The jeans had holes in them, all up and down the front of her thighs, and there was even a strategically placed one right above her back pocket that showed off the smallest amount of skin. Which meant that she was wearing a thong—or no underwear at all. But Beckham had never really been a no underwear person.
So my bet was on a thong.
And her ass.
My God.
I hadn’t thought that anything about Beckham could get better, but I’d been wrong.
Seriously, her ass had been great before, but now, with a couple of years on her, she filled out so much more nicely.
Her hips weren’t wide, but they definitely weren’t ‘girl’ hips anymore. They were womanly, sexy, curvy, and I wanted to latch onto them from behind.
Her thighs were a little bigger, too. Not much, but enough to know that the girl from high school was gone, and in her place was the woman that I didn’t know yet.
Not intimately.
We may not have seen each other all that much over the last eight years, but we’d definitely spoken.
I knew the woman she’d become, but I didn’t know her, know her.
I would be remedying that tonight.
“Are you going to get out, or are you just going to stare at my ass all day?” she called over her shoulder.
I licked my lips. “I’m going to stay right here and admire you.”
She rolled her eyes and then walked inside, leaving me in my car.
My car that she hadn’t said a thing about, which had me curious.
I leaned over and slammed the lock down on her side—and it was her side. No other woman had ridden in this car. Not ever—and then did the same to my own side before pocketing my keys and slamming the car door.
When I arrived inside, it was to find nobody.
Rolling my eyes, I walked around the hostess stand into the small dining area, and found her in my favorite spot.
I walked to her just as she shoved a chip in her mouth.
“How did you know this was where I liked to sit?” I asked.
No matter how long I had to wait, I would.
Because I didn’t like to be the center of attention.
It was downright exhausting, and everyone knew who I was in this town.
Everyone knew the fighter pilots.
Everyone.
Sadly, I wasn’t the exception to the rule.
“You’ve never been a very in your face person, Troup. It’s not hard to figure out that you don’t really like being around people all that much.” She lifted her brow. “And I just assumed that hadn’t changed.”
She was right.
I had friends, sure, but I only had two really good friends that I trusted and liked to hang out with.
Other than those two, Easton and Beckham were it for me.
I sat down in the seat facing away from the door and grimaced.
She rolled her eyes and stood up, gesturing for me to take her spot.
I did, hating that my back was to the door.
She sat down and grimaced, too, and I realized that just like me, she didn’t like her back to the door, either, but was willing to endure it.
For me.
My grin got wide as I reached for a chip.
“What do you think?” I asked as we ate.
She dipped her chip into the salsa.
“I like it but…” She paused. “I don’t think there’s enough spice to it.”
“That’s because there are two kinds,” I said. “There’s the mild, which they serve first, and the hot that they only serve upon request.”
Her eyes lit.
“Let’s order some,” she pleaded.
When the waiter next came by, I did, along with queso and tortillas.
Beckham was all but moaning as the man left.
“I’m going to have to run tonight to get all these extra calories off,” she admitted.
My head tilted slightly to the left.
“Or, you could just stay with me all night. I’ll take care of all those extra calories,” I winked. “I thought that was what we agreed upon already, anyway.”
“I didn’t want to assume,” she sighed. “Troup, I want to stay with you if you’ll have me. In fact, if you can find a way to make it happen, I’ll just move right the hell in.”
My lips twitched. “That won’t really be doable if you’re supposed to be with my brother. This town knows who I am.”
Unfortunately.
They’d know in a heartbeat that something was going on with us.
Hell, they already might because not only did I take her to my favorite restaurant, but I would be taking her to the bar to meet my friends.
People noticed me. And they sure the fuck would notice when I have a girl with me when I never have girls with me.
“Tonight only then,” she pouted, reading my face.
My lips twitched. “Tonight only.”
Over the next hour, we enjoyed dinner, catching up on ‘old times.’
I couldn’t stop staring at her, either, fucking obsessed with the beauty she’d turned into.
Now, I wasn’t saying that she wasn’t beautiful before, but there was just something about the older Beckham that made my heart squeeze in my chest.
Like, so fuckin’ beautiful I couldn’t stand it.
I wanted to reach over and drag her into me.
Instead, I stayed in my chair until it was time to leave, and didn’t make this any more difficult than I needed to.
CHAPTER 10
You would be loud too if I was riding you.
-Motorcycle club T-shirt
BECKHAM
“Ohhh!” the shorter man in front of us said. “So this is the infamous ‘girl’ that always makes poor little State look so sad.”
“The girl that makes him turn down every single woman that comes onto him,” another said from his side, this one taller and skinnier.
But Trouper was the tallest of the bunch, that was for sure.
“The midget is known as Toot.” Trouper rolled his eyes. “The tall redhead is Kansas.”
“Toot and Kansas?” I asked.
“Toot is actually my call sign. As is Kansas.” Toot hooked his thumb in the redhead’s direction.
I shook my head and looked at Troup.
“Fun,” I teased.
He winked and offered me his elbow.
“Are you going to take that jacket off now that you’re inside?” Kansas asked.
Trouper gave him a droll look.
Apparently, this was an old argument with them.
“Do I ever?” Troup countered.
“It’s either the flight suit or this stupid leather jacket. Even in the summer months,” Kansas informed me. “It’s like that jacket has stupid magical powers or something.”
My lips turned up into a smile.
“I stitched a few things into the jacket liner,” I said, turning my gaze to the two men. “He probably just wears it because he’s obligated to. I told him if he took it off, he would die.”
Kansas burst out laughing.
“He may get hot and take it off, but it never leaves his sight,” Kansas admitted. “There was this one time that some girl I was dating tried to put it on, and you would think that a demon had possessed ol’ State there. He actually raised his voice at her and ordered her to take it off. I had to break up with her.”