Chapter 17 #2
DINNER TURNED OUT TO BE TINY steaks and small portions of baked potatoes. I loaded up my plate with six steaks and four baked-potato halves then proceeded to methodically plow through them as Preston shot disdainful looks in my direction.
Bella got a similar, if more human-sized, plate for herself. Then, once we’d eaten everything we could scrounge up, we made our way to the bonfire to start the cocktail portion of the evening.
Everybody was gathered around, including Daisy and her cohorts, and I suspected things might take a wild turn, although I couldn’t identify exactly why I believed that.
Benches surrounded the bonfire, and I didn’t miss that Preston had sat at the one right next to Brody and Bree. He was expecting Bella to take the spot just one bench over, but I had news for him. He was not going to ruin our night.
“This way, Bellarino,” I crooned, gesturing for her to follow me to the other side of the fire.
She didn’t put up a fight and wordlessly followed. I sat and she automatically got comfortable beside me. Without thinking, I stood back up and grabbed one of the cushions from the container to my left before sitting and dropping it between my legs.
“Get comfortable,” I said. “Let’s make some s’mores and get tipsy.”
She looked momentarily confused but didn’t argue with me. Instead, she got up then sank to the ground between my legs, which were so long it was like I was cocooning her from any trouble that might sprout up. In a way, I was.
Hayley sat next to me. Her smile told me she was in the mood to see what I was about to do. That was fine. She was one of my favorite wingwomen for a reason.
I handed Bella two sticks and started to explain how s’mores worked. The look she shot me was full of “you did not just go there.”
“What?” I demanded, suddenly defensive.
“You can’t mansplain s’mores to me,” she replied. “You’ve met my mother. Do you really think I don’t know how to make a s’more?”
Well, that was stupid of me. Of course she knew how to make s’mores.
“Sorry.” I was rueful. “I didn’t do that because you’re a woman.
I did it because I had no idea what a s’more was—or how to make one—until I was in college.
My father wasn’t big on s’mores. Heck, my father wasn’t big on outdoor anything. ”
She looked momentarily perplexed, and I wondered if she was going to question me about my father.
I didn’t want that, but not because I was shy about conversations that involved him.
I just didn’t want Preston to think he had an edge.
If she wanted to talk about my father later, when it was just the two of us, I would tell her everything she wanted to hear.
I trusted her. It was a word I didn’t throw around easily. Trust. I couldn’t remember any woman I’d ever dated earning that trust. Brody and Hayley had earned it. Even Bree had, as hard as she was to deal with sometimes. It didn’t come naturally for me to trust, though.
Yet I trusted Bella. There was just something about her that made me yearn to give her more. Thinking about it too much threatened to make my head—and other parts of me—explode. It was, however, a simple fact.
“Okay. I’ll give you a pass this time,” she teased.
I assumed we were fine and well on our way to getting tipsy and sugared up, but then Preston inserted himself into the conversation. Didn’t he always?
“You met Tansy?” he demanded.
Confused, I glanced over at him. “You mean Taffy?”
“That’s what I said.” Flustered annoyance had him grimacing. “How did you meet her? I thought you guys just started dating when Bella moved to Savannah. That hasn’t been long enough for you to meet her.”
Well, that answered that question. He’d been stalking Bella—and, yes, stalking was the right word—the entire time they’d been separated. He’d only let her believe she’d gotten away for eight months because he was coming up with a bigger and better plan.
“I talked to her just this afternoon on a video call,” I replied, not missing a beat. “She loves me. We had a great conversation.”
“She does love him,” Bella agreed. “She thinks he’s the son she never had. She’s already making plans for us to make a trip up there. Halloween, maybe, because Nathan is so desperate to see Salem when it’s all decked out.”
“I’ve always wanted to go to Salem for Halloween,” I admitted.
“You can’t really know Salem until you go there with somebody who understands the town,” she said. “You’ll have fun with me.”
Something warm passed through me at the invitation in her voice.
Bree cleared her throat. “Um… I want to go to Salem with somebody who knows the town.”
Bella laughed. “You can come too.”
I didn’t like that idea. Bella was talking about a trip a couple would make—we weren’t a real couple, although I had to keep reminding myself of that—and I was agitated that Bree wanted to horn in on our alone time. That could not be normal.
“Maybe,” I interjected.
Bella glanced at me over her shoulder. She felt warm between my legs, and I liked having her there. I would like it even more if she leaned her head back just a little and…
Don’t go there, man. My inner Nathan was sounding out a warning alarm. You’re getting too close to her.
I didn’t listen to that inner voice.
“The first time I meet her mother in person should probably not be a group activity,” I hedged.
Bree wasn’t having it. “We can head out on our own to explore when you’re meeting her mother,” she replied. “Then we’ll all have dinner together. It’s not rocket science.”
I wanted to argue with her. But it was a waste of time until I wrapped my head around what I was feeling. I’d volunteered my services to help Bella because I was convinced there was no chance of it leading to something else. What if I’d been wrong, though?
“We’ll talk about it later,” I replied. “For now, it’s time for alcohol and ghost stories.”
“Ooh.” Bella made an excited sound. “I love ghost stories. I have a lot of good ones from my mother.”
“Yes, because Daffy Taffy spends all her time making up weird crap in her head,” Preston muttered just loud enough for everybody to hear.
I sent him a warning look. I didn’t know Taffy. I could acknowledge that she seemed a bit excitable, but I liked her. I wouldn’t stand for slander. “Nobody invited you to participate,” I replied evenly. “If you don’t like ghost stories, I’m sure there’s something for you to do… elsewhere.”
As I knew he would, Preston took it as a challenge. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to play.”
“Well, then stop being a whiner.” I didn’t care that he was technically in charge of this event. He was on my last nerve. “Who wants to go first?”
Bella’s hand shot into the air. “I do. I have a great story for warming everybody up.”
Her enthusiasm was adorable and contagious. “Lay it on me, Bellarino. I bet I can think of one to top you.”
“Oh, we’ll just see about that.”