Chapter Fourteen
Declan
Four Months Later
“You’re coming with me to Sammy’s birthday party, right?” I held the phone between my shoulder and ear as I got out of the car, heading into work.
“Did you seriously call me this early to ask me that? We have, like, a freaking month before that thing,” Trent said in his hoarse morning voice.
“You told me to call and make sure you were up.” I walked into my building. This wasn’t the first time I’d called to make sure he was awake over the past few months. He was so not a morning person.
“I didn’t get home till after two this morning, and I had to eat something because I was starving. I think I laid down at, like, three-thirty, maybe four. I dunno.” He yawned in my ear, which made me yawn in return. “Why did I tell you to call me at the crack of dawn?”
“It’s almost nine o’clock, Jalapeno. You need to get ready for work.”
“But it’s Monday. I don’t work today.”
“You were supposed to have off, but that private school called last minute because their photographer flaked out. You have to go in.”
He groaned. “Why?” he whined in my ear, but I couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Are you awake enough that you won’t fall back asleep as soon as I hang up?” I climbed on the elevator.
“Yes.”
“No, you’re not. Wake up. I’m almost to my office.”
He groaned.
“You’re such a baby in the morning. Get your ass up.”
“Make me.”
I snorted. “Okay, I just walked in, I gotta go. Get up so Andy doesn’t kick your ass for being late.”
He groaned again. “I don’t like you very much.”
“You’ll like me more after coffee. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Mm.” He huffed. “Hey, Dec?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for calling.”
“Anytime, Little Jalapeno.”
He huffed out a laugh. “I’ll talk to you later, Cupcake.”
I smiled as I hung up the phone and set my bag on top of my desk.
“Was that your boy toy?”
I jumped at the sound of Caleb’s voice and turned to face him. “What?”
“You two sound like an old married couple.” He leaned against the door frame and stared at me with his intense green eyes, then held out the coffee he got for me.
I took it and said, “What are you talking about?”
Leb rolled his eyes. “I don’t get you two.”
I sighed and leaned my ass against the desk. “He’s my friend, Leb. What’s so hard to get?” I sipped my coffee and pretended that this conversation wasn’t getting to me. Trent is my friend. End of discussion.
“You spend all of your time with him. When you’re not with him, you call and text, and there’s no way you can deny that you’re attracted to him.”
“I think you’re reading way too much into this. Is he attractive? Yes, obviously. Anyone with eyes can see that. That doesn’t mean anything.” I waved him away. “How’s Amelia doing?”
Caleb smiled so big, it was like his whole body smiled with him. “She’s doing great. You should come over for dinner this week. The kids would love to see you.”
“Yeah, I haven’t been around for a couple weeks. What night’s good for you?”
“Maybe Wednesday. You wanna bring Trent?”
I eyed him for a minute, then sighed and said, “Only if you promise not to be weird and talk about this stupid couple theory you have about us.”
For some reason that made him smirk. “Sure, that’s fine.”
I nodded. “I’ll bring something for dessert.”
“Cool. You ready for our meeting today?”
He and I were handling a campaign together that we’d been working on for weeks. The client was coming in today to finalize our ads. “Yeah, everything’s set. You good on your end?”
“Yep.” He grinned. “I’ll see ya in a couple hours.” He started to walk away.
“Leb?”
“Yeah?” He looked over his shoulder.
“Where’s Reese? Is he okay?”
“Yep. He’s staying home with Amelia today. He’ll be in tomorrow ‘cause Mom’s watching her.”
I nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you later.” He saluted me, then headed to his office.
I took my laptop out of my bag and got myself situated. It was weird not seeing Reese every weekday like I had for years. Once Amelia came into their lives, he started working from home several days a week, though Mrs. Ann had decided to work part-time so she could stay with her granddaughter. I was really surprised when she made that decision, but she’d absolutely refused to let someone else watch Amelia. That little girl was beyond spoiled and so lucky to be loved as much as she was. She was such a sweet baby and so adorable.
I shook of my thoughts and settled in to get to work.
***
“Hey,” Kade said as soon as I walked into my apartment.
“Hey. I’m surprised you’re here tonight.” I set my bag, wallet, and keys down, hung my suit jacket and toed off my shoes.
“Lindsay had rehearsal. You wanna order a pizza or something?”
I rolled my eyes at him as I loosened my tie. “You could just ask me to cook.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know that you purposefully ask me that every time you’re home before me so you don’t feel bad about not cooking dinner. I’ll make something. Don’t worry about it.”
Kade cringed a little and muttered, “Sorry.”
I waved him off and walked into the kitchen to get dinner started. “Do you work tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I have to be there at, like, six in the morning. It’s the worst hours ever.”
“Be grateful Theo got you that job.” I’d known Theo since he was a kid, and he’d lived with me for a while after he was released from prison, so he did me a favor and got my little brother a job at The Chipped Mug since Theo’s boyfriend owned the place.
“I am, I just hate waking up that early. I didn’t even need to wake up this early for class.”
“When school starts back up in September, you’ll be all set, then.”
“I worked with Elyse today.” He had a weird tone of voice when he said Caleb and Levi’s little sister’s name.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, she’s… nice.”
I popped my head out the kitchen door and glared at him. “You have a girlfriend.”
His blue eyes connected with mine. “All I said was that she’s nice.”
I pointed at him with the spoon in my hand. “I know what that means.”
“Dude, chill. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“You’re so full of shit. Why did you even bring her up?”
“Because we both know her.”
“We both also know Harley and Theo, but you didn’t bring them up.” I walked back into the kitchen.
“And Matty.”
“What did you say?” I stopped walking, but didn’t turn around.
“We both know Matty, right? Something happened between the two of you.”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, I know him. We…” I searched for the right word before saying, “We’re acquaintances.” I cringed at that completely ridiculous statement. I’d seen the guy naked on more than one occasion, and we were friendly. But friends was pushing it since we hadn’t talked in months since I hadn’t seen him.
“Right. ‘Acquaintances.’ I don’t buy that for a minute.”
I turned around and looked at him. “Okay, so we slept together a couple times and we…” I waved my arm around, then finally said, “I’m not telling you his business.”
“Oookay,” Kade said, giving me a weird look. “I don’t even want to know. So whatcha cooking for dinner?”
I sighed and walked into the kitchen, relieved for the subject change. “Burgers.”
“Sweet.”
“Come in here and help.”
I heard him sigh. “Fine.”
I smiled at his less than enthusiastic response and got to work.