Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
STELLA
I’d been a wreck all morning long. A ball of anxiety had formed in my throat this morning when West woke me up in the usual erotic way that seemed to have become our norm, and it hadn’t loosened since.
He’d taken me to Alpha Omega with strict orders that I wasn’t to go anywhere alone, then proceeded to kiss the hell out of me right there in front of Roxanne before he and some of the other guys left for their meeting with the head of a dangerous criminal syndicate.
I had spent the better part of the morning going out of my skin, unable to calm the tangled mess of nerves doing an aerial routine in my stomach.
I couldn’t stop considering all the worst-case scenarios as one minute ticked into the next.
I figured Sage would be right there with me, stressed to the max, considering her husband had been part of the team that had left with West, but she was cucumber cool.
I envied her confidence that her man would return safe and sound.
When my pacing through the offices had finally gotten to be too much, Sage had announced she was taking me to lunch. That was how I’d ended up at a little Mexican restaurant just off the interstate called El Toro that boasted the best guacamole in the state.
“You sure you don’t want a margarita or five?” Sage asked through a mouthful of chips and guac. “I can drive your car back to the office when we’re done.”
When we’d left Alpha Omega earlier, Sage had been heading in the direction of her fine-as-hell car, but I’d requested we take mine instead. Gertrude had been parked out front for days, and I worried that if she didn’t get a little exercise, her engine might seize up.
I sipped on my water to wash down the bite I’d just taken.
“I applaud your ability not to curl your lip in disgust at that offer,” I teased.
It was no secret Sage wasn’t a fan of my car.
She’d made that fact abundantly clear when she climbed into the passenger seat earlier and announced, “This thing should be condemned.”
“Meh, it’s what friends do,” she announced as she scooped up another heap of guac with a chip. “I’m known as kind of a badass. My reputation can take the hit of being seen driving that monstrosity.”
I hadn’t thought it would be possible, today of all days, but she somehow managed to make me laugh. “I’m touched.”
She blew out a raspberry. “As you should be. Now, this is lady’s lunch, and the number one rule of lady’s lunch is that gossip is necessary. So spill.”
I lifted my brows toward my hairline. “Spill about what?”
She rolled her eyes like she was dealing with a kindergartener who just refused to stop eating glue. “About the fact that you and the sexy alpha next door are all in lurvvvvve,” she finished dramatically.
The bite I just taken got lodged in my throat, the ridges of the chip scraping down my esophagus as I coughed, trying to clear it out. “What are you talking about?” I croaked, my eyes watering and my throat feeling like it was on fire.
Sage rolled her eyes dramatically. “Oh, don’t act like you don’t know.
Last time we had lunch, you said you and West were just friends.
Now you’re walking around with sex hair and a glow that can only come with regularly scheduled orgasms.” She pointed a blood red nail at my face.
“And don’t bother denying it. We all saw that kiss he laid on you earlier.
I thought it was going to set off the damn smoke detectors. ”
I tried to play it cool, but it was pointless. I could feel the heat in my cheeks and knew my skin was tomato red. “It’s not what you think,” I attempted lamely.
“So you’re saying you guys aren’t hooking up?”
“No, we are.” That blush grew even more furious.
“I knew it!” she crowed, slapping her hand down on the table. “Like I said, you guys are in love. That’s so great. I’ve totally been shipping you two together.”
I gave her a sour look. “I don’t think anyone over the age of twenty-five should ever say that.”
She crinkled her nose in distaste. “Yeah, you’re right. I felt like an asshole saying it. But you know what I meant. Stop trying to change to subject.”
“It’s just sex,” I insisted, but those three words left an acrid, unpleasant taste in my mouth that overpowered the delicious guac.
It wasn’t just sex, I knew that. I also knew that I was falling hard and fast for West Scott, and that the landing was more than likely going to be brutal.
“We’re temporary. Once this whole mess with O’Brien is done, we’ll go back to our normal lives. ”
She stared at me from across the table, a single dark brow arched.
“I call bullshit.” Of course she did. “I see how you guys look at each other. There’s nothing temporary about it.
You might be trying to convince yourself otherwise, but that dude is all about you, babe. He’s in, one hundred percent.”
“It’s not—”
She lifted her hand to stop me. “And exactly what life are you going back to when this is all said and done, huh? You’re old apartment?” She didn’t give me a chance to answer before jumping in to do it herself. “Can’t do that. He’s already moved you out of that shithole and into his place.”
“Yeah, but that’s just for now.” I waited for that voice in the back of my head to speak up in agreement, the logical one that was always at war with what my body wanted when it came to that man, but it was curiously silent.
“So you’re living out of suitcases then?”
I thought about the fact that West had emptied out not one, but three dresser drawers to make room for my clothes. Then he’d cleared out one whole side of his closet just for me, even going so far as to hang a few of his flannels on my side so I could use them whenever I wanted.
All my toiletries were mingled with his on the bathroom counter, and I even had my own medicine cabinet.
And the brightly colored throw pillows I’d had in my old apartment to give the place a pop of life were now taking up space on his sofa.
I’d even caught him using one as he lay sprawled out in the couch, watching the game the other day.
He’d taken my stuff and merged it with his, making his house look like the perfect combination of him and me. And I’d sat back and let it happen.
“Oh shit,” I breathed, my chest suddenly feeling uncomfortably tight. “I’m in love with him.”
Sage’s look screamed duh.
“I mean, I knew I was falling for him, but damn it, I didn’t realize I’d already crash landed!”
While the revelation had me all kinds of freaked out, Sage was the picture of calm as she sipped her water through the straw. “If it makes you feel any better, he’s in love with you too.”
The naysayer in me, the one who was used to having everything go wrong, wanted to argue.
But then I thought of all the times he touched me just because it seemed like he needed to feel my skin against his.
How he’d gone out of his way to make my family feel at home in his space, all because he knew what they meant to me.
All the tender looks. The soft kisses on my temple.
I remembered the way he’d look into my eyes, saying absolutely nothing, like he was trying to will me to see the truth inside them.
Could I be lucky enough to land a man like West long-term? Was I really good enough for him?
“It does,” I said on a whisper, feeling my chest expand with a warmth I’d never felt before. Not even with Jason when we were smack dab in the middle of the honeymoon phase of our relationship. This was something completely new. Something amazing.
“Yes! I won the bet,” Sage squeaked from across the table.
My eyes widened. “What bet?”
She carried on, ignoring my question. “That didn’t take nearly as long as most of the girls thought it would.
Normally, extricating a woman’s head from her ass so she could see what’s right in front of her takes weeks!
I was one of the hard-headed ones. Good to know you’re smarter than I was.
And I just made a hundred bucks off you.
Tempie, Gypsy, and Charlotte thought it would take at least a month, but they’re the most skeptical of the group.
Nona, Hayden, Tessa, and Rory had you down as caving next week.
Eden and Dani were kicked off last week, but they’re romantics like that. ”
“You guys were betting on when I’d admit I loved West?”
She waved me off like it was nothing. “You aren’t the first, and I seriously doubt you’ll be the last, babe. Just accept it for what it is, and be sure to follow my lead on the next one. I’ll help you rake it in.”
We enjoyed the rest of our meal, Sage having effectively taken my mind off the worry that had been swirling around inside of me, at least temporarily.
By the time we finished eating, I was toeing the line between comfortably full and food coma, but I was feeling a million times better about a whole lot of things.
My sister’s question from a couple weeks ago popped into my head. Have you stopped to consider maybe this won’t end?
I hadn’t, at least not until now, and now that I was allowing myself to really think about long-term with West, I found myself more excited than scared.
I was still riding that high as I backed out of my parking spot and cut the steering wheel. That was when I noticed a busted-up hatchback in an unappealing shade of green parked in front of a vape shop in the strip mall not too far from the restaurant.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, ramming my foot on the brake and giving Sage and me a jolt.
“What’s going on?”
I pointed through my windshield at the car in question. “Would you consider that car to be snot green?”
Sage leaned forward in her seat. “Which car?”
“The hatchback.”
She narrowed her eyes for a better look. “I’d say it’s more of a baby shit green, but I can see how someone would consider that snot. Why?”