort of my husband’s arms.
Mel continues the story. “Apparently, she saw some guy at the brewery and got all hot and bothered by him. She didn’t realize he works with us, and she wasn’t expecting to see him again.”
“Or that we’d know him,” I add.
“How could she not know him?” Ty asks. “We all work together.”
“Right,” I tell him. “Like you know all the teachers on campus.”
“It’s a big school,” Matty jumps in. “I still don’t know half the people there. And all the buildings are spread out. I could essentially stay in our building and never have to leave for anything else but maybe a parent conference.”
“True,” Tyler agrees. “But we all know Dean.”
Mel smacks Ty on the leg. “Yeah, because we went to school with him. Summer didn’t go there. I have no idea where she went to high school, and it’s not like Chase was going to introduce them. I’m sure they’ve made it a point to stay out of each other’s way.”
I nod. “Yeah, it sounds like we don’t know much about her at all.”
My hubby squeezes my shoulder. “But it sounds like you guys want to get to know her.” He looks at Ty. “That’s weird, dude, right?”
“Not for Shelly, but for this one,” he boots his wife in the ass, “definitely weird.”
Mel whips around and clicks her tongue at my brother. “What’s that supposed to mean? Your sister’s a saint, and I’m the bitch.”
“That’s exactly what he meant,” I throw out, adding fuel to the fire. “Saint.” I tap a finger on my chest. “Bitch.” I point to her.
“Oh, I can be bitchy, all right. You want me to get bitchy up in this bitch?”
The four of us start busting up at Melly going all ghetto rap star again with her words, the swivel of her neck, and the snap of her fingers. She should have gone into acting. I would pay ridiculous movie ticket prices to see her on the big screen. She’s a total drama queen. And I mean that in the best way.
“All right, all right, you’re not a bitch any more than I’m a saint. And yes, I think I’d like to get to know Summer better.” I’m not lying either. The thought doesn’t make me sick to my stomach like it did before when I was trying to be the bigger person and remain friends with my cheating, lying, son of a bitch ex and who I thought was the woman who stole him from me. It was all a lie. He told her we’d broken up. And I believe her. That’s all that matters. “You know, she doesn’t seem to have any friends or anyone really to talk to about this stuff. I’ve never seen her with anyone other than Chase. I’ve never seen her hang out with anyone from work. Maybe she doesn’t have any friends. You think?”
Everyone seems to mull this over.
“You could be right. You’d think she would have mentioned her friends in conversation at some point. We’ve been around her enough that she might talk about what a friend had said or something she did with another group of friends.” Mel digs into her Cheetos bag again, still deep in thought.
“Or maybe we never made her feel comfortable enough to share?” I know on the surface it seemed like we were all going to make a go of being friends and moving on. But really, I don’t think anyone truly believed it. I know Mel never did. Hell, Ty and Matty didn’t even want to go along with it, so I can just imagine how Summer felt.
“No one expected you to be friends with her, babe. In fact, most people thought it was odd that you even tried. So don’t beat yourself up about not making her feel wanted.”
I look up at my adorable husband and he presses his lips to my forehead. “Thank you, baby.”
“Okay, stop with the lovey dovey shit already.” Mel throws a crunchy Cheetos at me. I catch it and pop it into my mouth. “I wonder what they’re doing right now. We should call her.”
“No.” Tyler and Matt shout at the same time.
“Why not?” Mel and I cry out in unison.
“That was scary,” I say, laughing. The others nod in agreement, chuckling too.
“Because you’ll ruin it for Dean if they’re still together,” Ty explains.
Matty laughs as he says, “Yeah, there’s nothing worse than friends who text constantly and won’t leave you alone when you’re trying to get busy.”
“I’m just going to assume you’re not talking about me,” Mel tells him, a hand pressed to her chest as if she’s truly offended.
Tyler wears a pained expression on his face. “And I’m just going to assume you’re not talking about getting busy with my sister.”
“Honey,” Mel pats his leg, “Too late. Baby Noah is proof they’re getting busy.”
“It’s okay, big brother,” I joke. “We’ve only done it once. Just to procreate. That’s it, right?” I tilt my head toward Matty and flash him an exaggerated wink.
“That’s right, baby. And we didn’t even like it.” He chuckles, winking right back.
I dig my elbow into his side. “Now let’s not take it that far.”
Home sweet home.
Matty and I decided to pack up Noah after he and Mia woke for a late night snack. It’s good to be home, in my own room, with Noah in his own crib. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending the night at Mel’s. It’s always fun waking up with my husband by my side and then eating cereal for breakfast with my best friend. It’s really the best of both worlds. But I really love my own family time as well.
“I could watch him sleep all night,” Matty says, looking down at our baby boy, whose sleeping comfortably on his back in some cute footie jammies.
I gaze at my husband watching my son, than glance down at Noah. His chubby cheeks make me want to reach out and wake him up so I can eat them. But I don’t, of course, because I’m not a dumbass. “I could watch you watch him all night,” I tell my hunky husband. “It’s so sweet.”
“A
re you gonna get all mushy on me, babe?” He turns around and reaches out to slide his arms around my waist.
“Hell no,” I say, placing a kiss on his bare muscular chest. “I’m gonna get all naughty on you. Noah will be out till the morning, so let’s take advantage and go get naked.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” He grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room like a mad man, my feet barely making contact with the floor as we move to our bedroom in a flash.
As soon as he releases my hand, I whip off my nightie and slide down my panties and jump on the bed. My eyes find Matty frozen where he stands just a few feet away. “What are you waiting for, silly? Hurry up.” He starts chuckling, and I suddenly get self-conscious. Do I have throw-up on my chest? A diaper attached to my hair? “What is it?” I ask, taking a sheet from our unmade bed and pulling it over me.
He yanks the sheet back. “Don’t do that. You’re beautiful. I’d take a picture if I could guarantee no one else would ever see it but me.” Working with a bunch of oversexed teenagers teaches you a little something about what pictures should never be taken. It’s scary.
“Why are you just standing there?”
Slowly, he kneels down on the edge of the bed and claws his way toward me. “It just dawned on me that Noah is conked out for the night,” he crosses his fingers, “so for once, I don’t have to rush. We can take our time.” He lifts my leg and begins kissing his way from my heel to my core. Son of bitch, slow is always good … right up until that point where I lose my patience and want him inside me to finish the job that only he can.
With his face between my thighs and my hands fisted in his hair, he gazes up at me with his eyes glazed over and I murmur, “Oh God, I love you.”
Straddling The Edge Page 4
