I swallowed. “But you had your grandpa?”
“I did. And like I said, he was amazing… he had a great balance between being my guardian, my friend, and my teacher.”
“That’s the second time you’ve referred to him that way — as a teacher,” I said. “What makes you think of him that way?”
Gemma smiled then. “Oh, he was always finding ways to make every day a lesson. He’s the one who got me really into football, actually. And honestly, I’d also say he’s responsible for my incessant need to plan and set goals and check off lists until I reach them.”
“Driven man, I presume?”
“Very. And he made sure I was the same.” Gemma closed her eyes then. “I miss him. Every day.”
I pulled her into me, running my hand over her arm as I held her. She tucked into my chest, and her legs weaved with mine under the sheets.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked.
“Oh, God, what now?”
I laughed. “How freaked out are you about ditching your plan tonight? About me being here?”
She blew out a breath at that. “Honestly? I don’t know if it’s really hit me yet.”
“Any regrets?”
Gemma leaned up, and her eyes searched mine before she lowered her lips to mine. We both inhaled at the touch, and even though I’d just had her twice, my entire body woke up again, thrumming with the need to touch her more.
“Not yet,” she answered when she broke the kiss. “But we’re still early in the game.”
“Please, no more games,” I said on a laugh, and she chuckled, too. “But seriously, I want to make you feel comfortable. And hey, next week is an away game, so we’re not technically breaking your rules, right?” I pointed out. “You can hang out with me the next couple of weeks, and if you change your mind, there’s always time to line up a date for the next home game.”
“Oh, is that so?” she asked, smirking. “You’d just let me set up another date like that?”
My jaw clenched. “Uh-huh.”
“Bullshit.” Gemma laughed.
“No, I mean it,” I said. “If you still wanted to take another guy to the next home game, then I’d respectfully bow out. But,” I said, tapping her nose. “You have to give me these next couple of weeks to try to make it so that doesn’t happen.”
“Deal,” she said, and then she crawled on top of me, legs straddling each side. “But, I’ll tell you this…” Gemma leaned down, pressing her lips to mine and leaving them there as she whispered. “You’re already doing a pretty great job, because I’m not thinking of anyone else right now.”
“You haven’t thought about anyone else since the night you met me,” I challenged, gripping her hips and rolling mine into her. “You just didn’t want to admit it.”
“I don’t know,” she said, rolling her body and nipping at my bottom lip. “There was Ben, you know. He was so interesting… you might have some real competition there.”
I growled, rolling until she was under me, wrists pinned to the pillows as she laughed. “Stop talking about other guys before I lose my damn mind again.”
“Make me,” she challenged, one brow arching.
And so I did.
Gemma
I hadn’t even been awake more than fifteen minutes the next morning before Belle was bursting in through my front door.
“Okay, bitch,” she announced, slipping her spare key back into her purse before she tossed it on my counter. She eyed the contents of my purse — which were still scattered all over the granite — before bringing her attention back to where I stood at the coffee pot. “First of all, you’re not allowed to ignore my texts. I don’t care how much fun you’re having. Secondly,” she added, sniffing. “It still smells like sex in here. Coffee can’t cover that, honey. So, spill. I want all the deets.”
I laughed, shaking my head as I leaned one hip against the counter. “Good morning to you, too.”
“Yeah, yeah, good morning,” she said, waving me off. “Let’s skip the pleasantries and get right to the pleasure. Tell me things. How was the dick. Did he eat your pussy like it was a cupcake again?” She leaned her elbows on the counter then, framing her face in her hands. “Oh, my God, please tell me you’re walking funny today.”
I covered my mouth to keep from laughing, letting her continue.
“I hope he wasn’t small. If we went through all that yesterday and he ended up having a micropenis, I might actually cry.”
I was still standing there with one hand over my mouth, smiling beneath it. Belle cocked a brow, letting her hands flop out toward me in a why aren’t you speaking gesture.
“Well?” she asked. “Did he fuck you silent or what? Tell me things!” But then, her eyes skirted to where the coffee pot was filling beside me, and she frowned. “Wait, why are there three mugs…” Her eyes widened, and she lowered her voice to a whisper as she pointed down at the counter. “Is he still here?”
And as if he was cued from stage right, Zach sauntered into the living room behind where Belle sat at my kitchen bar. He cleared his throat, and Belle sat rigid, eyes wide as he rounded the bar and slipped into the kitchen with me.
Wearing his clothes from the night before.
“Morning, Belle,” he said with a smirk, leaning in to kiss my cheek before he grabbed the coffee pot.
“Morning,” she squeaked out, and she started mouthing something to me as soon as his back was turned, but I couldn’t make any of it out.
“Thanks for the go-go juice,” he said once his to-go mug was full, holding it up to me. Then, he wrapped his free arm around my waist, pulling me into him. His eyes washed over me. “You know, it’s really not fair that you look this amazing in the morning.”
I flushed, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him.
“I’ll call you later?” he asked.
“You better.”
He smiled, tapping my nose before heading toward the door. He stopped to gather his wallet and keys off the table. “Oh, and, by the way,” he said, turning toward Belle as he took a sip of his coffee. “I ate her pussy like it was a four-course meal this time.”
A laugh shot out of me, and my face warmed as I buried it in my hands. Through the slits in my fingers, I saw Belle blush a little, too, knowing he’d heard everything she’d said. But she didn’t let embarrassment show for long. Instead, she stood, crossing the room and high-fiving Zach before opening the door for him.
“Atta boy. Now, get out so I can get the dirty details.”
Zach chuckled, lifting his coffee to me before he disappeared into the hallway. Once the door was shut again, Belle bounded back into the kitchen.
“HE STAYED THE NIGHT.”
I nodded, pouring us both our first cups of coffee. I added a little creamer to mine and a little sugar to hers, sliding one mug across the counter to her as I cupped the other in my hands. “He stayed the night.”
“And you’re not freaking out.”
I sighed. “Surprisingly, no… at least, not yet.” I took a pulse check. “I think the freakout part is coming, though.”
“Well, we will handle that later. But, for now, you’re smiling! And blushing. And, and…” Belle squeaked again, clapping her hands together. “Okay. I want all the details. Now. Start from the beginning. Andddd go!”
Belle followed me around the apartment as I got dressed and ready for work, and I told her all about the night before. She wouldn’t let me skip a single detail, as was par for the course with my best friend, and by the time we were locking up my condo to start the trek to work, she was fanning herself and I was ready to skip our morning meeting and go to Zach’s for a morning romp, instead.
“Wow,” Belle breathed, shaking her head once we were in the elevator on the way down. “I’m impressed. I can’t believe he licked your asshole.”
“Belle,” I whisper-shouted.
“What? No one’s in here,” she said, just as an older woman stepped onto the elevator with us. We both smiled at her,
but Belle didn’t skip a beat before turning back to me again. “Did you like it?”
“Can we not right now, please?”
Belle smirked. “Oh, you liked it.” She shook her head. “Who would have thought. My best friend, an ass girl.”
“Belle!” I smacked her as the older woman glanced over her shoulder at us with a concerned look.
“I’m happy for you,” she said through her laughter, and then she schooled her features. “No, seriously. I really am. He’s a good guy. So, does this mean you guys are like… official?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t really talk about it.”
“Well, are you exclusive?”
I thought about it, running over the conversations we’d had the night before. “Yeah. I’d say so.”
“So, then you’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“We didn’t really get that far.”
Belle rolled her eyes as we stepped off the elevator, pushing through the lobby doors onto the streets of downtown Chicago. “Ugh, dating today sucks. You never know what you are and what you aren’t. But, let me just be the first to tell you that you’ve got yourself a man, Gemma Mancini. And I like him.”
I smiled. “I like him, too.”
And I did. I liked him a lot. I couldn’t fight off the smile that seemed to be a permanent fixture on my face since I woke up. It’d been the most perfect night, and letting go of the control I’d had with my plan before was proving to not be as much scary as it was exhilarating.
Zach made me feel safe, he made me feel comfortable. It was like he knew all my biggest fears and how to handle them before I’d even told him.
I should have been scared of that. I should have been worried about how much I wanted to trust him, to let him in. But I couldn’t find it in myself that morning to care.
Still, Belle brought up a good point — we hadn’t discussed what happens next. I didn’t know what we were, what we weren’t, and my grappling self was ready to start being weird if I didn’t get some firm rules and boundaries established. I made a mental note to talk to Zach about it more later.
“But for real, don’t ignore my texts again.” Belle pointed at me. “What if I really needed you?”
“Oh, yeah, more like you really needed to be nosy,” I said, pulling my phone from my purse. “Honestly, I haven’t even looked at this thing since we left the game. It’s been in my purse all night.” When I looked over the screen, I saw the missed texts from Belle and a few from the guy I’d blown off the night before, but they weren’t what caught my attention. “Whoa.”
“I know. I got a little needy,” Belle said, holding one hand up. “But, in my defense, I was half being nosy and half wondering if you were still alive.”
“No, no it’s not that,” I said, pulling up the notification that had made me pause. “Carlo’s mom called me.”
“Sofia?”
I nodded. “Yeah. At midnight.”
“That’s weird.”
“It is,” I said, stomach somersaulting at the sight of her name on my phone. It wasn’t especially out of the ordinary to hear from Sofia, but our communication had died down considerably after Carlo’s funeral. It seemed once all the papers were dealt with, the will done, the body laid in the ground… there wasn’t much more for us to talk about.
Her son, my husband, was gone.
He was the only thread that tied us together.
“Are you going to call her back?”
I shook my head, tucking the phone back in my purse. “I will, later. I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe she was just feeling sad last night.”
“Maybe,” Belle said, and she reached over, squeezing my forearm. “Hey, don’t let this steal your joy today, okay? You’re allowed to be happy.” She smirked, looping her arm through mine. “Especially after getting your ass eaten.”
“Oh, my God, Belle.” I snorted. “No couth.”
“No shame, either.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder.
“Why don’t you tell me about Jordan,” I said, directing the conversation back at her. “Did he go home with you?”
Belle smirked. “Come on. A lady never climaxes twice and tells.”
“I knew it!” I laughed. “Hey, at least the hot doctor with the adorable dog didn’t go to waste.”
“Oh, trust me. There was no waste. By the time he left last night, I’d used up every drop of energy he had to offer.”
I snorted, rolling my eyes. I couldn’t even find it in me to be surprised, though. This was my best friend at work.
“Now,” she said, looping her arm in mine. “Tell me about Zach’s cock again.”
“Should I just draw it?”
She blanched. “Could you?”
I smacked her off me, both of us laughing as she admitted that was too much and turned the conversation to our morning meeting, instead. She was pitching an office design to one of the advertising firms downtown, and I pulled out her sketches as we rounded the corner toward our office building. But even as we talked about desks and frames and natural lighting, I still couldn’t stop smiling — I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
I didn’t know what came next. I didn’t know if I was moving too fast, if I was asking for trouble by abandoning my safe plan and trusting Zach not to hurt me. And even though Carlo’s mother calling me had thrown me, Belle was right — I did deserve to be happy, even if just for one morning.
I’d call her back later. And maybe I’d wake up tomorrow and realize everything I’d done was stupid. Maybe by the next home game, I’d go right back to being in control like Zach said, taking someone new to the game and falling right back in line. Maybe Zach and I were temporary, and we’d just have some fun for a couple weeks and then go our separate ways.
But maybe it didn’t matter what happened next.
Maybe all that mattered was that right now, in this moment, in this blissful morning, I was happy.
And I hadn’t been that way in a long, long time.
Zach
I was high.
I’d never done a single drug in my entire life other than alcohol, yet still, I knew I had to be on some sort of high as I floated around Doc’s bar, filling orders and humming along to the music blaring through the speakers. The Monday night football game would start in a half hour, and we were slammed again, but it didn’t matter how busy we were or how grumpy Doc was because last night? I’d had Gemma Mancini in my arms.
That was its own special brand of drug right there.
“Would you stop being so… happy?” Doc grumped, frowning at me as he slid two beers in front of a couple of our regulars. “You’re scaring the patrons.”
“Tease me all you want, Doc, but you won’t get me down today.” I passed behind him, clearing the empty glasses from the bar and taking a new order from a group of girls who had just sat down.
“You at least going to tell me what has you all Cheshire Cat smiley over there?”
At that, my smile doubled, and I worked on filling the order I’d just taken as Doc slid up beside me. I shrugged. “My plan worked.”
“Your plan?”
I met his eyes. “I slept over at Gemma’s last night.”
Doc’s brows shot up. “Really?”
“Mm-hmm,” I said, grinning.
“So, she finally got tired of your annoying ass sitting in those seats next to her and gave in, huh?”
I laughed. “Something like that.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Doc crossed his arms, leaning against the bar as he watched me make a few flavored martinis. “For the record, I still think that was a hair-brained idea.”
“But it worked.”
Doc shook his head. “So it did.” He watched me for a moment, his smile leveling out. “Are you sure she’s the kind of girl you want to get involved with?”
I slid the martinis over to the girls who ordered, taking a card to start a tab. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, last time I saw this gir
l, she was hell bent on making you jealous or pissed off or both,” he said.
“She was scared,” I explained. “She liked me, too, and didn’t know how to deal.”
Doc cleared his throat. “Okay, Romeo. As long as you’re sure. Just be careful, okay?” He squeezed my shoulder. “I met you the last time you had your heart broken, and I don’t want that sad kid hanging around my bar again.”
Someone called for me down at the end of the bar, but I held up one finger, chest tightening at Doc’s words. “She’s not Emily.”
“I know,” he said quickly. He watched me for a moment, concern etched in his features, but then he shook his head. “You know what, this is just me being an old, grumpy man. Forget I said anything.”
I smiled. “You really are a grumpy old man, but I appreciate you looking out for me.”
“Meh,” he huffed. “By the way, we still need to talk…”
“I know, I know,” I said, brushing past him toward the other end of the bar. “But, you can’t fire me today, Doc. Today is a good day.” I pointed back at him, turning on my heels and doing a sort of moon walk toward the guys wanting to order.
“I’m not firing you.”
“Not today, you aren’t.”
Doc laughed, waving me off. “God, you’re so… smiley. I hate it.”
I popped the tops off a few bottles of Bud Light, lining them up in front of the guys before I walked back over to Doc. “I’m just kidding, Doc. What do you want to talk about?”
He picked up the rag he’d abandoned on the bar, folding it over his shoulder before he turned his gaze back to me. His eyes bounced between mine, and he opened his mouth to say something, but then just shook his head, clapping me on the shoulder again. “Nah, don’t worry about it tonight. We’re busy. We’ll talk about it next week, when you’re back to being grumpy like me.”
“You sure?” I asked, sensing the shift in him. “We can run to the back real quick, still have time before the game.”
The Wrong Game Page 19
