Lust (Vegas Nights 2)

He was now back in the pool with Lola eying him somewhat warily, given the splash his disaster had created. Perrie was inside on the phone somewhere, and I was on the porch, cleaning out the grill.

Today had been a day full of craziness. After I’d dropped Perrie and Lola at home to get an overnight bag, I was halfway around the grocery store when my sister called and wanted to know where her car keys were.

The answer? The bottom of Zac’s backpack. Somehow. One delivery later, Zac had spilled his mouth about Perrie last night, this morning, and tonight, and Amie had given me the third degree five times over. She’d even left with a threat that she was going to stop by.

That was the last thing I wanted. Although I’d spent the morning teasing Perrie that we were dating, the truth was, we probably weren’t. We weren’t single people who could slowly get to know each other and do it gradually.

We’d been thrust together by our jobs, and this wasn’t a normal situation. Not to mention the fact we both had kids. Slowly getting to know somebody wasn’t necessarily an option, because children were full-steam ahead or no-steam ahead.

And our kids?

They were full-steam ahead, lightyear speed.

That made it so much harder for us. I’m sure that if it weren’t for our kids being friends, she wouldn’t be here right now. I hoped that assessment was wrong, but Perrie Fox wasn’t the kind of woman you could sweep off her feet with one night of great sex.

It would have been easier if she was, but she was anything but easy. And I knew that her heart, her soul, who she really was beneath everything else, was something worth waiting—and fighting—for.

And I wanted to do that.

Wait for her.

Fight for her.

I had nowhere else to be, nowhere else I even wanted to be. Right now, I only wanted to be with her. Peel back those infuriating fucking layers she kept herself buried under.

If life were a beach, she’d be a turtle’s egg, buried under millions of grains of sand. It would tease you a hundred times before you got a real glimpse of it. Once you’d uncovered those, you’d get to her.

More than anything, I wanted her to know that she was safe. She would be safe with me. Always.

I checked on the kids in the pool and, seeing they were okay, put down the scrubber for the grill and headed inside. My hands were covered in coal ash from where I’d cleared it out, so I made my way to the downstairs half-bath to wash my hands.

“I’m nervous,” Perrie said from the other room. “What if he doesn’t want to see me?”

I stilled, staring toward the door. It was ajar, allowing me to only see the tiniest slither of my office through its opening.

“I know that,” she continued. “But that doesn’t make it easier. I haven’t seen him for years, Dahlia.”

Dahlia.

I knew that name. It wasn’t exactly common—there was only one Dahlia I knew of in Las Vegas, and she was at The Scarlet Letter bar, a place my team had never had to frequent.

Perrie sighed. “Abby said she’d interview me first thing tomorrow, but I need to get a sitter for it.”

My eyebrows shot up. An interview? Was she applying for a job there?

“She doesn’t know you. It’s not fair on either of you. I can fix it.”

A pause.

“No, you don’t need to push it. I can handle it. Honestly.”

Another pause.

“Fine, but I reserve the right to change my mind. I just…I don’t know how to talk to him now.”

Talk to who?

“’Kay. Thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I darted into the bathroom and scrubbed my hands.

Perrie leaned against the doorframe. “Learn anything interesting?”

I grabbed the towel. “Uh…More questions than answers.”

She pursed her lips, but there was no anger in her gaze. Instead, she sighed, slumping against the frame. “I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing.”

I stuffed the towel back onto the holder. “If you wanna talk about it…”

She collected the towel, folded it, and hung it back up.

I smirked, following her out of the bathroom.

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, I just don’t know if I do,” she said vaguely, stepping out onto the porch. The laughter of our kids as they splashed each other in the pool made us both stop.

Lola, with her hair in a bun, screeched out spine-tickling giggles as she sent water in Zac’s direction. Zac half-slipped as he stepped backward, but his answering laugh as the droplets splayed all over his face warmed my heart.

I smiled, and noticed Perrie doing the same. Despite the emotion that tightened her eyes and drew grooves in her forehead, her lips curved, and I knew she loved she sight as much as I did.