“Hello, Everett.”
Her voice was smooth. Like velvet against my ears.
“Are you enjoying yourself so far?” I asked.
“I was until someone came over to talk,” she said.
“Who are they? I can politely tell them to back the fuck off.”
I watched her eyebrows raise as she rose her hand to her sunglasses. She peeled them off her face as her eyes fluttered up me one last time, and I got a wonderfully good look at her eyes. Her red bikini contrasted them perfectly, making them pop from underneath the brim of her hat. She brought her bright green drink to her lips and sipped down the rest of it before she cleared her throat.
“I think I could use a break from this sun, actually,” she said.
“Then allow me. We can get you a drink, help you cool down, and maybe get to know one another outside of our first chance encounter that apparently left you with a very sour taste in your mouth.”
I held my hand out to her and she looked at it carefully. Her eyebrow quirked into the air, and just the small gesture had me wanting to know more about her. What other kinds of quirks did she have? Was there a chance I could turn my first impression around?
I wiggled my fingers and smiled down at her, hoping she would take my hand. But instead, she rose herself from the chair and stood to her feet.
“Lead the way,” she said.
I walked ahead of her, keeping track of her steps in the tinted windows of the hotel as we approached. I grinned when I saw her eyes fall to my ass. Oh, she was trying very hard not to trip over herself and trying incredibly hard to keep up this angry facade she still had in regard to me.
But she was failing epically, and it was a joy to watch.
I walked us into the bar and placed my hand onto her lower back. I felt her twitch at my touch, but she also didn’t pull away. I pulled out her chair and ushered for her to sit, then I raised my hand to get someone over to take our drink orders.
“Sir. Madam. Could I interest the two of you in a drink? Possibly a light cheese plate?” the woman asked.
“I’d enjoy a whiskey sour, and the lovely lady here would enjoy…?”
“An appletini, please,” Andrea said.
“And your cheese-and-meat plate sounds fantastic,” I said.
“A great selection. I’ll put those in and your drinks will be right out” the woman said.
“Thank you. I really appreciate it,” Andrea said.
“You’re very welcome. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“I promise I will.”
Just from that small encounter, I could tell she was a sweet girl. Truly a pleasure to be around, inside and out. And when that type of woman came encased in the body of a goddess, it became hard to focus.
“Jessica told me about the fire,” Andrea said. I sighed and nodded my head as my eyes came back up to hers.
“I can’t imagine how hard that must be,” she said.
“It’s been an interesting journey, but I think this vacation is doing all of us a lot of good.”
“That’s good. Jessica told me this vacation would do me some good as well.”
“Have you ever been to Vegas?”
“I’ve never been on vacation.”
My lips parted in shock as our drinks were set in front of us.
“You’ve never taken a vacation? Not even a weekend trip somewhere?” I asked.
“Growing up, I didn’t have the money.”
“What about now?”
I watched her shrug as she picked up her drink and crossed her wonderfully thick leg over the other.
“I guess I work too much to justify it,” she said, snickering.
“Trust me, I understand that more than most. I was fully against us coming on this vacation when Lucas brought it up.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It sort of came at a really bad time for us. I get wanting to get away from everything with regard to work and the fire, but we are in the throes of a battle with the insurance company and we haven’t yet heard back from the fire marshal on his official investigation.”
“Wait, the fire mashal’s involved? Why?”
“When the start of a house fire can’t be readily pinpointed, the fire marshal opens up a formal investigation. It’s nothing serious yet. Most likely it was an electrical fire due to the very old wiring in the mansion. But because it burned down so quickly, it was hard to make that statement at the initial scene, so the fire marshal got involved.”
I didn’t want to tell her everything because I had her talking. And I was scared that the entire story would scare her off, which was something I really didn’t want to do.
“I can see why you wouldn’t have wanted to come on vacation. If something like that was happening with the youth center, I wouldn’t have come either.”
“The youth center?”
“Yeah. I um… I run the Inner Charleston Youth Center downtown.”
“You run that?” I asked.
“Well, Mr. Wilson ran it until he passed. Then he handed it over to me in his will.”
“Were the two of you related?”
“We were close. He took me under his wing when I took a job at the center when I first moved to Charleston. I loved that place like it was my own, and I tried to help him out when I could. Fixing his desk. Helping him set up new technologies. Replacing the basketball nets. Volunteering to work with the kids.”
“And you took it over once he died.”
“I did, yes.”
“Have you always wanted to do something like that?”
“Oh, yes. Especially with what I saw growing up.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I grew up in Holly Hill. Do you know where that is?”
“Over by Santee, I think.”
“Yep. It’s right in the middle of the poorest towns in the state. I grew up in poverty. I know what a lot of these kids go through. When I was in eighth grade, I sat in the back of the class and two of the four kids that surrounded me couldn’t read a lick. In eighth grade.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I’m not. Kids in this state get shoved under the radar if they don’t have money. Passed up grades because no one wants to deal with them. I was lucky. I had a Dad who helped me with a lot of things for a spell, and then I went to college and got a degree in social work. I wanted to make a difference with these kids.”
“A spell?” I asked, watching her face fall before she took a long pull from her drink.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I said.
She quirked her eyebrow at me again and I bit down onto my cheek to keep from grinning. Good. I was demolishing her base expectation of me. That was exactly what I wanted to do.
“Poverty gets to a lot of people. Especially a parent. And then they find ways to cope, which aren’t always healthy,” Andrea said.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Really.”
“It’s fine. He was a good man until alcohol did him in.”
“Do you talk to him at all?”
“I don’t. Not since I moved to Charleston.”
“What about your mother?”
“She died when I was young. I don’t remember much about her.”
“I’m so sorry, Andrea.”
“It’s fine. I’ve gotten over it. It made me strong through my failures.”
“Did you burn down a mansion as well?” I asked.
“No,” she said, giggling, “but I did misplace a four thousand dollar check from a donor once.”
“You did not.”
“I really did. They handed it off to me and I put it in my pocket—or so I thought—and when I went back to my office to take care of the receipt and get it in the mail, it wasn’t there.”
“What happened to it?”
“A hole in my pocket is what happened to it. I had to backtrack my steps for hours before I found it folded up neatly in a corner covered in dust.”
“I have no idea what I would’ve told that patron had I not been able to find their check. And that next hour, I established an official PayPal account for the youth center.”
I threw my head back and laughed at her story.
“No more lost checks that way,” I said.
“Nope. Haven’t had a single lost one since we started taking donations that way.”
“Any other flat-out failures I should know about?”
“Um, well. I’m a terrible cook. I once almost burned down my apartment cooked ramen noodles in too little water.”
“Good thing we have a kitchen you can call,” I said, smiling.
“Yes, it really is. I also can’t bake. That’s a fun story that involves a cake with no eggs, an oven that was too hot, and a pan that lied.”
“That lied?” I asked.
“It said it wasn’t flammable. It became very flammable in my presence.”
The two of us shared a hearty laugh and I watched her eyes light up. They almost closed themselves off to the world when her smile grew to encompass her face. Her cute apple-peaked cheeks turned red with her laughter, and her leg stretched out so far her bare toe grazed my leg. Just the smallest touch from her sent electricity flooding my body, and my head spun as her leg came back and grazed me again.
I thought Andrea was beautiful. Sexy. Selfless and strong. And if things continued to go well with us, I wanted to ask her out when we got home. A proper date for a proper woman. I’d always been one to take things slow. Sure, I had a few one-night stands. Yes, I flirted to get invitations in the pockets of women to come to our parties. But when I was really, genuinely serious about another woman, I made sure to do it right. Take it slow. Not force her hand in anything she didn’t want to do. When it came to relationships, I didn’t want to waste either of our times. If sex was all either of us wanted, then that was fine. But that wasn’t what I wanted with Andrea. Not after finding out how incredible of a woman she was.
She was the kind of woman I’d want something more with. I needed to take the time to find out if I was a man she could see something more with, though. Otherwise, doing anything would simply be a waste of our time. But as I sat there talking with her, despite how slow I wanted to take things, I knew after that first conversation that I would ask her out the second we got back home.
I had to be careful, though. Because otherwise, the biological drive of my body would ruin all of it.
NINE
Andrea
I shouldn’t have enjoyed my time with Everett as much as I did. And when our second day in Vegas rolled around, it was very similar to the first. Right down to the conversation with him. Jessica came and knocked on my door after breakfast, rattling on about how we were all headed back down to the pool. We caught some rays in the sun. I took a little dip in a hot tub while drinking sangrias with my friend, only this time I felt Everett’s eyes on me.
And I didn’t mind staring back.
He sat on the other side of the pool with his brothers while I putzed around with Jessica. Every once in a while, Lucas would come over and steal a kiss. Or sit on the edge of her chair and talk with us. I enjoyed getting to know him, especially with Jessica’s growing infatuation with him. But my eyes still gravitated over to Everett.
Sometimes, I found him smiling. Having a joke with a brother of his or talking with one of the workers of the hotel. Sometimes, I found him grinning, enjoying whatever it was that was going on in front of him or in his head. But most times I found him staring. And it was the heat behind his eyes that made me shiver.
“So, I saw you walk off with Everett yesterday,” Jessica said.
I ripped my gaze from him and nodded.
“Yes, we went inside to go get a drink,” I said.
“You guys got more than a drink. You were gone for over two hours.”
“We were gone that long?”
“Oh, it must’ve been good if you lost track of time.”
“We didn’t have sex, Jessica.”
“You owe me ten bucks!” Lucas exclaimed.
My jaw hit the floor as Jessica rolled her eyes.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“When you and Everett went inside, some of us may have had a running bet as to what was going on.”
“And how many of you is ‘some of us?’” I asked.
“Mainly Logan and I. I really thought you wouldn’t disappoint me, Andrea.”
“Well, sorry I didn’t sleep with Lucas’ brother so you could gain ten bucks.”
“Oh trust me. Ten bucks wasn’t the only thing on the table,” she said, grinning.
“I swear, that man turns you into a completely different person.”
“And I love who I am when I’m with him.”
I had to admit, I did as well. Jessica was more playful. More vocal. More confident when she was around Lucas. She fished around in her purse and drew out a ten-dollar bill then slapped it down into his palm. Lucas grinned down at her while she rolled her eyes again, then she shook her head as he bent down to kiss her cheek.
“Can’t wait to see you tonight,” Lucas said.
“Yeah, yeah. But I’m winning the next one,” she said.
“I don’t even want to know,” I said.
“Who’s up for some shots!?”
Jessica and Lucas began to clap as a tray started coming around the poolside. We all grabbed shots and I held it in my hand, my nose wrinkling at the smell. I’d never been a heavy drinker. It wasn’t something I found to be fun. But Jessica reached over and tipped it up to my lips, so I drank it down as fast as I could so it wouldn't spill. The taste was horrible and it burned all the way down. But the second it hit my stomach, my body relaxed.
And another was put in my hand.
I chased the shots back with my sangria, and soon Jessica and I were holding hands and jumping into the pool. We splashed around and I dunked her under water, and every time we came up from breath we took another drink. Someone wrapped their arms around my waist and twirled me around before tossing me back into the water. Jessica kept giggling and making googly eyes at Lucas before he jumped in and slammed us with a cannon ball.
Then, I went to go get some water.
“Looks like you’re enjoying yourself.”
That voice sent shivers down my spine.
“Hello, Everett.”
“Hello, Andrea.”
“Are you enjoying yourself today?” I asked.
“I am. Having a couple of lazy days back to back has been nice,” he said.
“Want anything to drink?”
“Only some water.”
“Same here. I think I’ve had a bit too much,” I said, giggling.
“Not a heavy drinker?”
“Never. Sometimes I’ll enjoy a glass of wine, but I end up buying an entire bottle for one glass and then the rest sits in my refrigerator for weeks.”
“Oh, that hurts my heart.”
“Are you a wine connoisseur?” I asked.
“I enjoy the finer ones, yes.”
“Got any that pair well with Chinese takeout?”
“Don’t tell me that’s what you ate last night.”
“Not at all. I’m thinking more for when this vacation ends and I have to go back to my steady diet of lo mein noodles and thin-crust pizza.”
“Do you have a vegetable in your diet?” he asked.
“Does tomatoes in the sauce count?”
Everett chuckled with me before he sat down in the chair at the bar. The two of us were the only ones underneath the cabana by the pool, and I was excited to talk with him again. I found myself wondering if things might stay this way once we got home. Maybe I could ask him out for coffee or we could get together for a bite to eat and talk. I enjoyed the way things were slowly moving between us. Just conversation, a drink, and him escorting me to my room without so much as an insinuation to have sex.
I liked that. I liked the slow
pace he took.
“How’s your water?” Everett asked.
“Good. I enjoy lemon in my water. The tang is nice,” I said.
“Are you one of those people that enjoy their lemonade and limeade a little tangier?”
“I am.”
“Oh, yes. I’m going to have to make you my limeade then. My brothers can’t stand it because they think it’s too sour, but they’re also people who enjoy their tea so sweet it’s almost black.”
“Yikes. Nope. Jessica’s that way, but I don’t enjoy that much sugar in my sweet tea. I actually like to taste the tea.”
“Especially when the teas are flavored. You know, with blackberries and things.”
“You put fruit in your tea?” I asked.
“You don’t?”
“It sounds like I have a lot of drinks to make you, then.”
“Just don’t put alcohol in them. I’ve had enough of that over the past two days to last me the rest of my life.”
“Hey, Andrea!”
“What, Jessica!?”
“Catch!”
I turned my head just in time to see a ball coming my way. It was a massive beach ball and my eyes widened as my hand dropped my drink. I brought my hands up to my face and curled up, bracing myself for impact. Then, I heard a thunk.
But the ball didn’t hit me.
“You’re no fun, Everett,” Lucas said.
“Try picking on someone your own size,” Everett said.
I opened one eye as my hands came down and I saw Everett holding the beach ball. The massive, multi-colored beach ball. With one hand. My eyebrows slid up my forehead before my gaze made its way over to him, and I studied the profile of his face as he chucked the ball back to them. He caught the ball before it hit me.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?” he asked.
“Why did you catch the ball?”
“Did you want to be hit with the ball?”
“Those are some quick reflexes you’ve got.”
“I played baseball as a kid.”
“Really? I would’ve taken you for a football player.”
“Because of my size?”
I shrugged as the bartender slid me another glass of lemon water.
“I was a scrawny kid. I didn’t come into my own with my weight until I was well into college and started going to the gym.”
Accidentally Wild: An Accidental Marriage Romance (The Wilder Brothers Book 2) Page 7
