Chapter Four

Karrie

I’m ranting and raving and the only thing I can think of is his two strong arms he’s showing me. Well, from the elbow down. His sleeves are rolled up and the way his hands lie on his hips, I want to jump on him, wrap my legs around him, and kiss the ever loving fuck out of him. But he made me so mad. Give me a shopping list, a fucking shopping list.

“Let’s get something straight, as you must not know the difference between a chaperone and a PA.” I continue my rant from before. “Do you have a computer?” I ask him, watching his eyes fixate on my lips, making me self-conscious, making me lick them even more. When he doesn't answer me, I wave my hand in front of his face. “Hello, computer?”

When he just smirks at me I’m about to pull my hair out. “You need to chill, babe.”

Babe? Did he just tell me to chill and then followed it with a babe? I flip my hand to the side.

“Go change. We’ll go for a walk and you can show me where to get groceries and stuff.” He then looks at his watch. “It’s almost dinner time anyway, so maybe we can eat out?” He walks past me, going back down the stairs to grab his bag and then running up the stairs, throwing his bag down in the corner. “Babe, change, yeah.”

I’m standing here with my mouth hanging open in utter disbelief that he would ignore all the huffing and puffing I just did and follow it up with babe. “Three seconds. Two—” He stops counting so I can ask him.

“What happens at one?” Shoot me, I’m curious.

“I get naked,” he says, pulling his shirt out of his pants and unbuttoning them. “Two.”

I turn, darting out of the room. “I’m going to change,” I say, running into my room, shutting the door. I have to walk through my closet before I reach my bedroom, which is in the back of the house. Quiet, peaceful, serene, that’s what I told the decorator and she didn’t disappoint. My huge king-sized bed sits against the white wall. The covers are white, cushiony, and thick like a cloud. All you want to do is sink into it. The gold throw pillows light up the room. I don’t have any furniture except two side tables with two lamps. I hear a knock on my door and I’m about to tell him to come in, but he’s already walking in.

“Jesus, I thought my sisters had big closets. They would vacation in yours.” He looks around. “Why aren’t you dressed yet?”

I look back at him and he’s wearing black running pants and a white T-shirt with the team’s logo in the corner. A torn up baseball cap on his head.

“You can’t just barge into my room,” I tell him. “What if I was naked?” I put my hand to my chest to maybe hide the fact that my heart is beating so hard he might see it almost come out of my chest.

“One can only hope.” Is all he says, going to the bed and sitting on it. “Babe, go change. I’m starving.”

“Okay, we need to discuss a couple of things.” I look at him. “Perhaps go over a couple of ground rules.” I’m about to continue when he puts his hand up.

“Can we do this while we eat? My stomach is eating itself at this point.”

“Unbelievable!” I yell, walking back into my closet, slamming yet another door. I grab my yoga pants off the shelf and tug them on so fast I almost get my foot caught and fall over with my ass in the air. I grab a T-shirt, the whole time grumbling, “Such an asshole.” I put my T-shirt on. “Bossing me around, hungry, hungry. I’ll show him hungry.” I rip my sweater off the hanger, zipping it up, opening the door to find him still sitting on my bed while he watches something on his phone.

“Ready?” he asks, getting up. He walks past me, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him. I try my best to pull my hand from his, but he refuses to budge. He stops by the stairs, looking at the stairs that go up. “I guess that’s where my bathroom is?”

I nod, looking down at my hand in his. His hand is tanned compared to mine, which is pale. “See, not too far.” I shake my head, too, finally pulling my hand free to walk down the stairs where I go and get my sneakers on. “Ready?”

He nods while I get the keys, putting them in my pocket after locking the door.

We walk down the street lined with trees that are slowly turning from green to yellow and orange. It’s still mild outside for the beginning of October. Some houses even have Halloween decorations out. I take the phone out of my pocket and make a note to order some online.

“It’s pretty here,” he says from beside me, our legs moving in sync.

“It really is. I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, but I’ve fallen in love with it.” We cross a busy intersection where cars are honking and rushing away. I point down the street to a corner store that still has a couple of iron tables outside. “That’s the coffee shop. They have the best almond croissants you will ever have. It feels like you’re in Paris when you bite into them.”

“Too sweet for me,” he says, taking his hat off and flipping it backward so you can see his eyes now. “Do they have anything else?” he asks me while we wait for the light to change to green so we can walk across.

“Yes, they have lots of baked goods you could try. They even have gluten free cakes.” I start walking across the street, pointing out different shops for him when he goes out by himself.

“I don’t know why you're telling me all this. You're my chaperone, which FYI I looked up the meaning while you were in your closet talking to yourself.” He smiles. “Do you do that often?” he asks, looking at me. “I mean, talk to yourself?”

I stop walking in the middle of the sidewalk. “I don’t talk to myself.” Okay, fine, I do. I have some of the best conversations with myself. It's how I process things. I make a note to have these conversations more in my head now that he is living with me.

“Babe, you were ranting.” He stops walking and comes back to me because I’m still standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Stop with the babe, please.” I shake my head, continuing walking with him till we finally reach the supermarket. There are crates of fruit lined up outside. He stops to grab a couple of clear bags to put the fruit in, passing some empty ones to me.

“Fill it up with oranges while I get some bananas. Do you have a juicer at home?” He doesn’t look up at me while he grabs apples.

“Um, I have no idea. Probably not. Don’t buy too much. It might go to waste.” I fill the bag with the huge oranges.

“Shit, I didn’t even check the schedule. When do we leave town?” He stops packing the bag of apples.

“Saturday right after the game. We play Philly Sunday night. Back on Monday.”

“Okay.” Is all he says before walking inside the market, grabbing an empty cart and putting the bags of fruit in them. “Is there a butcher around here?” he asks while we walk down the meat aisle.

“I think around here somewhere. Why?” I ask him, confused. There’s a whole aisle of meat right here.

“I usually just buy big slabs of meat and they cut it to make portions.” He gets his phone out of his pocket where he MapQuests the nearest butcher. “Closed now, but we can swing by there sometime tomorrow. Shit, it’s game day tomorrow. Okay, Monday afternoon it is.”

“Why don’t you grab what you want for tonight and we can work out the details later?” I ask him, grabbing myself a piece of salmon. I’m not eating out tonight. I’ve been living on room service for the last couple of days and I want a home-cooked meal.

“Oh, that looks good. Grab me a piece, babe.” He picks up a pack of T-bone steaks.

“Karrie,” I tell him, grabbing another piece of salmon. “I know you are used to one syllables, but it’s Kar-Rie It’s two syllables. I’m sure even you can do it.” I put the salmon in the cart.

“Funny.” He pushes the cart with his elbows almost bent over while we make it into the cereal aisle. He grabs the cereals filled with all the sugar in the world. “Oh, you think they have Fruity Pebbles?” His eyes scan over the rows, looking for it.

“And I’m babysitting a twelve-year-old,” I say while I toss him the box of Fruity Pebbles that’s right on my side next to the granola I grab for myself.

We end up filling the whole cart with way too much food. More food than I’ve ever bought. We load it all on the conveyor belt. The lady starts scanning our items and when I’m about to pull out my credit card, he grabs it from my hand.

“Don't even think about it, Kar-Rie.” He smirks while he gives the clerk his credit card. “See, just like a big boy.”

I pfft out, rolling my eyes. “This from the one who almost had a temper tantrum when I put back the Fruit Roll-Ups.”

“Hey”—he points at me—“they were a surprise flavor.” He looks at the clerk. “Can we have these delivered?”

After I fill in the address we walk out, making our way back to the house.

When we get back home, I bring him upstairs to finally show him his bathroom. The walk-in shower has no door, just glass. There are about fifteen shower heads aimed everywhere. A Venetian mirror above the marble basin is in front of it with the vintage dark vanity. There are built-in shelves right next to the entrance to the shower filled with white folded towels. I hear the doorbell ring.

“I’ll go get that while you look around,” I tell him, walking out, because the only thing I could concentrate on was him naked in the shower while the water fell off his strong shoulders cascading around him. Me in front of him while he bends over to kiss me. I let the delivery guy in and start putting the things away when I hear him coming down the stairs obviously talking to someone.

He walks into the room with the phone in front of him. “This is the kitchen,” he says to whoever is on the other line and I hear a girl’s voice. My stomach rolls with a wave. “That’s Karrie.”

I turn to glare at him till he turns the phone around to show me a beautiful woman.

“Babe, this is my mom.” The minute babe comes out of his mouth in front of his mother my eyes go as big as saucers.

“Hi”—I wave at her—“nice to meet you. I’m Karrie, not babe.” I glare at him while I hear his mother laughing.

“Oh, she’s beautiful,” she says, and I smile at her while I hear about fifteen voices in the background all asking to see. She turns the phone where I see two twins with strawberry blond hair get into the picture.

“I'm Zoe. This is Zara. You should know that he stinks when he goes to the bathroom. Like garbage.” And then the phone is ripped from my hand where I belly laugh as he calls them little shits, and their mother shoos them away.

“Let me see her. I didn’t see her.” I hear again from another female voice.

He hands me back the phone where I see the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, another strawberry blonde, aqua blue eyes shaped oval.

“OMG, he’s so fucked.” Is all she says till Matthew’s mom snaps, “Watch your mouth!”

I smile back at his sister, telling her that she is beautiful. She shrugs her shoulders as if she hears it all the time.

“So you are going to be the one holding my brother’s leash?” She laughs while I look over at Matthew, who is now rubbing his hands over his face, making his shirt move up a little, showing me the waist with his Calvins coming out.

“I don’t know about a leash, but I’ll be tied to his side.” I smile at her. “I won’t be at his beck and call, but...” I don’t even finish and I hear laughing in the background of the phone when a man comes on.

Cooper Stone. He was hot back in the day and he’s even hotter now. I stare at him, blinking, not sure what to say.

“Mr. Stone, I’m a huge fan.” I don’t know what I said wrong, but Matthew snatches the phone from my hand while he talks to Cooper. “Rude, asshole,” I grumble to myself while I go around grabbing the stuff I want to eat for supper. I place the salmon on a baking dish and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. I place it into the oven while I get the vegetables set up and Matthew finally comes back into the room.

“They will be here before the game tomorrow. It will only be Cooper and Mom. We will head to the arena together.”

I drop the knife I was holding while cutting the vegetables.

“Your parents are coming here?” I wipe my hands on a rag, running around the house. “The house isn’t clean.” I run from the kitchen to the living room, assessing what we need to do before tomorrow. “If we get up by six, we should be able to make the house presentable.” Holy shit, his mother and stepfather are coming over to the house. Why am I so freaked out? Why does this make me want to sit down and hyperventilate?

“Karrie,” he says, grabbing me and turning me around while he puts his hands on my shoulders. “Breathe. In and Out.” And I listen to his voice while he calms me. My heart is getting back to beating normal. “You could eat off the floor. And besides, my parents aren’t like that. Now can we go back and finish cooking? I’m starving.” He squeezes my shoulders while I watch him walk away, his ass baiting me to squeeze it with either my hands or the heels of my feet. Either way it’s starting to become perfectly clear why I want to make a good impression. I like him, more than I want to kill him. This could be a problem.