“That’s usually a good sign.”
I rolled my eyes, picked up my bags, and got out of the car. “Pick me up tomorrow at eight.”
As soon as I was in the house, I went to work, but when I took a break to feed Bonnie, I felt myself gravitating toward my phone. I typed quickly, before I could change my mind. He was probably out anyway. It was Friday night, after all.
Me: I miss you too.
I set the phone down as if it were burning me and walked away from it before I could do anything crazy, like call him. My phone buzzed a few seconds later.
V: Did you have a nice vacation?
Me: Yes.
He didn’t respond after that, and I developed a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I went back to my costume and tried to ignore the phone and the way it wasn’t buzzing.
Marcus knocked on my door at seven fifty, and I could tell he was having a hard time not looking at what I was wearing when I opened the door.
“It’s okay, you can check me out. I look hot,” I said. “Unless I look slutty, then I have to wear the other outfit.”
“You look fine.”
“Not slutty?”
He shrugged. “I thought you didn’t care if you looked slutty?”
This guy. I shook my head, grabbed my purse, and followed him to my car. Thankfully there was still no sign of photographers, but as we were about to drive off, there was a knock on my window that startled me. I looked and saw Brent standing outside.
“Hey,” I said, lowering the window.
“Hey. I haven’t seen you around. Are you back with Lane?”
Evidentially, I’d used Brent as my sounding board one too many times. Thankfully I never said Victor’s name, so I guess he thought my rants about men were all about Gabe. I tried not to laugh at that thought.
“No. Definitely not.”
“Oh, good to know,” he said with a smile. “Maybe we can have dinner one of these days.”
“Sure. I’m running late though, so I’ll have to get back to you.”
“Of course,” he said, stepping away from the car. We waved at each other and Marcus drove away.
“Good thing you didn’t invite him,” he said after.
“Funny.”
We were quiet on our way to the party, which was at Victor’s parents’ house. Even that made me nervous. I’d be seeing them again, and I really, really liked them. The funny thing was that this was reminding me of a divorce in itself. A divorce where instead of the dog, I wanted shared custody of his family. The gates were open for us to drive in without ringing the bell, and we were able to pull up to the door. I stayed in the car for a while, breathing in and out.
“Call me when you need me to pick you up,” Marcus said.
I took one last long breath before stepping out of the car and telling him that I would, then walked up the steps with the bottle of wine I’d brought along and rang the doorbell. My heart pounded and shook in my chest, and when Victor opened the door, I was pretty sure I was close to fainting. I swallowed, registering the look of surprise on his face, his gaze skimming over me slowly. I felt the charge everywhere, and realized that despite the time we’d been apart, nothing had managed to numb what I felt for him, let alone make it vanish.
“Hi,” I managed to say, clearing the croak in my throat.
“You look beautiful,” he replied. My heart leaped again. I was finding it impossible to breathe with the way he was looking at me.
“I . . . thank you. You look . . .” My eyes followed the length of his body. He was wearing a legit pirate costume.
“Ridiculous,” he said. “I know.”
I smiled. “I was going to say hot.”
He tilted his head a bit and smiled. It was so sexy, and real, and unexpected, that it made my heart squeeze in pain. “I’m glad that wasn’t lost under this ridiculousness.”
I laughed as he stepped aside for me to walk in. The house was decked out in pirate paraphernalia. I felt like I was on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. “You guys really know how to throw a party.”
“Yeah, my mom and sister have no life.”
“I heard that,” Estelle said, appearing from where I knew the dining room was. She looked like a sexy Captain Hook, with a hook on one arm and a parrot on her shoulder. She walked over to me and pulled me into a hug. “Hi. Oh my God. I love your costume; did you make it? I’m so glad you came.”
Victor’s lips twitched when she said that, and I found myself smiling as my stomach flip-flopped again. I wanted to stop looking at him, but I couldn’t. I knew I missed him, I guess I hadn’t realized just how much until I saw him again.
“I made most of it,” I said. “Pulled an all-nighter.”
“Vic, can you help me get this?” a woman said, and when she walked in wearing her own sexy pirate outfit, I recognized her as the blonde in one of the pictures I’d seen of him. My smile instantly vanished and I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe.