Dannika Dark - Seven Years

“No, I never married.”

Now Austin looked pissed. He leaned forward and scraped his fingers through his hair, staring at the tacky pattern on the floor tiles.

“How’re your parents doing?” he asked, switching topics.

“Mom’s great. She doesn’t work as much as she used to. I’m sure dad’s great too. Wherever he is.”

His head snapped up. “What do you mean by that?”

“My dad left us.”

He stood up and erased the distance between us. “When?”

I laced my fingers together. “About four years ago. I don’t know.”

“He left?”

“Yep. One day he packed up all his shit and told my mom he’d had enough. It came out of the blue because I don’t remember hearing them argue that much, but I wasn’t living at home at the time. Who knows what was going on; she never talks about it.”

“He left his wife and daughter unprotected?” Austin repeated through clenched teeth.

I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah. Sound familiar?”

A low growl vibrated in his throat. “I had no choice. It was the only way to keep your family safe.”

“Look, I’m tired of playing this game,” I said, pushing him away. I hopped down from the washer and felt trapped because of that damn laundry. I was tempted to pull out every last sopping-wet towel and just go home. But instead, I paced. “You’re the same, but you’re not the same. I know it’s been years, but have you been in prison?”

Austin stirred with laughter and tiny crinkles pinched the corners of his eyes. There he was—the guy I once knew. The one whose laugh was contagious because you rarely heard it, and it gave him such a sweet expression. With his right arm, he leaned on the washer and I turned my back to him.

Damn, that lean.

“No, I’m not a convict. I’m the same guy, just older and a little fatter.”

I snorted. Hardly. I didn’t see an ounce of fat on his well-proportioned, nicely tanned—

“Lexi?”

I spun on my heel and folded my arms. Austin tilted his head and spoke softly. “I want my hug. I’ve got a lot of baggage, and you look spooked, but we need to mend the rift between us. I can’t undo the past, but I want to make it right with your mom. Fuck your dad, because he can rot in hell for leaving you the way he did. Had I known, I would have come back sooner.”

My knees weakened a little. There was fierceness in his declaration—an honesty in his voice I couldn’t ignore. As pissed off as I was, I owed him the benefit of the doubt as much as he owed me an explanation.

With my arms still folded, I shuffled forward and leaned into him.

Austin wrapped his arms around me tight and kissed the top of my head.

“I missed you, Ladybug,” he murmured in my hair.

In the span of a rinse and spin cycle, I’d managed to get Austin caught up on seven years’ worth of gossip. Who was married, who was divorced, who was gay, who had five children, who lost all their money on a gambling trip, and who was arrested for public indecency in a museum. Austin’s eyes were brimming with amusement; I always had an animated way of telling a good story.

We slid into our groove just a little bit more, although in many ways, Austin still felt like a stranger to me.

I offered him one of my warm T-shirts to put on, fresh from the dryer, but he smirked and held it up to his broad chest. Unless I wanted the stretched-out version, Austin was going shirtless.

Not that I had any complaints.

“I’ll follow you,” he said, slamming my trunk closed and walking back to his car. We agreed to head over to my place and he’d tell it all. My stomach twisted into a knot because I wasn’t sure I was ready for the truth—not after what he’d already told me.

I wrote down my address in case we were separated in traffic, and to be honest, I was trying to lose him. I needed at least five minutes to run a comb through my hair and look halfway decent.

As soon as we arrived, I ran up the stairs and left my trunk open for him to haul up the laundry. Halfway through the living room, flip-flops were flying left and right as I kicked them off and hauled ass into my bedroom, yanking a pair of denims from a dresser drawer and changing into them. I stripped away my tank top and pulled a form-fitting brown shirt with retro lettering over my head. Austin’s heavy footsteps tromped up the stairs.

“Shit,” I muttered, dashing into the bathroom. The door slammed and I sprayed myself with cucumber body freshener. The heat had done a number on my face, so I brightened it up with a dab of tinted lotion and mineral powder, then rummaged through my drawer twice until I found my favorite tube of lipstick. Nothing dramatic, just enough color that I didn’t look like a hot mess.

“Lexi? Where do you want me to put these?” he yelled out.

“Hi, there. I’m afraid we haven’t had the pleasure. I’m Naya James.”

I tossed my lipstick on the counter. “Well, so much for that,” I murmured.

Now that Naya was in the mix, there was no point in—wait, what was I even doing? Once again, reverting to my sixteen-year-old self and trying to hit on my brother’s best friend. That’s what.

If Naya wants him, she can have him.

I swung the door open and they were standing in the middle of my living room. Austin held a heavy bag under each arm as if they weighed nothing. Naya had on her favorite black heels with ribbons tied around her ankles several times. All you saw were legs that went up to a pair of tight black shorts. Her red blouse was a favorite—the shredded material looked like a yeti had tried to make out with her.

“Naya, this is Austin Cole. He’s an old friend who just got back in town and we’re doing some catching up. Austin, this is Naya, my good friend and neighbor. She also makes some really kickass baklava.”

“Yes,” Naya confessed, “I love to cook. Do you love to eat?” she asked, sliding a glance my way. “I think we should have him for dinner tonight. You two can talk and that’ll give me plenty of time to whip up something delicious. I know just the thing a man like you needs.”

Naya had her kitten motor on purr. Men responded to it without a doubt. She was testing the waters to see if I’d react, which I didn’t, thus giving her full permission to pursue. We had an unspoken agreement about that kind of thing.

Austin’s eyes were fixated on my shirt. “Are they still around?”

For a second, I thought he was talking about my breasts and I looked down to see if I still had them. Then I noticed the logo on my shirt.

“Yeah, believe it or not, they’re still in business.”

A nostalgic grin slid up his face.

The Pit was the best barbecue joint in town. At one time, it was a popular hangout for the teens. I’d go with my friends, or sometimes tag along with Wes. Their food was great, and it had become a place where we congregated to talk about school, guys, concerts, and stuff that didn’t matter. So many memories were tied to that place and I hadn’t gone back in all these years. We used to tear the ends of the straws and blow the long wrappers across the room. The owner must have hated us.

“Let me take those,” I said, reaching for one of the bundles of laundry.

He swung away. “I got it. Where do you want them?”

I wrapped my arm around a large bag and he swiveled away. “You act like I don’t know how to handle something that big, Austin. Just give it to me!”

“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Naya said with a wink, and the door closed behind her.

“Your bedroom or right here?”

His question startled me and I let go. Austin paced into my messy bedroom with the laundry. “I’m not folding your clothes,” he said with a chuckle. He dropped the bags on the floor beside the closet and glanced around with inquisitive eyes.

He was curious about my life. I saw it in the subtle way he scoped everything out, from the pictures on my walls to the comedy movies on my shelves.

“Why don’t I get us a drink,” I offered, disappearing into the kitchen. I could see him over the bar and he was looking at the back door that led to my balcony. “You want a beer? I don’t have your favorite, or at least, what you used to like.”

“Sounds good.”

This conversion was going to require more than a beer. It was too early in the day to get lit, so I pulled out two bottles and set them on the rectangular table in my quaint little dining room.

Austin had his back to me, still shirtless.

I quickly dove into the bedroom and fished out one of Beckett’s shirts from a bottom drawer. There was no way I was going to be able to carry on a conversation while staring at his six-pack.

“Here,” I said, tossing him the shirt.

He caught it and sharpened his eyes. “Whose shirt is this?”

“My ex’s.”

His fists tightened around the red material but his voice stayed smooth and relaxed. “How much of an ex is he?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

He lifted the shirt. “You’re still keeping around a spare set of his clothes. You tell me.”

I sat down and took a swig of beer. “He had sex in my car with another woman. I’m not a forgive-and-forget kind of girl. I just forgot I still had it in there.”

“You just said you didn’t forget.”

I turned my mouth to the side and drummed my fingers on the bottle. “I can forget a T-shirt pretty easily. I can’t forget my ex getting ridden like a mechanical bull in the back of my Toyota.”

Austin suddenly ripped the shirt in half and the sound of the material tearing made me jump.