Bellissimo Rilascio (Beautiful Release): The Family Series #3 (8 page)

“No, Bianca, you aren’t. You’re human. So what does all of that tell you?”

“I fucked up. I let him go of him instead of letting him in. But he was in; I just never let him know it. I allowed him to believe the worst because it was easier than admitting the opposite. That I love him.”

“You can tell him whenever you’re ready. I’m not telling you that will fix everything or you will end up together, but it will help you move forward.”

“What if it’s not that easy?”

“What if it is?” Touché, Doc.

Chapter Ten

Dakota

Work.

Sleep.

Repeat.

That’s what I’ve done for six months since leaving my home, my friends . . . my heart. Each day gets easier, and that doesn’t sit right with me. It should be harder to be gone each day, and I feel guilty for mending when I exacted so much misery. The fact that a certain neighbor is helping alleviate some of my guilt doesn’t make it better. Lisa has turned out to be . . . unexpected. After dancing around each other for a few weeks, learning a lot about her from the paper-thin walls we share was amusing to say the least; I’ve come to crave Thursday Wine Nights with her and Maura. They’re enlightening and show me a different side of Lisa than I get from our occasional chats and shared meals. All platonic.

I raise my hand to knock, but the door opens before my fist makes contact. Maura is peering at me with her signature smirk that seems to be constantly on show when I’m in her presence. “You’re not the pizza delivery guy,” she states.

“Uh, not the last time I checked.”

“Hell, if you were it would be like every cheesy porno flick come to life. I’d let you give me your sausage any day of the week.”

“Maura!” Lisa comes flying from the other room, her cheeks flaming. Her comments don’t bother me in the least; it’s kind of amusing and makes me think of Bianca. My heart doesn’t seize when I think of her this time. Progress.

“I’m not here delivering pizza . . . or anything else, just stopping by to see my neighbor and ask her if she wants to have dinner with me tomorrow night?” That took some balls on my part. I debated whether I was ready to leave my past behind me, and if I was willing to start something, anything really, with someone else, but something drew me to this girl. She has charmed me. We’ve done the quick take-out here and there, but nothing as intimate as a Friday night dinner. A date.

I still don’t have answers. I don’t know if I can leave my past in Miami. Buried and closed. I don’t think Bianca or the love I feel for her is something I will ever be truly ready to forget, but I haven’t heard from her in six months, and even with Bronson updating me, I feel the connection severing. It was once a connection I relied on, strived for, and nourished the best way I knew how. When she’s ready to reach out, I’ll be here, and we can take it from there. I watch Lisa’s eyes grow in shock, and I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. I don’t want to hurt another person, but she intrigues me.

“She says yes,” Maura answers.

“She hasn’t said anything, Maura.” I pointedly look at Lisa and allow her to accept or decline.

“Why?” She slaps her hand to her mouth.

“What she meant is ‘why that’s perfect, be here to pick me up at seven.’” Maura again.

I squeeze my lips closed to prevent the laughter. “Lisa?”

“Oh. Um. Sure. Seven. That’s good.”

“Have a nice night, ladies.” I wink at them before heading next door.

“You could have made it better reenacting the scene running through my head.”

“Maura, shut the fuck up.” That dirty word sent a jolt to my cock and made my heart rate accelerate. It’s the most aggressive thing I’ve heard from her mouth.

I shut my door before grabbing a beer from the fridge. Three. Two. One.
“Maura, what the fuck is your problem?”

I love these walls. “I don’t have a problem. You, on the other hand, acted like you have gone completely Helen Keller in a matter of ten seconds. You’ve crushed on him for months, had meals, moaned to me how hot he is and all the things you want to do to him. He finally asks you out, and suddenly you can’t speak.”

What does she want to do with me? “First, I’m not crushing on him, lusting maybe, but I don’t know enough about him to have a formative opinion, so it definitely is not crushing.”

“Lisa, quit with textbook jargon. Lust. Crush. Whatever. Hey, did you hear that? I just rhymed.”

“Congratulations Mother-fucking-Goose. Second, I have never told you anything I want to do with him, that’s been your running commentary.”

“Only because you’re too much of a novice. That pink rabbit you have stashed in your nightstand doesn’t talk dirty to you, so I was giving you some pointers. And about that rabbit . . . you went shopping without telling me.”

“You’re insane. Asylum-ready insane! You went through my nightstand?”

“You have that Kama Sutra book, and I have a date Saturday. I wanted to be prepared.”

“No, the hell I don’t have that book. You took it last year for another date.”

“Oh, that explains why I couldn’t find it. So tell me, did you walk into the store like a big girl and buy your new toy on your own?”

“No,” her voice is barely audible, so I stand up and press my ear against the wall. “I ordered it online.”

“Blind shipping? You paid extra for blind fucking shipping didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Lisa, own your orgasms. Demand them. Don’t be ashamed. Did you see that website I sent you last night?”

“The build-a-man? Did you see how expensive they are?”

“No, I don’t need them. Obviously from the size of the rabbit you have you don’t either.” I have to adjust my straining cock and wonder exactly how big vibrators come.

“I haven’t used it.”

“I’m ordering you the build-a-man.”

“Shut up, Maura.”

The knock on the door interrupts their conversation, and I feel like I’ve been overloaded with information. I turn the game on, sit down with my beer, and contemplate what makes her tick. She’s so different from anyone I’ve ever been interested in.

Pure with no expectations.

Wary of situations . . . like she looks before she leaps.

Sweet with a hint of sassy.

Almost like Bianca and Callie in one person.

At seven, I’m standing in front of her door with flowers and a bottle of wine, acting like a fucking teenager on his first date with sweaty palms and an overactive libido. I take a deep breath and knock. The vision that opens the door makes all the saliva in my mouth dry up. Her hair barely reaches her shoulders. She has it pulled up on one side showcasing the curve between her shoulder and neck. Her face isn’t overly made up but has a natural glow. I lose myself in the depth of her blue eyes, reminding me of a turbulent ocean. She doesn’t reach my chest even in heels that make her short legs extremely sexy. “You look beautiful.” I see the red creeping up her cheeks.

“Thanks,” she murmurs while staring at the pattern garnishing the floor of her entryway. I nudge her chin with my free hand. When she makes eye contact with me, I hand her the flowers and wine.

“For Thursday nights with Maura.”

“Thank you. How did you know she comes over for wine?” Insert foot in mouth.

Honesty. If I’ve learned nothing in the past year, it’s that honesty and facing shit head-on is the way to go. “I have a confession. The walls here . . . they’re very thin.” Her mouth gapes, and her eyes widen. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have eavesdropped.”

“Y-y-y-yo-you heard everything?”

“No, sometimes you don’t talk that loud.”

“Oh, God. I’m mortified. You should be ashamed of yourself for listening. I can only imagine what you heard. Shit, I’m so embarrassed. We should probably postpone. For eternity. Yeah, I don’t think this is going to work.” Her incessant rambling is cute as hell.

“Lisa, we aren’t cancelling. I should be ashamed, but I’m not. You aren’t exactly forthcoming when I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to get to know you. Nothing I heard should have you embarrassed, but I’m thinking your friend needs an intervention of sorts.”

“For what?”

“She’s funny, I’ll give her that, but she has no filter. That can’t be healthy.”

Her smile breaks through and then disappears. “You did not just insult my best friend and then ask me to go out with you. I don’t care how fucking hot you are, you can’t insult a girl’s best friend.”

Fiery. I like this side of her. “I didn’t exactly insult her, but you two are polar opposites. I’m sorry, can we start over?”

Her eyes close and she inhales, “Sounds like a plan. I have a few conditions.”

“Name them.”

“You don’t ever insult Maura again, and you act like everything you
overheard
didn’t happen.”

“Deal. But I guess the present I got you for the end of the night is out then.”

Her eyebrows rise, “Why?”

“It’s an industrial pack of D batteries.” Her face turns beet red as she bends over, laughing so hard tears stream down her face. “Kidding, but glad that ended all the awkward talk.”

“You got me good, but that’s your only mention of the conversations you never heard.”

“Got it.”

“Shall we go?”

“Your chariot awaits.” I take her arm, and once she looks up, I place my hand at the small of her back and lead her to my car.

“Where are we going?”

“Emeril’s.”

“Holy hell, Dakota Hyatt, you’re pulling out the big guns.”

“Well you’ve been kind of standoffish for a while, so I’m trying to impress you.”

“I’m really like that?”

“Lisa, I don’t even know what you’re in school for.”

“You never asked.” Hmmm. I thought I did. “You have this aloofness about you. Like look but don’t touch. Don’t get to close, or you’ll get burned.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a dick.”

“I didn’t say you were a dick. Although, the first day we met you were. I’m just saying maybe we’ve both been avoiding any depth for our own reasons.”

“So let’s end that tonight.”

“Nothing off the table?”

“I’m an open book.”

“Me too.”

Funny, we don’t speak a word the entire way to dinner, each silently building a list of questions to fire at one another. Or at least I am.

Once we order, I dive in. “So, what are you going to school for?”

“I’m actually going back to school. I have my nursing degree and practiced for a year in ICU. I’m going back for my nurse anesthetist license.”

“Your what?”

“Nurse anesthetist. Providing anesthesia. Knocking people out legally.” She laughs at my cluelessness.

“Wow. Impressive. How old are you?”

“I just turned twenty-four. You?”

“Just turned twenty-six, and you already know I’m a DEA agent.” I notice her smile dim a bit, “How much longer do you have in school?”

“I technically graduate in a month if I get all my certifications and intern hours. An informal one. Thank God. It’s been hell, but I’m excited about the new opportunities.”

“Sounds tough. Why’d you want to go into that field?”

“It sounds corny, but when I was seven, I broke my arm and had to have surgery. The woman delivering the anesthesia had no bedside manner, and I was terrified. I want to be able to help make a scary situation less traumatic, put people at ease, maybe make a small difference in someone’s day. Why’d you go into law enforcement?”

“Mine’s cornier. Justice. Right the wrongs. My sister was murdered in our driveway when I was fifteen, and it left an impression on me. Actually, she wasn’t my sister but my birth mother, although I only found that out a few years ago.”

“Wow. That’s a lot. How’d you deal with it all?”

“Not well. That’s kind of how I ended up here. A lot of misfortunes and bad decisions. I had to get away.”

“So you fucked up on the job, and this is your punishment.”

“No, I fucked up in life. I chose this.”

Silence. I’ve probably said too much and scared her away.

“Favorite color?”

“You’re just going to let all that go?”

“For right now. I’m hoping we have more time to get deep, but we’ve covered enough now.”

“I hope so, too.”

“One more heavy question?”

“Shoot. I told you earlier, I’m an open book.”

“This self imposed exile . . . what’s her name?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Honestly, I wasn’t sure until just now.”

“Bianca.”

“And if Bianca called you this second, would we be sitting here?” I don’t answer her, mulling her question around. “Honesty, you promised me that.”

“I’m not sure.”

“I can live with that, I think. So let me guess, you’re a guy who embraces pink?”