Rolling my eyes, I groan inwardly. Of course he’d notice. Jackass.
“I don’t know why you sound so smug. You know this isn’t a good thing. We have a daughter. Right now, things between us are good. What happens if they aren’t good? Angel gets caught in the crosshairs—that’s what happens.”
He blows out a breath, but he knows better than anyone about what I’m saying. Once upon a time, he was here. But his kid was too young to know what was going on.
“Wren, no offense, but you don’t get to control everything. Some things just happen without your permission. What you feel for her is only going to get worse. Hate to break it to you, but you’re sort of fucked. I just want to see Wren Prize finally crack. I’ve been waiting a long damn time to see you lose it, dude. Sorry. But it’s true.”
Groaning aloud this time, I lean against the side of the building. “I almost kissed her. Now… Fuck… I don’t know what to do. And for the record, I hate you for enjoying my self-destruction, you dickwad.”
He bursts out laughing while I try loosening the collar on my T-shirt. Did it shrink?
“You haven’t called me a dickwad since we were kids,” he says through his chuckles. “But yes, I am enjoying this. Might as well. Can’t stop two trains without brakes, and you two are definitely on course for a collision. I could tell it by the way she was watching you at the house.”
She was watching me? When? I was watching her.
Not the important part. I need to focus on damage control.
“I have to go. She’s still trying on dresses. I have to manage to repair the damage before this weekend. Mom will literally kill me.”
He laughs again as I push off from the wall.
“You’re right; she will kill you. Again, all the more reason for me to watch the show, and I’m bringing popcorn to this party. I don’t see you lasting much longer.”
I adjust my aching cock once again, cursing it for refusing to go down.
“I’m so glad my frustration amuses you,” I mumble dryly.
His laughter continues for a moment longer, but he finally says, “No, your frustration doesn’t amuse me. I feel for you in that department, dude. Been there and fuck that. But the fact you finally found someone that might rock your world… Well, I’m eager to see the fireworks. And for what it’s worth, I think it could work between you two.”
I glance around the parking lot, wondering if I could just hide out here.
No. No. I’m not a coward.
“It’s too risky to find out. So stop being a dick and help me figure out a way to deal with this problem. Surely you have an answer, considering your ungodly amount of experience.”
“Liking a girl you know you shouldn’t? You’re right; I’ve had this problem before,” he says on a sigh.
“What’d you do?”
“Married her.”
Dickwad.
“Thanks a lot,” I grumble, eliciting more laughter from him as I hang up and walk back in, not even bothering to find out why he called me to begin with.
Allie steps out just as I near the fitting room, and I stumble over my own feet as a blush creeps up her neck. But that beautiful pink color on her neck and cheeks isn’t what has me stumbling. It’s the white dress with a split all the way up the thigh, stopping on her damn hipbone. Oh shit. There are two splits that high, leaving the middle piece down like some seductive Egyptian styled man-torture dress.
“I think this is a little much,” she says awkwardly. There’s no way she has on her panties, because they would be showing through the slits. “But I can’t get the zipper down, and I came out here to find one of those girls.”
No panties. No fucking panties.
“Yeah… Um… I can help you,” I say, clearing my throat as she turns and heads back into the fitting room, closing the door behind me and locking us in this confined space once again.
Yeah. I’m stupid.
My hands shake as she pulls her hair to the side, keeping her back to me, and I refuse to look in the mirrors that surround us to meet her eyes.
“We can talk about… earlier. If you want,” she says in a quiet voice. “I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
She said nothing earlier. She just turned her body over to me, and she let me call all the shots. My restraint broke, and she wanted it as much as I did. Which means it’s all on me to stop this.
Talking about this is a very bad idea, because I’m barely hanging on.
“You know why I stopped,” I say in a rush, cursing my hands that are still shaking as I carefully try to tug the zipper down. It really is stuck.