Don’t Deny Me: Part Two Read online

  Paul had done it before. Lots of times. “I don’t care if you ride down with me, you know that, but I’m worried he won’t show and you’ll be stuck without a ride home.”

  “He’ll show. He has to,” Jay said. “This is the weekend he’s asking me to move in with him. I know it.”

  “I hope it’s everything you’re hoping for, Jay. That’s all.”

  Jay grinned. “Me too.”

  Alice shoved down the contents of her bag to make more room. Couldn’t. Took out a pair of sneakers she knew she wouldn’t wear and tossed them into the closet. She tried again to zip the bag, but couldn’t, and gave up with a sigh.

  “I’m nervous,” she admitted.

  “About seeing Mick?” Jay gently pushed her aside and started unpacking the bag, laying out everything in neat piles and refolding things that had become crumpled. “Look, I told you this before. You roll things, makes more room.”

  “Yes. About Mick.” Alice leaned against the dresser to watch him. Jay had paid his way through college by working as a flight attendant. He knew more about how to pack a week’s worth of clothes into a weekend bag than she ever could.

  He glanced at her. “Why?”

  “Because. We’ve talked almost every day and stuff, but this will be the first time I’ve seen him for longer than a few hours since the last time at Bernie’s.” She paused, trying to put her thoughts into words. “I don’t want to act like we’re a couple, if we’re not. And we haven’t talked about it. I mean, we aren’t sharing a room or anything like that.”

  “Have you slept with him yet?” Jay tightly rolled a sundress and tucked it in the bag.

  Heat flooded her at the memory of Mick’s hands and mouth on her. “No.”

  “You think you will this weekend?”

  She didn’t answer that, not right away, because the truth was Alice had no idea if she and Mick were going to have sex. They hadn’t talked about it, not specifically anyway, though of course she assumed he wanted to get into her panties as much as she wanted him in there. And it wasn’t like she believed in holding out for some reason, like putting a time stamp on when it was acceptable to finally get into bed together. It hadn’t happened yet because she and Mick lived far enough apart to have made their few face-to-face dates tricky enough to organize. They’d ended up meeting halfway, which meant a couple heavy-duty kissing sessions in the backseat of his car, and there’d been the smoking hot make-out session on the stairs at Bernie’s. …

  “Earth to Alice.” Jay sounded annoyed. “Hello!”

  Alice gave him an apologetic smile. “I don’t know. First times should be special, you know?”

  “I’ve known you for a long time. It would not be your first time.”

  “You know what I mean,” Alice told him. “The first time for us. I’m not sure I want to do it in Bernie’s guest bedroom with everyone around. It should be … you know. Special. What?”

  Jay had given her such a stunned look, Alice was confused.

  “Oh. My. God,” he said. “You are totally fucked, Alice. You know that, right? Utterly and completely fucked.”

  “Why?” she cried, heart and stomach both twisting.

  “You’re in love with Mick!”

  “No.” Alice shook her head firmly. “No way. It’s too soon for that.”

  “Soon or not,” Jay said, “you’d better put on your crash gear, baby, because if you aren’t yet, you’re about to fall for that guy. Super hard.”

  * * *

  “Mick! Welcome.” Cookie, Bernie’s wife, beamed and gestured for him to come inside. “We’re so glad you could join us.”

  He kissed her cheek and handed her the basket of breads and cheeses he’d picked up on the way from one of the farmers’ markets. Normally shopping in a place like that gave Mick hives, but somehow a case of light beer and some tortilla chips just didn’t seem like the right thing to bring to this kind of party. How he’d even managed to become a part of this crowd, he had no idea, but he was glad he had, because of Alice.

  “Jay and Alice are driving together and they’re on their way. Paul called to say he’d be here in a half hour. Dayna is coming, too. You haven’t met her yet. She’s a friend of mine from work. Tanya unfortunately won’t make it, she’s actually moved to Ohio to take a new job. But that makes room for new friends!” Cookie peeked into the basket and made a sound of appreciation. “Oh, this looks wonderful. You didn’t have to, Mick.”

  “Of course I did. My mom told me never to go to a party without taking something for the hostess.” Mick followed her inside and carefully closed the door behind him, then waited for an awkward second. “So … should I put …”

  Cookie, halfway up the stairs to the living room, turned. “Oh! Do you mind the rumpus room bedroom? You had it last time, and I know some people don’t care for it, but—”

  “No, that’s great, actually.” Mick looked toward the stairs to the lower level. “Let the wild rumpus start, right?”

  Cookie laughed. “Get settled, and then come upstairs. I’m going to slice this bread and we can have wine. You drink wine, don’t you, Mick?”

  “I’ll drink whatever you have,” he told her honestly, and took his things into the small basement room he’d used the last time. He tossed his bag on the bed, thinking he’d unpack it later, if at all, but for a second he sat. Testing the mattress. Thinking about Alice and if this was where they’d finally make good on all those subtle promises they’d been making to each other over the past couple of months.

  The thought stirred him up, so he forced himself to stand. In the small attached bathroom, Mick splashed his face with cool water. For good measure, he brushed his teeth. They hadn’t talked about how they were going to handle sharing what they’d been up to with the rest of the weekend crowd, but he was sure that if he had the chance to kiss Alice, he was going to take it.

  Upstairs in the kitchen, Mick took a glass of wine and plate of bread, cheese, and mustard, along with some small sausages Cookie had cut. Bernie offered him a cigar, too. Mick wasn’t much of a smoker, but when in Rome, he supposed.

  “Living like kings,” Bernie said.

  “And queens,” Cookie added archly. “But smoke outside.”

  On the deck, Mick tried not to pace or act antsy, though as forty minutes and then almost an hour passed without Alice’s arrival, he was starting to go a little nuts. Paul showed up laden with bottles of wine with labels the names of which Mick couldn’t even pronounce.

  “How’s it going?” Paul leaned against the railing, a glass of wine in his hand. He held out his hand for Mick’s cigar.

  After a second, Mick gave it to him. He watched the other man take a long puff and then look over the cigar with an assessing eye. He waved it away when Paul offered to hand it back, though. “You keep it.”

  “Not into cigars?”

  Not into sharing them with other dudes he barely knew, Mick thought, but shrugged an answer, instead. He sipped his wine and listened for the sound of tires crunching on the gravel. The French doors opened behind them, and he was already turning at the sound of a new female voice, but it wasn’t Alice. A pretty blonde in a flowy sundress stood there.

  “Hi. I’m Dayna. Cookie sent me out here to meet you … Mick?” She pointed at him. “And Paul?”

  Paul straightened. “Well, hey, now. Hi.”

  Dayna laughed and shook her head, her blond ponytail swinging. She stepped carefully out onto the deck, her feet bare. She’d painted her toenails red, Mick noticed. Everything about her seemed designed to make a man notice.

  She shook Paul’s hand, then turned to Mick. “Hi.”

  He shook it, but didn’t let their hands linger too long against each other. Dayna wasn’t used to men who didn’t linger. Mick saw that at once in the slightly confused look she gave him, but her expression turned knowing in the next second when the doors opened again. She turned to follow Mick with her gaze, but everything about his concentration had turned to Alice.

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