Finding Sunshine (7 page)

I can’t help but wonder if Nina would fit into my dream.
I already know she’s smart and creative, not to mention sweet and fucking sexy as hell, but does she have the same dreams that I do?

I may not know what my next step is, but I do know that I don’t plan on living in my childhood home indefinitely. It’s one thing for my sister to live here. She’s married and is raising her family here—making it a home again. By now, I should have my shit together and have my own place.

When my parents were my age, they’d already been married nearly a decade, had two children, a mortgage, and were working hard to give their children every luxury possible.

Once I figure out what to do next and where I want to be living, I’ll let Sarah and Bennett have their house back. Even though
technically
it is partially my house, it’s really theirs. They’re the ones that are making it a family home again.

After emptying the truck, I walk back into the kitchen and see my nephew, Harry, seated in his highchair by the table. He sees me walk in, and his eyes light up. He automatically starts reaching out his arms towards me, babbling nonsensically.

“Hey buddy. How’s my favorite nephew doing?” I ask, kissing his head and squatting down in front of him. Harry still has that sweet, baby-like scent, and a twinkle in his eyes. His little patch of black hair is sticking up in every direction, and he’s wearing a little blue long-sleeved t-shirt that for some strange reason reads,
Bowties are Cool,
in white lettering.

“He’s your
only
nephew,” Sarah points out from where she’s ladling out bowls of soup for our lunch.

I look up and grin. “Well, you best get working on that.”

“Hey now, one’s enough for right now,” Bennett laughs as he comes into the kitchen. I walk over to shake his hand in greeting.

“Yeah, maybe you should find a nice girl and make your own babies, if you want them so badly.” Sarah says, bringing several bowls of soup over to the table.

“I’m content being the favorite Uncle,” I grin at her, taking a bowl of soup from her hands and taking my usual seat at the table. It’s the same well-worn table we ate our family meals at growing up.

Sometimes I’m not sure how Sarah can live in this house and not go crazy with our loss. Ever corner is haunted by the memory of our parents. Most of the things still remain the same—the dishes, furniture, and photographs staring down at us on the wall.

When Sarah and Bennett got married, I had just been released from prison and was still looking for work. Having the time on my hands, I stripped our parents’ room bare and made them a new one. I pulled out the carpeting, refinished the floor, and painted the walls a brighter color. Changing that room had been part of my healing.
Over the years, we’ve slowly redone some of the other rooms, yet somehow they still all feel the same to me.

“You’ll find someone special,” she says sweetly, reaching out and placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Maybe I already have,” I say cryptically, giving her teasing smile.

“
What
! Who is she?” Sarah says excitedly before taking her seat at the table and adding dramatically, “Oh, God! You didn’t meet her at
The Pint
did you?”

“No!” I laugh, focusing on the bowl in front of me and eating a large spoonful of the delicious soup.

“Well—” Sarah turns expectantly to me and reaches for my bowl, but I gently bat her hand away. Bennett and I chuckle at her annoyance.

“You better tell her, man. She isn’t going to give up,” Bennett says, digging into his own lunch.

“She’s a friend of Rebecca’s, and we have a date tonight.”

“Really?” she asks, intrigued. Then she crosses her arms on her chest and complains, “You’ve let Becca set you up on a blind date, when you wouldn’t let me?”

“Not exactly. We met last night at the Valentines Day Date Auction, the one Richard does every year at the club. And she just happens to be Rebecca’s friend.”

“Are you that desperate for a date you have to buy one?” Sarah teases, beginning to tear up pieces of bread for Harry to eat.

“You’d know all about buying dates, wouldn’t you, Sarah?” I ask mockingly, between large mouthfuls.

“What’s
that
supposed to mean?” she asks defensively.

“Didn’t you pay Larry Perl to go to the prom with you?” I ask, egging her on.

“I did not!”

“Did too.”

“I only paid for the tickets because he didn’t have enough money,” she concedes.

“He really let you pay for the tickets?” Bennett asks, reaching out and grabbing a bottle of salad dressing from the middle of the table.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“You don’t let a woman pay your way. And you pay for hers as well,” I say.

“I agree with Aaron. Have I ever asked you to pay for anything?” Bennett questions her, before taking a large bite of his salad.

“You two realize we’re in the Twenty-first century now, right? Women can take care of themselves. We’re even allowed to vote!”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean she pays
our
way,” Bennett replies.

“And if she’s my woman, I’m going to be taking care of her,” I add emphatically.

“Good luck with that, caveman,” Sarah says, reaching over to pat my cheek condescendingly.

“Even though we both know you don’t need it, I know you love that I take care of you,” Bennett says, smiling at Sarah, who ignores the truth of his words and continues feeding Harry and eating her own lunch.

“I’m glad someone else will be here while I’m gone,” Bennett says, turning to me in between bites. “I don’t like leaving them alone with all this snow.”

“Not a problem. You should’ve called, I would’ve come and stayed while you were gone anyway.” Honestly, I don’t like the idea of my sister and nephew here in the house by themselves, especially if we have another snowstorm.

“You two know I’m sitting right here, right? And can hear you,” Sarah says agitatedly.

“What? It’s only because we love you, baby.” Bennett gives her soft smile, before adding, “We don’t want anything happening to our girl.”

This is one of the things I like most about Bennett. He understands that even though he’s Sarah’s man now, I’m still her brother. I didn’t give up that title when they got together, and I would still do anything for her.

Several minutes go by where we eat in silence, enjoying our delicious lunch. Sarah keeps looking over at me, clearly wanting to say something.

“What?” I ask, before taking a large bite of lettuce dripping in ranch dressing.

“Well?”

“Well,
what
?” I intentionally tease her, knowing what she wants—details. I can’t help but smile. I knew she hadn’t finished her interrogation earlier. She’s dying for me to tell her about last night, and about Nina. I’m just not sure how much I’m ready to share. Finding Nina again still feels like a dream. I’m afraid at any moment I’ll wake up.

“Man, you better give her something, or she’ll nag you to death,” Bennett laughs.

“I don’t nag!” Sarah glares across the table at her husband. “I just want to make sure this mystery woman is good enough for my big brother.”

“What can I say?” I quip lazily, reaching for a peanut butter cookie from the plate in the center of the table—
my favorite
. I watch as Sarah sits up straighter in her chair, waiting for me to continue.

“She’s smart.” I take a large bite, chew, and swallow. “Of course she’s gorgeous, with this mass of dark curls and a tight little body. God, the way she moves.” I take another bite, chew, and again swallow before continuing. “She’s unbelievably sweet too, and totally adorable. Can you believe she doesn’t swear?”

“Really?” Sarah grins. “So this is why you’ve moved out of that dump?”

“Not entirely. But yeah, I don’t want Sunshine anywhere near that place,” I say, grabbing yet another cookie.

“Sunshine? What kind of name is that?” Bennett asks, smiling as he reaches for a cookie himself.

“Her parents must really hate her,” Sarah laughs.

“What? No, her name’s Nina. I-I just call her that, she’s—well,
sunshine
,” I say, muttering the end into my glass of water.

“
You’ve seen the light?”
Sarah asks softly.

“Something like that,” I mutter, avoiding her eyes. I get up from the table and begin clearing the dishes. While Sarah slowly eats her lunch intermittently between feeding Harry the rest of his, I clean the kitchen for her. It’s the least I can do, since she made me lunch. If it were up to me, I probably would’ve had either a cold sandwich, or a bowl of cereal.

I feed Russell an early dinner, and then take him for a walk around the neighborhood. I’ll have to ask Sarah to let him out to do his business before she goes to bed, but I want him to have a good long walk before I leave to pick up Nina. When we get back, Bennett has already been picked up by the car service. Sarah is in the living room, folding laundry and watching some cartoon with Harry on the large TV hanging above the fireplace.

“Well, I’d best get going,” I say, looking at the time on my phone anxiously. I don’t want to be late. “I’ve got a shift at
The Pint
I couldn’t fuckin’ get out of afterwards, so I won’t be home until late. You don’t mind letting Russell out once more before you go to bed, do you?”

“Not at all.” Sarah says, smiling at me.

“’Night, Buddy,” I say walking over to Harry and kissing his head. He briefly looks up at me before returning his rapt attention to the cartoon builder and tractors moving across the screen.

I then walk over and crouch down in front of Russell. Rubbing his head and receiving several gentle licks, I say, “Be a good boy for your master while he’s gone. ’Night,” I address Sarah.

“Goodnight. Have fun, and remember—no glove, no love.” Sarah laughs as I turn and make my way into the mudroom and out the back door.

~ Nina ~

“Hi.” I smile, pulling open the door to see Aaron standing just over the threshold.

Without saying a word and taking several quick steps towards me, he gathers me tightly in his arms. Letting out a gasp in surprise, I quickly grab his thick, worn fleece jacket as he dips me backwards slightly. Still silent, his lips find mine, and his tongue does all the talking. Telling me now just how happy he is to see me. After the initial shock wears off, I join in the conversation.

His lips, cold from being outside, send a shiver through me, while his hot breath melts me further into his arms. This kiss is neither teasing nor playful. It’s possessive, rough, and domineering.
I submit, all too willingly.

Moaning, I tighten my hold of him and press myself closer into his hard body. He groans and strengthens his own grasp of me.

“Hello, Sunshine.” He says, breathing hard as he ends his pleasant assault on my senses.

“H−hello,” I whisper breathlessly as my body is righted, making me dizzy.

Golly!

I’ve never been greeted with this much enthusiasm—by
anyone
. All of my daydreams today paled in comparison to what I just experienced. I had spent the day trying
not
to think about my date this evening. Which proved nearly impossible.

I’ve been anxious and overly excited all day to see Aaron again, hoping to see
more
of him than I had a chance to last night. With only mental images to go on, I decided to search the Internet, but he was nowhere to be found. I discovered, after some research—
stalking
—that Aaron doesn’t have a
Facebook
,
Google+
,
Twitter
,
Instagram
, or
LinkedIn
account. So I wasn’t able to follow, friend, put him in any of my circles, or lust after his pictures. The first chance I get, I’m capturing his image. As a photographer, I need a visual!

With social media, I’ve found there are two types of people: the stalker, and the sharer, who invariably is an
over-sharer
. I’m a private person, so I tend to fall into the ‘stalker’ category. Unless I feel the need to brag and make people green with jealousy—
hey,
I never said I was perfect.

Having a man who looks like Aaron, and who has said he wants to do naughty things to me—
with me
—is definitely something to brag about. I briefly debated changing my
Facebook
relationship status to ‘it’s complicated.’

Aaron and I
are
in some sort of relationship, but what it is exactly I’m still uncertain about.
Are we dating? Is it exclusive?

I realize it’s
way
too early to be asking these questions. We’ve only ever kissed—
golly, he tasted great
—but that doesn’t stop a girl from wanting to define a relationship.

The more time I spent today thinking, or overthinking, about our time together last night, I couldn’t help but get even more excited about our potential relationship.

It’s complicated
.

All day I had a one-track mind, where all thoughts led back to the new, breathtaking man in my life. While putting the junk mail in the recycling bin, I saw an
L.L. Bean
catalogue, and my first thought was,
Aaron likes camping
. As I was putting a load of laundry in, I found myself wondering what brand of detergent he uses. When I saw a beer commercial on TV, my first thought was,
Aaron’s a part-time bartender.

Really, I’m not crazy. Just obsessed. Or rather, completely lost in lust.

I really didn’t get much done today, between thinking of him and trying to imagine what the surprise Aaron has planned could possible be. My choice of outfit really depended on such knowledge.

I spent over an hour debating between jeans or leggings, not to mention which top to wear. Aaron had suggested I dress warmly, but that didn’t mean I wanted to look frumpy. I was going for winter casual, classy, and sexy.

Finally, I decided on a pair of heavy black leggings and a warm, grey tight-fitting baby doll sweater dress, along with a pair of black wedge boots. I opted to wear my hair up in a casual ponytail, completing the outfit with a pair of large, silver hooped earrings and a silver chained necklace that has a camera charm dangling at the end.

I want to look great, but not in a high-maintenance kind of way. Rather, in an
I wake up looking this good every day
sort of way.

Effortless.

~:~:~:~:~

“Are you ready for your surprise?” Aaron asks as we pull out into traffic and begin driving to who knows where.

“Yes. Are you going to tell what it is now?” I ask excitedly.

“Nope. You’ll just have to wait and see,” he says with a teasing glint in his sparkling blue eyes.

“Please?” I beg, attempting to bat my eyelashes at him, which is really just me blinking crazily.

“Nope. We’re almost there,” he informs me, pulling into a parking spot. Exiting the truck, he comes around to open my door and takes ahold of my gloved hand.

“Ice skating? You’re taking me skating?” I ask excitedly, as we make our way towards the skating rink on Boston Common. The sky is clear, and the place is lit with a million twinkling bulbs
. Picture perfect
.

“Yeah. They don’t close ‘til ten on Fridays, but I thought the earlier we got here, the better. Then afterwards, we’ll have a quick dinner, and then unfortunately, I have to work later tonight. I couldn’t fuckin’ get out of it. Otherwise, we’d go back to your apartment for
dessert
,” he says, warming the word ‘dessert’ with his voice.

“Sounds perfect, except for the you having to work part.”

“Don’t worry, Sunshine. I plan on getting my dessert eventually.”

I smile as we walk hand in hand, on our way inside to pay the admittance fee, then to a locker, and finally to the skate rental counter. Not surprisingly, being a Friday night, there is already a fairly large crowd. A mixture of young and old alike, there are many families with children wearing brightly colored helmets, and other couples just like us. Despite the cold, the atmosphere is one of warmth and fun.

While we pick out our skates, I unconsciously file away the knowledge that Aaron wears a size eleven and a half shoe, hoping that there is truth to the myth about a man’s shoe size relating to the size of his package.

“Here, let me help you,” Aaron says, squatting down in front of me and taking the skate from my hands. I had been struggling to unknot its laces.

“Thank you,” I tell him as he is able to quickly undo the laces. Instead of handing it back to me, he takes my foot in his hand and places it into the boot of the skate.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you put your skates on,” he says innocently, as his large hand moves lazily up and down, caressing my calf. The subtle movement sends tingling heat slowly up towards my core.

“That’s not all you’re doing,” I breathe out softly, leaning down to wrap my arms around his shoulders as I melt into his lips. Our kiss is all too fleeting, as he pulls back before either of us gets too lost in one another.

“Now tap your heel down to get your foot in place.” He instructs, removing his hand and leaving a chill behind.

“Good,” he says before straightening the tongue, pulling the laces tight, and looping the laces around the hooks before tying a knotted bow.

“How does that feel?”

“Perfect.” I say, smiling at his attention to detail as he double-knots the bow.
He’s clearly done this before
. “Who taught you how to skate?”

“When we were kids, my dad used to take my sister Sarah and I skating here almost every weekend during the winter,” he says with a smile. Memories from his childhood are clearly happy ones.

“Has he brought your nephew here yet?” I ask, imagining his father would want to continue the family tradition and bring Aaron’s nephew skating when he’s older.

“No. My parents died almost seven years ago now,” he states softly, the sadness still clinging to him.

“I’m sorry,” I reply softly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It sounds like they were great.”

“The best,” he agrees, looking up at me with a sad smile.

I desperately want to know what happened, and have a million questions buzzing around my head. But this is neither the time nor the place to have
that
conversation. Instead, I lean down and kiss him quickly, letting the matter end—for now.

“My sister, brother-in-law, and I brought Harry here a couple of weeks ago,” Aaron says, a genuine smile returning to his face. “It was his first birthday. My sister didn’t want to have a huge party, so we pulled him around on a sled and bought him a cupcake, which he got more of it on his clothes than in his mouth.”

“That sounds adorable. I remember you showing me a picture of him and Russell, the day we met,” I smile.

“That’s right. You wanted to shoot them,” he teases, grinning at me.

“Stop it,” I say, pushing him playfully.

“That's what you said.”

“You knew what I meant,” I argue.

Once we both have our skates on and have stored our boots and my purse in the locker, we’re ready to get out on the ice.

“Now, hold my arm,” he instructs as we stand up on our skates. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” he promises, steadying me when I wobble slightly on the blades, attempting to find my balance.

“Be careful,” he warns, as we begin slowly walking towards the outdoor rink. Stepping into the rink first, Aaron helps me step down onto the ice, like a true gentleman.

“Now, turn your toes inward and center your bodyweight,” he says, a large hand on each of my hips, helping me stay vertical.

“I’ve got it,” I say, grinning. Once he lets go, I push off and skate past him. Turning my head, I call back, laughing, “Come and get me!”

I don’t get far before an arm catches me around the middle and pulls me back against the solid wall of a man’s chest, almost toppling me over. “You’ve been playing me,” Aaron breathes in an amused voice.

I turn in his arms and smile up at him, replying playfully, “To be fair, you never asked if I’ve skated before. I took a couple of lessons when I was younger.”

“Define a couple.”

“Three years worth.”

“Only three?” he asks, shaking his head while grinning with amusement.

“I didn’t like the competition aspect. I loved—love skating, but then it became about winning and pleasing the judges. It sucked all of the fun right out of it. My Mom wanted me to be the next Tonya Harding, but I didn’t have it in me.”

“Wait, isn’t she the one who busted the kneecaps of her rivals?”

“Yup, that’s how competitive Mom wanted me to be,” I say, tightening my hold onto his waist as I begin to glide backwards.

“Does she even know you? I haven’t known you long, but you, Sunshine, are all sweetness,” he says leaning down to suck my lower lip gently, our chilled noses touching.

“I’m not, really. You haven’t seen me before my coffee in the morning.”

“Well, I’ve been warned.” He chuckles as I turn, and we glide along the perimeter of the rink, entwined arm in arm.

After several minutes of watching other skaters doing more than just staying vertical, I’m feeling adventurous. Letting go of my hold on Aaron’s arm, I push away slightly.

“Watch this,” I say. Lifting my left foot, I swing it forward and then lift my right foot in the opposite direction—

Bam!

My bottom lands on the ice with a thud as I miss landing on the toe pick of my left skate, and it slides out from under me.

“Ow!”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Aaron asks angrily from somewhere above me.

I’m briefly stunned by my spectacular fall. Coming to my senses, I maneuver my body onto all fours before slowly getting up on one knee.

Could this be any more embarrassing?

“What were you trying to do?” he revises his question, reaching down to help me up off the ice.

“The bunny hop,” I say sheepishly, gripping his arms to steady myself. “I was trying to impress you.”

“Nina,” Aaron says, his voice gentling. He catches my attention by his use of my name. I’ve noticed that he rarely uses it, as he seems to prefer calling me Sunshine.

Not that I mind it.

“Trust me,” he says, pulling me into his arms. “I’m already impressed.”

“
Okay
,” I whisper into his chest.

Pulling back slightly, he cups my face with his gloved hands and tilts it so I’m looking up at him. Leaning down, he gifts me with a wet, warm, all too quick kiss.

“Now. Be careful with my woman. I have plans for her, and you killing her on our first real date would interfere with those,” he says, sounding completely serious.