Chapter 10
MICAH
“ A re your skates tightened enough?”
Evelyn’s hazel eyes slanted me a firm look of annoyance. “For the second time, yes, they are.”
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. God, it was amazing how at nine—nine and a half, as she often liked to remind me—Evie had developed this much sass. It felt like it’d happened overnight. I lifted my hands in surrender, and Dakota snorted a laugh nearby, which earned him equal glares from both of us.
Evelyn’s friends headed into the roller rink, and she huffed an impatient breath. “Can I go now?”
“Remember to keep the ankles straight and knees bent.” I waited a beat before I asked, “Want me to go with you?”
“No, I’m okay,” Evelyn said as she skated toward the rink entrance. She looked over her shoulder and gave me a wave before heading into the rink.
The tender warmth I held for her flickered. “Well, I’m glad she still likes me.”
“She adores you. Preteen hormones hate everyone,” Dakota said, watching the kids make a lap around the rink.
I gingerly sat down and rolled my stiff neck. After leaving Nik’s apartment at almost two in the morning, I struggled to keep my eyes open.
The taste of him was still heavy on my tongue. My hands twitched at the phantom touch of his hands, squeezing my hips as he encased my dick with his mouth, sliding down until it touched the back of his throat. He’d let it sit there for a mere second before he pulled off and asked, voice sex-burred, I wanna sixty-nine. Ya cool with that?
I rubbed my hands over the goosebumps that rose on my skin and bit my cheek to stave off the shiver threatening to surface.
“Preteens are rough, aren’t they?”
At the sound of Dakota’s voice, the hazy memory of last night slipped away. I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I don’t know how you do it.”
“It’s easy. I honestly find it kinda funny. I’d rather she feel her feelings without me blowing up at her like my dad used to do to me.” Dakota turned to me, resting his curled arm on the back of the bench and giving me a once-over. “So, tell me why you showed up like a gremlin about to fall asleep in your seat, because it’s a much more entertaining topic of conversation.”
I stretched my legs and sank down on the bench. Hard plastic dug into the base of my skull, but the distraction was enough to keep me conscious. “Don’t give me shit when I’m down for the count,” I said through a yawn. “I was up late last night and barely got any sleep.”
“I’m sure you didn’t, judging by the fact you’re still wearing your derby shirt from last night.” When a group of moms parked near us to chatter, Dakota leaned in closer to me and pitched his voice low so none of the parents nearby could hear him. “Now I’m trying to figure out who you went home with, because I thought you didn’t mess with Tinder anymore.”
Dakota’s smugness was heavy in his voice alone, and I made a pointed effort not to give him any more fuel by looking at him. “I don’t. My game is that real.”
The unimpressed huff I got in return told me without looking that an eye roll accompanied it. “Give me a break. If that’s true, you’re the worst fuckboy in history,” Dakota murmured so the moms couldn’t hear.
The conversation halted long enough to dissolve, but right after the mom group left, Dakota poked my upper arm a few times until I rolled my head toward him. He lifted an eyebrow expectantly.
“Spill. Is it that chick from the barbecue place that slipped you her number a couple weeks ago?”
I shook my head and allowed him three more guesses before finally cutting him some slack. “You don’t know him. I met him at that restaurant opening I was invited to.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Nik.”
“Does he have a last name?”
“Seeing as that’s the only way to get a birth certificate in this country, I would assume yes, he does. But his mouth was pretty occupied, so I didn’t really have time to ask.”
“Wow, eloquent. I really love watching you go through this one-night stand journey,” Dakota said, thickly coated in sarcasm.
I shoved him with my shoulder and whispered for him to fuck off. Dakota laughed, and I couldn’t stave off a smile and said, “Well, it’s turned into more than one night, so take from that what you will.”
Evelyn came over with her friends to announce they were hungry, and Dakota stood to head toward concessions. After the kids settled at nearby tables to eat, he held out a mammoth cup of soda.
“When do you see this guy?”
“When the mood hits.”
Dakota hummed. “So basically, whenever you don’t want to think about your feelings.”
I leaned back, thrown. “What the hell does that mean?”
Dakota leveled me with a flat look. “You know what it means. I’ve seen you drown your feelings with a hookup before, and you’re doing it again.”
“That’s absolute bullshit.”
“Oh, you’re not fucking this guy as a distraction when you’re stressed about your sister?”
I wrapped my arms around my middle, the volcanic heat of anger making my eyes burn. Nik was more than a distraction. He made me insatiable, and I couldn’t get my hands off him whenever he was close by. It took every cell in my brain to concentrate on not throwing him against a wall and kissing him when I saw him. He crossed my mind at least a dozen times a day from the moment I woke up, especially when I was driving between stops on my route. Being with him was thrilling and addictive.
“That’s not what’s happening,” I said, my lips tight against my teeth.
“Okay,” Dakota said easily as he took the drink from my hand, took a sip, and handed it back. “You said that you met him at a restaurant opening. What do you know about this guy?”
I played with the straw of our drink, struggling to figure out all the things that I’d discovered about Nik that weren’t about his lean body and full lips. “He coaches kickball and does pottery. He works for the co-op in town. Has a brother.”
“Since you guys are pals, I meant to tell you that a couple people dropped out of going to Astral Motion, and y’all should come. Now stop hogging the soda. This place doesn’t offer free refills, which is a crime.”
Just like that, the conversation was done, and Dakota didn’t bring up anything about Nik again. Nik didn’t say when we’d see each other again, and the likelihood of him actually agreeing to go if I invited him was pretty slim. The rest of the day, a question drummed against my pulse.
What if Dakota was right?