“Anti-ogle rules?” Sam said.
Dooley shrugged. “Not my best effort, but descriptive.” Sam looked at three of the best friends he had in the world. Then he sighed. He wasn’t in the habit of warning other guys off women. He generally felt that if he and another guy—even a friend—were interested in the same woman he would let her decide. If she chose him, great. If not, no hard feelings.
Until now. This was Danika.
98
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“Listen, if there are going to be any rules about Danika, I get to make them. And you are all going to abide by them.” Sam pointed to each of his friends, one at a time.
Dooley looked at Mac who looked at Kevin who looked at Dooley.
Mac spoke first. “You know us, Sam. We’re not exactly rule followers.” He should have expected something like that. He pointed to Kevin. “He is. The Bible is full of rules.
Especially the one about coveting your neighbor’s things, right Kev?” Kevin shrugged. “She isn’t your wife and she isn’t your donkey so that one doesn’t apply here.” He couldn’t believe this. He turned to Dooley. “Rule number one, no talking about her when I’m not around.”
“I thought rule number one was no ogling.”
“Fine.” Sam gritted his teeth. “No ogling. Then no talking about her.”
“What if we say nice things?” Dooley asked.
“
No
.” Sam glared at the guy who had once pretended to be his probation officer to get him out of a bad blind date. “Rule number three, no watching her leave a room.”
“Isn’t that kind of like ogling?” Mac asked, smirking.
Sam turned his scowl on the guy who had once driven with him sixteen hours straight so he could enter a poker tournament. “Next, no thinking about her after she is out of sight.”
“How will we know she’s out of sight if we can’t watch her leave?” Sam gave up. These guys were great friends who knew him well. Which meant that this entire conversation was a huge waste of time. He grabbed Danika’s wrist and started for the door. “Time to go.”
“Careful. What about her knee?” Kevin called.
Danika started limping on cue as the kitchen door swung open.
“You don’t have to…” Sam turned and caught the smug, knowing grins on the faces of his three buddies. At least he could try to keep the number of people thinking he was a lovesick idiot to three. He turned and caught Danika under the knees to carry her into the main room.
“Is she all right?” Sara asked, clearly concerned at seeing Danika seemingly unable to walk on her own.
“I’m fine,” Danika assured her.
It occurred to Sam that these were the first words Danika had said in several minutes. Of course, with Kevin, Dooley and Mac it was hard to get a word in edgewise, but she hadn’t protested or contributed to the conversation in the kitchen.
“But he’s carrying you,” Sara pointed out.
“Oh, he’s—”
“You need to get the kids home,” Sam said, bypassing the entire topic of Danika’s knee.
99
Erin Nicholas
Sara’s attention was effectively diverted as Mac, Kevin and Dooley surrounded her and hustled her away to divide the kids up between the various adult drivers who would be taking them home.
Whatever else he had to say about those guys, they really did have his back when he needed it.
He carried Danika all the way to the front lobby. They were out of sight of the party as soon as they stepped through the double doors leading into the hallway, but he didn’t put her down until they were completely alone by the front door.
He let her feet swing down to the floor, but before he let her go he kissed her, deep and soft.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for at least an hour now,” he said when he finally lifted his head.
“But you’ve been resisting because your friends will tease you?”
“Nah, if I was worried about them teasing me, I wouldn’t have brought you tonight in the first place.
With them if it isn’t that it will be something else.” She smiled. “They love you.”
“Yeah.” He knew they did. But being loved by those guys was a pain in the ass sometimes.
“I’m kind of making a scene aren’t I? First with being the new girl, then the cast, then falling
again
and then you…”
“Overreacting.”
“I was going to say freaking out.”
“Okay, that too.”
“What was that all about?” she asked.
He sighed, deciding to be honest. “Because I lose my mind around you and act completely out of character.”
“Kissing and seducing women is
not
out of character for you, Sam.” He lifted a hand and brushed his fingers along her hair. “Liking it this much is.” She grinned. “
That
is a good answer,” she said.
“Let’s go home,” he said huskily.
“I would love that.” She lifted onto her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “But I think you need to stay. It’s your sister’s birthday.”
“But your knee…”
“Is actually fine. And I’m making things complicated here. It might be better if I go.”
“You can’t drive yourself home.”
“I could—”
“No,” he cut in. “You can’t.”
The door from the rec room banged open and kids spilled into the lobby accompanied by Sam’s three best friends and brother-in-law who were providing rides.
“Then one of the guys can give me a ride when they take the kids home.” 100
Just Like That
Sam opened his mouth to protest. Then shut it. Dammit. She was right. One of the guys could run her home and it would make the rest of the evening easier on him.
“I’ll be over later.”
“You don’t have to.”
“You have to wash your hair again sometime, don’t you?” Her cheeks turned a very nice shade of pink and he was glad to know that she was remembering a lot more than the shampoo.
“Yeah, I do.” Her voice was husky.
They moved to one side, eyes still glued on one another, as the teens and chaperones headed out onto the front sidewalks to pile into cars.
“Mac will take you. Call my cell when you get home.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And now, I’m going to ogle you.” He stepped back and ran his eyes over her from head to toe. “Then I’m going to watch you leave. And then I’m going to think about you like crazy after you’re out of sight.” She smiled. “I guess rule number two, talking about me when you’re not around, doesn’t work does it?”
“No. But I don’t intend to talk about you, anyway.”
“Oh?” She looked more curious than insulted.
“I’m having a hard time explaining you. And how I feel about you.” That was all he was going to say, to anyone, about that. In fact, it was much more of an admission that he probably should have made to her.
Her cheeks flushed, her eyes went wide and she stammered over the first few words she tried to say.
“Th-that’s…nice. I mean… I guess…”
Which was gratifying in and of itself.
“Making a woman lose her ability to speak is a big ego stroke.” He pushed the front door open and held it for her. “Just so you know.”
“You surprised me, is all.” She stepped through the door and into the night.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t realize that you have feelings about me to even try to explain.” Instead of acting shy she met his eyes directly.
“It’s not a situation I’m all that pleased about.”
She smiled and put her hand against his cheek. “I’m sorry.” Then she turned and went to join Mac and his carload.
He watched her go, wondering if she was sorry for making things in his life so complicated all of a sudden, or if she was sorry that he wasn’t pleased about it.
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But it didn’t matter how Danika felt about it.
He was the one in trouble.
Hell, he’d just given his three best friends rules concerning Danika.
Rules
.
To his
best friends.
They were going to think he’d lost his mind. Over her.
Worst of all, they might be right.
Danika got only to the end of the sidewalk when she heard, “Danika!” Her sisters had arrived. Two hours late, but they were here.
“Hi.”
She’d been surprised that they weren’t there earlier, but she wasn’t surprised to see them arriving in time to miss the cupcakes but in plenty of time for the margarita machine that was coming out now that the kids were gone.
“What are you doing here?” Carmen asked.
“Sam brought me.”
“
Sam?
” Carmen looked alarmed. “But he doesn’t take women to—”
“Oh my
God
, what happened?” Abi had seen the cast.
“I took a trip to the ER last night,” Danika said. She knew that avoiding this entirely had been unrealistic. “I broke my wrist.”
Carmen took a hold of the cast. “How? What happened?”
“I tripped and tried to break my fall with my hands.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“I was fine. S-Sam took me to the ER and stayed with me. It was late.” She hated that she’d stumbled over his name. It only made her sisters notice it more.
“Sam?” Carmen’s eyebrows were nearly in her hairline. “You were with him when you fell?” She nodded. “He made me go to the hospital. I thought it was fine, but he insisted on an x-ray.” She was
not
going to tolerate her sisters blaming Sam.
“Thank goodness he’s a paramedic. He probably knew it was broken right away,” Carmen said.
“He did.”
Abi didn’t go so far as to touch the cast, but she leaned in and gave Danika a half hug. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. It doesn’t hurt much. It’s just a problem because I can’t use it for anything.” Abi looked at her closely. “You don’t have any makeup on.” 102
Just Like That
“I don’t wear much anyway,” Danika said. “And it’s hard to do with my left hand.”
“But your hair looks good.”
Danika blushed. She was glad it was dark because Carmen would have definitely noticed and commented. “Thanks.”
“How did you do your hair with one hand?” Abi asked.
“I um…” They were the ones that had arranged for Sam to be her one-night stand in the first place.
“Sam helped me with it.”
“Sam?” Carmen repeated in that disbelieving tone for the third time in as many minutes. “He was there when you got ready for the party?”
“He’s been with me since I left Marina’s with him.”
Abi’s smile slowly widened while Carmen’s eyes slowly narrowed. “Oh, really.”
“He’s insisting on staying and taking care of me.”
“Oh, really.”
“But we didn’t…have sex. By the way.”
“Oh, really.”
“Stop saying that!” Danika snapped.
Carmen was still frowning. “I just think it’s interesting.”
“Well, keep your thoughts to yourself.”
“Sure. I’m good at that,” Carmen said.
“Dani? You coming?” Mac called from down the block.
“You’re not leaving, are you?” Abi asked, noticing Danika’s purse.
“I was.”
“Without Sam?” Carmen asked. “I thought he was taking care of you.” She said it sarcastically for some reason and Danika rolled her eyes. “He’ll be over later. He can’t leave his sister’s party early.”
“Then why are you leaving?”
Danika thought about that. Because Sam claimed she was driving him crazy. And was making him act like a fool in front of his friends. Which she kind of liked.
“I’m staying after all,” she called back to Mac. “But thanks.” He waved and got in the car. “Come on,” she said to her sisters. “The margaritas should be about ready.” Carmen greeted Jessica and Ben, introduced them to Abi, then the three sisters found some chairs grouped off from the party and settled in with their glasses.
“Why didn’t you have sex with him?” Carmen asked without preamble.
“I was busy getting a cast put on my wrist.”
“The whole time you were with him?” Carmen said dubiously.
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“No. But…I was seriously considering having sex with him most of the night.”
“Why didn’t you just jump on him the minute you got him alone?”
“Probably should have.”
“He was supposed to be the one,” Carmen muttered.
“The One?” Danika repeated, stunned.
“Not
The One
,” Carmen said, annoyed. “Just the one to finally give you an orgasm.” Danika rolled her eyes. She didn’t know a damned thing about any of this. She was good at a lot of things. She could tune up her car, cook a gourmet meal for eight, shoot three kinds of guns and a bow and arrow, and kill any insect no matter how big or how many legs it had. But she didn’t know what to do with men.
Her sisters seemed very happy with their husbands, and their boyfriends before that. They were certainly having orgasms anyway. And she didn’t think either of them was weak or dependent or needy.
Yet, whenever she started to think that she wanted a relationship where she let someone have some influence over her life, she would remember her father’s perpetual expression of frustration and her mother’s daily tears.
Eventually the muscular dystrophy had meant a wheelchair full-time for Ellen Steffen. Ellen would keep a brave, determined face all day, insisting on doing everything she could for herself. The girls’ dad, Bill, would be gone at work all day, but even when he was at home she wouldn’t let him do a single thing that she could do whether it took her five times as long or not.
When he was home and tried to help, their arguments were loud and redundant.
But at the end of the day, she would be exhausted and depressed and when it was time for bed, the tears would come. Bill Steffen insisted that his wife sleep in the same bed, in the same bedroom, with him as they’d done for their entire marriage. Where he could hold her. Where she could get away from the wheelchair and find relief from reality with blissful unconsciousness and dreams. But she couldn’t manage the stairs by herself. The times she had tried had been emotionally and physically painful, for all of them.