Someday Soon (the Not Yet series Book 3)

by Laura Ward

  I waved, climbing into my truck, and headed to the bar near my mom’s apartment for a few beers before bed. It had become a normal routine lately.

  Numbing my brain seemed easier than trying to rationalize with my dick. Back in college, if a girl was hot and we were into each other, we’d hook up. That would be it. Daisy was hotter than hot, but there was more. I wanted to know her. I wanted to protect her. I wanted to be close to her. Even if that meant my dick was in a constant state of unwanted, not-ever-fucking-needed Viagra.

  With a face as perfect and a body as sexy as hers, I was going to need a lot more than beer to calm myself the hell down.

  Chapter Three

  Daisy

  SHEETS TANGLED AROUND my legs as I tossed and turned in bed.

  I ran through a field of sunflowers, looking over my shoulder and laughing. I felt free and deliriously joyful.

  “I’m gonna catch you,” Jon taunted from behind me.

  I giggled as his arms wrapped around my waist and he twirled me around and around in a circle. He set my feet on the ground and spun me to face him.

  “You’re so beautiful, Sunshine.” He gazed down, a look of awe on his face and sincerity in his soft brown eyes.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and crushed my body against his. Jon’s lips met mine, gentle at first, and then more aggressively. Like it was the first time. The last time. Never enough.

  Fireworks rocked through my body. I shuddered, the feeling so intense it brought tears to my eyes.

  My tongue slid along his, and I moaned into his mouth. My back arched, my breasts rubbing through my shirt against Jon’s chest, causing pleasure to ignite under my skin.

  Jon pulled back, his eyes blazing hot. “I want you.”

  I wanted him too. I nodded and lifted my dress over my head.

  I shot up in bed, my fists clutching handfuls of the sheets. My body throbbed and hummed, and I had the strongest desire to touch myself.

  Down there.

  Where I ached.

  For Jon.

  I snapped a look next to me at Dianna’s empty bed. The clock on the nightstand read eight o’clock in the morning.

  “Daisy! Are you up?” Mom knocked on my door before cracking it open. “You need to get moving!”

  My hands rubbed against my eyes. “I’m up. Thanks, Ma.”

  Mom shut my door, and I flung my body back on the bed.

  Damn Jon. Damn sexual frustration.

  Damn, damn, damn.

  ~~~

  As they had on Dean’s graduation day, Zionsville Academy would hold today’s ceremony at the football field. Hundreds of white chairs formed perfect rows, our family and friends filling the seats, while seniors stood in lines, sorted alphabetically by their last name. Thankfully, that meant I stood with Damian.

  Graduating a year early meant I only knew my brother. Sure, many seniors were friends with Damian and hung out at my house, but never with me. Standing among them added to my nerves.

  I’d begged my parents to let me skip walking the stage. Hearing my name called and having to walk the long path to where our principal held out diplomas filled me with dread. There probably wasn’t a more kind and decent administrator than Mr. Mahoney. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that when it came time to receive my diploma, every set of eyes would be on me. Would I fall? Trip? Get booed? Would Dean, my sibling that loved to tease the most, heckle me?

  Of course he would. Stupid question, Daisy.

  Damian turned away from his conversation and rested his hands on my shoulders. “You okay? Wait. Don’t answer that. You’re as white as a ghost.” Damian frowned, and my stomach rolled. I hated that my insecurities were so obvious that they affected what should be one of the happiest days of my brother’s life. “I know you’re dreading this part, but it’ll be over in two seconds. You have time to get a drink of water if you think that’ll help.” He jerked his head in the direction of the refreshment tent that was set up near the school building.

  I tried to answer him, but my throat was too dry. I pursed my lips and blew a short breath out of my nose. After a quick nod, I hustled to the tent, my wedges slapping against the pavement. With most families vying for seats up close, the tent was empty. I unscrewed the cap from a small bottle and drank the cool water in gulps. My stomach began to settle, and I closed my eyes.

  This was what I had been waiting for. I was so excited for the next few months of my life. A new chapter was starting today. I would graduate from high school and be on my way to becoming an adult. I just needed to make it across the stage.

  “Daisy?” The voice was high and dripping with insincerity, so I knew exactly who it was without even looking.

  Belinda.

  I held off a cringe and squared my shoulders to face her, opening my eyes to take in her hot pink mini dress and over-teased ponytail.

  Belinda and Marnie were always together, so I was shocked to see her alone today. Belinda smiled at me, and even that small gesture caused tears to form in the corners of my eyes.

  “I’m here to see my cousin’s boyfriend walk the stage, but I also wanted to wish you a happy graduation, Daisy.” Belinda’s voice softened, and she took my hand. “I’m sorry we grew apart. Good luck in the future.” Belinda reached her arms out and hugged me.

  I was unprepared for her words and action. After years of bullying, I couldn’t turn on a switch that immediately made my brain tell my arms to relax and hug her back. My body was stiff and awkward in her embrace, but I managed to return the gesture with one arm and a quick pat on the back.

  She pulled away with a happy grin on her face, which then transformed into a sexy smirk.

  “Jon Roberts. You get bigger each time I see you.” The tip of Belinda’s pink nailed finger traced her bottom lip. Her eyes narrowed in lustful appreciation as she looked Jon over from head to toe.

  My muscles tensed, an odd twitchy feeling making me want to yank on her trendy ponytail.

  Jon didn’t speak, but his glare was scary as shit. His hands formed fists that he planted on his hips and his jaw moved back forth as if he was holding back an explosion of words.

  “W-w-what?” Belinda tripped over the question, a dark blush forming on her cheeks.

  Jon focused on something behind me, his eyes squinting so hard they were almost closed. Damn. He was even hot when he was pissed.

  “Fix it. Now. Then apologize.” His words were clipped, seething with anger.

  My stomach fell to my feet, and I swayed with panic. No. No. Nonononono. What did they do to me now?

  Something pulled the top of my graduation gown from my back, and Marnie walked up next to Belinda, her head down, but not with shame. They both looked pissed that they were caught.

  Marnie must have been hiding behind me all along. In her hands was a yellow sign that I figured had been taped to my back. Written in large black letters were the words: Moo for the cow!

  I swayed, a vertigo-like dizziness overtaking me and I prayed I wouldn’t vomit. I couldn’t give them the pleasure.

  Jon leaned forward, and both girls shrunk away from his menacing scowl. “Put that down,” Jon growled. “And say you’re sorry. Now.”

  “Sorry,” Marnie sneered, her lip curled and nose wrinkled.

  “Sorry,” Belinda rolled her eyes. “That it didn’t work.”

  Jon gripped my shoulders and forced me to face him. “Want to say anything to these...these... people?” he asked, his voice gentle and his eyes searching mine.

  I couldn’t talk. If I did, I would sob. I shook my head, and both girls took off in a jog toward the parking lot, proving they weren’t attending a cousin’s boyfriend’s graduation. They were only there to give me hell.

  Jon took a huge breath in and then blew it out in a long puff. “I wish you would have given those girls hell, Daisy. Why did you let them off that easy?”

  I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “They’re not worth it, Jon.”

  “Look at me,” Jon de
manded. Reluctantly, I dragged my eyes up to meet his. His deep brown eyes were soft as he looked at me. “You are worth it, Sunshine. You are.”

  Static and the high-pitched sound of a microphone turning on filled the speakers, followed by a voice announcing that the ceremony was ready to begin. We walked briskly across the manicured grass back to the line of students. Before I found Damian and our place in line, Jon cupped my elbow in his grasp. His mouth lowered to my ear. As he spoke his breath was warm, causing a shiver to run up my spine. Any nervousness I’d been feeling evaporated. Man, the power his nearness had over me, I soaked it in.

  “I know you don’t like this, the feeling of being on display, but I’m here,” he said. “If you start to panic, look at the back row. I’ll stand up so you can see you have a friend.”

  Air stalled in my lungs, and I couldn’t speak again. Jon was too much. He was too good to me.

  “Daisy!” Damian yelled, and I startled. I pulled back from Jon and took a fortifying breath. Time to get this over with. I hurried to my brother just as our line began to walk to the stage.

  A short while later Principal Mahoney called out, “Daisy Goldsmith,” and my family went crazy yelling and clapping for me. I moved forward as panic began to swell. It curled and pooled in the pit of my stomach. Nausea ramped back up.

  Remembering Jon’s words, I looked to my side, over the stage, and to the back row. Jon loomed as tall as a tree. His thick arms were crossed in front of him, and he nodded, encouraging and guarding me at the same time.

  I allowed myself to feel pride at what I had accomplished and safe knowing Jon was watching over me. I smiled despite myself and finished my walk to graduate high school.

  Chapter Four

  Jon

  NOBODY THREW A party like Mrs. G. The Goldsmith’s weren’t rich, but they loved to celebrate their kids. Dean hired a deejay for the shindig, a step up from the usual to celebrate his siblings. Colorful balloons in red and gold, Zionsville Academy colors, were attached to every possible surface. With music and plenty of good food made by Daisy and her mom, friends of the Goldsmiths would arrive in droves throughout the day and would leave full and happy well into the night.

  Mr. G stood in front of his gas grill, smoke billowing out as he turned racks of ribs and hot dogs. His black grilling apron had a pig on the front wearing a chef’s hat and sunglasses. Underneath it read: Every Butt Likes a Rub.

  Delilah and Dianna just finished refilling the drink table. Sodas for the under-aged and beer for the lucky. Fuck, I needed a beer.

  Mind reader that he was, Dean whistled and I lifted my head just in time to catch a flying can. While I didn’t go pro like my quarterback best friend did, I had been his running back from Pee Wee football through college. If he threw it, I caught it.

  Cracking open the can, I took a long drink. Damn, Daisy looked hot. She’d been hiding her sexy self under that big white graduation gown. Now that she was home, what was underneath that gown was revealed; she wore a tight white dress that hugged every curve of her amazing body.

  Bent over the dessert table, her perfect ass beckoned me. It swayed and moved with her as she arranged her decorative cupcakes piled high with frosting. She added tiny graduation caps to the top of each.

  Too sweet. And tempting.

  She straightened and licked frosting from one finger, making me picture her using that tongue for something a hell of a lot more interesting. Christ almighty. I was as hard as a rock.

  “What up, nut-cannon?” Dean laughed as he joined me, popping the tab on his beer and clanking it against mine.

  Dean graduated from IU this past winter and moved out of our apartment to train for the NFL before being drafted in April. I missed the stupid fucker. To keep the bromance alive, we harassed each other by texting or calling with the most outrageous dick nicknames we could make up. It was funny as shit, so of course our best friends Landon and Ricky joined right in.

  “Not too much, cock-a-saurus rex.”

  Dean’s fiancée, Grace, had a four-year-old son named Finn. Dean drank his beer and Finn barreled straight into his legs. Dean didn’t see him coming, so his grunt and attempt to stay upright was particularly humorous.

  “Hey, Finn,” I rumpled his hair and the little guy giggled.

  “Hiya, Jon. Dean, want to play Frisbee with me and Devin?” Dean’s brother Devin stood off to the side, a beer in one hand and a Frisbee in another. Devin and Dianna just finished their junior year at Purdue University and came in for the festivities.

  Dean crouched next to Finn. “Nah, I’m too good. I’ll make Devin cry. You play with him for a while and let him win a few times, just for me. Okay, little dude?”

  Finn laughed, a well-practiced evil sound like the villains in cartoon movies. “Never! I’ll never let him defeat me! Muahahaha,” he chortled, and then turned to run toward Devin.

  Dean and I chuckled. “You ready to be a father to him, man?” I asked. When Dean asked Grace to marry him, he asked Finn too. I’d had my doubts about Dean’s commitment to this little family, but he’d proved me wrong.

  “I was ready yesterday. Gotta give Grace the big wedding she deserves first.” Dean took another drink of his beer. “We’re thinking about an early spring ceremony. After football season, but before camps or heavy training starts again. Think you could handle being a groomsman? Little dude will be my best man.”

  I grinned. That made sense. I wasn’t sure how Dean would pick his best man. He had his two brothers, Devin and Damian, and then his buddies, Landon, Ricky, and me. Choosing Finn was right on every level. “I’d be honored, man.” I held up my beer can to clink with his, but he held his away, a scowl on his face.

  “On one condition.” Dean narrowed his eyes at me and then looked away, toward Daisy.

  Fuck me.

  “I’ve seen you looking too long and too hard at her. You sat way too close to her on Draft Day. Just now you were staring at her ass. Not cool, man. She’s seven-fucking-teen.” Dean’s voice rose in anger.

  “For three more months.” As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, Dean’s face turned crimson red. I’d never seen his eyes bulge so wide or noticed that long, throbbing vein in his neck before. Fuck me hard. Or better yet, don’t. Thinking like that was what got me into this situation in the first place. “Hold on, that’s not my point.” I tossed my near-empty beer on the grass and threw my hands up.

  “What is your point, fuck-face?” Dean growled. From the corner of my eye, Grace walked our way, holding two plates of food.

  Thank you, sweet baby Jesus.

  “Dean,” I started and backed up three steps. “Daisy and I are friends. I’ve told you that. I’m not hitting on her.”

  Dean’s one eye twitched in a rapid-fire rhythm. His chest seemed to grow a few more inches as he puffed it out. His shoulders looked wider, too. Hell, that was some wonky shit.

  Just in the nick of time, Grace made it over and kissed Dean on his lips. The fight completely left him. Thank, Christ.

  If it wouldn’t get me nut punched, I’d kiss Grace, too.

  “Dean, back off.” Daisy approached our conversation, the look of warning on her face indicating she overheard us. I inhaled, the scent of sugar and sunshine filled the air around us, setting off another cataclysmic wave of need inside me. “Jon saved me today from quite possibly the most embarrassing moment of my life. You should be thanking him, not threatening the life of your best friend.”

  Dean dragged his glare from me to stare his sister down. “What are you talking about?”

  Daisy studied the ground, running the toe of her shoe over a few blades of grass before speaking. “Belinda and Marnie taped a mean sign on my back right before I was about to walk the stage to get my diploma. Jon saw them and stopped it.”

  She looked at me, her bright blue eyes shiny. “I never got a chance to thank you.” Her smile was small, but that didn’t lessen the tightness in my chest. I wanted to hurt those bitches. They were so obviously jealous
of Daisy. I only wished she could see that.

  “What can I do?” Dean asked Daisy. His voice was gentle and his expression pained. That protective fucker loved his family so much.

  She blinked her eyes and I knew she was holding back tears.

  “Nothing. Just be nice to Jon. He didn’t do anything wrong.” Daisy said, and turned to me. “You hungry? Ribs are finished and I made potato salad and deviled eggs.”

  I moaned, and she grinned. Daisy walked toward the food and as I started to follow, Dean caught up to me.

  “Behave, man. I’m watching.” Dean spoke low, his voice serious.

  I nodded, clapping him on the back. “I hear you, dude.”

  And I did. And it wasn’t a problem. Because Daisy and I were just friends.

  ~~~

  A few hours later, the party wound down. Mr. and Mrs. G put the food away and went inside to watch television. The Goldsmith siblings were scattered around the yard in groups, catching up with their friends. Well, five of them were. Where was Daisy?

  There was only one place I thought Daisy could be. A short walk from Dean’s home was a lake where we used to sneak beers when we were younger. All the siblings escaped there when they needed a break.

  The sun was setting as I approached the water, causing the sky to fill with pink and orange, so bright it almost looked other-worldly. Those same colors reflected along the water. The sounds of lapping water on the shore and of birds chirping back and forth were the only noises made. And sure enough, the prettiest sight of them all, sat in front of the lake, her arms wrapped around her legs. I plopped down next to her, silent. After a few minutes, I looked sideways and caught her watching me.

  She bit her lip and focused on the shimmering lake. “Have you ever seen the ocean?”

  “Once. Landon’s family took me with them on a summer vacation.” Stretching my legs in front of me, I leaned back on my elbows.