Fighting for Love (Second Chances #4)(62)

“What if one of us screws up?” I asked hesitantly.

My secrets would be the death of me if I didn’t get them out. I needed to tell him everything and pray that he could forgive me. If we were strong enough, like he thought, then I had to believe we could get through anything.

Matt chuckled and tilted my chin up. “I’m not going to screw up, angel. You might get pissed at me from time to time, but I’m not going to do anything to hurt you.”

Wearily, I nodded and stared up at him. “I know you’re not going to hurt me, Matt. There’s just something that’s been bothering me and I really need …”

I was just about to tell him everything when my phone buzzed in my pocket. “Perfect timing,” I hissed.

Grabbing my elbow, Matt hauled us up the steps so we’d be out of the rain. “Who is it?” he asked.

I was almost afraid it would be Kyle wanting to stir up more trouble, but when I glanced down at my phone it was Bryan. “It’s my boss,” I told him, “and he’s probably wondering where the hell I’m at. If you want to get started on the pancakes I’ll just handle this and be in there in a second.”

“Hopefully, I won’t burn your house down,” he teased. Kissing me on the lips, he grabbed my keys and walked away, disappearing inside once he had the door unlocked.

Surely, Bryan wasn’t calling me to yell at me for not coming in. He was pretty reasonable as far as my schedule, and for the first time in seven years, last week was the first time I had ever taken off. Dripping wet from the rain, I was freezing cold and trying hard to keep my teeth from chattering when I answered his call.

“Hey, Bryan,” I sputtered into the phone.

“Good morning, Shelby. I see you haven’t made it into the office yet. Are you feeling okay?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. I’ve been working on my article and following Matt around. The sport is very intriguing.” That was putting it mildly considering all of the crap that had been going down. As far as working on the article, it wouldn’t take me long to actually write it; maybe a few days.

“That’s great news. I’m glad you like it. That means it’ll make for a great article. The reason why I’m calling is that Lexi’s really sick and I didn’t know if you knew or not.”

Oh, no I hope she’s okay, I thought to myself.

Lexi hardly ever got sick, and when she did it was usually minor. She must really be bad to be calling out of work. “Yeah, she left here last night not feeling good,” I told him. “I figured it was from all the pizza she ate. I’ll give her a call and check on her.”

“Great. Let me know if it’s something serious. Since it is almost the weekend, I told her to take tomorrow off as well. I didn’t know if you and she caught the same bug.”

“So far I’m okay,” I claimed, knocking on the wood of my front porch.

“I also wanted to let you know that I’m leaving for Las Vegas in a couple of hours and I’ll be gone until next Tuesday. If you need me call my cell phone.”

Basically, what he meant was that since he wasn’t going to be there I was safe to stay at home. Usually, when he went out of town I’d go into work anyway, but since I didn’t have to I figured I’d take full advantage.

“Have fun, Bryan. One of these days I’ll go there myself.”

After we said our good-byes, I rushed into the house and stripped off my dripping clothes once the doors were closed. Matt had already changed into dry ones and was searching through the kitchen cabinets for the pancake ingredients. He glanced over my way and did a double take when he noticed I was naked and shivering trying to get my socks off.

“I think I could get used to you coming in like that, all naked and wet,” he teased, raking his gaze up and down my body.

“Ha-ha,” I snapped, teeth chattering.

My feet made squishing noises on the hardwood floors the whole way to my bedroom. Grabbing the towel I had left on my bed this morning, I dried myself off and put on a pair of underwear and a bra, along with a pair of my gray lounging pants and a Berkeley sweatshirt. My hair was hopeless, so I dried it as much as possible with my towel before joining Matt in the kitchen.

By the mess on the counter, I knew it would be a disaster to let him cook, so I pushed him out of the way and took over, pointing the spatula right at him. “If you mess up this kitchen Jace will kick your ass,” I stated seriously. “He absolutely hates it when I mess things up in here.”

Guffawing, Matt sat down on one of the bar stools and started unpeeling the bananas. “Is it not strange living with another man?” he asked. “It would be like me living with a lesbian.”

I stirred the pancake batter in the bowl, and pushed it toward Matt so he could add the bananas. “No, it’s not strange living with Jace, and for some reason I don’t think you can compare me living with a gay guy to you living with a lesbian. A lot of the lesbians I know will swing both ways. I think there would be too many complications with that.”

“So there haven’t been any complications with you and Jace? There was never a time when you or he tried anything?” he asked curiously.

When I first met Jace it was hard not to think he was gorgeous, but at that time I was still in love with Matt. Not to mention he told me he was gay from the very beginning, so I never even allowed myself to feel those types of feelings toward him.