Wait. What the fuck did he just say?
Trying to keep all the giddy energy suddenly filling my body under control was tough.
My mouth dropped open and the corners started to rise. I probably looked like a psychopath.
“What did you say?” I asked.
His brows furrowed. It was like I could see him running through every word he said trying to figure out what I was talking about.
“What did I say?” His head shook back and forth a half inch in each direction. “Did I say something wrong?”
My smile grew until it couldn’t get any bigger. I threw my arms around his neck pulling him close.
“I love you, too,” I whispered before kissing him with all I was worth.
His hands cupped my face and he gave in to it for a few glorious seconds then ‘Serious Sal’ stepped up to the plate pulling me back to reality.
“I did say that didn’t I?” he asked, his breath hitting my face.
My teeth scraped over my bottom lip trying to pull in every last bit of him that he left there. The funny thing was that I wasn’t worried he’d take it back or say he didn’t mean it. In that moment, Sal was probably the most honest I’d seen him yet.
He loved me.
He said it and that meant just about everything.
“I… ”
“If you take it back I will punch you in the wiener.” Even though I meant every word, I couldn’t take the cheesy grin off my face.
“I wasn’t going to. I’m so fucking sick of choices my parents made dictating my life. I’m not saying I’m normal or that I’ll ever be and I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing here but I know I want to be in your life.”
“Fucking finally.” I pulled him to me again.
He grabbed my hips and yanked me toward him. Tight to the edge of the counter against him. Oh if we weren’t in Bianca’s kitchen, we’d be getting naked.
As it was, I used every ounce of self-control to keep our movements related to the kiss. The way he moved against me called out for something far more, but I was able to maintain.
“If this goes any further, I’m going to need to burn that island.” Bianca’s voice threw a whole mess of cold water on our situation. Sal jumped back like we’d been nuked yet still held onto one of my hips. “I love that island. Please don’t make me burn the island.”
“Sorry, Bianca.” I wasn’t sorry, and I giggled like a school girl. He had that effect on me. “I think Sal was just going back to work?”
“Yes,” he said with too much enthusiasm. “I am. I’ll a… talk to you later?”
“Obviously.” He leaned in for a quick kiss goodbye then scooted from the room like his pants were on fire. It was actually pretty adorable. In that moment I could see a teenage Sal, if he’d had a normal teenage life, getting caught by his girl’s dad. Oddly, I wished he’d had that experience.
“Well, I didn’t expect to walk in on that.” Bianca busied herself with the bag of groceries she bought.
“Yeah.” I hopped down. “Me either.”
Bianca and I both had to work the late shift that night, so after helping Bianca unpack her bags, I hauled ass home to get ready.
We didn’t have a chance to do a post-mortem on my talk with Sal but I went over every single word multiple times myself while I set my auto-pilot to get through work.
Normally I didn’t wait tables unless the restaurant got super busy.
Tonight the college guys from a couple of towns over decided to descend on us as they traveled to an event that they were very tight-lipped about so the place was over packed and we were trying to turn the tables over quickly. At least they weren’t drunk because drunken frat guys could be handsy and rowdy. Neither of which I wanted to deal with nor did Bianca.
Gio should’ve gone home by this point but he stayed to lend an extra hand with the rush. That man would work morning to night if it meant being helpful especially where the restaurant was concerned. Even more so since Gramps showed his faith by teaching Gio the sauce recipe.
But it was like Gio and Sal went overboard to prove they weren’t the people their parents created.
“I need you to take my table in the corner,” Bianca called into the break room while I was changing my apron because I’d dropped a soda right down the front of myself. Luckily it hadn’t soaked through to my clothes.
“Why?”
“I don’t want to deal with him.”
Blunt. I liked it.
I should’ve known. Bianca never backed down from even the most frustrating customers, but Sal sat at her table, the only one that had been available when I went to change, with a laptop and a legal pad in front of him.
“What are you doing here?” I noticed it had gotten dark outside. Where did the time go? “I just mean that I thought you had a bunch of work to do?”
“I do.” He motioned at the computer and paper. “But I’m also hungry.”
“Oh, duh, right.” It seemed I’d completely forgotten that I was standing in the middle of a pizza parlor. “Small with everything?” Because that’s what he always ordered when he was alone but he shook his head.
“Large. That way there will be something in the refrigerator for later.”
“You do know they have things called grocery stores, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve been busy, sweetheart.” He hadn’t called me that in a while.
It was another small indication that things were getting back to normal and I smiled.
“Sulking? Kicking your own ass?”
Nodding he smiled up at me. “Something like that. Can I have a water, too?”
I let out a dramatic sigh and dropped my hip with a hand on it. “I suppose.”
“You’re being kind of rude over there,” one of the non-drunken frat boys from the next table called out.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” I called back, waving my hand to brush him off.
Sal glanced up over his screen at the entire table. He tightened his jaw probably to keep from saying something but gave them the stink eye anyway.
I put the order in and grabbed his drink.
“Get out of here already,” Joe grunted pulling a pie out of the oven. I knew he wasn’t talking to me but I glanced at all the bodies in the kitchen before I could figure out who he was talking to. Gio. “We’re fine in here. If we get in the weeds I’ll pull one of the kids from the other kitchen. Go.”
“Ok, old man, but don’t say I never tried to help.” Gio ruffled my hair as he walked by. I was getting used that but still hated it because he was so big, it made me feel like a kid.
I returned with a glass of water to find that my table of one was now a table of two.
“Really? Now I have to wait on you, too?”
Gio smiled up at me.
“Yeah, I’d like a water too, sweetheart.”
That smile grew a fraction bigger. I narrowed my eyes at him but what I really wanted was to know what Sal had said to him about me, about us. That way I’d know how to act around him.
“Yeah, yeah.” I sighed and went to get the damn water.
After attending to my other tables, I hurried back for their dinner then had to rush over for plates because I’d forgotten to do that earlier. As I was walking away, the loud table next to Gio and Sal was getting louder about wanting to leave which was fine by me.
“Hey, sweetheart, we need our check.” They’d overheard Gio and Sal and their tone was completely mocking the situation.
“I’m not your waitress,” I said as I breezed by.
“Oh come on, sweetheart… ” They laughed loudly.
“Listen.” I stopped in front of them. “See that guy right there?” I asked pointing at Gio who had turned in his seat eying the whole table. “He’s the guy you’re going to have to deal with if you call your waitress ‘sweetheart’ when she gets here. I advise against it.”
I started to walk away but the guy on the end grabbed my wrist. It wasn’t hard and there was no malice behind
it. In fact, as soon as I stopped he let go. He just wanted my attention.
“Why can’t you just get us our check, sweetheart?”
Sal’s hand slapped his table hard, shaking both glasses of water but spilling nothing. “Because I’m the guy you’re going to have to deal with if you call her sweetheart one more time.”
Gio and I looked at him like he’d peeled the skin off his own face just to show us he could.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Sal could defend whatever he chose to defend and probably had given his past, but I wasn’t used to witnessing it. From the look on Gio’s face, neither was he.
Oh man, it was hot.
Snapping my attention back to the table in question, I said, “I advise against that, too. So, sit tight. We’ll get to you soon.”
After I got rid of the noisy table, the place cleared out a bit giving Bianca and me the opportunity to start the cleaning before being ‘officially’ closed. I began by wiping the empty tables down while she straightened and refilled condiments. Lastly, we did a best three out of five ‘rock paper scissors’ to see who had to sweep.
She lost.
“Can I get my check, sweetheart?” Sal called to me across the room.
I slid the slip onto the table. The large pizza was gone. The hazard of sharing one between two giant men.
“Ha. You don’t even have the leftovers you planned on. Now you’ll starve.”
He chuckled as he dug into his pocket for his wallet then tossed a credit card on the table.
“Well, I’m hoping this girl I know will go shopping with me tomorrow.”
I stopped mid-stretch, my hands over my head and my back arched. Sal was watching me and Gio was watching him. I swiped the card and check off the table and did my thing at the credit card machine then took the receipt back for him to sign before I answered.
“I don’t work tomorrow so I could go if this girl you know is unavailable.” Gio laughed loudly but Sal just smiled and signed his receipt. I glanced down at the paper. “What is this?” I looked at his fifty-dollar tip then back to him.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I like the scenery.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re ridiculous.” Then turned to Gio. “Where’d this guy come from?”
“I’m thinking he’s something you created,” Gio said back then playfully slapped at Sal’s head. “Bianca, you ready?” he yelled toward the back.
“I still have to sweep.” She shut the office door where she’d gone to put the cash and receipts in the safe until morning. When it wasn’t tourism season there really was no reason to do up a deposit every night.
“I’ll do it,” I offered.
“Really?”
“Yeah, he’s been here since open. Let the man get some rest.”
She relented and I promised to make sure everything was locked up. Actually, as soon as they were gone, Sal went through all the doors, including in the other building, to make sure we were tight as a drum.
“She wouldn’t normally leave you here all alone, right?” he asked packing his computer and papers up.
“Sometimes. It’s not a big deal. Harbor Point isn’t really crime ridden.”
“Still it isn’t safe.”
“Glad to know you care but I can take care of myself.” Sal held the door for me s we were leaving and leaned against the building while I turned the key in the lock. “I walked to work so… ”
He sighed. “Get in the car, Bailey.”
I did as I was told, partly because I was tired and partly because I wanted those extra minutes with him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
There was something inherently domestic in grocery shopping even within a weirdly undefined relationship.
I walked beside Sal as he hunched over and pushed the cart with his elbows. Every once in a while, he’d grab something off the shelf and drop it in the basket like he’d never been grocery shopping before. I could only imagine the sad state of his new cupboards.
“Ok, at this rate, we’re going to be here literally all day.” I finally had to say something. We were moving so slowly, I thought I saw a snail lap us twice. “You like healthy. Let’s hit produce.”
Finally, it was like I’d found the correct section. We picked out a huge variety of items from apples and bananas to broccoli and carrots. He preferred the healthy food but we still roamed up and down every aisle. Once in a while, he’d ask me what I preferred. When I told him, he’d drop that in the cart. It was an amazingly cute gesture.
“Have you lost weight?” he asked when we turned down the frozen aisle.
“Maybe a little.” I stopped in front of the ice cream case. “Mmmm… mint chocolate chip.” Now that I was thinking about getting for my house. But he stopped completely behind me. I thought better of the ice cream and started walking again. When he didn’t join me, I took the four steps back to him. “What?”
“Why’d you lose weight?” he asked.
Sighing, I also rolled my eyes because I didn’t want to tell him.
He carried enough guilt and I knew he’d blame himself.
“Because I was sad, and I’ve never been an emotional eater. After a break-up, most girls put on a good five to ten pounds from drowning themselves in junk food. I lost my appetite. So, what’s next?” I was beginning to hate the idea of honesty being the best policy.
Sal yanked the freezer door open and dropped three pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream into his cart. I could only laugh and shake my head.
Apparently, he thought it was his job to fatten me back up even if I would technically then just be at a normal weight. It was sweet. It was caring. It was his way of showing he was an actual human being instead of this unfeeling pod person he thought he was after all the crap his parents put him through.
“Do you even like that flavor?” I asked with a hand on my hip.
“It’s my new favorite.”
I was finally able to pull him through the store and actually ended up with a cart full. He didn’t even offer to drop me off at home. Instead, he headed straight to his. I helped carry everything in and once again, just made myself at home by putting things where I thought they belonged.
Sal didn’t seem to mind so I went on helping. I figured he’d move things where he wanted later. Then he kicked a chair out in the breakfast nook and sunk into it.
We needed to have ‘the talk’. I knew this. He had to know this. I needed to know the boundaries because I didn’t want to fuck things up by not knowing official what we were to each other.
Now a normal person might have pulled out another chair but I’m nothing if not abnormal. Instead, I sunk down onto his lap facing him and wrapped my arms around his neck so I could play with the bottom of his hairline.
He didn’t hesitate in clasping his fingers on each hip like he needed to hold me in place. He didn’t. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“So I like this arrangement.” He had a small grin on his face.
“Yeah, well, I figured this would be the best way to keep you here so we can talk.”
“About?”
“Us. I need a definition or some sort of parameters.”
“Parameters?”
“Yeah. I promise it doesn’t matter what we are, what you’re ready for or not ready for, I just need to know. I don’t want to fuck this up.”
“Together.” He huffed out. “We’re together. I don’t want you to see anybody and I sure as hell have no interest in seeing anyone but you.”
“Did you think I’d be with you and still see other people?”
He shrugged and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Sal, I may be a lot of things. But when I said I love you, I meant I love you. For me, that means I can’t be with anyone else.”
“Then we’re on the same page.” He leaned in to capture my lips with his. He snaked his hands up my back until they lay on my neck holding me in place.
“There’s one thing though.” I pulled back only enough to be a
ble to speak, our lips still brushed with every movement. “Don’t ever ask me to leave again. I won’t do it and I don’t promise.”
His head snapped back a fraction with his face crinkled in… I don’t know, surprise or confusion or disgust.
“Bailey, I couldn’t ask you to even if I wanted to and I don’t want to.”
Sal went back to kissing me with gentle strokes of his tongue driving me insane. We stayed like that until I needed to breathe. Surprisingly though, my serious, guilt-ridden man who felt unworthy of anything I had to give pulled my shirt over my head right there in the kitchen.
He moved his lips down to the swells of my breasts while his hand unhooked my bra in one quick motion exposing me to the air and him.
And boy did he take advantage of the position, exploring all exposed skin with his mouth. But then I just thought it was unfair and yanked his shirt off so we could be skin to skin.
He was all warm and hard muscle.
The tantalizing electricity between us pushed us further, faster. Before either of us could collect a coherent thought I was on my back on the table, and Sal was moving inside me.
When I looked up at him, all of his muscles were at the surface, popping and straining with the effort and holy crap, there was a lot of effort. Leaning forward, his body covered mine. The only sound in the room was our rough breaths and the sound of wood table scraping against the cherry wood floor.
Sal’s lips burned mine as we climbed closer and closer to the release we were both seeking. I had to let go. There was no possible way to hold out anymore. My head thudded back against the table as my body shook beneath him. He took it as his cue to finish as I held on to his shoulders.
Once our heart rates normalized and we could breathe without sounding like panting dogs, we found out clothes scattered around the kitchen and dressed slowly.
“So that table’s going to need to be cleaned,” I said yanking my pants up to button them.
“Worth it.” He shrugged which made me laugh.
Love by the Mile (Harbor Point Book 2) Page 22
