Page 35 of Against the Autumn Pines
Ivy was dating a local guy, Todd, and none of them could stand him. Ivy had recently moved into a new apartment with him, and Aspen was struggling to keep her negative feelings to herself, so instead she vented to the rest of us so she could support her best friend in public.
“Got it. Nice.” I bit my lip to try to contain my smile as Aspen shook her head.
“Ugh, I know. I’m the problem. Come on, Poison Ivy, let’s go make some drinks while we wait for everyone else to arrive.”
“Who else is coming? Besides the fam,” I asked. Maybe I’d get lucky and there would be others here to distract me from her brother-in-law and how much I desired to dump a drink on his head.
“Oh you know, Rowan’s family, a couple of their friends from work, The Raven, the rodeo. Plus a few friends Ivy and I have from The Roadhouse. Should be around thirty people, give or take.” She shrugged as she started mixing us both drinks in a few plastic cups. “Why? Someone you’re hoping to see?” she asked as she eyed me suspiciously.
“Nope. I’m just here to have a good time tonight, Harley. You know I’m not out searching for anyone to marry me or some shit. I’m married to my work.” I shrugged with my practiced speech I’d given to my family a million times now. Grabbing the cup from her outreached hand, I downed half of it before letting my gaze return to hers.
She stared at me, the smile clear across her face. “Oh, sure. That reeked of someone who’s just here for a good time. Not a bit of baggage to be seen. I also go straight to marriage thoughts when someone asks me a simple question, after all.”
I groaned. “Okay listen, I’ve been…seeing someone? I guess? It’s a casual thing, no strings, just here for a good time. But I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if I want more, but again, it’s complicated. We’re both married to our jobs and agreed it wouldn’t, no,couldn’tbe more. So it isn’t. We may have had a…moment last week, but I haven’t seen him since, soI’m not stressing over it. At least not tonight. Tonight I’m just here for fun.”
I hurriedly drank the rest of my mixed drink and handed Aspen back the cup for another. I didn’t want to get drunk, but being buzzed couldn’t hurt my nerves. She nodded as if she had any idea what I was talking about.
“Well does this no strings attached man have a name?”
I shook my head slowly as she arched a brow.
“What does he look like?”
I cleared my throat. “Um, tall? Dark hair?”
“Uh, okay?” she replied, but then thankfully seemed to drop the subject and handed me another cup. Apparently it was clear I needed that more than I needed to talk about this right now.
Doing my best, I walked around and socialized with people, Aspen by my side the entire time for the next hour or so. I was feeling good. Aspen made a great mixed drink, everyone seemed to be having fun, and the night was going well.
That was until I rounded the corner to walk down towards the bonfire with Ivy and Todd, only toliterallyrun into Batman himself.
17
ANOTHER TWIN SECRET
Wyatt
This costume was not allit was cracked up to be, and the second I slid the mask over my face and looked back at my reflection, all I could think of was my hand wrapped up in a long red ponytail. However, my bonus sister told me to dress up, and then last minute said it needed to be a superhero costume.
That left me with Batman, unless I wanted to drive into the city to a big box store and hope they had something to fit my tall ass—which I didn’t want to do.
I’d spent Wednesday evening with my fiery girl, which was fantastic, as usual. Thursday, I stopped into Buns of Delight to drop a bomb shell on Ember, which I still felt horrible about. Friday, Rae and I had our fun at Silk and Spice, which had ended in me having way too manyemotions for one human like myself to handle, so I buried them.
The rest of this week had been shit after shit show.
Two clients had emergency’s earlier in the week that had to be dealt with, and then I wrapped up the week with a lovely emergency meeting with Julian last night to fix some bugs with the app. Apparently, some of the anonymous people’s profiles were showing with their names and security photo for Silk and Spice. Obviously, not something that would fly once the app launched. Shit like that had to be worked out and perfected. So I had to cancel our normal Wednesday and Friday night sex-a-thon and spend almost every evening this week in someone’s office with my computer, neck deep in coding files until I found the issue or solved their security issues.
I’d been upset about having to cancel, but at the same time, thankful. Maybe some time and space was what I needed to get my head back on straight and remember I wasn’t supposed to be falling in love with this mystery woman.
By the time I’d gotten home last night, I’d showered and then collapsed into bed, essentially dead to the world until Rowan called me this morning, reminding me of the party. Reiterating that if I missed it, he’d send Aspen after me.
So here I was. On the other side of our family’s ranch, forcing my feet up the stairs to where the beer was being kept. I’d spent a decent chunk of the evening so far tending to the bonfire Rowan had started outside. Oliver and I had taken over as a way to avoid the crowd of people in the house making drinks and saying hello, but now? Now we needed beer, and it was my turn to fetch it.
I rounded the corner into the kitchen when a small woman ran right into my chest. I stood still while shebounced back, our gazes snapping together as if the universe itself had forced it to happen.
Her golden brown eyes peered up at me, and I never knew brown eyes were my favorite until right at this exact moment. Her deep red painted lips parted, and it took all of my power not to lean down and cover them with my own for the second time.
Did app rules apply out in the real world? Could I kiss her? We’d ditched the rules last week, but maybe that was momentary and not forever.
