Warning Track (13 page)

“With the way I’ve been feeling lately, her name is going to be Bertha.”

Brady laughed. “You are not naming our baby girl Bertha. I don’t care that she has to come out of you…that is out of the question.”

“We’ll see about that,” Jane smirked, as she started in on her food again.
 

**Margo**

“If you keep moving, then I won’t be able to clean it out,” Parker scolded.

“Exactly, that stuff stings like a bitch. I’m not stupid.”

“Stop being a baby and just hold still. Believe me, you’re not going to want this to get all infected with green puss.”

“I think I just dry heaved,” Margo responded, as they sat in Jake and Lexi’s bathroom with her legged propped on the tub.
 

“Well, you can either suck it up or be disgusting, your choice.”

“I hate you right now.”

Parker smirked as he opened the hydrogen peroxide and maneuvered her knee so it was over the tub. It looked like he was enjoying this torture way too much, but it was also endearing, that he wanted to take care of her. The carrying her in the house part was a little much, but she wasn’t going to complain about being held in Parker’s arms. The whole day was kind of weird. He kissed her, actually kissed her. What the hell was she supposed to do with that? She’d been dying to be kissed by Parker for years and now that it happened, she didn’t think she could go another minute without his lips on hers. He was perfect, so charmingly perfect.
 

“Sit tight, Mo. This is going to sting.”

Parker bent over her knee and gently poured the hydrogen peroxide over her open wound. A hiss came out of Margo’s lips as she tensed at the liquid doing its job of cleaning out the dirt and grime that had embedded itself in her wound.
 

Quickly, Parker put the bottle down and blew on her cut to ease the pain. He was incredibly gentle and caring; it made her wonder what he would be like if he was a dad. Once that thought crossed her mind, she chastised herself for being a crazy lunatic and thinking about a future she had no right to think about. They’d had one kiss, that was it, but in Margo’s head, she was married and having kids with Parker, apparently. She had officially become a neurotic woman.
 

“There, that wasn’t so bad now, was it?” Parker asked, as he rubbed Margo’s leg in a tender way, not an I’m-trying-to-feel-you-up kind of way, although secretly Margo wanted the latter.
 

“No, not too bad,” Margo returned a small smile.
 

“If you weren’t trying to be such a show off, this never would have happened.”

Rolling her eyes at the man in front of her, Margo thought about the minute she slid into second after she hit the hell out of the ball off of Parker; there was no reason for her to slide, but she missed the feel so she went for it. The only bad thing was, she completely forgot she was wearing short shorts, so she’d scraped up her knee pretty good and she could feel a giant bruise starting to form on the back of her thigh. She was going to be hurting tomorrow.
 

“You liked it,” Margo joked.

“I did,” he admitted, as he finished cleaning her up and applying a giant Band-Aid, making sure it stuck properly. “Now that you’re all bandaged up, how about we get some ice on your leg.”

“I don’t need ice,” Margo said, as she sprang from her seat, but winced at the pain that went through the back of her leg and sat back down.

“Yeah, okay, Superman. Up you go.” In one swift movement, Parker picked Margo up as if she weighed absolutely nothing.
 

“You don’t have to go carrying me around everywhere. I’m not an invalid, plus I can’t be the lightest thing with the size of my ass.”

Parker smirked and said, “I happen to like that ass, which is a perfect size if you ask me.”

Heat crept through Margo’s body at Parker’s compliment. She was part Latina and was blessed with the ass to show it, which normally would be a good thing, but when it came to finding pants, it was almost impossible since her waist was much smaller. She normally had to get her pants taken in, which was a big clothing disadvantage, since she wasn’t the highest paid employee at the animal shelter.
 

Parker set her down on the couch, went to the kitchen and made two ice bags. When he came back, he had a huge smile on his face and she had no clue why.
 

“Why are you grinning like that?”

Sitting down next to her and draping her legs over his, he said, “I get to play sexy nurse Parker.”

“Oh, Jesus.” The man was impossible.

“Now roll over for a second.”

“Why?”

“Don’t question the nurse,” Parker playfully scolded.
 

“How come my nurse isn’t wearing a sexy nurse outfit? I think I’m getting screwed.”

Parker snapped his fingers. “You’re right, my apologies.” He stood up and rolled his shorts up, showing off his muscular thighs that were actually rather impressive and then took the bottom of his shirt and threaded it through his collar, giving her a spectacular view of his perfect abs, but covering his well-defined pecs. Margo tried not to stare, but she couldn’t help herself…Major League Baseball had served him well. He had always been an athletic specimen in college, but now that he was in the big leagues…holy fuck!

Swallowing hard, Margo watched as Parker showed off his body, flexing and dipping for her pleasure. “Is this better?”

Giggling and shaking her head at him, she said, “Yes, much better.”

“Good, now flip over.”

Reluctantly, Margo turned over and gave Parker a great view of her ass. She knew she shouldn’t feel self-conscious, but she did…it was Parker, her age old crush, for crying out loud.
 

Parker winced as he looked down at her and then his face turned to concern. “Mo, you did a number on your thigh. It’s already purple. Here, I’m going to put the ice pack under you and I want you to roll over so you’re sitting on the ice, okay?”

“Is it really that bad?”

“It is, babe.”

The term of endearment melted her on the spot as a wave of heat continued to flow through her body. The change in their relationship was almost too much to handle and, at times, she thought she needed to back away because they lived across the country from each other, but when he looked at her like she was the last woman he ever wanted to be with, she couldn’t help it.
 

Once Parker put ice on her throbbing thigh and then on top of her knee, he settled once again under her legs and turned on some light music. He ran his hand up and down her leg as he talked to her. It was an innocent touch to him, but it was an all-encompassing touch to her. It was like his fingers were the fuel that was lighting the raging inferno that was taking place inside of her. He sat next to her, casually talking about baseball, in his ridiculous get-up, not caring that he looked stupid. When he laughed, Margo took note of the way his stomach muscles contracted and when he moved his hands up and down her legs, she watched the fine sinew of his forearms flex with his movements. To say she was checking him out was an understatement.
 

“You keep looking at me like that and you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”

Mortified! That was exactly how Margo felt as her cheeks flushed at Parker calling her out.
 

“I don’t know what, uh, you’re talking about,” she stammered.
 

“Alright, keep denying it, but I know you want me.” Before she could protest, he rubbed her leg and said, “Don’t worry, I want you too. So bad it fucking hurts.”

Okay, she wasn’t ready for that confession. She knew he had interest, but not that intense of an interest.
 

“I, uh…”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Parker interrupted, growing serious all of a sudden. “I can see it in your eyes, so don’t insult me by lying about what you’re feeling. I’ll be honest with you, Margo, I always want us to be honest with each other; I can’t stop thinking about you and I want to push past just friendship. I want to explore other avenues.”

She was speechless. She had never had a man be so blatantly honest with her; it was refreshing.
 

“Come on,” Parker said, as he got up and held out his hand. Margo put her hand in his and symbolically gave herself over to him. He pulled her up into his arms again and started toward the back of the house, where the guest room was. “It’s late and I don’t want you driving home with your leg like that. I can sleep on the couch, but I want to make sure you’re comfortable.”

When they got to the room, Parker gently placed her on the bed and started grabbing pillows to prop her knee up.
 

“I don’t need those.”

“Oh, okay.” He straightened his clothes out. Do you need anything before I take off?”

“Please, don’t go,” her voice sounded needier than she intended, but she didn’t want him to sleep on the couch; she wanted his strong arms wrapped around her. “Stay with me.” It was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to say because she was putting herself out there, putting her heart out there…something she didn’t do very often. She held her breath as she tried to gauge what Parker was going to say. If they were being honest with each other, then she knew she did the right thing by asking him to stay.
 

A wide grin spread across Parker’s face as he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on Margo’s forehead. “Thank fuck you asked me to stay because I was going to die out there on the couch, knowing you were in here all by yourself.” He placed another kiss on her forehead and said, “Let me get you something to change into, since you probably don’t want to wear those clothes. I’ll be right back.”

Parker dug through his drawers, pulled out a Braves shirt and handed it over to her. The thought of wearing Parker’s shirt sent her teenage girl hormones into overdrive. She so desperately wanted to call Lexi, her best friend, and gush over the phone about wearing her crush’s shirt to bed.
 

They both situated themselves in new clothes, brushed their teeth and settled into bed. Parker made sure Margo was comfortable before he got in, but once he did, she had never felt more comfortable or more protected in her life. His strong arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her into his expansive chest. His head was buried in her hair as he spoke to her, “Good night, Mo. I’m glad you decided to stay…with me.”

“Me too, Kirbs.” Gladder than he would ever know.
 

Chapter Seven

**Molly**

It had been four hours since Molly got the text from Connor saying that Luke had left Nash’s place with all of his belongings, but he was nowhere to be found. Molly called around to everyone she knew, trying to find out where he had gone. She was moments away from dialing every hotel in the Atlanta area to see if he decided to stay there rather than with her, but knew Luke wouldn’t choose a hotel; he wouldn’t waste money like that. The only other place she could think Luke would go, was to the blonde slut’s house from the grocery store. The thought of Luke staying with her, shacking up, was almost debilitating. She couldn’t stand the thought.
 

Putting her phone down and forcing herself not to start calling every strip club in the area to find the bitch, she grabbed her wine and took a swig straight from the bottle. She hadn’t had a drink in a while, ever since she’d derailed earlier in the summer, but tonight called for a drink; tonight she needed to ease the pain.
 

Lying across her couch in nothing but a pair of underwear and a tank top, she draped her head off the side of the couch as she stared at the ceiling, wondering what the hell she was going to do with her life. Was there a point in time where she was going to have to give up on Luke, just let him go? She let him go once, would she be able to do it again? She didn’t think so. The first time almost killed her, the second time would dig her grave.
 

It was getting late, and even though it was the start of the weekend the next day, she knew it was going to be a long couple of days with Luke on her mind, so she decided to call it a night. She sent a quick text to Jane and Connor, letting them know she hadn’t heard anything, corked up her wine, and turned off her lights.
 

The night was eerie as heat lightning lit up the sky, an odd occurrence for Atlanta in the fall, but they were having a strange heat wave in November. Molly looked out the window as lightning lit up the sky in the background, grateful there was no thunder because she was a baby and thunder always made her nervous.
 

Taking one last look outside as the lighting lit up the sky, her heart caught in her throat as Luke’s car and a person climbing out of it lit up right outside the window in a flash. Her heart hammered from being so startled, but just as quickly as the figure showed up, it was gone. Molly leaned over and tried to catch another look, hoping the scene she just witnessed wasn’t something she’d conjured up in her mind, but she couldn’t find any sign of him.
 

Calming her beating heart, she stepped away from her window and chalked up her sighting of Luke to her crazy mind, just as there was a knock at her door. Her heart was hammering from not only being frightened shitless, but because she had an inkling as to who was waiting for her behind her door.