What's Life Without the Sprinkles - By Misty Simon Page 0,58
tried not to think about everything his traitorous body had wanted to do with Claudia not twenty minutes ago. To say it was weird to think about getting Claudia naked in here—or anywhere, for that matter—was a gross understatement. Sure, once or twice, years ago, he’d thought about trying to take her out, date her. And his mom, for as much as she moved outside of herself every once in a while in the intervening years, would make comments about him just finally marrying Claudia and making the boy his own. But he’d never really considered anything of the sort himself since she’d gotten pregnant.
He’d been there for her when that rat bastard Peter had left her alone at three months pregnant. He’d been outside the delivery room, where he’d had to shut his ears to Claudia’s snarling and yelling while giving birth to Justin. And yeah, he loved the ten-year-old who brightened his day and his life. But Nate had always thought of himself as a fond uncle. He didn’t know whether he ever wanted to be a dad, much less be responsible for a wife with a child born from someone else.
Not that he wouldn’t. But it was a big step away from the single, total-bachelor life Nate had enjoyed for himself all these years and envisioned continuing indefinitely. He chased after some women, dated, satisfied his urges and theirs. But he never really gave himself to any of them. He didn’t know if he ever could. And until that episode out in the living room, the way Claudia had come apart in his arms, the episode he was still trying to calm his hormones after, he hadn’t thought that was a problem. Now his head was filled with turmoil and his heart didn’t know what he should do.
And if Claudia didn’t get rid of her mom soon and rescue him from this very feminine room where he couldn’t stop thinking about the bed under him, he might go stark raving mad.
It was uncanny the way things happened in his life. Just as he was about to start poking through things in this room where he’d never before entered, Claudia showed up in the doorway with her finger to her closed mouth.
“Come on out,” she whispered through lips no longer swollen.
He followed her out, slightly wistful for what he could have done to her on that bed. But he was still having a difficult time thinking of it being Claudia under him. Claudia! His best friend. Too weird.
He continued following her out to the deck she’d had built onto the back of the house, above the back door to the store. Big buckets of flowers lined the corners of the structure, filling the air with a sweet fragrance that matched whatever she was wearing tonight on her soft skin. Tiny twinkling lights wrapped around the railing, giving off soft light that spilled over the half-closed blooms. A little patio table with four chairs dominated the small space, with a fat candle squatting in the middle of the tabletop.
She grabbed a lighter from a box near the door and lit the wick, then took a seat at the table, gesturing for him to take the seat next to her. He chose the one across from her instead, thinking it would better if she wasn’t in touching distance while they discussed whatever she had on her mind.
She pouted. There was no other word for the expression on her face, but it was one he didn’t think he’d ever seen on her before.
“You don’t want to sit next to me? I won’t bite unless you ask. Nicely.”
His brain shorted out. Claudia, his best friend, was offering to bite him? He cleared his throat and tried to get his brain back online. Christ. This was not easy. It was going to take a little time to readjust his thinking. In the meantime he readjusted his pants and the way he was sitting to relieve a little of the tension swelling down there.
“I’m just going to sit over here.” He cleared his throat, again, thankful that at least his mouth was working the right way.
“Are you sure?” She batted her lashes at him and a flash of memory hit him in the gut. He’d offered her first aid for her eye just the other day for that. Had she been trying to flirt with him then? Oh, man, that must have crushed her. Should he apologize?