Chapter 21
West
I’d had second thoughts about going out for a drink a dozen times between Ben’s house and downtown. I’d told Luke I’d meet him at the Fly though.
I parked on a side street and met Luke on the sidewalk in front of the bar, coming from the other direction.
As we walked into the bar, a wave of noise and chaos rolled over us. One glance told me the place was near capacity. I braced myself against it, then told myself to lighten up and have some fun.
“What the hell are we doing, man?” Luke asked me, grinning, as we reached the edge of the crowd.
“Living the life,” I said. “You sure you want to commit?”
He shrugged. “Might as well get all the bang for my buck with the babysitter. Kinsley said she could stay till midnight. I’ve got almost two hours to avoid my overly quiet house.”
“I hear that.” I wasn’t a fan of my empty house either. With the girls gone for the weekend again, it was almost a shock to come home to nobody. When they were asleep in their bedroom, the house might be quiet, but it wasn’t empty. “Drink first?”
He nodded, and we headed to the long counter, angling toward the back half of it where there were fewer people.
Once we had a beer, we turned toward the back section, where the pool tables and dartboards were.
“There’s Kemp,” Luke said and headed toward him.
I nearly stumbled when I realized Kemp was standing with Anna, Magnolia, Maeve, and Presley.
In the seconds it took to follow Luke to their cluster, I worked to wipe my blatant desire off my face and play it cool. Like a contractor running into his client and nothing more. At the same time, I drank in the sight of Presley before she spotted me.
Tonight she wore a camisole top with lace trim and a cropped hemline that gave me yet another tantalizing glimpse of the skin at her waist. Instead of her usual short skirt or shorts, she wore a long, flowy skirt with a side slit that reached her upper thigh.
I was struck stupid by the idea of ducking under that skirt and burying my head between her thighs.
Cut it out, dumbass.
“What’s up, Essex?” Luke said to Kemp as Anna and Maeve excused themselves to the restroom.
“Hey, guys,” Kemp said.
I nodded at him and flicked my gaze to Magnolia and Presley, who seemed to be having their own conversation.
When Magnolia glanced toward us, her expression changed as she saw Luke.
I was guessing her frown was mirrored on his face, as I knew those two didn’t care for each other.
Something long in the past I either couldn’t remember or didn’t know.
Presley took forever to look at me, and when she finally did, her attention skipped immediately back to Magnolia, who said something privately to her, then walked away.
And then there were four.
Luke and Kemp dove into a business conversation about hard cider and Rusty Anchor that I knew nothing about, so I sidled closer to Presley and said, “Evening,” in a tone I hoped sounded more like I was talking to a professional contact than a lover.
“Hi, West.” When she smiled up at me, there was an instant of connection that went far beyond being the dude who was installing flooring at her house. It was so brief that I was pretty sure no one else noticed. “What happened to dads’ night?”
“The single dads of us”—I gestured between Luke and me—“decided to embrace the single life by hitting the bars.”
“What a coincidence,” Presley said. “The single girls from dinner decided to do the same, and here we are.”
“Here we are.” I dug my hands into my pockets to avoid touching her the way I was dying to. I leaned closer, ever mindful of still appearing like I barely knew her. “It’s loud in here.”
Presley laughed and said, “Really loud.”
“How was your dinner?” I asked.
“Oh, my God, so good. I had chicken fried steak and seven-layer chocolate cake.”
“Cake, huh?”
“It was my birthday dinner. I felt cake was called for,” she said, grinning, but I was caught up on the first part of that.
“It’s your birthday?”
She nodded. “Number thirty-six. Apparently I’m suddenly too old to have kids.”
“Do you want kids?” I asked her casually, as if just making conversation with my client in a random bar run-in. In truth I imagined making babies with her, and damn if the temperature in this place didn’t suddenly shoot up to inferno level.
Presley shrugged. “I’m not against kids, but I don’t see it happening any time soon.”
“You’ve got the bedrooms for when you’re ready,” I said. I immediately realized that was a dumb thing to say when I remembered being in one of those bedrooms with her. I took a drink of my cold beer, but it didn’t do much to cool me down.
“That’s true,” she said. “Three bedrooms once I move downstairs. I guess I better get busy fast to pop them out before I age out.”
“Just do like I did and have a couple in one go.”
“You’re a smart man, West Aldridge,” she said, laughing.
I liked it too much when she complimented me, even if it was teasing. I cleared my throat and excused myself to go to the restroom. Maybe I’d stick my head under the faucet to cool the hell off while I was there.
When I came back from the restroom, Presley, Luke, and Kemp were gone from their spot.
I glanced around for them and found the three of them with Anna, Maeve, and Ty Bishop at one of the dartboards.
I knew it would be smarter to wander off and see who else was here, but Bishop was standing too damn close to Presley.
I made my way through the crowd to Presley’s other side and taunted Luke as he finished his turn, acting as if all the nerves in the side of my body by Presley weren’t on edge, begging for me to brush up against her.
Luke bombed his last throw. As he collected his darts, he said, “Bishop, you’re up.”
“Are you playing?” I asked Presley.
She nodded. “My first time ever and it shows.”
I noted the scoreboard and saw there were three scores. “Teams?” I asked.
Presley nodded. “I’m with Ty.”
A growl rumbled deep inside me, though it didn’t seem to be audible above the crowd. Just as well. I didn’t have the right to growl about who she was paired up with, for darts or otherwise.
Maybe her being paired up with Bishop was what spurred my next poor decision.
Whatever the cause, I didn’t stop and think about it before I leaned closer to her ear and said, so no one else could hear, “Any chance we could get together later? I feel like I should give you a little something for your birthday.”
I straightened and acted as if I’d just given her a benign tip for throwing a dart instead of angling for a hookup. I felt her glance up at me, but I watched Bishop, the motherfucker, throw a bull’s-eye.
Presley leaned against me and pulled me down so she could say something in my ear. “As I recall, it’s not a little something, but I’d be very interested in it.”
I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I straightened again.
Bishop could have all the bull’s-eyes with the dartboard he wanted. I’d be the one lucky dude hitting the best target of all later tonight.
I managed to hang out for another forty minutes at the Fly before I couldn’t play it cool for another second.
Through some inconspicuous text exchanges, Presley and I pulled off a ruse that she had a headache and wanted to go home, and I happened to be leaving at the same time and would give her a ride.
I’d give her a ride, all right. And then I’d give her another ride.
We walked down the sidewalk toward the side street where I’d parked with a foot or two between us, making small talk the way two almost-strangers would.
I opened the passenger door for her, then went around to the driver’s side, scanning the area as I did, reassuring myself there was no one out and about on this sleepy street.
After I climbed in and shut the door, I leaned across the console, angled her chin up, and kissed the hell out of her.
I kept it short but intense, then broke contact.
“I’ve been dying to do that for the past hour. Maybe five,” I said as I started the engine. No sense wasting time here when we could be in her bedroom in five minutes.
“Your girls are in Nashville?” she asked, her voice sounding a little breathy.
I nodded as I pulled away from the curb.
“Can we go to your place?”
I stopped at the stop sign and didn’t start up again as I looked over at her. “Why my place?”
She shrugged. “You’ve seen my place, way down to the innards of it, and I don’t even know where you live.”
“My house isn’t much to see. Just a little place I rent.”
Presley put her hand on my forearm. “I don’t care if it’s a shed in someone’s backyard. I’m just curious.”
I studied her, wondering how she’d react to the two-bedroom house that would fit in her living room. I wasn’t embarrassed by my modest house, but it was far from the luxury she was used to, even if she had grown up poor.
“West.” Her tone said I was being an idiot. “Do you have a decent bed?”
I laughed. “My place it is.”
This was a hookup, not a marriage proposal.
Minutes later, I pulled into my one-car garage, noting that the neighbor’s house on this side was dark, telling me Mrs. Lansing had gone to bed.
Presley and I made our way out of the narrow unattached garage. I punched in the code to close it, then put my hand at her waist to usher her into the house.
We entered the kitchen, and I flipped a light on, glancing around to see what state I’d left it in. It was pretty tidy, save for my breakfast dishes in the sink.
“This is cute,” Presley said.
Laughing, I said, “The cabinets are from the early sixties, the linoleum on the floor probably has asbestos in the lining, and your laundry room is twice as big.”
“But it’s clean and cozy, and look how cute these placemats are.”
The placemats at each of the four spots at the table had rainbows and sparkles and were personalized with the girls’ names. Mine said Daddy as the girls had insisted.
“I think you’ll like my bedroom better,” I said, pulling her closer.
“There’s only one way to find out.”