by Marie Hall
Making our way over to the table, Ryan looked down at the boy. “Javier, can you say hi to Zoe?”
“Who is she?” The boy whispered loud enough that I had no problem hearing him over the crush of noises.
Ryan lifted a brow.
“My girlfriend,” I said, jumping when Zoe stabbed a finger into my ribs.
“I’m his friend, who also happens to be a girl.” She spoke directly to Javier, her smile gentle.
Lili stood when we got to her. Dressed in a bright orange minidress and silver sandals, she looked amazing as always. Though today, I had to say, she had nothing on Zoe’s exotic earthiness.
“Hi.” She smiled brightly, hanging on to Ryan’s waist. “I’m Lili. And you must be the girl who’s given Alex sleepless nights.”
“Shit. Way to bust me out, Lili Bean,” I muttered and then rolled my eyes when she glowered at me.
“You’re gonna fund our honeymoon by the time I’m done with you,” she said, pointing at the top of Javier’s head. “He’s got a foul mouth, if you haven’t noticed.”
Zoe’s laugh made my gut tighten. “Oh, I noticed.”
Ryan brushed a hank of hair out of Lili’s eyes. “We can go get the food. Why don’t you guys save us our seats?”
She nodded and then they kissed. It was nothing like the tonsil hockey I’d played with Zo just a minute ago, but it was enough to make me clear my throat and look away. Nobody wanted to see that.
But then Zoe surprised me, because she didn’t wait for me to initiate something, she hauled me down by the shirt and planted a quick one on my lips, making my head reel with lusty visions of her.
I wrapped my arms around her waist. “What was that for?”
“Payback.”
“You hungry?”
“Mmm. Starving.”
Her fingers walked up the neck of my shirt and if we hadn’t been in front of the kid, I might have done something about that.
“What do you like?”
“Surprise me, cowboy.”
Then, tweaking the tip of my nose, she shoved me away playfully and turned to Liliana, apparently now done with me.
Ryan laughed; he must have noticed the stupefied look on my face.
“What?” I grumbled.
Snorting, he forked twin fingers through his hair. “Nothing. Just never seen a woman do you like that before.”
“Shut up.”
He only laughed harder. We stopped in front of the sausage wagon and waited in line. “After all the shit you gave me with Lili, yeah… I like this. Watch it, dude—before you know it, there’ll be a ring on it.”
Smacking him on the back of his head, I rolled my eyes and didn’t speak another word until after we ordered.
~*~
Zoe
“How long have you two known each other?” Liliana asked me, looking first at the guys’ backs as they walked away and then back at me.
“Hmm. Depends.” I brushed crumbs off the rough picnic table. “There are two answers to that question.”
Bright green eyes narrowed into thin slits. “Interesting answer.” She crossed her legs, almost seeming to instinctively curl her body into her son.
He was a big boy, tall and lanky, and looked a lot like his mother. Wearing a red, white, and blue striped shirt with stylish jeans, he didn’t really stand out in a crowd. But there was something about the way his eyes shifted all around the tent space that made me think he was a little different from the norm.
Lili must have realized I was studying him. “Javier’s autistic. So if he doesn’t look you in the eyes, don’t take it personal.”
I smiled. “That’s okay. I figured it was something like that. He’s quiet, huh?”
She laughed. “When he wants to be. First eight years of his life he didn’t talk. Then one day it just started and it’s never stopped since.” Clapping his thin shoulder, she bumped him with her hip. “Isn’t that right, loquito?”
He just shrugged. “Where’s Dad?”
Lili glanced at the food wagon the guys were still standing in line for. She pointed at Alex’s cousin and a light glimmered in her eyes when she said, “There.”
It wasn’t hard to see the woman was crazy for her fiancé and he for her.
“Why don’t you go find him and tell him that Mom’s starving.” She rolled her eyes dramatically.
Javier didn’t need to be told twice—he jumped to his feet and rushed toward them.
“So…” She spun back around once Javier was safely with the guys. “Two answers. Tell me the most exciting one.” Her full lips curved into an impish grin. “Hurry, before the guys come back and catch us gossiping about them.”
I laughed. It was easy to talk with Lili; I liked her already. “Most exciting one. Okay. Well, we met when I pierced his lip.”
She slammed her palm onto the table, startling a couple walking past. “That was you!”
Nodding, I crossed my legs. “Guilty.” Remembering the way I’d slid my hands up his legs to cup his hard length made my pulse skitter. “He came in all cocky and vainglorious, and I swear I had him trembling like a baby by the end of it.”
“Ha! I love it. Serves him right. You know,” she said, turning suddenly serious, “those boys up there, all three of them, they mean the world to me. If you know Alex at all, you know he has a tendency to be a little…” Her nose wrinkled, and she looked at me apologetically. “…flighty.”
Yeah, not gonna lie, made my heart sink. I did know that—it’s why I was trying (very, very unsuccessfully) to fight my attraction to him.
“I do know that about him, actually. Alex doesn’t remember me, but I remember him.”
“Oh?” She cocked her head, and the thick braid of her hair slipped over her shoulder.
“J.J. Baines High School. I was the nerdy violinist he never noticed.”
She snorted. “Well then, you and I have something in common. My man and I went to the same school, but neither one of us ever knew the other existed until just a few years ago. And by the way, in case you’re wondering, you’re the first girl Alex has ever officially introduced us to. We’ve met others, but we don’t usually learn their real names. Typically he introduces them as Sherry Bear, or Jemma Banana, or Sexy Lacy—”
I laughed—I couldn’t help it. “Are you serious?”
“Oh yeah.” Swiping ChapStick on her lips, she nodded. “He has this thing with really stupid nicknames. But the fact that he’s told us your real name…” She touched my hand but let the thought dangle.
And I liked that thought. That day in the car he’d teased me by calling me crazy nicknames, but ever since then I was either Zoe or Misaki. Did something that tiny really mean anything to him? Made my stomach tickle thinking about it. “Thanks.”
Leaning back in her seat, Lili winked, and that’s when the greasy smell of smoked sausage and buttery onions slapped me in the face.
I didn’t really have a chance to let those words marinate or let the butterflies fully take control because the guys were back. Ryan was leaning into Lili, nuzzling the crown of her head as he slipped the sausage roll in front of her.
Alex plopped into the seat next to me and shoved a plate of fried foods on the table. I recognized the fried Oreo and vaguely made out the submarine-shaped fried Twinkie, but the rest was beyond me. They fried everything in Texas.
“I had no idea what you liked to eat, so I told the guy to give me his favorites. Unfortunately, his favorites seem to be nothing but sugary crap.”
He shrugged apologetically and I patted his knee because he looked adorably embarrassed. “Then it’s a good thing those are my favorites too.”
“Really?” His brows gathered.
“I plead the fifth.” Grabbing the Oreo, about the only good thing on the plate, I brought it to my lips and bit in. The grease smeared all over my lips, and the icing inside just sort of slid down my throat before I even got a chance to chew. It was awful and Alex was laughing.
Throwing his head ba
ck, he knuckled a tear from his eye. “You should see your face right now.”
“Yeah, man, I think you screwed up big.” Ryan snorted and Lili covered her mouth with a napkin. Javier was the only one not laughing, and that was because he was too busy shoveling his pepperoni pizza into his mouth. Pizza that smelled really, really good right now.
Alex began muttering under his breath and I couldn’t help that my heart suddenly went all melty and girly on me. “Nah.” I patted his knee, letting my fingers slide up the inside of his thigh, lingering just a little longer than I would with anybody else. “I think you did good, rodeo.”
His jaw muscle twitched and I could tell he was biting back laughter. “Rodeo?”
“For that ride back there.”
Chest puffing out just slightly, wearing a ridiculously huge grin, he was so hot in that moment that if we weren’t around his family right then, I would have totally been doing something very unlike me. Like taking him by the hand, sneaking into the backseat of my Bel Air, and full-on making out like we were in high school all over again. Thankfully I’d left the Bel Air at my apartment. I bit the corner of my lip, thrilled when Alex’s gaze latched on to the movement.
I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure I was doing the whole chest heaving, sexy panting thing too. What can I say? The man just brought the wild out in me.
Ryan coughed and cleared his throat. “Kid present.”
Alex’s grin went from ear to ear. “Yeah, so anyway—” His gaze roamed the inside of the tent as if he were desperately trying to switch the subject. Unfortunately he was coming up empty and so was I.
I reached out a shaky hand to a glass of water I hoped he’d brought for me. It was such a turn-on the way he was so obviously hot for me.
Lili jerked. “The apartment search! Yeah, how’s that going?” Her eyes lit up and I could have just hugged her when a relieved look flitted past Alex’s face.
“Apartment search?” I shoulder-bumped him.
Snatching the other half of the uneaten fried Oreo from my fingers, he slipped it into his mouth, and my lips tingled because that had felt very intimate. He winked at me as if he knew what I was thinking.
“Yeah, time for the baby to cut the apron strings. Mom and Pop are getting hitched and I don’t feel like being the nanny. No offense to you, little dude.” He grinned at Javier, who just shrugged.
“Aww, c’mon,” Ryan drawled, “you sure I can’t talk you into hanging around? You’re good on our wallet.”
Alex snorted. “Yeah, I’m good, man.”
It was nice seeing how he interacted with his cousin, how the two of them played off each other, and how both Lili and Javier smiled broadly at their banter. Alex was in his element here, carefree and easy-going. It made me think of him in high school, when the darkness wasn’t in his eyes, when he’d laugh and joke around the halls and I’d linger by a locker just watching him with my heart in my throat, wishing that just for once he’d turn and see me.
Turning his head, he smiled down at me and I was locked in his gaze. Because he was seeing me, his eyes were searching mine, and I knew in my heart, Alex Donovan finally saw me.
“Hi,” he mouthed silently at me and I’m pretty sure an earthquake ripped through the carnival because I felt the ground shake. That or my legs were trembling violently.
“Any possibilities on your long list?” Lili asked, dragging his attention reluctantly off me. I sucked in a greedy gulp of air, feeling completely discombobulated and needing a quick second to gather my thoughts back into one cohesive working unit.
“A few.” He scratched his jaw. It was a nice jaw. Square and lightly stubbled, strong. The way he’d scraped it across my sensitive flesh when he’d been manhandling me, it made my skin prickle with goose bumps just thinking about it. “I think I can maybe swing one around the university, share it with a buddy of mine. But I haven’t even asked him yet. I’d need to check it out first, but it’s the best of the ones I’ve seen on the Web.”
I frowned. I lived close to the campus. “Which one? I don’t live far from campus, maybe I can help you out when you go look.”
“Hunter’s Point.”
I laughed. “Umm…”
His lips quirked. “Don’t tell me, that’s where you live?”
“Alex Donovan, are you stalking me?”
Latching his strong, front teeth on his bottom lip, he shrugged. “What an interesting development.”
“Alex, did you do that on purpose?”
Laughing, he shook his head. “Actually, no. But you know what I think this means?” Not giving me a chance to respond, he answered his own question. “It means fate knows you should go out on a real date with me.”
Looking up at his cousin and Lili—who were both pretending to busily swipe imaginary sauce off their son’s lip—I fought a blush. The man was totally screwing with my Frost Queen reputation. He was turning me into a bumbling, fumbling idiot. “Isn’t this a date?”
“No. This is a not-so-accidental meet. I want a real date. Where I pick you up, we eat dinner, maybe get lucky later…”
Ryan coughed again. Loudly.
Alex didn’t even look apologetic and I had to admit, I’d been waiting on this day for years. Even if I didn’t know it.
“The only luck you’ll have is if you find a penny on the ground. But a date, yeah, I think we can do a date.”
He snorted. “Good. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night after my shift ends at six.”
Grabbing my hand, he kissed my palm. I felt that touch all the way down to my toes. My stomach fluttered with a serious case of nerves, and I knew I was wearing my scary smile. The one that stretched from ear to ear and showed all my teeth and made my cheeks ache, but it didn’t matter because Alex Donovan had asked me out on a real date. And yeah, I was twenty-one now and had dated plenty, but never Alex. And I knew, with Alex, everything was going to change.
Chapter 9
Alex
“Whatcha doin’ tonight?” Jenny asked, tossing me the white dishrag. Silky, reddish-orange hair hung in soft waves around her shoulders, and her big blue eyes stared back at me with a twinkle. I was suddenly very, very glad I had never accepted the silent offer she’d always had in her eyes. We’d flirted for years, but at least she was one chick I didn’t have regrets about.
“Got a hot date.” I winked, trying to still keep things light and easy between us. We worked together and I wanted her to know we were cool, but it wasn’t going to happen.
The twinkle in her eyes dimmed and I pretended not to see it, because I was done playing around. I’d made my stance yesterday at the carnival; I wanted Zoe and I wanted her trust. So I smiled and nodded and let Jenny know we were friends, but that was all.
“What you doin?” I asked, still smiling.
She took a deep breath, gave me an I-got-it nod, and then shrugged. “Just chillin’.”
“Awesome.”
Turning, she walked back to the counter and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could do this. I’d prove Lili wrong, I wasn’t going to self-sabotage. From here on out, I was turning over a new leaf.
I was just wiping down the final table before I got to clock out and get the hell out of Dodge, when I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Hey, boy.”
I snapped up so fast, I nearly knocked heads with him. The greatest source of my rage and hate stood in front of me, a hard look in his cold blue eyes. Within a second, my mind noted all the differences from when I’d last seen him two years ago. He was thinner—actually emaciated-looking was more like it. His hair was nothing but a couple of tufts growing off his head, and his skin looked sallow, slightly yellowish-gray in tone. In the second it took me to note that, it took less than half a second to feel the bile churning, the anger frothing, and my fists clenching tight to my side.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped the rag across my shoulder, nostrils flaring and vision going nearly black with rage.
Turning on my heel
, I headed for the back room. Eric and Jenny were staring at me with wide eyes; obviously I hadn’t been very quiet when I’d said the words, my voice full of scorn and a sneer on my face.
A couple of customers were pretending not to pay attention, but I didn’t care at this point. I was so furious that my mouth flooded with saliva and the only thing I wanted to do was punch something.
Him preferably. In his face.
“Alex, we need to talk.” His voice sounded weak, scratchy, and I shook my head.
Not trusting myself to speak in public, I continued walking. Grabbing my gear, I punched my time card, didn’t bother telling the night manager I was leaving, and exited the back way. John was still following me.
“What the hell do you want?” I roared, twisting on my heel the second the back door slammed shut on us. We were in an alley, but even back here it wasn’t all that quiet. A young couple walking on the sidewalk in front of the shop stopped for a second, staring at me. At him.
I couldn’t believe he was here. In my life. Didn’t the waste of space know what I don’t ever want to see you again means?
“Your mom said you won’t talk with her.”
I held up my hand and clenched my jaw so tight my molars ached. “Don’t even mention her to me. And what the hell makes you think I’d want to talk with you if I don’t want to talk with her?”
Dizzy with anger, I marched to my truck. If I didn’t get away from him soon I was going to do something stupid. I couldn’t stand to even look at him anymore. I hated the man I called my father, hated everything about him. Hated that he made me, hated what he’d done to Ryan—hate, hate, hate…
“Alex, son, I—”
“No!” I turned so quick it threw him off balance, and he stumbled back a step when I shoved my index finger into his face. “You lost the right to call me that the day you raped your nephew.”
His eyes grew wide, frantically peering around my shoulder as if to make sure no one heard. He disgusted me. My mouth turned down into a tight sneer.
“What, afraid someone might finally know the goddamned truth for once? You sick fuck. Did it feel good, you nasty piece of sh—?”
