was doing that night when he got in the car with Tristan. He knew the risk he was taking. He knew he was going to be a father.”
“Oh sweetie. Tristan hate’s himself too. You know he blames himself. We were all young and stupid. You got lucky and ended up pregnant. Derek was so proud he was going to be a dad.” Leigha looked out of my sunroof. “You know as well as I do that if he thought for one minute getting in that car with Tristan would take him away from you and Gabe he never would have went.”
She was right. Derek loved the idea that I was having his baby. I was only seventeen, he was eighteen, but we were in love. “I know. That doesn’t stop me from thinking ‘what if’. Would the boys have made it big and would we be sittin’ fat on our asses on some private island. Would the guys still be playing in the garage and we barely scraping to get by? Or maybe we would be comfortable having nine to five jobs with a couple of kids.”
Leigha shrugged. “Maybe. But we will never know. You can’t keep thinking ‘what if’. Eventually you have to let go and move on. Close that chapter in your life and start writing a new one.”
I didn’t want to move on. I didn’t want to forget Derek. He was the only chapter I knew. I feared change, despised it. Moving on meant starting something new which meant leaving Derek behind. I wasn’t ready for that and didn’t know if I ever would be. Gabe was the guy I snuggled with and loved. He was the spitting image of his daddy with his shaggy light brown hair and soft hazel eyes. His attitude dead on. Gabe did what he wanted and said what he thought. He was a good kid but I could already tell when he got older I would be put through hell.
Not wanting to talk about Derek anymore I lied. “I’ll try. Let’s go home and sleep. I’m so tired.”
“What in the hell?” I yanked my phone off the nightstand to look at the time. A little after nine. Who would be at my house this early? The only people that would need to be here this early have a key. One of those people was still asleep next to me.
“Will you go answer the damn door? It’s too early for me to get up.” Leigha mumbled.
Flinging the sheet off of me, I stomped into the living room and jerked the front door open. There was a younger guy standing in front me, looking me up and down.
“Can I help you?” I asked, irritated.
“Are you Annie Holland?” The boy looked familiar but no way would I know someone as young as him.
“Depends. Who wants to know?”
The boy surpried the shit outta me when he said, “I like you.”
Scrunching my face I asked, “Excuse me?”
Smiling, the boy said, “Nevermind”-shaking his head he added- “I have a delivery for you.”
“I didn’t order anything.”
Rolling his eyes, he said, “You know, people can order stuff for you. You know, like as a surprise.” Leaning over the boy grabbed a huge vase of lillies I hadn’t noticed. “I was told to tell you to make sure you read the card. Have a nice day.”
Taking the flowers I mumbled my thanks and kicked the door shut. Shuffling into the kitchen I sat the vase on the counter and opened the card.
Hope you’re not feeling too bad this morning. Tequila can be a bitch. Asprin and Coffee helps.
“Leigha! Leigha Cole get your ass in here now!” I shouted as loud as I could.
Rubbing her eyes Leigha walked into the kitchen. Even first thing in the morning she looked gorgeous. “You better be dying right now.” Gorgeous, yes…pleasant, no.
“I think I might be. Look at this shit.” I stepped to the side so she could see on the counter behind me.
Blinking a few time, her jaw dropped. “Are those from him?” She took a few steps toward the counter, leaning in to smell them.
“Yes. That fucker! I can’t accept these. I’m taking them to work and shoving them in his face.”
Leigha still had her face in the flowers but looked at me out the side of her eyes. “Why? He’s just trying to be nice.”
Snorting, I said, “More like trying to get in my panties.”
“Eh, whatever. Flowers are flowers, and these are amazing. But, how did he know where you lived? Maybe he’s a stalker.”
They were pretty. “Leigha, he’s our boss. I’m sure he looked at my application. If I keep them he will get the wrong idea. Better to nip this in the ass and say goodbye to the pretty flowers so he knows I’m not interested.”
“Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. But still, you can keep the flowers and still tell him you’re not interested in anything other than being friends.”
“Leigha, I don’t even know the man. Well, he did tell me he was a single parent to his daughter, his wife died a few months ago. Other than that I know nothing. I don’t want to be his friend. He’s my boss.”
Her eyes lit up and she giggled, “Oh, it would be like a dirty, secret office romance.”
“Um, I’m just going to act like I didn’t just hear that.” Shoving the card back into the flowers I said, “I’m going to call your brother and see if he wants to meet me at the beach with Gabe. If you promise to keep your mouth shut you can come.”
Leigha held her hand up to her mouth and pretended she was zipping it shut then throwing the key away. “These lips are sealed.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Taking one last look at the flowers I started to walk away. Today I wouldn’t worry about Gage or his pretty flowers or his sky blue eyes or the way he smelled like walking sex or the way his smile made my stomach flip or how all I could think about was feeling him inside me or the very, very dirty dream I had about him. Nope, no Gage Tucker on my brain. Ha! Who was I kidding?
Stupid men.
I called Jase and we decided to meet at the beach at noon. When we pulled up I saw Jase’s car and Tristan’s truck already there. Inwardly groaning I turned my car off and grabbed my bag from the backseat with towels and sunblock. I didn’t want to be around him today. Gage already had my head in a clusterfuck. I really didn’t need Tristan trying to be my best friend.
“Mommy! Guess what I can do?” Gabe was running out of the ocean as I walked down the beach.
“Wipe your own ass?” I joked. Gabe loved Big Daddy, one of his favorite movies. Yeah, yeah I know what a horrible mom I am for letting him watch movies like that blah blah blah. He either hears it with me or from someone he doesn’t know.
Gabe laughed. “Well yeah mommy. And I still want my name to be Frankenstien but guess what else I can do?”
Bending down, I kissed the top of his head. He was always so happy on the beach. I asked, “What else, buddy?”
“Uncle Jase taught me the first verse of Sweet Home Alabama on the guitar.”
Looking up at Jase he winked. Bringing my attention back to my little boy I asked, “He did? I can’t wait to hear it.”
“Uncle Jase said he will teach me more tonight when you’re at work.”
“That sounds fun baby. I guess you had a lot of fun with Uncle Jase last night?”
Gabe nodded quickly. “Duh mommy. He also told me I can’t show my penis in public.”
“Well, yes he’s right, but why did he tell you that?” I started walking again.
“Tristan was watching some movie and the guy was showing all the girls his penis. And, you know what mommy? That guy had an earring in his penis. It was so gross. I don’t ever want an earring in my penis. The guy in the movie had a big penis, mommy. Why isn’t mine that big?”
My eyes were huge. I was frantically looking around to make sure no one was hearing my five year old repeatedly saying penis or talking about some guy’s penis peircing. Thankfully everyone was ignoring us.
I wanted to laugh but that wouldn’t be right. Instead I dropped to my knees to look Gabe in his eyes. “You don’t pay attention to Tristan, okay. He’s a bad boy. And from now on, lets not say penis in public.”
Wrinkling his nose, Gabe looked back at where the group of guys were sitting. “You don’t like him, huh?”
Why did my child have to be so damn perseptive? No sense in lying. “Nope, buddy, I don’t. He made a very bad mistake a long time ago and mommy can’t forgive him.”
