My Everything - Seth & Amber (19 page)

“I’m fine. I’m not bottling anything up, I’m
just…dealing.”

Alex scrubbed his hands over his face, “Okay,
well. Have you heard from your mom lately?”

“A couple times a week,” Amber answered
honestly.

“And how is she doing?”

“She’s drunk.”

“Shit, I’m sorry Amber,” Alex said sincrely.
“That sucks.”

“I know, thanks.” Amber stood. “Look, Alex, I
appreciate you wanting to have a heart to heart but I
really
just want to go take a bath.”

“Alright, alright,” Alex stood and they
walked to the door, “I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

“I would hope so, I wasn’t trying to be
subtle.” Amber smiled.

As she opened the door, Alex pulled her into
a hug. “If you need us, call. We’re right next door.”

Until next week, Amber thought sadly.

“Okay, thanks,” she said as she hugged him
back.

“What the hell is going on?!” A deep voice
harshly demanded from the porch.

She screamed and jumped back.

Alex quickly turned around, completely
blocking Amber’s view of the porch. After a few moments, Alex began
to shake his head back and forth slowly. “Wow, Seth. All this for
'nothing
going on'.”

“Alex,” she heard Seth’s deep voice bark.

“Well, goodnight kids,” Amber could hear the
smile in Alex’s voice as he moved to leave. As soon as his wide
frame was out of the doorway, she saw Seth standing on the porch as
he watched Alex leave.

Hmmm...she thought, if looks could kill, Alex
would be dead as a doornail.

Why was Seth so mad? She was confused,
aaaannnndddd...
maybe
a little tipsy.

Seth’s eyes scanned back to her. Something
flashed in them as his jaw ticked. He quickly stepped inside,
causing her to move out of the way and he shut the door.

“What are you doing?” she asked as she pushed
him.

He couldn’t just come in here like he owned
the place.

“Amber,” he motioned his head down toward her
chest.

She looked down and saw that her robe was
hanging wide open. Her lovely lady lumps – as Fergie would say –
were on full display. Ooops.

“You have to
quit
sneaking up on me,”
Amber said as she quickly covered herself up and retied her robe.
She looked up at him with an accusatory stare as she poked her
finger into his chest. “It fell open when I jumped to the ceiling
'cause you scared me. It’s your fault I just flashed the
neighborhood.”

He just stared at her. She couldn’t tell if
he was mad, turned on, or maybe a little of both. That could be
fun, she thought to herself and a smile spread across her face.

“Amber,” Seth growled.

Mmmm, she liked how that sounded.

“Seth,” Amber tried to mimic Seth’s
voice.

He looked at her strangely. Yep, ok, she was
definitely tipsy.

--- ~ ---

Seth needed to stay focused. That was easier
said than done considering he was rock hard from the peep show he
had just been treated to. Nevertheless, he had to get some
information. Important information. He couldn't lose sight of his
mission objective.

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked. Where the
hell did that question come from? That was not the information he
needed. Damn it, man, get your head in the game, he chided
himself.

Amber’s brow furrowed as she shook her head
like she was trying to clear it. “What?”

“Tonight. When your car was broken into,” he
explained.

“Ohhhhh.” She nodded as if it was all making
sense now, but then shook her head. “Man, that’s all anybody wants
to talk about.”

Seth had the sneaking suspicion that Amber
was drunk. “How much have you had to drink?”

“Two glasses of wine. Big glasses.” Her eyes
widened as she held her hands apart illustrating how big the
glasses were. “I’m feeling
good
. Aaaannnddd...I have a bath
waiting. So what can I do ya for?”

Seth tried not to smile, she was pretty damn
cute when she was feeling
good
. All the anger that he had
felt on the way over was gone. He was, however, still wound tight
from worry. He didn’t think anything could make that go away except
doing something with her that he knew he couldn’t do.

His eyes scanned her, from the hair piled up
on the top of her head all the way down her white fluffy robe to
her bare feet sticking out at the bottom. Damn it all to hell, she
even had cute feet.

Amber began wiggling her toes in the carpet.
“Why are you staring at my toes?”

He lifted his head to find her staring down
at her feet. “They’re cute,” he answered.

Her face scrunched up as her gaze met his.
“
You
actually think things are cute?” she asked in
disbelief.

“I think you’re cute.”

“Really? I don’t think anyone’s ever said I
was 'cute' before.” Amber held up her fingers in quotation
signs.

“You’re cute.” Seth could feel the walls of
his self-imposed no contact order crumbling with each interaction
he shared with Amber. He wasn’t sure how he was going to stay the
course with them being thrown together in the wedding. Every time
he saw her it became more and more difficult to not touch her.

“Why didn’t you call me when your car was
broken into tonight?” He knew it shouldn’t bother him. But it
did.

She looked at him like he was crazy. Then
held up her fingers as she began ticking off reasons. “First, why
would I? You’re not my boyfriend, you’re not
really
my
friend, you’re just my…my...see? I don’t even know what you
are.

“Second, you should be proud of me, I did
exactly
what you said to do. I stayed calm. I didn’t panic.
I called the police. And third, and most importantly, I don’t have
your number,” her voice raised in frustration.

Seth pulled his phone out of his pocket.
“What’s your number?”

She gave it to him. After programming it into
his phone he texted her with his.

“If anything else happens, call me.”

She stood up straight and gave him the same
salute she had in the parking lot at the shelter.

He felt his lips turn up as a smile spread
across his face. He found himself smiling a lot when he was around
Amber.

Focus. He needed to focus. Information,
that’s why he was here.

Pulling up the close-up still he had taken
from the footage on the surveillance camera, he turned his phone
around so that she could see the screen.

“Do you know him?”

Amber squinted her eyes as she examined the
photo and then shook her head no.

“This is the guy who smashed in your
windows.”

Her eyes widened. “How do you
know
that?” she asked, awe tinging her voice that Seth realized probably
came more from the wine than the technology.

“We got it all on the cameras. You should be
hearing from Officer Williams tomorrow. He'll probably want you to
go down to the station to view the footage and try and make an
ID.”

“Okay,” she said, looking a little shell
shocked.

“I can go with you tomorrow, if you want.
Down to the station.”

“No, that’s fine. I don’t need you to.” She
shook her head as she wrapped her arms tighter around her waist
protectively.

“I want to go with you.”

She looked down at the ground. Her expression
was tight, as if she were battling with something. He wasn’t sure
if it was the decision to let him go with her tomorrow or something
else. He waited.

Her head lifted as she asked, “Why do you
want to go with me?”

“I just do,” he answered honestly.

He didn’t know how to put into words the
reasons why he wanted to be with her when she saw the footage. He
knew it might be difficult for her to see it and he didn’t want her
to be alone. Seth knew that she had friends, and he was sure that
any one of them would gladly go to support her. Hell, his whole
family would. But he didn’t want them to be there to support her.
He wanted to be there.

“Okay,” she finally said.

The knot that had formed in his chest when he
had heard about the vandalism relaxed just a little bit. He knew he
should get out of there before he started listening to the pulsing
need that was rioting through him. Or, putting it another way – the
way that he felt was probably more accurate, but that scared the
hell out of him – before he became
incapable
of
ignoring
the pulsing need that was rioting through him.

“I’ll let you get back to your bath. I’ll
pick you up to go to the station tomorrow.” He turned to go.

“Are we going on your bike?” he heard her ask
as he reached for the doorknob.

Turning his head back to her he saw her eyes
lit with excitement.

“Do you want to?” he asked with a small
smile, although he suspected he already knew the answer.

“Yes,” she said, nodding her head
enthusiastically.

“Okay,” he replied, knowing full well that he
wasn’t sure if his heart could take another ride with her - but
also knowing that there was no way he could deny her something that
made her eyes light up like that. He turned to leave, but not
before reminding her, “Lock the door-”

She interrupted, “-behind you. I got it. I
got it. You know, it may surprise you to learn this, but I took
pretty good care of myself before you showed up.”

He stepped onto the porch and turned back to
find Amber standing with her hands on her hips, looking cuter and
sexier than any woman had a right to look. An urgency swept through
him unlike any he had ever experienced.

He quickly closed the space between them and
Amber tilted her head up to so that she could look at him. There
was a hitch in her breath as her lips parted. Staring down into her
hazel eyes, he saw they mirrored his own desire.

“I know you can take care of yourself. You
are the most independent, self-sufficient woman I have ever met.
But I’m here now. And I take care of the people I care about.”

Her eyes widened at his admission. “You care
about me?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes.”

“Oh,” she said as the corners of her mouth -
her perfect, lush mouth - turned up into a smile.

The slow, sexy smile that spread across her
face was as unhurried and as sweet as molasses, and it caused
Seth’s already-racing heart to beat even faster. He felt as though
it was going to pound right out of his chest. He needed to leave.
He turned on his heels and headed down the steps. He needed to get
the hell out of there before he did something he would regret.

The second he pulled the door of his work
truck shut, his phone beeped. He looked down and saw that it was a
text from Amber. It read:

Just in case you were wondering…I locked the
door.

He
had
actually been wondering that,
as it happened. He smiled as he shook his head. Damn, he
really
liked her.

Amber sniffed, fighting back tears as she
sat at Jamie’s kitchen table and wrapped another blue ceramic
dinner plate in newspaper.

“You okay?” Chelle, who was sitting across
from Amber wrapping utensils, asked.

Amber grabbed another tissue and wiped her
nose, “I’m fine. It’s just the dust.”

She reached her hand back to take another
plate from Katie, who was handing them down from the cabinets, but
Katie didn’t release it. Amber looked up to see what the holdup was
about.

“It’s okay to be upset about Jamie and Joey
leaving. You don’t have to blame it on the non-existent dust.”
Katie got down from the counter where she had been stationed and
sat at the table next to Chelle.

Amber's hands turned up. “They only lived
next door for a couple of months and I know I’ll see them all the
time. I don’t know
why
I'm so upset.”

“Maybe you don’t deal well with change,”
Katie offered.

“Maybe,” Amber shrugged.

“Also, you’ve had a pretty big month. Between
the two break-ins and, well...” Chelle glanced around furtively as
she whispered, “Seth.”

“You don’t have to whisper. He left with
Jason over an hour an ago with the truck filled to the brim,” Katie
said matter-of-factly.

“Well, I don’t want to announce her business
to the world,” Chelle explained.

Katie and Amber looked at each other and, at
the exact same moment, burst out laughing.

“Chelle, I think that ship has sailed. But
thanks for the discretion, I appreciate it,” Amber said sincerely.
“And thanks for the laugh, too. I needed that.”

“No problem,” Chelle smiled. “Oh, and I tried
the bridesmaid dress on after you dropped it by yesterday. It’s so
beautiful, Amber! I think you’ll only have to take it in a little
bit. When did you want to do the final fitting?”

“Next weekend, if that’s okay with you guys.
That way I have a week to finish up the alterations.”

“Sounds good.”

“And please bring Mya! I’ll watch her while
Amber is fitting you,” Katie asked.

“Of course I’ll bring her,” Chelle’s face lit
up at the mention of her daughter. “She's a good little traveler.
She loves to go in the car. And she
loves
people. I think
she's gonna be a little social butterfly.”

“Not to mention a little heartbreaker, with
those looks!” Katie enthused.

Chelle laughed, “Don't say that around her
Daddy. Honestly, I feel bad for the future teenage boys who think
they're good enough to ask out Mya Sloan. They're in for a rude
awakening.”

The girls laughed, and Katie added, “I’m
still jealous that my mom and Aunt Wendy get her today. I need my
Mya time.”

“You were with her all day yesterday,” came
Jason’s voice said as he, Riley, and Seth walked into the
kitchen.

“I know,” Katie said as she kissed her
husband, in a tone that implied that she had no idea what one thing
had to do with the other.