Intoxicated (6 page)

What were people in Indiana thinking when
they bought convertibles?

Very impractical. But very beautiful.

And heading towards me.

It pulled in Blake’s driveway beside my rusty
Honda. The engine shut off and peace was restored to the
neighborhood once more. The driver’s door swung open and before I
knew it, I stood face to face with Matthew Snyder.

“You must be Lauren,” he said, extending his
hand. I nodded mutely, willing my palm to travel the short distance
between us to conduct the greeting. “I’m Matthew, Blake’s
brother.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. At least it was
my intention to say those words audibly. I wasn’t sure if I had
accomplished that.

Our hands were still touching, suspended in a
freeze frame style handshake. The electricity that passed through
my fingers was like nothing I had ever experienced before. I
wondered if he felt the same thing on the receiving end of my
touch. Slowly, he released his firm grip on my hand.

I wasn’t sure if the male or female version
of the Snyder gene pool was more impressive. The picture on Blake’s
mantle certainly didn’t do him justice, and I had thought he was
attractive even then. Like Blake, he was tall and athletic. My best
estimate suggested six foot four, give or take an inch. They had
the same piercing blue eyes. Though Matthew was also blond, his
hair was a few shades darker than his sister’s. His longish, messy
cut accentuated his handsome features and made him appear as though
he had just stepped out of the pages of a magazine.

I instantly regretted my decision to play it
casual today. I was to the point where I was comfortable in my own
skin, but I paled in comparison to the perfection in front of me. I
was dressed as though I had just woken up. What a way to make a
first impression.

“Hey there, dork!” Blake cried as she came
out of the front door. She bounded down the sidewalk to her
brother, engulfing him in a giant hug. Touchy, feely type
indeed.

“Hey, sunshine.”

I made my way around to the passenger side of
my car and started collecting more items to bring inside. Hey, the
car wasn’t going to unload itself. My movement caused the siblings
to spring into action as well.

Blake grabbed a box from the backseat,
proving me wrong about her not wanting to help. She carried it into
the house without the slightest complaint. Matthew chose to tackle
the trunk. Of course, he reached for the large box in question,
lifting it up with ease. Even though its contents were clearly
marked, I unnecessarily told him it belonged in the kitchen.

“Duly noted,” he replied with a grin.

His smile was perfect, too, framed by two
deeply set dimples.

I followed him into the house, shaking my
head.

With three of us unloading, we made quick
work of bringing my stuff inside. I hurried out the door one last
time to close up the car and pull it into the garage. My move
finally felt real as I entered through the garage door into the
kitchen. I was officially home.

Blake and Matthew were sitting at the
breakfast bar, laughing about something when I walked in. Not
wanting to intrude, I hurried past them. Now was as good of a time
as any to start unpacking. I shuddered at the daunting task. I had
made it almost into the living room before Blake called after
me.

“Lauren, where you going?”

I stopped and spun around. “To unpack.”

“Matthew and I were just talking about going
out to the hot tub. Then we were going to go get dinner. Why don’t
you come with? Unpacking can wait.”

“Are you sure?”

“Don’t be silly, Lauren. Of course I’m sure.
You have a swimsuit, right?”

I nodded. “Somewhere.”

“Then it’s settled. Go up and change.”

There was no use in arguing. Clearly the girl
was intent on making me feel welcome. Since this was what I had
originally wanted, I should be happy. Instead, as I wandered
upstairs, I wondered how I would explain this to Eric. I doubted he
would be thrilled that I was hot tubbing and going out to dinner
with my new roommate’s very attractive brother. Then again, what he
didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

My swimsuit was in the third box I opened. I
hurriedly slipped it on and then checked myself out in the bathroom
mirror. Not bad. The black two-piece revealed just enough to not be
considered matronly. My petite frame looked more girlish than
womanly, but there was nothing I could do about that. I scooped up
my beach towel and slid into my flip flops.

Blake and Matthew were already outside by the
time I returned downstairs. Either Matthew kept swimming trunks
here, or he had come prepared. He stood with his back to the door,
helping Blake lift the cover off of the hot tub. I paused, allowing
myself a moment to ogle from the safety of the kitchen. I felt heat
rise to my cheeks, and my face was undoubtedly still red as I
walked out to the deck. Blake smirked as I shuffled out of my flip
flops, discarded my towel and lowered myself into the water.

The hot tub was a four seater. Blake and
Matthew sat across from each other, so my only options were to sit
on either Matthew’s right or left. Even if I had been sitting in
Blake’s position, it wasn’t as if we would have been any farther
apart. I sat on the left, figuring that way I wouldn’t accidentally
bump into him as I scooted past. I pulled my legs up to my chest,
extremely conscious of the tight quarters.

Hot water swirled around my shoulders. One of
the jets was pointed towards my back, and I instantly relaxed. My
eyes slid closed, and my legs stretched out ever so slightly.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Matthew asked.

“I could get used to this,” I conceded.

“One of the best decisions I ever made was to
talk my baby sister into buying it.”

Blake splashed him with water. “Yeah, and now
he never leaves.”

The two of them giggled, and my eyes
fluttered open. I wondered how truthful those words were. Blake had
alluded to the fact that she and Matthew were very close during a
couple of phone conversations. At the time, I had felt a twinge of
jealousy, the only child in me acting out. I couldn’t imagine
having a brother or sister, let alone being best friends with him
or her. The way they interacted with each other made me wonder why
she had ever moved out of his house.

“So, you’re from Indy originally?” Matthew
asked, turning towards me. As he made the slight movement, his foot
brushed mine. Maybe it was just the hot water, but the contact
burned as the sensation traveled up my leg.

I coughed prior to answering. “Born and
raised.”

“That’s cool. Just seems odd that your
promotion would take you to Fort Wayne instead of the other way
around.”

“Life is crazy sometimes that way. But our
corporate office is here, so it all makes sense.”

“Blake and I have lived here all our lives,
too. We grew up pretty close to here. I admire someone who can
leave everything they’ve known behind and start out fresh.”

For whatever reason, at that moment I glanced
over at Blake. Her expression was unreadable. She stared down at
the surface of the water, almost despondent.

“I’m hoping that not everything gets left
behind,” I joked. “My boyfriend might have issues with that.”

There. I had managed to work Eric’s existence
into the conversation in a way that felt natural enough. I wasn’t
sure whose benefit that was for: Matthew’s or mine. If Blake hadn’t
mentioned it before, now he would know. And saying the words helped
me to feel less guilty about the fact that I was checking out
Blake’s brother. Looking never hurt anyone, right?

Matthew’s expression didn’t let on if he was
disappointed. He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I suppose
not. That must be hard.”

“We have a long history of being miles
apart,” I admitted.

“That’s too bad,” he mused. “If you were my
girlfriend, I would want you right by my side.”

My breath caught in my lungs. Was he flirting
with me? The sheer possibility made my heart accelerate. I
struggled to bring myself under control. I failed miserably.

“So,” Blake said brightly, “I was thinking we
could go to my favorite Italian restaurant. Do you like Italian
food, Lauren?”

Bless her for changing the subject.

“I love it.” This was true. However, at this
particular time, she could have asked me if I wanted to eat dinner
out of the nearest dumpster and I would have agreed.

“We better start getting ready,” she
suggested. “Meet you there in an hour or so, dork?”

“Okay, sure.” Matthew agreed.

Blake pulled herself out of the water. As far
as looking good in a swimsuit, I was no match for her. Her tiny
bikini showed off all of her assets and was designed for someone
extremely confident about her own body. Her flat stomach was
accentuated by a delicate tattoo of sunflowers that circled her
navel. Her belly button was pierced, speared with a long metallic
blue spiral. She gave no attention to the fact that she stood in a
state of partial undress. As she walked past her brother, she
reached down and smacked him on the back of the head. She collected
her towel and stood on the deck, obviously waiting for me to exit
the hot tub and follow her inside.

I followed suit, except for the violence of
course. I wrapped my towel tightly around my shoulders.

We left Matthew outside to tend to closing up
the hot tub. Apparently this wasn’t an issue, even though I felt
guilty about it. He acted like it was no big deal. By the time we
crossed the deck to the sliding glass door, he had already gotten
out and was working on putting the cover on. I threw a glance over
my shoulder, wondering if I was just reading too much into his
comment.

Blake didn’t seem to think so. “I’m sorry
about that,” she hissed as she opened the door and we walked
inside.

I shrugged. “It’s not a problem.”

“Your relationship is none of his business.
Especially when he just met you. I mean, your poor boyfriend isn’t
here to defend himself and my brother’s already passing
judgment.”

“I’m not offended. It’s okay.”

“Whatever. Don’t let him get away with that
crap just because he’s hot.”

I blushed.

She laughed. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you
checking him out.”

“It was that obvious?”

“Don’t worry; you were discreet. And your
secret’s safe with me.”

We parted ways to go to our respective
bathrooms to get ready. Blake had indicated that the restaurant was
casual, so I’d be okay wearing jeans. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Fancy dining wasn’t really my thing. Besides, I didn’t have
anything suitable to wear for a five-star establishment.

I showered quickly, relishing the superior
water pressure. Within half an hour, I had dressed and done full
hair and makeup. Much more impressive than my appearance had been
this afternoon. Not that it mattered, right?

I had a boyfriend. Eric was my boyfriend. I
repeated the mantra in my head, over and over.

Sure, it was fun to look, but nothing would
ever come of this.

Blake wasn’t yet ready, so I plopped down on
the couch in the living room to wait. She appeared just a couple
minutes later, beautiful as always.

“Ready to go?” she asked. “I’ll drive.”

We piled into her Miata and drove off. It was
the perfect opportunity for me to do a little sightseeing and
familiarize myself with my new home. We passed the onramps for the
interstate and continued towards downtown. The restaurant wasn’t
too far away, possibly a ten minute drive. Blake scanned the
parking lot for the Mustang. Not finding it there yet, she pulled
the tiny convertible into a spot fairly far from the entrance. The
place looked busy.

For the second time that day, I heard the car
before I saw it. Matthew parked right beside us. I moved to get out
of the car, my hand on the lever to open the passenger door. He
beat me to it, exiting his own car and opening my door in one slick
gesture. Taken aback, I stared up into his deep blue eyes. He held
out his hand to help me out. I accepted, again feeling the
electricity between us.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted.

At first, I assumed that his comment was
directed to his sister. However, he was looking directly at me. If
I wasn’t red already, I most certainly was now.

I stood there awkwardly, frozen. He reached
behind me to close my car door when I made no move to. His arm
brushed my shoulder as he did so. I breathed in his nearness. He
smelled of nothing that would normally be remarkable, just soap. In
this case, however, it was intoxicating.

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier,” he
continued softly.

“It’s okay,” I whispered back. “No offense
taken.”

I wondered if Blake had put him up to this.
She stood at the hood of her car, observing us. Matthew let out a
sigh of relief and stuck his tongue out at her. She shook her head
and we walked up to the entrance together. I trailed slightly
behind.

My suspicions were right. There was a
forty-five minute wait for a table. Blake assured me that this
wasn’t out of the ordinary on a Saturday night. We passed the time
talking about a wide variety of things until an easy silence fell
between us. I made sure to keep Blake between us as a buffer.

I repeated my newly created mantra in my head
all through dinner. We were seated in a booth, Matthew across from
Blake and me. I kept my feet tucked close to the bench seat, afraid
to stretch my legs and bump into him under the table. I allowed the
two of them to dominate the conversation, listening politely and
averting my eyes even though I could feel Matthew’s burning into
me.

When we returned to the car, I finally
relaxed. I hadn’t even realized all the tension in my body until
Matthew took off in the Mustang and Blake and I were left alone. I
slumped down in my seat.