Jody
The long table is big enough to hold everyone, including Nash and me, the three cubical employees, and Dillon Wesley.
I thought Dillon was supposed to bring someone.
I glance at him, then at my fake date.
Damn, Nash smells clean and masculine. It hit me the moment he walked out of the bathroom earlier in the room. The crisp white button-down rolled up at the sleeves showing off his forearms coupled with his tailored thigh-enhancing khakis hadn’t gone unnoticed either.
As usual, he’s a head turner.
Shit! I must stop thinking about my best friend—who’s trying to help me—like he’s a piece of meat for me to feast on this weekend.
That shit will get me into trouble.
All kinds of unwanted difficulties.
I pick up my wineglass, toss a half-assed smile his way, and take a sip.
I’d like to convince myself that Nash means nothing to me. But the truth is, he’s my best friend. My only friend. The only person I can trust besides my family.
After Joey died and Nash found out I wasn’t eating, he brought over my favorite tacos from down the street and wouldn’t leave until I ate them.
A week later, he discovered I wasn’t getting out of bed. He waited until everyone had left for the day, came over, picked me up, and tossed me in the cold shower.
He threatened to strip my wet clothes off if I refused to finish the job.
I believed him. He’s not one for idle threats.
Then he took me for a ride …to see Joey.
It was the first time I’d been to my brother’s grave site since we lowered him into the ground.
I cried so hard.
Nash stood beside me, holding me up.
So. Yes. He’s earned his friend card. And while it might’ve taken a few months, I conceded why my brother loved him so much.
Theo Nash is true and faithful.
And honestly, if he invested himself into a girlfriend the way he does his friends, I have no doubt he’d be an excellent boyfriend.
Not that I’d ever in a million years confess it to him. He doesn’t need anyone blowing up his head. He does enough of that all on his own.
We all take turns introducing ourselves at the table.
Nash leans into me, and whispers, “That’s Dillon Wesley? Shit, it’s like Todd all over. He’s a good enough looking guy, so what’s the problem? Why didn’t you want to go out with the guy? Bad breath? Too nice? Too many cats?”
“Shut up,” I say with a tight smile.
“Nash.” I hear my boss Ashley call out. My heart skids to a complete stop. “Tell us, how you and Jody met?”
Nash’s eyes flash to mine for a quick uncertain second.
He turns back to my boss with a sly grin. “She didn’t tell you?”
Shit!
“No. Jody is a very private person, but I’m sure you know that.” Ashely smiles at me like she does when she’s waiting for me to chime up in a meeting or something.
“Yes. That she is. I guess what they say is true. Opposites attract.” He pauses to take a sip of his drink.
All eyes at the table remain on him, waiting for him to continue. He puts his glass back down, recognizing his audience with another candid grin. “Her brother, Joe, and I were best friends. That’s how we met.”
“Joe?” Dillon’s eyebrows crash together.
Double shit!
“You mean Aiden?” Dillon asks.
“No.” Nash shakes his head. “Her twin brother, Joe. Well, everyone calls him Joey, but I—” His eyes snap around the table, landing on me. His expression softens. “Oh.” He reaches for my hand under the table. After studying me for a slow just him and I moment, he realizes what he’s done. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
Yes. Nash just opened the door and allowed everyone I work with inside the room that I’ve been trying to hide for the past year.
I don’t talk about Joey with my coworkers. It’s too painful. With them, I want to be Jody.
Just me.
When I think of living without Joey, it’s as if half of me is gone. I can’t do it at work. I must feel whole to get the job done. So I pretend it’s only me, and that it’s only ever been me.
But when I fight fires, Joey is there. I imagine he’s my guardian angel watching over me.
I’m fearless because of it.
Nash doesn’t know any of this. He wouldn’t understand.
He never had a twin who meant the entire world to him.
Still, from the look in his eyes, I believe he’s sorry.
Ashley’s head tilts with confusion. “You have a twin brother?”
I lift my chin, realizing I’m not getting away from this. I should’ve known the second I let Nash step into this world, he’d bring the rest of my life with him. “Yes. He passed away almost five years ago from cancer.”
The condolences and sympathies rush in soft voices around the table.
This is exactly what I was trying to avoid.
Nash leans close to my ear. “Do these people know you’re a volunteer firefighter?”
I press my lips together and shake my head.
He pulls back. “Wow?”
I turn to him.
“Really?” His voice lowers.
“Uh-huh.”
His eyebrows lift. “How about that weird left toe? Anyone know about that?”
I laugh. “You’re an asshole,” I say between my teeth.
“No?” He spies at me from the corner of a glistening green eye. “Not even Dillon over there? You didn’t give him a peek?”
“No!” I laugh, glad he’s taken me from there to here.
He’s good at transporting the moment into something else. At Joey’s funeral, he had everyone laughing while he gave the eulogy.
“Not even in a weak moment? I know it’s been a while since Todd. You might’ve been tempted.”
“Stop it,” I say louder, followed by a weird half-snort and half-chuckle.
I cover my mouth, looking around the room at all the perplexed eyes.
“My girlfriend.” Nash thumbs my way. “She really knows how to ruin a serious moment.”
“I’m sorry.” I stifle back another snort.
“No, we’re sorry for your loss,” Ashely says with soft eyes.
“Oh,” Nash cuts in, retaking the stage from me. “I think I speak for Jody when I say, don’t be sorry. We’re thankful for the years we had with her brother. He was the best person I had the chance to know. He had a light inside of him that was always on.” Nash squeezes my hand and turns to me. “But he told me early on, his shine came from one place. His twin sister. He loved her as much as he loved life itself. I’m a better man for knowing him, and I’m lucky to have his sister in my life.”
It’s like buckets fill up in my heart and press to dump into my eyes.
I’m speechless by what Nash said.
“Awww.” Laurie, a cubical worker, touches her chest. “That’s so sweet.”
“He sounds like a wonderful guy,” Dillon agrees.
“Yeah.” I breathe out the word, still trying to find my voice while gazing into the eyes of the only person in the room who appreciates Joey as much as me. “He was pretty amazing.”
Without telling it to, my hand lifts. I touch the side of Nash’s face. I shift forward, kiss his freshly shaved cheek, and whisper, “Thank you.”
I withdraw. His scent lingers between us. My emotions cloud my vision for a brief second. Then my eyes finally meet his.
I drop my sweaty hand back into my lap.
What did I just do?
Should I have touched him?
Kissed him?
It was an innocent gesture.
What’s he thinking?
Oh, God!
Is he mad?
He moves in, and his eyes drop to my mouth. “Don’t think that counts as the kiss you promised me.”
“What?” I flash from his mouth to his smiling eyes, which are now staring back into mine.
The green around his pupil darkens. “You heard me,” he says in a low husky tone that apparently, like all the other women under his spell, causes my thighs to clench.
“Sorry I’m late,” Jerry Witkins, the CEO of the company, says as he comes walking into the room looking dapper in his five-hundred-dollar pants and shoes. “I was stuck at a meeting, then the traffic.” He waves a hand as if to dismiss his reasons for being late and pulls out a seat to sit next to a blushing Ashley. “Oh, good.” He glances at the servers as they start bringing out the food. “I’m famished.” He smiles at everyone at the table.
I don’t know Jerry that well because he’s usually at the office for only minutes on his infrequent visits, but he seems like a nice guy.
Strangely enough, he and Nash hit it off well. After dinner, I left them when they started to talk about planes and skydiving.
Yes. I will run into a burning building, but there’s no way in hell I’m jumping out of an airplane. Nash has tried to get me to jump with him. I’ve even gotten as far as in the plane, but when we hit the right altitude, I back out.
Not once or twice but three times.
He says I have trust issues.
I’m not sure what the problem is.
I mingle with Katie and her boyfriend, John. He doesn’t talk much. I then chat it up with one of the cubical workers, Collen. That’s what Ashley calls the people who work in a cubical and not an office. I moved from a cubical worker to an office worker a few months ago after winning over one of our bigger clients with an idea for an app.
It's uncomfortable in the office. Someone’s always coming in and asking about lunch or talking about another coworker.
I hate the distractions.
All I want to do is work.
I like my job, the actual work part of it, but I could do without the politics and meal planning.
I smile at Collen as she moves on to the next crowd. I catch Dillon staring at me and quickly look away.
I meet Nash’s bright green eyes.
“Hi,” he says, low and husky, followed by the swish of his irresistible scent to my nose.
“Hey.” I hold my smile. “Having fun?”
“Yeah. I like your CEO. He seems cool. Relatable. But that Laurie.” His head shakes. “She’s pretty enough, but if she grabs my ass one more time—”
“Oh, stop it!” I grimace. “She’s one of the shiest people I’ve met.”
“Yeah, and from my experience, those are the worst ones. But, believe me, I have a knack for these things.”
“What things?”
“Reading people.” He grins. “Take you, for instance. You’re standing over here minding your own business, looking all professional and shit, but I know what’s going on in your head.”
“Oh-ho.” I cross my arms over my chest. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
He sets the tips of his fingers on the side of my arm. He runs them along my naked skin.
My eyes snap from the intimate touch leaving goose bumps in their wake. “What are you doing.”
“I’m being an attentive boyfriend.” He runs his fingers gently back down my arm, and then, watching his hand, he takes mine into his. “Before I touched you” —he lightly strokes the top of my knuckles—“you were thinking how you wanted to be home in your PJs, curled up on the couch, lost in one of your books.” He rubs my fingers.
It feels good.
“But now, you’re wondering how you’re going to sleep in the same bed with me tonight, ya know.” He pauses long enough for me to snap out of it. “Now that I’ve started to show off my boyfriend skills.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
I really wasn’t, but now that he mentioned it. Now that he’s touching me, stroking me like…
“You’re not a very good liar, my friend.”
I stare up at him, desperate to keep my thoughts secret.
He moves forward until my breasts smush against his hard incredible-smelling body.
My back arches, giving way to my thoughts.
His head tilts downward. “Are you ready?”
I remain fixed on his dark eyelashes, the black curtains waiting to open to reveal the spectacular show inside. “For?”
“Our kiss.” His voice gets huskier.
I swallow my trepidation, and somehow, between the weird knots in my belly and the wetness developing in my panties, I force myself to react. “Sure, I’m ready.” I try to sound uninterested.
“Good.” He looks at me through hooded eyes. “This is our first kiss. There are no do-overs. No second chances, so—”
“This will be our only kiss,” I correct, needing to be done with it, tired of fighting the desire building in every deceiving part of my body.
“Okay.” He smiles. His tongue slithers out to wet his lips. “Let’s see what you got, Walker.”
Fuck! I’m a sucker for any challenge coming from Theo Nash’s mouth.
Apparently, even if it involves his mouth!
His glistening lips move toward me.
My palms sweat as my chest presses harder into him.
His warm flesh meets mine. Something inside me snaps.
Whatever it is, it was so tight, stretched, and worn that the light pressure of his lips broke it.