Muffin Top (Page 53)
It wasn’t until two in the morning that she put Zach’s latest mess to bed and slid between the sheets so exhausted that she was asleep before her head hit the pillow. It had been easier in Antioch where their schedules had always meshed. Now they were back to her nine-to-five—in the morning or evening, depending on the size of that day’s shitstorm—and he was back at the firehouse. He’d be on a twenty-four-hour shift starting at seven Sunday morning, but at least they’d have all day Saturday leading up to the engagement party BBQ.
The whole situation and its echo of her opposites-attract parents’ marriage was giving her that itchy sense of feeling like the other shoe was about to drop any minute.
Saturday morning, she woke up to the sound of her phone vibrating on her bedside table. She couldn’t help but grin. Someone was excited to see her again.
But the message on the screen wasn’t from Frankie.
Tess: Calling in a 911. Anderson just quit without notice and walked out. I have a bazillion deliveries scheduled today and can’t be doing those and working the register at the same time. Help!!!
Oh, that was beyond an emergency. Just the idea of super-introverted Tess having to deal with the public by doing deliveries from her florist shop had Lucy out of her bed in half a heartbeat. God bless her bestie, the woman hated dealing with people she didn’t know well, and the result was a mix of cringeworthy embarrassing factoids, like the fact that an elephant’s penis is six and a half feet long, or compulsions, like her need to count the number of tiles in someone’s kitchen.
Lucy and Gina found Tess’s quirks to be pretty fucking awesome and lovable, but people receiving bouquets for funerals or graduations rarely wanted to know the average diameter of the human eye (one inch). Tess didn’t have family to fall back on or a big-ass inheritance, she needed her flower shop to be successful if she wanted to, you know, pay her rent.
Lucy: On my way. Will take deliveries.
Tess: I love you so hard.
Lucy: You’ll owe me.
Tess: Add it to my tab.
While she was brushing her teeth ten minutes later, she grabbed her phone to see if Frankie had messaged. He should be off shift by now. No luck. Good thing she wasn’t the kind of woman who felt the need to wait for a man to take action.
Lucy: Bestie emergency (Tess not Gina). Acting as flower delivery goddess until BBQ. See you tonight!
She waited, staring at her phone. No text bubble with the three little dots appeared. He was probably asleep. It might have been a busy night. She hadn’t seen any news this morning about any big fires, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
She’d see him tonight. Everything would be just like it had been a week ago in Antioch. No reason for her heart to be doing that speed-up-and-dive-straight-down-to-her-toes thing. Everything was fine, perfectly fine. And if she kept repeating that to herself, maybe that other shoe would stay lodged wherever it was.
Chapter Twenty
Frankie sat behind Scarlett’s wheel while parked in his driveway and honked the horn for a third time. He had no fucking clue what was up with Finian, but he needed to get his ass in gear already.
The passenger door flew open, and Finn slid into the passenger seat. “Asshole, relax.”
Frankie was reversing down the drive before his brother had even finished fastening his seatbelt. “We were supposed to be there ten minutes ago.”
“And when did you get all antsy about being on time for anything but your shift at the firehouse?” Finn asked, then smacked the heel of his hand hard against his forehead. “Oh wait. I know the answer to that, and it’s as soon as you got home from your”—he held up his hand and made air quotes—“‘just friends’ trip to the middle of nowhere Missouri.”
“Shut it, Finn.”
“No fucking way, this is too much fun. So how is your”—more air quotes—“just friend, Lucy?”
Like he was going to tell him. He could barely think about how fucking lucky he was with Lucy. Truth was, he was scared shitless of doing anything to fuck it up, so keeping everything on the down low just made more sense. If no one knew about him and Lucy, how could he fuck it up?
Stuck at a stoplight, he glared at his mirror image—well, if he had dark hair, no freckles, and was a full half inch shorter. “You know everyone thinks I’m the hotter twin.”
“No worries,” Finn said with a shrug. “I’m the mysterious one—everyone always wonders about me.”
The light turned, and Frankie floored it. “Just because they have no clue what an annoying weirdo you are.”
He drove the last few blocks to Marino’s accompanied by his brother’s laugh. He sounded like a hyena after it had taken sixteen hits off a helium balloon. Seriously, it was a weird-ass sound coming from someone who looked like he spent his days cutting down trees in a forest to build a log cabin from scratch. How some women found the sound attractive, Frankie had no idea. Not that he cared. Finn could have his pick of the women in Waterbury. Frankie only wanted one, and as soon as he found a parking spot in Marino’s crowded lot he was going to get see her.
Normally, he tooled around a parking lot a few times to find the most protected spot for Scarlett. Tonight? He pulled into the first spot he laid eyes on and killed the engine. Ignoring the oh-really look his twin was sending him, he got out of the car and hustled across the parking lot to Marino’s beer garden behind the bar, which had been reserved for Gina’s and Ford’s engagement party.
He spotted Lucy right away.
How could he not when she was wearing his favorite color and looking face-of-the-sun hot? Of course, it took longer to get to her than the drive from Antioch to Waterbury.
First, he had to say hello to every member of his family—and there were a million of them. Then, he had to wind through the equally huge number of Gina’s family members. Even her brothers had flown in from a still-undisclosed location to surprise their sister. Finally, he got to where she stood with Gina and Tess, who gave him and Lucy a bemused look and started whispering in each other’s ears.
“Hey there,” he said, leaning in close because there was really no way he couldn’t.
She looked up at him and smiled. “Hello yourself.”
Holy hell. Every nerve in his body was attuned to her as if he was a volcano about to erupt, and if he didn’t do something to relieve the pressure and soon, things were going to get really graphic in the middle of his by-the-book brother’s engagement party.
“I need your help real quick,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward Marino’s main building. “I need to ask you a question about Gina’s and Ford’s wedding gift.”
Yeah, that didn’t pass the smell test, but he didn’t care. His only concern was getting her somewhere private. They made it as far as through Marino’s door and into a dark, empty hallway. Spinning her around so her back was to the wall next to the supply closet door, he put his hands on the wall on either side of her and went in for one kiss. At least that’s all it was supposed to be. The minute his lips touched hers though, one kiss turned into a dozen long, drawn-out, breath-stealing, mind-melting, dick-hardening kisses that made the rest of the world disappear—and he never wanted it to end.
The insistent tap on his shoulder had other ideas. He broke the kiss, tore his gaze away from Lucy’s beautiful, slightly kiss-dazed face, and got ready to tear a new one in whichever one of his brothers had the balls to interrupt.