Page 45 of Welcome Home, Cowboy
“Got to be safe, my friend.” Micah gestured toward the boxes. “The glow-in-the-dark variety could be fun. To make sure you see where you’re going. Less poking around.”
“Shut up. I wasn’t…” Lawson stumbled on his lie. “A guy should just have these things.”
“Exactly,” Micah and Griffin chimed.
Lawson grabbed a box. “There. You jerks happy now?”
Micah laughed and patted his shoulder. “You promised to stop by the house soon. And feel free to bring the mystery woman. Kat would love to have another female to talk to at the dinner table.”
Lawson nodded. Kat and Julie were sisters. That would be awkward. Him and his best friend dating two sisters.
Dating?No, they were just screwing. And not even that. He glanced down at the box in his hand. He and Julie might never get that close to doing the deed again. In fact, they’d agreed that they wouldn’t. These condoms weren’t for her. They were to make sure he was prepared if and when he decided to close the deal with another female. A different female.
“Sure. Will do,” Lawson said. “Now if you two assholes don’t mind, I have to pick up milk for my niece and get ready for yoga.”
Micah’s brows lifted. “Condoms, a mystery woman, and yoga?”
Griffin was smiling, too. “Condoms and yoga. I think I know exactly what’s going on here.”
“No, you don’t.” Lawson leveled his friends with a stare. “It’s not what you think.”
Griffin shrugged. “Whatever it takes to get your head clear and you back in the game.”
Being a Marine wasn’t a game, though. Lawson knew that better than most. “Yeah. See you two.” He walked quickly down the aisle and turned, blowing out a breath and focusing on his mission at hand. He needed to get milk and get out of this grocery store without anyone else seeing the box of condoms he was carrying. A brief image of Mel discovering him with this purchase made him flinch. That would be awkward and, as crazy as she was, she’d probably think they were for her.
He physically shuddered and then froze, spotting the woman who was heading in his direction. She hadn’t noticed him yet. She was too busy looking down at a paper list in her hand. Running into Julie right now was possibly worse than seeing Mel. Julie would know the box was being bought with her in mind. She’d know and they’d already agreed that tearing each other’s clothing off would never happen again.
Julie looked up, her eyes widening. Her pace slowed as she continued to approach. Then she quickly scrambled to rearrange the items in her basket. But not before he spotted a box very similar to the one that he was holding.
Well, well, well.
“Hey,” he said.
Her eyes landed on the condoms he was carrying and her cheeks flushed. “Hi. What a coincidence meeting you here.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were stalking me,” he teased.
Her eyes narrowed until she realized he was kidding. “I’m about to see you at yoga anyway, so that would be a bit obsessive.”
“I seem to have that effect on the ladies.” He shifted as she looked at the box in his hand again. “A guy should be prepared,” he said.
Meeting his eyes, she nodded. “And safe.”
Was she thinking about all the things they’d done without a condom the other night? His mouth. Her mouth. He’d felt like a teenager again, going as far as he could without crossing the line of what was considered sex and not sex.
“So I’ll see you in an hour,” he said, tucking the box of condoms under his arm, doing his best to pretend it didn’t exist.
She nodded. “Yes. See you then.”
He tried not to look back at her as she walked past him. Failing, he turned and checked out her perfect backside, which he’d seen in the buff over the weekend. He also caught a glimpse of Micah and Griffin spying on him several aisles down. Judging by the grins on their faces, the identity of his mystery woman was no longer a mystery.Shit.
—
Over the last couple of weeks, the yoga class had grown from a few reluctant participants to ten focused yogis—one of whom was Lawson.
Julie sat with her legs crossed in front of her and inhaled deeply, waiting for the participants to settle in on their mats. She was also still trying to get Saturday night off her mind, which was hard to do when Lawson was sporting the getup she’d helped him pick out at Sports Crush over the weekend. It fit him perfectly, hugging every muscular curve that she’d become very intimate with just a few days ago.
Rose waved as she walked in, holding her mat under her arm. She had another woman following behind her.
