I walk into The Coach House and stomp my feet to rid my boots of snow. It’s been snowing steadily for the past day. If there’s anything better than Christmas – and I do love Christmas – it’s a white Christmas. I wave at the girls and join them in the booth. They should probably put a plaque here declaring this our booth as much time as we spend here.
“How was your date?” Bailey asks before I can sit down. Why did I tell Frankie about my date? The woman can’t keep a secret to save her life. Although I didn’t exactly tell her the date was a secret. My mistake.
“It was good. He brought me white roses for a new beginning.”
Shelby interrupts before I have a chance to tell them more about my evening with Luke. “White roses? He bought me daisies when we dated. Lame.”
The hand unbuttoning my jacket freezes. “You dated Luke? But you’re married to Jackson.” Despite how crazy this time of year is, we are meeting today because someone couldn’t wait to tell us all about her honeymoon. Seriously. She pretty much just got off the plane.
“I wasn’t always married to Jackson.”
“Though you did fall in love with him at first sight,” Frankie adds.
“Yeah, well, the feeling wasn’t mutual. I only dated Luke to take my mind off Jackson.”
I could give a flying fig about her whole enemies to lovers epic love story with Jackson. I get in her face and glare at her. “In other words, you used him.” Luke may not be mine to protect, but these protective feelings are flaring to life anyway.
“And kissing him was like kissing my brother. Yuck!”
I slam my hands on the table. “You kissed him?”
Shelby waves a dismissive hand. “It was the one time. One.” She raises a finger in case I’m a total imbecile.
I reach across the table, intent on snapping her damn finger off. Bailey grabs my arm and hauls me back into my seat. “Let me at her.”
“Geez. It wasn’t a big deal. It’s not like we did the horizontal mamba.”
Frankie pulls Shelby out of my reach. “Maybe you should shut up before Violet commits friendicide.”
Bailey clears her throat. “I need to tell you something as well.”
“Don’t tell me you dated Luke as well!”
She blushes. I jump to my feet. I’ll deal with my supposed friends later. I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Big fat lying fish.
“Wait.” Bailey grabs my arm. “We only pretended to date. But I wanted you to know in case someone said something.” She glares at Shelby.
“Why did you pretend to date?” I shake my head. “Never mind. Don’t answer.” Priorities! Lying men first. Deceiving friends second. I start stomping towards the door.
“Where are you going? You haven’t heard about my honeymoon yet!” I don’t bother turning around to show Shelby my middle finger.
I make it to Luke’s in record time. By the time I arrive, I am livid! Livid! How dare he date my friends without telling me? And yes, I realize they were his friends first. And I know we just had our first date last night, but it doesn’t matter. He should have told me!
I bang on the door non-stop until he opens it.
“Violet! I didn’t expect to see you today.” He leans over to kiss me, but I hiss and back away. “Is something wrong?” Duh. I nod. “Come in.”
I debate standing on his porch and screaming at him, but I’m freezing my butt off out here. I stomp inside and follow him to the living room.
I don’t bother with small talk. I dive right in. “When were you planning on telling me you dated Shelby and Bailey?”
“Shit. Who told you?”
“Who told me? Who cares who told me? You lied to me!”
“Now. Now.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “I didn’t lie. I didn’t tell you. It’s not the same thing.”
“Do not argue semantics with me. I’m not in the mood.” I start pacing the floor to have some way to expend this pissed off energy coursing through my veins.
“Sorry. Wrong thing to say.” You think? “Do you want to sit down and discuss this like rational adults?”
Rational adults? Has he never dealt with a pissed off woman before? I clamp my mouth shut before I say something I will surely regret later – much, much later.
Luke approaches and grabs my shoulders. I try to shake him off, but he holds on tight. “It didn’t mean anything. Hell, I only pretended to date Bailey because she was avoiding Roman.” I figured as much. Bailey has a history of being a scaredy-cat.
“And Shelby?”
He releases my shoulders and runs his hands through his short hair. “We went out on two dates.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
He rears back as if I’d hit him. “Sleep with Shelby? No. You want the truth?” Um, yeah. It’s why I’m here. “How’s this for the truth? I haven’t slept with anyone since I saw you at F&J’s for the first time in nearly ten years.”
No freaking way. “That was May! You can’t be serious.”
“Well…” He clears his throat. “I did have sex once since then.”
Shit. Of course. We had sex before Thanksgiving. I can feel my face burning. Not in embarrassment but in excitement. Because the sex was hot. H-A-W-T. But our sexy time together is not the issue here. “Why didn’t you tell me about Shelby?”
“I knew how you’d react. Hell, I’m sure I won’t react much better when I find out who you’ve been dating all these years we’ve been apart and those men won’t be my friends.”
No need to tell him I’ve been on fewer dates than he can count on one hand. I collapse on the sofa, still wearing my winter coat and boots. “Do you want Shelby? You two are always hugging and touching each other.”
“No.” He sits next to me. “There’s only one person I want and she’s in this room right now.”
“What if I’m not ready?” It may have been years since I’ve been intimate with anyone, but I’m not ready. Recent events notwithstanding.
“I’ll wait for sex for however long you need.”
I snort. “Yeah, right. You’re a man. You need sex.”
“Did you miss the part of the conversation where I admitted to having gone without for months?”
“You won’t be having sex with anyone else then?” If I’m going to be a total idiot and give him a second chance – and evidence is suggesting I am – boundaries must be drawn.
“No, Violet.” He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I won’t be doing anything with anyone else except you.” His gaze dips to my lips and he leans closer.
Before he can kiss me, I put my finger on his lips to stop him. “Not even Shelby?” I do like to beat a dead horse to death.
“Especially not her, Petal.” A warm fuzzy feeling spreads over my chest at his use of his old pet name for me.
“Are we done talking?” At my nod, Luke crushes his mouth to mine. I moan and he takes the opportunity to invade my mouth with his tongue.
I pull away. “Not ready for sex, remember?” I’m reminding myself as much as I’m reminding him because my body lights up like a freaking Christmas tree whenever he touches me.