Hotshot and Hospitality by Nora Everly
Chapter 16
Garrett
I tried not to get lost in her tonight but failed spectacularly. She was hilarious and funny. Beautiful and smart. Most of all, she reminded me of our past together as kids while at the same time showing me some of who she had become during the years I’d missed with her. I was burning with the need to kiss her, dying to feel her body next to mine like the other night, and hoping I could make her feel the same way I did by the time we were finished with dinner. She had no idea what she was doing to my heart as she sat across from me, smiling and laughing as we ate.
“So, how’s Stan?” she asked. Besides being gorgeous, she was also great company, asking about my day, my life, me, like she wanted to get to know me again as much as I wanted to know her. Our conversation flowed, effortless and smooth. It struck me that we weren’t that different than we used to be. We liked most of the same things and hated the same things as well. We caught each other shoving the tomatoes in our salads to the side and had a laugh over it.
“He’s fine. He left a dead spider on my bath mat this morning. It was disgusting.”
“Aw, he loves you, Garrett.”
“I like it better when he shows his love by purring or curling up against my chest. Come to think of it, I liked it when you did those things too.” She blushed bright red and smiled at me through the fall of her hair.
“Garrett . . .” she whispered. “I liked that too.”
I glanced out the window, away from her. I needed a break from her eyes on me. An anchor to hold on to before I became swept away entirely and made a fool of myself. It was way too soon for her to see this side of me. In fact, it was far too soon for me to feel this way at all. I’d never fallen like this before, like I was already halfway gone before I even got to know her again. Again—that was the key word. I already loved everything I knew about her from before and each new discovery made my feelings grow exponentially.
Maybe I should give her space. Something told me we needed more time, but there had already been so much lost time between us, and I didn’t want to waste a minute more.
I looked back to study her face in the glow of the candlelight as she told me about something cute Abbie had done. Even though I was torn between not wanting to waste time and protecting my heart, I had to be truthful with her. I felt too much to keep it inside. “I want to be honest with you. I’m having some feelings, Molly.”
Her eyes shot to the table. “Then I should be honest too,” she murmured, looking everywhere but at me. “Feelings scare me, Garrett.”
“I know they do, baby. So, here’s what’s going to happen.” She inhaled a deep worried breath, in anticipation of my words. “I’m going to drive you home after dinner. I’ll walk you to the door. I won’t ask to stay, and I promise I won’t ask you to go home with me. We’ll say goodnight on your porch, and you can kiss me goodbye if you want to.” A relieved giggle escaped her as she smiled at me. I decided to stop rushing, quit worrying, halt my hurrying, and put the brakes on trying to race to the finish line with her, because for now, she was here with me and that was enough.
“That sounds just perfect. Thank you, Garrett.” Her smiling eyes shined on mine in the soft light as she squeezed my hand across the table.
Lately my world had been turning for nothing but her. She had become the center of my universe and everything else had faded into the background.
I’ve spent my whole life getting ahead of myself, like my heart was always a mile ahead of my brain. I’d never met a risk I hadn’t wanted to take, and it seemed like Molly would be the biggest risk of all. I should go slow for her sake, but probably for myself too. We had all the time in the world. I knew I shouldn’t want her this badly. Not yet.
We finished our steak and lobster, the dessert cart rolled by, and we added mini cupcake towers and smiles to our table. I forced myself to let this unfold at its own pace. Slow, like we both needed. For now.
* * *
Molly
I caught my smiling reflection in the passenger window on the way home. Having a smile on my face and hope for the future had never been a big part of my dating life—until tonight. He pulled into my driveway, then darted out of the Bronco to rush around and open my door, helping me down and tucking my pashmina around my shoulders. Garrett had always been good to me. I should have known he would make this night a special one.
He was doing exactly as he said he would do, walking me up to my porch. But I was doing the opposite of everything I had intended to do. The only thing I could think of was how to get him to kiss me goodbye. Flat-out asking for one felt a little desperate.
“Goodnight, cutie,” he whispered. I swallowed hard. He looked so gorgeous in the dim glow of the porch light—irresistible. I shivered in the suddenly cool breeze as he took my keys from my hand and opened my door. “It’s getting cold. You should go inside.”
“Not yet.” I tossed my purse to the porch swing behind me and traced his necktie with a fingertip.
His hand came to my face to trace my cheek with his thumb as a small smile unfurled across his face. “You have no idea, Molly. No concept of what you’re doing to me right now.” His voice was a low growl, but the still silence of the evening allowed me to hear it, and believe me, I felt it everywhere.
“I want—”
“You want a kiss, baby?” I could only nod in response as his face dropped to mine, nudging my forehead with his—softly, sweetly. His beard brushed against my cheek as his mouth moved toward mine and my eyes fluttered closed. The press of his lips was gentle, even tender, but it wasn’t enough for me.
Wanting something I couldn’t even begin to define, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed closer to his big, warm body. I wanted him to absorb me, hold me tighter, never let me go. I was falling into a dream, forgetting myself entirely until I was nothing but a breathless, confused mess of sensation and completely lost in his arms.
His other hand went to the back of my neck, then drifted into my hair as he backed me against the wall next to my door, dipping low to press his hips against me as he deepened our kiss with a touch of his tongue. I couldn’t think anymore. I’d forgotten how to breathe. I pulled back with a gasp, but not away from him.
Pressing my cheek against his broad chest, I sighed. The lapel of his jacket was soft against my skin as I stood there with my heart pounding in my ears. He wrapped his arms around me, cradling me against his warmth.
“I’ve never been kissed like that,” I whispered. My ear rested right above his heart and I could hear it beating against me, steady and strong. I had the odd thought that my confession was spoken right to it.
He inhaled deeply before pulling me tighter and darting his tongue out to trace the shell of my ear. “I want to be the one to make you feel things you’ve never felt before. The only one,” he murmured, causing goose bumps to rise over my flesh.
Once I found my voice again, I whispered back. “I hope we can both do that for each other.”
He pulled away, his eyes burning into mine as he confided, “You already do.” I loved hearing that, so much so that I wanted to throw all my trepidations out the window and invite him inside with me. But before I could, he stepped out of my arms, bent to hand me my clutch from the porch swing and held the door for me to go in. “It’s cold out here. Go get warm and I’ll see you soon, cutie.”
I gazed up at him with big eyes, and for the first time in years, my heart was wide open to him. “Goodnight, Garrett. This was the best night I’ve had in a very long time.”
He took my face in his hands again and bent low to whisper. “For me too, Molly. Get inside before I get too weak to let you go.” After one last kiss that seared into my soul, he let me go and stepped off the porch.
He didn’t leave until I had gone inside. I knew because I peeped at him through the blinds. He’d waited there for a second, hand to his mouth as he watched my door. Much like the way I stood on the other side watching him until he drove away.
I was restless, not ready for sleep and not ready to let this night end even though he was no longer here to share it with me. I filled a glass with wine, then stepped onto my front porch to sit on the swing and let my mind wander through the memories of tonight.
I turned as a light went on behind me, from Jordan’s house. “Molly—” Jordan wasn’t that much older than me. But he sure could get bossy sometimes. I was not in the mood for bossy. I was more in the mood for a bubble bath and some alone time. How dumb of me to sit out here when his nosy butt was just right next door.
He plopped next to me on the swing. I shot him a glare as the wine sloshed in my glass. “The idiot is into you, Molly. Try to not break him, okay? That’s all I wanted to say.”
I set the glass on the porch rail and stood up. “Are you saying he’d have to be an idiot to be into me? Rude, Jordan.” I was about to storm off and leave him out here, but he tugged on my arm, so I turned around to listen instead. His look of surprise hurt my heart. Was I really that stubborn?
“No! I’m saying that he’s had it bad for you for years. Everyone knows it.”
“That’s crazy, Jordan. No one knows such a thing, because such a thing isn’t true or even possible. And I would never hurt him.”
“I know you wouldn’t, not on purpose. You’re just kind of oblivious to, uh, the way he feels about you, and you always have been. I shouldn’t even be saying this. He’s my friend, but you’re my baby sister. I love both of you, and yeah. Just open your eyes a little bit, okay?”
He looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to yell at him, probably. Or stomp off or any of my other usual reactions to his advice but I just stood there with my mouth slightly agape. I stared at him as memories crashed into my head showing all the reasons why he was probably right about Garrett’s feelings and why I was such a dumbass. “I need to sit down,” I finally said as I stepped down and sat on the steps. “Why am I like this?”
“You’ve got a lot on your mind,” he answered sagely as he got up from the swing to sit next to me, folding his big body in half to hog most of the space on the top step.
I dropped my head into my hands. “I do not agree. Sometimes I think I have very little in there. Or at least nothing useful.”
“That’s not true. Your problem is you have too much on your mind. But when it weighs you down, you let it go before you think about it or ask yourself why you want to let it go.”
When did he get so wise? I decided to ask him the question that had been nagging me all night. “Do you think I played a mean game with him tonight? By wearing this dress to make him notice me when this is just a bet I won? I kept telling him it wasn’t a date. But I don’t know if even I believed it.” I turned my face to his so I wouldn’t miss any of his answer.
“Why couldn’t it be a date?” he questioned with a gentle smile on his face.
“Because we agreed that it wasn’t. I insisted it wasn’t.”
“Sometimes things change, Molls. Maybe you didn’t start out on a date tonight, but that kiss on your porch changed the ending. And no, I wasn’t spying on you. I was doing the dishes and I saw it by accident through the window. You wore the dress for a reason, didn’t you? Now pay attention to what comes next. Try that. Just be honest with yourself.”
“Okay, I will pay attention. Promise not to say anything to anyone about this conversation. Keep it between us, like it never happened.”
“I won’t say anything.” He chuckled, his brown eyes twinkling as he nudged my shoulder with his. “Your brain is always at least three steps behind your heart, little sister. Let it catch up for a change.”
I shot him a glare. “I’d get mad at you for that, but it made too much sense and kind of explains a lot about my entire life.”
He grinned at me and stood up. “Abbie is asleep inside, so I can’t stay out here too long. Goodnight, Molly. Promise me you’ll listen to your heart.”
I stood up to go inside. “I will, I promise. But, Jordan?”
“Yeah?” He turned back to listen.
“You listen to yours too.” He lifted his chin with a grin, then he went inside, leaving me alone again with thoughts I was afraid to examine too closely. Everything he said about me was correct. I knew it; I just needed to decide what to do about it.
I grabbed my wine and headed inside to get ready for bed.