Playing for Keeps (20 page)

Pete sat in the corner booth where we usually sat. He looked up as we walked through the door and cocked a brow at me.

I wanted to wail
I know
but I just shot him an apologetic look.

“Joe.” Pete got up and held his hand out. “Good to see you.”

I winced when Daddy shook Pete’s. Lesser men had been known to fall to their knees under that grip.

My dad plopped onto a bench and waved for a waitress.

Pete kissed my cheek. I shivered at how he lingered. I could feel the way his eyes took in my hair and clothes and my nipples immediately hardened. Crossing my arms across my chest, I huddled in the booth.

Grinning knowingly, he slid in next to me.

“Haven’t seen you over at the house lately,” Daddy said once we’d ordered a round of drinks and an extra-large pizza.

As if Daddy would know if Pete had been around or not. He was never home.

Pete stretched an arm behind me on the back of the booth. “Been busy with work. How’re things at the studio?”

My dad and Pete chatted while we waited for the pizza. I drank my Guinness and only paid about half attention to what they were saying. Pete sitting next to me distracted me.

He smelled so good. He had that fresh out-of-the-shower, soapy scent that drove me crazy. I wanted to burrow my nose in his neck and stay there forever.

Pizza was a bad idea. We should have just gone to his place to get it on.

I glanced at Daddy. How was I going to get rid of him to get Pete to myself? He slumped in the opposite side of the booth like he’d taken up residence for the night. And there was the fact that he drove me here. He’d expect to drive me home. He’d get suspicious if I told him Pete would drive me home since Pete lived in the opposite direction.

Hell. I pouted.

“Pepperoni pizza.” The waitress set plates down and then dropped the tray on the table. “‘Nother round?” She grinned at Pete and Daddy but ignored me. Must be my camo pants. I blended in with my environment.

“Thank God,” Daddy whispered fervently and then dug in.

They didn’t talk much while they ate. I picked at a piece, my mind on how I needed to get Pete alone tonight.

Pete noticed my lack of appetite. “Is the pizza okay?”

“Fine.” I smiled halfheartedly.

He stared at me. “You sure?”

It’d be better after five minutes alone in the restroom with him. Nodding, I sipped my beer. “Really delicious.”

“So how’re the wedding plans coming along?”

I blinked and focused on my dad. “What?”

Frowning, he wiped his hands with a wad of napkins and tossed them onto his plate. “The wedding plans. Nell’s wedding to that tool.”

“He’s not a tool, Daddy.” Though I didn’t blame him for thinking so. I’d thought it myself for the longest time. “He’s actually a really good guy.”

My dad grunted.

“You just have to get to know him.”

He grunted again. I interpreted it as
not even in your dreams
.

His next trail of conversation stopped my heart. “She should have picked Pete, if you ask me.”

Pete’s hand suddenly on my thigh kept me from blurting
No one asked you
.

Pete’s answer was more diplomatic. “I don’t think Nell and I were well suited.”

“Damn shame. I’d have been proud to have you as my son-in-law.”

I felt Pete glance at me, and I knew what he was thinking.

Now was the time.

I opened my mouth to tell Daddy Pete and I were dating. Dating seriously.

Instead, I lifted my pint glass and took a huge gulp of beer. Mom taught me not to talk with my mouth full.

Pete gazed at me, his eyes gray with disappointment. “I would have been proud to be your son-in-law too,” he said, tossing his soiled napkins on the table too.

Chapter Sixteen

A surrounded army must be given a way out. Do not press a desperate enemy.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

It was getting to a point where a day wasn’t complete without a major freak out from Nell. She was taking pre-wedding jitters to new, Everest-tall heights.

But I thought we’d reached the pinnacle with the second wedding dress fitting episode where she decided her dress was all wrong and that she had to order a new one in a different style. It’d taken both me and Devon to talk her down from that bridge. She hadn’t freaked out in several days—there was a good chance she was mellowing out.

It was a Thursday evening. Before I left the studio, my dad told me he’d be home for dinner. After I picked myself off the floor, I went grocery shopping for a forbidden steak-and-potatoes meal. I’d called Pete and he was coming over too.

So, there I was, marinating steaks. I had potatoes in the oven and beer chilling in the fridge. As a token gesture to healthiness, I was putting together a salad. I loved salad, but Daddy and Clo wouldn’t care if they never saw anything green ever again.

I was cutting tomato slices when Nell burst through the kitchen door, George close behind her.

“Damn it, George. Stay outside.” She pushed him out the door. Or rather, she tried to push him but he wouldn’t budge. He just lowered his head and determinedly pushed back.

“George, get
out
.” She braced herself and shoved with all her might. He didn’t even budge.

Good sister that I was, I didn’t let the laughter escape from my lips.

They might have twitched a little though because Nell growled at me. “Gracie, this isn’t funny. Get the hell over here and help me.”

I leaned against the counter and folded my arms across my chest. “It’s more amusing to watch.”

Nell grabbed his collar and tried pulling him out. “I should just let him stay in here. It’s your fricking rule. If you want him out, you get him out.”

“No, no, no.” I shook my finger at her. “It doesn’t work that way.”

She snarled. I was surprised she didn’t spit at me.

“What’s going on here?”

I looked up at the doorway to see Pete standing there, looking down at Nell with barely contained amusement lighting his eyes.

“Hey Pete.” I hoped I said that casually. Not that my sister would notice. She was too engrossed in her wrestling match with the dog.

“Help me get my goddamn dog outside,” Nell said through gritted teeth.

Pete crossed his arms and stared down the beast. “Dog, sit.”

George turned around and plopped right down at Pete’s feet.

Nell and I both gaped. How did he do that?

He pointed to the yard. “Outside.”

George bowed his head and quietly marched to the backyard.

Nell shook her head. “You’re going to have to teach me how the hell you did that.”

“It’s a guy thing.” Somehow he managed not to smirk when he said it.

Shaking my head, I got back to my salad making.

“Maybe I should leave George with you.” Nell sat down on a chair with a sigh.

I looked over my shoulder. “Where are
you
going?”

“To Paris.”

“Paris?” Dropping my knife, I whirled around. “Why are you going to Paris?”

“I’ve never been there.”

I stared at her, counted to ten, and then sat across from her at the table. Pete, that marvelous man, sat next to me. Close. It felt very reassuring. I resisted taking his hand.

“Start at the beginning and tell me about this trip to Paris,” I ordered.

“I just realized that I was getting married and there’s so much I haven’t done. Like go to Paris. So I bought myself a ticket.”

“But, Nell”—I struggled to keep my voice calm—“your wedding is in five weeks.”

She smiled brightly, though it looked a little pale around the edges. “See? Plenty of time for a quick trip.”

“How quick?”

“Two weeks.”

Two
weeks? All my efforts to keep composed flew out the window. “What are you
thinking
?”

“I really need to do this, Gracie. The market is stable. You have everything under control. I had my final alteration. It’s the perfect time.”

“Why don’t you go there on your honeymoon?”

She stared at me like I’d suggested she strip and go on TV naked. “I’ll be with Riley then.”

“Silly me. I didn’t realize.” I slapped my forehead. “Why would you want to go to the city of love with your almost-husband?”

Pete put a restraining hand on my shoulder, his way of telling me to calm down.

I turned on him. “I don’t understand how she can sit there and say she’s hightailing it to France without her fiancé when their wedding is five weeks away.”

He rubbed my shoulder to soften me up. It was working too, darn him.

Gathering my anger around me, I scowled at Nell. “Does Riley know?”

She had the grace to look sheepish. “Not yet.”

“Great.” I threw my hands in the air.

“Well, I wanted to ask you if you’d watch George before I told him.”

“Why? So you can ask
him
to keep the mutt if I said no?”

Nell shook her finger at me. “Don’t call my Georgie a mutt.”

“What’s next? Adding George to our present list for Christmas?” I rolled my eyes.

“And, no, I wasn’t going to ask Riley. I knew you wouldn’t turn George away. I just wanted to tell him where to find George.”

“I didn’t say I’d take the dog.”

“You didn’t say you wouldn’t.”

“I’m saying it now.”

Nell looked stricken. “You’d turn him away?”

“Call me crazy, but yes.”

“
You can’t
.” Her eyes grew round and pleading like how George got when he saw you eating something he wanted.

“Oh yeah, I can.”

“Pete.” She tried her puppy dog eyes on him. “Talk some sense into her.”

He shook his head. “I’m staying out of this one.”

“Gracie, remember that time when Brad Taylor climbed up to your bedroom and Daddy almost walked in on you two?”

I gasped. She wouldn’t.

But she did. “You owe me.”

“I do not.”

“Do too. He’d have caught Brad in your room if I hadn’t distracted him.”

I sputtered. “I would have managed.”

The look she gave me told me exactly what she thought of that statement.

I huffed. I hated being manipulated. “Fine. Okay. I’ll watch George for you.”

She beamed. “I knew you’d do it.”

“And then we’re even.” There was no way I’d let her blackmail me with that one again.

“Okay,” she agreed magnanimously. She handed me George’s leash. “He gets fed five small meals a day, with tofu at least one of the times because he needs his soy protein.”

“Five times?”

“It’s better for his metabolism. See you guys in a couple weeks.” She waved and ran for the door.

“You’re going
now
?”

She turned around, her hand on the doorknob. “No.”

“Then why are you leaving George here?”

“I’m leaving in the morning.” She opened the door. “Gotta go. I still have to pack and tell Riley. See ya.”

The door slammed shut.

Pete put a finger under my jaw and closed my mouth. “Brad Taylor, huh?”

I blushed. “That was a long time ago.”

“I hope so.” There was a devilish glint in his eyes. “He really climbed up to your bedroom?”

“What can I say? He really wanted me.” I didn’t mention that we’d both been thirteen at the time and didn’t really know what wanting someone meant. If I’d remembered correctly, we’d shared one or two closed-mouth kisses before my dad freaked us out.

“I can’t blame him.” Pete tilted my head back with his hand and laid one on me that curled my toes. His other hand cupped my breast.

That felt
good
.

I reached up and tangled one hand in his hair and rested the other one on the very prominent ridge of his arousal.

Then the front door slammed.

“Gracie!” Chloe yelled.

I broke away from Pete and swallowed one of the oaths my family was so fond of using. “In the kitchen.”

By the time Clo stepped into the kitchen I was back at the counter making my salads. Pete was drinking my beer, still seated, of course, lest my little sister get an eyeful of a very turned-on man.

“Hey guys.” Chloe dumped her backpack on the floor and made a beeline for the fridge. “What’s going on?”

“Not much.” I breathed evenly, trying to get my body under control.

“School start already?” Pete asked.

“Yeah, unfortunately.”

“How’re your classes?”

“Boring. Except for o-chem, which is the bane of my existence.”

Their inane conversation helped me focus on getting dinner ready and myself unready. I took the big bowl of salad I made, put it on the table, and sat down next to Pete again, moving my chair closer to him. “She’s already started applying for med school.”

Pete automatically put his arm behind me to rest on my chair and fiddled with my ponytail. “So you’re still bent on going to med school?”

“Seems like the thing to do.” She raised her brows and pointedly stared at Pete’s familiarity with me.

I froze, not knowing what to do. I should have pulled away but I really wanted to arch into him and make him
touch
me. I opted for the next best thing: I put on an inane smile and pretended that nothing weird was going on.

“So.” Chloe looked back and forth between us. “What have you two been up to?”

“Not much.” I smiled wide. I think it even looked genuine.

“Really.” She tapped the tabletop and studied us with too bright green eyes.

“Get you something to drink?” Jumping up, I headed to the fridge, opened it, and stared inside for about twenty seconds before I realized I wasn’t seeing anything. I looked over my shoulder.

Clo smirked at me. “I’m cool for now.”

The kitchen door opened and Daddy stormed in. “What the hell is Nell’s mutt doing in our yard? Is Nell here? He’s eating up your roses you know.”

Heading straight to the fridge, he detoured to take the beer I handed him. Popping the bottle, he took a long swig. When he lowered the beer, his expression was one of supreme ecstasy, like he’d drunk the nectar of the gods.