My Only - Alex & Jamie (30 page)

“Oh,” She sighed looking down relieved that’s all it was. Then after reading the text she bit her lip nervously, “Oh.”

Alex had written:
I miss you. Have fun at the shower. Now I’m thinking of you in a shower…naked in a shower…call me as soon as you get home…I want to see you…you may think blue balls are good...but I don’t. I know you want to throw a pillow at me right now but remember what happens when you do…

Jamie was mortified. Still, she figured she couldn’t just sit here staring at her suggestive text message so she put on her bravest face and looked up.

“We weren’t snooping, honest.” Amber held up her first two fingers indicating ‘scouts honor,’ “I was passing the phone around to see whose it was and Haley recognized the number from the text. Then Sherlock,” she motioned to Katie, “figured out it was your phone.”

“It’s fine.” Jamie said, “I’m just embarrassed.”

“Why?” Krista asked seeming to be genuinely baffled, “You should be proud. If my cousin had sent that message to any other girl - present company excluded”, she motioned to Katie, Amber and Chelle the only non-relatives at the table, “in this town they would probably have posted it on Facebook by now.”

“Jamie would never do that,” Chelle said, and then sighing, she dreamily batted her eyelashes, “that’s why Alex loves her.”

“Did you read the text? I don’t think that’s the only reason he loves Jamie,” Amber teased.

Everyone laughed, throwing in their own one-liners about showers and what Alex loved.

Krista raised her cup of punch, and cleared her throat, “I would like to propose a toast,” everyone raised their glasses, “To Jamie for saving my incredible, amazing, lovable - sometimes
too
lovable - cousin from a lifetime of meaningless one night stands.”

“Hey,” Amber's arms flew up as if she had taken offense to the toast, “Not all one night stands are meaningless.”

“Here we go again.” Haley, who worked with Amber at Bella, dropped her head to the table dramatically. “Seriously you need to move on. It was years ago. You don’t even know his name.”

All eyes turned to Amber who sat perfectly still, glaring at Haley, “Thanks Hales. Did you need to get so specific?”

Haley lifted her head, eyes widening as if she was just realizing what she had said, “Oops.”

Chelle pointed at Amber, “That’s like instant karma for reading Jamie’s text.”

“I didn’t know whose phone it was!” Amber defended her actions.

“Semantics. Moving on,” Katie rubbed her hands together, “Okay, years ago. Don’t know his name. Sooo...vacation hook up?”

“Sort of...” Amber hedged.

“I knew it!” Katie snapped her fingers, grinning like the Cheshire cat.

“But not the good kind,” Amber said, her tone tinged with melancholy.

“Oh.” Katie’s face fell, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I was in D.C. at a ceremony to receive a purple heart on behalf of my brother, Aaron,” then turning to Jamie explained, “He was killed in a car bombing in Afghanistan.”

“I’m so sorry.” Jamie’s heart went out to her.

“Thanks,” Amber said. Her voice shaking, she sniffed, “Anyway, it had been a tough day and my mom had not made it any easier. I had finally gotten her in her room and she was passed out. I went down to the hotel bar to have a drink and after I had been there for about ten minutes he sat down next to me, on my left.

“I didn’t look over at him right away, but my whole body instantly felt hyper-aware of him. I hadn’t ever had that kind of a reaction to someone, it felt so primal. It made me nervous, so I just stared down at my rum and coke. He tapped on the bar to get the bartender's attention and his arm brushed mine. And I kid you not, all the hairs on my arm stood up and a chill ran through my entire body. He ordered a bourbon, and when he spoke, it was so deep, so sexy…it reminded me of a voice from another era.”

Sophie sighed, “I love deep voices.”

“Then you picked the right guy,” Katie smiled at Sophie, “When I came back to Harper’s Crossing and heard Bobby talk for the first time, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground. I couldn’t believe it, he sounded so…manly. But we digress. Go on, Amber.”

“Then another guy sits down beside me, to my right, and starts throwing pick-up lines at me. They ranged from cheesy to
really
offensive. At first I tried to be civil with him, then I was downright mean, but he would not take the hint. Finally I’d had enough. I stood to leave. Pick-up-line guy grabbed my hand. I told him to let it go. He didn’t. I kneed him in the balls. He doubled over but didn’t release my hand, and he hissed out, 'Bitch.'”

There was a chorus of 'what' and 'nooo' from the ladies.

“I blink and mystery man to my left has the pick-up line guy on his knees, both of his arms pinned behind his back, and he says, 'Apologize to the lady.' I looked up at my hero and it was as if the rest of the world shifted out of focus and all I could see was him. His dark hair and crystal blue eyes.”

“He sounds hot,” Sophie said, “Smoking hot.”

Amber nodded her head, “Honestly, it was like a scene from a movie. Pick-up guy didn’t want to apologize and had a few choice words for me and my hero. But after mystery man twisted his arm,
literally
, he was saying sorry and crying like a little girl.”

“I’m liking mystery man a lot,” Chelle said.

“Yeah, me too,” Amber agreed before continuing, “So, I don’t know if it was the stress of the day or what but I started crying. Mystery man let go of pick-up guy who crumbled to the floor. He stepped over him, like the garbage he was, and asked me if I wanted to get out of there. I nodded. We stepped into the lobby, and he asked if I wanted to take a walk. I said no. He asked if I wanted to go get something to eat. I said no. He asked if I wanted to go to his room. I said yes.”

All the girls just stared at her, waiting with bated breath for her to continue.

“And then?” Katie prompted.

“We went upstairs. One thing led to another. And I slipped out at 3:30 am when he was sleeping.”

“You never asked him his name?” Katie asked.

“No. At one point he asked me mine but I said I was done talking and kissed him.”

“Wow,” Katie’s eyes widened, “That’s pretty hot, but it does not get us any closer to finding out his identity.”

“I think that ship has sailed,” Amber said flatly.

“Probably right,” Katie said, looking deflated.

“Anyway, my point is - that night was the textbook definition of a one night stand and it means more to me than any relationship I’ve ever been in. It was the best night of my life.”

Jamie’s phone beeped, alerting her that she had a text message. All eyes turned her way. She really wished she would have put it on vibrate.

Chelle smiled innocently, “You gonna check that.”

Jamie shook her head, “Nope.”

Chelle’s face scrunched, “Party pooper.”

They all chuckled and the conversation moved on to dates, bad and good. While everyone was talking Jamie stealthily checked her text. It was from Alex.

He wrote three little words:
I miss you

It was still hard for her to truly believe that he loved her, but every time he did little things like sending this simple text, he was doing exactly what he said he would do. He was showing her through his actions how he felt.

She felt more than heard the conversation stop. Slowly, lifting only her eyes, she looked up to find that she had a captive audience. Okay, so, maybe not so stealth after all.

Lifting her phone to display it as evidence that it was not another steamy text, she said, “He just said, I miss you.”
             

There were 'awws' and 'ooohs' from the peanut gallery.

“Alex is one smitten kitten,” Katie declared happily. “I am so happy he picked a good one.”

Everyone chimed in their agreement and Jamie felt herself blushing. She was not used to being the center of attention; it wasn’t her favorite thing in the world. She had to admit though, she felt very lucky to be surrounded by a truly nice group of women that were quickly becoming close friends. And the fact was, all the attention she was receiving was because an amazing guy was her new boyfriend. Well then, she thought, a little attention isn’t so bad.

Joey had passed out in the car on the way home from Chelle’s baby shower. Jamie hadn’t meant to stay as late as she had at the party, but she had been having so much fun that the time had gotten away from her. As soon as they arrived home, she had carried her sleepy son straight to his room, helped him get his pajamas on, and tucked him in. No story. No pages. He was asleep before she made it to the door.

Now she stood in the hall, pulled her phone from her pocket and texted Alex that he could come by if he wanted to. He immediately responded, telling her he would see her in five. She wasn’t sure if she was more excited than nervous or the other way around.

She needed to calm down. She took a few deep breaths, in through the nose out through the mouth. It wasn’t really helping. Changing tactics, she rolled her head from side to side slowly, trying to relax her body. It didn’t work. If anything, she was getting more anxious.

Okay, so apparently 'chilling out' was easier said than done! Not knowing what else to do, she went to her go-to calm down remedy…folding laundry. As she sat on the couch, pulling clean towels from the basket, she did feel some of her nerves begin to settle down, but her mind continued to race.

Logically she knew she wasn’t doing anything wrong. Joey was sound asleep. She had a lock on her bedroom door. Alex wasn’t staying the night. Still, she was tortured by the niggling feeling that they were sneaking around.

Of course, that was ridiculous. They were both adults. Alex was her boyfriend. Plus, she may be getting ahead of herself. There was a possibility nothing physical would even happen between them tonight. Just because he had sent some flirty texts and she had gone out and bought sexy new underwear yesterday – which she was currently wearing - did not necessarily mean that anything would
happen
tonight. Right?

A soft knock startled her out of her inner musings. As soon as she pulled open the front door and saw the look in Alex’s eyes, her entire body began to tingle. Oh my, she thought, it’s a good thing I already put on my new bra and panty set.

Alex stepped inside and, as soon as the front door was shut, he pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly as he breathed her in, “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” she said as she melted into him. She
really
had. She had never thought of herself as one of those girls that couldn’t spend a night out with friends without missing her boyfriend. Tonight, however, she had proved that theory wrong. She had had a lot of fun, but had missed him pretty much every minute.

“Where’s Joey?” he asked picking her up off the ground.

“In bed, asleep.” She was smiling from ear to ear as he carried her to her bedroom. She loved it when he picked her up. Good things tended to follow.

He stepped inside her room and set her down so he could shut the door quietly behind him.

“Lock it,” she instructed.

“Ooh, I like it when you take charge,” he teased as turned to push the lock in the doorknob.

She knew he was joking but she did like the idea of taking charge. She had been more than a little overwhelmed at their sleepover, but over the past few days, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking of all kinds of things she wanted to do with him. When he turned back around, she was unbuttoning her shirt.

“We have to be quiet,” she said. He probably already knew that but, still, better safe than sorry.

His mouth twitched and eyebrow rose as he reached for her. “I’m not the loud one.”

She smiled as she swatted his hand away. Understanding registered in his eyes. He casually took a step back and leaned against the door.

“I got something when I was out shopping yesterday. I saw it and thought of you,” Jamie said as she unbuttoned her jeans.

“I love it.” Alex’s hungry eyes stared at her hands as she pulled her zipper down.

She laughed a little, “You haven’t even seen it yet.”

“If it requires you stripping to show me,” he slowly smiled as his voice got deeper, “then trust me, I love it.”

His lowered tone sent a chill of awareness through her. She shook her head slightly as a hard thrill of excitement shot through her. Looking into his tropical green eyes, she pulled down her jeans and stepped out of them. She kicked them to the side before continuing to unbutton her shirt and letting it drop to the floor. Her heart raced as she stood in front of him in her newly purchased red lace bra and panties.

His eyes raked up and down her body. She stood still and watched him watching her. She noticed his pulse beating furiously in his neck. His jaw ticked as he breathed, “Damn.”

That one small word caused a shiver to run down her spine and gave her a sense of boldness as well. The fact that he was so affected by her made her feel sexier than any lingerie ever could.

She wanted to touch him and, since this was her show, she decided that’s exactly what she was going to do. Moving forward she felt the air between them crackling with anticipation. She reached out and touched his face, rough with stubble. He leaned into her hand and she felt the tiny, coarse hairs that peppered his jawline brush against her palm, causing a rush of warmth to flood her body.