Anything but Minor (21 page)

“Just what exactly are you so mad about?” I said as I took a step toward her.

“Which part?”

“This is a two-part fight?”

“Three,” she barked back. “You suck at handling critique, you called me a...nerd
and
you said we were just f-f...screwing.”

And then she
really
looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

“Heavy day,” I said. “And you aren’t so innocent in this. You tore down my game. You don’t do that to a man when his pants are down.”

“I was wrong,” she admitted openly. “I’m sorry. I need couth...tact when it comes to giving my opinion. It’s a flaw of mine.”

“You have no flaws, Alice,” I said as I took another step forward and wiped the grease away from her nose with my thumb. “And you’re right, we aren’t just fucking. This thing between us is more than that. And, Alice, let’s go ahead and put it out there. You
are
a nerd, but I love that about you. Can we do this somewhere else? Like maybe a place where cars aren’t whizzing by us at eighty miles per hour?”

She barely hid her smile and huffed as she looked at her engine. “I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“You’re out of gas.”

Her perfectly plump lips twisted. “What?”

“Sometimes the solution is the most obvious.”

“Oh God,” she sighed as she tried to walk around me, but I pulled her through my arm and away from traffic as she took a seat in her car and saw the evidence for herself.

“I’m out of gas! Jesus, what is
wrong
with me?”

I chuckled as I shut her hood and reached in and pulled the key and Alice from the car and loaded them into my Jeep.

“We’ll gas her up, get her to your place, order Chinese food, and watch The Karate Kid.”

Alice smiled with tears in her eyes as she turned to me. “I hate my job.”

“I know, and I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know what to do. I have a new class. They’re even worse than the last.”

“So your day was heavy, too?”

“The heaviest,” she said as I laced our fingers together and kissed the back of her hand. “I’ve got you.”

She turned to me with the same confidence. “I’ve got you, too.”

“Lift your right hand.”

I rolled my eyes, and Rafe pinched my sides.

“Do it.”

I raised my hand as I straddled him, naked.

“I, Alice Boyd.”

“I, Alice Boyd.”

“Do solemnly swear.”

“Do solemnly swear,” I said in a dull monotone.

“To praise the penis of Rafe Hembrey.”

“To prrraise,” I burst out laughing as Rafe licked his thumb and stroked my exposed nipple, eliciting a moan from me. He raised his brow as I sucked in air. “To praise the penis of Rafe Hembrey.”

“Keep your hand up, baby.”

“It’s up,” I said as I looked down at my golden man with golden skin and rich dark hair and eyes. It was by far the best night of my life.

“I promise to love, honor, and cherish his penis and only his penis.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“You called my penis Jake Ryan.”

“It’s the highest of compliments, I swear.”

“Say it!”

“I promise to love, honor, and cherish Rafe’s penis and only his penis.”

“I will not under any circumstances title it without written consent from Rafe Hembrey.”

“I will not, this is ridiculous—Rafe!” I shrieked as he pinched my nipple. “I will not under any circumstances title it without written consent from Rafe Hembrey.”

“I will pleasure it fully and often.”

I smacked his chest as he looked up at me, a change in his tone, and a hopeful lift in his voice. “Say it, beautiful.”

“I will pleasure it fully and often.”

I waited for more, my hand held high.

“Rafe, what’s the end?”

“No end,” he said softly, “no end, Alice,” before he brought my mouth down to his.

In the dark, with only whispers between us and little else, I kissed Rafe’s chest and folded my hands over it.

“Tell me about your family.”

“Nothing to tell,” he said quickly.

“Your dad?”

“Estranged,” he answered. I could feel his discomfort.

“Why?”

“Some other time, okay?” I nodded into his chest.

“Your sister?”

“Harmony was ten years older than me and married right out of high school, so I don’t really know her that well. She moved to Utah with her husband years ago. We don’t speak often.”

“And your mother?”

“We’re cool.”

“Rafe...”

“She’ll be at a game sometime. I’ll introduce you.” I frowned though he couldn’t see it.

Rafe ran his fingers through my hair with his question. “What about your dad?”

“He left me a stack of movies when I was five, and that’s all I know about him. He didn’t actually
leave
them for me. I took them and hid them from my mother before she had a chance to throw them out.”

Rafe nodded and gripped me tighter to him. “He called me mimic because I looked just like him. I remember a day at the zoo, that’s about it. His loss. I don’t lose sleep over it.”

Rafe pushed my hair away from my face and leaned in with a whisper. “Definitely his loss.”

“Baseball is a mental sport,” Dutch explained as I looked over at Rafe, who was pitching a home game. “The reason players don’t get drafted out of high school is because they need the time to develop the mental skills, the decisiveness. On average, each player needs to get their reaction time as quick as two seconds.” Rafe looked behind him as his opponent attempted to inch his way to second base. He threw a warning shot to the first baseman and nearly took him out.

“I’d say ninety percent mental and ten percent skill. Rafe was born to pitch, but his reaction time has to be as sharp as his arm.” Just as Dutch finished her sentence, the umpire let out a “Striiike.”

A voice sounded as new arrivals sat down behind us. “You don’t even like baseball.”

“Give it a chance, Hil. Drink your beer.”

“Fine, but we came here for a second honeymoon. This is
soooo
not a honeymoon. We could have brought Mallory along to this, and I wanted all activities on this trip to be
very
un-kid friendly.”

I looked over to Dutch who grinned back at me. The woman was hilarious. I glanced back at her with sympathetic eyes and saw she was a beautiful redhead and her husband was nothing short of a stunner with paralyzing, deep blue eyes and colorful tattoos that covered his arm. He wasn’t aware of my eyes on him as he turned to his wife with a grin.

“Are you saying you want to sex me?”

“Jayden!” She hushed him as if
he
was the one being inappropriate. He toyed with her and projected his voice much louder as he went on. “Because, Fishnipple, if you want my body, all you have to do is say so!”

I burst out in laughter as I had no choice at his pet name for her. Even Dutch was having a hard time keeping her composure.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said as she looked down to me, horrified. “He kind of has no filter.”

“I’m not the one throwing a fit that we aren’t getting it on in a hotel room,” he defended with a sly grin as she slugged him on the shoulder and he gave me a wink.

“I kind of have that same no filter problem,” I said with a grin. “Where are you two from?” I questioned as Rafe whipped out another strike to end the inning and the Hornets took the field.

“Just a few hours upstate. Spartanburg,” she answered. “I’m Hilary Monroe.”

“She prefers Fishnipple,” blue eyes muttered.

She turned and gave her husband the evil eye. “And this hot mess is my husband, Jayden.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Alice, and this lady here is Dutch.” Dutch grunted nicely in greeting and barely gave them her attention.

Three innings later, Hilary had spilled and inhaled enough beer for the four of us. I’d had to clench my thighs together more than once as Jayden and Hilary went back and forth. Hilary, clearly drunk, looked at her husband with loving eyes.

“I would go to allllll the baseball games with you.”

He grinned at her and sighed. “I better get you back to the hotel.”

Hilary looked around her, glossy-eyed, but still present. “The game isn’t over.”

“There are three pounds of crab legs, two bottles of champagne, and chocolate croissants waiting in our suite.”

My heart clenched as I watched Hilary’s face contort as if she were going to cry, and then she flung herself in his lap and began to kiss him sporadically all over his face.

“Yep, you’re completely drunk.” He shook his head as he stood and put his wife over his shoulder. She laughed hysterically as she slapped his butt.

“Wait!”

Jayden paused. “Yes, Mrs. Monroe?”

“Turn around.” Jayden did as asked as Hilary’s long hair hit the top of his thighs and she smiled at me, her face reddening with the blood rushing to it. “Alice, it was so nice to meet you!”

“Same here. Bye, you guys.” I laughed as I watched Jayden climb the stadium steps easily with Hilary in tow and stared after them until they were out of sight.

I want that.

I looked back over to Rafe in the dugout and caught him eyeing me. And for a brief moment, I convinced myself I may already have it.

“Alice, we have to go.”

“I’m almost ready!”

I sat on her couch and screwed with my watch as I looked around her condo. She had no pictures of family hung up, none of friends, either. She’d told me enough about her life back in Ohio, but a large part of me wanted different for her. I scanned an old year book underneath the coffee table and didn’t see one signature. It cracked my chest a bit to see she’d been so fucking alone. Didn’t anyone see her? How could the world have ignored a woman so funny, so full of life, so completely beautiful?

“Okay, let’s go,” she pushed out nervously as she rounded the couch and stood in front of me. The crack in my chest expanded to the point I couldn’t breathe. Alice stood in a long, black cocktail dress that tied around her neck and accentuated every curve of her body. Her perfect tits pressed into the top just enough to make my dick twitch. As my eyes rose to her red painted lips, I damned near came. Her lashes were painted a thick black and her eyes looked deadly sexy.