Little Black Dress: A Beech Grove Book Read online

  “That’s crap, and we both know it,” I said, getting angry.

  “Baby—”

  “She messed around on you? After being together for so long?” My blood heated even though if she hadn’t, he wouldn’t be in my house after an amazing weekend. And what a weekend it had been.

  Every minute that passed with him around was both exhilarating and relaxing. I had never been more comfortable with a man whom I wasn’t related to. Now, it was Sunday night, and the work week was looming over us. I wasn’t ready for it. We’d just had dinner and were lounging in the living room. He was shirtless and barefoot, in low-slung black joggers, and I knew he was not wearing anything underneath from firsthand knowledge. I, on the other hand, was in his shirt with my hair a mess but so relaxed I didn’t care. We were hanging out and talking, getting to know one another. He had just shared exactly what had happened with him and his ex, Karen. He stroked my leg, a look on his face I couldn’t name.

  “Baby.” God, I loved when he called me that. It was sweet and soft, something I didn’t think many people in the outside world would use to describe him. “It’s done.” He shrugged, and I knew before he did that he was going to change the subject. “Tell me about you.”

  “What about me?”

  “Past relationships.” He raised a brow, and I shook my head.

  “Nothing like yours. Nothing… memorable.” I made a face and sighed. “I know that sounds sorta sad and pathetic.” I laughed and shrugged. “I just haven’t gone down that road.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m a teacher, Enzo,” I said softly.

  “And?” he pressed, and I shrugged.

  “And… that means I am usually around parents and other teachers. I come home after work. There isn’t much time to meet anyone.”

  “Come on.” He laughed. “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “You should. It’s the truth.”

  “No single dads try and pick you up? Or male teachers, for that matter?”

  “I’m quiet.” I shrugged. “Honestly, if anyone flirted with me, I wouldn’t have noticed. It would have gone right over my head. At work, I’m all about work,” I confessed.

  “I can understand that. I’m the same way.”

  “So, no sexy young interns wink at you?” I teased, and he laughed. When silence fell between us, I felt the need to be honest with him.

  “I blend into the background,” I shared, “It’s part of the job—"

  “Ginny,” he cut me off, holding my hand. “The woman who walked into that club on Friday night stands out. She doesn’t blend in,” he said, and even though I knew it was a compliment, my cheeks burned with embarrassment.

  “Enzo, I wasn’t kidding when I told you I didn’t do that. Ever. Lydia talked me into buying—” I started to ramble and didn’t notice how he had scooted over before he grabbed me.

  “Oh, baby, I didn’t mean it like that.” Without another word, he pulled me to him, his body now beneath mine laid out on my couch, and I brushed his dark hair. “I just meant I would see you anywhere.” My eyes stung, and I had to bite my lip because that was exactly how he made me feel. Seen. “And even though it sucked they didn’t, I feel like a lucky SOB for it. Otherwise, someone else would have snatched you up and we wouldn’t have had these last couple of days.”

  There it was.

  A gentle reminder of what this was. And I understood.

  I might not have liked the way it made my stomach clench and my eyes burn at the idea that all we had left was the rest of the night, but at least he was being upfront.

  “You’re sweet,” I mumbled, tracing his lips and not making eye contact.

  If I only had a couple hours left, I was going to make them count.

  “I’ll show you just how sweet,” he growled against my lips, and I yelped when he hefted me up and off the couch and took me to my room.

  The moment his lips touched mine, any and all thoughts about this being the last time drifted away. No melancholy clung to the air. Not when he showed me exactly how toothachingly sweet he could be.

  Chapter Six

  Enzo

  She’s beautiful when she sleeps.

  A serenity covered her face as she slept in my arms, and all I wanted to do was shield and protect it. I’d been awake for way too fucking long. I should have slipped out of bed and headed back to my place, but I hadn’t.

  I couldn’t get myself to leave, and that fact alone freaked me the hell out.

  Newly single after eighteen years had me doubting everything Ginny made me feel.

  And fuck, it’d been a lot.

  Watching her. Being with her. Hearing her laugh.

  I found myself wanting so much more. More than I ever would have wanted with Karen. More than I would have ever expected. More than I had planned. Friday night’s plans had been simple. Get back on the saddle. Nowhere in those plans had been to start a new relationship.

  Ginny shifted and snored softly, and I brushed her hair away, so I could get a better view.

  That was exactly what Ginny Black would be.

  A long-term relationship. Commitment with a high emotional investment.

  But it wouldn’t be anything like what I’d had with Karen, and I knew it to my bones. It would be hearts and flowers and the kind of forever that had matching SUVs in the driveway and wedding bands on our left hand. Happily-ever-after kind of forever. But was I ready for that now? Did I want it now? I was closing in on forty. I was too old for this shit, wasn’t I?

  If I didn’t get the hell out of her bed and back to my place to start off the work week, I wouldn’t have only hopped back on the saddle, I would have been roped and branded by her. You already are, a quiet voice in the back of my head chimed, and I shook my head. One last look, I leaned in and closed my eyes as my lips touched her soft skin at her forehead. I breathed in slowly, letting her scent fill my lungs, taking one last hit like a junky before pressing one last kiss and slipping out of bed.

  Every step I took away from her as I grabbed my things and got dressed felt wrong. My stomach was in knots, and when I locked her front door behind me, stepping out of her house without even a note, I felt like scum.

  Ginny and I had shared something. Experienced something together these last couple of days that was more than sex. More than physical. It had felt like my soul had recognized hers as a piece I didn’t know had been missing. But that was crazy. We didn’t know each other to know that. I was probably confusing things and getting it mixed up in my head.

  I looked behind me and had to clench my hands into fists. The sun was starting to peek out of the horizon, but it felt like a dark light had been cast on my heart as I slipped into my car and drove away.

  GINNY

  Monday flew by in the blink of an eye, and sure enough, it had gone just like I’d predicted.

  A flurry of glitter and glue with a look from our school janitor that had me wincing when I’d asked to borrow the vacuum. But it had been worth it. My students had been happy with their finished product, and it had been a great way to kick off a week of holiday activities.

  By the time I had made it home, the sun had long set. My body was achy, the slight soreness a reminder of the wonderful weekend I’d had. Three incredible nights with an amazing man.

  It’d been more than my wildest dreams could have imagined when I’d let Lydia talk me into buying that tiny, little black dress a week earlier but exactly what I didn’t know I had needed.

  Stepping out of my shower, wearing nothing but a super-sized hoodie, my wet hair thrown up messily on top of my head, I felt my stomach growl and regretted not picking anything up on my way home. The salad fixings in my fridge didn’t call me. Wine for dinner? It was a fruit salad of sorts. After pouring a heavy-handed glass of sweet red, I walked over and sat on my couch, resting my head and letting my thoughts move to Enzo. Enzo. Even his name made me smile.

  He hadn’t called all day, but then again, I wasn’t expecting him to. He’
d been honest. He’d just ended a long-term thing. He hadn’t talked about anything past the weekend we’d shared, and for a man who had pushed to share that, I knew he wouldn’t have been shy if he had wanted more. Enzo hadn’t been kidding when he had said he was the type of man who didn’t play games.

  Wasn’t that just my luck?

  I go out looking for meaningless sex and end up meeting a man who knocks my socks off in bed, against a wall, and almost every surface of both our places, only to end up with a proverbial case of bad timing. Really bad timing.

  He wasn’t available, and I was old enough to know better than hope for more. Yet, if I was honest, the little stubborn strand of DNA that made me a hopeless romantic stood tall and brave even if she knew it was a dead end to do so.

  Damn.

  With a sigh, I grabbed the stack of waiting papers and got to work like I did every night. I wanted to smirk at all the amazing things we had done, but I found with every memory, I missed him. I shouldn’t have let him hang out at my place. I should have sent him on his merry way Saturday night. Instead, I sniffed the throw pillow and breathed in deeply. A small hint of his cologne still clung to it, and my heart clenched.

  I was seriously pathetic.

  We had both been out looking for the same thing. A warm body and a sexy adventure. Now, my heart, body, and mind all agreed they wanted more.

  More of the unattainable.

  But I wasn’t going to call him. Hell no. Not when he had slipped out of my house without a goodbye. I had deserved at least that. The more I thought about the way he had left, the more worked up I got. He had made it a point of making me promise not to slip out of his place, yet he had done just that. No text. No note. Nothing.

  No. I wasn’t going to call. If he had a change of heart, he knew exactly how to find me.

  Chapter Seven

  Enzo

  It hadn’t even been an entire twenty-four hours since I’d left her sleeping in her bed, lightly kissing her forehead before I’d quietly slipped out, and I missed her.

  “Knock, knock,” Frank called out, and I rolled my eyes.

  “What the hell do you want.” I bit out callously and couldn’t get myself to apologize. I was in a fucking mood.

  “Ouch. Someone’s got their trousers in a tangle.”

  “Trousers in a tangle? Jesus, not even a twenty-something-year-old wife could help lighten you up,” I bit and fought from wincing. I knew I was being a dick for no reason. I just couldn’t help myself.

  “Shut up.” He chuckled goodheartedly. “What’s up with you? Joanna mentioned you’re cranky,” he shared as he sat down in the chair across from my desk.

  “She should mind her own business,” I mumbled under my breath.

  “Relax,” he cut me off. “And don’t say something you’ll regret. Jo’s great, and she only mentioned it out of concern.”

  “Whatever.” I shrugged, looking out the window in my office.

  “So?”

  “So what?” I was being a grade-A dick.

  “What’s up with you?” he pressed, obviously unaffected by my attitude.

  “Nothing.”

  “Okay, see, I’m gonna have to call bullshit on that,” Frank said, and I gritted my teeth.

  “Me too,” Jasper said walking in, looking disheveled and overwhelmed. Two things he usually wasn’t. “Jesus, this is a Monday from hell.” He sat down next to Frank and rubbed his face.

  “What’s up, man?” Frank asked, concern clear in his tone. We had all known one another too long to pussyfoot around one another.

  “It’s my pops.” Jasper’s dad had passed after Thanksgiving. Frank and I looked at one another with wide eyes. “Seems even from the grave he likes to be a dick,” Jasper added, and I leaned across my desk.

  “What happened?” I asked, relieved to take the attention off my own sour mood.

  “His place on Mariposa Way, you know, the little suburb by the lake?” he asked, and we nodded. “He left it to me,” he shared, and we sat there quietly.

  Jasper’s dad hadn’t been an easy man, and they’d had their issues. Issues that had been swept under a rug when his parents split Jas and my junior year in high school. Frank had already graduated being two years older than us.

  “He left Joel and Jackie some shares he had in some auto parts company, and Jeremy some cars he had in storage. And get this.” He closed his eyes, leaning his head against the back of the chair. “He left my mom a hefty life insurance policy with some letter.”

  “Damn.” I sighed. That was heavy. Jasper’s mom was a great lady who had deserved better. She had never really moved on, just away.

  “How is she?” Frank asked, and we both watched Jas lift and drop his shoulders.

  “I have no idea. You know her, man; she’s going to act like everything is all shits and rainbows. I don’t even think she’s opened the letter yet.”

  “Shit,” Frank mumbled, and I couldn’t agree more.

  “I need to run something by you guys, and I’m hoping you two can see where I’m coming from,” Jasper said with a sigh, resting his elbows on his knees.

  “Shoot,” I beat Frank from saying.

  “I need some time off.” Frank and I had been waiting for this. After Jasper’s old man had passed away, he hadn’t taken a day off. If anything, he had dived in from being a workaholic to a workaholic and a half.

  “Okay,” I said slowly, studying my best friend. “What’s up?”

  “I’m gonna fix the place up and flip it.”

  “We can hire someone to do that,” Frank said as if reading my mind. Jasper in that old house might not be the best idea. Old memories and all that.

  “I know.” He rubbed his face and looked at both of us. There was something about his somber acknowledgement that formed a knot in my stomach. My parents were still together and alive. The thought of my dad not being around killed me, and I was man enough to admit it, even as an almost forty-year-old man. I couldn’t imagine my dad not being around.

  “I gotta do this,” he said with a hint of Jasper’s stubbornness crystal clear. There would be no changing his mind. Frank and I both looked at one another, silently acknowledging it.

  “Anything we can do to help?” Frank asked, taking the words from my mouth.

  “Check in. Maybe pick up a paint roller when it’s time. Bring a six-pack and a pizza once in a while.” He shrugged, faking a smile, and we both nodded. That was all shit he didn’t have to mention because we would always have his back. No matter what, he would always have us around.

  “You got it.”

  “I have a couple people in mind who can come cover for me if you think—"

  “Don’t stress about that.”

  “You hardly do shit anyhow,” Frank said, lightening the mood, and we all laughed.

  “Funny.” Jas glared, and then his facial expression softened before he cleared his throat. “Seriously, though… thanks.”

  “Whatever you need,” Frank added, and I simply nodded in agreement, because that’s how it was.

  “Well, that’s done.” He sighed and turned to look at Frank. “You talk to him? Figure what the hell crawled up his ass and died?” he asked Frank and slouched, pointing toward me.

  “I tried, but it’s him.” He shrugged, and I rolled my eyes.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re pissy,” Frank was all too happy to point out.

  “What’s wrong?” Jasper asked straight out. My eyes moved back and forth between the men I have known since we were boys, and I ran my fingers through my hair.

  “Is Karen trying to sniff around?” Frank asked, and I shook my head as I said with disgust clear in my voice, “Fuck no.”

  “Thank you!” Jas said, jumping up in his seat, extending his hand toward Frank. “You owe me a hundred bucks.”

  “Fine,” Frank muttered, taking a bill from his wallet. I wasn’t surprised by their bet. I would have done the same in their shoes.

  “I met someone
,” I shared, and they both stilled. If I weren’t so fucked up about the way I had left Gin this morning, I would have laughed at their reaction.

  “Whoa,” Jas said.

  “No shit?” Frank uttered.

  “Like a real person or something you need an air pump to blow up? Because hey, no judgement.”

  “Fuck you.” I chuckled and shook my head. “She’s fucking incredible,” I shared and looked away from them.

  “I hate to say this, bud, but considering your track record, I think we should meet her before you leap into this,” Frank cautioned, and I knew he didn’t mean it to sound like a dick, but he had no idea how fucking wrong he was.

  “Is she the first one to touch your dick since Karen?” Jas asked bluntly.

  “Shut up.” I tossed a pad of Post-Its in Jasper’s direction, which he easily caught. “And who says she touched anything?”

  “Because even though you’ve been a prick, you look like… you took a load off. Ha-ha. Get it?” Jasper wagged his eyebrows, and I rubbed my face.

  “So, what’s the problem?” Frank asked. “You met her on?”

  “Friday.”

  “Okay. And you last talked to her…” he fished, and I groaned.

  “Last night.” I groaned at the image of her safely tucked in, a satisfied smile on her angelic face running through my mind. “I left her place this morning.”

  “Wow,” Frank mumbled.

  “You really dive in head first, huh?” Jas joked.

  “Shut up,” I growled. My cheek twitched. “You guys don’t get it. She’s… incredible.”

  “Again, your track record with women?” Jasper shrugged, and I groaned.

  “I know.” The bitter taste in my mouth simmered. Bitter because I knew better than comparing Ginny with Karen. They were night and day.

  “You spent the entire weekend with this woman?” Frank asked, his brows narrowed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Fuck.” There was understanding in Frank’s eyes, and I felt like a dick.