My Everything - Seth & Amber (16 page)

“What I
really
want to know is how you
are doing after the break in?” Jamie’s face scrunched in
concern.

Amber shrugged. “I’m fine. I actually took a
self-defense class yesterday, I learned some good safety tips.”

“Oh, is that the same one Alex normally
teaches?” Jamie asked.

“Yep, and Riley has been filling in for him,
but since Chelle had Mya, Seth taught the class.”

Jamie’s eyes widened, “How did that go?”

“It was good,” Amber answered quickly.

Amber didn’t think she was quite ready to go
into exactly how good it had been. She wasn’t ready to divulge the
fact that she was pretty sure she had fallen in love with him as
she watched him working with that terrified young girl. And then
how amazing he had been when he had taken her on the motorcycle
ride and succeeded in getting her mind off of the conversation with
her mom.

“Did he talk?” Jamie asked tilting her head
in disbelief.

“He did!” Amber laughed as she explained, “I
know, I was shocked too. I realized about five minutes in that it
was the most words I had heard him string together at once. It was
weird.”

“Well, I’m not gonna pry and ask if sparks
flew. Although from what I saw at Thanksgiving I'm sure they did.
But I
do
want you to know that if you ever want to talk, I’m
here.”

Amber smiled, feeling very lucky to have
found such a great friend. “Thanks, Jamie. I really do appreciate
that. Now enough about my drama filled life. Let’s talk
wedding!”

While Jamie animatedly explained her wedding
vision - the wedding that Amber would be in with Seth – Amber took
another
huge
bite of delicious brownie. She had a sneaking
suspicion she was going to need a lot of these to get through the
next month.

--- ~ ---

Seth once again pulled into the dirt parking
lot in the back of Gerard’s Diner. Alex had sent out a group text
to all of his brothers asking them to meet him here. He saw that
Jason, Bobby and Riley’s trucks were already here. Looks like he
was the last to arrive once again.

He was hoping this was not another
intervention-slash-interrogation breakfast. He was having enough
trouble dealing with the Amber situation internally without having
to try and explain it to his brothers. Also, it was none of their
business.

He shrugged to himself. If that was what it
turned out to be, he'd just stand up and walk out. Seth had never
been one to let social niceties keep him trapped in a situation he
preferred not to be in.

As he stepped through the front door and
heard the bell ding over his head, he was once again hit by the
welcoming and familiar smells of coffee and syrup. His brothers
were all seated at the same table. In fact, they were in the exact
same seats as they had been at the last breakfast.

They had always tended to fall into patterns.
At home, growing up, they had always sat in the same seats for
dinner. They all had “their” places on the couch when they were
watching TV.

Seth thought it may have something to do with
the fact that life had gotten so out of control and unpredictable
when their mom’s bi-polar disorder got bad that they had all
gravitated towards any small piece of control and predictability
they could get.

As he joined his brothers, he was happy to
see that they had already ordered his meal and it was waiting for
him. He was starving.

After the ride with Amber the night before,
he had gone straight home and gone to bed. He had enjoyed the best
night’s sleep he could remember in recent history. But he had been
so distracted that he had completely forgotten to grab dinner. This
morning he had woken up to his stomach growling.

Seth sat down after greeting his brothers and
then turned to Riley, “How’re Chelle and Mya doing?”

It surprised Seth how much he had been
thinking about his tiny niece. He hadn’t expected her birth to have
that much of an impact on him. He’d been wrong.

Riley’s face lit up like a Christmas tree as
he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started showing Seth
pictures, “They’re doing great! Chelle’s a little tired, but
everyone says that’s normal.”

Jason stopped eating to add his two cents,
“And he would know. He’s read every book ever published on the
subject, talked to everyone who’s ever had a baby, and then
cross-referenced all of the information he gathered.”

Riley just shook his head at his brother,
“You just wait. When Katie has a baby you’ll be the same way.”

“Probably,” Jason admitted, “And I'll be in
luck because I can borrow your books.”

“We'll see,” Riley shot back.

Seth smiled at the friendly back and forth.
He knew his brother Jason would be
exactly
the same way when
he became a father-to-be. Jason had been in love with Katie since
he was in kindergarten. It had taken them over twenty years to find
their way to each other, but Seth figured it was worth the wait
because they both seemed deliriously happy.

And as for Seth? Well, he was happy for all
of his brothers. They had each found amazing women.

“Alright, so now that everyone is here,” Alex
looked pointedly at Seth.

He could look all he wanted. Seth had gotten
there on time. Just because ‘on time’ to his four brothers meant
fifteen minutes early did not mean that Seth was going to get here
at 8:45 when the text said 9 am.

When Seth didn’t take the bait, Alex went on,
“Jamie and I are getting married on Christmas Eve and I want you
four to stand up for me.”

There was a round of congratulations.

“Alright, boys, so the lineup will be Jason
and Katie, Riley and Chelle, Bobby and Sophie and Seth and…”

There was a long pause.

Was Seth supposed to guess?

Was this multiple choice?

He figured he would probably be walking with
one of his cousins or one of Jamie’s childhood friends. Seth looked
around the table to see if he was missing something. Jason sat
across from him inhaling his food. Riley and Bobby were both
texting on their phones.

Alex picked up his fork and began eating
again.

“Who, Alex?” Seth did not feeling like
playing his little brother’s games.

Alex smiled as chewed his food. When he
swallowed he said, “Just wanted to see if you were paying
attention.”

Seth was paying attention alright. All of his
attention was about to be concentrated in his palm as it smacked
his brother upside the head.

“Seth, you will be walking with the lovely
Miss Amber Webb,” Alex announced grandly.

That certainly got his all of his brothers'
attention. Jason stopped eating and Riley and Bobby looked up from
their phones. Everyone stared at Seth.

So, Seth started eating.

“Is that okay with you?” Alex asked.

“It’s your wedding.” Seth continued
eating.

Seth knew that Alex had asked him a yes or no
question and that his response was neither. He also knew his
brother probably expected him to have some kind of a response to
the little bomb he had just dropped on him. But right now he was
trying to deal with the odd sensation of...he guessed it
was...happiness...he felt at the thought that he would be escorting
Amber down the aisle.

He shouldn’t be happy about that. He should
be upset that his plan to keep some distance from Amber was
becoming more and more of an impossibility.

But if he was being honest with himself, he
just felt…happy.

And that scared the shit out of him.

Seth tapped his finger on the steering wheel
of his new company truck. He could see Amber’s long dark hair as
she moved inside the store, helping customer after customer. He had
been sitting outside of Bella for the last hour waiting for her to
close so he could go talk to her. She closed at nine and it was
close to ten o’clock. She obviously had great customer service
since she still continued to help customers after business
hours.

He had observed that her store was a popular
one. Amber hadn’t had any down time since he had arrived. Every
customer seemed to love her and they all left with smiles on their
faces. Amber seemed relaxed and in her element.

Seth realized he had never seen this side of
her. The closest he had come was after they had taken that ride
along the river. After that ride, she had seemed completely
stress-free and happy.

“I didn’t peg you for a stalker,” he heard
his brother Bobby’s deep voice boom through the glass pane of his
window.

Seth rolled down the window, “I need to talk
to Amber.”

His brother stared at him blankly, “And
you’re doing that how…telepathically?”

Seth sighed, remembering the good old days
when his little brothers were scared of him, “I’m waiting until she
closes up.”

“So you can talk to her alone?” Bobby asked,
his tone direct.

Seth just stared at him, letting him know
telepathically
that this little game of Twenty Questions was
over.

“Don’t hurt her,” Bobby harshly
commanded.

Bobby’s attitude was not something Seth would
have expected out of his youngest brother. He was confused over why
Bobby would feel the need to protect Amber in the first place.

“Amber’s had a tough time. She and Sophie are
close. She’s like a sister to me.”

Trying to lighten the mood, Seth shot back,
“Well, as luck would have it, I'm like a brother to you.”

His little brother scowled. “It's not a
joke.”

And with that statement, Bobby turned and
walked into Bella.

Well, that was a good talk.

After a few minutes, Bobby and Sophie walked
out of Bella. Bobby nodded a solemn goodbye to Seth and Sophie
waved cheerily, smiling brightly. That little exchange encapsulated
the differences between Seth's baby brother and his wife. Bobby was
serious and reserved and Sophie was sunshine and happiness.

There was no one left in the store now. He
might as well head in. He should know exactly what he wanted to say
to her, but he didn’t. Since Alex had told him about the wedding
three days ago, he had wanted to talk to Amber about it.

As a Marine, his Force Recon unit specialized
in extractions. Seth had never gotten nervous before a mission.
Part of the reason he didn’t was because there was always a very
detailed plan of action. Of course anything could happen, things
could veer off course and, nine times out of ten, they did. But you
didn’t go in blind and you always kept your focus on the
objective.

Which would explain why he was uneasy now. He
was going in completely blind and with no clear game plan, no
target in sight.

He did have a broad objective. Basically it
boiled down to this: he and Amber were going to be in his Alex’s
wedding together. He wanted to clear the air, to make sure that she
was okay with everything. He didn’t want there to be any weirdness
between them.

And he wanted to see her. There was that.

He stepped out of his car and the cold air
felt revitalizing and welcome. It woke up his senses, causing him
to feel more confident and alert.

He hadn’t been sleeping all that well since
he had returned home to Harper’s Crossing. He felt that he could
attribute his sleepless nights to two factors. One, he hadn’t taken
the time to get a bed yet, so he was sleeping on the couch which
the landlord of his condo had offered to leave in the space. And
two, since seeing Amber at his Jason’s house the first day he had
arrived, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his thoughts -
especially at night.

His mind was filled with snapshot images of
her, of her body, of her smile, of her eyes. And that was just the
visual, his brain had also been bombarded with sensory memories of
her. Her touch. Her smell. Her taste.

His heart sped up as he opened the door and
stepped into the warmth of the shop. It smelled fresh and sweet,
just like Amber. A calm washed over him as he inhaled slowly.

Amber was standing on a ladder beside the
door hanging clothes on a high bar. She twisted around at the sound
of the door, causing her to be knocked off balance. She screamed.
Seth reacted on instinct and stepped behind her, catching her
handily in his arms.

Her arms automatically wrapped around his
neck and her face tucked into his shoulder. His body instantly
responded to the contact. God, she felt so good in his arms. Her
soft body molded perfectly into his hard form. A strong impulse of
need welled up inside of him.

After a moment she looked up at him. Her
rounded golden eyes flickered with awareness. He didn’t trust
himself not to do something he would regret later, so he carefully
set her down.

“You scared me. I thought Sophie locked the
door.” Amber’s breathing was unsteady and choppy. Seth didn’t know
if it was because of the scare, the fall, or if she felt the same
intense desire that he did.

He needed to clear the air and get the hell
out of here. Acting on his consuming lust would only create more
issues and make an already impossible situation that much more
difficult. Clear, concise communication was the tactic he needed to
employ.

“We’re going to be in the wedding together,”
he stated simply.

Her mouth twitched and amusement danced in
her eyes, “Pleasantries and small talk are
really
not your
thing, are they?”

“No.”

She shook her head slightly from side to
side, a small smile appearing on her face. He felt it hit him
square in the chest. The smallest gesture, expression, sound, touch
from this woman was more potent than any sexual encounter – his and
Amber's excluded - that he had ever experienced.

His mind felt clouded with arousal. This was
exactly why a clear and precise directive would have been an asset
in this stop-by. He was too easily distracted by his raging
hormones to think straight around Amber, so without a game plan, he
was lost.