Skin Deep (10 page)

Luke kept going until he got to the living
room, where he stopped at the coffee table, grabbing my phone where
it was sitting beside my purse. I stopped beside him, reaching out
to try to wrench my phone out of his grasp. He easily evaded my
hands, holding my phone over his head out of my reach as he punched
in a series of numbers. I heard his phone start ringing in his
pocket before he hit one last button on my phone and then handed it
to me.

He then leaned in, kissed me quick and hard
on my lips, grinned at me and walked out my front door. I stood
there in shock, completely dumfounded by the fact that he’d just
walked out. I snapped, stomping my foot and shrieking in the back
of my throat, and then I threw my phone into the couch. Hard. Oh,
shit! My phone bounced off the back of the couch and flew back at
me. I threw my hands up, more in defense than anything, but also
trying to catch it before it could hit something and shatter.
Luckily it thumped into my chest (Ouch!) and I was able to save
it.

Shaking my head at myself and my own
stupidity (If my phone would have shattered, it would have been the
fourth one this year. What? I have a temper. So sue me.) I stomped
to the door to lock it before stalking down the hall to my room,
where I fell into a fitful sleep.

Chapter 8

My phone woke me up the next morning, ringing
in the vicinity of my head. I lifted my head groggily, trying to
locate it but couldn’t see it. I shoved my hand under my pillow,
searching blindly until I hit it with my fingers. I pulled it out
to answer, but it quit ringing before I could get my fingers to
work enough to slide across the touch screen to unlock my phone. I
checked the display, noting that I had missed my mom’s call before
my eyes hit my alarm clock. Fuck me, I’m late!

I scrambled out of bed and set a new world
record in the shower before throwing on an old pair of jeans and a
tshirt, and pulling on my brother’s hoodie as I slid my feet into
my sneakers. I didn’t bother tying them, just ran down the hall to
grab my purse and my keys. Then I had to run back to my bedroom to
get my phone, which had fallen to the bed in my mad dash to get
ready.

I pulled up at my parents’ house about half
an hour late and headed inside. Since I was so late, everyone was
already there and seated at the table, plates heaping with food. I
breezed in and slid into my seat, reaching for the plate of bacon
as everyone’s eyes settled on me.

“Good morning!” I said, filling my plate. At
least once a month my family all got together for Sunday breakfast.
Mom pulled out all the stops, making everyone’s favorite foods. We
had gravy, made from the sausage and bacon drippings with pieces of
sausage and bacon crumbled in it, biscuits, scrambled eggs (with
cheese for me, yum!), sausage patties, strips of bacon, shredded
hash browns, popovers, sausage links, and French toast.

My mom got up and poured me a glass of
orange, strawberry, banana juice and brought it to me, kissing the
top of my head and saying, “Good morning, o tardy one!”

I grinned at her, thanking her for the juice
before saying hi to my dad. He grunted, which meant hi back. He’s
lucky I am fluent in Dad Speak or we’d never have a conversation. I
waved to my sisters, winked at my niece and nephew, nodded to Noah,
and stuck my tongue out at Calland. I still hadn’t forgiven him for
dumping Drunk Leah on my carpet while I was getting’ my Luke on
that night.

My sisters both waved back at me, although
Jenna gave me her we-need-to-talk face, Hayden laughed and tried to
wink back, succeeding only in blinking her eyes owlishly, Jarrod
grinned, Noah nodded back, and Calland, calmly as you please,
reached across the table and stole my plate.

“Hey!” I cried. “Mo-om, Calland stole my
plate,” I whined. Yes, I know I was acting like a four year old,
but hey. That was my food!

Mom just grinned and shook her head. I think
she’s used to us by now. Her and Dad have always been fans of the
whole ‘work it out for yourselves’ type of conflict resolution,
going as far as to pushing the furniture back in the living room to
clear a space before letting us loose on each other. We never
really fought, though. It was more wrestling around, trying to best
the other by whatever means necessary, whether it be slapping,
tickling, punching, sitting on top of, pinching, and biting. Biting
was generally frowned upon, but was allowable as long as we weren’t
doing it to maim or draw blood.

All of this usually ended with one of us (me
or my sisters) pissed off, screaming, crying, and stomping into our
rooms to slam the door, and Calland laughing hysterically.
Asshole.

I got up from the table, went around to where
Calland was sitting, and tried to take my plate back. He pulled it
away from me, trying to stab my hand with his fork.

“Calland, give me my food you asshole!” I
shrieked.

Calland said, “Okay.” Then he gave me my
plate, but not before snatching all of my bacon and my biscuit.

Sighing, I took my now lightened plate back
to my seat and replenished my empty bacon and biscuit spaces and
commenced eating.

“So,” my mom began. (She always makes me
cringe when she starts sentences like that. You never can tell
what’s gonna come out of her mouth!) “Leah and Calland tell me that
you had some company the other night. Slut!” she said, laughing and
winking at me.

I rolled my eyes at her. Dad just shook his
head and grunted again, while everyone else started laughing with
Mom. I tuned them out because my mind had already drifted to
thoughts of Luke and what the hell last night was all about.

Breakfast passed with me shoving food in my
face (one, because I was starving, and two, because then I didn’t
have to answer my mom’s questions. She did teach us not to talk
with our mouths full, you know…) Leah and Calland took turns trying
to one up each other with one liners about walking in on me and
Luke. Noah excused himself and took the kids outside. Dad just sat
there eating his food. He did, however, grunt every now and then
when Leah or Calland managed a decent joke. Mom and Jenna just
watched, shaking their heads and grinning at us.

After breakfast was done, me, Leah, and Jenna
cleaned up and did the dishes for mom. We visited for a while
before we all started dispersing. I said my goodbyes, gave my mom a
kiss and hug, and headed home.

When I got home, I cleaned up my house and
started a load of laundry before heading out to the screened-in
porch off the back of my house. I curled up on my lounger in my
penguin pants and Calland’s hoodie to read a book. My eyes kept
drifting to my phone, though. Giving in, I snatched it up and
scrolled through my contacts. Sure enough, Luke had programmed his
number into my phone. I also noticed that I had a text message that
hadn’t been opened yet.

The text was from Luke and it simply said,
“Mine.” Geez. Men and their cryptic messages. It showed that he had
sent it around four a.m., after he left my house. I hit reply and
typed:
Mine? Wtf does that mean?
I took a deep breath in and
finished:
I think things got a little weird between us. Sorry,
but I don’t think we should see each other anymore. I’m just not
sure where this is going, and can’t see it working out.

Before I could change my mind, I hit send and
went to change the laundry over. My phone beeped as I was starting
my second load in the washer, telling me I had a new message. I
picked it up and opened the text from Luke.

Mine. Remember when I said you are last
night? You said I treat you like you’re mine or something. I was
just letting you know, you are. Mine.

My phone beeped again and I opened his second
message.

You think too much. Stop it.

Oh. My. God. He can’t just claim me like
that! Can he? Yikes.

I hit reply and typed:
I think you’re
drunk. I’m not a toy for you to possess and we just met! You don’t
even know me!

His response came back quickly.

Nope, not drunk. Again, stop thinking! I know
you aren’t a toy, but I sure as hell love playing with you. And I
know enough…for now. We’ll get to know each other very well, I
promise. I’ll call you in a bit, sugar. Got some things to do.
Later, babe.

Nope. Uh-uh. Not talking to him later. I
didn’t reply, instead calling Allie to see how her night ended, and
to see if Brandon had told her about the drama at the tattoo
shop.

She sounded half-asleep, mumbling, “
‘lo?”

“Morning, sunshine!” I said brightly. “Sleep
well?”

“Ugh…Emma…why are you calling so early?”
Allie groaned.

“Early? Allie honey, its almost two in the
afternoon! Get your lazy ass up!”

“Two? Seriously? Holy mother of batman, I
haven’t slept this late since college!” Allie sounded wide awake
now.

“Get dressed,” I told her. “I’m coming over
and we’re having sundaes. We need to talk.” I heard a car pulling
up outside, looked out and saw Leah getting out and heading towards
the door. “And Leah’s coming, too.”

“Alright. See you in ten,” Allie replied
before hanging up.

I wrenched open the front door before Leah
could touch the knob, told her, “We’re going to Allie’s,” and ran
into the kitchen to grab the makings for our sundaes.

“Oooh, we’re having Special Sundaes?” Leah
asked.

“Yup. Let’s roll.”

We got into my bug and headed out. A few
minutes later we pulled up at Allie’s little cottage, where she was
standing on the porch, waving at us. Leah and I grabbed everything
and headed in.

We made sundaes and carried them out to
Leah’s back deck, sitting in the sunshine.

“Okay,” I said to Allie, “Spill.”

Leah looked at me and raised her brows
questioningly. I filled her in.

“Allie and I met at Griff’s last night, had
some drinks with Luke and Brandon. Brandon is Luke’s brother, Luke
you remember. Or, maybe not, you were pretty toasted that night!
Anywho, we drank, went to the show at Shimbots, and then split up.
I went home to wait for Luke, and Allie went back into Griff’s with
Brandon. So, Leah, now you’re caught up, Allie, talk.”

Allie rolled her eyes at me and started
talking. “Brandon and I had just gotten our drinks and were sitting
down talking. Well, more like arguing because I swear that’s all we
do, but Brandon got a call from Luke and said some shit went down
at the shop. He didn’t go into detail, but apparently Luke had it
under control, so we had a couple more drinks. I tried to get him
to dance, he wouldn’t, so I did without him. Then, we said
goodnight and left. That’s it, the end.”

I wasn’t buying it. Sober Allie has a hard
time resisting finding someone to warm her bed, Drinking Allie
finds it impossible.

“Not the end. I know you, McCormick. What was
it? All the way? Third base?” I asked.

Leah chimed in, “Yeah, Allie, even I know
that wasn’t the end. Who are you trying to kid?”

“I’m serious! That was it…except maybe I
kissed him.” She mumbled the last bit, but we still heard.

My face broke into a huge grin and I smacked
her arm. “I told you! So? I had to tell you all the sordid details
with Luke, now its your turn!”

“It was a good kiss.” Allie smiled softly at
the memory. “It just happened. We were walking out of the bar, he
walked me to my car, we said good night, and before he turned away,
I just grabbed him and laid it on him. He kissed me back after a
second, and we left it at that. Now, Emma, its your turn!”

Leah turned to me, bouncing in her seat.
“Yeah! I gotta hear this! You finally get some?”

Allie sold me out, crowing, “Hell yeah, she
did! The other night and last night, too, if everything went as
planned!”

I glared at Allie, rolled my eyes, and
started talking. I filled them in about waiting for hours until he
showed, told them what happened at the shop (I’m still kind of
wondering how that would work) and finished with our fast and
furious sex on the hallway floor and subsequent weirdness. Then I
told them about the texts.

Allie and Leah just sat there, staring at me
in silence, jaws slack, eyes wide. Then Allie said, “Wait. So these
people were fucking while he was actually giving a tattoo?
That’s…interesting.”

Leah nodded in agreement.

“Focus, people!” I shouted. “What am I going
to do about Luke?”

Leah spoke first. “I think you should go for
it. I mean, he’s into you, Em. And if he’s good in bed?” She made
that a question, and I nodded emphatically. “Well there ya go. Hot,
good in bed, and into you. What more do you need?”

Allie nodded before adding, “Yeah, Emma. He
told you literally that you were his. He’s staked a claim on you,
and I wouldn’t be running from that if I were you!”

“But guys, that’s just it! He staked a claim!
Who does that? We’re not in the ice ages again, and I’m not going
to date a caveman that expects me to just roll over and do whatever
whenever. If I wanted that, I’d have stayed with that douche bag,
Brad. He’d grunt and expect me to not only come running, but to
know what that meant without asking. FUCK. THAT. Been there, done
that, and I’m not going back!”

“Em, I don’t think Luke is like that,” Allie
interjected. “I get the feeling that he’s just very confident in
himself and gets what he wants. And what he wants, babe, is you! Go
with it!”

“I agree with Allie, Emma. You should go for
it. It’d be nice to see my sister settled down finally,” Leah
said.

“Leah, you have a sister that’s settled down.
And since when do you care about my relationship status?” I
asked.

“I care,” she huffed. “Frankly, I just don’t
want to be known as the girl related to the dumbass who dumped that
hot ass tattoo guy. You know, I’ve been wanting a tattoo…” she
trailed off thoughtfully before giving me a look that plainly said,
‘you don’t go for him and I’m gonna get him.’