Secondhand Purses (22 page)

My eyelids were drooping as I scanned the words in front of me, snorting at the names of the characters. Cadence Thorne? Seriously? Everly Laine? How did authors come up with this crap? I thought about it for a minute. I bet I could write a book. I mean, how hard could it really be?

I opened up my laptop and sat for a moment with my fingers hovered over the keys.

He strode through the room, his thick locks a glistening midnight. Her bosom heaved with desire as she watched him move with the grace of a panther on the prowl.

“What’s your name? Please, I must know!”

“Excalibur Adonis.” He purred the name, a feeling of fear and anticipation rippled through her as she imagined being impaled by Excalibur’s sword.

I read and re-read what I had written. Snort. Yup, that sucked. Guess I couldn’t give up my day job after all.

As I continued reading, I was shocked at how explicit the writing was.
Damn, Nonna... you had a filthy mind, didn’t you
. I conjured her up in my mind, and she had a dirty little smile on her face. We high fived, and then I went back to reading.

chapter twenty seven

Nick was leaning over me, brushing the hair from my face before he leaned in to kiss me. First on the forehead, then on the tip of my nose, then finally settling a soft, sweet kiss on my lips.

“I’ve missed you, baby. I’m so sorry that we fought the other night. Forgive me.”

With his hand trailing up my bare stomach, and tracing underneath my breast, I could easily forgive him any multitude of sins.

His mouth opened against mine, hot and demanding. I arched my back against his hand, urging him to do more, squeeze harder. My hand wrapped around the back of his head pulling him closer, trying to devour his kisses. I couldn’t get close enough.

“I want you, Alex. You know that, right? I want to be inside of you. Now.”

“Yes.” One word. That was all I could manage. Just the one word as his hand dipped below the waistband of my pants. When his hand brushed the top of my mound I sat upright with a moan.

I sat upright and somehow managed to not hit him. Which was strange, because he was on top of me a second ago.

I looked around the room, blinking against the darkness. What the hell? Where was Nick? I looked around and realized I was on the couch, the room was pitch black, and by sitting up as fast as I did, I’d sent the paperback flying a few feet away. Crap. That was one of the more realistic dreams I’d had in a long time. No more red wine and romance novels for me. I snapped the elastic band around my wrist a few times for good measure.

No. More. Nick. Damn it. SNAP. OW!

I picked up my phone and saw that it was two thirteen in the morning. Ugh. I quickly set the alarm for seven thirty and padded up the stairs to the bedroom.

What felt like two seconds later, my phone was going off, letting me know that it was time to wake up for real.

I stretched and stepped out of bed. Holy crap. Everything hurt. I was pretty sure the ends of my hair hurt. I realized good and well that this wasn’t just from banging a few nails, I’m sure some of it had to do with kickboxing the other night.

Although I was loathe to admit it, I really probably shouldn’t have gone so full throttle with the punches and kicks. But I’d done so much trash talk, I didn’t see that I really had much of a choice. I really should work on keeping some of the words that go through my mind
in
my mind where they belong.

I stiff legged it down the stairs for my morning coffee, and was met with some idiot pounding on my front door. Seriously? It was only seven thirty. What type of asshole would be at my door at this ungodly hour in the morning?

I looked through the window. Ashley was standing there. Okay, it was clear this chick did not know me very well, or she would not be here before I had my first coffee of the morning. Yes, I realized that there was no way she would have known that I hadn’t had my first cup, but I was not exactly in a mood for rational thought.

I opened the door and just stood there, glaring at her. She laughed in my face. We were either on our way to lifelong friendship or a prison sentence. I wasn’t quite sure which.

“Good morning, sunshine. Obviously you are the epitome of a morning person.”

“Ash, less volume and pep, please. Do you mind explaining why it is that you happen to be on my doorstep at this hideous hour of the morning?”

She raised an eyebrow at me.

“You said to meet you here.”

“I said no such thing.”

“Mmmhmmm, you sure did.” She pulled out her phone and scrolled a little bit, before giving a self-satisfied smile and holding her phone up under my nose.

“See?”

I grabbed her phone and may have growled at her a little in the process.

‘Antiquing tomorrow. You game? Leaving at 7:30.’

What. The. Hell.

I looked at the time it was sent and saw that I had apparently sent that at nine last night. I didn’t recall even being conscious last night at nine. The last thing I remember was Nick straddling me and…

SNAP.

Ow.

Damn it.

“Why did you just snap that elastic on your wrist? Oh my
God
, Alex, you’ve got weird blisters all over your wrist. What the heck are you doing to yourself?”

“Trying to forget.” I mumbled that as I turned to walk towards the kitchen.

“I must have been delirious when I sent that text. But I
am
going antiquing today. The goal is to find about thirty more frames and some other tchotchke for the bakery.”

“Tchotchke?”

“You know, nick knacks, odds and ends.” She still looked at me in confusion.

I heaved a sigh.

“Useless shit that has no purpose but to sit on shelves and look cute.”

“Ahhh, gotcha.” She walked over to my cabinets, opening doors until she found a coffee cup, and set about making herself a cup of coffee.

Was this the normal thing when you had friends? That they barge into your house at any hour of the morning and help themselves to your coffee?

“You don’t mind, do you?” Ashley nodded towards the cup of coffee she was sitting down with.

“Well, it’s kind of too late even if I did mind, isn’t it?” I realized I was sounding totally bitchy right now. The truth was, I didn’t mind. But it was completely new and foreign to me, having someone feel that comfortable to just make themselves at home around me. Even my own mother didn’t have that level of comfort around me.

Ashely looked at me with surprise in her eyes at first and then she just laughed it off.

“So you’re going to be
that
friend in the relationship.”

“What do you mean,
that
friend?”

“The one that has no filter? Who says what she thinks, when she thinks it, without first wondering if maybe,
just
maybe it shouldn’t be said?”

Eek.

“Uh, yeah, maybe. I seem to have been born without that type of filter. Sorry about that.”

“You know, it’s kind of weird. You’re a lot different than how Nonna described you.”

“How did she describe me?”

“You seemed, I don’t know, more cautious in how she described you. Like, you wanted to disappear into the woodwork or something.”

“I guess that probably was a very good description of me when I was sixteen. A lot happened between then and now.”

“What happened?

“Hey, I have to get cleaned up and dressed if we’re going to do an epic shopping excursion. Help yourself to as much of my coffee as you want. There’s food in the fridge too, if you get hungry. I’ll be down in about fifteen.”

I stood up to go get ready. Oh, who the hell was I kidding? I was standing up to run away from a question I didn’t really want to answer.

“Hmmm, evasion tactic. Interesting. Don’t think I’m going to let this go. Although, I will be more than happy to drink some of your coffee. Why on earth did you think it would be a great idea to go shopping this early in the morning?”

I growled at her as I left the room. I clearly needed to rethink my choice in friends. I heard her humming and singing in the kitchen. Singing. In my kitchen. At eight in the morning. The world had clearly gone mad.

Huh, she actually had a really good voice. At least if I had to get ready this early in the morning I was listening to someone who could carry a tune, not one of those sad people on American Idol who
thought
they could sing but really and truly had no right in this world to ever hold a microphone in front of their faces.

Fifteen minutes later we were in my car heading towards the street I’d seen in Buzzards Bay with all the cute antique stores.

“So, who was it?”

“Who was what?”

“The person who made you turn into a snarky, sarcastic, sometimes bitchy bad ass?”

“Seriously? Can you not take non-verbal cues that say I don’t really feel like talking about this, ever?”

“Yeah, but you see, I’m your best friend. And your mine. So that means you
have
to tell me all your dirty dark secrets. I, of course, am obligated to tell you all of mine, as well.”

What?

“Okay, so we are best friends now? You know we’ve only known each other maybe two weeks, right?”

“Why must you put a time constraint on destiny?” She reached for my hand and clasped it to her chest, batting her eyes at me.

“It is entirely possible that you need help. Like, a lot of help. I feel sorry for you. I think I should start up a collection for you.”

She laughed and punched me in the arm.

“It must have been Nick.”

I coughed, somehow I managed to have choked on air.

“Oh, my gosh. I was right, wasn’t I? What did he do to you?”

I glared at her and she rolled her eyes at me, giving me the ‘I’m waiting’ look. Damn. It seemed she was immune to my lack of charms.

“Let’s just say that he and I were kind of a thing when I was sixteen, but the day he gave me my first kiss I found out that we were moving in two weeks. The day we moved, Nick and I were supposed to meet up. I heard him talking to his evil cousin, Eddie, who was saying all sorts of horrible things about me. Nick sort of stood up for me on some things, but when it came down to what was important, he rejected me.”

“What do you mean, rejected you?”

“Told his cousin we weren’t anything and that he’d happily provide him with a black eye if he felt the need to continue saying we were.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“So he courted you wanting you back, and you pushed him off.”

“Uh huh. I just don’t know if I can trust him with my heart again.”

Ashley sat quiet for the rest of the trip. I looked over at her a few times, trying to figure out what she was thinking. You see, this was what I hated about people with filters. They were able to keep stuff inside so you weren’t able to figure out what they were thinking. I’d rather they just say it, even if it hurt to hear it. I’d always rather know the truth. It hurt much less in the long run.

I parked the car and turned to look at her.

“Would you just spit it out already?”

She looked at me in shock. I may have said that too abruptly.

“Ex
cuse
me?”

I softened my tone a little.

“Listen, Ash. You’ve been mulling over something for the last fifteen minutes. It’s been as quiet as a morgue in this car. It’s almost so quiet that it’s been deafening. I’d rather you just come out and say what you’re thinking rather than sitting here imagining the worst.”

She sighed, then turned and looked at me.

“Listen, Alex. I know you are all ‘no filter’ chick and all, but I’m not. I don’t just go shooting off my mouth saying the first thing that pops into my head because I do worry about how you’re going to feel. But if you want to know what I’m thinking? Fine. You’re all worked up about Nick. He means so much to you, to your past and to your present. But you are forcing yourself to not be with him because you’re afraid he might hurt you. Well, that’s a risk you’re going to take in life just by breathing. Anyone at any given point on any given day can be the person who will hurt you.” She reached for my wrist and held it up in front of my face.

“Ow, Ash.”

“Right now it seems like the person causing you the most pain is you. Get over the past and move on with your life.”

Dayum. When she lets her feelings out, she really lets them out.

“Sorry.” I looked over at her and she was biting her lip looking nervous.

“Why on earth are you sorry?”

“I’m worried I may have been a little
too
honest just then.”

“Nah, I can take it. It’s what I asked for, right?”

“I guess.” She sounded really unsure.

“It’s the truth. I really do appreciate your honesty. And you made, unfortunately, a lot of really good points. I’m not sure I’m ready to stop being stubborn about this one, yet. Maybe soon, but not just yet.”

“I get it. But I would advise not to wait too long. It’s not as if the women of Onset are blind, you know.”

I growled at her. That was becoming a common occurrence.

Ashley laughed and held up her hands in mock surrender.

“Not me, Alex. I’m quite happy with the man I’ve got. But I’m not the only female in the area, you know.”