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For the first time this evening, I regretted asking Angela to help. I changed the subject. “Did it start okay?” I asked her.
She nodded and rubbed it in. “Engineer, remember?”
“Yeah.” That revelation had surprised me. I hadn’t asked a single question about her history since she’d arrived. Somehow, I’d always pictured her as a librarian or elementary school teacher. The engineering degree had intrigued me, and suddenly I wanted to know more.
A car honked out front.
Stacy’s stepdaughter, Tallulah, rushed down the stairs. “Ginny and the girls are going to Peterville,” she said. The question was implied.
“Sure,” Stacy told her. “But if anyone suggests drinking, you call me for a ride back, you hear?”
“Of course.” Tallulah held out her hand. “Can I have twenty?”
Stacy shook her head and lifted her wallet from her purse. “Five,” she said, offering a bill. “Money doesn’t grow on trees around here.”
“But…” Tallulah pleaded.
I stepped back and grabbed another cookie from the plate.
“Then don’t go,” Stacy said, holding her ground.
The struggle was resolved when Tallulah took the money with a huff and disappeared out the front door.
“Eighteen,” Stacy sighed. “Too young to know any better, and too old to listen.”
It wasn’t my place to say anything. A teenager from another marriage and a baby on the way had to be a handful.
Angela broke the awkward silence. “It’ll take a while to heat up, but in an hour, you should have plenty for the shower.”
“I can’t thank you two enough.” After a giggle and a smile, Stacy hugged Angela first and followed up with me.
Angela shrugged. “Boone did all the work. I was only there to cushion his landing if he fell off the ladder.”
The image of me falling on top of Angela flashed in my brain. There were worse ways to land. She was probably soft in all the right places, and the idea of having her between me and the floor made my cock harden.
Stacy said something as I breathed deeply to calm myself.
Sure, Angela might have a soft body, but any guy who got close enough to find out would end up regretting it in the end. I sure did. She’d ruined my life, and for what? Just because I wouldn’t agree to stay nearby?
Hell, we were only high school kids. Pursuing my NFL dream had always been my goal. Giving that up and planning my life around where she wanted to live? No, thank you. In the end, getting stabbed in the back had been my payment for being honest.
“Well?” Stacy said, staring at me.
Clearly, I’d missed something. “What?”
Stacy had her checkbook out. “I said, how much do I owe you?”
Angela looked on.
“I don’t know off hand,” I answered. “Come by the store tomorrow and we’ll ring it up.”
“And the installation?” she asked.
I patted my belly. “The cookies cover it for me.” I looked toward Angela.
“Me, too,” she said. “They were delicious.”
After another round of hugs, we were on our way.
