Chapter Five
Saturdays
Ella
Iwake to an achy neck. I’m too old to be sleeping sitting up. Leaning up from the warm chest I’m pressed against, I look up into the beautiful blue eyes of Mitch.
He grins at me, showing off those gorgeous teeth.
“Good morning.”
I chuckle. “I don’t know about good.” Rubbing my sore neck, I sat back on the couch. “You should’ve left me here and gone home to your comfortable bed. If my neck hurts, I can only imagine your back is killing you.”
He grins. “I’m all good, beautiful. Nothing a little stretching won’t fix. Besides, I didn’t want to leave you alone last night.”
My stomach does that fluttery thing that it always does around Mitch.
I swear this man has no idea how the things he says affect me.
From the first time I saw him in Spanish class, I had a crush on him.
He was a tall ass white boy with the prettiest blue eyes, a dimpled smile, and the swagger of someone who knew how fine he was.
If I thought I had an actual chance with him, I would’ve shot my shot back in high school. But Mitchell Declan Miller was a popular football star, and every girl in school wanted him. There was no way he was going to look at the nerdy black girl that no one knew.
“So, what’s on the schedule for today?”
Saturdays are our remodeling days. We spend every Saturday tackling one of the many home projects.
“I think we’re ready to start the boy’s bathroom.”
“Good,” I sigh. “Cam said the floor ate his shoe again.”
Mitch shakes his head. “Yeah, let’s fix that first.”
I stand on my feet, reaching over my head to stretch my body.
Once I’m done, I hold a hand out to Mitch.
He grins before placing his hand in mine.
I pull, helping him to his feet. In reality, I’m doing nothing.
Mitch is thick and solid; I’d never really be able to lift him up.
He gets to his feet, dwarfing my short 5’5 height.
Mitch had one of those bodies that not everyone appreciates. He was muscular, with thick arms and wide shoulders. His chest was like a barrel. Yet, he didn’t have a six-pack. He had a slight belly. To others it might not be attractive, but to me, it was the sexiest thing.
“I’m going to head home and shower. I’ll be back in an hour. Think you’ll be ready to go by then?” he asks, staring down at me.
I was so busy thinking of his body, I almost missed his question.
“Uh yeah. Yeah definitely.”
He grins. Although his full beard covers his dimples, I can still tell they are there by the way his cheeks dip in.
“Walk me out so you can lock the door,” he demands.
I step back so he can make his way to my front door. The way his dark t-shirt stretches over his wide back and the way it slowly draws in closer as you get to his waist keeps my attention. And lord knows this man can wear the hell out of some jeans.
Andrew loved to dress up. I hardly ever saw him in jeans. I won’t lie, my ex could do damage in a damn suit. But not even he had an ass as nice as Mitch’s. You could bounce a quarter off that thing. I run into the back of Mitch when he stops suddenly at the door.
He spins around just in time to catch me from bouncing off him and hitting the floor.
“You alright?”
The embarrassment heats my face.
“Yeah. Sorry, I was thinking about...” How good your ass looks in those jeans. “The bathroom.”
He stares down at me, those blue eyes narrowing as if he’s trying to see through my lie.
“Okay,” he finally says. “Well, lock up before you go.”
He turns away and I grimace at the fact that he thinks I meant I had to use the bathroom. As soon as Mitch steps onto the porch, I shut the door and lock it. He won’t leave until he hears the sound of that lock.
Peeking through the blinds on the door, I watch as he stands on my porch for a second. He looks as if he’s contemplating something. His brow is pinched, and his hands are fisted down at his sides. Before I could open the door and ask if he’s alright, he turned and walked down the porch.
Turning my back to the door, I let out a deep breath. No matter how much I like to admire my sons’ godfather, it’s all I will ever be able to do. I missed my opportunity to be with Mitch the day Andrew asked for my number. Not that I had a chance back then or now.
Pushing away from my front door, I make my way to my bedroom to get ready for my day.
“Are you sure this is all we need?” I ask as Mitch pulls another sheet of wood from the shelf and places it on our rolling cart.
“Yeah. You only have a small spot on the subfloor that needs to be replaced. The rest of the floor is good.”
Before I bought my new house, I knew nothing about flooring and subflooring.
I couldn’t tell you what material they used to build a house other than wood and nails.
However, the last few months have given me a crash course in construction.
I now know how to hang drywall, find studs, and rip up and lay tile.
I can probably knock down a wall and rebuild it at this point.
“This won’t be a repeat of my bathroom, will it?” I ask teasingly.
Mitch chuckles as he places the plywood onto the cart. Once he’s done, he turns and shakes his head.
“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
“We went to the store six times in one day.”
His deep laughter filled the space again. “Hey, we finally got everything we needed, and now your primary bathroom is your favorite room in the house.”
He wasn’t lying. My bathroom had to undergo a complete overhaul. We knocked down an unnecessary linen closet, gave me a walk-in shower with a standing tub, double sinks and a water closet. It’s absolutely perfect.
We walk further up the aisle to get more stuff and stop at the section of nails.
Just then, a gorgeous blonde-haired woman walked past us.
She looks over at Mitch and does a double take.
I watch her eyes spark with interest. A part of me wants to tell her to keep her eyes to her damn self.
I mean, what if he was my man and you’re walking by eye-fucking him?
However, another part of me realizes he is not mine.
And although I enjoy my friend, he deserves to find love.
I turn to see if he’s picking up what she’s putting down. Mitch is too busy looking through the shelves of nails, trying to find the right one for the project.
I smacked his arm. He looks down at me and frowns.
“What?”
“Did you not see her?” I ask, glancing past him to the woman who has now stopped a little distance behind us. She’s looking at the plywood, but I can tell by the way she’s scanning over it she isn’t really looking for anything.
Mitch turns around. The exact moment he does, the blonde looks at him. Their gazes connect for a moment. She smiles and ducks her head flirtatiously. Mitch turns back to look at me. I wait for him to tell me how pretty she is, or to stay here while he goes and gets her number.
This man looks at me with a straight face and says, “You think Paulette is serving country fried steak today? I wouldn’t mind stopping by there before we head back to the house.” He turns back to the nails before grabbing a box.
The woman glances at him once more before walking further down the aisle.
“Mitch, what the hell?”
His brow dips as he looks over at me.
“She was checking you out,” I find myself explaining, not sure why I need to.
Honestly, this is not the first time he and I have been out somewhere and women have checked him out. The man is gorgeous. I understand their fascination. Usually, I don’t call attention to it. I figured he just never noticed it, but this was obvious.
He shrugs. “Yeah, so?”
He pushed the buggy up the aisle. I keep in step with him.
“So? Why didn’t you go over there? You could have easily gotten her number.”
He looks down at me with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t want her number.”
I can’t say I know what Mitch’s type is.
In high school and college he dated a collection of chicks: white, black, Hispanic, and Asian.
Andrew used to joke and say his friend was an equal opportunist dater.
His ex-wife, whom I never liked, was a typical pretty white chick.
However, the woman who had just checked him out was stunning.
“Why not? She was pretty.”
“Yeah, she was, but she was also checking for a man who was standing with another woman. She didn’t know if I was with you or not. It was disrespectful of her to dismiss you. And I don’t do disrespect.”
I have to take a second before I can speak.
My heart does a little stutter step in my chest. I try not to compare anything to Andrew.
It’s best I leave our relationship in the past. But some things are hard to ignore.
My ex would have loved to gloat about a woman checking him out.
He would always tell me about some woman at a store or at work who was flirting with him.
Of course, he would say he wasn’t interested or downplay the woman’s looks, but he would always tell me.
“Come on,” he says, moving further. “Let’s check out. I’m starving.”
I follow behind him, trying to ignore the way his words make my stomach flutter and my heart race. Those feelings have no place in our relationship.
When we get to the register, Mitch unloads the buggy. I don’t even mention paying for any of this stuff. The man refuses to let me pay for anything, even though I told him it isn’t his responsibility.
“Aren’t you going to check your list to make sure we have everything?”
He looks down at me with a playful smirk.
“Hey, don’t knock my lists. They have been lifesavers.”
I wouldn’t say I’m a type-A personality, but I love organization and lists.
He held up his hands in a posture of surrender. “I have no issues with your many lists. I appreciate them.”
I smile as I reach into my purse to pull out my phone. I’d planned to go into my notes app, but got sidetracked when I saw the notifications for the dating app.
Opening the app, I’m completely shocked at what I see.
“Oh, my goodness.”
“What?” Mitch asks, sounding alarmed. He takes a step closer to me.
Turning my phone around, I show him what I’m looking at.
“I have twenty-two matches on this app.”
His brows pinch, and for a moment, a look crosses his face that I can’t quite read. Before I can really study it, it’s gone and in its place is a smile.
“You sound shocked. I told you this would happen.”
Turning the phone back to face me, I stare down at the men on the screen. It’s not that I thought I was unattractive. Don’t get it wrong, I don’t have low self-esteem. I just didn’t think any guy would be interested in me after all this time.
“I don’t know how to feel about this.” I admit out loud.
The cashier gives Mitch the total, and he pulls his card out of his wallet. Before turning to face me.
“You should feel good. Now you can see that what we’ve been telling you is true. You’re a beautiful and desirable woman, Ella.”
My face heats as I blush. Mitch takes his card back from the cashier and places it in his wallet before grabbing the bag.
“This is great news,” he says, looking down at me. “Maybe not for old man Randall, though.”
I toss my head back and laugh as we make our way out of the store. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure about the plan to have a date for the wedding. But now, maybe this all could work. And more importantly, maybe somewhere in this app is my true forever.