My heart pounds. My skin tingles.
This man is about to face something monumental. And he’s chosen to spend these moments with me. That feels huge. Important.
I have to make sure this night is special for him, too. I have to take care of him, the way he’s been taking care of me.
I suddenly feel invigorated, buzzing with adrenaline. I squeeze his fingers. “What do you wanna do tonight?”
“First off, I wanna see your tits again.”
I fling a black bean in his direction. “Be serious.”
He thinks for a little while and then he says, “I wanna dance with you.”
“What?” I spit out a laugh.
He takes one final messy bite of his quesadilla then wipes his hands on a napkin. Standing, he extends his hand to me.
“You’re serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious. Let’s do this.”
Self-conscious, I glance around. People will think we’re crazy. “We're in the middle of a burrito shop.”
“And we’re in Vegas and we just met and we don’t even know each other’s real names. So many damn factors to consider. Fuck all the factors. Tonight, the factors don’t matter. You get a break from the factors tonight and so do I. Let’s dance.”
I fight back a smile, still not convinced.
“Babe, we're in Vegas. If a pretty lady in a dirty wedding dress slow-dancing in the middle of a burrito shop is the weirdest thing you've seen, then you're not doing Vegas right."
I laugh.
He nods insistently. "Trust me—stranger things have happened."
I peer over my shoulder to the sidewalk outside. An Elvis impersonator is in full-fledged downward dog, leading an impromptu yoga session. I guess Tony is right. Stranger things have happened.
A grin takes control of my face as I slide out of my chair, resting my hand in his. The man smiles broad and free and my heart goes wild in my chest. He pulls me against him and his massive arms swallow me up in a tight embrace. The virile scent of his body fills my lungs. Musk and body heat.
The position is stunningly intimate. I burrow my face into his chest. Because tonight is all about escape. When the sun rises, we'll go back to our lives. He’ll go save the world and as for me, I know that whatever is waiting for me in Copper Heights won't be fun.
I bring my eyes to his. He's smiling, trying to keep up with brisk tempo of the merengue music. And we're bumbling through it like lust-drunk idiots, eyes locked, chests pressed together. And why does it feel like our hearts are drumming in sync, beating out a rhythm they wrote together?
I should be afraid of this man. Because this connection is too strong, too fast, slamming me from all sides. This is crazy.
Relax, Sophia. Emotions are running high. You just got your heart crushed. You're projecting. That's all. Just live in the fantasy tonight. When morning comes, you'll be back in your shitty reality. So just enjoy the fantasy for now.
Tony gets a little bit too involved in the dancing. He spins me around in the narrow aisle between the tables and my train tangles around his legs. In slow motion, I go spiraling toward the sticky linoleum floor. In my descent, I grab him by the back of the knee and bring him down with me. And now, we’re on the floor in a heap of shrieks and laughter.
“I think I’m lying in guacamole,” I say between chortles.
Tony hauls us up to our feet. He's wiping something that looks like melted cheese from the leg of his pants.
I'm in hysterics.
The grumpy waitress seems far less amused. "I'm gonna have to ask you two to leave," she hollers across the restaurant.
I offer an awkward apology as Tony slaps a few ten-dollar bills onto the table and we stumble out into the night. “That was definitely guacamole you fell in,” he says as I walk ahead of him on the crowded sidewalk.
Taking a peek over my shoulder, I catch sight of my avocado-covered ass. “Oh great…” I mumble. "I can't believe how much money I made my dad spend on this crap." I slide my fingers into the bird’s nest on the top of my head. "Or these hair extensions. They were flown in from Brazil. Can you believe that?” We laugh harder at my ridiculousness. "And the limo cost a fortune." My laughter begins to fade just as my bottom lip starts quivering. "I'm such a spoiled brat. Threw all this money down the drain."
He cups the side of my jaw, his eyes playfully begging me not to cry. "A pretty spoiled brat.” His eyes drop to my chest. “A fucking sexy spoiled brat." He tickles my ribs and now I’m giggling through my blurry vision. He steps closer and puts his palms on my shoulders. "You made a mistake. An expensive mistake. But you've learned a priceless lesson."
I pout. "What lesson’s that? "
"Always listen to your gut. You knew he wasn't right for you but you were gonna marry him anyway. You would have had a shitty life with him, Daisy. Now is your chance to start over. To do it right."
I sniffle, fighting back tears. I glance down at my ruined dress. “The most expensive lesson ever learned in the whole history of human stupidity.” I sigh.
He tilts his head to the side and grins wickedly. "Where's your phone?"
Furrowing my brow with suspicion, I dig around in my cleavage. "Why?" I ask as I produce the gadget.
"Make the call, " he tells me. "We need a ride and there's no way we're letting that wedding limo go to waste."
15
Sophia
My sister throws her head back and moans deeply. “Oh my god—Would it be really inappropriate if I had a long, roaring, toe-curling orgasm right now?”
The blonde-haired, stern-faced spa attendant crouched down by Angie’s feet gives her a light slap on her ankle. “Not curl your toes! Not curl your toes!” she orders in a strong Scandinavian accent.
Angie peels off the watermelon slices covering her eyes and throws the woman a stunned glare. The spa attendant glares right back and resumes pouring rivers of melted chocolate over my sister’s feet.
Prasanna Light Oneness Studio and Spa prides itself on having unconventional beauty treatments. The place is a veritable oasis with its top-of-the-line beauty center, its Nordic spa and its popular yoga and wellness program. People pay good money to come here and I'm a lucky girl that my sister invited me along for her weekly self-care session. And the luxury chocolate pedicure. Who knew that was a thing?
But I’m just not feeling it.
I’m completely overwhelmed by the avalanche of information Archie dumped on me earlier this afternoon. Every time I close my eyes, gruesome images flash across my mind. Images of him injured, images of him in pain, images of him riding around lonely in that red Chevy of his.
Why did I let him walk away? I should have stopped him. I should have told him that the little girl I was holding in my arms was our daughter.
It all just happened too fast. I wasn’t ready. And I made the wrong decision.
Or maybe it was the right decision. Because after all, he’s leaving town. Just like I predicted.
All I know is that, wrong or right, this hurts.
The dimly-lit room is warm with the calming sound of Indian flutes floating through the air. Plus, the place smells absolutely glorious. Rich, rich chocolate that seems to be pouring in from the air vents. It’s supposed to be heaven. But under the crushing weight of my guilt, I’m burning in my own personal hell.
“Please, no orgasms,” I urge my sister as I wiggle my toes in the shallow basin of cacao goodness. “That would totally kill the whole soothing, relaxing vibe for me.”
Angie tries to swallow back her laughter. “I’m sorry but I’m super sensitive these days.” She runs her hand over her bulging belly. “Every sensation is heightened for this pregnant lady. It’s a gift and a curse.” She sighs.
Angie is a hard-working doctor at the Copper Heights General Hospital and at the beginning of her pregnancy, she was running herself ragged, trying to maintain her regular schedule despite getting slammed by nonstop morning sickness. Her husband, Ben, wasn’t happy about it. He wanted her t
o take it easy. After a nasty flu outbreak at the hospital a few weeks ago, she saw the light and decided to take an early maternity leave. Now, aside from hanging out with River and me, she’s focused on relaxing and preparing for her baby.
The woman clipping the cuticles around my fingernails addresses us with a soft grumble. "Shhh. Just relax. Enjoy." She dunks my hands into a bowl of chocolate before she stands up from her stool. She motions to Angie’s attendant. "We’ll be back in a few minutes." Both women clasp their hands over their hearts and bow before exiting the room.
Angie’s attention moves back to me. "Now that we're all good and high off of chocolate vapors and acrylic fumes, can we please have a serious conversation? What’s on your mind? What has turned my sister into the grumpiest spa buddy of all time?”
“What?” I ask, surprised. “I’m not grumpy. I’m just trying to relax.”
She gives me a pointed glare. “Soapy, you’re grumpy. And if you don’t stop pouting, next week Nonna Lucia’s coming to spa day instead of you."
I giggle at the image of our 89-year-old, hardcore Italian grandmother sitting here in a spa robe. I’m pretty sure she’d get them to swap out the chocolate pedicure for marinara sauce.
“Let’s talk about it,” she insists. “You’ll feel better once you get it off your chest.”
I try to play innocent. "Let’s talk about what?"
"Don't play coy with me, Soapy…About that guy. Archie."
A flash of shock hits my chest. “What do you know about Archie?” I cock a brow at her.
“Oh, please.” She rolls her eyes. “This is Copper Heights. This town thrives on gossip. You thought you could be all sneaky and not tell me about him?”
It looks like Angie’s also been spending time at Reese’s cupcake shop, I’m guessing.
“What’s there to tell?” My shoulders slump.
“Well, I heard you two were making googly eyes at each other all day at Leo’s birthday party.”
“Oh, that’s what you heard?” I say snarkily.
She nods. “Uh-huh. My sources tell me that you were also spotted together at the park this morning. And you were staring at him like you wanted to climb him like a jungle gym.”
I snort with laughter and pin her with a stare. "Who the hell are you?" She giggles when I say that. I vaguely remember a time not so long ago when my sister wasn’t so happy. She was uptight and sexually repressed. The times have changed. "Looks like Ben pulled that stick out of your ass,” I mumble.
“And replaced it with a foot-long dildo." She grins brightly.
I frisson all over and groan with repulsion. "Angie...ugh! I'm glad you have an incredibly orgasmic sex life but let's keep the X-rated visuals to a minimum, shall we? The last thing I want is to imagine is my big sister being impaled by a slab of silicone."
“Personally, I prefer natural rubber,” she informs me matter-of-factly.
Make it stop!!!
She's wearing me down just like she used to when we were kids. And she won't stop until she's won. I might as well cut to the chase.
"Look—there are things about Archie you don't know,” I say simply.
My sister is nosy as hell. “Things like what?"
I lick my lips as I try to figure out how to put all this into words. "He and I have met before."
Her brows dart skyward. "What?! When?"
After holding onto this secret for so long, the words burst free with startling ease. "Vegas. The night I was supposed to get married.”
She looks puzzled. “Okay…”
And since there’s no right way to say this, I spit out the words as casually as possible. "Oh, and by the way...he's actually River's father."
Silence.
Angie’s response is stunned silence.
Long, sweeping silence.
“Say something,” I beg. I need her to tell me this isn’t as crazy as I think it is.
Eventually, she recovers. "What. The. Fuck? Soapy, what are you saying?"
I shrug and wince at the same time. “I went to a bar after Josh’s friends came to the chapel to tell me he’d changed his mind about marrying me.” I squint my eyes and pull in a breath. “We talked for a bit and I went back to his hotel room with him and…”
The look on Angie’s face can’t be put into words. It’s shock and fascination and disbelief all rolled up into one.
“I know it sounds bad,” I tell her, “Me, jumping into bed with a stranger right after my wedding was called off but I needed it. I needed him to make me feel better. It was supposed to be one night but right from the beginning, I could feel that I’d want him in my life for longer than that. But that wasn’t going to happen. It was complicated. And I was ashamed.”
“Ashamed of what?” my sister questions.
"I felt like I should have been crying over Josh. I should have been mourning our relationship. But instead, I was having the night of my life with a man I’d just met…I was falling in love…"
This is the first time I’ve admitted this out loud. I see my sister shiver. "Falling in love?" she asks in a small voice, her expression mirroring my own skepticism and confusion.
The truth is, with Josh, I was settling but I didn’t realize that until I met Archie.
Archie showed my heart what it means to soar. In one night, he helped me open up parts of myself I never even realized were there, he freed parts of me I never realized were captive.
I nod. “I know I must seem like the world’s most naïve fool when I say this, but that night was magic, Angie. It was intense. I’d just had my heartbroken. My emotions were running high. And his were, too. He was about to be deployed. And he wouldn’t admit it, but I could see that he was scared, somewhere beneath his big, tough exterior. So, we threw caution to the wind. Embraced the moment. It was intense."
"It was Vegas," my sister says wisely. “The most intense city on the planet.”
"I know. That’s what I kept telling myself for the past two years. Crazy stuff happens in Vegas. The bright lights and the adrenaline and the martinis. I’ve spent the last two years trying to convince myself that I didn’t really fall in love with Archie that night...Except that….I did. And I had his baby. And two years later, I still feel the same way about him.” Tears burn my eyes. “I want so badly to let him into my life, Angie.”
“So why don’t you?”
I let out a bitter laugh. “You know what his friends call him? Sergeant Good Times. He’s not trying to settle down. He’s just wandering around, looking for fun. And I have a child to think about. What if I let him near River and then he just walks away?” I drop my head as my tears spill over. “Josh showed me what it’s like to be abandoned by someone you’re counting on and I would never forgive myself if I let Archie do that to River.”
Angie’s eyes are full of compassion. “Oh sweetie. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”
“Tell me that I’m crazy. Tell me that night in Vegas was nothing but pheromones running wild and that none of it is real because I’m going insane trying to fight the way I feel about him.”
A little smile slips across Angie’s lips. “But maybe it was real.”
“Oh my god. Don’t encourage this insanity.” I laugh coarsely. “People don’t just fall in love overnight, do they? I mean, you and Ben were high school sweethearts who broke up but never got over each other. That’s real love. That’s love that was simmering and brewing and strengthening for years. You don’t just meet a man at a bar and then twelve hours later, he’s the love of your life.”
“Maybe.”
“Oh, come on, Angie.” I angle my head to the side and glare at her.
“Hear me out,” she says insistently. “It may be crazy. Or it may be fate. You have a child with this man. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding your hookup, you owe it to yourself—and to River—to explore the possibility that it’s real.”
“But what will people say?” I whisper as I think about my mom and the way she’d freaked
out after the wedding got blown to shit. She was so concerned that her friends would look down on me. And then, when she found out that I was pregnant, that put a rift in her relationship with Clara. I don’t want to start any more drama by revealing what really went down that night in Vegas.
My sister rolls her eyes. “What people say is irrelevant. Because you’re the one who has to live with the empty bed you climb into every night. You’re the one who’s raising a child without her father.” She leans closer to me, her eyes seeking contact with mine. “Sophia, you have to try and make it work with him.”
My tears clog my heart and I choke on my words. "It’s too late…”
Her brow is heavy with worry. “What do you mean?”
“He left town. When I saw him earlier, he told me he was leaving. He had no reason to stay.”
My sister’s chocolate-covered hand flies across to me and she grabs me by the shoulder. “Sophia! You can’t let him leave. You’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” Chocolate drips from her fingers onto my pristine white robe.
“Eww…” I laugh through my tears and slink away from her chocolatey grip. Then my heart goes somber. “I fucked up, Angie.”
She swings her feet out of the basin and waddles over to me.
“What are you doing?” I straighten up in my seat.
She pulls me to standing position. “You have to figure this out,” she tells me. “You have to fix this. You can’t just let things end like this. You owe it to River and Archie and to yourself.”
Shit—my sister is right. I’ve been pining away after this man for two years. I can’t just let him leave. He came back into my life by an act of fate. If I let him walk away, I may not be so lucky again, I may lose him forever.
Our spa attendants walk through the doorway. “Okay, ladies. Where were we?”
Dream Boy Page 11
