“You always look fabulous.”
“I do not, and you know it. That’s why you have to come.”
“I can’t go without—”
He gasped so hard I clapped my mouth shut.
“Emily!”
“What?”
“I’ll be your bodyguard!”
“Simon. Really?”
“You’ve seen me naked. I am all muscle, and you know it.”
“But—”
“I’ll come pick you up and chauffeur you around like a queen! Royal treatment. If anyone even speaks to you, I’ll slap them.”
I leaned on the counter. The house was so empty and quiet. I wanted crowds and noise.
“I need to be back by seven.” Carter and I had made no plans to do anything, and I assumed he’d want to be with Phin, but I felt like a teen sneaking out the bedroom window. I had to get back in time or I’d get grounded.
“Yes!” He clapped, and I smiled. If my presence could make another person happy, so be it. There were worse ways to live.
CHAPTER 42
EMILY
We went to the Grove. Simon looked fabulous in everything. I had to pick a few reasons to be unenthusiastic in order to maintain my credibility. A washed-out olive color. Baggy pants that didn’t accentuate his dancer’s ass. A necklace that was simply too feminine.
He had a bunch of bags, and I had none when I tarried a little too long in front of the La Perla store. This was a mistake. Simon was too intuitive to let that slide.
“Excuse me?” he said, leaning on one hip.
“I like the color.”
The mannequin wore a lavender baby doll with a deep purple lace bra and panties underneath.
“Just the color?”
“It’s unusual.” I pressed forward. The Nike shop was ten steps away, and I needed socks. “Maybe they have something in that color.” I didn’t hear Simon answer. “Or do you think it’s ugly?”
I looked for him, but he was gone.
“Simon?”
He poked his head out of the La Perla store, waved, and went back in. I stood in the doorway. The store was mood-lit, filled with wordless, sensual music, and Simon was holding up a purple lace bra with nipple flaps.
“Are you kidding?” I asked.
“If you don’t try it on, I will. And I’m going to post it on Twitter and tag you.”
Vince would see. He’d freak out. Was it normal that my first thought was that I wasn’t safe if I was tagged on Twitter?
No. It wasn’t.
“I’ll try on this one.” I picked up one without nipple flaps.
In the dressing room, I looked like a different woman. I ran my hand over the curve in my hips the way he would and felt my nipples tighten. When I fastened the garter, I imagined Carter unfastening it, brushing his hands inside my thighs, kissing the place where the fabric met the skin.
Those lips.
Inside my thighs.
On the curves over the bra.
I swallowed hard. Turned to look at my back.
The panties played on the curve of my bottom, and the lines of the garter elongated my body. I ran a finger under a strap.
He’d do that. He’d get his fingers under there and grab it.
“Em!” Simon’s voice came from the other side of the door with a jarring knock.
“Yeah?”
“Let me see.”
“Hell no!” I unsnapped the bra.
“Don’t be embarrassed!”
“I’m not. I’m buying it.” I unhooked the garter and slipped out of the stockings.
“You like it?” He seemed very excited, and so was I. Not only did I love it, I was pretty sure Carter would too.
When I got back to the house, the 8 button on my driveway keypad was a little sticky, and it wasn’t as loud and beepy as the others. When I pulled in, the gate clacked behind me, and when I stopped in front of the garage, the motion-sensor light went on just like it was supposed to. I switched my La Perla bag from my right hand to my left so I could put my code in to unlock the door.
But the light over the side door didn’t work. Grey leaped up onto the back of a chair and watched me from the window.
I was sure I’d left her outside.
She tapped the window with her paw as if trying to tell me something very important in cat language. I peered in the window. The house seemed dark and empty.
Grey arched her back, raising her hackles at me. Her mouth opened in what I knew was a hiss.
CHAPTER 43
CARTER
“The bus? You’re on the bus?” I repeated Emily’s words, then my own.
We were mostly done with dinner. Phin had gloated over a second-place finish for a solid hour and a half, while Mom kept looking at the clock as if that would keep her from being late for her date. I usually didn’t answer the phone when we were sitting at the table, but I checked the screen on the pretense of clearing the dishes, and it was Emily.
“It seemed like the safest thing to do under the circumstances.”
The first thing she’d told me when I answered was that she was fine, but she thought Vince could be in the house.
“If I got in the car, he could jump out, and I’m just faster on my feet. But then he could chase me down the block, so I got on the bus.”
“Where are you now?” I stared into the sink, which was stacked with lunch’s dishes because Mom never emptied the damned dishwasher.
“I don’t want him to hurt Grey.”
“Where are you?”
“Fairfax and Olympic.”
“You took the bus west?”
“That’s the side of the street I was on.”
I heard the bus’s bells ding from the phone. She was only getting farther away.
“Get off,” I said. “There’s a coffee shop on the corner. Wait for me.”
“Can someone go check on the cat?”
I sighed. The cat was my fault.
“Yes. I’ll have someone check on the cat.”
“Thank you.” Her voice softened with real gratitude, and inside, past all my disruption and aggravation, in the space where I held the things that gave me peace—Phin, Mom, my responsibilities at home—I felt a deep whir of gladness.
I was serving her, and it made me happy.
I hung up the phone.
“Ma, can you stay here for another hour?”
She had her fingers wrapped around the condiment bottles, ready to put them away.
“An hour? No. I have fifteen minutes.”
“I need to do something.”
“It’s a third date.”
Mom didn’t have many third dates. Most of the guys she dated got cut loose after date two. Even Phin seemed impressed.
“Wow, Gram. Good going.”
“She doesn’t need encouragement from the peanut gallery.”
“As a matter of fact, I could use some.”
I took the dishes away. “Just go late.”
“I could have him meet me here.” Her offer was meant to be rejected, so I fell right into it.
“No!” I put the dishes on the counter with a clatter that almost broke them. “Phin, put your shoes on. You’re coming with me.”
“But the family tree—”
“Just do it!”
His body went boneless, and he dragged his feet out the door.
“What’s the problem?” Mom slapped the condiments on the shelf.
“He needs to do what I tell him the first time.”
“No, I mean he’s thirteen. You can leave him in the house for an hour.”
“No.”
“What’s he going to do? Sneak in an extra hour of video games?”
“It’s not him.”
“What’s the worst that can happen?”