The Beginning of Us (236 page)

“Just be careful.” Holly gets my attention, leaning on the bar in front of me.

“What do you mean?” I place my elbows up on the bar as well, tilting my head to one side.

She gives me a sly smile, shrugging both shoulders before she turns around. I don’t know what that was about, or why she’s being so cryptic, but I know Holly. She can’t keep secrets. So if she has one, it will come out sooner or later.

I take a swig of my beer, as I watch Angel walk out from the back room. She looks just as beautiful as she did last night, wearing a pair of skin tight blue jeans that sit low on her hips. She has a black spaghetti strap tank top that reads Larry’s across her full chest, her long dark hair up in a messy ponytail. My dick instantly gets hard.

“Hey, Sam.”

I look over to see Josh wide awake, smiling and sitting up. He looks like he never had a drink last night.
What’s up with that?

“Hey, Josh.” She gives him a soft smile. “How are you guys feeling today?” She looks over at me for the first time, and her green eyes stare straight into mine. I smile as the feeling of warmth runs through me.

“Great,” Josh smiles.

Bullshit.
Something very fishy is going on here.

“Hey, I think we should get a group together and go out on Friday to celebrate Slade winning his case in San Francisco,” Josh says, looking to everyone. “Are you girls off Friday?”

“Yep,” Holly answers. The scowl on Angel’s face says she wants to pick up an extra shift this week now,
preferably Friday! She turns around, turns on the water in the sink and starts to wash her hands.

“I think that’s a fantastic idea.” I smile. Whatever her problem really is, we need to get it out in the open, and I know just the way to get her talking.
Alcohol!

A phone starts to ring, and Angel turns around to look at Holly. “Will you answer that? My hands are wet.” She pushes her hip out for Holly to grab her phone out of her back pocket.

Holly pulls the phone out of the pocket and puts it on speakerphone as she holds it up for Angel.

“Hello?” Angel answers.

“Hi. Is this Samantha Hall?”

“Yes.”

“Hello, Miss Hall. This is Roger with the Edward Jones Dome. I was able to locate the seats you requested,” he says happily.

“That’s great.” She turns off the water and grabs a towel to dry her hands. “How many were you able to get?’’ She reaches out and takes the phone from Holly’s hand.

“Six total, ma’am.” He sounds proud of himself.

“Thank you so much. Do I need to come pick them up, or can you mail them to me?” Her smile is infectious. I want to see that smile on her face all the time, and I want to be the one to make her feel that good.

“I have all of your information here from when I spoke to you last week, so I will mail them to you.”

“Thank you, Roger, for all of your help. Have a nice week.”

They say their goodbyes, and hang up.

“Wait.” Josh holds up his hand. “Did you just get tickets to a Rams game?” He sounds very surprised. Now that I think of it that is the stadium where they play, but there’s no way she could like football enough to buy six tickets to a game.

She leans over, putting her forearms on the bar with a radiating smile on her face. “Yep,” she nods, as her beautiful green eyes light up.

“You bought six tickets to one game? Which game?” The Rams are my favorite NFL team.

She turns her beautiful green eyes to me, and her face is beaming. “I bought six season tickets.”

“You bought season tickets?” I think Josh is choking on his water. Or at least he sounds like it.

“Sam is a big football girl,” Holly explains.

“But why six?” Josh asks, still shocked that a woman would buy six tickets to a football game.

“Well, so Holly and Micah can go whenever they want. And for when my girlfriend from Tulsa comes and visits. And for whoever wants to just go to a game.” She shrugs her shoulders as if her reasoning was obvious.

“
We
love the Rams,” Josh states, pointing a finger between the two of us.

“Well, then you guys can come to a game or two.” She shrugs. “If you want, that is.” She looks back over at me shyly.

“Woo hoo! I need a beer now. Bud Light, please.” Josh says, clapping his hands together like a little school boy. I snicker as the girls laugh at him.

Angel turns around, and I catch a glimpse of a heart tattoo on the back of her neck, right below her hair line. It’s a half heart outlined in black. She didn’t come off as the type of girl to have a tattoo.

“Hey, Angel?” She turns around, looking like she wants me to stop calling her that.
Not going to happen.

“What?” she snaps.

I smile. She looks so hot when she’s pissed off. “I see you have a tattoo on the back of your neck. What’s the meaning behind it?”

She takes a deep breath as her eyes drop to the floor for a moment before returning to mine. “It’s for my dad.” She turns and walks out from behind the bar and heads to the back.

What just happened here?

I turn my eyes from Angel’s back over to Holly. She leans in and whispers, “He passed away,” like it’s not allowed to be said out loud.

Fuck.

I feel like such a jack ass. I should have just kept my mouth shut. I wonder if her mother is dead as well. I know nothing about her.
I want to know everything about her past.

I take a drink of my beer as Angel comes out from the back, carrying a case of beer.

“I’ll be right back.” Getting out of my seat, I follow her across the dance floor and over to the smaller back bar behind the pool tables. I feel the need to apologize about the tattoo comment.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She places the box on the floor and starts pulling a beer out one at a time, putting them into the small fridge.

“I just wanted to apologize. I’m truly sorry.” Does she not know she is the only woman I have ever said sorry to? And if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it fifty times to her.

Her shirt rides up, giving me a perfect shot at the two dimples on her lower back, and I have to readjust my pants. Fuck, no one has ever turned me on like she does. I feel like a horny teenager back in high school.

“No biggie. You didn’t know.”

I’m starting to get mad. “Why won’t you let me apologize? What I said obviously upset you.” I fist my hands at my sides. This woman is driving me nuts.

She stands and turns around as she folds up the now empty beer box, in a rough manner. As if she is getting pissed as well. Her frustration
almost
makes me smile.

“Fine! Thanks for the apology.” She walks past me, but stops to turn back to me.

“Slade,” she sighs, running a hand through her long ponytail. I have to lean up against the bar to keep from falling over, hearing her saying my name like that.

She looks to the floor for a second, then up to me. “Thanks.” She gives a little laugh like she can’t believe she’s really thanking me for something. “Thanks for last night.” She swallows. “For the drinks, and for making sure I made it home all right.” She looks up at me, and I can see how hard it was for her to thank me.

I give her a small smile. “No need to thank me, Angel.” I would have done anything for her last night. I would do anything for her right now just to hear her say my name again. I get myself put back together then head back to my seat.

“You ready to go, Josh?”

I have a ton of work to get done. My work schedule is pretty full for the next couple of weeks, and I might as well end this on a good note. She might start screaming at me if I stay much longer.

Samantha

The following Tuesday, I head over to the Long’s residence. I can’t stay very long today though. I have some errands to run, but I just wanted to come by and say hello and see what they are up to.

Over the past month, I have gotten to know Micah and Slade’s parents. Their dad, Mark, is always working; running the firm takes a lot of his time. Vivian doesn’t work. So when she’s not out having a shopping day with her girlfriends, we come over and have girl time. Plus, she likes to drink wine just as much as we do.

I pull up in the circle drive of their beautiful Victorian house that sits on ten acres. I walk up to the door and ring the doorbell. Vivian answers with a smile on her face.

“Hello, darling,” she greets me sweetly.

“Hello.” I say entering the house as she shuts the door behind me. It reminds me of a little castle with its double stained glass doors, huge arch in the entry, and a massive chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It’s full of little trinkets and gorgeous paintings. Vivian was an art major in college. She has her paintings displayed all over their house.

I follow Vivian to the kitchen. She pulls out a bottle of wine from the stainless steel fridge and fills her glass. Holly is sitting behind the breakfast bar.

“How is your day?” Vivian asks while giving me a shining smile. She’s beautiful. Her long blonde hair hangs straight down her back, and her warm amber eyes always seem to sparkle. She’s tall like her boys, and she is very lean. She spends a lot of time running. She once told me it’s how she stayed sane in a house with three boys. And I’ve never seen the woman with a frown on her face.

“It’s great. How is yours?”

“Very good,” she replies before taking a drink of her wine.

I look over to Holly, and she gives me a smile that makes me want to cringe. She’s planning something. I usually end up hating whatever she has planned for me.

“Wine?” Vivian asks, already grabbing me a glass.

“No thanks, I’ll have a glass of tea, though.” I have to work tonight and still have a few errands to run once I leave here.

“Holly filled me in on the current events of this week.” Vivian’s brows scrunch, handing me my tea. “Are you
sure
you don’t want a glass of wine?”

“Yeah.” I smile at her. Her eyes move over to Holly and then back to me. She tilts her head to the side, and one side of her lip turns up in an amused smile.

“What?” I ask, looking to Holly then back to Vivian.

“Well, I was just thinking… Holly told me that you met Slade this past weekend and it didn’t go so well.” She leans down and puts her elbows on her kitchen island.

I’m rethinking the tea because I’m going to need an entire bottle of wine if we’re having a Slade conversation.

“No.” I look down at my hands. What can I possibly say?

Hey, I met your son just as he was about to get it on with a girl in the bathroom. A girl that I wanted to be me. Oh, and I consider him sex on a stick. Then I let it bother me so much that I went and consumed enough alcohol to pass out in his arms. All the while, I was mean to him.

“I was kind of a bitch to him.” I feel my face start to heat up as I realize what I just said. I look up at her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” Vivian doesn’t cuss. Ever.

“It’s okay. I’m used to hearing that sort of language. Slade got his vocabulary from his father.” She smiles warmly. “I bet he went crazy,” she says rather excitedly.

“What do you mean?” I frown. I remember him being a lot of things, Sexy, annoying, hot, vulgar…

She shrugs. “I just heard that girls fawn over him.”
Oh, I bet they do.

“Well, not me.” I try to sound sure, but the smile Vivian is giving me tells me she’s not buying it.

“You like him.” It’s not a question.

“He left an impression.” More like despise him. So that’s not true. I find him extremely irresistible, and that is what makes me despise him. Big difference.