Skin Tight (Skin Deep #4) (3 page)

“What?” I asked, completely intrigued.

All she said in reply was, “Down & Dirty,” before I’d chimed in.

“I’m in!”

Chapter 5

I waved as the last child stepped onto his bus, and then turned to go back inside to straighten up my classroom and gather things up before I headed home. On the way, I stopped by Gerry’s cage and topped up his food and water, then sat at my desk to go over the next day’s lesson and to check my supply list for the activities I had planned.

Once I had that done, I looked over the rhyme and match worksheets we’d done in class today before I locked up my desk and grabbed my keys. I stood, stretching before I reached for my purse, then twirled around in surprise when I heard a noise behind me.

“Hey!” I said, smiling at Chloe who had entered the room.

“Hey, yourself!” she called, moving closer to give me a hug, which I gladly returned.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her, moving back to my desk to reach for my purse once more.

“Coming to steal you so we can meet Emma and Allie for dinner to discuss the fun party we’re gonna have,” she said, doing a crazy little jig of excitement.

“Sweet!” I said. “I just have to call Ian and let him know.” I grabbed my cell and dialed Ian, hoping he’d answer so I wouldn’t have to leave him a message.

Turns out, I was lucky today. He answered on the second ring.

“Hey baby,” he said.

I could hear the smile in his voice and my lips curled up automatically. “Hey, yourself, handsome. Just wanted to call and let you know that Chloe just showed up here and we’re meeting Allie and Emma for dinner. Want me to pick something up for you to bring home?”

“Sure, baby. I’ll see you later, then. Love you.”

“Love you, too,” I told him, still smiling as I hung up the phone.

Chloe rolled her eyes at me.

“Don’t you roll your eyes, goofy. You forget I know you very well, and I know how you and Brandon are,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her playfully.

“Truth,” she said, nodding her head and grinning unrepentantly.

I glanced at the clock. “It’ll be an early dinner, though, is that okay? It’s only…oh. I guess I took longer than I thought to go through papers and lesson plans,” I said, noting that it was going on five already. Classes usually let out just after three, so I’d been working on stuff for almost two hours? Huh.

“Yep,” she said. “Let’s go. They said we could pick, just have to call and let them know where we’re going.”

I looked at her and, without missing a beat, we both said, “Manny’s!”

Half an hour later, the four of us were laughing around a table, stuffing our faces with delicious salad, pasta, and garlic bread, and sipping glasses of sangria. Manny had already come out and berated Allie and Emma for coming in without bringing the little ones to see him. When he’d left the table, Emma told us that she and Luke had come in to eat with Everly last month and when they’d been seated, Manny had walked right out of the kitchen, up to their table, barely said hello to them, and had taken off with Everly. Allie then told us that he’d done the same to them two weeks ago when she and Jackson had come in.

I wasn’t surprised; we’d been coming to Manny’s since we were all kids and Manny and his wife, Gia, absolutely adored kids. Seriously, they had 7 of their own.

I took a sip of my sangria as Chloe asked, “So when are we wanting to do this? Allie, are you stocked up on everything?”

“I actually did a party last week and refreshed my supplies then, so I should be good. But you know the drill, anything I don’t have on hand, you’ll still have it in a week or so.”

“I know,” Chloe said with a twinkle in her eye. “But there’s some stuff I was hoping you’d have and I wouldn’t have to wait!”

Allie rubbed her hands together with glee and waggled her eyebrows crazily. “Yay! I love it when I get to have a party with friends that makes me money!”

Emma quirked an eyebrow at her and said, drolly, “What money? You always use up your revenue replenishing your stock or buying your own goodies.”

“Duh,” Allie replied. She winked at Emma, who just shook her head.

I spoke up. “Why don’t we give it a couple weeks or so to make sure we get the invites out. Where do we want to have it?”

We hammered out the details and then just sat and talked with each other, even long after the food was gone. Emma’s phone rang, breaking into the conversation, and I looked at my watch to see that it was already seven and I hadn’t even ordered anything for Ian, yet.

As Emma answered her phone, I waved our waiter over and ordered some chicken marsala with a side of fettuccini alfredo for him, which then reminded Allie and Chloe that they needed to do the same. I kicked Emma under the table and motioned, asking silently if we needed to get something for Luke.

She spoke into the phone. “Do you want me to get you something from here?”

She paused. “Uh-huh. Nope. Yep. Okay, I know. Honey, I just asked you a question, is it that hard to answer?” More pausing. “Fine. Love you…yeah, yeah, yeah. Love you, bye.”

She hung up and quickly added two more meals to the take-out orders we’d already placed.

“Damn,” Allie said, looking at Emma weirdly. “Is Luke eating for two or are you hungry again?”

Emma laughed. “No, it’s for T.J.”

Chloe’s face got soft and then worried at T.J.’s name. “Have you talked to him lately?”

“Who? T.J.?” Emma asked. Chloe nodded and she continued, “Yeah, he comes over quite a bit when he’s not over at your house. Why, what’s up?”

Chloe shook her head, almost sadly, and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just worried about him. He’s got so much going on in his head all the time, and I swear, anytime a phone rings anywhere near him, he’s jumpy as hell. But, he just blows it off, says everything is fine.”

Allie broke in again. “So what was all that other shit, then?” she asked Emma.

“Oh, you know. The usual. Am I coming home soon? Did I miss him? Which, of course, I lied and said nope, but we all know I always miss him,” she broke off, giggling. “Are we having fun? We need dog food, so I have to stop at the store.” She shrugged. “No biggie.”

I knew my sister too well, and so did Allie because she called her out right away. “Nope. That’s not all. What was the yeah, yeah, yeah for after you said I love you? Hmmm?”

Emma blushed, which was the exact reaction we all knew we’d get. “Nothing!” she exclaimed.

“Emma,” I said, my voice low with warning.

“Jesus, he just reminded me I owed him, okay?” she finally said, breaking after I stared her down comically.

Chloe held her hands up. “Nope! We’re good! No more details!” she cried, laughing.

Emma grinned devilishly, opened up her mouth, and proceeded to tell us, in detail, why she owed him, no matter that all of us were shrieking for her to stop, laughing, and practically falling out of our seats, making fools of ourselves, much to the amusement of the people around us. Thankfully, we were in a more secluded section of the restaurant and there weren’t many people there.

Unfortunately, the poor waiter just happened to bring out our to-go orders during Emma’s….erm…description, and was standing, red-faced, beside her chair, holding the bags out to us and looking at the floor.

As soon as Emma saw him, her face turned an even brighter red (which is saying something) and she dropped her head in her hands in mortification.

Just another night with the girls…never a dull moment. Ever.

Chapter 6

After wrapping up my evening with the girls, I grabbed the food I’d ordered for Ian and made the drive home, rocking out with the windows down and the music up loud. And when
Uptown Funk
came on, I turned it up even louder and sang along at the top of my lungs because, let’s face it. You can’t help but dance and sing to that song. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars know what they’re doing, for sure.

I pulled into the driveway and parked beside Ian’s truck, not bothering to pull into the garage. I gathered all my stuff and Ian’s food up and walked inside, hollering, “Honey, I’m home!”

Receiving no response, I laid his food on the counter and dropped everything else beside it, moving through the house looking for him. He was nowhere to be found inside the house, so I checked out on the back porch. I saw him there, sitting in the chair, staring off into the distance.

“Hey,” I said softly as I walked out to him, stopping at his side.

He was leaned back, the neck of a bottle of beer dangling from his fingers.

“Hey,” he said back, not moving, not looking at me.

I sat in the chair beside him, concern washing over me. “Is everything okay?”

He nodded once, and then quickly shook his head. “Just a rough day today, I guess. I had to fire a man for being so careless that one of my other workers ended up in the hospital today.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed, reaching out and taking his free hand in mine. “What happened?”

“Carl happened. Fucker went to Griff’s for lunch, which is no big deal, but he decided to have a few beers and a shot while he was at it. That is a real big deal. Came back, got into the bobcat, and then didn’t pay attention when he swung it around the corner. Ran it right into the side of an S-10 truck that was just pulling in. The guy driving, when the bucket hit the truck, thank God, was wearing his seatbelt, but he hit his head against the window. Knocked him out.”

I sank back in my seat, my hand automatically coming up to cover my mouth. “Is he okay?”

Ian nodded. “Yeah, he’ll be fine. He’s off for a couple weeks with a concussion, unless there’re complications with him. Carl got a little whiplash from hitting the truck, but he was fired on the spot. I mean, drinking on the fucking job! Goddamn, that pisses me off! He could have killed someone!”

Ian was yelling, his voice getting hoarse with emotion. I let him vent, still holding his hand in mine, my thumb drawing soothing circles against the back of his. Finally, he took a deep breath and then finished off the rest of his beer.

“You know, it could have been a lot worse. But what gets me, what pisses me off the most, is that Carl is a damn good worker. But he’s a fucking alcoholic. How did I not know that? How did I not catch that when he’s been with me for over a year now?”

His face was tortured, his breathing ragged.

I moved from my chair and draped myself over his lap, wrapping my arms around him and holding him tightly to me. He dropped his bottle and his arms came up and squeezed me.

“Baby, it’s not your fault. He’s your employee, you’re not his father. Have you ever caught him drinking on the job before?”

He shook his head. “No, but I’m at different sites all the time, so I’m not always there.”

“What about the foreman for that job? Has he noticed anything, since he’s there all the time?” I asked him. He shook his head again and I continued, “Then how would you have known he was an alcoholic? Sometimes people with addictions are pretty adept at hiding it, until they get to that point that they just can’t anymore. It sucks that that’s where he’s at, apparently, and it really sucks that it caused someone else to get hurt.”

Ian nodded against me and then heaved a sigh, his warm breath washing over my skin. “I know. I just can’t help but feel like it’s my fault, like I should have been paying more attention.”

I kissed his forehead and his cheek, remaining silent for the moment. After a bit, he released me and I stood, reaching for his hand again. “Come on and eat, and then we’ll veg out for a while, okay?”

“Okay,” he replied. He stood and pulled me into his chest, one of his hands coming up to cradle my jaw and tip my head back so he could see my eyes. “I love you,” he said, softly.

I could feel just about every inch of my body softening against him, and my lips curled into a smile as I pushed up on my toes, pressing my lips against his and whispering, “I love you, too,” before I kissed him.

Afterwards, Ian and I cuddled up on the couch while he ate and watched reruns of
The Big Bang Theory
, pausing the TV only once when Ian’s phone rang. I listened with half an ear as he spoke to someone about the events of the day, but as soon as he was done, he un-paused the TV and went back to watching without a word. I didn’t push him to talk, and he didn’t offer anything more.

But we didn’t need to talk. It was enough just to be together, to draw strength from each other when needed without the words needing to be said. It worked for us…and it was perfect.

We were lying in bed a couple hours later, cuddled up as usual, when Ian broke the silence of the darkened room.

“So, what was this whole get together about tonight, anyway?” he asked.

I laughed softly, asking in return, “Why did it have to be about something? We always like to get together for girl’s nights anyway, you know.”

“Yeah, but I know when you guys are up to something. So what do I have to look forward to, now?”

“Nothing for you to worry about, I promise!” I said, humor lacing the words.

“Uh-huh. Famous last words…” Ian mumbled good-naturedly.

I leaned back and propped my head on my hand, my elbow digging into the mattress. “Nope, seriously. It’s a good thing,” I said, drawing the words out with a breathy tone.

“I’m listening,” he replied, and I could tell he was completely intrigued now.

I laughed and rolled into him again, my lips finding his in the darkness and giving him a quick kiss. “We’re having a Down & Dirty party in a couple weeks. You know, just another excuse to get together and drink and have a good time. And maybe buy some new sex toys while we’re at it…” I let my words trail off suggestively as I trailed a finger down his chest.

He stopped my hand with his, pressing it fully against his chest as he said, quickly, “I’m down with that. Sure…when’s the party?”

I shook my head and chuckled as I kissed him once more, then settled back down in the bed, my head on his shoulder, my arm lying across his stomach, my leg thrown over his thigh.

I yawned as I answered, “I already told you in a couple of weeks. Geez, pay attention.”

He just chuckled and gave me a squeeze, kissing my forehead. “Night, baby. Love you.”

“Mmm,” I murmured, snuggling in closer. “G’night. Love you, too.”

We were quiet again for just a moment before I cleared my throat and asked him, softly, “Are you okay?”

I heard him take a deep breath, then he kissed my forehead once more, pulling me even closer to his body and replied, “With you in my arms, in my life, I’m more than okay.”

I smiled against his chest and drifted off to sleep.

***

The next few days were pretty uneventful. Ian was busy dealing with the insurance people and all that shit that goes along with what happened. He’d even spoken to Emma’s old boss, Floyd Grim, to get his professional opinion on everything, just to cover his bases.

Ian had gone to his office this afternoon to meet with him, and Floyd had agreed to help him out with the legal side of things if he needed it, which was nice of him. He’d then asked Ian to see if Emma would like to come back to work for him since his current secretary didn’t hardly know her ass from a hole in the ground. His words apparently, not Ian’s.

Ian called Emma when he got home and relayed the message, which prompted Emma to call Floyd and thank him for the offer, but, between Skin Deep and Everly, she had her hands full, so she’d declined regretfully. He had asked her to call Mrs. Allen and check on her every once and a while, though, seeing as how the old woman still called every week and now instead of only bitching about Doc (the vet) and Fluffers (her mangy, overweight, freak of a cat), she spent most of the time bemoaning the fact that her Emma wasn’t there to talk to her.

I knew this because Emma had just called me and was filling me in.

“I feel bad for him,” Emma was saying about Floyd. “He’s a really good attorney and a lot of people applied for my job, but I guess he was doing a friend a favor and letting this girl work for him but she keeps losing files because she can’t remember how she filed them in the cabinets. Yikes.”

“Wait a sec, what happened to the woman that had stepped in to cover when you left?” I asked.

Emma sighed. “She was just filling in, but apparently she retired, so…this is what he’s left with.”

“Hmmm,” I said, feeling bad for Floyd. “So, did you call Mrs. Allen?” I asked her, tongue-in-cheek.

Emma groaned. “Oh, God. Yes, I did. I swear I’m a glutton for punishment because she kept me on the phone for a good forty-five minutes talking about Fluffers and the latest hairball he’d hacked up. Don’t even get me started on the whole Doc thing, either. Jesus, you’d think the man would just let the cat be a matted mess rather than subjecting himself to the ass-chewing he gets every time.”

I laughed until tears were pouring down my face as Emma continued to recount her conversation. When she was finally done, we chatted a little bit more, with her asking about Ian and if he’d gotten everything worked out about the accident at work. Then she asked about my class and if I had any new funny stories.

Ironically (or not so ironically), I did. And who did it involve? Gerry the Gerbil, of course. “Yeah, I had a kid try to smuggle Gerry out of the classroom yesterday. How did he do that, you ask? Well, let me tell you,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm and disbelief. Seriously, if it wasn’t something I’d lived through myself, I’d probably think I was a liar.

Ian was sitting in the recliner and I was kicked back on the couch, but he must have been listening with half-an ear, because he started chuckling.

Emma was already laughing, too, just imagining what was coming. “Hold on, wait, wait…let me put this on speaker. I know Luke, Brandon, and T.J. are gonna wanna hear this!”

I paused, asking, “Are you still at the shop?” I looked at the clock, seeing that it was after seven and she was usually home with Everly by then.

“Yeah, Mom and Dad took the baby for the night, and the guys had a couple clients booked so I hung around. Watching all the tatted up sexiness strut around is hard work, you know,” she drawled, and I could hear the guys laughing and hooting in the background.

“Geez, what a rough Friday night you’re having,” I retorted, rolling my eyes at Ian. Emma just laughed again. “Anyway, back to Gerry-”

I was cut off by T.J. asking, “Who the fuck is Gerry?” but before I could reply, I heard Luke say, “Not who, what. Gerry’s a gerbil, dude.”

I opened my mouth to continue again, and once more was cut off. Ian looked at me weird, so I covered the phone with my hand and whispered to him, “She put it on speaker, so now the guys are all interrupting.” He nodded in an, ‘Ahhh, I get it,’ way and went back to watching TV, his lips still twitching in anticipation of what I was about to say.

“What the hell do you have a gerbil for, Leah?” T.J. asked.

I didn’t even bother answering, and for good reason. I heard Brandon pipe up with, “For illicit sexual acts, dumbass. What do you think?” He said it sarcastically, thank God, which is the only reason I still kept my mouth shut. “It’s the class pet.”

“Oh, yeah,” T.J. answered. “I forgot she was a teacher.”

I winced when Emma clapped her hands loudly, obviously not bothering to move them away from where she must have laid the phone down when she put it on speaker phone. “Alright! Let the poor girl finish or I’m taking it off speaker and you don’t get to hear!” she yelled.

Yup. That’s my sister.

“Okay,” I started again. “So about half an hour before the end of class, one of the boys in the class asked if he could get Gerry out and hold him for a bit. I said sure, helped him get him out, and set him up-oh, did I tell you I got a tiny little plastic kiddy pool and put it in the corner so the kids could kneel at the side and put Gerry in it so he’d quit getting loose?” I asked, cutting myself off.

“No, you didn’t. That’s a good idea! Now you won’t have to worry about the other teachers staging a protest anymore,” Emma said.

“Anyway, I let the boy put Gerry in the pool and he was sitting there, petting him and watching him run around. I turned around to answer another student who asked a question and when I turned around, Gerry was not in the pool anymore. I asked him where Gerry was and he said that he jumped out of the pool.”

Emma and the guys must have been completely invested in the story now, because I wasn’t hearing a peep from their end.

“I looked around, but I was a little suspicious, especially because I noticed that he was starting to fidget a lot more than usual-”

Brandon interrupted this time. “The kid, not Gerry, right?”

I sighed. “Yes, the kid, I didn’t know where Gerry was, remember? Pay attention!” I said, jokingly. “Moving on. I asked the kid if he was telling the truth, and his face got really red. All of a sudden, he let out this God-awful shriek and started dancing around, holding his crotch!”