The floors/trampolines were soft and yielding. I was wishing that everyone would disappear so Casey and I could have something that would be more like Jump Sexy. But just being with her—I could feel the tension in my back and neck just melt away.
We were there for over an hour, mostly laughing together. It wasn’t easy to kiss while jumping up and down, but we managed a few kisses anyway. There were kids around, too—not exactly a make-out spot. What I really wanted was to get her home.
But that was another problem. I was posing as your average-joe lawyer. But I lived in the penthouse of a building of luxury condos. The person I was pretending to be couldn’t afford to live there. So I couldn’t take Casey home with me. I was sure she’d be able to tell that the place was way out of the price range of the guy she thought I was.
I had to bring this deception to an end. Not just for practical things like taking Casey to my place. The closer I got to her, the more like a shitheel I felt for posing as this heroic environmentalist warrior. It was like I’d created a character deliberately to be admired. When she looked at me, I could almost see the stars in her eyes. She saw me as a knight from a fairy tale, slaying toxic polluters instead of dragons. But that guy wasn’t me—would she admire the real me? The longer I kept this up, the worse it would be when she finally found out. I had to tell her soon. But--not yet. I wanted to see the stars in her eyes just a little longer.
CHAPTER SIX
Casey
Too soon, Jump City closed and the date had to come to an end. Every time I was with Mick, I was afraid it would be the last time. Afraid I would slip up, talk about the past or mention Mom and Tony, Mick’s dad. And that then suddenly Mick would realize our true relationship. Or that he’d recognize me finally. And I could just picture the horror on his face. I remembered the morning after that New Year’s Eve party, when I found out he’d run away from me. He must have woken up and been horrified at what we’d done. Disgusted by the memory of almost sexing up his little sister.
But I just put all that out of my head and tried to focus on the moment. I was with him right now. How many women could say that they were with their ideal man right this very minute? Not many.
As we drove towards my place, that song that had been playing at Jump City kept playing in my mind. “Kiss me! You sexy thing!” What a hot song. My mom told me that they were all totally scandalized by it at her high school dances, thought it was the dirtiest thing they’d ever heard. I have to admit, it put ideas in my head. Naughty ones. But I knew I couldn’t go there.
Mick put his hand on my knee and squeezed, giving me a sexy look as he did it. God, he was perfect. Those brown eyes made my stomach flip-flop with wanting him.
When we pulled up outside, Mick said, “Wow, what a transformation!”
They’ve been doing a lot of work on my building. Apparently we have a new owner.
We got out, and Mick marveled at everything. “New front walk, good; new porch steps.” When I unlocked the front door, he actually tested the strength of the door frame. “Good, metal doors are the safest, nice locks, too.” It was so funny. It was like he had a mental checklist of all the things that had been wrong with my building and now he was ticking things off the list. I wasn’t even going to ask him to come in because I knew it would be trouble. It just seemed so natural, though, like we were coming home together to our own place. It didn’t even occur to me until later that I wasn’t planning to invite him in.
He nodded approvingly as we walked down the hall, and tested my new apartment door too. It was so sweet of him, in a way, to care about my safety. A little weird, but sweet.
He had gotten us a bottle of wine and stashed it in his car. I guess he remembered how little I know about wine. He opened it for me and let me pour into my juice glasses. It tasted good, that’s about all I can tell you. It was wine. Mick took a sip and then took a breath with the wine still in his mouth.
“Ah, the wine connoisseur in action,” I teased.
He laughed, and then said, “Seriously, you can taste it better if you do that. Try it!”
So I tried it. It was true, you could taste more. The taste changed from beginning to end. But still, it was just wine to me. “I’m sorry, Mick. Good wine is wasted on me. I’m happy to drink it, though.”
He set his glass down on my tiny counter, and took mine and put it down next to his. Then he put his arms around me.
My body is a traitor. I melted in his arms, molded myself to fit against his contours. In my head, this little voice was shouting, “No, you idiot, stop! Step away from the hot dude!” but it was like I couldn’t listen. Mm, god he felt so good. A big hunk of muscle. He always made me feel tiny in his arms, delicate as a porcelain doll. And like he could protect me from any danger. He leaned down to kiss me, and the little voice said, “Nooo! What are you DOING? He’s your brother!” “Step,” I said silently to the voice, but it was too late. Those words were like ice water in my face. So I bent my knees and dropped my arms and walked away from his embrace.
He didn’t say anything, and I avoided looking at his face as I walked to the futon and sat down. He wandered over to my big windows and looked at the French doors with their new locks. Then he came and sat next to me.
“They’re really fixing up your building, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, I guess the building was sold and the new owner is doing all this. Lots of new locks, repairs, that kind of stuff.”
“That must make you feel good.”
“Well, yeah, but I guess I’m going to have to start looking for a new place soon. I’m sure they’ll raise the rent now.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” he said quickly.
“Really? Why would they do all this work if they’re not going to make any money off of it?”
He shrugged. “Don’t you have a year lease?”
“No. Just month-to-month.”
“You’d still get thirty days’ notice.” He picked up a throw pillow and examined the seam, then smiled at me. “Don’t worry, Casey.”
“Okay. I won’t worry because you told me not to.” I teased. Funny how serious he got when I mentioned moving! I leaned over and kissed his shoulder, and noticed his wine glass was empty. “Would you like a refill?”
“Sure,” he said.
When I returned with our wine, I sat with my back against the arm of the futon so I could face him. “Mick…. you said that first night that you go on a lot of blind dates. So.... I can’t figure out why you’re still single.”