My Only - Alex & Jamie (36 page)

Katie swatted her, laughing, “Oh, please! I could have the fact 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 to over 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 mumbled 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 that literally held 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 goosebumps 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 hugged 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 made her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest. His eyes met hers briefly 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 quickly get out of there. 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 and 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 and or threw up, she was gonna kill her.

Voices filled the room as people started making their way inside 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 almost any situation you could possibly 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 am 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 woke 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.

Her eyes shot to him as her cheeks flushed. She obviously remembered the question's significance. At least she didn’t look like she was about to pass out anymore.