Dirty Curve by Meagan Brandy
CHAPTER 25
Tobias
Meyer sits beside me on the sofa, Milo and Bianca on the floor arguing about who made Bailey laugh louder. They continuously look to Meyer to settle the argument, but she keeps shrugging the decision away.
“Ugh!” Bianca tosses herself back on the beanbag. “She’s just being nice because she never sees your ass.”
“No, she’s just trying not to offend your bratty ass.”
Her mouth falls open. “I don’t get offended!”
“No, you just get butt hurt and hold it against people for weeks.”
I expect Bianca to shout back, but she simply laughs, rolls over to grab Bailey and set her on her stomach. “Tell your uncle Milo he’s a lying bastard, Bay.”
Meyer rolls her eyes, dropping her head back.
The fiasco at the field today left me feeling like a jackass, so when Meyer invited me to tag along with them to lunch, I passed. I didn’t want to cut into any more of their time together, but when Milo realized I had no plans and was headed home, the guy begged me to come. I’m talking, prayer hands and the whole thing.
It didn’t take much. I wanted to go from the start, and knowing he was more than cool with the idea was all I needed.
Bianca met us at the park after that, but Bailey started to fuss and rather than all of us going back to Milo’s hotel room, as Meyer had planned to do, we came back to her house.
Bailey starts rubbing her eyes and lowers her head onto Bianca’s chest, so Milo snags a pillow from beside Meyer and stuffs it under Bianca’s head. He scoots closer, patting at her butt while quietly singing a lullaby I’ve never heard.
From here, I can’t see Bailey’s face, but her little cheeks squish with what I know is a smile, and my own curves my lips.
Sensing Meyer’s eyes on me, I glance over, and sure enough, they are, but this time, she doesn’t look away. So, I twist my body to face hers, lifting my left arm onto the back of the sofa.
I stare right back.
“What’s on your mind, baby?”
Her cheeks tint a perfect pink and it takes a second, but then her soft little smirk lifts. “You were jealous today,” she whispers.
“Fuck yeah, I was.”
A quiet laugh leaves her, and she drops her head back onto the cushion, but not once do those intoxicating brown eyes move.
I want to lean over and put my lips on hers, but I won’t. Not in front of her family. That would have to be her move.
And they must think so too, ‘cause Bianca says, “Just kiss him already.”
Meyer’s blush creeps up her neck and she slowly looks to her best friend.
“I’m dying to see what happens when gas is poured over fire, so please, get on with it.” Bianca grins.
Milo rolls his eyes, but then pops up on his elbow. “Why don’t you guys go out? I know my school goes buck wild Thursday nights since close to no one has classes tomorrow. This place is likely ten times what mine is. There’s got to be somewhere to let loose.”
“Yeah right. Bailey’s—”
“Asleep, chica.” Bianca gives me an unrelenting expression. “I know what to do if she wakes up. I know you won’t stay out all night, just like you know you could if you wanted, because we’ll be here.”
Milo nods, looking from me to his sister.
Meyer opens her mouth, but he shakes his head, stopping her from saying exactly what he knew she was about to.
“I’ll be here all day tomorrow. We had all day today. Let me do this. I never get to help you out.”
“You help me out all the time.” She frowns.
“Phone calls aren’t the same thing,” he tells her.
“It’s the perfect thing,” she argues.
Milo’s shoulders lower an inch. “Let me be here in a different way. Go, have some fun. Tobias’ll watch out for you and we’ll be here when you get back.” They share a look I can’t explain.
While unease still tugs at her muscles, Meyer turns to me.
I tip my head, gauging her. “They’re partying at the team house tonight. We could go by there for a bit? They’ve been on my ass lately, asking where I’ve been.” I grin, dragging my knuckles along her shoulder. “Let me show them.”
Please, baby ...
Anticipation has my abdomen clenching.
Meyer searches for something in my expression, and hers begins to soften. But there’s a slight pull at the edges of her eyes, as if she’s wrestling with something on the inside and whatever it is, it might just win over, make the decision for her, one that won’t end in my favor.
And I get it, I do.
She’s a busy woman with school and work and Bailey. Her downtime isn’t really downtime because she’s exhausted, understandably so. I have no fucking clue how she manages all she does, and she does it like a damn queen. All I know is I like being part of it.
That, and I want her to keep letting me.
My lips curve to one side, letting her know it’s okay if she’s not up for it. I’m good with exactly what we’re doing now. I just want to be near her, so it’s more than surprising when she whispers, “Okay.”
My eyes narrow. “Okay?”
She chuckles, pulling herself to her feet, and my eyes follow. “Yeah, okay.”
I shoot up beside her, my grin fucking ridiculous, but I don’t care. I’ve been dying to have her at my side and under my arm.
To show she’s mine.
The others laugh and Meyer chews at her lip. “Let me put Bailey in her crib, and we’ll go.”
“Whenever you’re ready, ma.”
I watch her walk over, bend to grab Bailey, and disappear into her room before turning back to her brother and best friend. “Should I feel guilty as fuck right now?”
Bianca laughs, dragging herself to her feet. She plants her hands on my shoulders and gives a curt nod. “Yes, you should,” she whispers. “That means you respect her as a mother.”
“I think it means he loves her.”
My head snaps toward Milo and I frown, but it quickly turns into a laugh when Bianca swiftly spins, slapping him with a pillow I didn’t even see her snag. “Make yourself useful and go get us some ice cream or something.”
Milo smirks, salutes me, and walks out the door.
“He always listen to you like that?”
Bianca grins. “The smart ones do.”
Both of us look down the hall when the squeak of Bailey’s door sounds. Meyer steps from the room, anxiously running her hands along her jeans.
I walk up to her, grab her by the hands and pull her to me. “You sure you want to go? We can put a movie on instead.”
“I think we finished Netflix,” she jokes with a smile. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”
We’re out the door in five seconds flat.
I love how she didn’t pause to look in the mirror or take the time to change.
I love how she’s comfortable in her own skin and has stopped hiding her body under her baggy sweater.
I think that means he loves her...
I look to the girl at my side, and before she can reach for the door handle of my truck, I’m spinning her against it, leaning in and taking her lips with mine.
Meyer responds instantly, kissing me back with as much need as I’m feeling, but when her hands begin to glide along my skin, I pull away. I drop my forehead to hers. “Get in the truck, Meyer, or we might not make it out at all.”
“I think I’m okay with that,” she pants.
My laugh turns into a groan, and I free myself from her wandering hands. “Not a chance. I’m ready to show you off.”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and my chest rumbles. I rip away, practically running around the damn hood. “In the truck, Tutor Girl. Now.”
She laughs and climbs right in.
q
Walking into the house, Cooper is the first person to spot me, and he throws his hands into the air, beer sloshing from his cup onto the floor at his feet. “Ohh! Your royal fucking highness, you’ve graced us with your presence!” He mock bows.
Grinning, I clap my palm into his.
“What up, fuckhead?” He grins. “Finally get your head out of your ass, or what?”
My fingers tighten around Meyer’s and I tug her forward, placing her a space ahead of me and Coop’s eyes fly to hers.
He’s shocked, that’s for sure, but his smile stays in place. “Meyer!” He flies forward, hugging her, and the beer splashes again.
I grab him by the collar, hauling him back, but Meyer simply smiles, kicking her foot to get the droplets of beer off her toes.
“Hey, Coop.” She glances from him to me and back.
Coop does the same. “You and Cruz?” He whistles. “That’s ...”
I lift a brow, but it’s Meyer who finishes his sentence for him.
“Unexpected?” Meyer gives me a sly smile before returning his attention to Cooper. “Trust me, I know.”
Cooper grins, shrugging his shoulders. “Well, hey, rock it out, girl.”
Meyer laughs and I wiggle my brows, dragging us farther into the house, saying quick hellos to people we pass, but without stopping.
It’s when we get into the main room that people really get rowdy.
Neo’s eyes hit mine and he starts barking, jumping up on the pool table in the middle of someone’s game. He cups his mouth with his hands, gaining as much attention as possible. “Fellas, tip your hats and pull out them handcuffs. Time to lock a woman up or watch her go, ‘cause Tobias motherfucking Cruz has returned to the hothouse!”
The team shouts like they’re in a fucking nightclub, and I catch Neo’s eyes again, gliding my fingers past my throat as if to say cut the shit.
He frowns, but then he spots Meyer at my side and winces.
Then the fuckhead shouts again. “And to all you lovely ladies, keep your clothes on, and steer clear of my boy ...” His grin is slow, and he shifts all his attention to Meyer. “’Cause he’s got a woman now and trust me when I say, she’s first-string material. You don’t stand a chance.”
He follows it up with a wink, hopping down to head our way, but we’re already bombarded by the rest of the boys, each dying to get closer and find out more about the girl on my arm.
They’ve seen me leave with more girls than I care to admit, something I’m pretty fuckin’ embarrassed by now, but they’ve never seen me come with one.
“You’re literally a celebrity to your own team,” Meyer mumbles through clenched teeth.
“You proud?” I joke, and her lips pull to one side.
She thinks I’m fucking adorable.
It’s odd I love that she does.
Nobody wants to be adorable, but if she likes it, I want to be it.
Daniel Rojas, one of my relief pitchers, steps up first.
“Rojas, this—”
“Hey, Meyer.” He focuses on her, nodding his chin my way. “Cruz.”
I frown, my eyes moving between the two.
Meyer gives a single wave. “Hey, Danny, how’s it going?”
“Good, good.” He grins, but he’s pushed to the side when Allen, our shortstop’s younger brother, steps up.
Allen smiles. “Meyer, what’s up?”
“Hey!” Her lips curve and she leans forward, giving him a half hug. “Did you get my email yesterday?”
“Hell yeah, I did.”
Meyer laughs. “Well earned. I bet your coach was ready to throw you a party after that.”
“My body owes you for that one.”
“What the fuck, bro?” I snap and both their heads snap to me.
Along with a few others around us too.
“Your body owes her?” I step in front of him. “Are you for real right now? You’re gonna come into this house and say some shit like that? To my girl?”
“Tobias,” Meyer whispers.
His palms lift in the air. “Aye, I was referring to the ass kicking my coach would give me in the gym and on the stairs, man. Legit my body, my muscles ... I didn’t mean anything else by it.” His eyes flick past my shoulders briefly. “She’s a badass tutor, that’s all.”
Tutor.
She’s a badass tutor, he said.
Of course.
Here I am excited to introduce my girl to all these assholes, but most of them already know her. She tutors for the athletic department and is their top tutor at that. Tutoring athletes is her job. Spending time with athletes is what she’s paid to do.
There’s a flicker of heat in my abdomen, a nasty flare of jealousy.
But then Meyer’s fingers flex alongside my own, reminding me that her hand’s still tucked in mine, and the stormy sensation is smothered.
With a calm I don’t quite feel, but confidence I do, I look to my girl. “That she is, my man.”
There’s an anxiousness I’m sensing from her, but she smiles, and I imagine she’s got that whole angel-devil thing going on.
It’s a fucked-up quality, possessiveness, but it is a quality.
And I think she kind of likes it.
Either way, I didn’t bring her here to have a shitty night, though, so I swallow the part of me I’m still working on and lift our joined hands, kissing her knuckles as I lead us the final steps to my teammates.
It turns out she only knows two more people here, and the rest take turns stepping in front of us to say hello. The plus side is they like her, but of course they do.
What’s not to like?
As a group, we hang around the kitchen, spending the next hour laughing. They make jokes, flirt, and try to get under my skin, but it doesn’t work.
It might have sixty minutes ago, but not now. Not after witnessing her with my crew. There’s a respect between them and her, one they earned on their own time, and knowing that feels pretty fucking good.
They see her as a person, not a toy, and I’m loving the look in these asshole’s eyes as they realize she’s mine. Mine, mine. As in not just a date for the night.
“So, Meyer, how’d you get stuck with this guy?” My buddy Franky drops down beside her, throwing his arm over her shoulder. “Everyone knows I’m the one who swings harder south.”
I knock his arm away, pulling my girl in front of me, and curling my hands around her waist. “Yeah, bro, you swing heavy ... but you also stay swinging.”
Franky shoots to his feet, a drunken grin on his face. “One time I couldn’t make a moment count, and to be fucking fair, I was a half a bottle of Jose in!”
The boys laugh and Meyer hides her smile by dropping her chin to her chest.
“You know how it goes, Franky, Jose, no lay.”
“That’s the last time I tell you guys shit!” he shouts with a smile, spinning away when his name is called.
Neo turns to the group and starts telling them some story about him and X in high school, so I lean forward, putting my lips to Meyer’s ear.
“For the record, my southern region is impressive as shit, I’m talking north pole status.”
Meyer’s shoulders shake with her laughter, and she tips her head back, but as her brown eyes meet mine, a weight slips into them, shadowing the golden rims from my view.
The moment her lips move, they’re all I see. Plump, full and intoxicating. I take them with my own, playfully nipping at her when she pulls away.
“I’m going to step outside and call Bianca to check on Bailey,” she whispers.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Stay.” She spins in my arms. “I’ll be right back.”
If it wasn’t policy to leave a freshman outside the door to keep track of who comes in, I would have followed, but since we do, I stay planted where I am, keeping one eye on the front door, the other on my boys.