Bare Skin (Skin Deep 5)

Chapter 5

Calland

She laughed. A full on laugh like I hadn’t heard from her before.

An honest to God, straight out laugh that had me by the balls, and Jesus if that didn’t make me squirm.

Now, if only she’d say yes…

“Okay.”

I blinked, unsure if I’d actually heard her correctly. “Okay? As in, okay you’ll let me help you, or okay, you’ll go out with me?”

“Does it matter?” she asked me, still laughing, though her eyebrow quirked questioningly.

“At this point, no,” I replied. “How about we just start with some dinner, and Kade can come, too. Five good? Tomorrow? I’ll pick you up.”

“Uh…okay?” She sounded a little unsure.

I glanced at my watch, noting it was nearing midnight. “It’s getting late.”

She nodded, looking confused at the change of subject, but then reached into her pocket and dropped a few bills on the bar in front of her. “You’re right. I should be getting back to Kaden. Let Cara go home.”

I stood, throwing my own money down on the bar, telling her, “I’ll walk you out. Ready?”

She looked a little bewildered, and yes, I was rushing her a bit, but no way in hell was I giving her the chance to come to her senses and turn me down again.

When we got to her car, she turned around to face me, leaning back against the door. She opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off by leaning in and kissing her cheek softly. I took her keys from her hand gently and beeped the lock, then reached behind her and opened the door slightly as I pulled back.

“Drive safe,” I whispered.

She nodded, giving me a look that clearly said she thought I was being weird. “You, too,” she still replied, though, as she turned around and slid into her car.

“Tomorrow, five o’clock. Yeah?” I called to her as she started to close her door.

She paused, then finally nodded.

“See you then!”

She closed the door, shaking her head as she started her car, but she didn’t pull away. She sat and watched as I threw a wave her way and sauntered to my truck before she finally left.

I watched her leave, her taillights disappearing in the darkness, and blew out a breath before finally heading home myself.

***

The next morning, I found myself parked outside my sister’s house, cringing at the noise reverberating through the air as I opened my car door and stepped out. Holding my ears, I stepped up onto the porch and, braving whatever disaster in the form of unbridled chaotic screeching, howling, and pounding, let myself in, removing a hand from my ear only long enough to turn the doorknob.

Emma was in the kitchen, happily grinning as she stirred a pot on the stove. Luke was sitting on the couch, a pillow held tight to his head. And the source of the deafening noise? Well, that was my cute as a button niece, Everly, who was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, banging the hell out of a tiny drum set, and my sister’s huge yellow labs, Doug and DJ, were sitting beside her, howling their hearts out with every beat.

I winced, but couldn’t help but laugh. Emma glanced up and I caught her eye. She only grinned at me and then went back to stirring like this was an everyday occurrence. God only knows who bought my niece a little drum set, but I’m gonna guess that it definitely was an everyday thing now. I just wish that I would have thought of it first…as long as I didn’t get subjected to the noise for a long time, that is.

Luke noticed me during a slight lull in the cacophony. He jumped up and shouted, “Uncle Calland is here!” Apparently that was the excuse he needed to scoop Everly up and gently remove the drum sticks from her tiny fists, rendering the house blissfully silent, as the dogs ceased howling as soon as the banging stopped.

I watched my sister roll her eyes and shake her head before she scolded Luke. “Lucas, I swear! She’s barely gotten to play those things since she got them!”

“Sugar, it’s barely nine in the morning and she’s played them about twenty more times than necessary since T.J. so kindly bought the damned things,” Luke growled, hiding the hand holding the sticks behind his back away from the little girl twisting in his arms to reach them.

My niece may only be a year and a half old, but she’s got fiery spirit hidden in all that sweetness and she chose that moment to let it out in the form of a screech/shriek that would rival a banshee’s, clearly letting her daddy know that he’d pissed her off royally.

I took pity on him and reached for her, grinning as she stopped howling as soon as I had her. She brought both of her hands up and grabbed and smacked at my cheeks as she babbled angrily. I nodded solemnly at her, though I could only understand about every other word she said. Most of them were the equivalent of Mama, Daddy, doggie, and other random things that made no sense. The one that caught my attention, though, was a new one.

Clear as day, her little voice rang out with, “Shit!”

I laughed. I mean, seriously, would you expect me not to?

Emma groaned and shot Luke a dirty look. He shrugged and held his hands up as he struggled to contain his own laughter. “Don’t look at me, Sugar. You know that was all you.”

“What?” I asked, still laughing. “Mommy’s got a potty mouth, huh, little one?” I lifted Everly up and blew a raspberry on her belly, grinning even wider at her uncontrollable giggles in response.

“That wasn’t ME!” Emma shouted, slamming down the spoon she’d been using and stomping over to take her daughter from me. “She needs changed,” she huffed, turning for the stairs.

“Sure,” Luke drawled slyly as she stomped past him, earning another death glare from his wife.

“Go stir the gravy,” she ordered Luke over her shoulder as she went by him.

I wisely kept my mouth shut. Well, tried to, anyway. I was still laughing and couldn’t seem to stop, especially as I heard my sister whisper to her daughter, “Everly Jane, you can’t repeat stuff like that. That’s a bad word, and Mommy’s seriously sorry for letting is slip, but now you let Daddy know and he’s never gonna let it go.”

Everly’s reply? “Shit!”

Which was followed by a very long-suffering sigh from my sister.

“Do you know how epic that was?” Luke asked beside me.

I glanced at him, curious to know where this was going.

“Your sister yelled at me the other day for saying ‘dang-it’ in front of Everly because my daughter is seriously a parrot. But now I know it’s because Emma’s already slipped up. It’s probably in bad form, but I’m gloating about this. I have to. It’s required.”

I clapped him on his shoulder and simply said, “Welcome to my world, bro. I knew I liked you.”

***

Why was I so nervous?

I was on the way to the hotel to pick up Dani and Kaden and I couldn’t think of the last time I felt so anxious. My preoccupation must have shown at my sister’s house earlier, too, because as soon as she came back down, she’d invited me to eat breakfast with them (and of course, I didn’t turn that down), but I could feel her watching me. I mean, I could see her watching me, too, but it just felt like she never took her calculating little gaze off of me.

Once we’d all eaten, Emma had gone up to put Everly down for a nap, which evidently was needed by more than just her as the dogs flopped down and were snoring within seconds once she’d left the room. I’d protested, saying I’d just gotten there, but my sister had so kindly informed me that my lovely niece had been up since four a.m. and a nap was non-negotiable at this point. Luke had settled back into his chair with a sigh, muttering about murdering T.J. and his penchant for gift-giving, but as soon as Emma had come back down, she’d pounced. And Luke was no better. Both of them were on me, asking what was up before Emma had even sat down.

“Nothing,” I’d replied, nonchalantly.