“Oh do you now?” Her eyes glinted with passion. “Taking after me, I see.”
“I think this is a list you’ll like.” He brought himself closer to her, positioning his tip near her wet pussy. “But I’d rather show you than tell you.”
She smiled, her white teeth flashing. “Now, Alexander James, I like the way you think.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Just Outside Birmingham, Alabama
“I can’t believe you blew up Black Beauty,” Grant grumbled for the tenth time in as many minutes. “I mean . . . my truck, I wouldn’t care, but damn, A.J.” Grant leaned against his truck, the one A.J. borrowed last week, and shook his head. The poor guy did look upset. “And you really can’t tell me how my bike got destroyed?”
They were standing in the driveway of the main house at his parents’ ranch waiting to head over to Ella and Brian’s rehearsal dinner, and A.J. was feeling the heat. In more ways than one.
He squeezed the back of his neck as Grant removed his aviator shades and pinned him with dark brown eyes, trying to get a read on him. “Yeah, so there was this guy, uh, shooting at me, and well, shit, you know how fast those kinds of situations can go south,” he rambled and peered at his buddy with what he hoped was a look of apology.
Grant leaned forward and set a hand to his shoulder. “Rather have my bike full of holes than you, brother.” He slipped his sunglasses back on. “Ella really planning on marrying Brian tomorrow?” He directed his focus on the house. “I mean, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t like the guy.”
“No one does,” A.J. muttered and faced his parents’ two-story home, taking in the wraparound porch with a new perspective ever since Ana had declared how much she loved it and wanted one someday.
Leaving her earlier that day had been hard, but he kept reminding himself he would see her back in D.C. on Monday. He’d gotten used to spending every day with her, and he was looking forward to their time together that wouldn’t involve getting shot at.
“Maybe you should go talk to her one more time? Feel her out.” Grant lifted his chin toward the house where Ella was inside getting ready with Rory.
“And have her hate me again? Surely the guys told you about the aftermath of the bachelor party.” He winced at the memory.
Ella was moving to Mobile, and . . .
Shit, maybe Grant was right. “Okay.” He slapped his palms together. “One more shot.”
“I’ll wait in the truck with the engine running in case you need to make a run for it.” Grant opened the door to the driver’s side.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He smirked, then started for the house. It was hot as blazes out there in his jeans, black boots, and long-sleeved black “dress shirt” his mother had insisted he wear for dinner. Thirty-eight, and his mom still wanted to dress him.
He made a beeline for the stairs, worried he’d lose his nerve if he didn’t head straight for Ella’s room. He knocked on the door and waited for a beat before calling out, “You decent?”
“Come in,” Ella answered, her tone so soft he nearly missed her words.
Ella’s eyes moved to catch him in the mirror of the vanity as he entered the room, but her body remained stiff as she sat facing forward in the chair beneath an arched window that overlooked the front of the property. Their mom had kept their rooms exactly how they left them when they’d each moved out. Ella’s walls were still covered with pictures of her childhood crushes alongside of her very first fashion sketches pinned to a bulletin board.
“Almost done.” Rory garbled around the bobby pins clenched between her teeth as she worked to put Ella’s hair into some fancy updo.
Rory was wearing a pale pink, sleeveless dress that went to her knees, her blonde hair down over her shoulders, while his sister was in a fitted dark wrap dress that made him feel like they were going to a funeral instead of a rehearsal dinner the night before what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.
Based on the way Ella eyed him in the mirror, A.J. must have been giving off the Are you sure? vibe all over his face
“Can I just have one minute?” He removed his black cowboy hat and set it against his thigh.