11. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Stone
H ow does she have my heart constricted after six years? She’s married, for crying out loud. I know I don’t love her, so why do I still get myself in rut over Lacey Fraiser? Or Lacey Hopper, I should say. Why do I allow her to act like a dementor and suck my soul out of my body whenever I see her?
“Stone, your jealousy is showing. Better look at me before people think you’re gunning after another man’s wife.” Lucy squeezes my arm with a little too much force, and I snap my attention to her. She flinches, and I take a breath, softening my features. No need to let my suddenly soulless existence impact her.
Enough with the dramatics, dude. You’ve read one too many of Lucy’s romance books.
Lucy continues. “You know, it’d help me out a lot if you’d tell me what happened between you two. That way I can tweak my acting skills to better fit you and our fake relationship.”
The idea of confessing to Lucy that I was once rejected while down on one knee for a woman is equivalent to crying during a sappy romance movie. Wholly emasculating. Plus, I know I need to get Lacey out of my head. It’s not her that haunts me sometimes. It’s her parting words.
I don’t want to unintentionally hurt Lucy by giving another woman even an ounce of my attention. Not after I explored her body with my hands only hours ago.
I scan the reception crowd, my eyes flicking over the torch lights, pool, and white tables, before looking down at the woman still hanging on my arm, whose thumb I swear has roamed up and down a few times. She’s glancing at me with an exquisite expression, waiting patiently for my answer.
Of course, I deflect. “You have every single person here convinced we are a real couple and that you are fully in love with me.” I smirk, shifting my gaze to where her fingers mindlessly roam across my muscle. “Exhibit A. You’re taking advantage of this situation, aren’t you?”
Her entire face blushes, shades darker than her strawberry hair, which is styled half-up, half-down in big waves hanging loose down a long, baby blue dress with a half-open back. A silver belt cuts the dress at her waist, accentuating her curves. I move my hand to the showing skin of her back and gently run my fingers up and down it.
She shivers right as I imagine slipping my hand underneath that belt, tugging her closer to me, and picking up where we left off earlier.
“Pretty sure you were adamant about physical touch in front of everyone. I’m just honoring your wishes.” Though her blush is running deep, her shoulders are back, and she’s speaking in a sultry, albeit shaky, voice. The smile that crosses my face is as genuine as can be as I realize she’s fully captured my attention away from Lacey.
Interesting.
“Use me all you want, Lucy May. I’m yours for the weekend. What happens in Dasher Valley stays in Dasher Valley. In fact, I think I’ll give a hint to a drunk relative that they should want to see us kiss.” I wink, and she squeezes my arm while turning her upper body away from me. Unless I was envisioning things, I’m fairly certain she licked her top lip as she hid her face from my sight.
Heaven help me…
My brain is definitely back in the bedroom, discovering her body and mapping the inside of her mouth.
Dude. Cut it out. I shake my head clear and attempt to focus my thoughts.
I can talk a big talk all day long about how I want to respect and honor Lucy’s wishes. I can speak to the wind about how I desire to be upfront and clear with a woman that I’m not the committing type. But if the mesmerizing woman on my arm thinks she can get away with licking her lip like that in front of me after I give her permission to use me, she’s got another thing coming.
Lucy Spence is a flirt. She had never turned her charm onto me, but I had seen it in action as she had dated different men and had brought them into the office. I was starting to think it was a good thing she has never flirted back with me. I mean, honestly, how could I have resisted her?
Now that she’s started…
No. Control yourself, Stone .
Regardless of my attraction to her, my flirty personality, and the fact that she’s pretending to be my girlfriend this weekend, Lucy is still my employee. She’s still the woman I’ve seen crying in her office after a breakup, even if she didn’t know I was stalker-ish in my watching. Even though I’ve flirted relentlessly with her, I always knew she’d block my advances. It was fun. A game.
But now…
She’s flirting back.
We kissed. No, laid claim to each other is more accurate.
And I… I like it.
Too much for comfort.
Maybe she’s right to worry. How do I go back to normal after this?
I clear my throat and gently remove her hand off my arm. “I’m going to chat with Jared and Lucas for a second. Why don’t you go see what Gracie and my sister are up to? Don’t let her ramble your ear off about her educational reform platform she’s running for office on. I know she did it earlier today before the wedding.”
She tilts her head and scrunches her nose, and I can see questions written all over her face, asking why I’m sending her off, but after a moment, she says, “Oh, okay,” and walks through a small crowd of drunk, dancing people before reaching my sister. It’s not until Stella meets my gaze from across the way that I realize I was watching Lucy to make sure she got over there safely and didn’t get bumped into the pool by some chance.
Any gentleman would do that, right?
Tugging at my white collar (I lost the tie the moment the reception started), I undo one more button, bringing my total to three. I walk around the opposite side of the pool to meet up with Lucas and Jared.
“‘Sup, Stone?” my brother-in-law says, drawing me into a hug and clasping me on the back. “Want a beer?”
“Sure, short stuff.”
He reaches into a cooler behind him and tosses me a can, fizzing it all up. I glare at him as he lifts a dark eyebrow, challenging me. Lucas is a tad shorter than I am, but he’s still a muscular guy. I’ve recently taken to calling him “short stuff” just to mess with him.
“Just tease your curls out a bit. Then you’ll reach my height.” I crack open my drink while dodging Lucas’s very physical counter attack as he lunges for my legs. The man’s never been great with words, much like the lot of us boys from south Mississippi, but his physical prowess has improved. Probably due to continued boxing matches with Jared.
Speaking of which, the hulk of a man is standing by with his arms crossed, most likely placing a mental wager on who would win out of me and Lucas.
As if reading my thoughts, he laughs. “Money’s on Lucas, Stone. I’ve been training him up well over the past year.”
“Truce!” I call. “I take it back, Lucas. You are not short stuff. You are a reasonably tall stack of handsome.” The brown-eyed man rolls his eyes.
“Where’d your girl go?” Jared asks, scratching the back of his faded hair. Since getting that haircut, he’s looked less like a burly boxer and more like a man who stepped out of a military movie. Think John Cena.
It’s intimidating, even to a tall, broad man such as myself .
“My woman,” I say with a pointed look, “went to socialize with the girls so that I could see what you two menaces were up to.”
Jared raises an eyebrow and bumps Lucas’s arm. “You hear what I’m hearing? We are more interesting than his girl. You ever heard of that happening before?”
”I don’t get to meet his ladies, much less determine how he acts around them. This is a first for us. Let’s not scare the animal off, J.”
I shake my head at my two so-called friends. To be honest, they are more like brothers to me. Lucas is my brother-in-law, but even before he married my sister two years ago, the man has always been in my life.
“Laugh it up, guys. Y’all are lucky I even brought her home to meet the clownish lot of you.” Lucky indeed , I chide myself. Not wanting to expand the lie any further, I redirect. “So, Jared. How’s it feel to have your little sister married off to that man?” I point to Tate, who is also like another brother to me and closer in age than the two guys standing with me. Tate is a school friend while these two are family-bound friends. “He’s the one who was suspended for a week for reworking the art design of our mascot, Rudy the Reindeer, to include nudity and a mullet.”
Naturally, I helped him. But I ran faster and was through the fence before the police made it to the scene of the crime—inside our school gymnasium.
Jared shrugs, taking a sip of his drink. “Her decision. She’s her own person. Plus, he’s matured. We all acted like heathen kids in high school at one point or another. ”
”Remember that time when…” Lucas begins to tell a story of a prank he and Jared pulled on the principal during their senior prank week. I was a freshman at the time, taking notes to go bigger and better my senior year.
I scan the crowd as they reminisce, my eyes locking with the pretty hazel-eyed, red headed woman who resembles a spring goddess in that open-back baby blue dress. That color looks stunning on her, and I recall her wearing a similar dress, though much less formal with more coverage, when she came into the center to ask about our job listing.
Her hair was up in a styled bun, and though she walked the floors with intentionality in every click of the white heels she was wearing, I could still tell she was nervous. She had one arm slung across her chest holding her other forearm, her fingers lightly tapping to some rhythm in her head, much like she’s doing at this moment.
“Hold on, boys. Let me go check on Lucy.” The words exit my mouth before I even comprehend they were knocking on the door and asking to leave. I turn my attention back to the guys. Lucas has a dropped jaw while Jared holds his can to his lips, frozen mid-sip.
A miffed laugh from somewhere deep in my throat emerges, and I have the sudden urge to defend myself against the action of caring. “Just to make sure my sister isn’t harassing her about campaign stuff, that’s all. No big deal.”
Not that I truly care about Lucy in a romantic way or anything, but I have to act like I do. And any boyfriend worth his salt would look at his woman and know when she is anxious or worried or uncomfortable.
I do care about her as a human. And an employee. And as someone I kissed senseless and touched only a couple of hours ago.
Without another glance at my brother-in-law and Jared, I catch Lucy’s attention again and begin walking towards her. She seemingly dismisses herself from the women and starts heading in my direction, a relieved smile playing at her lips.
Lucy is relieved at the sight of me…?
That’s new, but I guess being in a crowd of unknown people while playing pretend will do that to a person.
When we are about ten feet apart, somebody decides to hit the slow motion button on life’s video view.
Tate’s grandmother is backing up, holding her phone in front of her as she positions a picture of Abram, Jared and Gracie’s son, with Tate. Lucy is walking right into her path, but neither of them are aware of the other. On the other side of Lucy is the deep end of the pool.
I quicken my steps and hold up my hands in an attempt to get Lucy to stop, but she takes one more step forward with a confused expression on her face. Tate’s grandma pushes into Lucy, and Lucy wobbles on her heels, arms flailing in circles as she tries to steady herself. Her wide, horrified eyes scream for help before she crashes into the pool with a decent-sized cannonball splash.
Right on time, I stop the older woman from tumbling in herself and steady her before whipping around to the undulating water.
Seconds pass as the pool calms; the gathering of people ceases all conversation. Sunlight reflects off the ever-smoothing surface, sparkling like a million diamonds.
Murmurs begin to fill the silence as kids laugh at the spectacle .
Lucy does not pop up with a head of drenched red curls looking like my little soaked, sad lion. She doesn’t break the surface of the water laughing or crying or yelling.
Instead, she rests at the bottom of the pool.
Face up.
Eyes closed.