Adrenaline (Speed Series Book 2)(6)

And there was the other reason I loved her. She had a feisty spirit.

She took my coat from my hands and hung it up as I walked into the living room and headed to the kitchen. “I don’t know, Nancy, I’ve been told I’m a pretty good lover.”

“Pesh, stop talking nonsense. How was Texas?”

My heart ached at the mentioning of home. Sure, North Carolina was where I lived, but my true home was the three-thousand-acre ranch I owned in Crawford. This home was a four-thousand-square-foot museum for my mother to put shit in she bought while traveling.

“Texas was wonderful as always. The only reason I came back was for your chicken and dumplings.”

“Uh-huh. I’m sure it was.”

Nancy lived in the guesthouse behind the main house. There had been plenty of times she has walked in on more than one naked girl in this house. And every single time she preached to them about walking around a man’s home naked. She even brought one girl to tears. Damn what was that chick’s name?

“Who’s name?”

My head snapped over to look at her. “Huh?”

“You just asked, what was that chick’s name. Girls are not chickens, Malcolm.”

I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and laughed. “I can’t believe I said that out loud. I was trying to think of the name of the girl who you made cry when you basically called her a whore for walking around my house naked.”

Nancy snarled her lip. “Oh. Her. Rhonda was her name I believe. Couldn’t have been but twenty-one.”

Placing the beer to my lips, I took a drink. “I like them young, Nancy. You should know that by now.”

She rolled her eyes and said, “All I know is when you come home I need to make sure I have Lysol wipes for my poor kitchen island.”

Laughing, I tried to remember the last time I f*cked girl on my kitchen island. Oh yeah . . . Linda . . . the chick who does all the gardening.

“I ought to give Linda a call. See about some winter plants or something.”

Nancy glared at me and shook her head. “Get out of my kitchen and let me think clearly so I can make you some dinner, or are you going out tonight?”

“Actually, Emmit invited me over to dinner.”

Nancy’s mouth dropped. “Emmit? Emmit Lewis? Is this a good idea?”

I downed the rest of my beer as I kissed Nancy on the forehead. “I think it will be fine. He wants to show me his blissfully happy life and all that shit.”

“Or he found out you’re having sex with his sister and he is going to poison you.”

Tilting my head, I agreed. “There’s that too.”

My evening consisted of watching two people madly in love with each other exchange looks, kiss each other way more than needed and one over-the-top adorable baby who I couldn’t seem to give back to his mother.

Adaline sat down next to me and gave me that smile of hers. The one where she thinks she is going to have this great heart to heart with me and all the problems in my world will be solved.

“So . . .”

I held Landon and continued to make goofy faces at him. As long as he kept laughing, I was going to keep doing it.

“So what?” I asked.

Adaline leaned over to see where Emmit was. “You and Ashley still . . . you know?”

I completely ignored her which pissed her off. It was fun making Adaline mad. I really needed to do it more often.

“Don’t ignore me, Malcolm Wallace. I’ve carried your dirty little secret and I get to hear all the juicy details cause Ashley claims y’all are just . . . well you’re um . . . how do I say this?”

“Fucking?”

Adaline made a dramatic gasping sound. “Not in front of the baby!”

“Oh yeah, cause he totally understands what f*cking is.”

“Oh my gawd! You did it again!” she cried out as Landon started laughing.

With a glance up toward the kitchen where Emmit still was, I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her in a few weeks. We decided to call it quits.”

Adaline fell back and clutched her chest. “Oh thank goodness. I was so afraid Emmit would find out.”

“Yeah well, no need to worry anymore; she found Jon.”

She leaned forward as she narrowed her eyes at me. “Does that bother you she found someone she likes?”

“No! I’m honestly happy for her. Surprised, but happy none the less.”

“Are you sure? Maybe the old Malcolm is getting tired of all the sleeping with women.”

Now it was my turn to gasp. Why did everyone think I was ready to settle down and be a one-woman kind of man? It was starting to piss me off. “Bite your tongue.” I handed her Landon and stood. “Speaking of.”

“Wait! Malcolm, seriously. You’re not ready to start looking at maybe settling down? Find someone who will be there when you fall asleep and when you wake up?”

An image of Casey flashed through my head as I tried like hell to make it go away. “I’ve got to go. I’ll show myself out. Tell Emmit I said thank you for dinner and I’ll talk to him soon.”

Her disappointed look made me feel guilty, but the last thing I wanted to talk about was my sex life.

“How about dinner on Sunday?” Adaline called out.

Lifting my hand, I gave her a wave. “I need to ease into this friendship thing with Emmit. Bye sweet, Addie. Thank you for dinner.”