Drive Me Wild - Melanie Harlow Page 0,61
little pricey, which was why I didn’t go there too often, but Blair had mentioned how much she liked Italian food, so I splurged for a Saturday night out. She must have appreciated it, because we’d barely made it inside my apartment before she jumped up on me. Her back had to be killing her today, the way I’d slammed it against the thick wooden door.
I wasn’t sure if it was Blair herself—although she was fantastic in bed and out of it—or if I’d just forgotten how good it could be to get to know someone sexually, let them learn all your favorite things, discover all of theirs, explore their fantasies, share your own, abandon the frantic showmanship of first times and the need to prove yourself, and start peeling back the layers . . . let them know the real you, even if it was dirty and rough and messy and not always nice. It had been a long time since I’d felt so at ease with someone, in bed and out.
I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.
Pushing her from my mind, I picked up the pace a little.
“How’s Mariah?” I asked. “I saw her last week.”
“She told me.” He laughed. “She said Cheyenne told her and her friends you and Blair had gotten married, but it turned out to be a lie.”
“Fucking Cheyenne,” I muttered.
“She said at first she was disappointed, but then she was glad because she wants to be a flower girl at your wedding.”
“Well, sorry to disappoint her, but there’s not going to be any wedding. I’ll take her for an ice cream cone, though.”
“A distant second, but she’d like that.” We ran in silence a few minutes. “I’m a little worried about her.”
I glanced at him. “Why?”
“She’s been spending more time alone in her room, and my mom went in there to clean it recently and found this letter to me. It was full of questions.”
“Questions about what?”
“About her mother. Things that she’s apparently afraid to ask me. She doesn’t want me to get mad or be sad.”
Pain squeezed my heart. “I’m sorry, Cole. That’s rough.”
“I don’t know whether to confront her about it or not. My mother says yes, but I’m worried about violating her privacy.”
“Yeah. That’s a tough call.”
“I think I’m going to contact a therapist. I feel like this is more than I can deal with on my own.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“I’m also worried about the physical changes coming with adolescence, and having to field those kinds of questions.”
“Fuck,” I said, panicked at the thought of facing that situation.
“And it all just makes me miss Trisha more, you know? We should be facing the teenage years together.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just gave him a quick clap on the back.
“Anyway, enough of my shit. How are things going at the shop?” he asked.
“Fine. The bank turned me down again, but we were busy enough to pay the bills. This month, anyway. Next month could be different.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, well . . . what can you do? Blair’s got some crazy scheme going to get back some of the business we lost to Swifty.”
“Yeah?” Cole glanced over at me. “So she’s working for you now?”
“I guess you’d call it that.”
“I thought she was moving up north somewhere.”
“She is. She even has a job lined up already. But I have to get her car fixed first, and since she doesn’t have any extra money, she’s sort of working off the cost in trade.”
“Uh huh. And what all is she trading?”
I glanced at Cole and saw his grin. “Fuck off,” I said. But I laughed too. “We’re just having fun.”
“Fun is good. I vaguely remember that kind of fun.”
“So get back out there.”
“Nah,” he said, picking up his pace.
I pumped my legs harder to keep up. Maybe the late nights were getting to me a little. I was usually just as fast as Cole, if not faster.
“So when’s she leaving?” he asked.
“In a few weeks. After Labor Day.”
“And what happens after that?”
“Nothing.”
“Why not? I thought you liked her.”
“I do like her. But it’s just temporary. Casual.”
“You sure about that?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I was there the other night after the game. I saw you guys together. It didn’t look like a quick or casual thing. It looked kind of real.”
“Well, it’s not. She’s moving three hours away.”
“Couldn’t you date her long-distance or something?”
“Why would I do that?”
Cole laughed. “I don’t know. Because it’s not easy to