Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (161 page)

“I can make it to midnight anyway,” Noah
told me with the sleek confidence that I had both loved and hated about him.

“Let’s get back out there before my mom
starts rounding people up for the stupid party games then,” I said. “You know
she’s going to make absolutely everyone participate.”

“I already put my resolution in the fish
bowl,” Noah told me. He leered, leaning in closer. “Do you want to know what it
is?”

“That would be cheating,” I said, trying
to keep my voice light in spite of how uncomfortable I’d started to feel.

“Just between you and me. Besides, it’s
only one…my New Year’s resolution is to get back into your bed.”

“You didn’t seriously put that in there,
did you?” I felt my cheeks burning at the thought of someone reading that out,
of everyone trying to guess who had written it, and how Patrick would feel when
he knew that my ex-boyfriend had “resolved” to sleep with me again.

“Nah—nah, I’m just kidding,” he said,
wagging his finger in my face. “But I had you there for a minute, didn’t I?”

“You did,” I admitted.

“I should’ve put that in. It’s totally
true. I do want to be back with you, Mack.”

“That ship sailed a long time ago,” I told
Noah. “And the way you’re acting right now doesn’t really make me want to try
and bring it back.”

“Your new guy got you flowers, big deal,”
Noah said. He pointed at the corsage pinned to my dress, rolling his eyes. “Do
you still have that necklace I got you when we were going together?”

I shook my head. “No,” I told him. “I took
it to a pawn shop and got all of twenty bucks for it.” It wasn’t entirely true;
I’d taken it to a thrift store and donated it, hoping that someone who wanted a
nice piece of jewelry would enjoy it since they didn’t have any memories like
mine attached to it.

“That’s cold, Mack.”

I shrugged. “What can I say? You burned
the bridge, Noah. I just managed to get to the other side.” I shook my head
again. “I’m going back to the party before my date thinks I’ve abandoned him.”

Chapter Eight - Patrick

I had started to actually worry about
Mackenzie as I spent more and more time talking to first her sister Evie and
then her brothers, Alex and John; while none of them gave me the third degree
quite like Mack’s parents had, it was obvious that they were curious about the
guy dating their sister. They asked me about Landon as soon as they confirmed
that I’d met Mackenzie through my son being one of her patients; they all
agreed that Mack had always been good with kids—and John even went as far as to
say that they’d all always thought it was a shame that Mack didn’t have any
kids of her own.

Mackenzie’s mom announced that it was time
for the annual “awards”—and handed out ballots; I took two, and looked around
for Mack once more. She appeared almost out of nowhere—I definitely didn’t see
her approaching before I saw her—and smiled up at me. “I was starting to worry
that someone had stolen you away,” I told her, leaning in to give her a quick
kiss. “I grabbed you a ballot for the awards.”

“Oh god, this is going to be humiliating,”
Mack said, grinning and shaking her head as she took my extra ballot and one of
the pens.

“I know we have some new people with us
tonight,” Katherine was saying, talking into the DJ’s microphone. “So here’s
the deal: I’ll announce each of the categories, and you can write in the name
of anyone at the party for that award. David will take up your ballots, and
we’ll tally up the votes—and then announce them after midnight.”

“I’ll tell you who to put in for some of
them,” Mack told me, grinning wryly. “Please—whatever you do: do
not
write me in for most likely to get
knocked up.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I told her,
giving her shoulder a squeeze.

“All right! Here we go. First category:
Most Likely to Go to Jail!” I glanced at Mack; she was scribbling something on
her ballot.

“Put in John for that one,” she muttered
to me, grinning.

“Oh? He’s like that is he?”

“The fact that he’s never been to jail is
evidence of the existence of luck,” Mack explained. I wrote in her brother’s
name for that one.

Everyone got into the activity as
Mackenzie’s mom announced each of the categories: Most Likely to Get Knocked
Up, Most Likely to Get a Raise, Most Improved Life, until I wondered if Mack’s
parents had come up with a category for each person at the party. Mack and I
joked while we filled out our ballots; she explained why it was funny for me to
put down who she told me to put down, and I did nominate her for one of the
awards without telling her: Prettiest Member of the Family.

We turned our ballots in and the DJ
started up again. I’d been looking for Mack ever since she’d disappeared in
part because however much her parents had made things awkward for me, they had
definitely managed to find one of the better DJs in the city—he wove together
David Bowie, Notorious B.I.G., Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, B52s, and more
without missing a beat, and I’d been wanting to dance with her all night. When
the DJ started playing The Strokes, I turned to Mack.

 
“Dance with me?”

“Absolutely,” she said, looking more
joyful than I had seen her appear almost all night since we’d walked into the
house. We moved onto the crowded “dance floor” that her parents had put up in
the big living room and started moving together to the beat. It had been ages
since I’d danced with anyone; I felt a little stiff at first, but then as I
realized that nobody in the room was going to be winning the trophy in a dance
competition anytime soon, I started to loosen up, especially as Mack swayed her
hips closer and closer to me, barely brushing up against the crotch of my pants
and shimmying her chest so that she almost touched me.

The DJ went from The Strokes to Tupac, and
Mack and I kept going, twisting and moving together; it was like there was no
one else in the whole world except for the two of us. I forgot that her
ex-boyfriend had even existed—all I cared about was the fact that Mack was
there with me, and that I would hopefully go home with her after the party was
over, making good on the kiss I’d get at midnight.

We got a breather after that when her dad
interrupted the flow to remind everyone to put in their resolutions; Mack
steered me towards the table where the big bowl stood, and we both wrote our
resolutions down. For myself, I resolved to give my son more of the love and
attention he needed—I figured that was as close as I could come to saying I
wanted to make Mackenzie a more permanent part of my life without opening her
up to embarrassment from family and friends. I didn’t know what Mackenzie
resolved to do in the New Year; we kept our resolutions secret from each other.

We went back out onto the dance floor after
that and started moving together again. The bass pulsed through us and we were
dancing closer and closer together, barely keeping things family-appropriate.
“God, I wish we could sneak off to your room,” I murmured in Mack’s ear. She
giggled, pressing her cheek to mine, brushing her breasts against my chest as
she moved and swayed.

“Everyone would notice if we did,” she
said, with real regret in her voice.

“Only thing keeping me from it,” I told
her. I managed to hold back when I gave her a quick kiss on the lips—but
barely. We were both drenched in sweat, and I think that Mackenzie was just as
grateful as I was when the DJ switched to a downbeat Yeah Yeah Yeahs song.

As it got closer and closer to midnight, I
started looking forward more and more to midnight. I would kiss Mack, we would
call Landon, and after sitting through the “awards” I would go home with her
just as soon as I could, to spend as much time as humanly possible making love
into the New Year. “You know,” I murmured in her ear as we slow-danced together
to “Heroes,” “if we could get some caffeine in us on the way home, we could
keep going until dawn—ring in the New Year together with as many orgasms as we
possibly can.” She giggled, shifting closer to me and tightening her arms
around my shoulders.

“That sounds good—what time do you need to
get Landon in the morning?”

“Probably the afternoon,” I told her.
“It’ll be as late as possible.”

“New Year’s Day brunch?”

“That sounds good: make love until dawn, sleep
for a few hours, pick my boy up from his grandparents’ house and get a big
stack of pancakes.”

We kept dancing together, taking a few
breaks to snag some of the food hanging around on tables all over the common
areas of the house. We talked to Mackenzie’s siblings, and the family friends
who had known her since she had been a child, and I realized that everyone was
trying as much as they could to make me feel like a part of the group; apart
from her parents, no one made me feel too much pressure, and I appreciated
that. Whenever someone got too pointed with their comments, Mack and I just
went back out onto the dance floor to avoid them, and she told me choice gossip
about whoever it was until we almost had to stop dancing from laughing so hard.
I couldn’t wait to be alone with her, but while we were obligated to be at the
party, I was at least glad that the food and drinks were good, that the music
was great, and that the atmosphere was relaxed.

“Have you seen Noah lately?” Mackenzie
stepped back to look up into my face, frowning in concern.

“I don’t think I have,” I admitted. “Why?”

“No particular reason,” Mackenzie said,
though she still looked worried. “I’m just a little concerned…he was starting
to get pretty drunk the last time I saw him, and he’s a hot mess when that
happens.”

The DJ announced that he was taking a
break and let the system continue onto the next song, and I forgot about
Mackenzie’s ex once more, happy just to dance with her and be close to her. I
was moving in to kiss her again when a loud thump broke through the song
playing on the system. “How’s everybody doing tonight?” Mack stiffened in my
arms and pulled back, looking over her shoulder. I turned to look in the same
direction and saw Noah standing in the DJ booth, microphone in hand. “Dwayne
and me go way back,” he said, his words slurring a little bit. “So he said I
could take over while he gets a smoke break before the ball drop.”

“Oh god,” Mackenzie said, burying her face
against my chest. “He’s going to be a total ass.”

“So since I’m in charge for the next ten
minutes, I thought I’d pull up a real blast from the past—how does that sound?”
Some of the others on the dance floor cheered, and Noah looked supremely
pleased with himself. “All right then! Y’all might know that Mack and I used to
be together. This is the first song we were listening to when I took her
cherry.” Mackenzie gasped and pulled away from me, her face going white.

I heard Li’l Jon, “Get Low” start to play
and Mackenzie went even paler, and then her face went red from the roots of her
hair to the collar of her dress, and I saw the tears starting in her eyes.

“Patrick…” I shook my head.

“He’s drunk,” I told her.

“No—you have to listen to me. I
never—this—he’s…” I knew that in a moment she’d dissolve into tears; my heart
ached for the embarrassment I knew she was going through.

“He’s being an asshole because you aren’t
going to be going home with him,” I told her. “I know you, Mack. I know how you
feel about me.” I smiled into her eyes.

“I’m so humiliated,” she said, shaking her
head again.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?” I
hugged her quickly.

“Yeah, I think I do,” she said. I grabbed
her hand and led her off of the dance floor and into the kitchen, closing the
door behind us.

“He’s being an asshole, and everyone knows
it,” I told her. “I’m sure no one believes that you actually lost your
virginity to that song.” Mackenzie smiled slightly, starting to regain her
composure.

“I guess.”

I hugged her tightly. “I just wish my mom
had never invited him.”

“Well, with any luck, they’re kicking him
out and putting him in a cab right now after that bullshit,” I suggested.

“I hope so,” she said. I kissed her and
hugged her and for a while we just hung out in the kitchen, away from the chaos
in the living room and any further embarrassment at the hands of her ex.

Chapter Nine - Mackenzie

I had known that Noah was getting drunk
when I’d left him in the kitchen to go back to Patrick; but I’d been having
such a good time that I had totally forgotten he was even at the party. I saw
him a few times while Patrick and I were dancing, but I didn’t even care—even
when I realized he was only getting drunker.

It shouldn’t have shocked me at all that
Noah would pull something like what he had.

“It was actually part of why he and I
broke up,” I explained to Patrick while we sat in the kitchen, sipping some of
the non-alcoholic punch Mom and Dad had put out to help everyone pace
themselves through the night. “At first I thought he was great—confident, and
he could party all night and keep going the next day. I guess when I was in
college it seemed great.”