Chapter 13
Fuck. Hard to believe how his Saturday was turning out.
The kid he didn’t mind so much, but Savannah’s parents? What was he supposed to talk about now that they’d eaten their lunch and were sitting around waiting for the server to clear the table? They were sitting in a semi-circular booth, with big comfy leather-clad seating. He and Jacob on the ends, and Dale and Jean in the middle. He had to make conversation, and it wasn’t always easy to talk to Jacob across the table.
It was all Laronde’s fault. His plan had backfired magnificently. That girl had one-upped him again, and it was starting to piss him off.
“Would you like to see the dessert menu?” A server asked him. Christ. No. He didn’t want to spend another second here. But then he caught sight of Jacob’s face. The kid wasn’t asking for anything, and he hadn’t snatched the dessert menu from him. Instead, he just sat there saying and doing nothing, but, goddammit, it was clear enough to see from the look on his face. There was hope, and wanting, and something else Xavier couldn’t put his finger on.
“What kind of question is that?” he replied, taking the proffered menu and handing it straight to Jacob. “We always have to have dessert. Knock yourself out, kid.”
“More calories,” giggled Jean.
“Now, now.” Dale got out his spectacles, as did his wife, and they looked through the menu again.
“What would you like?” Xavier asked Jacob. A pair of green eyes peeked at him as the menu lowered. “You can have anything you want, don’t be shy.”
“Is it okay if I have a triple-chocolate sundae, please? That’s what I would like.”
“Isn’t that too much chocolate, Jacob?” Grandma piped up.
“I think we can be a little lenient on him this weekend,” Xavier winked at them.
“We could share it.” The boy offered. “It looks too big, and I won’t be able to eat it all.”
“Eat what you can kid.”
He gave the server Jacob’s order, ordered nothing for himself, and watched the server take down Dale and Jean’s order. And that was when he saw Izzy walk into the joint, looking around the busy, noisy floor.
What was she doing here? He looked around, anticipating who she had come to meet until, like a dart out of nowhere, he was hit by the notion that she had come back for them.
It had to be.
For a moment he indulged in the pleasure of watching of without her knowing. In her standard black leather jacket and jeans, still chewing that goddamn bubblegum, she had a didn’t-give-a-shit attitude he was starting to find irresistible.
When the server led her over to their table, he sat back, and a tiny explosion went off in his chest. She had come back for him.
“Izzy!” Jacob cried. She greeted everyone, with “I changed my mind,” and sat next to Jacob who moved up to make room. Now she was facing him.
“What made you change your mind?” he asked, intrigued to hear how she would explain it.
He shoved a menu in her direction, and noted the way she took the menu but pretended she hadn’t heard him.
“Haven’t you ordered yet?” she asked, surprised, looking at the empty table. “We’ve eaten, dear. We’re ordering dessert,” said Jean.
“Why don’t you order something for yourself, Izzy?” Dale suggested. “We can wait.”
“Or you could order your main dish, and sides, and we’ll get our dessert,” Xavier offered. He had no intention of sitting here longer than he had to. Unless by some miracle, he managed to shake Jacob’s grandparents off, leaving him with Izzy and Jacob. Because now that she had come back, there was no point in wasting the day.
“I’m not actually that hungry.”
“Ate something on the way before you got here?” he asked, still none the wiser as to why she had changed her mind. She ignored him again.
“I’m having a triple-chocolate sundae,” Jacob told her. “You can share it with me, if you want.”
“Aw, that’s sweet of you to offer,” she replied. “I might try a spoon of it.”
The sound of a ringtone going off had them all checking for their cell phones. “Jacob,” said, Dale, fishing out his phone. “Your mommy’s on the line.” Wildly excited, Jacob reached for the phone and started to talk, but seemed to be having problems hearing.
“I think it’s too noisy for him to hear,” Jean remarked, and her husband suggested they go outside where it would be quieter.
Izzy got up so that Jacob could get out, and Xavier looked for the bodyguard who followed Jacob and his grandparents outside. When she sat back again, she buried her head in the menu, probably so she wouldn’t have to talk to him.
“So,” he said, making another attempt to find out. “What made you come back?” He watched the way her bangs fell forward, as if she was trying to hide under them.
“I came back for Jacob.”
“For Jacob?” he chortled. “Really?”
“Really,” she replied, then cocked her head, as if she had realized what he was getting at. “You didn’t think I came back for you, did you?” Her gaze turned from curious, to mocking. “Dude, you really should stop flattering yourself.” It was the first time he’d ever heard her use his word, and his reading of body language books told him she was mirroring him.
This was a plus.
A huge plus.
She liked him, even if she didn’t know it yet.
She continued, “I’d already heard you were full of yourself, and I knew what to expect from you, but how is it that you still manage to surprise me every time I see you?”
He placed his elbows on the table, leaning forwards on the large table. “I surprise you every time you see me?”
“Every single time. You’re so sure of yourself, so cocky, and arrogant, and vain.”
“Thank you.”
“And only a complete jerk like you would take that as a compliment.”
His reply sent her expression into a tail spin. Her nostrils flared, and she looked as if she was going to say more, but she held back. He grinned at her, knowing it would rile her up, because he liked getting her riled up. Because, from past experience, whenever he’d had a disagreement with a girlfriend, the make-up sex was always so much better than normal sex. He couldn’t wait to see what it would be like with Izzy, on both those counts.
Her lips pressed together tightly, making him wonder what it would be like to have her mouth on him, have her on her knees. He shook himself out of the trance.
“I don’t expect you to admit anytime soon that you like the idea of spending an afternoon with me … and Jacob,” he added as an afterthought, “but at least have the decency to own up to it so that we can stop beating around the bush.”
Her neck elongated, and her face jutted out a fraction. She looked to be in total shock or surprise, he wasn’t sure which. “This is really happening,” she said, talking to herself, “You really went there. Your ego is even bigger than I thought.”
“It’s not the only thing that’s big.”
She blinked rapidly a few times, her mouth opening as she shook her head. “Unbelievable. I can’t wait to tell Cara,” she mumbled, finally.
“Who the hell is Cara?” The idea that he was the butt of someone’s joke soon sobered him up. There was fun to be had in getting her worked up, but knowing she might be talking about him to others, that they might be laughing at him, pissed him off. It was bad enough that Tobias and Luke ganged up on him at every opportunity.
“Nobody you need to know, or worry about.”
Before he had a chance to say anything, dessert and Jacob and his grandparents arrived at the same time and their moment of bonding was over. She was mad though, rabid dog mad. He could see it on her face.
For some crazy ten second slot this morning at the pool, when he could see she didn’t want him to get into the water with her, he’d seen something in her eyes which he hadn’t been able to pinpoint. He hadn’t gotten in because he could sense her unease. And even now, she had surprised him. Most girls loved this kind of subtle dirty talk, but he could see that it did nothing for Laronde. He couldn’t even engage this woman into conversation without her wanting to put him down.
This wasn’t about his libido, and his magic touch, or not. There was something about Laronde, something hidden, something deeper, and the more she pushed away, the more he wanted to get to know her.
~ ~ ~
He was deplorable.
She’d never met anyone who’s head was stuck so far up his own ass that he couldn’t see daylight if it blinded him.
The only reason she had returned was because she didn’t feel right leaving Jacob with Xavier, even though his grandparents were with him.
After hearing his concerns about a sibling, about his fears that Tobias might not love him as much, it only struck her, as she got on the subway going home, that she was abandoning Jacob by leaving him with Xavier. Just because she herself wanted to avoid being around that obnoxious man, didn’t mean that the poor boy had to suffer.
Izzy grit her teeth tightly together as she sat back down once Jacob and his grandparents squeezed past her and into their seats.
She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Cara how insufferable Xavier Stone was.
“Here you go, Ma’am.” The server placed the desserts at the table. “And here are some extra spoons for sharing.”
“How was your Mommy?” she asked Jacob.
“She’s having fun.” He scooped out a huge spoonful of chocolate sundae and shoved it into his mouth. She took a teeny portion, seeing that he seemed to be enjoying it so much.
“But she’s missing you, isn’t she, dear?” his Grandma asked.
Jacob nodded. “But I told her not to worry. I told her Xavier had taken us all out to lunch, and that made her really happy.”
Her gaze flew to Stone’s face as she watched him take the credit for it. It made her stomach churn to see him lapping up the praise. “It was so thoughtful of you to ask everybody,” she said, calling him out, and letting him know that she knew.
“I told mommy we were going to the park next, but I don’t have my scooter.”
“Don’t worry, kid,” said Xavier. “We can go back home to get it.” He turned to Jacob’s grandparents, and said, “I can drop you back if you’re tired.”
She was so embarrassed for Jacob’s grandparents that she had to step in. “Or you’re more than welcome to come with us.” She glared at Xavier. “You’re probably bored,” she said. “You could take off now and enjoy the rest of your weekend. The rest of us can make our own way to Central Park.”
“Are you bored?” Jacob asked.
Xavier gave them another shit-eating grin. So false, so hard to digest that it made Izzy’s gut harden.
“I’m not bored, kid, and I have the whole day free.”
“Wouldn’t you rather hang out with your friends, or your girlfriends?” she asked, purposely making the latter plural. She wondered, at the same time, if he had hooked up with Kay ever since they had returned from the wedding. She was eager to ditch him now from the group and get back to it being only her and Jacob.
“My friends are night people,” he said, staring at her intently, “and I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Night people? You mean like vampires?” Jacob giggled; his lips and outer edges of his mouth were covered in runny chocolate syrup. She handed him a napkin.
“That’s funny, kid,” he said, messing up the boy’s flopping hair.
“If you don’t mind,” said Dale, lifting out a piece of pecan pie that he and his wife were sharing, “We’d like to look around the Museum. What do you say, Jean? Shall we?”
“Now that we’re here, I suppose we ought to do something cultural.” Jean turned to her grandson. “Would you like to come with us, Jacob?”
He shook his head, and shoveled another spoonful of sundae into his mouth.
“You should definitely go to the museum,” Xavier said. “And don’t worry about Jacob. We’ll show him a good time.”
“Are you sure?” Dale asked.
“Completely.” Xavier gave her a grin.
“You must be starving, dear?” Jean asked her. “You’ve barely eaten a thing.”
She wasn’t that hungry, but because she’d been checking out the menu in a bid to avoid looking at Xavier, she was starting to get hungry. The chocolate muffin she’d bought on the way here hadn’t plugged as much of a hole into her ravenous belly. How she missed home cooked meals. She and Cara got by as best as they could which meant not eating out a lot, or living on home-made stew, and soups and wraps. Cara wasn’t a vegetarian, so it made things a little tricky, and she was trying to convince her friend that money would last longer if they avoided eating meat.
“I had something along the way,” she told Jean, hoping to placate her.
“Like what?” It was another stupid question from a stupid man. She turned her head towards him and found herself unable to give him an answer.
“What did you eat along the way?” Xavier asked.
“A—A— a muffin.” Like it was any of his business. He looked as if he didn’t believe her and she didn’t care. But sitting here, with the warm BBQ flavored aroma wafting around everywhere, it was impossible to suppress her hunger.
Yet she didn’t dare order anything here. Not now that they had all finished, and Xavier had asked for the bill. The prices in this place were ridiculous.
When they had all finished, and the bill was settled, they started to leave. She could feel people turn heads, and stare. It surprised her that anyone knew who Xavier was. But maybe with the recent wedding, she assumed that Jacob had suddenly become a person of interest.
They filed into the black SUV.
“Here,” Xavier shoved a small brown package her way.
“What’s this?” she asked, not taking it immediately.
“Food.”
She shrank away at first, thinking he had asked for his leftovers to be boxed up. “Your left-overs?”
“No,” he said, looking genuinely hurt by her accusation. “You looked hungry to me back there.” He held the package up to her again. “Take it. I didn’t buy the bullsh—,” he cleared his throat, “the story that you weren’t hungry.”
Curious, she took it and opened the lip of the brown paper bag and peeked inside. Something was sealed in a foil wrapper, and it was still warm to touch.
“It’s some sort of bean and halloumi mashup,” he said, wrinkling his nose as if he wouldn’t be caught dead sniffing something like this let alone eating it. “It was the first thing on the menu.”
“You didn’t have to,” she said, not liking that his gesture made her feel indebted, in some way, to him.
“You had that hungry look about you,” he said, his voice sexy-sweet, a come-on for most girls. But not her.
She knew what he was doing, and she wasn't about to fall for it.
“Thanks.”
She was quiet as Morris drove Jacob’s grandparents to the Museum of Modern Art, and then back to the apartment so that they could get Jacob’s scooter. Xavier gave Morris the rest of the day off, and decided to take Tobias’s Merc. There would be no point in Morris waiting around for them while they were at the park.
“Central Park?” Xavier asked her, sliding into the driver’s seat. He seemed more relaxed now that Jacob’s grandparents had left.
“That’s where you want to go, isn’t it?” she asked Jacob.
“Yeah. Can we spend 6 hours there?”
“6?” Xavier laughed. “Why 6? Why not 7 or 8?”
Jacob giggled, and even she found herself smiling.