Page 22 of Decker

Chapter Nine

Savannah openedthe door and smiled at the six women on her doorstep, only one of whom she’d been expecting.

Addie stepped forward, a bottle of wine in hand and hugged her. “Hey, Sav, hope you don’t mind but when I said I was coming here, these guys wanted to come and hear all about sexy Decker.” Addie threw her thumb over her shoulder at Autumn, Bebe, Willow, Lacey, and Laverne.

“That’s fine. As long as you have enough wine, the more the merrier.”

Savannah laughed as each woman held up a bottle and she ushered them inside.

“Now this sounds like a party.” Autumn smiled as they all swept into the living room and then through to the kitchen.

Jackets were discarded and Addie went looking for a bottle opener as she grabbed glasses for them all.

“I was going to order some food. What does everyone fancy?” Savannah laid a pile of takeout menus on the counter and then lifted her glass. “Cheers!”

The rest clinked glasses with her. “Here’s to friendship in all its varied forms.” Lacey waggled her eyebrows and Savannah groaned and raised an accusing eyebrow at Addie.

Addie held her hands up in surrender. “Hey, don’t blame me, this was all Autumn.”

“Wow, throw me under the bus, why don’t you?” Autumn took a sip of her wine to hide her grin.

“Right, let’s order food before we do this,” Savannah demanded but secretly she was relieved to talk to someone about this. It was exciting and fun and outside her comfort zone. She wanted to talk to her girlfriends about it and over the last ten months, all these women had become like sisters to her.

Once they’d all decided on Japanese food and ordered, she sat in her favourite chair, curled her legs underneath her and waited.

“Well?” Bebe held her hand out, palm up for her to go on.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything, starting with the hot kiss Waggs witnessed at the wedding.” Willow topped off her wine glass and fanned herself.

Savannah had to admit that kiss was hot, but it also came with the swift bite of rejection straight after, and she needed to keep that in mind when she went into the fling with Decker.

“Well, first off, this is just a ‘friends with benefits’ situation. Mark has made it very clear that he doesn’t want a relationship with me and there’s no love involved, so if you have stars in your eyes, you’ll be sorely disappointed.”

Addie frowned but Savannah went on before she could speak, taking a gulp of wine for courage. “This is friends with benefits, nothing more, and he had a whole set of rules in place to make sure we don’t get caught up in it. No, I haven’t slept with him yet, and yes, that kiss was hotter than Hades but straight after, he was a dick to me. I’m going to give this a go because, well, you have eyes. The man is sex on a stick, but this is new to me, so I’m being cautious.”

“Wow, that’s a lot. You can take a breath now, Sav.” Lacey patted her knee.

“So, he has rules?” Bebe asked as she crossed her legs, the wide-leg blue jeans looking amazing on her killer figure.

“Yes, no sleepovers and no feelings. No attachments at all.”

“That makes sense after what happened to him.”

Savannah felt the skin prickle in the back of her neck in warning and wondered if it was the light buzz she had going on thanks to the wine. “What do you mean?”

Bebe placed her glass down and leaned in close. “You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Decker was married. He had a wife and son.”

Savannah held up her hand. “No, stop. If he wanted me to know, he would’ve told me. I need to respect his privacy, so you need to stop talking.”

Bebe nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

“I do. This is just friends with benefits, not true love.” Yet even as she said the words, she wondered at her lie. It wasn’t true love but it sure as hell was more than friends with benefits. She hadn’t even tasted the benefit yet and she could already feel her mind drifting to him when she should be doing other things. When he’d kissed her hair today, it had taken everything in her not to lean into his touch.