When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(19)

Ember: Sounds good. ;) I’ll be ready in an hour. See you soon!



I don’t get a reply, but I didn’t think I would since Levi is the worst at responding. I shoot Nikki a similar message while walking to the back door and letting an overexcited Bam in from his run in the backyard. I leave my back room to head to my bedroom and get ready for a double date night.





I look across the table at Levi and try to focus on the conversation around me. He and Seth have been going on and on about some new training program they’ve been on to ‘bulk up.’ Whatever the hell that means. Something about their muscles getting bigger … or was it sharper? More defined? I don’t know.

Nikki nudges my foot under the table, taking a sip of her beer, and rolls her eyes.

“I hit the gym twice yesterday, man. My veins looked like they were going to pop through my skin by the time I finished.”

“So, Levi,” Nikki interrupts him and turns her attention to the man next to me. “How are things at the fire department?”

“Good,” he says, giving her a small glance before looking back across the table to Seth. “So I told Allen I would be there at six in the morning tomorrow to work my legs some more. Since I’m working a double this weekend, no gym time until Monday.”

Nikki gives me a shrug, not really caring that she was dismissed, and we both continue to eat.

The look of displeasure that I got from Levi when I ordered pasta almost made me regret my decision, but I’ve never been one to shy away from a hearty Italian dish. Just because he’s a health nut doesn’t mean I have to be. I should be annoyed that he tries to control what I eat, but I don’t really care. I’m not going to become someone else just to make him happy, even if my knee-jerk reaction is to do just that. I’m not a skinny girl, but I’m also not big. I’m just me, soft in all the right places.

“Are you sure you can’t get someone to take your shift?” I ask him before taking another big bite and smiling at him when he frowns at me. He gives me one of his devastatingly handsome grins when the noodle slurps loudly, just shaking his head at me. After two months, I might still get the looks and a few comments, but he knows I’ll be the last one who starts to worry about what goes in my mouth.

“Sorry, babe,” he responds, and I succeed in hiding my grimace at the pet name. “I tried to get Trenton to switch, but his little sister is getting married so it was a no go.”

“I can’t believe you’re letting her go party on her twenty-first,” Seth chimes in.

“Letting her go?” Nikki questions with a harsh tone.

“Yeah, letting, Nic. I remember how wild things got at mine. Fuck, dude, there were strippers that—”

“I probably wouldn’t finish that sentence.” Levi laughs.

“No, please … tell me all about the strippers, Seth,” Nikki sarcastically drawls, leaning back in her seat after placing her fork down and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Seriously? What’s the big deal?” Seth looks clueless as to why his girlfriend is pissed, which is sad.

“The big deal is that you probably shouldn’t be talking about the strippers you had that night when your very pissed girlfriend, the same girlfriend you had three years ago during said birthday full of skank happened, is sitting next to you.”

Levi and I burst out laughing at Nikki’s smartass response. They continue to fight and I soak up Levi’s attention as he gives me a soft, chaste kiss before returning to his meal.

Nikki pushed me toward Levi almost two months ago. I’m not sure what made me say yes, but I knew it was largely in part to the loneliness I was sick of feeling. Our first date was great. We had dinner at a local Mexican place before following that up with a movie. He left me a few hours later with my first front porch kiss experience. He was easy to be with and the relationship progressed from there.

I say relationship loosely because lately, he’s been acting so weird. I think the only thing that Levi really cares about having a relationship with is his gym membership. A few other little things lately have also been making me question if being with him is the best thing for me.

Nikki and Seth continue to bicker, and I look over at Levi as my thoughts darken. He doesn’t notice my attention, which is also something I’ve noticed a lot of lately.

He looks like such the boy next door. All-American type with the looks that could probably put him as the front cover model for J. Crew or something, but underneath is a simmering anger I’ve only recently been privy to. He wasn’t always like this. When we first met, he was amazing, and I really had high hopes that he would be someone worth exploring a relationship with. But I’m not sure what to do with this new easily angered and controlling side of him.

“Are you excited to hit up Nate’s place?” Nikki asks me, clearly done fighting with her boyfriend since she’s now taking a big forkful of her own pasta with a look of pure pleasure. She doesn’t notice that her question has now caused a dark cloud to settle over my side of the table.

“Who is Nate?” Levi asks her in a hard tone. His question might be directed at Nikki, but the anger is all for me.

“A friend,” I tell him, ignoring him much like he’s been ignoring me for most of the evening.

“What kind of friend?” His words come out sharp and forcefully.