Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3) (22 page)

BOOK: Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3)
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“Have you been seeing her for very long?”

“A little while.”

“And she has a child,” my mother said glancing pointedly at Max in my arms. Max was kinda looking at her the same way Ilsa had.

“He’s a great kid,” I said. “And she’s… well, Mom, she’s great, Mom. She’s the most beautiful soul I've ever known.”

My mom smiled, genuine and sweet. “Oh, Cody. My sweet boy.”

“Okay,” Ilsa said, walking back up to us. She looked a bit more together, like she’d pumped herself up to face my folks. “Got milk. Sorry, I was afraid I’d forget if I didn’t grab it and then Max would be bummed in the morning.”

“We’ll let you go, kids,” my dad said, putting his arm around my mom to guide her away.

“Maybe you could come over for dinner some night,” my mom offered. “I could make something special, and—”

“Mom—” I began.

“Alice—” my dad said, nudging her towards the door.

“Okay,” she smiled sheepishly. “Well, it was nice meeting you and your son, Ilsa.”

“You too,” Ilsa replied.

After they walked away, she glanced up at me. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“For what?”

“I just panicked. That’s your mom, and she wants the best for you.”

“And?”

“That’s not me, Cody.”

I shook my head emphatically. “Don’t say that.”

“She was so shocked to see you with Max,” she whispered. “You shouldn’t be—”

“She was equally shocked just to see me with a girl, Ils,” I interrupted. “I've never introduced someone to my parents. I've never found someone I wanted to… not before you.”

“Cody—”

“I wanted you to meet them,” I tried to explain, “I just didn’t really plan to do it in the middle of the grocery store.” My fingers tipped her chin up, forcing her to look at me. “I would have also liked to have given them—and you—a little heads up.”

“It was a little awkward,” she said with a wry twist to her lips.

“My parents will love you, Ils,” I murmured, cupping her cheek in my palm and holding her gaze when she tried to look down. “They’ll love you because I love you. They’ll see how much you mean to me, and that’s all they need.”

“Okay,” she whispered.


Nanana
,” Max said.

“Better go buy this kid his bananas,” I smiled.

That night, I just wanted to hold her.

Not that I didn’t want to do more, because I always wanted to do more. But the urge to just shelter her in my arms—to give her that safe sensation she’d told me about—that’s what I really wanted.

We had dinner and watched a movie, some kid flick about a little garbage compacting robot. We watched it for Max and then kept watching when he fell asleep two minutes in.

I got up, put Max in the bedroom, and came out to wrap her in my arms. Today had shaken her. It reminded me that she still had some things to overcome, even though life had gone pretty smooth for the past week.

That was the way of the world, though. You could sail along, and then something could come up and fuck things all to hell.

“Ils,” I murmured into her hair.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“You’re safe with me… always.”

I heard the faintest catch in her breath, and her arms tightened around my waist.

“Cody?”

“Yeah, Ils?”

“I really do like having you here,” she whispered. “No matter what, I want you to know that.”

That sounded slightly ominous, but I tried to keep positive. I searched for the feeling behind her words and held them close to my chest.

“I like being here.” I said softly, nuzzling my face against the top of her head. “I hope I can be here with you for a long time.”

I felt her press a gentle kiss against my chest. “Me too.”

“But with a real bed.”

She lifted her head and there was the slightest bit of a smile touching her lips. “The hide-a-bed isn’t that comfortable, is it? I didn’t realize it before. Until you started staying here, I slept in the bedroom with Max.”

“You know, I have a big bed.”

She glanced up at me warily. “And?”

“And, say we lived in a place with more bedrooms—”

“We?”

“Max could have one, and… well, we could have one.”


We?
” she repeated, her voice sounding a little strained.

“Yeah,” I cautiously smiled, “we.”

“Cody… you’re not asking me to move in with you, are you?”

“Well, probably not in with me into the Mofo house,” I said, and winced a little at the relief in her sigh. “It’s probably not the best environment for Max.”

“Right,” she breathed.

“But maybe you and I could get a place together. A little house with a yard that Max could play in.” Her shoulders tensed and her breath caught.

“Cody—”

“Just think about it,” I said.

“This is kind of sudden.”

“Ilsa, to be completely honest, I think I knew it was you months ago on the day I met you. I felt like I got hit with a fuckin’ lightning bolt, and I instantly wanted you and only you.”

“But we’ve never even really said we were dating. Like, we haven’t put a label on it or anything. You hardly know anything about me.”

“I’m sure, Ils.”

And I was. I could show her, be there for her. I could spend my life with her.

She just needed to know that, too.

 

 

 

 

 

I started getting a little panicky when six o’clock rolled around and she hadn’t shown up.

Ilsa wasn’t usually late. I started freaking out a bit, wondering if I’d pushed too hard last night with the talk of moving in together. I replayed the awkward conversation with my parents, seeing her body tense with panic at the realization of who they were.

I called her cell, but it went straight to voicemail. She didn’t have it turned on.

Part of me wondered if she wasn’t coming in at all. I kept seeing that haunted look in her eyes after my parents walked away, and it began to eat away at my gut.

She wouldn’t just take off, would she?

I even went to Doug and asked about her. He gave me a suspicious frown, but said she’d called in to say she was running late. As I started to turn away, he hollered after me.

“You’re not fucking her, are you?”

I ignored him.

And I waited.

I almost crumpled to the floor in relief when she walked through the backdoor just before nine and scurried down the hall to the office. What had started as a nagging fear damn near had me ready to call out a search party to find her.

We’d just started a set, so I couldn’t talk to her yet. I couldn’t take her pulse to see where her head was at.

But she was here.

Thank fuck.

After the fifth song, I dropped my drumsticks and motioned to Denny that I needed a break. Confused, he nodded back to me, and told the crowd we’d be back in fifteen.

I made a beeline for Ilsa where she stood taking a drink order on the far wall.

“Cody, phone call,” Doug shouted to me as I headed past the bar.

Fuck.
I had no idea who the fuck would be calling me here, but because it was Doug who told me, I figured I ought to take it, especially since my question earlier had evidently aroused some suspicion. I headed his way to stand at the end of the bar, and took the phone from him.

“This is Cody,” I said into the receiver.

“Are you enjoying her?” a man’s voice asked.

What the fuck?

“Who?”

“Did she even tell you her real name? Because it sure as hell isn’t Ilsa.”

My heart stopped beating and plummeted.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Who are—?”

“My. Fucking. Wife,” the harsh voice viciously spat. “The woman you've been sleeping with. That’s what I’m talking about.”

It took a moment to sink in just what he said.

Wife? His wife?

Ilsa was his wife?

Fuck, Ilsa was married?
I felt like I couldn’t breathe. A sudden wave of nausea and uncertainty seized my gut. His words had taken the wind right out of me. All those weird little nuances of her personality, all those times she shied away from anything permanent.

“You’re lucky that I don’t cut your balls off,” he sneered. “Sleeping with another man’s wife is a dangerous game to play.”

“Jesus,” I breathed in shock, barely listening as I reeled from the fact that
Ilsa was married.

“Do me a favor,” the guy said. “Tell her that her husband called.”

And then all I heard was a dial tone as he disconnected.

Fuck.

Fucking fuck.

Jesus Christ.

I dropped the phone and just stood there for a minute, replaying the conversation in my head. There had to be some mistake. He had to be talking about someone else, or to think I was someone else.
Justin… that was it.
Justin had fucked someone’s wife and he just had us confused. My brain raced for some other explanation.

But he had called her Ilsa.

Speak of the devil, about that time, Ilsa walked back up to the bar with her tray and unloaded a few empties.

“Doug, I need a Coors Light and a Jack and Coke,” she said to her boss.

When he turned his back, she glanced over at me. Her brows immediately knit with concern.

“Cody, are you—?”

I grabbed her arm and started towards the exit. Doug shouted out her name, but I wouldn’t release her. I pulled her along behind me, right out the back door, and spun her around to look her in the eye. Tipping her face up to the dim lighting behind the bar, I asked her.

“What’s your real name?”

Instantly upon hearing the question, she went on guard.

“It’s not Ilsa, is it?”

She shook her head slowly. Warily. “How did you know?” she breathed.

“Your fucking husband just told me.”

The look on her face told me that fucker hadn’t lied. I watched as her face went completely pale. She lifted a shaking hand up to her stomach and suddenly gasped for breath, like she’d been kicked in the gut.

She was keeping secrets.

Really big motherfucking secrets.

She took a couple harsh, sketchy breaths, but her words were barely audible in her shock.

“He’s here?”

“He just fucking called me.”

“He called you? How did he—”

“He called the bar and asked for me,” I shot back. “Fuck.” I shook my head.

It was almost like she wasn’t even listening to me anymore. When she looked back up at me, even though I was unbelievably pissed as hell, it was like she was looking right through me. Her reaction to being caught didn’t make any sense. Like she went into some kind of weird, hollow shock. That pissed me off even more. This shit was tearing me apart and she was just acting…
vacant
.

BOOK: Easy Little Lick (Copperline #3)
2.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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