Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2)(66)

“Okay, okay, I take it back,” Krista held up her hands in surrender.

“Hah! Victory!” Cassie exclaimed, and then took a slug of her beer, which she did not need.

No sense telling her that, Krista thought as she took a slug of her own beer, which she also did not need.

It seemed like only ten minutes had gone by when the lights were flickering. Sean had finished paying his tab and was on his way back over to the girls.

“He is sooooo hot,” Krista told Cassie.

“Eww. Do you love him?”

“Yes,” Krista said without thinking. She realized what she’d said and started choking on her beer. She threw a finger up at a smirking, one-eyed Cassie, “Drunk talking. Do not repeat that.”

“I won’t tell. But good!” She fell silent as Sean approached.

“You girls ready to go?”

“Hey, what happened to Keith tonight?” Krista asked as Sean helped them out of the booth.

It was no easy matter because neither girl was all that great at standing.

“Sent that idiot home. He was hot. Shit in bed, though. And really, really stupid.”

Krista laughed as Sean told Cassie to behave herself.

“Where did the girls go?” Krista asked through a blur of alcohol.

“Booty calls, remember?” Cassie said, bumping into a wall while Sean was trying to navigate around two jerks with giant combat boots.

“Oh yeah, they both have men at present.”

“At present. Men. They come, they go, they only leave heartache or irritation in their wake.”

“Hey, bitter Betty,” Krista yelled as Sean navigated them out of the bar, “there is someone for everyone, and all that jazz. More fish in the sea. Love conquers all. Love and hate are two horns of the same goat. Blah blah blah. But goats, though—they’re so gross!”

“Are you girls going to get in?” Sean asked from inside the car.

“Oh, we’re at the car,” Cassie said, blinking.

They then fought each other for shotgun. Krista won because she was wily. Cassie called her a slut in retaliation, climbed into the back of the car, and started snoring immediately.

“Are you okay to drive?” Krista asked Sean.

“Yes. Are you going to throw up?”

“Oh God no. No, no. I am good. I could keep going.”

“That might not be such a good idea.”

“Well. I could, though.”

They passed some time in silence, Krista wanting to make sure she had just told the truth.

Then Sean asked, “Do you believe in God?”

“What a weird and random question on a drive home after a drunken night. Um, yes. But I don’t necessarily believe in church.”

“Why do you believe in God?”

“Sean, I am not sober enough, or you are not drunk enough, for this conversation. But I will tell you this: There is no way someone as damned handsome as you could be in existence without a little aid from something divine. Okay, that sounds like a pick-up line, but I honestly believe it. Seriously. I thought it sober, so you can take to the bank. All the other crap I spew from my mouth tonight you might disregard. But that one nugget is true.”

“I worry that I drag you down because I am such a head case.”

“What does that have to do with the price of apples? Oh, I see, confusion tactic. You are trying to get truths out of me because I am drunk, yeah?”

“Yup.”

“Sneaky. You forget: I am also a head case, sir. There will come a time when you will do something that triggers a bad memory, and I will panic. I will try to push you away. I might even cry, I don’t know. How is that any different than the stuff you put on me?”

“Do you love me?”

“Oh ho, I am going to plead the fifth on that one. I am not sober enough, or you are not drunk enough, for that conversation.”

“It was worth a shot,” he laughed. “I am a bit insecure about the matters of the heart, as I told you. This stuff has never gone well.”

“Well, you can trust me. If I were going to screw you over, I would’ve done it last night. Instead, I left partially satisfied. That has to be worth something, right?”

“Only partially?”

“That was wrong to say, wasn’t it? I meant, mostly. No—shit!—I meant satisfied. I mean, I orgasmed in the end, right, so yay!”

He was quiet.

“I just screwed up, didn’t I?” Krista asked in a weak voice, albeit too loud because the ability to talk quietly had left her hours ago.

He was still quiet.

Krista fretted as they parked in the garage. He got out, helped Krista out, and carried Cassie into the house. He deposited his sister on the couch and glanced at Krista to make sure she was following him.

She did so, like a lost lamb. An incredibly horny, lost little lamb.

When they got to his room he closed and locked the door, shut off the light, and kissed her deeply. She rode the kiss as she tried to take off his pants. He pulled back and stilled her hands.

“Okay, look,” she said crossly. “I will not be able to control myself. If you have an episode, you run the risk of derailment because I will not be in the right mind to--”

He kissed her again to shut her up.

Krista was backed toward the bed. Sean removed her clothes without ceremony or hesitation.