Rumor Has It (Friendship, Texas Book 2)

by Magan Vernon

  Usually after an orgasm, I expected the guy to stop, but Eddie started using my hand to strum a faster beat on the guitar, his fingers inside me picking up the pace as well and bringing me to another orgasm.

  I came again and again, until finally I couldn’t hold the guitar and collapsed against Eddie’s chest.

  We sat there for a while with his fingers still inside me, while I breathed heavily against his chest.

  “I don’t know if that gift was for you or for me,” he whispered. “You’re so hot when you come undone.”

  I leaned back to press my lips to his, but before I could even get close, the front door burst open.

  I jumped to the other side of the couch, knocking the guitar down in the process. I grabbed it, sitting cross-legged on the other end of the couch. As if his parents didn’t know what was going on and as if we weren’t two almost thirty-year-olds.

  “Mom, Dad, guess the Conti’s party was a bust?” Eddie put his hands in his pockets, slowly standing up.

  I followed suit, putting the guitar down and wishing I could reach my hand down my pants because my panties were definitely out of whack.

  Lydia smiled. “It was a good time. Just wanted to get Gramps home. Y’all can stay here; we’re going up to bed anyway.”

  Lydia turned toward me, giving me a wink. I knew she and my mom always had this secret wish that Eddie and I would get together, but I didn’t exactly want to practice making the future Jahid-Carrington kids while they were asleep upstairs.

  “Uh, I better get going and see my family too. Merry Christmas, y’all,” I said, rushing toward the door.

  “Keep practicing guitar, Brooke,” Eddie said.

  I glanced back at his wide smile.

  “And when you do, think of me,” he whispered.

  Chapter 12

  Moving day was finally here. Not that I had a ton of stuff and neither did Clay. But once Mom got used to the idea that we were moving down the road, she said we could take our bedroom furniture and some furniture from one of the living rooms.

  Clay had the closing at nine am and took Mom with him, so I was in charge of delegating our ragtag team of movers.

  Nick Conti pulled up in the driveway first in his old pickup with his brother in the passenger seat. Boxes and furniture already filled the truck bed.

  “What is this?” I asked, walking over to the truck and gesturing to the back.

  Nick smiled, patting the wheel well. “Did you really think we’d be able to get out of the house without Ma trying to load y’all up with more stuff for your new place?”

  I looked at the array of restaurant boxes, coffee and end tables, and lamps. “Your parents didn’t have to do this!”

  All I had was my old bedroom set and the suitcase I brought with me from Austin. I couldn’t even remember what I still had at Drake’s place. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, I barely even thought of him, which sounded shitty, but during the past few years of our relationship, we’d basically been roommates. I’d pay my portion of the rent and groceries. We’d have sex if I got drunk enough—it was always mediocre—and usually, I’d finish myself off later. I should have broken up with him when he got the job in Austin. But at that point, we were stuck in the same rut, and I didn’t have the backbone to break it off and go crawling back to live with my parents in Friendship. It was funny how things ended up with everyone back in the tiny town we all said we would leave someday.

  “Yeah, and Ma’s instructed Lia to bring pasta Milanese by after lunch,” Nicky’s brother, Sonny, said, hopping out of the passenger seat.

  Sonny was Clay’s age, but they didn’t hang in the same high school crowd. I knew Sonny as the smartass kid who used to unwrap all of the silverware and loosen the lids on the parmesan cheese then blame it on his little sister.

  Now, the pain in the ass had grown into the typical tanned guido jock with slicked-back hair and a bright white smile that I was sure had a few girls throwing their panties in his direction.

  “Lia? As in the little girl who used to sit in the back office and watch PBS on Saturdays while I worked the afternoon shift?” I asked.

  Nicky smiled. “Yeah, she’s all grown up now. Still the same girl who would rather put on her headphones and listen to music than be with people, but she’s a knockout. You should talk to her; give her some writerly advice or something.”

  “Does she want to be a writer?” I asked.

  Nicky shrugged. “Hell if I know. She doesn’t talk to us much.”

  Before I could say anything else, another truck and a Jeep pulled in. Eddie and Noah each got out of their respective vehicles and walked up to us.

  “Where’s Clay? He told us to be here at ten,” Noah asked.

  “Still at the closing, but we could probably start packing up and have him meet us there,” I said.

  “I told Lia to come by at noon,” Nicky said.

  “Your hot sister?” Noah wiggled his eyebrows.

  Sonny glared at him. “Watch it. I know you’ve got the body language down, but if you look at my sister wrong, I will knock those hearing aids out.”

  Noah put his hands up. “Okay, okay. I get it.”

  Eddie smiled. He stood out like a beacon between all of the other guys who were cute in their own right, but nobody fit a pair of faded Levi’s and stretched out an old white t-shirt like him. And damn did I want to get under that shirt and Levi’s. I couldn’t stop thinking about our night together on Christmas Eve and wishing we both didn’t have so many obligations, family and otherwise. But maybe tonight, in my own place, we wouldn’t have to worry.

  “Want to just start packing up and have Clay meet us there?” Eddie asked, his eyes meeting mine.

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” I replied.

  Nicky groaned. “Okay, let’s pack this shit up so you two can quit eye fucking.”

  “Aw, Nicky, don’t be jealous,” Eddie said, putting his arm around the big guy.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” Nicky said, following me into the house.

  As soon as we walked in, I found Violet on the couch with her head down. I expected the bubbly little girl to want to help as much as she could, especially on a day off from school, but she was being quiet.

  “Hey, can y’all head up to my room and start with that furniture? Eddie knows which one it is. I’ll meet you up there in a second,” I said, walking toward the couch.

  “Of course Eddie knows where your room is,” Sonny said with a laugh.

  I waited until their laughter dissipated up the stairs before I sat on the couch next to Vi. “Hey, why the long face?” I asked.

  She just shrugged, keeping her head down.

  “Did I do something to upset you?”

  Violet looked up, her eyes watering. “You and Clay are leaving. You just got here, and you’re leaving again.”

  I smiled, putting my arm around my little sister. “Vi, we aren’t leaving. We’re moving just a few miles up the road. You’re still going to see us.”

  She sniffled. “Yeah, but not as much. Who’s going to be here when I’m home from school? Who’s going to sit and watch cartoons with me before bed?”

  “I can still do all of those things with you. Maybe not every night, but we can still do them.”

  “But it’s not the same,” Violet whined.

  “I know, Vi. You know, my best friend moved away when I was just seventeen, and I thought it was the end of the world.”

  She looked up at me with watery eyes. “You did?”

  I nodded, pushing a strand of her long brown hair behind her ears. “For a long time. And he was in Nashville, a lot farther that I’m going to be from you. I really thought I’d never see him again.”

  “What happened? Did you see him?” Violet asked.

  I glanced over to the stairwell where Eddie and Nicky were arguing while moving my dresser down the steep stairs. When Eddie’s eyes met mine, he smiled and winked before going back to his work.

  I smiled, loo
king back at Vi. “He came back like he always said he would.”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out Eddie’s white guitar pick. “He gave me this the night before he left and told me it was lucky. I didn’t know how lucky it was until recently, and now that I’ve used the luck, I think it’s time to pass it on to you. Now, you’ll know I have to come back.” I set the small white pick in her hand.

  “But what if you need it? How will your best friend know to come back for you?” Violet asked.

  I heard the sound of Eddie’s boots on the hardwood floor behind me.

  “He already did,” I said, smiling at Violet.

  ***

  Clay pulled up to the house just as our truck-filled convoy turned into the driveway.

  “Holy shit, did we really have this much stuff?” Clay asked, hopping out of the cab of his truck.

  “Yeah and we all loaded it all up without your lazy ass,” Noah said, climbing out of his Jeep.

  I was the first to pull into the driveway; my little sedan looked dwarfed by the rows of giant Fords.

  Clay dangled his keys “Ready to get into home sweet home, sis?”

  “Yep,” I said with as much excitement as I could muster.

  I’d briefly glanced at my bank account and my last book payment. I had basically enough to cover the rent I agreed to pay Clay and some left over for an off brand soda at the gas station. If I were going to stay here, I would have to suck it up and get a job or sell my soul to get a book deal or something.

  “Hey, why the long face?” Nicky asked, after he came back outside from helping his brother carry in the sofa.

  “Nothing. Just tired is all. Moving is a lot of work,” I said, mustering up a smile.

  “You sure it isn’t Mr. Bedazzled Ass over there who’s causing you problems?” Nicky asked, nodding his head to the left where Eddie and Clay were carrying a dresser into the house.

  I shook my head. “No, things are fine with Eddie and me.”

  Nicky waited until Clay and Eddie got inside the house before he turned back to me. “Look, Brooke, I’ve known you and Eddie forever. We’ve all grown up in this town, and I’ve watched that guy break your heart I don’t know how many times.”

  I rolled my eyes, grabbing a box. “I think you’re exaggerating. Eddie and I have always just been friends.”

  “I know the way you’ve always looked at him, and the way he looks at you, and that ain’t friendly. That’s the look of someone who wants to rip the other’s clothes off.”

  “Well, um, you know we’re older, and things tend to progress,” I said, trying to fumble for my words.

  Nicky grabbed another box, and we walked toward the back of the house and the open gate.

  “I know you had some hanky-panky going on in his gramps’s deer stand, but I also know what my sister and her friends see about him on those gossip sites.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Nicky stopped in front of me and turned around. We were on the back patio near the pool where Noah was slumped over with his back to us. The other guys were inside and none the wiser to our conversation.

  “Look, Brooke, I know that you’ve been in love with this guy forever, and he broke your damn heart when he left. He’s changed since he moved, and he ain’t that same old farm boy who used to come crying because he got beat up by a guy on the football team. Just be careful, okay? Don’t let him take the good parts of you.”

  “I won’t, Nick,” I said, but even as I said the words, I wasn’t sure I meant them.

  Eddie had always been a part of me, and now that he was back, I was finally starting to feel whole again for the first time in forever.

  “Hey, can someone help me with this?” a faint voice called. Nicky and I set down our boxes and walked to the front of the house.

  A short girl with dark brown hair piled in a bun on her head, black-framed glasses, and a shirt that read, “Say something” stretched across her chest. A very large chest for how petite she was otherwise.

  “Lia, what the hell are you doing carrying that all by yourself?” Nicky swooped in and grabbed the two giant trays from her.

  “Lia? Lia Conti?” Clay’s voice carried from behind me. “Holy shit, she grew up,” he whispered.

  “’Ey, that’s my sister,” Sonny warned, coming up beside him.

  “Ma loaded me up with enough food to feed the entire town, so I hope y’all are hungry,” she said, taking out another tray from the back of her beat up Jeep.

  It always cracked me up to see the Conti siblings. Even though they had a dark olive complexion, their Texas accents rang strong.

  Clay practically pushed me out of the way. “Here, let me help you with that,” he said, grabbing the tray from Lia.

  He smiled wider than I’d ever seen him and carried on a conversation with Lia, who giggled at everything he said. I knew my brother wasn’t that funny.

  Noah watched Lia, his eyes trailing down her jeans as she followed Clay into the house. If she saw Eddie inside, she’d be sure to have total heart failure if she was going to blush at my brother.

  Nicky snapped his fingers in front of Noah. “’Ey. That’s my little sister. Quit staring or I’ll break your legs.”

  “Unless I let your sister break them first,” Noah joked before running into the house. Nicky tumbled after, waving his fist in the air.

  I just shook my head and followed them inside.

  “Mom said this is the last slumber party we get to have,” I said, laying out my sleeping bag then crawling out of the tent.

  “Yeah, Dad said the same thing,” Eddie said, sitting on a log by our tiny campfire.

  We’d been camping ever since the first grade, and it was always just in our backyards where either my parents or his parents could see us from the back porch.

  “I think they think we really will get married or something,” I said.

  “Ew, marry you?” Eddie said with a laugh, plopping down on a log by the fire. The rule was that one of our parents had to light it and put it out, but we could still roast marshmallows.

  I shoved his shoulder before snatching the bag of marshmallows from his hands and taking the seat next to him. “Hey! I’m not that bad.”

  “What about me? What would you say to marrying me?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows as he grabbed one of our skewers and handed me the other one.

  I shrugged, putting the marshmallow on the stick then holding it over the fire. “I don’t know. I guess it could be worse.”

  “Brooke Carrington, are you saying you want to marry me?” Eddie asked.

  “No! I’m just saying that if I had to choose between you or your gramps’s dog, I’d choose you.”

  He laughed, putting his marshmallow next to mine over the fire. “Good to know that I’m preferred over Blue Bonnet.”

  We ate our marshmallows in silence, and I snuck quick glances at my best friend. We were going into the middle school where people got demerits for holding hands, and there would be school dances. I didn’t think I’d ever feel that way about the boy next door.

  “So if we’re gonna get married and all, does that mean you’re gonna show me what’s under your training bra?” Eddie asked before popping a big marshmallow in his mouth.

  “In your dreams, Jahid.”

  After getting the house semi together and eating our weight in Italian food, Sonny and Nicky left for work at the restaurant, and Noah and Clay headed for an event at the ranch.

  That just left Eddie and me.

  He slumped down on the worn sofa. “Man, I thought my trainer was hard on me. His reps aren’t half as bad as trying to carry a bed through a house when Sonny is staring more at his phone than actually helping.”

  “Sorry, I guess good movers are hard to find,” I muttered.

  Eddie looked over the back of the couch at me, opening his arms. “Come. Sit with me and stare at this TV that took Clay way too freaking long to hook up.”

  I wrinkled my nose, thinking of the way my t-shirt clung to m
e, drenched in sweat, and how I had to smell probably worse than I felt. “I’m going to hop in the shower first.”

  “Want me to join you?” he asked.

  “Um ...”

  He stood up, grinning and slowly peeled his shirt off before tossing it on the couch.

  I’d seen Eddie without his shirt plenty of times growing up and even more now on magazines. But seeing the newly ripped six-pack and those hipbones that dipped into his Levi’s, I was practically panting like a dog in heat.

  “Do you expect me to whip my shirt off too like some girl in a music video? Because if I did that, I’d probably break something.”

  The grin widened on Eddie’s face as he sauntered around the couch until he was right in front of me.

  “Then I’ll take it off for you,” he whispered in a husky voice.

  I gulped; doing the only thing left to do, I lifted my arms over my head.

  He pulled my shirt off as if it wasn’t an old sweaty thing, and his eyes roamed over my now bare chest and stomach. I wasn’t exactly the most in-shape person and my wider hips and skinny waist were something I’d hated in high school. But as an adult, I definitely knew Eddie appreciated the curves when he bit his bottom lip before putting his hands on my hips.

  He lifted me up as if I was as light as a feather, and I wrapped my legs around his waist, letting him carry me to the single bathroom.

  Eddie let me go slowly, my tennis shoes hitting the tile floor. The bathroom wasn’t the smallest in the world, but it wasn’t huge either. At least the guy who owned the house before us updated it a bit with a stand-up tile shower and a glass door.

  Before I could move to make sure I had clean towels and shampoo somewhere, Eddie’s lips were on mine, and his hands made quick work of the button and zipper of my jeans.

  His kisses were hot and longing, letting me taste the sweet heat of his tongue as he licked and nibbled my bottom lip. His hands roaming over every part of me as soon as I was free of my clothes, turned me into a puddle of goo.

  I was too turned on to even think about anything but the feel of Eddie’s lips on my body. It wasn’t until he whispered in my ear that I was knocked back to reality.