“What? How is that possible?” he asked disbelievingly, still sitting close to me with his elbows resting on his knees in front of him. I guess that wasn’t something people normally said.
“I don’t not believe in it either,” I clarified, shrugging my shoulders and digging around in my bag for my stick of Burt’s Bees lip balm. I gave a little extra shake as I rooted around, knowing that my boobs were one of his weaknesses.
Even hidden by sunglasses, I could tell his eyes were on my chest as I glanced up surreptitiously from under my lashes. “Am I missing something here, or are we talking in circles?”
Stopping my search and meeting his eyes, I attempted to explain. “Look at our ancestors. They spent years in the sun, sans the so-called protection of sunscreen, and yet, skin cancer was far less prevalent. Now, sunscreen is all but gospel and, boom, it’s everywhere.”
“Have you researched this?” he replied skeptically. “I’m not sure it’s that cut and dry.”
“No, no,” I said with a wave. “I haven’t looked that deeply into it. I’m just saying that I rarely take the word of The Man. Too often truth gets proven false and vice versa.”
“I didn’t take you for someone who questioned authority,” he puzzled, the line of his eyebrows pushing down to sit right at the top rim of his sunglasses.
“I didn’t.” I shrugged and pursed my lips. “Never, ever did. Then Nick died. And truthfully, I still didn’t all that much. But as my daughter got older she showed me a thing or two about free-thinking. And really recently, I’ve started to employ it more and more. I’ve gotta tell you, I kind of like it.”
Sunglasses slid down the line of his nose with the help of one long finger. Studying me closely, his eyes moved all around. I let it happen until the weight of his scrutiny became unbearable. Something about someone else trying so hard to figure me out when I didn’t even know who I was freaked me out.
“Wade—”
“You have to go down this slide, Mama!” Haley screamed as the three amigos came bounding over to our chairs.
“What slide?” I asked, sitting up and scooting my sunglasses down the sweat-glossed seam of my nose like Wade had just done. “I’m probably not interested.”
“The Mayan Temple!”
“The one that looks like a temple?” I asked by way of distraction. One glance had me looking at a slide that went literally straight down.
Wade snorted his amusement from his position on the lounge chair beside me. Obviously, he found me funny.
“I don’t think I saw that Friends episode,” Danny muttered mostly to himself. He was loud enough to make me smile though.
“That’s the one!” Haley cheered simultaneously with a jump, skip, and wag of her eyebrows.
It was no wonder she was so skinny, burning all that energy all the time. I swore there was a sugared-up toddler trapped inside of her body somewhere.
“Um, yeah. No thanks.”
“Come on, it’s not that bad. Looking at it from here makes it look worse.”
I sincerely doubted that. Looking down the barrel of a gun was always worse.
“And you go through the clear tube in the aquarium which is so cool.”
I shook my head.
Her tone turned accusatory. “You have to do it.”
“I don’t think—”
“Come on!” she whined loudly, throwing herself at the foot of my lounger. All of the time in the sun seemed to be making her more ridiculous than normal.
“I’ll go too, Alli,” Wade offered, completely screwing me over by taking away my out.
“What about your shoulder?” I hedged, hoping I could still salvage an escape.
“It’s fine,” he assured me graciously, totally missing the opportunity to pick up one of the multitude of hints I’d dropped. I almost stomped my foot.
“Yeah, Allison. This thing won’t put any pressure on his shoulder,” Danny said dramatically. Now that he was securely in a relationship with my daughter, he sure liked to stir shit.
“Ughhh,” I groaned directly into four expectant faces before ultimately giving in. Too much of my DNA was people pleasing. With this many opponents, I never stood a chance.
Carefully shifting my body off of the chair, I stood, bending over to pick up my bag and use it as a placeholder for my chair. Done, I adjusted the triangles of my top and pulled at the line of my bottom. One glance over my shoulder confirmed what I already knew. Wade’s eyes were watching.
As I turned back to face forward and started to walk, Wade’s hand settled into the small of my naked back, making my nerve endings stand up and take notice. He’d been escorting me in this same manner almost everywhere we went, but the lack of coverage associated with bathing suit wearing took it to an entirely different level. It felt intimate, and thanks to one languorous night, familiar.
I desperately didn’t want to crave his touch, but this was a battle I had no chance of winning. Rough and soft at the same time, his hand on my back made my skin hum.
Keeping my eyes forward, I put one clumsy foot in front of the other and watched my step in order to prevent an injury.
A line formed relatively close to the bottom of the stairs, and slowed to a crawl about halfway up. The only thing worse than actually going down the slide was the anticipation as I made my way up to do it.
Wade tried his best to calm my nerves, something that he didn’t have to look very hard to find, but the fact that we weren’t an actual couple somewhat limited his abilities. Apparently, he drew the line at putting his hands all over me in front of our kids. The good parts, anyway.
Either that, or he just knew I wouldn’t like it. At least not at this stage in the game. I’d let them see it if and when I decided that I actually liked him.
Okay, I already liked him.
I just had to decide if I could handle that on top of everything else right now.
As the line moved, Haley and Danny chatted back and forth. Wade, Hunter, and I listened with mouths agog.
The two of them as a couple were seriously one of the most fun things I’d ever encountered.
“I designed the shit out of that thing,” Haley boasted, talking about the headboard she’d designed for their house made solely out of old books. I had to agree that it was unbelievably awesome.
“You did,” Danny agreed, giving her an encouraging nod she didn’t really need.
“And that’s what I told that witch, Janis.”
“Who’s Janis?” Wade asked me in an aside. I didn’t have a chance to reply.
Danny and Hunter both chuckled. “Janis has a big mouth. That’s it. It makes her good at her job.”
“I’m sure most of her johns aren’t sporting ten inch cocks,” Haley protested loudly, making an obscenely inappropriate gesture with her hands.
I looked around at all of the parents and their kids in apology. I could barely take her anywhere. Lord only knew what my grandkids were going to run around saying.
“She’s a prostitute?” Wade asked again, trying to keep up.
This time, Hunter answered through a laugh while Danny and Haley stayed focused on each other. “Knox PD receptionist.”
His confusion was comically evident, the expression on his face probably one of the cutest I’d ever seen. Two thick brows slid almost into one, and the lines around his mouth deepened all the way into the back of his cheeks.
Laughter crept pointedly up my throat, but stepping behind my imaginary wall, I just managed to escape.
“She just made one comment about the headboard, Hales. She doesn’t read, so she doesn’t understand,” Danny explained, grabbing her by the hip and subtly shaking.
“She’s a whore!”
“Ah, Jesus,” I muttered to myself, actually voicing my apologies this time.
“Sorry.” With a wave to the woman covering her daughter’s ears behind me, I repeated, “Sorry, really sorry.”
“I don’t know why she gets you so riled up,” Danny said good-naturedly, o
verall taking her meltdown in stride.
Meanwhile, as the line moved, we did, getting closer and closer to my sure death.
“She just rubs me the wrong way,” she confessed sullenly, leaning her wet-haired head onto his tan shoulder.
“Well, there you go,” Danny asserted, confusing more than just Wade.
“What?” Haley asked, suddenly curious.
“It’s no wonder you don’t like her so much. When I hire a hooker, I expect them to rub me completely right.”
Choking on saliva, I tried and failed to get control of myself. Wade gave me a few swift pats on the back to help.
“Watch your step,” he coached, ushering me forward again. Now, his thinly veiled smile teased me.
Once I finally stopped choking, it was almost too late. We’d already made it to the top and Wade was first in line to go down the tunnel of uncertainty. Really, I was first, but at the first sign of refusal, Wade volunteered.
I’d let him test it out. See if he died first.
With one barely there scream, away he went, straight down towards the aquarium below.
The lifeguard gestured for me to move forward, and I fought the urge to chuck my lunch.
I knew the cardinal rule was to not look down, but my newfound rebellion had me breaking all the rules. All I could see was a bright light at the bottom of the dark tube.
Red shorts and white t-shirt glared at me expectantly, and the chatter of people behind me started to tick up when I didn’t move fast enough.
Haley and Danny coaxed me forward while Hunter looked on with amusement.
I was disowning all of them.
Stepping into the loading dock, water rushed over my feet and ushered me toward the edge.
With no more opportunities to back out, I crossed my arms over my chest as instructed and prayed for a safe ride.
I went over the edge quickly, a muted scream breaking through the tight seal of my clenched lips. My stomach jumped instantly into my chest and water shot straight up into my butt giving me the wedgie to end all wedgies. My back left the slide at the steep angle, putting me into a basic free fall and scaring the everliving life out of me. Water surrounded my body and washed me out the opening at the bottom quickly, the actual happenings of the slide nothing but conjecture.
With my eyes closed, all I knew for sure was that it was something I never wanted to repeat.
A dangerous mix of water and a million strangers’ bodily fluid worked tirelessly to breach the weakening seal of my nose and mouth. I sought solitude in the surface, thrashing my way up and out as quickly as I could.
Coming up out of the pool and gasping for air, I tried to slow the beat of my heart as I pushed wet hair out of my eyes and adjusted the triangles of my bikini top to cover what I knew must be out for the whole word to see.
Wade met me halfway through the pool, pulling me into his arms, adjusting the top straps of my halter, and chuckling wildly as he did it.
The nature of his laughter was undeniable.
There had definitely been a stray nipple or two.
By the time I got myself together, all three of the others had descended popping up out of the pool one after the other.
The sight of Haley’s mop of female hair had me on a mission.
“Are you trying to kill me?!” I yelled, just barely stopping myself from strangling my only daughter. Her obnoxious laughter did nothing to stop my rant. “You are! I almost just died. I won’t mention the fact that it just shot me through the shark tank since I was going too fast to notice them anyway.”
“You actually just mentioned it,” Hunter pointed out helpfully, tipping his head to the side. Turncoats, my kids. The both of them.
I skewered him with a glare.
Danny shook his hair as he came out of the pool behind me. “I feel like I’m bleeding. Am I bleeding? That can’t be good to mix with the sharks.”
“You’re not in an open tank with them,” Hunter laughed.
“Are you sure? It felt like my shoulder blade sliced through the plexiglass.” Like a dog chasing his tail, Danny circled his body trying to look at the offending body part.
“Is that extra water in my vagina or are you just happy to see me?” Haley asked, walking funny and trying to inconspicuously adjust her bottoms.
“Haley, that made absolutely no sense.”
She shook her head, water flying off of the ends of each strand of her hair as she did. “I think I just got a pool water enema. And something went wrong with the piping. It made it all the way to my brain.”
“I thought, quote, it wasn’t that bad,” I pointed out, staggering my way up the steps that led out of the catch pool.
“What the fuck did I know?” she shouted. “I just wanted you to go with us. You should have worked harder to talk me out of it.”
“That’s the problem with situations like this,” Hunter mused, schooling us all with his sage wisdom. “It’s always a good idea until it isn’t.”
I went a much more childish route. “It’s Wade fault.”
“What? Me? Why?” he cried from his spot directly beside me.
“I wanted to protest more and you cut me off.”
The truth was I was only designed to take one pounding a week. While he might not have been responsible for this one, he was surely responsible for the other.
Okay, that sounded dirtier than intended. Still, all meanings applied.
DISBELIEF AT BEING BLAMED FOR the entirety of the slide incident had me shaking my head.
Leave it to a woman to blame you for the very act of trying to help her. You give her soft touches and support, and she gives you dirty looks and accusations in return.
Freshly ground powder from my tightly clenched jaw mixed with my saliva to form a paste, literally choking me with frustration, and the thin, sharp edges of my nails worked at the skin of my palms.
Clearly, the contradiction had my emotions set on fester.
Danny, sharply attuned to me for many a year, didn’t miss it.
He made quick work of rearranging bodies—something no one seemed to notice in the waylay and hysteria—and sidled up next to me on the bridge overlooking the shark filled waters we’d just shot through.
“Lesson number two,” he whispered quietly so that only I could hear. “Be prepared to get blamed for everything. The sooner you accept it, the happier you’ll be.”
“I don’t understand it.” Maybe I was just rusty on the ways of a woman, but having to speak for actions I didn’t actually have a hand in was throwing me for a loop.
“You will. And eventually, you’ll yearn for it. Trust me, I know.”
Yearn for the chance of being accused of things I didn’t do? I didn’t think so.
“I don’t think so. I’m passed that point. I just want a nice, simple life.”
He chuckled with the knowledge that he clearly knew something I didn’t. His woman’s crazy behavior was like a siren call to him. He’s obviously thought I’d succumb to the same.
“Trust me, you don’t. She’ll teach you that.”
Maybe it was his choice of words. The way they reminded me of the regrets I had from my time with Melly. Or maybe it was just the realization that I was already an asshole. I already wanted her negative attention. Already sought it out. I’d done it several times, getting shot down but shamelessly going back for more at every turn. I wasn’t even in tune with myself anymore. Thinking and claiming I wanted one thing, but altogether seeking and chasing another.
I wanted to be near her. I wanted her talking and laughing with me, and if that meant she was playfully blaming me for things I didn’t do, so be it.
“Ahh,” Danny smiled, reading the look of understanding on my face. “I always knew you were a smart guy. You already get it.”
I half-shrugged, not sure I got it all the way. “Partly anyway.”
“You’ll get the rest of the way there.”
“Hey,” Alli said, squeezing up next to me, grabbing my arm, and
looking happily into my eyes. “Now that I’m done being traumatized, I need to eat. I’m staaaarving.”
Her eyes sparkled with mischief and fun, and all at once, I was lost. Lost in them and her and everything she had to offer including the slightly annoying parts.
If she wanted to mess with me I’d let her do it every day of the week.
“Okay. Do you want to eat here or get back to the ship first?”
“Group poll,” she announced, turning to the rest of the group. “Lunch here or on the big ass boat?”
“Boat!”
“Boat.”
“Huge ass ship.”
“I guess we’ll eat on the boat,” I said through a laugh, knowing that she’d be inclined to do whatever the hell everyone else wanted. “I saw one restaurant that supposedly has excellent sausage and peppers.”
Her cute nose crinkled with distaste. “I’m not a big sausage eater.”
“No?” I asked, unable to stop myself from turning her innocent comment into childish innuendo.
There’s a certain part of a man that never grows up. Most of him will go through a cycle, linking his childhood and elderly behavior through a circle of events. But when it comes to dirty jokes, the path is a straight, flat, immature line. Always.
“Not really,” she answered, unaware.
“Never?”
“Well, no, not never. Occasionally.” Hunter pounded his chest while Danny attempted to swallow a large laugh.
Haley looked between the two of us with narrowed, but not angry eyes. She was fully interested in where this conversation would end up, and she wasn’t the only one invested.
It could go really well or really, really horribly. One or the other.
“Man, I was really hoping you liked it.” I tucked her neatly into my side before she noticed I’d done it.
“Why? Do you have a special recipe?”
“Oh, I’ve got a recipe.” Her eyebrows rose along with her inquisition, but one statement ruined it all. “Pretty much just the one ingredient though.”
All at once it hit her, changing her face from interest to disgust in the beat of a second. “Ew. You’re gross.”
“But funny, right?” I laughed hopefully, raising my eyebrows and shrugging her shoulders along with mine.
Accidental Alpha Page 13
