5. Sutton
Sutton
P ride swelled in my chest at the sight of Jamie in his uniform. Pink flushed his face as everyone in Frenchie’s crowded around him to offer congratulations.
“You did well, Sutton.”
“Thanks.” I grinned, shifting slightly at Dex’s hard elbow to my side.
He’d been my friend since childhood, sticking by me at every turn, especially after I’d become a single parent to my son.
The reminder of Darla and the sob story from the day before made my lips twist into a grimace.
“Guess who left another message yesterday?”
Dex rolled his eyes. “The fuck did she want this time?”
“Same complaint—she got into financial trouble and was hoping I would bail her out like I used to.”
“Manipulative little bitch,” Dex muttered, and I huffed a laugh.
“That’s what Babs said.”
Dex eyed me, gaze narrowed. “Tell me you denied her the help she wanted.”
“Never returned her call, and I won’t no matter how often she cries over the phone.”
“Don’t answer either.”
“Don’t plan to,” I shot back. “Babs knows to send her straight to voicemail.”
“She keeps this shit up, you might want to consider a restraining order.”
I sipped my beer, already having decided to do that very thing, considering she’d taken to ringing the station like clockwork every two weeks since the beginning of the year.
“Those boys look good together.” Dex thankfully changed the subject and didn’t lie.
Jamie and Chaz shared a strong love that seemed to meld them into one entity even when apart. Their latched pinkies sent an ache through my chest, making me wish for the same.
When torn apart for accepting hugs from supportive townsfolk, they always found their way back together, fingers entwining.
Chaz, like Jamie, had gone through the wringer, but both had ended up in a better place than when my son had first returned home.
Chaz now had a good relationship with both of his parents, and Henderson Auto, his business, flourished as the only auto shop in town.
Jamie didn’t know jack shit about car engines, but he spent a lot of his free time at the shop helping out where he could.
“Yeah, they do,” I agreed with Dex, well aware my best friend longed for the exact same thing as I did, what those boys shared.
A committed relationship to dispel the loneliness of middle age and an empty house.
But Dex didn’t have an ex or the baggage I did, the type that had the power to hold me back no matter how badly I longed for companionship. He also didn’t have deeply ingrained suspicion that acted like a fortress around his heart.
My thoughts returned to Jimmy, but another of Dex’s elbows to my side helped me remain in the present. “Have you downloaded that dating app I told you about?”
I sipped my beer before answering. “Yeah, but I’m not feeling it.
” I offered the excuse I’d given him more than once already about other sites he’d suggested.
“Everyone just wants to get laid and will promise anything to get at my dick. You know I’m looking for more than that—a real connection.
A needy guy I can take care of, someone who will give me a sense of purpose. ”
“You have purpose already,” Dex argued. “You keep this town safe. You’re every kid’s hero.” He tapped his empty glass bottle to mine in cheers before moving off.
I huffed at Dex’s retreating form. I’d been one boy’s hero, that was for damned sure. That ache slid through my chest again, and I frowned, scratching through my white button-down shirt while continuing to watch Jamie and his soon-to-be fiancé.
I started their way, getting stopped a few times to accept congratulations for raising a fine son.
Chaz left Jamie to get them drinks, and I studied their interactions even though space lay between them. Salacious, longing looks across the bar stated their desire for each other louder than any bullhorn.
I finally managed to sidle up next to my son. “You’re making me jealous.”
Jamie tore his focus off Chaz to smirk at me. “Sorry?”
“Don’t be. I love seeing you happy.”
“Your man will show up one of these days,” he promised as though he knew the future, but I didn’t hold as much hope.
“Starting to think it’s not going to happen,” I muttered.
“Welcome to Frenchie’s!” Iris and her wife hollered as the door swung open.
“Motherfucking…” I cursed under my breath.
“Jimmy Riley,” my son muttered as the boy paused over the threshold, scanning the room.
I drank Jimmy in from head to toe. He was an absolute snack in tight-as-fuck jeans and a short-sleeved crop top that showed off his smooth, pale arms, trim waistline, and a ring through his belly button.
I grunted, instinctively bending forward slightly to lessen the sudden rush of blood to my groin.
“ Shit ,” Jamie and I both whispered at the same time Jimmy caught sight of us, blue eyes flaring with a purposeful glint I recognized.
I turned toward my son who glanced my way before jerking his focus toward Chaz who approached us, drinks for him and my son in hand. They shared a few words, but I didn’t hear the exchange.
Awareness of Jimmy sauntering closer raised the hairs on my nape. Instincts dueled inside me—wrap the kid up in my arms or flee for my life.
Dex elbowed me with a knowing look.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered, tipping back my beer to drain every last drop. “Shut up,” I told Dex before he could start in with ribbing over the boy I’d been stalking from afar.
“I’m not saying a word,” he said, chuckling and moving off to the bar for refills.
“Dad, what’s?—”
“Why, Chief Sutton.” Jimmy’s greeting cut off my son’s question, his baby blue-eyed gaze sliding down over me with lust and determination.
Jamie studied me—I could feel his inquisitive stare as strongly as Jimmy’s wish to bend over and grab his ankles. I imagined the offer in his eyes leaving his lips, and temptation warred with my better sense.
I didn’t move, didn’t allow an ounce of the feelings crashing through me to show on my face. “Jimmy,” I said, my tone unmoved unlike the swell taking place in my jeans.
“Miss me?” Jimmy asked with a saucy tilt to his pouty lips, his hip popping out the slightest bit, which drew focus to his trim stomach and the glint of silver in his belly button.
“Nope.” The lie sounded obvious to my own ears, and I fought to inhale.
Jimmy allowed me a moment’s reprieve by giving my son his attention.
“I hear congratulations are in order.”
The two boys shook hands while I attempted to regulate my breathing and talk down my swollen dick trapped inside my boxer briefs and denim.
“Chaz.” He next greeted Jamie’s soon-to-be fiancé, his brow furrowing a brief moment. “You’re a dead ringer for an old co-worker of mine. How did I not realize that before?”
“Yeah?” Chaz didn’t sound that interested.
“Any chance you’re related to a guy named Zack Briggs?” Jimmy asked.
Jamie stilled, and I wondered how much my son knew about what Jimmy had been up to in Boston. Suspicion pinged my in brain as I scanned all three boys’ faces.
“Don’t recognize the name,” Chaz said, latching his pinkie with Jamie’s, his facial expression bland.
Jimmy’s gaze narrowed while glancing over Chaz in a slow perusal that held zero hint of lust or flirting. Good thing too. Jamie would have laid the guy out flat. “Hmm. Could have fooled me,” Jimmy mused. “You two could be twins.”
Chaz bumped his shoulder into a red-faced Jamie. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just, uh…” Jamie scratched the back of his neck, eyes flitting everywhere but at Jimmy.
There would be questions…eventually, but right now, the one I’d been thinking about more often than not lately stood inches from me, tension vibrating between us even though he didn’t glance my way.
A few more words filled the air around me, but I stared at Jimmy, taking note of his artfully mussed hair, the heightened color along his cheekbones, the button of a nose I wanted to kiss, and the sheen on his plump lips that appeared to be gloss.
I licked my lower lip without thought as the throb in my groin intensified.
He leaned into my forearm a second later, but Dex arrived at my other side, offering me a cold beer and much needed distraction from the heat zapping over my skin and causing goose bumps to pebble where Jimmy’s skin rested against mine.
“Thanks,” I said, my voice sounding wrecked as fuck. Sidestepping Jimmy didn’t rid me of his touch, and I fought off a shiver that would reveal how he affected me.
“So, Jimmy.” Dex threw his arm around my shoulders in a possessive hold and maneuvered me away from the boy. He was the sole person on the face of the earth who was aware of my obsession with the young man attempting to get all up in my space. “What brings you back to Pippen Creek?”
“Personal shit.” Jimmy studied how Dex squeezed me against his side, his lips turning down in a petulant pout that mirrored the look on his face when I’d refused the offer of his mouth and ass nine years ago. Dex also knew about that night, but again, was the only one privy to that tale.
I forced my focus off Jimmy’s glistening lips to supposedly scan the room like I always did when in a crowd, but I was too preoccupied with the gorgeous blond in my periphery to take note of anybody in attendance.
“Anything Chief, here, needs to worry about?” Dex asked.
“Oh no.” Jimmy purred the words, shifting a little closer.
“When are you going back to Boston?” Jamie asked, and I kept my focus turned away but strained for Jimmy’s answer.
“How’d you know I’ve been in Boston?” Jimmy asked.
“Uh…Dex!” Jamie claimed, his voice higher than usual. “Dexter told me.” My son lied, but my own questions and investigation into why my son who rarely fibbed did so now could wait.
I found my gaze on Jimmy’s coy smile without meaning to give him my attention.
“Someone’s keeping tabs on me,” he murmured. “I like it.” With a wink at me, he sauntered away, his plump backside swaying, causing my mouth to dry.
Clearing my throat along with Dex, Jamie, and Chaz, I lifted my cold beer. We seemed on the same page about not speaking a word over all four of us having checked out Pippen Creek’s prodigal son’s lush ass.
“So!” Chaz said abruptly, breaking the weird, tensed silence that had gone on too damned long. “I have a thing to take care of.”
“Yeah,” Jamie tacked on. “That.”
Dex laughed. “Have fun, boys.” He grasped my elbow and thankfully led me toward the opposite side of Frenchie’s from where Jimmy had wandered.
Walking with an ache in my groin wasn’t exactly pleasant, but the need for relief eased as long as I kept my back toward the one man who affected me with such potency.
The temptation was real.
But so was the fear of trusting another person with my body and heart.
I might long for a connection, but I couldn’t allow myself to go there again. Putting on my chief hat, I focused on eventually getting answers and setting this desire inside me to rest once and for all, because I’d learned the hard way that nothing good came from falling for a liar.