Page 72 of Embers of You
“I bet Lily has some embarrassing stories about you, should we go over there and ask her?” Jo chimes in.
“She wishes. The worst she has is when her mom showed up the first time we…you know.”
“What do you mean she showed up?” I ask, already horrified at the thought of my parents ever catching me with a girl.
“We were in the middle of it, and someone was outside calling her name. I looked out the window and saw that her mom was there.”
“What did you do?” I’m not entirely sure I want to know, but I can’t help but wonder.
“Well, the window was open so we were pretty sure she heard us. Then she screamed at Lily to come outside and it kind of ruined the mood.”
Jo is the first to start laughing, and then one by one, we all join in at his expense. I feel bad for the girl he was with, but that’s quite the story for them to be able to tell.
“Your turn.” Parker nods toward me.
I shake my head. “No way. I can’t compete with that.”
“Hold on, that’s not fair.”
“That’s too bad for you then.” I shrug.
“Wait, what the fuck?”
I just chuckle and head out to work on some of the chores around the station while the rest of my coworkers play their weird little game.
I open the bay doors to get some air flow while I do inventory on the truck.
“Hey there,” a familiar voice calls out.
I turn around, seeing the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. And she’s finally giving me the time of day. But the best part is that she’s smiling at me right now. Something she’s done a lot more often lately. Her eyes are bright, the green even more prominent in the sunlight while her brown hair swishes over her shoulders.
Without hesitation, I step toward her and wrap my arms around her body, pulling her into me and she goes easily, letting me drop my mouth to hers in a gentle kiss. Her lips are soft against mine and I fight a groan, especially when her tongueteases the seam of mine and I’m about to push it further when she pulls back.
“Not that I’m going to complain about the surprise, but what’re you doing here?”
“I pulled up to work and saw you out here so thought I would stop by really quick.”
“Well, please feel free to do this any time.” I lean down to kiss her again, but our lips barely brush before the call sound goes off and I rest my forehead against hers.
“I think you have to go,” she teases.
“Guess so.” I don’t move away from her yet. I have a few more seconds to hold her in my arms and I’m not going to let go any earlier than I have to.
“Yo, Jameson! Gotta go, your girlfriend called.”
Sutton tenses in my arms, looking at me with furrowed brows. “Girlfriend?”
I shake my head. “Must be Margaret. Sorry, baby. I got a hot date, I’ll come by and see you later.”
She backs away from me, shaking her head. “Yeah, uh don’t worry about it.”
“Sutton.” I start to follow her, but I’m stopped by Dave clapping a hand on my shoulder.
“Come on, man, we gotta go.”
Sutton walks back over to the salon and I watch her enter the door as we drive away, though I’m annoyed we have to go out on this false alarm when she’s clearly upset. Everything was fineand she shut down just as fast as she had in the past. I know when we get back I’m going to have to do some damage control.
Once we get to Margaret’s I’m annoyed and already know I won’t be playing as nice as I usually do when we go on these calls. She comes out in one of her elaborate robes, hair curled and makeup done. My coworkers can sense how annoyed I am, so Jo is the one that takes the lead this time.
