Chapter Six
ALEX
Finishing work is today’s highlight. The fact that I’m leaving to spend the evening with Tomi and Levi makes the shitty day worth it. I don’t know what it is about Tomi, how she can captivate me so easily, but she has me in a fucking spin.
After her sassy email, it’s only confirmed how headstrong she is. It also confirmed how utterly deep in shit I am. She fucking hates me, and now I see just how deep it runs, which is only making it harder for me to tell her who I am. I know I have to because the time will come when I need to expose what’s going on.
Just not tonight.
I had Henry take me home so I could pick up my car. Riding a Harley with tubs of ice cream and donuts won’t work tonight.
As I pull up my candy apple red 57 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, the engine rumbles, echoing through Tomi’s street. I twist my keys with my lucky dice hanging off them, sending the noise to silence as I see Tomi peeking out her giant front window.
Guilt surges through me over her eviction email, but I have to keep my shit together, or she’ll know something’s up.
I lean across the front seat and grab the grocery bags, then step out of my baby.
Tomi rushes out the front door, her hair is up in her usual high ponytail, her red bandana around her head, but tonight the jeans and flannel are gone and are replaced with a black pin-up dress with red cherries all over it. It’s figure-hugging on top but fans out at her waist. It’s retro, cute as fuck, and suits her to a tee. She’s stunning. I’ve never seen her in a dress. Oddly enough, she matches the theme of my car.
She rushes toward me and I behold her beauty. Her eyes are wide as she takes in my car with her mouth open wide. “Xander… holy shit! This is your car?”
“Yeah, had her restored. I drive her around when I’m not on my bike.”
Tomi rushes straight past me to the car, spreading out face-first on the hood, her hands smothering over the paintwork. I howl, watching her basically make out with my car.
“She’s beeeautiful,” she drawls out, lusting over my beast.
I can’t help it as I stare at Tomi’s ass up in the air, her chest pressed over the hood as she fans out, she is so fucking gorgeous in a position like that. My cock throbs just seeing her so vulnerable in this moment, and I can’t help the direction my mind takes.
But holy hell, if it doesn’t make me want to fuck her right here, right now, on the hood of my car.
I am a man, after all.
“Yeah, she is,” I murmur back at her.
She slowly turns to me from the car, spotting the grocery bags in my hands.
Her eyes light up. “Oh, ice cream? I need it.” She jumps from my car like she wasn’t just stretched out over the top of it like something from my freaking dreams.
“And peanut butter-filled donuts.”
Her eyes widen as she gasps. “Bullshit!”
“I bullshit you not. C’mon, it’s gonna melt.”
She leans up on her toes and rushes with me toward her home. I love how excited the little things make her. She has such a unique personality. That’s why I’m so attracted to her.
She doesn’t take shit, and her no-holds-barred attitude is second to none.
She’s straight up.
It’s fantastic in a woman, and I am attracted to it more each time I see her.
I’m glad the emails haven’t affected her mood as much as they have mine.
She leads me through the front door, shutting it behind me. Her arm grazes mine, and my hairs stand on end. Tomi’s body ignites something inside me. I want more.
As I take in the entry of her home, it’s just as I’d imagined, with pictures of her family littering the walls—her parents, her sister, all of them together. You can tell this was a family home. It has the feel to it, the warmth, the energy as soon as you enter the front door.
It feels like home.
The carpets are a little worn, but they’re still plush. The white walls have faded to a creamer color, and the wooden baseboards have a few nails missing. It’s not rickety or broken down, it’s just lived in. We enter to the left then veer off to the family room. It’s dimmer than the hall and the living room we just came through. The curtains are drawn, and only a side lamp is on, giving out a dull glow across the space. There’s a singular sofa facing a television with a screen light that’s quite dim.
Then it clicks into place—this room is specially designed for Levi’s sensory issues.
The lights have been dulled for him.
Tomi’s done well to make this area safe for him.
I spot Levi on the sofa playing video games on the television.
Over to the right is the kitchen. Tomi leads me as we slowly walk through without disturbing Levi. I watch him engrossed in his game. It’s good he’s found a way to function in this crazy thing we call life.
I step into the kitchen, placing the bags on the counter, and turn to see Tomi moving about at the dining table, trying to clear away some things. I stop her so I can examine the artwork. She huffs, glancing up at me like she wants me to let it go, but I’m not that guy. I pick up one piece of paper. It’s a tattoo design of an intricate butterfly.
She moves off to place the ice cream in the freezer.
“These are great.”
She shrugs, closing the freezer door. “Meh, just doodling—”
“No, this…” I pick up a design of a Trojan warrior and show her. “This is great stuff. No wonder Hope & Faith Ink is so popular.”
She slumps, her happy demeanor all but vanished in an instant. “Well, we won’t be around much longer if Alex-asshole-Scott has his damn way.”
I tense all over, lowering her stencil to the table, giving her my full attention. “What’s going on?”
“I got another email from him tonight,” she huffs. “He commands us to vacate before the end of the month… fucker .” She blinks her eyes a few times but keeps her control. The sheer hatred she shows for him is plain for everyone to see in her eyes.
A cold shudder runs over my spine, seeing her so uptight. She obviously hates Alex. The contempt she holds is clear toward me because I’m the one who sent that email only a mere hour ago.
Judging by her expression, she would slit my throat while I slept or maybe even while I am awake, I’m sure.
I’m not even joking.
She’s feisty enough to do it.
I need to change the subject, my guilt is eating me alive. So I turn toward the family room and pop my head out. “Levi, you want some ice cream?”
Levi glances up from his game, pauses it, and races over, kind of wobbling about like a giddy child. He’s tall, a little stocky for his age. I’ve researched Klinefelter Syndrome, so I know what I’m dealing with—hips are larger than a normal male’s at sixteen, his chest being slightly more pronounced is also a symptom of the syndrome. I don’t know a lot about it, but his autism is more prominent than anything else he has going on right now.
Levi rushes to the table and jumps onto the seat. He sits, his eyes down, not making eye contact as Tomi moves about the kitchen, getting the bowls and then the tubs out of the freezer for him. I move to the donut packet to open it, the aroma of peanut butter floods the kitchen with its delicious nutty smell as I place the donuts in front of Levi.
He pushes them to the left a little more.
What’s that about?
Tomi moves in beside me, letting out a heavy sigh. “Oh yeah, things have to be in the middle of the table… you’ll get used to it.”
My chest squeezes at how Tomi knows so much about her brother’s needs. She’s amazing the way she takes care of him. But at the same time, my heart breaks a little for Levi, considering how hard it must be to live a life where if things aren’t a certain way, it’s painful for him. That’s what I’ve read, anyway. So I want to do things right by Levi. I want to be a good friend to him, maybe a support he can lean on.
I try to learn everything I can about autism and how to cope with it as an outsider. I need to understand how he must be feeling because if helping Levi makes his life easier, it also makes Tomi’s life easier, and I’m all for that. I simply want to assist them both.
That’s actually what I was aiming for in that damn email. I wanted to help her, not offend her. I wanted to give her support, as much of it as I can without making her suspicious. I didn’t mean for it to come across negatively. I guess I can see how it could, though. Especially for someone who’s as headstrong as Tomi.
I move to sit, causing Levi to moan. He points to the seat to his left, making me glance up at Tomi. She shrugs with a nod, so I move to sit next to Levi while Tomi shifts to the other side, trapping Levi in the middle.
He smiles so wide, like he’s finally comfortable.
Reaching out, I go to grab one of the donuts. “Want a donut, Levi?”
He bobs his head emphatically. “Yeah.”
So, I pick up the one right in the middle. Levi grins as he takes the donut from me.
I get it now.
Levi likes everything in the middle—it’s his comfort zone.
I can work with this.
“Peanut butter’s my favorite,” Levi gushes while smashing the donut into his face.
I chuckle as Tomi dishes out the ice cream into three bowls while watching us. I pick up a donut, shoving it in my mouth, the creamy texture of the peanut butter mixed with the sugary donut is like a damn flavor overload. I’m not sure I like it, but if Levi does, then I’m sure as hell going to pretend I do to make him happy.
“It’s good, yeah?”
Levi turns up his lip. “No… it’s gross. But I like peanut butter.”
Tomi bursts out laughing as she brings the bowls over while I try to swallow the donut without laughing. Tomi glances over at me. “Sorry,” she murmurs.
My hand slides up the back of her thigh, and I shake my head. “Nothing to be sorry for.”
Her bottom lip pulls in as she bites down on it, then she slowly slides down on her seat.
I glance at Levi, who’s still persisting with the god-awful donuts. “Wanna eat your ice cream before it gets warm?” I ask, and he bobs his head like he is waiting for someone to tell him that very thing. He drops the half-mangled donut into the box and pulls his ice cream to him as I glance at Tomi and smile. It’s weird, but this feels like the most normal way to eat dessert—with Tomi and me on either side of Levi as we encourage him to eat it all. I don’t know why, I haven’t truly known her all that long, but this feels like it fits.
If dessert is this good, then how would Tomi and I be in this situation? We’re obviously so damn right for each other. How can we have met under these circumstances, and it be this right but also so utterly fucking wrong?
My mind swarms while Levi keeps me occupied and distracted, but in the back of my mind, I know this could come crashing down on me at any fucking second.
Tick-fucking-tock.