Chapter 13
Skylar
Well, shit. I stewed on it all night and when I still didn’t know what to do the next morning, I texted Kaylee and Bri on a group text. Do either of you have plans tonight? Wanna come over for some girl talk?
I was so not in the mood for alcohol, but I needed advice in the worst way. I just hoped Kaylee didn’t have a date and Bri could get a babysitter at short notice. Actually… I pulled my phone out. Bri, you can bring Hayden if you don’t have a sitter.
Turned out, Bri could get a sitter and she was happy to switch her plans from organizing her pantry to girl talk with me. And Kaylee responded like an hour before Bri was due to arrive saying she’d just woken up and wouldn’t mind a bit of the hair of the dog that bit her.
They arrived at eight, each with a bag in tow.
“Where’s the corkscrew?” Bri asked. “We’re spending the night, right?
” She blew her black curly hair out of her face and grinned as she held up the bags in her arms. Glass bottles clanked inside them.
“‘Cause I need a night where I’m in a safe place and can drink and do whatever without somebody creeping on me.”
“That’s fine,” I said. I’d spent the day cleaning up and making the place hospitable. “I’ve got a guest room and one of you can either sleep with the other, or with me, or on the couch.”
Kaylee winked and walked toward the kitchen. “Come on, Bri, I know where the wine glasses are.”
“None for me,” I called.
Kaylee stopped dead and turned to stare at me. “What do you mean none for you? Are you pregnant?”
I gave her a flat look. “You know damn well I’m not pregnant, and it’s kinda shitty of you to joke.”
Her face fell. “You’re right, I’m sorry.
It slipped out without me thinking about it.
” She disappeared in the kitchen, but then returned seconds later and threw her arms around me.
“I love you, SkyePie.” She’d called me that since I’d eaten an entire apple pie at a dinner with her one night.
I didn’t mind, I was pretty proud of that accomplishment.
I smacked a kiss on her cheek and stepped back. “It’s okay. No, not pregnant, I’ve just been drinking too much lately, and I don’t want another hangover like I had the other night. It’s cool, though, you two go ahead.”
When we got settled in with the chips and dip that Bri brought and the wine that Kaylee brought, we got down to the nitty-gritty.
I explained about our kisses, my attraction to Anthony, then I had to go back and give Bri the full rundown about what had happened between us when we were teenagers. And what hadn’t happened.
When I finished the whole long, sordid story, they agreed on one course of action.
“You’ve got to go for it,” Bri said.
Kaylee nodded. “What is life if you don’t take risks? Sure, it might end up badly, but then you’ll get over it. If you don’t try, you never succeed.” She took a long sip of wine. “Enjoy yourself, but don’t have any expectations.”
“But it’s not smart to ignore your feelings,” Bri added. “Not with your history. Don’t ignore what your gut tells you and you need to know what Anthony is feeling. With the kisses, I don’t think he wants to be just friends with you.”
“I need to talk to him. I need to know where his head is at.” I sipped my water and contemplated when it would be possible to see him. If I waited, we’d be back at work Monday. Tomorrow felt like so far away.
“Go!” Kaylee exclaimed. “We’ve had several glasses of wine, but you haven’t.”
I blinked repeatedly at my friend, then looked down at myself. “I’m a mess.” My hair was in a messy bun, and I’d just thrown on some leggings and an old t-shirt.
“You’re fine,” Bri said. “Go talk to him. If you don’t come home, we’ll eat your food and drink this wine we brought and go to bed.”
Why couldn’t I? I didn’t mind leaving them here to enjoy the evening together. It wasn’t like I was bailing on them and leaving them alone. They had each other. “Okay,” I said excitedly. “I’m going to do it.”
I jumped up and changed clothes quickly. I wasn’t about to go in leggings. Kaylee and Bri followed me to the bedroom and grinned at me like tipsy fools while I slapped on a layer of mascara and put my hair into a less messy bun.
I stopped short as I slathered on some clear lip balm. “Wait,” I said. “I don’t know where he lives.”
“Oh, he lives near my parents, near the rest of the cult,” Kaylee said.
I shot her a sharp look. “Don’t call them that.”
“You’ve got to admit,” Bri said. “There’s something weird about them and the way they seem to stick together like they do.”
I knew the town gossip. I’d heard it all of my life, but I ignored it because I knew Anthony and even though his parents weren’t the most welcoming of me, they never stopped Anthony from being my friend. Not until he moved away, anyway.
But more than that, I knew Anthony, even if it’d been a long time since we were close. “Whatever. I’ve got to talk to him.”
Kaylee leaned over. “Well, go.”
Bri nodded. “Yeah, stop wasting time!”
I ran for my car and headed straight for the road Kaylee’s parents lived on. I’d been to their house a couple of times, and I’d been to Anthony’s parents’ place. If he lived near them both, I had an idea of what road he lived on.
And until I pulled into his driveway and saw his car sitting there, I was fine. It wasn’t until I knew I was in the right place that I began to panic.
Shit. Maybe I should’ve called first. Just showing up here wasn’t the best idea. What if I was wrong about him? What if he had a woman over and I was interrupting something? Damn it.
His front door opened, and he stepped out onto the front porch with a confused look on his face. “Hey,” he called. “What are you doing here?”
My worries faded because he looked so happy to see me.
There was no denying the pleasure on his face.
I stepped out of the car and stood uncertainly.
We stared at each other for a long moment before Anthony stepped aside and gestured for me to come in.
But I didn’t move at first. I stood beside my car and looked up at the porch at him.
He was just close enough that I didn’t have to yell.
“I have to ask you something before I come inside.”
He didn’t speak but watched me as I tried to gather my words.
“You were my best friend and the first boy I ever kissed. The first boy I ever loved. My heart broke when you left.” My heart thumped hard with the memory of the pain.
“I’m terrified you’ll just break it again.
So, I need to know what you want from me.
Why are you back?” I sucked in a deep breath.
“If you’re here to break me all over again, because I don’t think I can come back from piecing my heart together again.
” His face crumpled as I spoke. It hurt him to think about how much he’d hurt me.
I knew he said he’d been hurt by leaving also, but it had been his choice, not mine.
If it’d been up to me, we would’ve stayed together.
“I was sixteen, but there was something then that told me, something that made me so sure that you belonged to me. I can’t explain it now, but—”
Anthony cut me off by rushing down the stairs and gathering me into his arms. He pressed his lips to mine and moaned against me, then proceeded to kiss me senseless. His tongue warred with mine and my body responded like this was the thing I’d been craving all my life and only just now realized it.
Anthony was mine.
“I have no intention in this world of leaving you ever again. You felt that because you know just like I do that you are mine. You were mine then and you’re mine now. And you’ll be mine until the end of our days. I’m not letting you go. I’m not breaking your heart. I want you for always.”
My relief pulsed through me, a physical thing, because I felt the truth in his words. So, when he kissed me, I kissed him back with matching fire and passion. When he picked me up and carried me into his house, I didn’t protest. In fact, I encouraged him with a moan.
The bedroom door banged open as we barreled through. The taste of him was addictive, and I didn’t think it was my romantic side fooling me. I was in danger of becoming dependent on this man.
I got my hands under the edge of his shirt, breaking away from his lips long enough to pull it off. Anthony’s skin was deliciously smooth under my fingertips. I shivered with need at the sight of him. He was warm, nearly feverish, but I brushed it off to the desire built up inside of him.
How did he make time with his busy schedule to keep up that incredible physique?
Then his fingers deftly navigated the buttons of my blouse and it, too, fell to the floor.
He trailed kisses across my cheek, my jaw, down my throat.
I threaded my fingers into his inky hair, whispering his name.
Heat washed over me when his lips blazed a path across the tops of my breasts, and then suddenly they were free.
He tossed my bra on top of the growing pile of discarded clothing.
“So incredible,” he murmured against my skin. “Stunning.”
His tongue flicked out across my nipple and my breath hitched in my throat.
I wanted this. His sweet words, his hungry touches, his soft lips.
I wanted him far too much for patience. Pushing him back to sit on the edge of the bed, I sealed my lips to his again while I unbuckled his belt, whipping it out of the loops in one smooth motion.
Anthony groaned and grabbed my thighs, pulling me onto his lap.