Chapter 13
SUTTON
You never know what you’re going to see when you go to a Waffle Place late at night.
A fight in the parking lot isn’t out of the ordinary.
A person trying to sell you something not quite legal is to be expected—whether it’s stolen goods, drugs, or sex.
Still, a burly man holding a rabbit tucked under each arm wouldn’t be one of my first guesses.
He stands outside with a cigarette tucked between his lips, and gives me a perfunctory nod as we walk past him.
“Oh! Look how cute!” Louise’s cry cuts across the night. She rushes over to him. “Can I pet them?”
“Sure thing,” the man replies.
Everyone stops, not wanting to leave her behind. “What are their names?”
“Ah…” he hesitates. “I haven’t given them one yet. Just got them.”
Judging by his slurring voice, he may wake up tomorrow surprised he bought two rabbits.
“Well, they’re adorable!” Louise coos, giving them one last pet before leading the way inside.
“Well, we know she has a thing for rabbits,” Lila says under her breath, exchanging a look with Maren and Cara before all three burst into giggles. I’m not privy to whatever inside joke she made, but she grins at me when I look at her.
She’s been acting like nothing happened, but if she thinks for a moment that she’s fooling me, she’s crazy.
Her reaction to that kiss was fucking hot.
It was a spur of the moment decision and not only to get rid of Fiona.
She looked up at me with those gorgeous eyes and sexy lips and I went for it.
I would’ve bet I had a fifty fifty chance of her either pushing me away or playing along for a second as my fake girlfriend.
What I didn’t expect was for her to kiss me back.
The chemistry between us was unbelievable.
Now that I’ve tasted her lips, I need to do it again.
There are eight of us, so we take the large circular booth in the corner that spans two tables. This place will be packed when the bars close but there are only a few other customers scattered around now.
A manager emerges from the kitchen with a large cardboard box for a lady waiting at the counter. “Will this work?” she asks.
“Perfect. Thanks so much.” The lady accepts the box and rushes outside.
While Cara and Row chat with his old boss, and everyone else looks over their menus, I glance out the window to see her help the man put the rabbits into the box.
He gives her a quick kiss, and a moment later, they re-enter, sitting in the booth across from us.
The box gets placed on the seat beside him.
After we all order our food, Louise leans across the aisle. “Clyde is a great name for a rabbit.”
“They could be Bonnie and Clyde!” the woman says, then beams at her boyfriend.
“Couldn’t be more perfect,” he agrees.
Louise keeps up a conversation with her new rabbit owning friends once our food is delivered. A little frown crosses Lila’s face when the waitress walks away.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Nothing. I forgot to have them switch the sausage to bacon. I don’t care for sausage. It’s fine.”
She scoots the sausage to the edge of her plate like it might infect the other food and digs into her waffles. All problems should be so easy to solve. I stab her sausages with my fork, drop them on my plate, then move my bacon to hers.
It earns me a side eye of suspicion. “Do you like sausage better?”
“Not particularly.”
“Then why did you trade me?”
“Well, clearly, I have some ulterior motive when it comes to your pork products. Can’t you just say thank you?”
Her lips twitch as she fights a smile. “Fine. Thank you.”
Cara doesn’t quite cover her mouth in time to stifle a laugh. “That sounded like it hurt.”
“Nah, I had to pretend to be his girlfriend. The least I’m owed is bacon.”
Shrugging, I douse my waffles in syrup. “Hey, if you want to sit there and pretend it wasn’t the highlight of your night, go right ahead.”
She’s too busy munching on the bacon to reply, but Maren asks, “What was that about? Your ex is that crazy?”
“She basically stalked me when we were together to make sure I wasn’t cheating and kept it up for months after we broke up. Now that she finally stopped, I didn’t want to give her any opportunity to start again.”
“Were you cheating?” Lila asks.
“Are you trying to victim blame me, Delilah?”
“No, I didn’t say you deserved to be stalked. I asked a simple question.”
“No, I’ve never cheated on anyone. I’m just addictive. I mean, who could say no to all this,” I tease, gesturing to my face.
“I’ve heard of alcohol causing dementia before but not this quickly. We should probably get you to the hospital.”
Maren and Cara exchange wide smiles while the rest of the group laughs. Lila seems to realize we’ve become the center of attention and successfully changes the subject to the book they’ve all been reading.
Jarrett shakes his head when they start discussing how hot the sex scenes are. “Women may not watch porn, but they’ll read the hell out of it.”
“I watch porn,” Lila announces.
At the same time Maren says, “It isn’t porn!”
That argument is cut short when two officers enter and walk to the counter.
The man with the rabbits instantly leans over and whispers to his girlfriend.
She quickly lifts her purse over the half wall that separates their booth from the one on the far side.
While the manager walks over to talk to the cops, the fry cook meets her gaze, then buses the table, taking the purse behind the counter with him.
I’m not sure if they know each other or if he just saw an opportunity to help, but either way, he’s just in time. Both officers approach their table and demand to see their identification.
“We didn’t do anything,” the man says.
The officer looks at his driver’s license. “So that’s not you on the camera at Pet Time stealing animals?”
“Of course not!”
“Mm hmm.” The officer opens the box.
The guy’s words stumble and slur out. “Hey, those are my…personal rabbits. Service animals. You can’t just—”
The officer cuts him off by pulling him to his feet. “Keep your hands on the table.” He pats him down, reaches into his pocket and pulls something out. I can’t see what it is until he holds it up.
The cop is having a hard time holding back a laugh. “Let me guess. This is your emotional support turtle.”
“It’s a tortoise,” he corrects. The offense in his voice is too much. Jarrett lets out a snort, and everyone is fighting not to laugh. Our whole table is watching now, along with most of the customers and employees. Who knows what else they might pull out.
“Turn around,” the officer orders.
There’s no need to pull anything out. As soon as the man straightens his back, a bird flies out of his waistband.
The high pitched screech that the officer lets out when its wings flap in his face is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
The bird flies up to touch the ceiling then swoops above our heads.
The officer ducks down, looking around like he may get attacked by a pterodactyl instead of a little parakeet.
“I didn’t steal them! I rescued them! How would you like to live in a cage?”
“You’re about to find out what it’s like,” Officer Bird Phobia snaps.
The bird dives again, then flies into the kitchen. “Oh, it’s going to get hurt!” Louise cries. She chases it through the swinging doors and the manager follows her.
A customer from another table shouts. “Hey, that’s assault. Don’t let that bird get away with that! Arrest it.”
Laughter rings out and Row adds, “Do you cuff their wings or feet?”
“I don’t think he’d get within a mile of it,” Cooper says.
Ignoring that he’s become the laughingstock of the restaurant, the officer tells his accompanying female partner to pat down the woman.
“She had nothing to do with it,” her boyfriend argues. “She wasn’t even with me. You can check the cameras.”
“Show me what you have right now or I’m taking you both regardless,” the officer tells him, clearly not eager to continue his search.
With a sigh, the guy reaches down the front of his pants and pulls out not one or two, but three baggies containing clownfish. “That’s all, I swear.”
“Call animal control. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with all this,” the officer grumbles to his partner.
“Take him back to Forty-two Wallaby Way!” I’m not sure who yells it but there’s not a person in the place that isn’t cracking up now.
Lila’s body is shaking as she wipes tears from her eyes. “You have to love Waffle Place. Dinner and a show.”
Louise returns with the frightened bird wrapped in a towel and held against her chest. Things calm down after that. Animal control shows up for all the animals and the guy is arrested but his girlfriend is released. She sits in the booth with Louise, talking.
Cara, Row, Maren, and Cooper have already left by the time Louise slides out of the other booth. “I’m going to give Vicky a ride home on our way. They towed her boyfriend’s truck.”
Louise doesn’t have a spacious car. Vicky climbs into the front seat while Holly, Jarrett, and Lila get in the back. We almost fit but I can’t slide over far enough to close the door.
“What are you doing?” Lila demands when I lift her onto my lap and scoot over.
“There wasn’t enough room.”
“Get in the trunk then.”
Laughter fills the little car, and Lila sets back, resigned to ride on my lap as Louise pulls out of the parking lot.
Vicky unzips her purse and pulls out a fat guinea pig. Lila cracks up as Holly asks, “What else do you have in there?”
“Oh don’t worry, I have two. Guinea pigs always need a mate.”
“Just tell me you don’t have a tarantula or a snake or something,” Holly replies.
“No, only these little guys.”
Everyone is distracted by Vicky and her new stolen pets, but all I can focus on is Lila’s warm body on mine.
Call me an asshole and the worst friend in the world because Amos would be furious but I can’t help teasing her.
I move a strand of hair from her neck, letting my fingertip brush her soft skin, then rest my chin on her shoulder.
She shifts on my lap. I splay my hand over her stomach, letting my pinky slip under the hem of her shirt to caress her bare skin. Instead of stopping me, she grinds her ass against me. The side eye she gives me is evil. And now I’m getting hard.
She feels it too, judging by her satisfied smirk.
“Just let me off right here, please,” Vicky says, and Louise pulls to the side of the road.
Lila rubs against me one more time, then pops the door open to take Vicky’s place in the front seat. We aren’t far from home, and when Louise pulls into our trailer park, a group of teenagers run from the playground, cutting through the Kent’s backyard.
“Fern. That little brat. She was supposed to be inside by ten,” Holly says. “That was your boy too, wasn’t it?”
“Sure was.” Jarrett says. “And his curfew is definitely not past one a.m.”
Holly sighs as we turn into Louise’s driveway. “At least I’m not the only one about to get gaslit by a teenager.”
“It wasn’t me is his favorite excuse. They really think we’re dumb.”
Holly leaps out of the car as soon as it stops and rushes to catch up with her little sister.
After thanking Louise for the ride, Lila and I start our walk around the block to get home.
The storms have long passed, leaving a slight breeze in their wake.
Lila lifts her hair from her neck, letting it cool her nape.
Such a simple movement shouldn’t be so damn sexy.
Now that we’re alone, the tension between us grows.
I wonder if she’s thinking about the kiss because I sure as hell am.
I need to stop thinking about it. And the way she felt in my lap, her ass grinding against me.
She’s Amos’s sister. I shouldn’t even be considering the thoughts running through my head right now.
God help me if I hear that buzzing coming from her room tonight.
Dusty attacks us at the door for attention. “I’ll take him out,” I volunteer. I could use another minute to cool off. The five minutes or so we spend outside before I bring him back in isn’t enough. Especially when I catch her eyes on me as I lock her front door.
“You can’t look at me like that, Lila.”
Her eyebrows rise as she gets up from the kitchen table. “I can look at whoever I want.”
Fuck it. I can’t take it anymore. She takes a step back into the wall when I walk toward her. Her hands land on my chest, not pushing me away, but keeping a few inches between us. “You’ve been teasing me. It’s okay. You can tell me what you want.”
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t want anything from you.”
I lean in to murmur in her ear. “Liar. You sound so sexy when you come. Did you like knowing I was listening?”
Her breath catches, but she doesn’t respond. I press a kiss to the soft skin under her ear. “I think you did. Were you thinking about me stroking my cock on the other side of that wall?”
A shiver runs over her. “Of course not. You were the one eavesdropping.” Her denial is thin, her voice lacking its usual smart assed tone. She tilts her head, allowing me to kiss her neck, and slides her hands down my chest.
“I was, and all I could think about was licking your pussy until you made those sounds for me.”
“Fuck.” Her curse comes out under her breath as I kneel down in front of her.
She’s so gorgeous with her cheeks flaming and lips parted. I run my hands up her legs, under her skirt, and over her soft thighs. “Tell me no, Lila. Tell me to stop or I’m going to make you come on my face then fuck you right here.”