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“You have to give me more than fine. Palmer hasn’t talked about anything else for weeks.”
“I still can’t believe she convinced you.” Dad smirks.
“Like you can tell her, Mom, or Piper no.” I give him a knowing look, and he shrugs.
“They’re my girls.”
“Details, Deacon. I need details.”
“It was fine. She blindfolded us. We took them off at the same time, and Palmer took a billion pictures. We posed in front of the brick wall at the park, I pushed Ramsey on the swings, and we had a pretend picnic. It was fine.”
It was more than fine. It was… unexpected and hot as fuck, but I’m keeping that all to myself. I’m not going to tell them that I can still feel her body pressed to mine or that I can still taste her on my tongue. I don’t tell them that I saw something lurking in her eyes. Something that called to me to hold her close and make sure she knows how beautiful she is.
I also don’t tell them how she flinched when I touched her and that she told me her wrists were off-limits. I can’t even think about someone hurting her without seeing red. There is no excuse for a man putting his hands on a woman in hate. None. I don’t care if it’s Ramsey, one of my sisters, or the woman I’m standing behind at the supermarket. There is no excuse.
“Isn’t she the sweetest?” Mom pulls me out of my thoughts.
You have no idea. “She was fine.”
“Fine?” Mom asks, appalled. “Do you know any other word than fine?”
“You would think that he would have a little better vocabulary after all that college,” Dad jokes.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” I grab a roll out of the basket on the table. “I did it for Palmer. She begged, and just like Dad, I can’t tell her no, even though I tried. I showed up in what she told me to wear, and she took some pictures of us. Ramsey seemed nervous, but by the time we were done, she seemed to be relaxed.”
“Was that so hard?” Mom asks, smiling.
“Excruciating.” If she only knew how hard I was trying to get the beautiful, too-young-for-me Ramsey out of my head.
“Well, I think it was nice of you to do that for your sister. I guess this blind-date thing is all the rage, and she’s hoping to get some traffic to her business.”
“I know. That’s why I did it.”
“And the fact that you’re a pushover when it comes to your sisters,” Dad chimes in.
“You’re one to talk.”
“I’ll own it.” Dad chuckles. “It’s the pouty lip and the batting of the eyes. Kills me every time.”
“You’re just soft,” Mom teases.
“I can prove you wrong on that, darlin’,” he says, wagging his eyebrows at her.
“Really? We’re getting ready to eat.” I pretend to shudder. Their antics are something that I’m used to. Dad just can’t seem to help himself.
Thankfully, the subject changes to the renovations they plan to do on their master bathroom. I try like hell to keep my head in the conversation. I keep looking at my phone, watching the time. I know she’s going to be there, which means with each minute that passes, it gets closer to me seeing her again.
I need to know if that spark is there. Surely, it was just the atmosphere and the way we had to touch for the photo shoot. It has to be the situation. At twenty till eight, I stand and help my parents start cleaning up.
“Thanks for dinner,” I tell them.
“You’re welcome. We should do it more often,” Mom says, hugging me.
“What she said.” Dad nods.
“I know. I’ll do better. I promise.” With another hug and a fist bump for Dad, I’m in my truck and headed toward the Willow Tavern.
Walking into the bar, I have to force myself not to look for her. Instead, I head to the back corner where Orrin told me he and his brothers would be.
“There he is!” Orrin holds up his beer in salute as I take the chair across from him. “I thought for sure you were going to bail.”
“We just grabbed these from the bar,” Brooks, one of his younger brothers, says, sliding a beer to me across the table.
“Thanks.”
“So, how have you been?” Orrin asks.
“Working my life away. Nothing new to report. You know me. Boring as always.” I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from talking. Orrin has been my best friend since we were kids. He’s going to see right through me.
“How about you all?” I look around the table at Orrin, his brother Brooks, and his brother Declan.
“Shop’s doing good. Can’t complain,” Orrin replies.
“Good to hear.”
“I’m still working the ER over at Willow General,” Brooks chimes in.
“Man, I don’t know how you do what you do all day. Some of the things that you see…” I shake my head. It takes a strong person to be a nurse, and I applaud him for it.
