by Parker, Ali
I chuckled, letting go of her hand to pass her a white plate from a warming rack at the start of the buffet. “I’ll let you have it, but only because I know how you worked up that appetite.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, giving my ass a playful smack with her free hand. “Well, aren’t you full of yourself? I’m always ravenous in the mornings, and I love bacon.”
“So do I.”
Heidi laughed, coming to a stop next to the bacon. “Of course you do, everyone does. Since you did do a pretty good job at helping my appetite along, I’ll leave some for you. Only a few pieces, though.”
“A pretty good job?” My eyebrows lifted and a smirk I wasn’t totally in control of tugged at my lips. “I did much better than that. In fact, if I remember correctly, you told me I was the best—”
She clapped her hand over my mouth, amusement dancing in her eyes as she glanced at an older couple who had joined us in the line. The woman’s cheeks were flushed enough that I knew she had heard at least a part of our conversation while her husband was studiously ignoring us.
Whatever. Let them hear us. It might even do the old man some good to be reminded that sex existed, who knew? Wrapping my fingers around her wrist, I lifted her hand away from my mouth and completed my sentence. “The best you’d ever had. You told me that a few times actually. You know, in between all the screaming of my name.”
Heidi rolled her eyes, shot the couple an apologetic look, and led me to our table. “Clearly, I wasn’t in my right mind at the time. Besides, I left you some bacon. What more do you want from me?”
“To admit I did better than just ‘pretty good.’” I didn’t really care whether she said it or not, if I was being honest. I already knew she was just teasing me, and I’d felt those damn orgasms of hers. I knew they had been just as explosive as mine.
As if she could read my thoughts, Heidi leaned across the table and took my hand. “You already know I was just joking. I’m not going to stroke your ego by telling you again how mind-blowing all that was, which begs the question, why you’re hammering on this. What’s really going on in your head?”
“What do you mean?” Fuck, I’d thought she’d let it go, but apparently, she’d just been giving me a brief reprieve.
“Something has been bothering you since I opened my eyes this morning. I think you’re trying to avoid talking about it. That’s why you put on that show for those other people and that’s why you’re trying to make me keep talking about sex now. What’s really going on?”
I arched an eyebrow, trying to keep the corners of my lips from climbing. “You think you’ve got me all figured out, don’t you?”
“Not at all, which is why I’m asking.” She was surprisingly matter of fact about it, but then her tone became contrite. “If you regret—”
“I don’t.” Shit. I should have considered that she might think that was what this was all about when in fact, it was the complete opposite. “I don’t regret a single fucking second we’ve spent together so far, and I’m hoping to get a lot more.”
“Good.” She smiled but kept her hand on mine. “Because I meant what I said last night. I really like you, Will. I don’t care where you live or whatever else it is that you’re worried about.”
“Your perception of me might change.” The words were out before I could stop them, but when I really thought about it, I supposed it was for the best that they were out there now. “You might not like me so much once that happens.”
Heidi didn’t reply straight away. She withdrew her hand and ate a few bites of her food, washing it down with some orange juice. “I’m not sure what your perception of me is, but you’re wrong if you think I’m going to think differently about you just because of where you live.”
Was I wrong? It wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility, but it seemed unlikely. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course.” She flashed me another bright smile before tucking into her food again.
Throughout breakfast we talked about random things, ending with her telling me about her last few days on the job. “Can you believe that people keep doing that? Asking me for ketchup to put on their eggs. It’s weird.”
“Rayce puts ketchup on his eggs.” I shrugged, having let go of any lingering discomfort with eggs near ketchup years ago. “Are you working today?”
Heidi lifted her shoulders, pressing the corners of her mouth in. “I don’t have to go. It’s just a job. There are plenty more of them out there.”
“Well that’s…” I trailed off. There weren’t really so many jobs out there, but I guessed if you didn’t have to worry about making rent at the end of the month and had time to search for something else, she might be right. “In that case, would you like to spend the day with me? I’m not working today, and I was thinking about going surfing.”
“Surfing?” Heidi’s eyes lit up with excitement, her spine straightening and her body leaning toward mine as if she just couldn’t help it. “I’d love to. I’ve never surfed before. Will you teach me?”
“Absolutely.” I grinned, then cleared the last few morsels of food from my plate. “Eat up. You’re going to need all the energy you can get.”
A few hours later, I carried my surfboard out of the water and Heidi rubbed her brow with a wet hand. “You weren’t kidding about needing all the energy I could get. That was brutal. Who knew you could sweat so much while you were in the water?”
I laughed, nodding, as I stood the board up in the sand and grabbed two bottles of water from my pack. I handed one over to Heidi, then popped the lid on mine and swallowed down a few mouthfuls. “Yeah, it’s not as cool and easy as it looks.”
“But it was fun.” Heidi grinned. She looked fucking gorgeous with her hair wild and dripping, her skin glowing from the afternoon in the sun and her eyes so happy they were sparkling almost as much as the water behind her. “Thanks for teaching me. Are we going to do it again?”
“You bet.” I’d have taken her surfing every damn day if it meant getting to spend all that time with her. “You about ready to go home?”
I didn’t want our time together to be over yet, but the sun was going to be setting soon. Heidi’s gaze followed mine to the horizon and she nodded. “Yeah, I’d better get back.”
When we got to her house, she twisted in the passenger seat of the truck to face me before climbing out. “I really enjoyed our time together today, but next time I see you, I’m going to your place. Okay?”
Damn it. Fuck. If I refused again, this was going to become even more of a thing than it already was. Why she wanted to see my apartment so badly, I didn’t know. It was possible that she was curious now because of how much I’d avoided it so far.
Whatever the reason, I could see from the fierce look in her eye and the determined expression she wore that my time for avoidance was over. Heidi was going to insist on seeing where I lived, regardless of how much I kicked against it. I was just going to have to deal with it. “Yeah, okay.”
Chapter 24
Heidi
Valerie looked up from the couch when I walked into the house, her long legs crossed on the pillows and a magazine lying open on her lap. She arched a brow, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
“The prodigal friend has returned. I was wondering if Will was ever going to let you come home, or if he just planning on keeping you at his place until you finally managed to break out.”
I snorted, dropping into the armchair across from her. “If he’d actually have taken me to his place, I might have let him keep me there.”
“You weren’t at his house last night?” A small crinkle appeared between Valerie’s eyebrows. “You didn’t come home, so we just assumed you’d gone there when you texted us to say you’d be back today.”
“We went to a hotel.” A really nice hotel, but a hotel, nonetheless. I was really starting to wonder about his motivations for keeping me away from his house. Although last night, his reasoning about it being too far away made se
nse.
Shifting in the chair, I swung my legs over one of the armrests and leaned against the other to get comfortable. “What are you doing home, anyway? Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“Shouldn’t you?” she countered, then sighed. “Olive’s pissed at us for ditching, by the way.”
“I figured she would be.” Incurring Olive’s wrath was a consequence I’d known would be coming from the moment I decided not to go to work. Spending the time with Will had definitely been worth it, though. “Why didn’t you go?”
Valerie shrugged her inked shoulders, one of the thin straps of her tank sliding off from the movement. She left it to hang there. “If you weren’t going to be there, why should I? The customers at that place treat us like shit.”
“They do,” I agreed. I’d been hoping after that one family on my first day that the customers would get better. Some of them were okay, but the rich people around here mostly treated servers like an afterthought. Almost as if we weren’t really people. I had no idea how Olive had been putting up with getting treated that way for so long and still managed to love her job. “I’m assuming Olive didn’t ditch too?”
“Of course not.” Valerie rolled her hazel eyes, shaking her head as if the very idea of Olive staying home from work was ridiculous. It kind of was, now that I thought about it. “Mother Goose went to work like the responsible adult she is.”
Sighing, I took a peek around the room as I contemplated Valerie’s answer. Our jobs at the diner were shitty, but at least they meant that we could stay here. A few months ago, I never would have even let myself imagine having a living room that overlooked the ocean. Now look where I was.
“We should probably try to do the same thing from now on. We need the money.”
“True.” She nodded, following my gaze around the room before hers settled on mine again. “I’m not sorry for missing today, though, are you? I really needed a day off.”
“Me too. Plus, I got to spend some more time with Will. It was awesome. He taught me how to surf, Val.”
She let out a little squeak, swinging her legs off the couch and letting her feet land on the hardwood floors with a thud. “Are you serious? I’ve been dying to give it a try. Think he’ll teach me too?”
“I can ask him?”
“Please do.” Her eyes darted to the ocean for a second, becoming dreamy. I knew Valerie well enough to know that she was imagining herself sliding down some kind of monster wave like a pro.
Adrenaline junkie. I smiled at the thought. Val sure knew how to keep herself, and us for that matter, entertained. “It’s really hard work, though. Not nearly as easy as it looks.”
“You mean you don’t think I’ll get it right on the first try?” She pressed her hand to her chest, batting her eyebrows before she giggled. “Better see if Will has a friend who could teach me then. I wouldn’t want you getting jealous because lover boy has to have his hands on me for however many hours it takes to learn.”
My stomach twisted at the thought of Will having his hands on any other woman. At least I knew I could trust Val, but she was right. I wouldn’t like seeing him touching someone else, which meant I was in trouble with this guy.
If I couldn’t even stand the thought of him touching one of my best friends to teach her how to do something she really wanted to learn to do, my feelings for him had to run deeper than I’d previously given them credit for.
“I’ll ask if he has a friend.”
Val’s eyebrows climbed to her hairline as her chin dropped. “You’re really starting to develop feelings for this guy, aren’t you? I was mostly joking about the friend thing until just now.”
“I just don’t like the idea of him touching anyone else right now,” I admitted, letting my eyes drift away from hers to watch the sun dipping low and kissing the ocean on the horizon. “I think I’d rather rub chili salt in my eyes than to see that.”
Valerie laughed. “No need for anything quite that drastic. I’ll find someone else to teach me. You can keep the chili salt out of your eyes.” She hesitated for a second, which was totally unlike her. “Are you, like, starting to actually fall for this guy?”
“I think I might be.” It sure felt like I was, even if I hadn’t known him for all that long. “I get this strange, jittery feeling in my stomach when I’m with him. And my heart is always racing and doing cheesy things like skipping beats.”
“You’re definitely falling for him.” Her easygoing demeanor turned serious then, a look she didn’t wear often, but when she did, it turned her into the fiercely loyal friend who had gotten me through so damn much in life. “That’s really fast, Heidi. What do you even know about him?”
“He’s a good guy with a tough past.” I understood why Valerie would feel the way she obviously did about this, but I felt safe with Will. It didn’t feel like I was being reckless with my heart or anything. “You don’t have to worry about him, Val. He’s not hiding some deep, dark, dangerous secret.”
“How would you know?” She crossed her arms over her chest and legs on the couch, letting me know she was rooted to that spot until she was satisfied with my answers. “He could be dangerous. Don’t you think it’s a big deal that he wouldn’t take you to his house? What if he’s a serial killer and has the skins of all the women from his past hanging on the wall?”
I snorted, unable to stop my laugh completely. “You’re being dramatic, babe. Whatever it is that’s keeping him from taking me to his place, it’s not that. I’m okay, I promise.”
“Maybe I am being dramatic.” She paused for effect, her eyes rounding. “But maybe I’m not. Maybe it’s true. You wouldn’t know until you’ve been there.”
My reassurance that I definitely didn’t get a serial-killer vibe from Will was cut off before I could even start forming the words. The front door banged open and Olive stormed in, leveling us both with a glare that meant business.
“What the fuck were you two thinking, not coming in today?” Her eyes shot daggers at Valerie. “I was really hoping that you were going to drop that sucky ‘if Heidi’s not going, I’m not going’ excuse. What are you, six?”
Val opened her mouth to reply, but Olive lifted a finger in the air and let it hang there as she turned her fury on me. “And you. You can’t ditch work over a fucking guy you don’t even know. Not only do we need the money, but both of you also need to learn what ‘work’ means.”
She spat the word “work” like it was in a foreign language and saying it louder might make us understand it. “If you work, you have a job that requires you to actually fucking be there every day. It’s not a ‘knit one, slip one’ concept, girls. If you’ve got a shift, you show up for it. Unless you’re in the hospital or have another excuse that’s actually acceptable. Hanging around at home and fucking some hottie you just met don’t qualify as acceptable excuses.”
“First, could both of you please stop saying that I don’t know Will or that I’ve just met him?” I knew that wasn’t at all what Olive’s rant was really about, but I needed to get it cleared up. “I know that I haven’t technically known him for a very long time, but I have gotten to know him. You don’t need to know someone for years before you know who they are. Will and I click. We’ve really talked and gotten to know each other. He means something to me.”
“She’s falling for him,” Valerie informed Olive, who narrowed her eyes at me.
“You’re falling for him?”
I nodded, then lifted up my palms to show her that I was coming in peace and gave her a huge hug. “I’m sorry for skipping out on work today. I promise I’ll be there every day from now on, okay?”
She hugged me back before releasing me to give me a stern look, blue eyes blazing. “You better. Both of you.”
Valerie’s head swung from side to side. “Nope, that’s Heidi promise. I can’t promise you anything like that. I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day.”
I went back to the armchair, settling into
my comfortable position once more and crossed my arms. If Olive and Val were about to get into it, it could take a while. At least I would be comfortable before I had to enter my role as occasional peacemaker.
Chapter 25
Will
“Mr. Campton, I was surprised to have heard from you again.” Justine Smith extended her hand for me to shake, but she didn’t seem to want me to touch her. Her lips were curled into a somewhat disgusted sneer, and her hand had barely touched mine before she withdrew again.
I wondered if the bitchy realtor knew that being poor wasn’t a contagious disease she could catch from me. Not that I was poor, but she clearly thought I was. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Ms. Smith. Thank you for arranging a viewing of the house for me.”
It was a different one than what she had shown Rayce and me before, but it was in the same neighborhood and had a similar price tag.
“Of course.” Her cold eyes were assessing as they scanned me from head to foot and back again. Almost as if she had x-ray vision and was trying to determine if my wallet weighed enough for her to waste her time on me. “The owner is not very negotiable on the price. They recently spent some money fixing the house up, so he’s not going to fall for giving you a discount for maintenance to be done.”
My eyes were fucking begging to roll, but this listing had looked great online last night. Unfortunately, Justine was the only realtor to advertise the house. Otherwise, I would have contacted someone else to show it to me.
“That’s fine. It falls slap-bang into my budget for a new place, so that won’t be a problem.” My smile was as fake as her blown-up lips, but at least I managed one.
“Very well, then.” She still didn’t believe me, but I didn’t really give a fuck. If I bought this place, she would be earning a decent payday for doing nothing but giving me ten minutes of her precious time.
