My Everything - Seth & Amber (3 page)

They all looked a little shocked by her tone.
Amber realized she was probably just being cranky. If they wanted
to talk about the man that still haunted her dreams she figured she
shouldn’t be a spoilsport. She knew Katie was probably dying to
relay the events of the fateful night, and since she had never told
anyone the more personal details, she thought it would be
harmless.

“Oh, alright, go ahead,” she conceded,
nodding at Katie.

Katie's eyes danced with excitement. "Okay,
stop me if I get anything wrong,” Katie started.

“Says the lawyer,” Amber intoned dryly.

Katie swatted her, laughing, “Oh, please! I
could have the facts of the case down pat, but that would involve
me deposing you. Is that what you want?”

Amber shook her head, smiling, “Too true.
Please continue.”

Katie turned to her aunt and lowered her
voice (which Amber appreciated) to relay the story, “Well! Amber
was in DC to receive a purple heart for Aaron.”

Amber felt Wendy pat her leg, giving her
silent support.

“So she’d obviously had a long day,” Katie
continued. “She went down to the bar and this guy sits down next to
her. Before Amber even looks at him, he has her heart racing. He
orders a drink and has this insanely sexy voice and Amber - our
Amber - is too shy to even look at him! Then this other guy sits on
down and starts being a jerk. Amber gets up to leave and the jerk
grabs her.”

“I hope you punched his lights out,” Wendy
interjected.

Amber shook her head. “No, but I kneed him in
the balls.”

“That’s my girl!” Wendy said proudly.

“Yes, but he didn’t let go of her and he
called her a b-i-t-c-h,” Katie spelled out. “The next thing Amber
knows, sexy-voice-guy has the jerk down on his knees and he makes
the guy apologize to Amber.”

“Good man,” Wendy nodded in approval.

“Right?! Seriously!” Katie’s arms flew up.
“Then Amber starts crying…”

“I teared up slightly,” Amber clarified.

“Whatever,” Katie waved her hand in
dismissal, “She gets upset, and sexy-voice-guy gets her out of
there, saving her not once but twice.” Katie held up two fingers
for emphasis.

“Then what?” Wendy asked breathlessly.

Katie’s eyes flew to Amber’s. Yeah, Amber
cringed, this is why she didn’t want to get into it.

“Well, they spent some time together,” Katie
said diplomatically.

“Oooo La La,” Wendy chuckled, waggling her
eyebrows, letting an embarrassed Amber know that Katie's attempt at
diplomacy had been in vain. “So did you see him again? To spend a
little more time together?”

Amber dropped her face into her hands, but
she heard Katie continue, “Nope. Amber left without ever even
finding out his name.”

“How sad. He seemed like one of the good
ones,” Wendy sighed.

You don’t know the half of it, Amber
thought.

“Well, he’s no Jason,” Katie said, beaming
with love for her husband.

“Or Riley!” Chelle, who was Riley Sloan’s
very pregnant wife, interjected as she sat on Haley's other side on
the couch.

“You don’t even know what we’re talking
about,” Haley pointed out.

“I know, but it doesn’t matter. There is only
one Riley,” Chelle said dreamily, looking like one of those cartoon
princesses that had birds and hearts floating around their angelic
countenances.

She also looked like she was about to give
birth any second.

“How much longer do you have?” Amber asked,
relieved to move on to a new topic.

“Nine days.” Chelle’s shoulders slumped, “I
don’t know if I can wait that long. I just want her out. Partly
because I am so tired of being this huge, but mainly because I just
want to meet her.”

“Have you guys decided on a name?” Haley
asked.

“Well, Riley wanted to name her Rachelle
after me, but I finally convinced him that’s crazy. Girls don’t get
named after their moms like boys do after their dads. So, after
much debate, we decided on Mya.” Chelle rubbed her belly, “Our
little Mya papaya.”

“That’s cute,” Haley smiled.

“I love it!” Katie said as she hugged her
friend.

“When are you and Jason gonna get one of
these?” Chelle asked, patting her stomach.

“We are just enjoying each other right now.
There will be plenty of time for babies later,” Katie explained,
her tone indicating that Chelle was not the first person to bring
up the ‘baby’ question.

“I know, but I want our babies to be best
friends,” Chelle grinned.

“They’ll be cousins, that’s close enough,”
Katie countered firmly.

“Yeah, I guess,” Chelle sighed,
unconvinced.

Amber heard a motorcycle rumble up the
driveway. Katie stood, looking out the picture window that was
behind Amber’s head, her face lighting up with excitement.

“He’s here!” Katie yelled to all of the Sloan
friends and family who had gathered in the kitchen. They all filed
out as Katie headed over to open the door to the garage, which was
where all the brothers were playing pool.

Amber stood and turned, trying to catch a
glimpse of the enigmatic Seth as he made his way up the front
walkway, but all she saw was a motorcycle parked next to Jason’s
black truck. Hmm, she thought to herself, he must have gone in
through the garage.

She waited and, for some reason, she was a
little nervous. That's weird, she thought, must be all the built-up
anticipation of finally meeting this near-mythical person. Whatever
it was, though, it was causing her heart to beat faster and her
palms to sweat.

Low, mumbling voices came through the door
before Katie flung it open...and then she heard it. The voice. The
voice that had haunted her dreams. The voice of her Mystery
Man.

And it was headed her way.

Oh. No. Oh, God. She had to get out of here.
She couldn’t see him like this, in front of all these people. She
looked down at what she was wearing, taking a quick inventory.
Long-sleeved green silk blouse, dark jeans, brown boots. Nope, that
wouldn’t work.

She felt like she was going to pass out. She
looked around at her escape options. She could maybe make it to the
front door, but her purse was on the kitchen table. Her eyes darted
back and forth from the door that led to her freedom to the
kitchen, which held (literally) the keys to her freedom.

She needed a plan.

Hold on. Maybe it wasn’t him! Maybe this was
just a figment of her exhausted imagination. That had to be it.
After the day she had had, her overtired brain was playing tricks
on her. What in the name of God were the odds that Seth Sloan was
actually her Mystery Man? One in a million? One in a billion? One
in a trillion? I mean...it was impossible.

Right?

“It’s good to see you, too,” the voice
rumbled, sounding like it was just outside the door leading into
the house.

She was instantly covered in goose bumps and
her sex began throbbing. Okay, so her body definitely thought it
was him...but that could still just be her ears and her mind
playing mean-horrible-awful tricks on her.

Then she saw him. He stepped into the house
as he turned to hug Katie.

Good news? Her ears, body, and mind had not
decided to betray her after all. Her sanity was (arguably)
intact.

Bad news? She was going to throw up.

She froze. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t
breathe. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his strong profile.
She felt her cheeks flush at the sight of his mouth. Oh boy, that
mouth.

Thankfully everyone was crowding around him
and no one was paying any attention to her. He hadn’t even looked
her way.

Then a thought occurred to her. Yes, she
remembered the night they spent together because it had been the
best night of her life. However, that didn’t mean that he had ever
given it a second thought. There was a very good chance he didn’t
remember her at all.

Mystery Man (aka Seth, she now knew) turned
towards her to bend down and give Chelle a hug. Seeing his face
again, full on, made her heart feel like it was going to explode in
her chest. His eyes briefly met hers and she felt a jolt of
awareness shoot through her. He, on the other hand, seemed
completely unaffected. His eyes moved away as quickly as they
landed on her.

She started to breathe again. Okay, crisis
averted. She swallowed hard. That was close, she thought.

Then she began to feel an annoying, niggling
disappointment at the fact that he didn’t recognize her begin to
build in the back of her mind and heart, but she quickly shut that
down. It was better this way. It was better all around.

Amber decided that she would quietly go grab
her purse and head out the back door, around the house, to the
front, and finally to her car. As she started towards the kitchen
she felt her head turning, as if of its own accord. She just had to
take one more look at him.

Oops, bad idea. His crystal blue eyes were
locked onto hers, his jaw held tight, and - if she wasn’t mistaken
- that was definitely recognition written all over his handsome
face.

Time to go.

She double timed it in through the swinging
kitchen door and was just grabbing her purse when she heard her
name. Her ears were ringing so loudly that she wasn’t sure who it
was that had called her.

Turning, she saw Katie standing in the
doorway with a worried look on her face. “Are you okay?”

Amber nodded and turned to get out of there
quickly. Before she blinked, however, Katie was standing in front
of her, blocking her path.

“Do you guys know each other?” Katie asked,
slowly and deliberately, as if she were trying to work out a puzzle
in her head.

Freakin’ Katie and her damn detective skills.
Why did she have to pick now to be Sherlock?!

Amber shook her head, a wordless denial. She
didn’t trust herself to speak.

Katie’s eyes narrowed, “Because...I only
noticed you leaving because Seth got the most intense look on his
face. When I checked to see what he was looking at, I saw you
rushing in here. Then I come in here and you look like you’ve seen
a ghost.”

Amber shrugged, pretending to have no idea
what she was talking about. “Weird. Gotta go!” she chirped,
beginning to move around Katie and toward freedom.

Katie’s eyes widened as she whispered,
“Amber, he’s not…”

Seriously, how did she do that?!

Amber closed her eyes for a moment and
sighed. She knew Katie would never let this go. “Yes, he is,” Amber
confirmed reluctantly.

“Seth is Mystery Man!?” Katie exclaimed, her
voice rising with every syllable.

“Really?” Amber said in disbelief. “You had
to scream that?”

“No one heard...” Katie waved her hand
dismissively, just before her attention was diverted just over
Amber's shoulder and her eyes grew wide.

The hairs on the back of Amber’s neck stood
up.

“He’s behind me, isn’t he?” Her voice was
barely audible. She searched Katie’s eyes for the verdict, and then
reached out and grabbed her hand so she didn’t fall over.

Katie smiled, and then said with a shaky
voice, “Hey, Seth. Have you, uh...met Amber?”

Amber was gonna kill her. Well...right after
she passed out or threw up, she was gonna kill her.

Voices filled the room as people started
making their way into the kitchen, probably to see the guest of
honor.

Katie patted Amber’s hand as she pulled her
arm away, taking control of the situation. “Hey guys, let’s give
Seth a minute. He’s had a long day. Let’s let him grab some food
and eat in peace. We can catch up with him in a few.”

She heard the sounds of people mumbling that
they wanted to eat, too, and Katie’s too-high-happy voice ushering
them out.

Amber knew the mature thing to do would be to
turn around. Maybe even to say hello. Instead, she reached for the
doorknob. She would be mature later when she could feel her legs
again.

“Amber.” His deep, sexy voice stopped her
dead in her tracks.

Okay, well, looks like maturity was on deck.
Better just walk up to the plate and swing.

She slowly turned, trying to regulate her
breathing so she didn’t hyperventilate. What she saw standing
before her did not help her efforts. Somehow, he had actually
gotten better looking. Either that or her memory and dreams had
just not done him justice. Either way, he was...incredible. He
looked taller, more filled out, and his face, well - that was
still, well...perfect.

“Hi, Seth,” Amber said, going for casual
coolness.

--- ~ ---

Seth could not believe that she was really
here. In his home town. In his brother’s house, for God's sake.
Standing in front of him. And her name was Amber. And she was even
more beautiful than he remembered.

He had been trained to effectively deal with
pretty much any situation you could think of, but he had no idea
what to do in this one. Not a day had gone by since that night in
DC that he had not thought about her.

When he had woken at five a.m. and realized
she was gone, he was furious with himself for falling asleep, and
sleeping so soundly, at that. He never slept soundly. It was an
occupational hazard that could cost him his life.

He hadn’t even meant to close his eyes that
night. The last thing he remembered was her naked body draped over
him and the soft sounds of her breathing as she slept. The next
thing he knew, he was waking up in bed. Alone.

“So, yeah, uh...small world, huh?” she said
nervously.

“Why did you leave?” he heard himself ask
bluntly.

She flinched at his question. He quickly
assessed that he was going about this all wrong. She looked
unsteady. She was shaking like a leaf.

He pulled out the kitchen chair beside him.
“Do you want to sit down?”

He realized what he had said the second the
question left his mouth.