To Love a Player (30 page)

I gave him a serious look as I asked, "And me?"

"You," Jack smiled slowly and then nodded his head, "I have a good feeling about you. I don't know what it is, but you are who she needs to be with. I have known Mollie for a long time and I have never seen her sparkle as much as she does when she looks at you."

I grinned widely in response, nodding my head. Jack clapped his hand on my shoulder and gave me a warning smile as he said, "If you break her heart, I'm going to have to break you. Mollie has been like my little sister ever since I've known her and because of that, I am like a big mean brother. You mess with my family, you'll regret it."

"No worries," I said, shaking my head and then smiled confidently, "I am going to marry her someday."

"Well okay then," Jack laughed as he clinked his bottle against mine, "I'm going to hold you to that."

We were giggling as we walked back through the door of Callen's townhouse. It was the result of one too many champagne flutes from the three dress shops we went to. Callen laughed at us when he appeared in the foyer with a tea towel thrown over his shoulder. I dropped my bags and wrapped my arms around his neck as he enfolded me into him. I gave him a long kiss, pulling away when Maggie teased, "Get a room!"

"Must be my bride to be," Jack laughed as he came into view. Maggie flung herself onto him and Reba looked dejected as she said, "No fair, I don't have anyone to makeout with!"

Maggie giggled as she said, "Sorry, Rebs."

Callen kissed me gently and then asked, "How was your afternoon?"

"It was fun," I smiled against his lips. Pulling back slightly, I looked into his eyes as I said, "Thank you so much for letting them come and stay."

"No problem, beautiful," he said, kissing the tip of my nose. I smiled warmly at him before kissing him and saying, "You are the best."

He shrugged slightly, grinning cheekily at me as he said, "I know."

I shook my head as I laughed. I buried my face against his chest as he hugged me tight, kissing the top of my head. Gripping his shirt, I pulled him tight against me as I gave him another long kiss. I wanted him. I didn't care that we were being watched by the others in the room, I wanted him to carry me upstairs and get naked.

I kissed the soft skin under his neck, feeling the moan in his throat that he was trying to keep from escaping and I knew that he wanted me too. His hands were in my hair, reluctantly pulling me away and as he put his forehead against mine, he croaked out a whisper "I can't wait to see your beautiful body later."

I grinned seductively at him as I whispered back, "Why wait?"

He pulled me back quickly, his dark lusty eyes looked directly into my eyes with surprise. They then darted to the retreating backs of our guests before looking back into mine again. His lips crashed to mine as he quickly deepened the kiss before slowly coming to a stop and in between kisses, he said "We can't, I have food to cook."

I pouted out my lip, giving him reason to suck it into his warm mouth, which only made me kiss him passionately again. He pulled away, letting out a frustrated grunt as he took my hand and led me to the kitchen. I stifled my laugh as I watched him swear under his breath while he calmed his body down. It was very amusing to watch. Leaning against the counter, I inhaled the delicious smells around me.

Dipping my finger in a bowl of something next to me, I slowly licked it off, noticing his eyes watching me carefully. He clenched his jaw, shaking his head slightly as he tried to ignore me and continued swearing under his breath. I let out a soft giggle; it was fun teasing him. Maggie joined us in the kitchen and said, "It smells so good in here!"

Callen nodded and said, "Thank you. I hope you are hungry because I'm trying out a few things to prepare for Lacey. I'm cooking the food for the reception after her fashion show in a few weeks."

"Awesome, am I invited?" Maggie asked, her eyes widened and Callen smiled as he said, "Sure, I'm sure that we can get tickets for you. Lacey will probably reserve some for Mollie's family anyway and my family has enough places in New York for them to stay."

"Mom and Dad would love that, you know?" Maggie asked, grinning at me. I nodded as I put my arm around her and said, "I know!"

The doorbell rang and Callen looked at me as he said, "That's probably Sarah and Lia."

I nodded, suddenly feeling nervous. Callen had told me about Sarah and how she couldn't wait to meet me. She was a good friend of his from his childhood and they recently reconnected when he came to New York. Maggie gave me a curious look as she asked, "Who are Sarah and Lia?"

"Sarah is a childhood friend of Callen's that he ran into at a company his dad just took over and Lia is her girlfriend," I said, slowly following Callen out of the kitchen. When I came into the foyer, I saw a stunning brunette with amazing hazel-green eyes and she was grinning widely at me as she said, "You must be Mollie."

"I am," I laughed as she pulled me into a long hug. When she released me, I said, "You must be Sarah."

"Yes," she smiled as I let her in. She turned to a beautiful girl behind her and said, "This is my girlfriend, Lia."

"Nice to meet you both!" I said as I shook each other their hands. Lia handed me a bottle of wine and said, "It's nice to meet you, we've heard so much about you."

"Yes and it's finally nice to meet the girl who keeps Callen so distracted," Sarah laughed, adding, "Although I don't know that I blame him because you are so beautiful!"

"Uh thanks, I think?" I laughed as Callen stepped in behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissed me on my cheek. I leaned in against him and smiled sideways up at him. He grinned at Sarah and asked, "What do you think?"

"I can understand now why you were always so distracted," Sarah laughed and Callen nodded in agreement. I felt my cheeks go slightly pink again so Callen gave me a quick kiss before saying, "Come on, dinner is almost ready."

I was glad to have familiar faces, although Sarah was retelling stories from my childhood so I wasn't sure how happy I really was about it. Mollie seemed to hang on every word as she told how I would use my charm on every woman around me to get my way. Payback was fun when Maggie would tell stories of Mollie's childhood days, which Mollie didn't really appreciate. I thought that it was cute hearing how she was as a child.

It was also nice sitting around a table with a group of people enjoying my food. It was the first time that I ever really cooked for a lot of people. I couldn't wait to get back and share the dishes with Lacey that were the favorites of the group. As I sipped my glass of wine, I heard Maggie ask, "So Mollie, any plans for your birthday?"

"Your birthday is coming up?" I asked and instantly felt a little weird that I didn't know when her birthday was. It was something that we hadn't really talked about yet, however I thought that she should have at least mentioned it since it was coming up. Mollie nodded as she said, "Yeah, its two weeks from today."

Plans started forming in my mind as I smiled warmly at her. I watched her shrug and say, "I'm thinking something small, just a few friends. Lacey's show is the weekend after so I'm not sure how crazy things will be with my schedule by then."

"Do you remember your 21st birthday?" Maggie asked and Mollie's eyes went wide as her face turned a bright shade of pink. I was intrigued, so I leaned forward and asked, "What happened?"

Mollie pointed a finger at Maggie and warned, "Don't even think about it, Margaret Jane!"

I took her finger in my hand as I laughed, "No, she has to tell now. She already mentioned it so we all have to know now!"

Maggie smirked as she nodded, "He's got a point, Molls."

"No," Mollie said, then gave me a slight narrowing look of her eyes while fighting a smile at the same time, "it was never to be discussed again after that night."

"Oh come on, babe," I said, giving her my best puppy dog look. She shook her head and everyone else chorused, "Maggie has to tell us. She can't leave us hanging!"

Mollie sighed, still fighting a smile, and Maggie took that sigh as one of defeat. Mollie gave her a wary look as Maggie said, "Mollie's actual birthday was on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, so we had a quiet family celebration, but then the weekend after, we had a complete weekend blowout."

"It was awesome! We rented one of those party buses and bar hopped all night long. By the end of the night, Mollie needed Jack to practically carry her around. So the next day, the girls of our group had a spa day and Mollie was so hung-over that she kept telling people to whisper. Later that night, we had a big dinner and went out for another round of bar hopping," Maggie said, then started laughing really hard as Mollie shook her head and placed her head in her hands.

"We dared Mollie that night that she had to makeout with 21 guys at each of the bars we stopped at, but we had to choose them." Maggie paused, giggling, "Let's just say that some of the guys were not all that attractive."

Mollie broke in and said, "It was so humiliating and took a lot of alcohol to get some of the makeouts to happen. I think that Jack may have carried me out of some of those bars, too."

"Yeah," Maggie giggled, as Jack nodded. Maggie laughed as she said, "Mollie was so hung-over the next day that she practically spent the whole day hanging out around the bathroom toilet. She made me promise to never tell, but it still makes me giggle. Remember that one guy that kept trying to come back and almost had you convinced that you hadn't made out with him yet?"

Everyone laughed and Mollie sighed as she said, "Yeah, not one of my finer moments. I decided that there will never be a time that I will need to drink that much ever again. I felt like I was drunk for almost the whole week after that weekend. The thought of alcohol made me want to throw up."

I laughed before leaning over and kissing her gently on the cheek. I smiled at her and said, "Your 21st birthday doesn't sound all that bad. I'm glad that I don't have people here that remember mine and I'm definitely not sharing that story."

"I'll just have to ask Brock, I'm sure that he knows. Or Evan," Mollie smirked and I gave her a casual shrug, showing her that I wasn't scared, even though I was a little bit. Either of those two guys would be the worst for her to ask about my 21st birthday. I made a mental note to make them swear to never tell her, even though I knew they wouldn't listen. She didn't need to know that my dare was to walk around with a pair of women's underwear on while we hit up the bars in Vegas. I'm pretty sure that I still have the scars. Yep, she didn't need to know about that.

"Speaking of bars," Sarah said, "do you all have plans tonight?"

We shook our heads because we hadn't thought of much past dinner. Sarah looked over at Lia and said, "Well, Lia got tickets to an opening of a new club. Would you want to go?"

I looked at Mollie, who looked interested, but shrugged as her questioning eyes looked into mine. Maggie nodded as she said, "I'm game! I'd love to go to a new club opening."

"Okay, great!" Sarah said and looked at her watch as she suggested, "It's almost seven-thirty now, so how about we come back here around nine and pick you up?"

"Okay, sound good," I smiled as I stood to lead my friends to the door. Sarah gave me a hug and said, "I love her, Cal. She's so good for you."

"Thanks, Sarah," I smiled, giving her a quick squeeze before hugging Lia. They waved goodbye as they got into a cab and I shut the door when it pulled away.

Reba, Maggie, and I were in one of the huge bathrooms getting ready. Since Maggie and Reba didn't have any "going out" clothes, I let them look through the stuff that I brought. I was glad that Sam and Marnie convinced me to pack extra stuff, just in case something like this was an option.

"How rich is Callen?" Reba asked as she surveyed the room and the bathroom that we were standing in. I shrugged my shoulder as I said, "I don't know really. We don't ever talk about it."

"Why not?" Reba asked and I said, "It's not important to us, really. His family is rich and I know that Callen has a trust fund that he gets to open when he's 25, but he doesn't flaunt it in front of people. I mean, he has some people that only like him because he's rich, but then again he has a great small tight knit group of friends who are friends with him no matter what."