Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (13 page)

“Your
mom does what—ninety percent?” I shrugged.

“She
likes it, though. That’s her arrangement with my dad. And, he helps.”

Cade
nodded again. “I’ve seen that,” he admitted. “I guess if my wife wanted the
occasional night off, without going out even, I’d do my part,” he said. “And,
of course I’d expect to be in charge of all the outside cleaning: raking,
painting the house, power-washing everything, all that stuff.”

I
smiled, and felt my cheeks heating up. “You’re going to make some woman a real
good husband someday,” I told him.

“I
hope so,” Cade said, glancing at me. “Now it’s just a matter of finding ‘some
woman’ who’ll put up with me working as hard as I do and deal with me being a
stubborn ass.”

I
laughed and shook my head. “You’re a good man. I think maybe your problem is
that you’re looking too hard for a specific woman, instead of opening yourself
up to the right one.”

Cade
stopped at the light just before the movie theater and looked over at me. “You
may be right about that,” he said. He smiled again, and I felt my heart skip in
my chest. “I guess I’ll have to open myself up a bit.”

Chapter
Sixteen

Cade

When
we got to the theater, I still wasn’t sure whether or not Autumn was
considering it a date. Nothing I tried to say during the car ride into town had
given me any clues; and she was dressed the same way I’d seen her dressed more
than once when she’d left the farm for something even more mundane than a trip
to the movies.

I
parked the truck and hurried out of the seat, closing the door behind me and
walking quickly to the other side of the car to help her down. She took my hand
in hers and I marveled at how soft her skin was, even though I knew she worked
every bit as hard as I did, even if it was at slightly different tasks.

We
walked up to the ticket window and I wanted—more than anything—to get hold of
her hand again, to just hold it the rest of the day. But that wasn’t in the
cards. I reminded myself that I’d made a promise, and that unless she made a
real, concerted, obvious move on me, I wasn’t going to go back on it. “What did
we decide we were going to see?” Autumn frowned as she tried to remember.

“I
don’t think we actually decided,” she told me. “I think we got sidetracked.”

I
considered that and nodded. “That sounds about right,” I agreed. “Well, we have
the big list right here.” I pointed to the board at the back of the ticket
booth, and we both studied it while we waited for the two people in front of us
to make up their minds. We settled on a comedy—something light, that neither of
us knew too much about but had heard, vaguely, was pretty good, and then came
the first moment of truth: who would pay for the tickets?

“Why
don’t we just each pay for our own?” Autumn held my gaze and smiled slightly.
“We don’t want to hold anyone up behind us arguing about who’s going to buy.” I
didn’t like the idea, but I accepted it, and we each bought one ticket for the
next showing.

We
stepped inside the building and the smell of popcorn was almost too much to
bear. “Okay,” I told her, my fingers itching to touch her hand again, but
staying right where they were. “I am buying us both popcorn. It doesn’t make
sense to buy it separately.”

Autumn
pressed her lips together and I knew she was debating it just as harshly as I
had been. “Okay,” she said. “But just popcorn.”

“No
drink?” I shook my head. “Total rookie mistake. You’re out of practice. Popcorn
to share, a drink for each of us, and you pick one candy.”

“I
said popcorn!” She slapped my upper arm and I saw a quick, admiring look on her
face. “Nothing else.”

“You
need a soda and candy, too,” I insisted. “The soda will keep you from choking
when the half-popped kernels get stuck in your throat, and the candy cuts all
that salt.”

Autumn
pouted, but when we got to the cashier, she gave in. “Fine,” she said. “A coke
and a pack of the nonpareils.”

“Excellent
choice,” I told her. I ordered our snacks, and we headed to the theater where
our movie was about to start.

I
barely paid attention to the movie at all. It was a comedy that I’d figured
we’d both like, and a few times I laughed mostly because I heard everyone else
in the theater laughing, but I was too aware of Autumn sitting in the seat next
to mine to really take in what the movie was even about beyond what I’d seen in
trailers.

Every
so often, her fingers brushed against mine in the popcorn bucket, I felt her
shift next to me in the chair, or I caught the scent of her perfume or her
shampoo or something. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the movie, my
thoughts twisted right back around to her.

I
wanted to actually hold her hand—I wanted to move in my seat so I could just
barely feel her body against mine. But nothing that Autumn had done had
indicated that she thought it was really a date between us.

I
told myself I wasn’t falling in love with her. I just liked and respected her,
admired her devotion to her daughter and the fact that she was brave enough to
raise Addie without Titan. She was a perfectly wonderful woman…exactly the kind
of woman a guy could fall for easily.

I
managed to get out of my head towards the end of the movie a little bit, by
force of will and nothing else.
 
Autumn’s
face lit up from the screen in front of us was beautiful, but I knew she’d want
to talk about the movie once it was done, and I couldn’t tell her that I’d
spent the whole movie thinking of her, watching her reactions, enjoying her
presence. It would be too creepy.

I
barely understood how it ended up on the screen because I didn’t really know
what the plot had been other than that there was some misunderstanding between
the two main characters—same as just about every comedy that was ever written.
We waited for the few people in the theater with us to walk out during the
credits, and ate the last of the popcorn and drank the last of our sodas, and I
was at a loss. I didn’t want it to end, but I couldn’t think of any way to
justify keeping Autumn away from her home and her baby for longer.

“I
just need to duck into the ladies’ room real quick,” she told me as we left the
theater.

“Good
idea,” I said, gesturing to the men’s room across the hallway. “I’ll meet you
back out here in a minute.”

I
used the facilities and checked myself in the mirror, I didn’t look half bad
for a guy who’d been out in a field half the day before coming to the movies. I
could have wished that I’d had a chance to change clothes before coming into
town, but overall, I thought I wouldn’t shame my mother, being out in public
the way I was.

I
washed my hands and left the restroom, looking around for Autumn. I’d started
to think of a way to prolong the date—but I’d have to be careful about it. I
couldn’t make it too obvious or make it sound too much like a date.

I
spotted her still drying her hands on some paper towels; she tossed them into
the trash and looked up, meeting my gaze, and my heart beat faster in my chest
almost instantly. “Hey,” she said, closing the distance between us.

“Do
you have to go straight home from here?” I gestured to the theater around us.
“I mean, I understand if you want to get back to Addie, but it seems like just
the duration of one movie isn’t all that long of a break.”

Autumn
smiled slowly and I saw the color rising up in her cheeks. “Mom said she’d take
care of Addie for several hours,” she replied. “If you have something in mind,
I’d be game. I do need to be back probably by dinner, but that’s still hours
away.”

“We
could go back to my place, grab a beer,” I suggested. “It’s not that far from
here, and that’d be cheaper and easier than finding a bar serving right now.” She
nodded.

“Let’s
go, then,” she said, smiling again.

I
resisted the urge to take her hand in mine once again—I still didn’t know what
she was thinking, how she felt about the situation between us. I remembered
that she’d invited me to come by her place, the guest house she lived in back
behind her parents’ house, but I’d turned her down then. I didn’t know if she’d
really meant it as that kind of invitation in the first place.

I
drove us across town to my place, feeling jittery all the while, talking about
the movie I’d barely even taken in. I was sure at any minute, Autumn would ask
me about something I hadn’t absorbed, and I’d have to admit that I’d been
paying attention to her the whole time. And then, she’d get creeped out and ask
me to take her home.

“I
have to admit, I was kind of surprised you invited me over,” Autumn said as we
stepped into my house together.

“Why
are you surprised?” I closed the door behind us and started towards the
kitchen. “I hope Yeungling is okay?”

“Fine,”
she replied, nodding. “It’s just a little surprising because I invited you to
my place a while back and you thought it wouldn’t be appropriate or something.”

I
shrugged, opening the fridge and taking out two beers. “I’ve had a bit of a
change of heart. Mostly, I was worried about your parents thinking poorly of
me.”

“So,
I’m assuming you don’t want me to tell anyone about hanging out here after the
movies,” she said, making it not quite a question. “What should our cover story
be?”

I
opened the two beers and handed one over to her. “Hmm, good question,” I said.
I led her into the living room and sat down on the couch. Autumn hesitated for
just a moment, and then sat down next to me, taking a sip of her beer. “We
could say we went for a walk in Sanderson Park,” I suggested.

“That
doesn’t sound like a cover story, not at all,” she said sarcastically. “How
about if we went around the mall a bit? Just to kill time.”

“And
didn’t buy anything?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Hey,
I can walk through a mall without buying anything at all,” she told me tartly.

I
laughed. “Okay, duly noted,” I said. “So we walked around the mall for a bit to
kill time. That sounds decent to me.” I drank a gulp of my beer, and set it
down. “Now that we have that out of the way…” I tried to think of something to
talk about, but I couldn’t really come up with anything.

Autumn
told me a story about something Addie had done the day before, and that Titan
had told her that he had no intention of coming back, even to visit his
daughter. She asked me about the other jobs I’d had before becoming her
father’s farmhand, and as we drank our beers, I started to relax little by
little.

I
could tell she was beginning to relax, too. While we talked, she started moving
closer to me on the couch, and I wondered—was she inviting me to make a move or
was it just unconscious?

I
finally gave into the temptation I’d been feeling for hours, and reached out,
wrapping my fingers around Autumn’s. For a second, she was absolutely still,
and then she tightened her hand around mine, and met my gaze.

“I—I
thought…” she licked her lips, and the sight of her pink tongue darting across
her lips was almost too much for me to take. I took a deep breath and grabbed
my beer again, taking another quick sip.

“Let’s
just see where this goes, okay?” I raised my half-empty bottle in a salute and
Autumn smiled slightly, her cheeks bright pink and her eyes almost glowing.

I
knew without asking that she was more than a little interested in doing more,
but I didn’t want to push her outside of her comfort zone. She hadn’t been with
anyone, at least as far as I knew, since Titan had left her more than a year
before. I didn’t want to push anything too hard.

We
kept talking, and getting closer, and after a while, when I could tell that
Autumn wasn’t going to push me away, I leaned in and brushed my lips against
hers. Just a quick, brief kiss—our first kiss together.

I
pulled back for just a second, and then I kissed her again, harder, deeper. I
slid my tongue along her lips, and she opened up her mouth to me. She tasted
like beer and popcorn and something sweeter, richer. Something I couldn’t get
enough of.

Autumn
let go of my hand, and I felt her arms wrap around my shoulders, her body
pressing against mine. I let my hands wander over her curves, exploring her,
touching her everywhere—but slowly. I still didn’t want to push her too hard, I
still didn’t want to overstep my boundaries.

In
a matter of moments, we were making out like horny teenagers, almost groping
each other, kissing deeper and deeper.

Chapter
Seventeen

Autumn

As
Cade and I made out, more and more hot and heavy, I almost made myself stop.
There was a little voice in the back of my head that told me that I should pull
back, that I should pull away and tell Cade that I should go home.

But
I could feel the heat surging through my body. I was already getting turned on,
in just a matter of moments, just from kissing and a little touching. It had
been so long since I’d been with any guy that I couldn’t even remember ever
feeling this hot: all over, my body tingling, every nerve awake.