Ready For It (MacAteer Brothers #2) - M.L. Nystrom Page 0,61

today?” Vincent’s growly voice sent a twist through my stomach. His gaze still sat on my chest, and that knowledge did a number on me. I might be a virgin, but I wasn’t stupid.

“Shopping for the homecoming dance. You guys going?”

“Probably, but it’s only a lame high school thing. The after-party at Colin’s house is the real place to be.”

I kept my disappointment contained. I hadn’t even known about the after-party, let alone been invited.

“You got a date?” Vincent finally moved his attention from my breasts to my face. My stomach cartwheeled into my groin.

“You mean for the dance or the party?”

“Both.”

“Not yet.”

“You do now. I’ll meet you at the gym after the game next Friday.”

My stomach performed a triple back handspring. “Sure thing.”

I turned before my knees gave way or I said something dumb. Did I just land the date of the year? Holy shit, I did! Homecoming with Vincent Ziglar!

“Hey, Melanie?”

I turned my head and looked over my shoulder. The man of my dreams was staring at my ass.

“I like the dress.”

Shit, how did I respond? Should I say thank you? God, that’s so lame. Should I wiggle my hips at him? No, too much. I decided to not say a word for fear of messing it up. I winked at him and went back in the store to collect my card, my openmouthed friends, and buy a different pair of shoes in the right size.

My eyes popped open as the last vestiges of the dream left me. Fuck, I’d been having weird dreams in full Technicolor all my life, but this one was more memory than dream. Homecoming for the high school was only a few days away, and of course my crazy hormone-laden brain had to go back to one of my own homecomings. That had to be it.

Fuck, I had too much going today. I didn’t need to take the time to analyze a dream from an old memory. I was to meet Owen and my real estate agent after work to look at a house that fit my criteria and my budget. I liked the location and the pictures I’d seen online. Yep, I was getting excited at the potential move. New place. New life. New possibilities. What could go wrong?

I left the school after a long, ass-dragging day and drove to a development not too far from Bevvie’s place. The neighborhood was newer than hers, but still in the middle-income bracket. Some houses sat on postage-stamp-sized lots, but the one I had picked was in a cul-de-sac and sat back from the road a good bit. The lot resembled a giant pie wedge with the house in the middle of it, leaving a long front yard and a wide backyard. A bunch of trees stood in front, which added a layer of privacy and shade to the house. The structure itself wasn’t particularly attractive or ugly, and the layout of the house was pretty standard. The backyard sold it to me.

Whoever owned this house before loved the backyard and spent a lot of time there. The covered back deck overlooked a wooded area that hid any other houses from sight. A burbling creek ran behind a chain-link fence, and I spotted a gate that opened to the water. Visions of me taking a child’s hand and going through that gate to look for tadpoles and frogs in the mud crowded my thoughts. A concrete slab sat below with a built-in outdoor fire pit. I could see us roasting marshmallows and getting sticky fingers. Not just me and my kid. Bevvie and her family too. Since the yard was fenced in, Muttface could come, or perhaps I would get a dog. A young rescue that could grow up with my kid.

I turned back into the plain house with blank walls the color of cream. No colors had ever been painted here, nor had any pictures adorned the walls, as evidenced by the lack of nail holes. The whole place appeared as a clean slate, waiting only for the touch of a family to make it a home. My home. Mine and my child’s.

Owen had on a pair of reading glasses and was perusing a sheaf of papers about the house’s statistics. I found it endearing that a big man such as he needed them. The young agent hovered close by, ready to answer any questions. She seemed slightly enamored of Owen by the way she watched him as he read. An unfamiliar heat flared