When Sparks Fly (Sexy Secrets Book 2)

by Bailey, Nycole S.

  So cute!

  Before I can say anything, they both engulf me in hugs and squeals. Chewy even gets in on the action and starts barking.

  “What’s all the commotion going on out here?” I hear my daddy ask.

  I can’t see him because my nieces still have me hemmed up in hugs.

  “Auntie is here.” One of my nieces squeals loudly – right in my ear.

  I manage to extricate myself from them and step back to stand beside Isaac.

  “Hi Daddy,” I say, giving him a little wave.

  “Sweet Pea,” he exclaims as he comes forward and engulfs me in a hug too. After releasing me, he shakes Isaac’s hand.

  “Isaac,” is all he says.

  “Mr. Simone, it’s nice to see you again.”

  My daddy just harrumphed in reply.

  “Daddy,” I say, giving him the evil eye as I mouth ‘behave’.

  My mama then comes down the stairs and envelops me in a hug. She releases me and then turns to Isaac. She reaches up and cups Isaac’s face in her hands.

  “Still so handsome,” she says before hugging him too.

  I think Mama has a crush on Isaac.

  During all the hugging, my nieces have unleashed Chewy and Dani has him in her arms. I can also tell that they are sizing up Isaac.

  “Is he going to be our new uncle?” Daisy asked cheekily.

  __________________________

  Olivia

  I slowly wake up to a big warm hand slowly moving from the undersides of my breasts, down to the top of my pajama shorts. My eyes slowly flutter open. The room is starting to lighten with the rising sun, so it must be close to 7am. I reach behind me to the body spooning me and find Isaac – hard.

  I am still amazed that Mama is okay with Isaac and me sharing a room. When she instructed us to put our luggage in the furnished basement, which is more like an apartment with its living room, kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom, I gave her a questioning look to which she replied that we were both adults who were in a relationship and she was under no illusion that we were not intimate.

  That made my face heat up with embarrassment and Isaac had looked decidedly uncomfortable as he looked down and scratched the back of his head. My daddy just muttered grumpily to himself as he stood in the background. Yeah – Daddy was not onboard with Isaac and me sharing a room, but somehow Mama won that battle.

  “Can you be quiet?” Isaac asks me softly as he kisses right below my ear. I turn in his arms and nod. He helps me take off my tank top and my pajama shorts. I help him take off his sleep pants before he pulls me under him. As the rising sun continues to brighten the room, soft touches give way to quiet sighs, whispered words and soft moans as we make love.

  By 8:15am, we are both dressed and heading up the stairs to the main floor. Before heading to the kitchen, I make a quick detour upstairs to get Chewy from Dani and Daisy’s room (my childhood room). Since they are out of school this week for Thanksgiving, they are staying with their Nana and Grandpa to get away from their parents. Apparently, my brother and sister-in-law are trying to have another child and my nieces are tired of hearing them going at it.

  As quietly as I can, I pick up Chewy from the foot of the bed my nieces are sharing and cradle him in my arms as I leave the room. Isaac is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

  Isaac wants to get in a morning run. We are going to the neighborhood park that has a few walking/running trails. While Isaac does his run, I will walk Chewy. The neighborhood park also has an enclosed dog park with a couple of obstacle courses for big and small dogs. After I walk Chewy, I plan to turn him loose for a while to have fun.

  “Good morning you two; where are you off to this early?” my mama asks as we walk into the kitchen. She’s sitting at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee and her tablet – no doubt reading the news.

  “Good morning,” Isaac and I both say at the same time before I continue. “We’re going to the neighborhood park. Isaac wants to get in his run. I thought I would tag along and let Chewy play in the dog park after I walk him.”

  Chewy is still cradled in my arms and seems to be barely awake. He lets out a yawn and looks up at me with sleepy eyes.

  “Why don’t you get Chewy’s leash and stuff and I will wake the little guy up,” Isaac says as he takes Chewy’s from me.

  Before going to bed last night, I stored Chewy’s stuff in the panty. I go to the panty and take out the little backpack that has his leash and a few toys. I grab a few dog biscuits from the cloth bag that contains his food and dog biscuits. After that’s complete, I make sure to grab a few water bottles from the fridge for all three of us and put them in the backpack too.

  “Is Daddy still asleep?” I ask as I bend down to clip the leash on a more awake Chewy.

  “No, he’s up. He’s in his home office. He had an 8am conference call,” my mama responds before looking up at us. She has a slight smile on her face. “When you two get back, I will have breakfast ready for you.”

  “Mama, you don’t have to do that, we can make our own breakfast.”

  “I know I don’t have to. I am doing it because I want to.”

  After that, she shoos us out the kitchen and we leave the house through the garage door. Isaac takes the little backpack from me as I zip up my yoga jacket. The weather is chilly, but not cold. I have on a long sleeve t-shirt under my jacket and a pair of yoga pants adorns my bottom half.

  “Are you sure you don’t want your hoodie from the truck?” I ask Isaac as we walk down the driveway and head towards the park. All he is wearing are a pair of shorts and some type of long sleeve thermal t-shirt.

  “I’m good,” he answers as he grabs my free hand, twining our fingers together.

  It takes us less than ten minutes to walk to the park. As Isaac stretches, I tell him that I plan to walk Chewy for bit then take him over to the dog park.

  “The trail goes right by the dog park, so that is where we will be when you finish up, okay?”

  He nods as I watch him clip his iPod shuffle to his t-shirt collar and put in his earbuds. He leans down and gives me a quick kiss to my forehead before he takes off and follows the trail to begin his run. I only walk Chewy for about twenty minutes or so before we meander over to the dog park. I spend a few minutes running him through the obstacle course getting him reacquainted with the maze that he first encountered last year. Once he has the hang of it and is running around the course without my assistance, I take a seat on the bench outside of the fenced-off area.

  I am not sure how long I sit and daydream as I watch Chewy play. Isaac runs by a few times before someone calling my name interrupts my daydream.

  “Olivia Simone?” a woman asks as she peers down at me. She looks familiar and I scan my mental rolodex until a name pops into my head.

  Audrey Moore.

  Audrey Moore went to the same high school as me. She was an acquaintance of Jacqueline, but not necessarily a friend of Jacqueline. They were more like frenemies. The one trait that I remember about Audrey is that she was a bitch.

  A colossal one.

  “Yes…Audrey Moore, right?” I say, deciding to be an adult and acknowledge her instead of pretending not to know her.

  “Yes!” She all but shouts as she pulls me up from the bench and hugs the shit out of me.

  When she releases me, she gives me a long look; so long that it makes me a wee bit uncomfortable.

  “You look exactly like you did in high school,” she finally says. “I don’t think you have aged a bit!”

  Okay – an actual compliment from someone who I remember as the queen of backhanded compliments - very unexpected.

  “You were always cute, but now you look less nerdy,” she adds on.

  See – backhanded compliment.

  I just raise my eyebrow at her, letting her know that I caught the underhanded dig.

  She sits down on the bench and I retake my seat as she turns towards me.

  “Have you moved back to Atlanta or are
you just visiting?” she asks.

  “I’m just visiting. I live in Richmond, Virginia now.”

  “Wow!” she replies. Her eyes widen and she looks weird for a moment. “That is so cool!”

  Really?

  “Do you still live in the area,” I ask her finally because she has gone silent and is just staring at me – with a creepy smile on her face.

  “Yeah,” she replies. “I still live in area. I own a townhouse two blocks from our old high school. So, are you visiting your parents for Thanksgiving?”

  I nod, not offering any more information than that and at that exact moment, Isaac passes by on his run.

  “Damn!” she says.

  And I will agree. Isaac is on his fourth or fifth lap and he is looking all kinds of sexy.

  “He has to be new to the area because I haven’t seen him before. I come here a lot.” Audrey comments.

  “Hhhhmmmm,” is all I say.

  “He’s not married either,” she adds.

  I must give her a strange look because she gives me an exasperated one and rolls her eyes.

  “I didn’t see a wedding ring,” she explains.

  “He passed by so quickly, how were you able to check for a wedding ring?”

  “Girl, I am 32-years-old, I have developed skills to spot a single man. I can’t waste time - I am beyond ready to be married and have babies.”

  Oh!

  We sit in silence for a while as we watch our dogs run around the obstacle course. Since there are only two dogs in the park now – Chewy and a Yorkshire terrier, I am assuming that the Yorkie belongs to Audrey.

  “The Yorkie is yours, right?” I ask.

  “Yep – that’s Princess,” Audrey replies proudly.

  Of course, that is her name since her owner was a Queen Bee in high school.

  “So, what have you been up to since high school? If I remember correctly, you went to some kind of design school, right?”

  I nod before speaking.

  “Yeah, I went to school in Savannah at the Savannah College of Art and Design.”

  She wrinkles her nose.

  “What kind of work do you do with a degree from a school like that?”

  “I’m a jewelry designer.”

  When she laughs (which sounds like a braying donkey), I grit my teeth because I know I am about to get a visit from the bitchy Audrey I knew in high school.

  “Is that even a real job?” She finally asks.

  “It pays the bills,” I say, not looking at her.

  She must sense the chill in my voice because she goes quiet and we sit in silence for a few minutes. When Isaac passes by again, he gives me that dimpled smile and winks at me.

  “Did you see that? He smiled and winked at me!” Audrey squeals out once Isaac is out of earshot.

  I slowly turn my head to look at her and she is dead serious. I watch her rummage through her wristlet and she pulls out a small mirror.

  “When he comes back around, I am going to stop him and ask him out for coffee or something,” she says as she runs her fingers through her already perfect hair before putting on lip-gloss. I refrain from laughing out loud when she lowers the zipper of her fitted jacket to show cleavage.

  I know this is where I should tell her that Isaac is my boyfriend so she won’t embarrass herself, but I don’t. It might be immature, but I am going to enjoy watching this unfold.

  Yappy barking grabs my attention and I see that her dog is trying to bully Chewy off a section of the obstacle course.

  Imagine that - asshole owner = asshole dog.

  Figuring that Isaac will be done soon, I go get Chewy.

  “What kind of dog is that?” Audrey asks as I enter the enclosed dog park and pick up Chewy.

  “A French bulldog.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Chewy.”

  “What kind of name is Chewy?” she asks distractedly, leaning forward and looking down the running trail, no doubt looking for my boyfriend. “You were always so weird.”

  I choose to ignore her and raise my middle finger to her back instead. I spend a few moments soothing Chewy.

  “Oh! Here he comes,” she whisper yells to me. “Do I look okay?” She smooths down her still perfect hair.

  I just smile, trying not to laugh as I clip the leash to Chewy’s collar and place him on the ground. We both stand behind the bench as Isaac comes into view and starts to slow down. When he is almost to the bench, Audrey stands up and smiles. When he reaches the bench, he barely glances at her and comes over to Chewy and me.

  “Hey,” he says getting all up in my space and giving me a kiss with a hint of tongue.

  I smile against his lips, wishing I could see the look on Audrey’s face.

  I step back some and reach down to the bench for my backpack, pulling out a bottle of water and offering it to Isaac. I watch him drink the water down in one continuous swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing sexily up and down.

  “Olivia,” Audrey says. I can sense a little indignation her voice.

  I peek around Isaac and she is glaring at me – which makes me smile bigger.

  “Do you know him?” she asks incredulously.

  No, I just randomly let strange men who are out for a run come up and kiss me.

  “Yeah, this is my boyfriend.”

  At my declaration, Isaac turns and gives her a head nod in greeting. He then wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me against his side.

  “Audrey,” I say as I start my introductions. “This is Isaac. Isaac, this is Audrey. We went to high school together.”

  Audrey looks like she has been sucking on a lemon.

  “Nice to meet you,” she murmurs, sucking her teeth.

  I see a frown marring Isaac’s forehead. I know he’s wondering what the hell is going on. He gives me a brief, but puzzled look before looking back at Audrey.

  “Nice to meet you too,” he finally responds.

  I can tell that his deep voice affects her because I see her shudder. I bury my head against Isaac’s chest so I don’t laugh outright in her face.

  Chewy becomes impatient and starts to whine a little. Isaac picks up my backpack and pulls out a dog biscuit, offering it to Chewy.

  “You ready?” Isaac asks me softly. “I’m ready for the breakfast your mom promised us.”

  I nod eagerly as he slings the backpack over his broad shoulder and takes my hand, threading our fingers together. He gives a nod to Audrey in parting as he leads me away. And because I can, I tug on Isaac’s hand, stopping him. He looks down at me. I reach up and grab his ears lightly, bringing his head down to me and then I proceed to kiss the shit out of him. When I finish mauling him, he chuckles against my lips.

  “Did you just piss on me?” He asks with obvious amusement.

  “Yep!”

  __________________________

  Isaac

  When we get back to the house, we both shower before heading back upstairs for breakfast. It’s just us and Liv’s parents as her nieces are still asleep. After breakfast, I ask Mr. Simone if I can talk to him in private. He gives me a look as if he already knows what I want to talk about. Liv looks at me with confusion when her dad and I head off to his home office and close the door.

  Before sitting down behind his desk, he pours himself two fingers of an amber-colored liquid from the rolling bar cart next to his desk. I cock my brow at him.

  “If I think you are going to ask me what I think you are going to ask me,” he says gesturing to his glass of amber-colored liquid, “I am going to need this.”

  “And what do you think I am going to ask you?” I ask, trying to hide my smile.

  He gives me a long penetrating look. I hold his stare. My pop does the same thing when he tries to rattle me. My urge to smile disappears as he continues to hold my stare.

  “You love my daughter,” he finally asks. It’s a statement, not a question, but I answer anyway.

  “I do,” I nod.

  He nods too. I watch
him swallow thickly as if swallowing back some emotion.

  “You know, Olivia is my baby - my Sweet Pea.” He smiles. She’s also a Daddy’s Girl. Even though she has had boyfriends in the past, I have been the main man in her life. She used to look at me as if I could do no wrong and could fix anything. I say used to because she looks at you the same way now.”

  We sit in silence for a while. I can tell he is emotional, so I keep quiet.

  “You want to marry my baby?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you have a ring?”

  I nod and dig into my front pocket. Knowing that I was going to speak to Mr. Simone about marrying his daughter, I brought the ring. I place the Tiffany blue ring box on the desk. A faint smile graces his lips as he picks up the ring box and opens it.

  The faint smile blooms into a full smile.

  “She’s going to love this,” he says.

  “Yeah?”

  “Have you had a woman’s opinion on the ring yet?”

  I shake my head no. Only the guys and my dad have seen the ring and they all agree that it is a nice ring.

  He takes out his phone and texts someone. A few minutes later Mrs. Simone opens the door before quickly closing it behind her. She squeezes my shoulder before going to stand behind the desk next to her husband.

  “Where’s Sweet Pea?” Mr. Simone asks his wife.

  “She’s upstairs with Daisy and Dani. Now spill! What’s going on?” She asks.

  Mr. Simone motions his head towards the ring box on the desk. She looks at the ring box, then at me. She picks the ring box up, opening it up.

  “She is going to love this!” Mrs. Simone exclaims, mirroring her husband’s sentiments.

  Mr. Simone looks at me, his eyebrow raised, letting me know that I need to do what I came to do.

  I take a deep breath and say, “I want to marry your daughter. Olivia is my entire world. I’m not asking your permission, per se, but I do want your blessing.”

  A few seconds tick by, then a full minute. I start to feel a bit of panic when Mrs. Simone cries out – “I win! You owe me one hundred bucks! I told you he would ask!”

  Turns out, Liv’s parents had a bet on when I would come to them and ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage. Mr. Simone figured sometime after the first of the year, while Mrs. Simone stated around Thanksgiving. Obviously, she won, which is why Mr. Simone takes out his wallet and hands his wife five twenty dollar bills.