Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
~HENDRIX~
The drive back to August’s is quiet, almost deliberately quiet. He’s driving along, holding onto my hand. My hand hasn’t left his since he picked it up during the eighth inning. Not that I have minded. I just sit there with his hand in mine as the city flies by.
“I’m driving you back my place because I assumed this is where your car is but is that where you’d like to stay tonight?” he asks me, looking over and giving me a lazy smile.
I look over and grin. “It is...” My voice trails off.
“I sense a ‘but’ coming.” He brings my hand up and places a quick kiss on the back of it before placing it back to rest on the center console.
“I should go home,” I say, stealing a glance in his direction. I catch his grimace. “I think that Ash would be pretty pissed off if I was out all night again.”
“Isn’t he already pissed?”
I nod. “He is. But maybe he’ll be less pissed.”
August chuckles. “Or we could pretend like you’re an adult and it’s already almost eleven, so what does it matter if you come home or not?”
I consider his words and decide he’s not wrong. But I feel like being there when Ash wakes up might go a little ways in tamping down his anger at me. There’s been a lot of that lately. Apparently, I’m making the same stupid decisions that I did in college when he wasn’t there to stop me.
“Do you want to have the conversation that you are having in your head with me?” August asks, glancing over at me.
I grin. “How’d you guess?”
“You were chewing at your lip, which means you’re arguing with yourself over something.”
I turn in surprise. Thankfully, we’re at stoplight so that he can look me in the eyes.
“I notice more about you than you realize,” he says, grinning, dropping his voice low before continuing.
“I may not have the best reputation in your eyes, but I haven’t stopped paying attention to the little things that you do.
And, honestly, it’s the same things that you did in college. I know you. I remember you.”
I grin at him. “I see that you do. And I appreciate that. I need to start cutting you a little slack, huh?” I give his hand a squeeze.
To my surprise he shrugs. “You can keep on giving me shit. I don’t care.
Sometimes, I like our little banter. It’s refreshing and fun.
You calling me on my bullshit, that is. I like that you are not afraid to stand up to me even though sometimes I feel like your remarks could cost you your job.
” He taps my nose and continues, “I wouldn’t fire you, though, and not just because you are ‘The Wall,’ but because I like having you around. ”
I grin at him and lean over, my lips slowly capturing his. He deepens it, and I let him. I go to remove my seatbelt so that I can get closer to him, but I hear a horn behind us. We slowly break apart.
“I think they want you to move now,” I say, a little breathless from the kiss.
He grins. “They can wait.” The horn beeps more urgently. “I guess they can’t.”
August guns the engine and pulls away so the beeping car is able to move through the light.
“Those assholes really know how to ruin a moment,” he says with a chuckle.
“They sure do,” I admit. Biting my lip, I hate the idea of what I’m about to say to him, but I know I have to.
“As much as I want to come upstairs with you and lose myself in you, I know I can’t.
I gotta head home and see my brother. We can see each other the next night at the bar, and I will let you take me home with you then. If you want to.”
August scoffs. “If I want to. Try and stop me from taking you home with me when we’re with our friends. I will take great pleasure in that.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Yeah, well, the girls might be surprised. I let them know that we were hanging out again, but I never said that I was banging you. I just said that we were taking things slow.”
“Oh, don’t worry, when I take you home, I will take things nice and slow.” I don’t miss the innuendo in his voice.
“That’s not quite how I meant. Although that might be a nice change of pace,” I tease him.
“Well, since you put it that way, then maybe we should go home and practice this slow loving that you would like.” His hand leaves mine and squeezes my thigh. As quickly as his hand leaves mine, it’s back there again.
“That’s tempting. But I think I’m heading home tonight, so you are flying solo,” I say, giving his hand a squeeze this time.
He sighs. “Alright, I get it. Go home and spend time with your brother. Maybe this will help him like me a bit more.”
“You could try hanging out with him and not insulting him,” I suggest.
“He could try the same thing. The man makes it so fucking easy,” he reminds me.
I shake my head, laughing. “I know that neither one of you wants to hear this, but I think you have problems getting along because you are so much alike. And you are both so fucking overprotective of me, even though you like to remind me that I’m an adult.
Which is funny because around the two of you, I sure don’t feel like an adult. ”
“Ooh, do you feel like a horny schoolgirl?” he asks as he carefully maneuvers the car into his parking garage beneath his building.
Everything about August’s apartment building is state of the art, which reminds me that he is here because he’s a Cromwell and this is what is expected.
It’s easy to forget his pedigree when he’s chowing down on beer and wings at the bar with me and my friends.
I laugh thinking about how sweetly immature he can be.
“I do not, although I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night.” I hop out and make my way to the back of the car.
He gets out and does the same. “Thank you for taking me tonight. I really enjoyed meeting your brother and hanging out with him. That was fun. I’ve never been to a baseball game before. It was nice.”
He nods. “He really liked you too. And I’m glad that you came with us. It was nice to spend some time with you but away from everyone else. Felt like we were a normal couple tonight.”
I look up at him from under my lashes. “It sure did. Does that scare you?”
“You would think so, but it doesn’t, Hen.” He leans and kisses my nose. “It really doesn’t.”
I giggle. “Good, I’m glad.”
“Come on, before I lose the internal struggle and drag you upstairs to my apartment, I should walk to your car.” He stretches out his hand, and I take it as he leads me to over to the guest parking. “Make sure you text me when you get home. I wanna know that you made it safely.”
I grin. “Of course, August. And thank you for asking me to do that. It means a lot to me.”
“I keep reminding you that I’m not all that bad. And that you really didn’t hate me. You were just overcome with all of your feelings of love,” he teases.
I know he’s just joking, but he just might be right. It could be that that thin line between love and hate might have just been that thin with us. I lean in and kiss him deeply. “Thank you again for tonight. I had a lot of fun. And I can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”
“I can’t wait to see you tomorrow either and I hope that Ash isn’t too hard on you when you get home.”
“He’ll get over it,” I say with a roll of my eyes, knowing that it’s not going to be that simple when I get home. “Or he won’t. I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do,” he reminds me.
“Yeah, I do. We’ll figure it out, August. He’s not the family that I’m worried about,” I admit to him, speaking of the elephant that I feel like is lingering in any conversation where we talk about us.
“Yeah, well, we’ll deal with Maxwell Cromwell at some point. You don’t worry about that right now. That’ll be something for after we finish out the season,” he tells me.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you don’t need that much stress before the playoffs. And until then you just relax. I’ll handle my father. I’m not a kid anymore. It won’t be as easy for him to tear me away from you, I promise you that much.” He gives me another kiss, and I know it’s time to go.
“Have a good night, I’ll see you later.” I carefully extract myself from his arms and unlock the BMW.
“Good night, baby,” he says, helping me into the car.
I can still see him as I’m driving out of the garage. He doesn’t go up until I’m out.
When I reach home, I shoot him a text.
Hendrix: I made it home. Night, August.
I add a kissy face emoji and hit send.
August: Good, I’m glad. Good night, Hendrix.
I grin at the phone. I wish I would have stayed.
I wanted to so badly, but I have a broody brother upstairs who might still be up.
Heading up my stairs, I notice the lights from Amelia’s apartment are out.
I’m wondering if she’s with Dex or if she’s already asleep for the night. My money is on Dex’s.
Where August lives. I groan internally as I unlock the door. Placing a smile on my face, I enter.
“Hey, Ash, how was your night?”
He’s lying on the couch in his sleep shorts and T-shirt, watching the TV. I look over and see its Sport Center highlights.
“Good, how was the game? I saw that they won,” he replies.
“It was a lot of fun, actually.” I take a seat beside the couch and watch him carefully. “I had a lot of fun hanging out with him and his brother. And his brother wasn’t rude to me.”
“He better not have been,” Ash says, staring at me pointedly.
“Not exactly the point I’m trying to make Ash,” I say, shaking my head.
“I get it. I get it. I will try and be nicer to him when I see him again. Which I’m assuming will be tomorrow because when I was talking to Danny earlier, he said something about it being a bar night or something,” he says, picking up his phone and spinning it in his fingers.
“Yeah, it will be. You’re talking to Danny? That’s nice that you made a friend.”
“I’m not a toddler. I know how to make friends. And the guys that you hang out with, they are alright. Everyone’s all coupled up, which I guess is why something happened with you and Cromwell,” he tells me.
I shake my head. “I don’t think that’s why it happened. It didn’t help that we were both lonely. I just think that maybe we were supposed to find our way back to each other or something sappy shit like that,” I tell him, reaching over and stealing his water bottle to take a swig.
He shakes his head when he says, “Help yourself.” I flip him off and he continues, “Yeah, maybe that’s the case. But doesn’t make me like him any more than I did. But I will try to be nicer to him.”
I stare at him for a second. “What happened tonight? I came home tonight because I thought that maybe me staying with him again would make things difficult between us…” My voice trails off and I watch him closely waiting for a reply.
He sighs. “Because I’m here visiting you and I don’t want to spend all of our time fighting over him. It’s not worth it.”
I nod. “Good, I like having you here and I don’t want to fight either. So, is this like a truce on the whole August thing?”
He shakes his head, “Something like that. I just know that I’m glad to be here with my sister, my family. We’re not fighting over it. But if he’s mean to you, I will punch that sorry motherfucker in the face again. Only this time I will break something. Got it?”
I nod. “I love having a protective older brother.” I lean over and hug him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, kiddo. Now get some rest, you have practice and in a few days, your final regular season game. It’s a big one. At least that is what Danny told me, so you should go to bed so that you are ready to rip at practice tomorrow.”
“You got it.” I get up and he joins me, switching off the TV. “Are you heading to bed too?”
“Yep, I was just waiting up for you,” he says.
“Thanks for doing that.”
“I never got to when you were younger. I wasn’t living at home when you were dating,” he reminds me.
“No, you weren’t. But it’s nice that you can do it now.”
“Sure is. Night, Henny.”
“Night, Ashy.”
“No, we’re not calling me that,” he says, turning and pointing his finger at me. “Not doing that anymore.”
I chuckle. “Okay, fine. It’s an ‘in the apartment only’ kind of name.” I close my door and hear him chuckling on the other side.