When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(46)
I mull over her words before responding. “You’re right,” I agree with a sigh of acceptance. “But we’ve had one, technically two, dates. If you call them that. How can I know he’s serious in that short period of time? What if he finds something about me that he doesn’t like? Hell, we haven’t even done anything past kissing. He might not like what he gets if we take it past that. He’s a lot more experienced than I am, and every time I’ve been with a guy, there wasn’t even a spark, let alone fireworks. He could figure out on the next date that I’m not worth the trouble or risks.”
She snorts, almost spilling her drink. “Yeah, no. First of all, you have known him your whole life. I doubt he’s going to find something he doesn’t like about you. Knowing someone that long means you know all their faults and just choose to look past them. Second of all,” she continues, jabbing the air with her finger. “How does every other happily committed couple know anything after two dates? They don’t, I’ll tell you! They just take a chance and enjoy the hell out of it. You can’t rush that. THIRD!” she screams, again stabbing the air between us. “You got Fourth of July-worthy fireworks from a kiss, Ember. You don’t have those kinds of sparks only to find out that sex gives you something like a sparkler.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Nikki is on a roll because before I can open my mouth, she jumps from her seat and throws her hands up in the air.
“AND! Let me tell you something, missy! He told you what ‘risks’ were holding him back before. Risks that I might add he is finding no trouble accepting are worth it to take now. He knows how close you are with your sister. He also knows Maddi can’t hold a secret to save her life. The second he made that play, he was accepting those risks with the confidence that he wanted to make that trouble worth it when y’all’s relationship went further.”
She lifts her wine glass and downs the contents of the half-full glass before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Only then does she flop down on the couch and lean her head back with a sigh.
“Ohhhkay,” I droll, my heart pounding as her words take root and the understanding and acceptance blooms.
Her head rolls on the back of the couch, and she narrows one eye at me, looking ridiculous instead of intimidating. “You know I’m right. But I also know that you overthink everything. It’s time to stop that shit. If you need a little more time, then take it, but don’t question him or his motives until he gives you a reason to. A current reason to, I should add. Forget the rest of it and just give him a chance.”
“You’re right,” I begin, but I’m forced to stop talking when her finger hits my lips to silence me.
“Of course, I am. And now that you’ve listened to reason, I think you should sleep with him and get that silly thought it won’t be explosive out of your head. Since you’ve already established you’re horny for his dick AND you know damn well that you’re holding on to your crazy excuses about his motives as a shield of protection, drop it and be the one willing to take risks this time.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon?” I wonder out loud; it’s something that’s been on the back of my mind since I did just get out of a relationship, even if that relationship had been very short-lived.
“Too soon?” She snorts and starts to cackle loudly, slapping my thigh as she cracks herself up. “You’ve been in love with the guy for forever. You’ve known him forever and you’ve been dreaming of having him—in every way possible—FOREVER. Too soon? More like it’s about time!”
I roll my eyes.
“Don’t be a brat. You know I’m right … again. If he doesn’t text you back today, call him tomorrow or go see him at Dirty. Make the move. No one says you have to wait on him to do it.”
“Okay. You’re right,” I say with a slight shake to my voice. I take another sip. “If he doesn’t text me by tomorrow night, I’m going to him.”
“That’s my girl!” she screams, and we both start giggling.
God, I love my best friend.
I DRAG MY FEET AFTER softly closing my truck door and try to keep my eyes open. I’ve been on my last ounce of energy for the last two days, not that I’m complaining, but things have been so busy at Dirty that I hardly had time to even eat. Not to mention, I’ve been spending every second either at Dirty or passed out after I finally manage to drag myself home. Now that things are starting to move along, I’m confident that Shane is ready to handle the nightly operations himself, especially since we’ve already promoted Denton to give Shane the coverage he needs to have time off himself. I can’t f*cking wait to be able to go in during daylight hours to handle office shit and only have to stay a few hours at night.
If it hadn’t been for a text earlier from a certain woman that has plagued my every thought for a week, I might have passed out behind the bar hours ago.
I need you, she had said. Well, she had said a bunch of other shit too, but nothing stood out more to me than seeing her say she needed me.
Those three words had lit a fire under my ass, and I had been busting tail in order to get out of there before closing. Thankfully, Shane was there to close because if I had to wait a second longer, I was going to come out of my skin.
I lift the mat in front of the door, and sure enough, a shiny silver key catches the moonlight. I snatch it up with the mental note to spank her ass for leaving a key there. She might as well put a big neon sign telling every lowlife motherf*cker to come on in.