Making Her Mine (Finding Love Book 1)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “Yeah, too late for that,” I said back. “Now I need you to help me win her over.”

  Riley snapped back like he’d been slapped. “Win her over?”

  “Yeah, we’ve had a little back and forth but she’s pissed as hell now.”

  Riley ground his teeth together tensing his jaw as an answer. He’d known me since we were in middle school and he’d know exactly what “back and forth” meant. “Jesus Christ, Wyatt. You’re a real good friend aren’t you?”

  “Better than you.”

  It wasn’t true. Riley was the best friend a guy could ask for but I needed to goad the anger out of him to get this whole thing moving. Riley would feel better once it was out.

  “So what the fuck is all this about before I kick your ass?” he asked instead of replying to my comment.

  “You can try.” I puffed out my chest but kept my arms relaxed at my side. “Come on, Riley. Who would you rather have taking care of your sister? Me? Or some other asshole?”

  Riley’s nostrils flared a little then showed some signs of resignation. His shoulders unclenched, his jaw loosened.

  “It’s not you that’s the problem. It’s the taking care of her part.”

  “So, you only object to me naked with your sister?” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep a smile at bay.

  “Oh god.” Riley leaned forward with his hands on his thighs like he was going to throw up. I knew better but he put on a pretty good show.

  “There’s an easy fix to that.” I smirked when he snapped his head up so he could see me. “I won’t touch her.” His eyebrows went down in confusion as he stood up. “I’ll let her do all the touching.”

  Riley groaned and gave my shoulder a hard push. “You’re an asshole.”

  I chuckled loudly and waited for him to join in. Instead Riley just threw a dirty rag at me.

  “Now come on. I want to blow her mind on Valentine’s day.” I began to walk toward him but was met with a severely dirty look. I put my hands up defensively. “I mean to win her over.”

  He turned his head to glare at me again.

  I hadn’t meant whatever Riley was thinking but shit it was funny that he thought I did. “I mean, to date me. Be my girl. Go steady. Whatever you want to call it.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that. She hated Valentine’s day even when she had a boyfriend.”

  For whatever reason, that was all the encouragement I needed. His good luck had been dripping with sarcasm but I didn’t care. A plan formed itself in my head and I knew exactly what I had to do.

  Chapter Eleven

  Zoey

  I woke up that morning knowing I could spend the entire day in bed if I really wanted to. Most days started off with me contemplating staying in bed for hours then choosing not to since my job hadn’t started yet. Somehow the ability meant more on a Saturday, though. As if I knew my days of freedom were dwindling and eventually I’d really appreciate the weekends. I considered calling Harper before I got out of bed but we’d made a solemn promise to each other to never call before noon on days off.

  My little quiet place made me happy until the ringing of my phone ruined it all. After considering not answering it, I gave in and accepted without really looking at the ID.

  “Why would call this early?” I asked whoever was on the other end.

  “Early? It’s after eleven.” His deep voice made me shoot up in bed and look around. As if he could see me. Then I rolled my eyes at myself.

  “What?” I grabbed the clock next to my bed to confirm what he said. Holy crap he was right. I’d gotten up hours ago for a drink and to use the bathroom but hadn’t expected to lose so much time.

  “I was hoping I could pick you up around two. Dress comfortably.”

  “For what?”

  “Can’t that be a surprise?

  I thought about that for a minute. Could it be a surprise? Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. After all, he was my brother’s best friend and it had been made clear that that was all he’d ever be. Spending some time with the guy might get us back to being the friends we were before anything had happened.

  “I’ll be ready,” I said quickly then hung up before he could reply.

  Eventually, the feelings I had for Wyatt would evaporate back to friendship—I hoped. If those pesky emotions didn’t get under control, I’d have a hard time when he finally met someone and brought her around my parents’ house. Jealousy was stupid yet I knew I’d feel it just the same.

  Instead of dwelling on the things I couldn’t do anything about, I hopped out of bed, grabbed some jeans, a long sleeved button down, threw them on the bed then went off to the shower. Wyatt may have told me to dress comfortably but that didn’t mean I couldn’t still be cute.

  At two o’clock I was ready and waiting for Wyatt to arrive. I’d just have to throw on a jacket when he knocked on the door. When he did, I had a fleeting thought that maybe riding boots wouldn’t be appropriate but screw it. He said comfortable. Then I opened the door.

  Chapter Twelve

  Wyatt

  Telling Zoey Goodrich to dress comfortably would do nothing to tone down just how beautiful she was. I should’ve known that. Those jeans fit like a second skin covering her ass. The blue shirt made her blue eyes more vibrant and the things I wanted to do were so much more than I should ever want to do with my best friend’s sister. But Riley and I had covered all of that and now was the time to make good on my word. If Zoey let me, I’d take care of her forever. And do the dirty stuff.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Where are we going?” She stepped back inside the bottom door to grab her coat off the step and then pulled the door shut behind us. I did my very best not to stare at her ass when she bent over.

  “It’s a surprise,” I said back.

  “I swear Wyatt if this is some “I feel sorry for the single girl on Valentine’s day thing” I’m going to punch you in the balls.”

  I chuckled. Not exactly what I’d want her to do with my balls.

  “It’s not. I just thought we could do something fun. Since we’re both anti Valentine’s Day.”

  “Ok,” she said back with a sarcastic tone that meant she didn’t really believe me. We didn’t say anything else until after we were situated in my car. Then she said, “For the record, I’ve never been much on Valentine’s Day even when I had a boyfriend.”

  I knew that, of course. Riley had already warned me of that. “Maybe that was because of the asshole you were dating.”

  “He’s not the only boyfriend I’ve ever had.”

  My grip tightened on the steering wheel because the idea of her with any other guy was annoying but especially the asshole behind all the veiled references to how awful the last one had been.

  “Whatever,” I said instead of probing further, “This isn’t a V-day thing.”

  “Good.”

  We drove for ten minutes before I pulled into a parking spot at our first stop. When I glanced over at Zoey as I shifted into park, her lips were pursed together tightly and shifted to the side and her eyebrows were slammed down. The expression of confusion creased her face which was the reaction I’d been hoping for.

  We stepped out of the car and she looked from left to right, I assumed trying to figure out where I wanted to take her.

  “Where are we?”

  “This way.” I pointed behind me.

  Zoey sighed then began walking in the direction I’d indicated. I lightly laid my hand on her back as we made our way to the pottery place I found online. I had no idea where the idea came from but somewhere I’d heard about places you can go, pick out a piece of ceramic and paint it yourself. Maybe Zoey would think it was corny. Maybe she’d love it. Either way it was cheesy enough to ensure she wouldn’t think I was trying to woo her all the while I’d try to woo her. The only downside would be that we’d have to wait to take out masterpieces behind for them to glaze and fire them.

  “Let’s pick something out,” I said once we’d got
ten through the door.

  “Seriously?” She looked up at me with an arched brow. “This doesn’t seem like your kind of place.”

  She was right. I’d never been in a paint it-take it place before but that was kind of the point. And with here there, it might become my new favorite place.

  “I’ve never been here before in my life. And it’s definitely not someplace I’d take a girl on Valentine’s Day.”

  She paused, looking me over like she’d be able to figure out if I was being truthful or not. Then finally she said, “No, it isn’t.”

  We slowly wandered through the store until Zoey settled on what she wanted to paint. A large mug for coffee or hot chocolate. Wouldn’t matter what she put in it. I grabbed one just like it, let her pick out all the colors then we settled at a table.

  At first, We worked on our mugs quietly. Sitting at the same table but without the interaction between us we may as well have been in different buildings. That didn’t sit well with me. The point of this entire thing was for me to woo her. Silence didn’t woo anyone.

  “So tell me why you don’t like today,” I asked

  Zoey shrugged but I could see her thinking about the question. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “I guess you shouldn’t need a specific reason to treat your significant other to something special. Take her flowers on random days. Make his favorite meal just because you want to do something nice. It shouldn’t be held onto for one specific day. Oh I mean two days. Don’t get me started on Sweetest Day in October.” She began shaking her head. But Zoey was so focused on her cup that she didn’t notice me watching her. Her attention to the details on her mug turned him on.

  I didn’t know why.

  “Ok, but about this last guy. I’ve heard he wasn’t so nice?”

  She sighed and set her brush down. “Listen, if I’m going to answer your questions then you have to answer mine.”

  Fuck, I didn’t want to agree to that but still I nodded. If she’d answer some questions I’d have to suck it up and do the same.

  “He was fine at first,” she said as if I should’ve known who she was talking about. I knew in theory because the guy had been mentioned several times but I didn’t actually know who he was. “But the longer we dated, the more controlling he became. It’s the same story you’ve heard a hundred times. He didn’t hit me or anything he just wanted to control me. When the fucker put a tracker on my car so he’d always know where I was I had to end it. Permanently.”

  “He low jacked your car?”

  She nodded.

  “He still a problem?” I silently swore that if the ex was still a problem, he wouldn’t be for long.

  “It took a while but I haven’t heard from him at all since before I graduated last year. I’m sure he’ll find his stepford wife eventually.”

  “Poor girl.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Why did your last relationship end?”

  Why did she always have to go straight for the kill? I swallowed hard and knew honesty was the only way to go.

  “I graduated,” I said keeping my eyes glued to his mug.

  Zoey cocked her head to the side and said, “Huh?”

  When I glanced up, the cute, confused scrunching of her face was too much for me not to laugh quietly at.

  “High school. I had a girlfriend in high school—

  “I remember,” she groaned making him smile again. “Lacey Mitchell.”

  “Well, we graduated. She went to college. I went into the service. We broke up.”

  “Wait.” She sat up straighter and leaned toward me like this conversation just got more interesting. “You haven’t had one since then?”

  “Haven’t had time. Think about it. How many girls has Riley mentioned while he was away? None right?” She nodded. “It’s really hard to sustain a relationship when one of you is constantly deployed. Especially a new relationship. And I didn’t want to leave anyone behind if I got killed.” It was the truth. Didn’t matter if it was the sexy answer or not.

  “Really?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  She dropped her gaze and reached across the table to lay her hand on mine. “That’s kind of sad, Wyatt. Not to mention you know damn well you would have left people behind even if it wasn’t a girlfriend.” She sat back up and went back to painting.

  That had been a hard pill for me to swallow for years. Yeah, I knew Zoey would’ve been crushed if I didn’t come home but not to the same extent if we would’ve been together and in love. Being with her would’ve made me worry even more than I already had been.

  The air around us had grown too tense and I had the sudden urge to lighten the mood. This wasn’t why I’d wanted to take Zoey out tonight. Turned out, he didn’t need to be the one to change the direction.

  Zoey reached across the table, a thick paintbrush in her hand, and with the flick of her wrist, swiped a thick blue line diagonally across his cup. My mouth dropped open and I widened my eyes in horror. On the inside though, I was laughing my ass off. I couldn’t care less about the mug itself but I loved that she had gotten comfortable enough to do it.

  “You’ve ruined it,” I said as of she’d just kicked a kitten.

  Zoey giggled. “I made it beautiful.”

  “You made it girly.”

  “I’m a girl,” she countered.

  “I’ve noticed,” I said back then smiled.

  Once we went back to work, Zoey opened up a little more. She talked about college which sounded like a hell of a lot of work. Of course it was but since I’d never experienced it, listening to her talk about her experience made it more real.

  After we finished our painting, we filled out the paperwork so they’d know who to contact once they were done. I already knew this would be my favorite cup for morning coffee. Then we got back into my car and headed for the next stop on our non-Valentine’s Day agenda.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zoey

  Color me surprised when I discovered that we’d spent a couple of hours painting those dang mugs. But since I’d been with Wyatt it could’ve been days and I wouldn’t have cared. But it also left me confused. He’d made it clear before that we’d never be together and yet, here we were out on a non-date doing non-valentine's day things. Couldn’t help but wonder what he had lined up next.

  With it only being four-thirty in the afternoon, I couldn’t imagine why he’d pulled up next to Dub’s but I kept that surprise to myself. When Wyatt put his hand on my lower back to escort me inside again as he had at the paint place, I not only enjoyed the comfort the move brought me but I also welcomed it. Just knowing he was there. We could do this. We could be in each other’s lives, in whatever way, without it being weird.

  However, when we sat down and he ordered a pizza with two beers, I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

  “What are you doing?” I asked suddenly.

  “What do you mean?” He took a slow drink from the glass the waitress had just dropped off.

  “Pizza? Sounds like Valentine’s Day dinner.” Not the pizza specifically but dinner out in general was certainly a lovey-dovey gesture one would do on such a day.

  “At four-thirty in the afternoon?” he asked back with an offended tone. As if the idea of him taking a girlfriend out for pizza on Valentine’s Day offended him on a deep level. “I don’t think so. Not to mention the beer. Not exactly what I’d call wining and dining.”

  He had me there, I guess. But how was I supposed to know what kind of dates he took women on. This could totally have been exactly what he thought of as a romantic evening. Apparently it wasn’t but I had no way of knowing.

  “I see. You just wanted to catch the early bird special, Grandpa?”

  Wyatt snorted which made some of the foam from his beer spray up onto his face. “Exactly,” he answered while wiping it off with a napkin.

  We fell into comfortable conversation about nothing as they dove into the cheesy deliciousness that was Dub’s pizza. He had a second be
er but I asked for some water. I liked beer but didn’t love it and seriously only drank it in extreme moderation. If Wyatt hadn’t ordered it for me ahead of time I likely wouldn’t have had one to begin with.

  I opened up and told him about some of the things I’d done in college. Not just the generic things about classes that I’d talked about at the painting place. This time I touched on the parties, the things that had nothing to do with higher education, things that made him scrunch his face up into a snarl.

  “Did Riley know about any of this?” he asked sitting back with his arms folded across his chest.

  “No. Why would he? He wasn’t around the first two years, you know. Besides, everyone deserves to go a little wild when they get freedom.”

  “How wild are we talking?”

  I gave a sly smile. “If I told you I’d have to kill you.”

  Wyatt shook his head as he laughed. “Come on,” he coaxed. “Give me one thing.”

  “Well… ” I leaned in and lowered my voice. “You know how they say college is the time for… experimenting?”

  He nodded but all of his muscles tightened like he was honestly worried about where my story would head.

  “Well, there was this girl… super-hot… so I figured, what the hell, ya know? You only live once.”

  His face didn’t change the way I’d expected it too. Usually guys were easy to messy with but Wyatt wasn’t giving anything away. Everything about Wyatt’s demeanor said he wasn’t into this story the way other’s would’ve been. He didn’t seem to like any story about me with another person.

  “Seriously?”

  I snorted and threw a napkin at him. “No, you idiot. I’ve always been firmly interested in guys.”

  After my attempt at messing with him failed, Wyatt paid and we were on our way to where ever he’d planned to lead me. Where didn’t matter because I’d go anywhere with him. Which was probably going to be my downfall because this whole thing was winning me over and that meant my heart would be at risk… again.