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I’m trying to take it slow, let her warm up to the idea about us being more than friends. Coming right out and implying I want to make her scream my name with my cock—or my mouth, or my fingers, depending on which Sidney Tanner fantasy is currently front and center at the time—wasn’t exactly my brightest idea. I need to rein it in before I say something else without thinking and give her yet another reason to be pissed at me.
Taking a seat in the empty one next to Sidney, all the blondes on the other side of her lean forward and practically hiss at me.
“Why is he here?”
“Who the hell invited him?”
“Goddammit, Sidney!”
“Kenny! Arrest this interloper! Oooh, are those Nicky’s apple fritters? You can stay if you share,” Sidney’s aunt informs me, leaning around the other women at the far end of the row to stare at the Tupperware container sitting on my lap.
“It’s a town meeting, and he owns a bar here. Pipe down, all of you,” Sidney orders her family before turning back to look at me while they start arguing amongst themselves about me being here. “If you even think of touching one of those fritters, I will turn them loose on you. I should probably warn you that I forgot to frisk Penny before we got here, so she most likely has a shiv hidden somewhere on her person with your name on it. Also, they’re kind of right. You don’t need to be here, because you don’t live here. You’ll be gone in a couple of weeks, and none of this concerns you.”
I’m so busy enjoying the fact that she’s annoyed by the baked goods that I almost miss the flash of pain in her eyes. It happens so quickly I would have missed it if I blinked, and it makes my fucking chest hurt. I think about the advice Marcus gave me and start wondering if my leaving every year sucks for her just as much as it does for me.
She’s never seemed to care. She’s never complained when I leave without saying goodbye or held it against me when I come back. She’s always seemed perfectly fine that I’m only around one month a year and out of her hair the other eleven. Her making a comment like that throws me for a loop.
She’s also never gotten ticked off when I’ve wanted to take care of her or avoided me for almost an entire day. Everything seems to be a clusterfuck this year, and I need to figure out what the hell is going on in her head.
“Nick is here.” I jerk my chin in the direction of the happy-go-lucky dipshit who was at the bar yesterday, currently sitting a few rows away.
“It’s Noah,” Sidney growls, grinding her teeth together when I smirk at her, because I know damn well what his name is. “And he lives here and works for the town. He belongs here; you don’t.”
I’m not sure if she means I don’t belong at the meeting or in Harvest Grove in general, but it’s still a direct hit to my heart. I have to remind myself this is a marathon, not a sprint… even though it’s taken me six years to finally get here, and it’s already felt like an eternity. That shit-ass with the golden retriever energy staring over here at Sidney with infatuation still written all over his face is the only reason I spoke with my dick instead of my brain at the bar yesterday.
I didn’t like him as soon as I saw him, waving from his table trying to get Sidney’s attention, instead of getting up out of his seat like a gentleman and going toher. I never had to come face-to-face with someone she possibly slept with before. Imagining his hands where mine should be and his mouth where my mouth belonged made me want to vomit.
Finding out she only had dinner with him filled me with so much relief I forgot all about taking things slow and charged full-speed ahead.
Think with your brain and not your dick, Ford.
Sidney crosses her legs, her bare thighs rubbing together a few times before she gets situated. Today she’s wearing a short brown-and-black plaid skirt, with a fitted black turtleneck sweater tucked into it, a headband with two upside down witch’s legs kicking around on top of it, and those God. Damn. Red stilettos still on her feet.
My mouth gets dry and my pulse kicks up a notch when she moans loudly and complains about the heels killing her feet. A picture of her riding my cock, wearing nothing but those cursed red heels while moaning my name, flashes in front of my eyes and echoes in my ears, until I have to cough out an annoyed grunt at myself that I can’t even last two seconds.
“I’m here becauseyou’rehere. If it concerns you, it concerns me.”
Because you’remine.
Sidney slowly sits back in her chair after leaning forward to rub one of her feet to look at me, her chest rising and falling rapidly. I worry I might have said that last part out loud, until she finally speaks.
“I’m not your problem or your concern. Especially this year.”
Before I can ask her what she means by that, Sidney rolls her eyes, turning to face forward again when the mayor of Harvest Grove, Phil Daniels, bangs his gavel to get everyone in order. I’m actually happy about the interruption, since I almost blurted out all of my plans and what I was busy dealing with after I left her at the bar yesterday, just so she’d finally understand thateverythingI do is for her and because of her.
Too soon, asshole.
“I know we are all very busy with the tourists in town, but there are a few quick things we need to go over,” Phil begins once everyone quiets down. Under normal circumstances, it would be hard to take anyone seriously who’s currently dressed like a giant avocado, but this is Harvest Grove, and nothing is normal here. Especially in October. “The first order of business is finding one more volunteer to dress up as a bloody cheerleader for our yearly screening ofThe Babysitter’s Last Halloweenout at Diederich’s Farm.”
“Ford will do it!” Sidney suddenly shouts, grabbing my wrist and shooting my arm up in the air.
“He’ll have to shave his legs to put that uniform on!” Michael Rodriguez shouts from the back of the room, making everyone laugh.
“Are we sure he can even fit in the skirt? He’s quite large,” Wendy Bearden muses from the other side of the aisle.
“I know it’s hard to remember, what with all of the boobs bouncing in the way, but has everyone forgotten about the lone male cheerleader in the movie?”
All I can do is sigh when Sidney reminds everyone about Bob as she finally lets go of my wrist, and my hand drops back down into my lap.
