Keep Me Safe (13 page)

“Damn. Now I’m
really
sorry I had to work.”

“Well, now you have to see me in it all night in front of other people.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t use my imagination.” He walked in and shut the door, keeping his distance behind me like he was afraid to get too close or he wouldn’t be able to stay away. “I know I’m a few minutes early, did you want to wait or are you ready to go?”

I walked over and grabbed my purse, then used the counter to steady myself and slipped on my heels. I looked over at him, and he was gorgeous as usual. I felt some sort of need for him…right this minute. I walked over to him and stood right in front of him, our bodies almost touching. We were almost eye to eye because of the height my heels afforded me. I leaned forward and kissed him, with a very calm passion that I hoped would drive him crazy all night. He deserved it after what he did to me last night.

I stopped kissing him when I could feel him getting more eager and pulled back to look at him. His eyes were full of so much light. I couldn’t call it love since that would be crazy to be in love already, but I could truly see adoration in his eyes. The joy it made me feel was indescribable.

“Now we can go,” I said quietly. “I just needed to kiss you.”

After a few seconds of silence, Parker grabbed my hand and leaned towards the front door.

“Are you sure we have to go to dinner? I’m having a hard time leaving after that.”

“Yes, we have to go. And you think I had an easy time last night after you left? You totally enjoyed torturing me. It’s only fair I do it in return right?”

“Okay, you make a valid point, but that doesn’t mean you win. Two can play that game! Let’s go before I change my mind and we don’t leave this house.”

We walked out of the house and got into his car, which had the top closed.

“What, not going topless tonight?” I teased.

“Well, I figured you wouldn’t want messy hair before your best friend’s birthday dinner. Now that I see you like this, I made a good choice. You look beautiful.” He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it with our fingers intertwined. It sent a tingle all the way down my arm.

When we got to Maggiano’s, I could see Stephannie’s SUV just a few spots over. Parker turned the car off and went to get out, but I grabbed his arm to stop him.

“I love her dearly, but she doesn’t have a filter sometimes. I made her promise not to embarrass me, but I never made her promise the same about you. So just go with it if you can.”

“I see every type of person imaginable in my line of work. You have nothing to worry about. I can handle a mom slash teacher with a lack of a filter.” He laughed. “Besides, unless she tells me you’re really a dude, there’s not much she could say that would offend me or make me haul ass.” He got out and walked around to open my door. At the same time, I heard a little voice yelling my name.

“Sadie! Sadie!” I turned to hear Stephannie’s youngest son Alex calling for me at the same time that he slammed into my waist hugging me.

“Hey big guy! You must be two inches taller from the last time I saw you!” Alex was five, and the spitting image of Stephannie’s husband JT; dark hair, a couple freckles across his nose, and to-die-for green eyes.

“I think so! Dad says I’m going to be as tall as Taylor by next year!” Taylor was their oldest son. He was seven and a perfect combination of them both. He was such a sweetheart and was so kind to everyone. Well, unless of course he was fighting with Alex, which was all the time.

“Alex, this is my friend Parker. Can you use your manners and say hi to him?”

“Hi Parker,” he said quietly. “Are you Sadie’s boyfriend?”

Parker stuck his hand out and shook hands with Alex.

“Hi Alex, it’s nice to meet you. And yes, I’m her boyfriend.” Parker looked over at me and winked.

Stephannie and JT walked around from behind the car, Taylor walking behind them with a Nintendo DS holding his attention. Stephannie walked over and hugged me, then walked over to hug Parker.

“It’s nice to finally meet you Parker. I’ve heard as much as I can pry out of this prude, but it’s all been good things, I promise.”

“Glad to hear it,” Parker told her. “Nice to finally meet you too, since it doesn’t really count from behind a window.” Stephannie almost looked like she was blushing, a reaction I had never seen out of her before. It was pretty amusing.

“Hey, I’m JT.” The two guys shook hands and Stephannie lead the way towards the front of the restaurant.

When we were seated, JT and Stephannie sat across from Parker and me, with Alex and Taylor both sitting at each end of the table. Taylor ended up next to Parker, Alex next to me. The waitress came over to take our drink order and I decided on a red wine, Parker ordered a beer.

“Taylor, stop being rude and put the video game away,” Stephannie told him in that very quiet, but very firm, mother-like voice.

“But mom, I just got to level twelve!”

“Unless you want it to go in the trash, put it away.” Taylor sighed and put the game next to him on the table. Alex had crayons and had already tuned us out.

“So, Parker,” Stephannie started in right away. “How do you like being a police officer?”

“I love it. I actually just got promoted to detective, so I just started that this week.”

“Oh, congratulations! Sadie mentioned that the other day.”

“Thanks! It’s already gotten off to a good start, so I’m hoping it stays that way. They’re working a pretty difficult case right now, so it took a lot of effort to get caught up to speed on all of that,” he took a sip of his beer, “but I’d rather not bore you with that. How do you like being a teacher?”

“I started playing the violin when I was ten, and it sort of stuck. There wasn’t really a whole lot besides orchestra that I was good at besides boys, so teaching it seemed logical at the time. I love it, but high school students test my patience sometimes.” We were laughing when the waitress came back to take our orders. When Parker and I finished ordering, Stephannie relayed what everyone in her family wanted. JT was helping Alex with his picture.

Parker laid his hand right above my knee and gave it light squeeze. I put my hand on top of his and looked over to smile at him. He shifted slightly and leaned forward until we were cheek to cheek, unable to see each other’s eyes anymore. He brushed the hair away from my face and neck with his hand and I could feel his breath on the side of my face.

“You are, by far, the most gorgeous girl in this restaurant,” he whispered. “How about you come over to my house tonight so I can make last night up to you?” He pulled away from me without an answer and shifted back in his chair, giving my knee a light squeeze again. I looked at him knowing that my face was probably beet red already. I nervously mashed my lips together and nodded my head. His lips turned up in a sideways smirk and his knee and leg rubbed up against mine under the table.
Holy hell
.

“How’s the new business JT?” I tried changing the subject, but I had to clear my throat to get any of the words to come out.

“It’s great. A friend and I came up with a new business plan last weekend and I think we’re finally going to get somewhere. The landscaping business is doing fine, but if all goes well, hopefully I won’t have to do anything but hire someone to run it.”

“Can we not talk about that?” Stephannie said, obviously annoyed. “I’m still not convinced and I’d rather not be pissed off on my birthday.” We changed the subject and started talking about the boys - how they were doing at school, how the renovations on their house were going.

I was going to ask Alex how he liked kindergarten when I looked over and saw Parker coloring with him. I just sat there silently and listened to their conversation. They were discussing who was better between Superman and Batman. Alex swore Batman was ‘way cooler’, and Parker told him no way. 

I didn’t think it was possible to feel so much love and so much pain all at the same time. Parker was amazing with him. Not that I doubted him around kids after seeing him with Tyler, but seeing him with Alex who was much younger made my heart swell. I realized the conversations about kids would have to come much sooner than I anticipated. I needed to lay it all out on the table before I was more captivated than I already was, if that was even possible.

“Are you okay?” I realized I was staring at Parker, but my thoughts had wandered.

“Yeah I’m fine, why?”

“Your eyes are glossy. They weren’t like that a minute ago, that’s all.”

“Oh, I think it’s just my allergies. I’m fine.”

He smiled at me and started talking to JT about his landscaping business. Stephannie looked at me, almost as if she knew what I was thinking. She smiled, then tilted her head towards Parker and stuck her thumb up right over the edge of the table like she was secretly giving me her approval. She knew I didn’t need it, but she always knew she could make me feel better.

After dinner was over, I told Stephannie happy birthday and said goodbye to the boys. JT gave me a hug like he always did and the boys whined that they had to go home and go to bed. Parker told them all how nice it was to meet them and we walked back to his car. As soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, my phone beeped.

You’re right. He’s awesome. Alex has been talking about him since we got in the car. You’ll be fine, I promise <3

I knew she was right. She usually was. I needed to stop worrying about what could happen and just go with it. I smiled at her message and Parker looked over at me.

“What’s got you smiling over there?”

“Oh, just Stephannie. She said Alex won’t stop talking about you and that she thinks you’re awesome.”

“Did you have doubts about me?”

“Oh…no, not at all. She just knows how I get when I overthink stuff.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have to make sure you know you have nothing to worry about.”

He reached for my hand and held it for the fifteen minutes it took to get to his house.

Fifteen

We pulled into the driveway of Parker’s house and I took in the outside. It was a modest sized house and looked perfect on the outside. The yard was well kept and there were flowers that lined the entire length of the porch. Parker got out to open the door for me and grabbed me by the hand to walk me to the door.

“I never ended up cleaning this week, so you’ll have to ignore the mess,” he said, pausing before opening the door.

“I’m not really worried about what your house looks like. It can’t be that bad.”

After we walked in, I wondered what he meant by mess. There was a laundry basket with some clothes folded in it, some dry cleaning bags hanging on a hook by the bathroom that was open, and some papers on one end of the couch.

“This is a mess? My house is messier than this when it’s clean,” I laughed.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had anyone over here but my family. I guess I was just nervous.”

He walked over and took the papers off the couch, setting them on the counter that separated the living room and kitchen.

“Do you want to sit down?” I walked over to the dark brown leather couch and sat on the far side. Parker walked over and sat down next to me. He lifted my legs to lay them on his, taking my shoes off and letting them hit the floor. “I don’t know how you or any other women walk in those. My dress shoes hurt my feet and they’re flat.”

“I’m not all that fond of them either, but I’ve always heard they make your legs look longer. Does it work?”

“They look perfect to me.” Parker rubbed his fingers back and forth on my leg right above my ankle. “Thanks for coming over. The way I said it, I wasn’t sure what you thought my intentions were.”

“If I thought you had bad intentions, I wouldn’t have come over Parker. You helped me through a pretty big melt down and still don’t think I’m a nutcase. That takes a saint.” I smiled and grabbed his hand, putting it under mine on my lap. “There are a couple things I want to talk to you about though.”

“Hold that thought,” he said holding one finger up. He moved my legs and stood up, walking into the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink? I have soda, juice, water, beer…”

“Beer is perfect.”

“All I have is Miller Lite, is that okay?”

“That’s the best there is.”

“Is that the only kind you like? It is sexy that you like beer though.”

“I’m from Wisconsin. We’re very serious about our beer there.”

“That makes perfect sense. Smart people,” he said with a smile. He walked back over to the couch holding a beer in each hand and handed me one. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Um, just a couple things I sort of remembered when we were at the restaurant.”

“Oh yeah? Thanks for inviting me by the way, it was fun. Stephannie’s kids are awesome. Alex and I had a serious conversation about who was better between Batman and Spiderman, but I let him win that one.”

“Yeah, he’s a stubborn little guy.”

“I imagine he gets that from his mom?”

“Yep, she’s definitely stubborn.”

“You probably have to be as a parent. Tyler got his way for a very long time before Beth and Matt put their foot down. He’s a good kid, but he used to be somewhat of a brat.”

“Yeah, he seems like a good kid.”

“He definitely is. He’s my buddy. We hang out all the time. Most of the time we play video games, but it’s always fun. He usually beats me, but I at least pretend like I know what I’m doing.” He smiled and laid his head back on the top of the couch. “I can’t wait to have kids of my own. It took me a long time to realize that’s what I wanted, but it is. Beautiful wife, white picket fence, kids playing in the yard…I want all of that stuff. What about you?” He rolled his head to face me, waiting for some kind of response.

My heartbeat picked up and I fumbled for words. What do I say to that?
Well, I can’t have kids so you’re on your own?

“Um, yeah. I don’t want a beautiful wife, but the rest of it sounds good.” I faked my response the best I could.