I’d just finished telling Valentina about meeting Patrick’s family when we knocked on the door to Book Boyfriends Unlimited for book club the next night. Valentina, bless her, understood why I was freaking out and screeched, “They called you his Goldie?”
“Whoa,” Finley said as she opened the door. “Who called you his Goldie?”
“Patrick’s entire family,” Valentina answered for me. “She met them all yesterday.”
“I guess your date went well if they’re all calling you his,” Finley said with a wiggle of her shoulders.
“If by good you mean they got dirty on the drive home from dinner, then yes,” Valentina told her.
“Valentina!” I hissed.
“Who’s talking about getting dirty? I need to hear this story,” Elise shouted from the back of the bookstore.
“Goldie and Patrick had a really good date,” Valentina said as we walked back to join the others.
Elise, Blake, Melody, Willow, Piper, Sofia, and Haley were already there. We all said our hellos before they jumped on me again.
“We’re talking dirty, dirty kind of good?” Elise asked.
“Elise,” Finley admonished.
“Oh, please,” Elise said, “not one of you is surprised I’m asking. Tell me everything, Goldie. Don’t leave a single detail out.”
“You act like you haven’t had sex in years. What’s going on?” Willow asked Elise.
“I like sex. A lot. And there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it with my husband, or wanting my friends to have lots of it. It’s been—” Elise looked at her phone “—two hours since I’ve had sex.”
“I did not need to know that,” Anna said as she joined us. She worked with Finley and had her own keys. Right behind her were Trinity and Laura.
“How long has it been for you?” Elise asked her.
Anna’s red cheeks said not very long at all.
“Good for you,” Elise said, offering a fist to bump.
Anna returned the gesture and shook her head. “How did I sink to your level?”
Elise cackled. “It’s a great place to be where orgasms are a-plenty and the men live to please. I hope Hudson qualifies.”
“He does,” Anna said without hesitation.
“Damn, girl. Nice.” Elise nodded approvingly before turning her gaze to me. “Now, back to you. How dirty are we talking? Sex in the car dirty or something else?”
“We did not have sex in the car,” I answered.
“Okay, so something else. Want me to guess? I mean there’s—”
“Dear God, please stop her,” Melody said, reaching out to clamp a hand over Elise’s mouth as she laughed.
“I always thought men would be the ones who talked about sex all the time. I never expected it to be so bad from a group of women,” Haley said.
“Clearly, you’ve been hanging around the wrong women.” Elise tapped her chin. “Of course, you haven’t picked any winners for men either.” Elise glanced at Valentina and grimaced. “Sorry, Valentina.”
Valentina shook her head. “No sorry necessary. I am choosing to move on with my life.”
“By moving under someone?” Willow asked.
“Yes!” Elise high-fived her.
I shook my head but hoped Valentina would answer the question. She deserved good in her life. A good man, and a good time.
“No men. I’ve been with Dawson for most of my life. Brantley introduced us our freshman year of college. We’ve been together since we were eighteen. I haven’t dated anyone since then. I need a break.” Valentina sighed and shrugged, but her lip wobbled just a touch. It was the only indication she was having more trouble with the end of her marriage than she was willing to let on.
“Well, good for you. I can give you some vibrator recommendations if you need them,” Willow said.
Valentina snorted. “I’ve been married to a man who was screwing someone else for over a year. I’m all set in the vibrator department.”
“Man, I love you guys,” Elise said. “This is my happy place. Well, one of them. The other is—”
“No!” everyone shouted together.
Elise laughed loudly and shook her head. “You guys know me too well. Okay, Goldie. You still haven’t told us about Patrick. How dirty was the drive home?”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I hedged. I loved them all, but I wasn’t used to sharing all the details of my sex life with anyone. Even Valentina and Anna didn’t get everything, and they were my closest friends.
“Give her a break, Elise. Not everyone wants to share everything,” Blake said.
“You’re no fun,” Elise said. She leaned closer to me. “A little under the skirt action or over the shirt action?”
“Under,” I said.
Elise nodded approvingly. “Good for you. Although rumor has it Valentina and Willow can share vibrator recommendations if you need it.”
“I’m all set there, too. But I’m hoping I’ll be able to give my batteries a rest one of these days,” I confessed.
“Love it! Yes! We should all give the batteries a rest once in a while. Okay, so now that we know about the dirty, what were you guys talking about when you walked in?” Elise asked. She looked between Valentina and me.
“Goldie met his entire family yesterday. They called her his Goldie,” Valentina said.
“Is that a problem?” Finley asked. “I mean, the whole possession thing is a little off-putting for me, but I’m hoping they just meant it in terms of you two are together. Do you not want people to know?”
“No, it’s not that. I mean, no, I don’t want to tell everyone at work, but I knew his family knew we were going out. I was just surprised at how they addressed me. Instead of his boss or even someone he works with, I was just his.” I shrugged, struggling to explain how weird it made me feel. And how weird it was that it didn’t bother me as much as I felt like it should have.
“Do you think they see him as the boss instead?” Piper asked.
I shrugged. “I’m not sure. And part of me isn’t worried about that. It was more than they seemed like they knew me. Like they knew a lot about me. More than if I was just his boss.”
“You think he’s been talking about you,” Anna said. “Want me to see if I can find something out from Arthur?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t want it to be weirder than it already is. I guess it’s not a big deal, but we’ve been on two dates. One was just lunch. And it felt like they were saying he’s been talking about me a lot longer.”
“You said he’s been flirting with you forever. Almost since you hired him,” Laura said.
I nodded. “True. But it’s just strange. I don’t know.”
“I think all the times you thought he was joking, he wasn’t. It sounds like he really likes you. A lot. And you’ve been running from it while he’s been trying to get you to notice him,” Anna said.
Could she be right? It fit, but was it possible? And if it was, what did that mean? Things with Patrick were fun. We were enjoying spending time together. Was it possible he was that serious?
“Or maybe I’m wrong,” Anna blurted. She pasted on a smile I didn’t believe. “You guys are having fun. You don’t need to worry about him being serious. It’s fine.”
I looked at her, then scanned the rest of them. “What is going on?”
“You’re spinning out,” Trinity answer for the rest of them. “Anna saw you starting to go. She’s trying to pull back so you don’t freak out because Patrick is more in this than you are.”
“You think he is?” I shouted.
Trinity nodded and patted my hand. “I think you like him a lot more than you want to admit. I’ve been there. The hard part of that is you both need to find a way to be honest with each other. If you can’t be, it doesn’t matter how serious either of you are, it isn’t gonna work out.”
I sucked in a breath that didn’t feel big enough. They were all staring at me, which only made my lungs feel tighter. I blew out the breath and, God bless her, Blake asked Piper how Zoey was doing. Zoey hadn’t been to book club much since she had her baby, the third in their busy household.
The others talked around me while I tried to make sense of what was happening. If Patrick was serious, was I leading him on? Or was I serious about him?
But maybe the biggest question was if I could take the risk of letting him in without knowing if he was going to crush me.
I was still trying to figure out the answer to those questions on Tuesday night when I knocked on Patrick’s door. He lived in a converted building on the north side of town. It held eight units, according the to mailbox in the lobby. He was on the second floor, unit D.
He answered the door a minute later, barefoot in shorts and a golf shirt with a bright smile. He leaned forward to kiss my cheek before pulling me inside. “Hi.”
I couldn’t help but smile back. “Hi.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled behind his glasses as his smile widened. “I’m glad you came.”
“Me, too.” It was an honest answer. I was happy to be there. Even as I was trying to figure out where things were going, I was enjoying our time together. I told myself I didn’t need all the answers about the future right now.
“Dinner should be ready soon. Do you want a glass of wine or something else to drink?”
“Just water, please. I don’t like to drink when I’ll be driving.”
He nodded and led the way to his kitchen.
His apartment was neat. No shoes were at the door but were tucked neatly into an entryway closet he opened for me to put my stuff. He had a hook for his keys and a small basket in the closet where his wallet was. The rest of the apartment was small, but it was clean and smelled amazing. Candles burned around the open living room, dining room, kitchen combo space. A door on the far side led to a bedroom, and another closed door must have been the bathroom.
He filled a glass with water from a pitcher in the fridge and handed it to me. “I didn’t think to ask if you have any food allergies or things you really don’t like.”
I shook my head. “I’m pretty much equal opportunity with food. I enjoy salad as much as I enjoy chocolate.” I paused. “Well, maybe not quite as much.”
He shook his head and moved closer to me. He wrapped an arm around me and leaned down. His lips pressed lightly to my neck, then his tongue slid over my heated flesh. “You’re beautiful, Goldie. I’m barely keeping my hands to myself right now because I owe you dinner before I make us both crazy in my bed, but don’t ever doubt how stunning you are.”
His raspy words strummed every chord in my body like he owned them. I shivered in his arms, resisting the urge to beg him to forget about dinner and go straight to dessert. Dessert was always the best part of the meal anyway.
He kissed my jaw again, then took a head-clearing step back and smiled at me. He was a few inches taller than me barefoot. Looking up at him was different since I typically wore heels at work. I liked it. I liked the feeling of him being able to protect me, even though I would never admit I loved the thought of being taken care of.
“Okay, so we have risotto with shrimp and asparagus. The asparagus was too good to resist. I hope it’s okay.”
“Sounds delicious. Smells delicious.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. When he opened them again, his gaze went straight through me and lit me up.
The intensity of it made my breath stutter. My pulse raced, my heart skipped. I couldn’t remember the last time someone looked at me like that. Probably never. It was intoxicating. Who needed wine when I had a man who looked at me like I was all he needed to survive?
The need to define what we were doing pressed on me, but I pushed back on it. I didn’t want to ruin things. I wasn’t ready for that. I wanted more time with him. More time to enjoy life exactly as it was.
“Okay, before I lose my mind, let’s eat.” He gave me a sheepish grin that was both boyish and devastatingly panty-melting.
“Sounds good.”
He handed me a heavy stoneware plate and gestured for me to go ahead of him to the steaming pan on the stovetop. I filled my plate, not thinking twice about how I looked with an appetite. This was Patrick. He knew me. He’d seen me eat more than a few times. And I was not willing to pretend I didn’t enjoy a good meal.
We sat across from each other at the table, digging into our food. I groaned. “Oh, my God, this is so good.”
He breathed a laugh. “Thank you.”
We devoured our food, the conversation flowing easily from work to summer to growing up. I laughed at a story Patrick told me about him getting into trouble with Arthur.
“Arthur was nice. Your entire family was.”
Patrick groaned. “Oh, my God, they were so embarrassing.”
“They were sweet.”
“I was bracing myself for you to run screaming in the other direction. They were a little…pushy.”
I chuckled. “They clearly love you very much.”
“Love is a very fuzzy word with them.”
“You’re lucky to have them.”
“Thank you. They’re crazy and overbearing, but I love them.”
“Even Dick?” I asked with a grin.
He laughed. “Are you trying to get me to say I love Dick?”
I barked a laugh, nearly choking on the food I just slid into my mouth. “That’s a touchy thing to say to me after my divorce.”
He winced. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m mostly just joking.”
He smiled. “Dick finally asked my mom to marry him.”
“Wow. That’s big. Of him. Big…Dick.”
He snorted a laugh. “That was good. And bad. Ew. I am not willing to think about that.”
I chuckled. “Sorry. So, what did your mom say?”
“She’s thinking about it. That’s what we were talking about when you saw us Saturday. She was asking what we thought of Dick asking her to marry him.”
“And what did you say?” I sympathized with his mom as a single mom, but I also knew Patrick. He wasn’t the kind of person who would be wary of his mom getting involved with someone unless there was a reason for his hesitation.
“I didn’t say anything.”
I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I asked, “What do you mean, you didn’t say anything?”
He shrugged. “She told us, and Arthur repeated what he said before, that he wants her to be happy. Which is not really an answer at all. She pushed us to answer, but before I could say anything, you walked over.”
“I’m sorry. If I’d had any idea you were in the middle of that, I—”
“No, don’t do that.” He reached across and took my hand. “I don’t want you to feel bad. There’s no way you could have known.”
“So, what would you have told her if I hadn’t interrupted you?”
He sighed heavily. “I don’t know.”
I squeezed his hand. “You don’t?”
He gave me a smile that said he didn’t want to admit it. “I love my mom. She’s been the one constant in my life. Arthur got married and had kids, so a lot of the time it’s just been me and Mom. She and Dick started seeing each other a little while after I started working for you. I’m not even sure if she loves him or if he’s just convenient.”
“Do you really think your mom would marry someone she didn’t love?”
“I don’t know. I guess not. But why would she ask us? If she’s so sure about him, why would we get a vote?”
I drew a breath and took my time before answering him. “I think she knows it has an impact on your life. If you hate Dick, it’ll strain the relationship you have with your mom. She doesn’t want to lose you.”
“I guess. Maybe.”
“She also could need an excuse. Maybe she wants to say no and doesn’t really know how.”
“You think?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I only met her for a minute. But as a mom, I know the most important thing in our worlds is our kids.”
He smiled and nodded slowly. “You know, I really didn’t want to spend our entire date talking about my family.”
“And Dick.”
He snorted. “Well, maybe a little of that, but not that Dick.”
“Oh, is that so?”
He nodded and stood, tugging my hand until I was standing with him. He guided me forward into his arms and sealed his lips over mine.
All thoughts about his family went out the window as he tested the seam of my lips and I opened for him. I sighed, and he moaned. His hands cupped my butt and yanked me against him. Close enough that I could feel his erection growing between us.
He pulled back and brushed the hair from my face. “Should we take this into the other room?”