Before he was even out of his room, he got another call. This time it was the parts distributor about a few pieces for a job he’d already had to push back several times. The parts were still on back order, and Nine felt ready to snap. He got that these were parts for an old car he was restoring, but this distributor prided itself in being able to find parts in record time. His frustration only mounted after the call.
On his way down, he saw her. Becca stood in the lobby, digging through her big purse. She looked as hot as ever in her painted-on jeans, hot pink crop top, and matching pink high heels. He smirked when he saw the stir her standing there flaunting her perfectly tanned bare washboard abs without a care in the world, was causing around the shop.
He glanced at Talia, who was holding the phone at her ear but motioned to Becca and pointed at him with a roll of her eyes. As in, surprise, surprise, she’s here for you.
Becca looked up just as Nine glanced back at her. She smiled big. “I tried calling you a few times but haven’t been able to get a hold of you.” Without waiting for him to respond to that, she went on. “I’m in the area doing a shoot, so I thought I’d stop by.” With a frown, she looked in her purse again but shook her head. “I thought I had the flyer on me. They’re having an open-call audition for a Boyle Heights campaign photo shoot. It’s in regards to the gentrification issues. They’re trying to show the positive side of making Boyle Heights a nicer community and said they’d prefer actual Latinos with newer businesses in the area. I thought you’d be perfect for it, not just because you’re Latino and own a fairly new business in the area, but”—she blatantly checked him out from top to bottom, licking her top lip then smiling wickedly—“well, pretty sure the camera will love you.”
Nine chuckled as he got to the bottom of the stairs, even if he wasn’t feeling the usual amusement a comment like that from a chick would cause. “Modeling, huh? Not sure that’s my thing.”
“Why not? You’d be perfect for it.” She touched his arm as he walked past her.
The guys in the shop looked utterly distracted by her, and he knew what they all must be thinking: that if he wasn’t already tapping that ass, he would be very soon.
She followed him over to the radiator he was going to get started on. Becca went on about the modeling gig and how it was only a onetime thing. “It’s not like you’d be making a career change or anything. It’s for a good cause too. The DBH is getting out of hand. So many small business owners just trying to make an honest living in the area keep getting harassed and even vandalized.”
“The who?”
“The organization Defend Boyle Heights. You haven’t heard of it?”
“Oh yeah, yeah. My girlfr—” He caught himself before saying it. “Friend of mine told me about a documentary she worked on that featured them.”
She was quiet for a moment, and Nine didn’t bother looking up from the radiator he was examining. “You have a girlfriend now, Nine? Is that why you haven’t returned my calls lately?”
“Nope,” he said without looking up. “Just been busy.”
He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just say yes. It might get her to stop calling once and for all. Ever since Dee’s reaction at the spa over something he may’ve done before anything even happened between them, it made him nervous as fuck whenever his phone rang around her. Dee had made it perfectly clear what her first impression of him was. It felt like an uphill battle as it was to prove he was a changed man now without having to actually say it.
But technically, Dee wasn’t his girlfriend yet, even though his feelings of entitlement over her being all his were through the fucking roof now. He just didn’t see the need to discuss this with Becca. He was fairly certain discussing anything with her about his situation with Dee wouldn’t go over well if it ever got back to her. In fact, Becca being here was already making him nervous.
“Hmm” was her only response to his answer; then she went on. “Well, I’m gonna be in the area doing this shoot. I’ll come by later if I can get my hands one of the flyers. Maybe we can grab a drink or something if you’re done here?”
“Can’t.” He finally looked up at her. “Got plans tonight.”
He’d leave it at that. Clearly, she’d caught the slip, and she’d noticed he wasn’t returning her calls. As obvious as he and Dee had been at the wedding, he was pretty sure Becca couldn’t have missed it. Let her put two and two together and maybe finally get the hint and stop calling. She pouted, reminding Nine of those eager pouty lips around his cock. But he inhaled in deeply, shaking it off because those days were long over for him. There was only one girl for him now. Didn’t matter that, technically, he was free to roam. Dee was, technically, free to roam too, and he knew how he’d feel if she ever did. No fucking way was he risking her thinking he’d be okay with it.
“Well, if I get a hold of a flyer and I’m still in the area, I’ll drop it off anyway.”
She left with every pair of eyes in the place following her out. “Alright,” he said, glancing around with a smirk. “Get back to work. All of you.”
“Dude,” Fern Dog said, wiping his hands on a rag. “Tell me you’re hitting that so I can live vicariously though you.”
“Not anymore.”
Fern Dog groaned, dropping his head back. “You dog. Is she as good as she looks.”
“It was memorable, but I don’t kiss and tell, so get back to work.”
Nine slipped on his gloves, feeling guilty that Fern Dog’s question had him visualizing some of the things he’d done to Becca. Ironically, it reminded him he had to call Dee to cancel tonight. Glancing up at the clock, he decided to wait until the usual time he called her in the middle of the day when they both took their lunch.
He worked on the radiator until just after noon then called Dee. The call went to voicemail, so he sent a text instead, asking her to call him when she got the chance. He got so distracted with his work for several hours that he hadn’t even noticed she still hadn’t called. But when he checked his phone to see if maybe he’d missed her call, he did have a text.
I’m not at the office anymore. I’m with Phoenix and Chelsea. So I can’t talk right now. I’ll call you later.
Nine shook off the irritation that she still didn’t dare call him and have Phoenix overhear their conversation. Never in his life had he ever had to conjure up so much patience the way he had to lately. He thought back to the day he asked her if she told Phoenix about every guy she dated. Because of Chelsea, she said she’d felt obliged to share with him about the guys she dated. But she didn’t tell him about every douche she dated.
It was so long ago that they’d had that conversation, but suddenly Nine remembered it like just about all their other meaningful conversations—verbatim.
It didn’t mean I couldn’t indulge in the occasional hot piece of man-whore ass. I’d just put them on my for-fun-only list. I stopped sharing with Phoenix about the guys on that list.
Taking a deep breath, Nine reminded himself to be patient. She had a kid she put before anything else. As she should.
Talia was gone for the day, and Nine walked around the partition behind the empty receptionist area where the fax machine was, and he decided to focus on work instead.
He was just reading the fax when O walked back there. “Heard you were wounded today. You okay?”
Nine turned to look at him. He’d almost forgotten about it. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He picked up the second fax. “But it did hurt like a bitch.”
“Yeah, Louie said you had to change your pants because it looked like you were on the rag, it bled so much.” O winced, looking down at Nine’s pants. “You cut your groin area, dude?”
With a chuckle, Nine glanced down. “Louie’s a dick. But yeah, speaking of, it came real close to the jewels. Now that would’ve killed. But it’s in a perfect spot. I might look into getting a tat of a heart or something.” He winked, smiling, but left out the part about the D. “Ya know something the ladies would appreciate looking at while
they . . .”
O laughed, shaking his head. “You’re an idiot, and here I was actually feeling bad you might’ve injured your manhood and your bed-hopping days were over.”
“They already are.”
The statement slipped out before Nine could give it a second thought. Cringing when O laughed even louder, he pretended to be too distracted by the fax he was reading to react.
“I fucking knew it, dude. You’re so damn obvious.”
To Nine’s relief, his phone rang just then and it was Dee. “I need to take this upstairs.”
He rushed upstairs, glad O was back from running his errands, in case he had to be up there for a while. “Hey,” she said when he answered. “Sorry. I had to leave the office early when Phoenix called to say Chelsea wasn’t feeling well.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Nine asked, focusing on that, instead of his growing annoyance about this.
“We’re hoping it’s just a bug. She threw up and was running a slight fever but seemed better when I left.”
“Mmm, well, that’s good. Couldn’t talk in front Phoenix, huh?”
Nine stopped in the middle of his room, bracing for her response. His impatient ass just couldn’t leave well enough alone.
“No, I, uh . . . was just busy tending to Chelsea. I figured I’d just call you once I was in the car.”
“Away from Phoenix.” Idiot.
“What? No. I just assumed you were calling to chat on your lunch break and I really couldn’t. Not while I was there dealing with my cranky daughter.”
Rolling his eyes, Nine decided to just drop it, but his dumb ass couldn’t hold back making one final comment. “Yeah, I’ll bet. Listen. About tonight, I totally forgot I got this thing.”
She was quiet for a moment before asking, “Thing?”
“Yeah, Tay’s surprising Dulce with this dinner show Dulce’s been wanting to go see forever. She got me tickets too and called to remind me this morning. I’d completely forgotten about it.”
“Oh.” Again she was unusually quiet, and Nine was certain now she’d picked up on his annoyance. “Are you upset about something?”
“Nope.” He was too quick and too curt with his response, and suddenly he didn’t think seeing her even later tonight was a good idea. Nine knew he needed to be patient. It wasn’t like she wasn’t giving him every moment she had to spare. She even seemed as equally eager to see him as he always was to see her. He could feel it. They were so close to making this formally official, and here he was going to blow it.
“Will I see you tomorrow?”
As the frustration mounted because, despite his irritation about this, he was dying to see her, he shook his head. “I got a lot of shit to do tomorrow, but I should be done by five or six.”
Once again, the uncomfortable silence lingered, and Nine could barely stand it. “Okay, well, just call me when you’re done, then.”
For the first time since they’d started doing this, they hung up, and Nine wasn’t wearing a big stupid smile on his face. He felt like shit and it was his own fault. But at the same time, he couldn’t completely shake what remembering her comments about not telling Phoenix about every douche she dated did to him.
The rest of the night, Nine had to force himself just to shake it off so his moms wouldn’t pick up on his mood. Fortunately, because for a better part of the night they had to focus on the show, there wasn’t too much opportunity for them to notice anything. They were too busy watching the show and enjoying their dinner.
By the end of the night, he’d completely changed his mind about not seeing Dee tonight. Just thinking about what he could be doing with her if he hadn’t been such a dick earlier had him hard as a rock. He called her as soon as his moms drove away from the parking lot of the dinner show, before getting on his bike.
“Hello?” her voice was almost a whisper, and Nine’s insides were instantly lit. Was someone with her?
“Why you whispering?” he demanded, knowing he sounded like a dick again, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Chelsea’s asleep next to me,” she whispered again.
Letting out a slow breath, he was instantly relieved. “You at Phoenix’s?”
“No,” she continued to whisper, and Nine wondered if she’d be getting out of bed and going to another room. “He called earlier. She threw up again and was asking for me. I figured, since I wasn’t going to see you tonight, I may as well bring her home with me.”
“You have her all weekend?”
Nine knew his disappointment came across completely selfish, but this was Phoenix’s weekend with Chelsea. He didn’t know what he’d do if he had to go a whole other week without seeing Dee.
“No, but you said five or six tomorrow. So hopefully, if she’s feeling better, I’ll drop her back off at Phoenix’s.”
“Can you talk?”
“Not really, not right now anyway. I just finally got her to sleep, and she’s literally lying half on me. But in a few when it’s less likely that she’ll wake if I try to get up, I can call you back.”
Nine let her go so she wouldn’t wake Chelsea because he was really anxious to talk to her. He actually walked around a little before getting on his bike because, despite the fury he’d begun to feel in the beginning of the call, it’d done nothing to alleviate the massive boner he was still nursing from just thinking about what he could’ve been doing with her right now. No way could he jump on his bike like that.
He waited until it was a little more comfortable for him, but he knew he wouldn’t be completely at ease until he saw her again.
As he drove into the dark parking lot of the shop, a car drove in behind him. He parked and got off his bike, turning to see whose car it was. Becca got out of the passenger side of the car, and another girl got out of the driver side.
He didn’t even recognize the other girl at first, and already his entire body tensed just from seeing Becca. But then he got a better look at the other girl as they started toward him, and he recognized her as Becca’s friend Karla. Normally, the sight of two unbelievably hot girls who he’d been with together before, walking toward him like they were on a mission, would be an instant hard-on. Instead, it had him groaning inwardly.
“Evening, stud,” Becca said as they approached him, and he braced himself. She glanced down at his crotch with a smile. “You look good enough to eat.”
Karla ran her hand over his tensed arm when she was close enough and licked her lips. “Luckily, we’re famished tonight.”
Fuck me.
Chapter 22
Drew
Mentally exhausted after over-thinking Nine’s cold attitude yesterday, then having to deal with Chelsea most of the evening, Drew had passed out last night. She never did call Nine back. She felt bad, especially after reading the text he sent last night long after she said she’d call him back.
It was almost nine in the morning now, and she was just getting ready to call him. She’d wanted to get Chelsea fed before she called him in case she threw up again or something and she had to deal with that. But Chelsea had eaten her oatmeal with bananas and appeared to be just fine now. Drew read his text one more time before calling him.
You up? I’d call but don’t want to wake you or baby girl. With my luck you fell asleep. It’s just the kind of day I’ve had. Speaking of, it’s why I acted like an asshole earlier. I had a rough one and had been looking forward to seeing you all week then couldn’t. So I was kind of in a mood. When I called you after my mom’s thing I was so ready to race down there and be with you. SO ready you don’t even know. Call me if you can. If not I guess I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to even talk to you.
It warmed her that he was so honest about how much he’d been looking forward to seeing her because his cancelling on her at the last minute had been devastating. Especially because it almost felt as if he were lying, like he was punishing her for still not being brave enough to talk to him in the presence of Phoenix. Even he admitted to being in a mood, s
o she hadn’t just imagined it as she’d kept debating.
Obviously, it bothered him that she said she couldn’t talk to him in front of Phoenix. She almost sent him a text admitting Phoenix knew about them. But it’d open the way to the question of where exactly they stood. And she was still afraid to be the one to open that can of worms. It was cowardly, but she was hoping he’d be the first to bring it up. She was even ready to bring him around Chelsea. She just needed to be sure he wasn’t still thinking of this as non-committal and was at a loss as to how to suggest it without it sounding like she was pushing for more.
Their reasons for not wanting to be in serious relationships were vastly different. All she’d said was that she hadn’t wanted to jump right back into something so soon after breaking things off with Brad. But it’d been almost three months now, and he knew all too well that overall she was more than ready to settle down with someone, if he was the right guy. Drew didn’t think she could make it any clearer. Nine was the only guy who’d ever made her melt the way she did every time she was with him. She wasn’t even trying to tone it down anymore.
Nine, on the other hand, had flat-out said he didn’t have time for relationship. His business was still not even a year old, and today was a perfect example of how busy he was. Even less than a year after launching the business, they’d already started talking about opening up another one, even before Beast retired, in which case he’d only get busier. So, she had to hold off any mention or push for a serious relationship, regardless of the fact that it felt just as serious as her relationship had been with Brad—far deeper too. But that was also why she’d steered clear of the subject. If he was acting the part, why rock the boat by putting any pressure on him?
Taking a deep breath, she called him, smiling when he answered after the first ring. “I was gonna give you a few more minutes before calling.”
Drew could practically hear the smile in his voice, and it made her smile too. “I’m sorry. I fell asleep last night.”