Chapter Eleven
A nthony didn’t head straight home like he said. He took a detour into town, stopping by Mistletoe Market for a case of beer, a bottle of whiskey, and some easy fixings for Thanksgiving. Although he’d planned on stopping by the Winters’ for dinner, he wasn’t in the mood for company. Not after seeing Pike making out with Delilah on the sidewalk in front of their house.
He’d expected to see them talking, maybe flirting, but he’d had a perfect view of Delilah’s closed eyes and flushed cheeks imprinted on his brain like it had been seared there with a hot iron. They’d closed Adventures for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so he could hole up in his trailer and avoid polite society until Monday. Hopefully, by then, he’d have some perspective.
He set a container of microwavable mashed potatoes in his cart next to his thirty-pack of Keystone and his bottle of Kessler. The market was quiet since it was half an hour before closing the night before a holiday, and Anthony was glad for it. All he needed was one of the older women in town to get a look at his cart and start praying for the lonely alcoholic Anthony Russo.
Anthony’s cell phone rang, and it was Pike. He debated sending it to voicemail, uninterested in listening to his best friend regale him with how he’d nailed down Delilah for a date, but it wasn’t Pike’s fault that Anthony was struggling with his vow of celibacy. Or that he coveted his best friend’s love interest.
“Hello?” Anthony said, turning onto the cereal aisle.
“Hey, where you at?” Pike asked, the sound of the radio playing quietly in the background. “I swung by your trailer, but you weren’t there.”
“I went to the store.” Great, Pike was looking to really celebrate with him. “I think I’m going to stay home tomorrow. Relax without having to be social.”
“I hear ya,” Pike said, his voice sad. “I’m not in the mood to sit around and smile either.”
“What do you mean?” Anthony asked.
“I went for it with Delilah, and she told me I missed my chance.”
Anthony hit the corner display of tortillas, taking a turn too sharp, and exhaled, “Shit!”
“I know.” Pike sighed. “I pulled out all the stops, too.”
Anthony shoved his cart off to the side of the next aisle, lowering his voice. “She really said that you missed your chance?”
“That and a lot more. Which is why I need a drink if I’m going to talk about it. Want to meet me at Brews?”
Even though his best friend hadn’t gotten the girl, Anthony didn’t want to listen to a forlorn Pike mourn his chance with Delilah either. Still, if the roles had been reversed, Pike would have been there for him.
“Sure, but it will be a bit,” Antony said, pushing his cart again. “I’ve got to finish shopping and put it away.”
“That’s fine, I’ll head on over and get started without you.”
“Alright, see you soon.” Anthony slipped the phone into his pocket, a wide grin splitting over his face. He should not be this happy about his best friend getting rejected, but Pike would get over it. The real question Anthony had circling his brain was why had Delilah said no? After carrying a torch for Pike for years, what had changed?
Hope blossomed in his chest as he thought about everything that had happened between the two of them. Had Delilah told Pike no because she had feelings for Anthony?
First thing to do was comfort his friend and then fix things with Delilah. Once Anthony told her that she’d misunderstood him and ask her to forgive him, she’d tell him the truth, right?
He found the last honey ham at the bottom of one of the refrigerator bins and tossed it in the air with a grin, catching it effortlessly. A flash of pink came around the corner, and Anthony looked up to meet Delilah’s deer-in-the-headlights expression and his chest seized.
“Hey,” he said.
She scoffed in response, turning her cart around and disappearing out of sight. What the hell had he done now?
Anthony chased after her down the aisle, riding the cart until he was almost on her heels, and hopped off before he crashed into her. “What, I don’t even get a greeting? Is this about me interrupting your make-out session with Pike?”
“We weren’t making out,” she hissed.
“That’s not how it looked from my angle.”
“Well, it wasn’t like that. Pike pulled a piece of mistletoe from his pocket and suggested we kiss.” She tossed a bag of Dot’s pretzels into her cart and turned onto the next aisle, with Anthony following behind. “He wanted to test out whether we had chemistry or not.”
“Did he really pull out mistletoe?” he asked.
Delilah nodded. “Yes, he freaking did.”
“Was he walking around all day, every day, with mistletoe in his pocket?” Anthony chuckled.
“I asked the same thing.” She was facing away from him so that he couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought she was laughing. “But he said no. He took it from the Winters’ house just in case.”
“I don’t know whether that is genius or creepy.”
“It was a little creepy.” This time, he heard the giggle.
Anthony swallowed back another laugh. He shouldn’t be standing in the middle of the store with her, laughing at his friend’s antics. He didn’t want to tell her that Pike had told him everything in case it gave her another reason to get angry with him.
“You were looking for someone good in bed,” Anthony said, soberly. “Rumor has it Pike fits the bill.”
Delilah flushed. “I’m not talking about this in the middle of the soda aisle.”
“Good with me,” he said, calling after her when she tried to take off. “Could we talk about that bullshit hissy fit you threw on Monday?”
Real smooth, Russo.
Delilah gasped, whirling on him. “Hissy fit? You laughed at me!”
“I was surprised! You said there were certain characteristics of someone good in bed, which struck me as funny!”
Delilah glanced around, but they were the only ones in the vicinity. “I told you I don’t want to discuss this here.”
“I can wait until you’re done with your shopping,” Anthony said, pulling up alongside her. “I just need to get rolls and a package of gravy mix. What else are you buying?”
“It doesn’t matter. Go away.”
Anthony shook his head. “I can’t. I’m invested now and need to know the details. Watch my cart while I grab my last few things, will you?”
“No, I will not!” she yelled, but he ignored her. Anthony jogged two aisles over to grab a packet of gravy mix, snapping up a package of Hawaiian rolls from an endcap on his way back to his abandoned cart. Anthony knew Delilah wouldn’t stay with it, but there was no way she’d already left.
He saw Delilah in the checkout line, snagged his cart, and rolled up behind her. “I can’t believe you left my cart there.” Anthony started putting his items on the belt behind the separator, continuing, “A teenager could have come by and smuggled that bottle of whiskey out the door.”
Delilah stared at the clerk while addressing Anthony. “Then maybe you should attend to your own grocery shopping and stop bugging me.”
“Do what, Delilah?” Wally Feldman, the clerk, asked, clearly puzzled.
“Sorry, Wally, I was talking to him,” Delilah said, motioning to Anthony with her head.
“Hi, Anthony,” Wally said, ringing up the last of Delilah’s items. He was a few years older than Anthony, with thick glasses and a receding hairline.
“Hey, Wally, how’s the family?”
“Doing well. Ready for tomorrow.”
“Me, too.” He turned his attention back to Delilah, squeezing in next to her. “I’m done shopping, so I can bug you all I want.”
“Lucky me.” The clerk told Delilah her total, and she put her card into the machine.
While Wally turned to address his manager, Anthony stepped closer, whispering in Delilah’s ear, “I found what you said interesting; most guys just want someone to have sex with, regardless of skill level, and I’d never heard a woman talk about it so plainly, which is why I laughed. I didn’t have a chance to correct you when you believed the worst of me.”
“Oh ho, you had plenty of chances to correct my assumption in the two days since it happened.” She pulled out her card and smiled at Wally as he handed her the receipt. “Have a happy holiday.”
Wally nodded. “You, too, Delilah.”
Anthony’s face burned because she wasn’t wrong. He should have hunted her down to fix their misunderstanding, but the nagging thought at the back of his mind considered that the two of them might be better off not speaking. Especially if she was going to date Pike.
Now that the possibility of the two of them being more was over, Anthony didn’t want anything else to fester between them.
She picked up her bags as Wally ran Anthony’s items over the scanner. Outrage shot through Anthony like a missile when she headed for the exit.
“Delilah Gill, don’t you dare walk out that door! We aren’t finished,” he called after her.
She danced backward with her bags in fists. “I am, so I guess if you want to talk to me, you’ll have to catch me.”
Delilah walked out the door without a backward glance, clearly not heeding his warning.
“Fuck.” Anthony tapped his foot impatiently as Wally rang up his items, asking for his ID when he scanned the alcohol. Anthony handed it to him with a grumble.
“Cash is faster if you want to chase after her,” Wally said. “Just don’t forget to put in your club card.”
Anthony punched in his number aggressively, looked at the total and thumbed through his wallet, pulling out a hundred-dollar bill. “Keep the change.” Anthony gathered up his bags and hustled toward the exit.
“Happy Thanksgiving, Anthony!”
“You, too, Wally,” he called over his shoulder. Anthony made it out to the parking lot as Delilah was pulling out of her parking space. He dropped his groceries next to his truck and ran up alongside her. “Stop the car or I’m jumping on the hood.”
Delilah rolled her window down but didn’t stop the car. “Have you lost your mind?”
“No, I’m just not afraid to finish our conversation.”
“Ha! You’re a few days too late to be so brave.”
“When could I talk to you about it, Delilah?” He asked, grabbing her back passenger door and climbing inside. She slammed on the brakes and he grabbed on to the seat as to not pitch forward.
“Get out,” she ground out.
Anthony ignored her, continuing on topic until he got it all out. “After my best friend walked in and started mooning all over you? Would that have been a good time to discuss our misunderstanding? Or how about at the gym? I guess I could have asked you to go outside and talk, but I didn’t want to cause a scene if you refused. Or better yet, should I have interrupted your kissing situation with Pike to tell you that I definitely think you should seek out dynamite men in bed because, of course, you deserve good sex? Would that have sealed the deal with him?”
Delilah turned around to glare at him. “This has nothing to do with Pike and everything to do with you!”
Anthony had enough. “Stop the car, Delilah, and have an adult discussion.”
Delilah whipped the car into a circle and ended up next to his truck. They both got out and while he bent over to pick up his dropped groceries, she let him have it.
“You want to have an adult conversation?” She slammed her hands on her hips, and he could feel her eyes burning a hole into his back as he put the groceries away. “How about apologizing to people immediately when your actions could be misconstrued as hurtful? Who cares if it was in front of Pike? At least I wouldn’t have sat with the idea of you being the biggest asshole in the world.”
“Oh, sugar, I’m not even close to the top ten.” He’d hoped to break the tension with the joke, but it seemed to set her off more.
“Fine. Well, I guess there’s nothing else to discuss,” Delilah said, making a move to get back in her car. “Clearly, you’re not really interested in working through this.”
Before she got far, Anthony picked her up by the waist and tossed her over his shoulder.
“What are you doing? Put me down,” she hollered, pounding her fists against his back.
“Not until we get a few things straight.” Anthony unlocked his truck and opened the passenger side door, keeping his arm locked around Delilah’s calves to hold her in place. He deposited her onto the seat and followed her inside, forcing her to scoot across the bench seat to make room. He closed the door behind him, leaning over her.
“What are you doing,” she snapped, shoving his shoulder.
“I want to know why Pike didn’t fit the bill for your ‘sexually experienced man,’” he said, his voice low and warm, like a caress across her skin, but she would not be seduced by him.
“Why does it matter?” she asked.
Anthony grinned. “Call it overwhelming curiosity.”
“I answer this question, and you’ll drop it?”
“Yes.”
Delilah sighed. “Part of what makes someone good in bed is being attracted to them. It’s why I didn’t press the issue with you after last year.”
Anthony reeled back. “What is that supposed to mean?”
She looked away, refusing to reveal how much his disinterest affected her. “I know that you don’t find me attractive.”
Anthony took her chin in his hand and turned her toward him. “How did you figure that?”
Delilah swallowed hard as his eyes bored into hers. “You stopped our kiss and walked out of the room.”
Are you fucking kidding me? That’s what she’s believed for the better part of a year?
“You thought I stopped kissing you because I didn’t want you?”
Her gaze swept his face, her voice rushing out breathlessly. “You didn’t, did you?”
“I did.” Anthony’s pulse quickened as he admitted out loud what he’d been holding in since the first time he’d kissed her, tasting whiskey and heat on her lush mouth. Anthony crowded Delilah, his hands cradling her jawline, stroking her soft skin with his thumb. “Stopping that kiss was the most painful experience of my life. Do you have any idea the thoughts running through my head when you climbed onto my lap?”
“What?” she whispered.
Fuck, he wanted to show her, but he needed to get it out. To give her a chance to run. He brought his mouth against the shell of her ear and told her the truth. “I wanted to lift you onto that bed, rip off your pants, and bury myself in your pussy.”
Anthony felt her shiver. “You … you did?
“Fuck yes, I did.” His mouth grazed her skin along her cheek, just above his fingertips. “I still do.”
Delilah moaned, swaying toward him, and his hands left her cheeks to thread through her hair, her mouth hovering mere inches from his.
“Then do it.”