A Little Bit of Trouble (28 page)

     “Will you two stop? What are you? Children?” is the last thing I hear Summer screech before the door closes behind her.

      Half an hour later, my eyes are going funny from watching Amelia and Chris play their game, “Get the fan, we need the fan.”

      “But I can’t get to it!” Amelia snaps. “Too many bad guys.”

      “Ignore the bad guys, I’ve got your back. Go grab the fan.”

     “Alright, alright,” I watch her character slowly move forward to the corner where some kind of fan head sits on a strange mannequin. “Got it.”

     “Put it in position, quickly, quickly,” Chris’ character starts blasting the zombie’s in the head as Amelia sets things up. Once the strange fan comes to life the door opens and soon enough they’re climbing onto a bus and wooden slats are covering the windows as Zombie’s try to get in. What kind of game is this?

     “Is this game safe for her to play?” I ask Chris with a frown.

     His eyes don’t leave the screen, “Yeah, yeah. It’s hardly graphic to be honest, there is minimal blood and the Zombies aren’t scary. Sure there are age limits for a reason but Amelia is smart enough to know this isn’t real.”

     “Yeah Daddy, I like it,” her eyes don’t leave the screen either.

    
“Still, I don’t think she should be playing games like this. It doesn’t seem right.”

     Chris just shrugs, “Too late now. The damage is done.”

     “You’re a prick.”

     He laughs with a glance at me, “Dude, she’ll be fine. I promise. I know my shit. I’ve been playing games since I was her age and I haven’t killed anyone yet.”

     “I love how you’ve added the word yet to the end of that.”

     “There’s a few on my list that I’d risk jail time for.”

     “I hear ya bro.”

    
“But he’s killing me!”

     “Move, move! Quick! AH!”

     “I can’t there’s too many of them!”

     “Just wait there!”

     “I can’t go anywhere!” Amelia actually snorts. “I’m dead. Revive me, you need to revive me!”

     “Dude, I’m totally in the middle of something right now!”

     “But I’m gonna die!”

     “I’ll be there in a second,” Chris says, leaning forward in his seat so his elbows rest on his knees.

     “Well done, I’m dead. Happy now?” Amelia drops her controller beside her and crosses her arms over her chest. “Get the chest, get the chest. Quick!”

      “I am getting the damn chest!”

     Marie quirks a brow, clearly as enthralled by this as I am, “Why do I feel like I just stepped into geek central?”

     “Because you did,” Summer sighs. “Welcome to my life.”

     I laugh with Jacob as Amelia and Chris continue their odd conversation.

Loryn
: Where are you? I’m at yours now.

Lucas
: Shit, babe sorry I didn’t realize. I’m coming now.

     “Time to go,” I say to Amelia.

     “But I want to play, ten more minutes,” Amelia grumbles.

     “Come on, I’m finished now, I have work to do,” Chris pinches her cheek. “High five. Awesome play time kid.”

     “Yeah,” Amelia beams at him and hops to her feet. “Thank you for having me Auntie Summer.”

     Summer melts, as she always does when Amelia calls her Auntie, she hugs her tight and walks us to the door after I say my goodbyes. “Drive safe.”

     “Always do,” I mutter to myself and head to my car.

Mine!

     When we arrive at my apartment I find Loryn sat on the floor leaning against the door, she looks up when we step out of the elevator and smiles, “Hey you.” Amelia rushes over and hugs her. “You okay?”

     “Yeah, I killed Zombies.”

     I sigh and listen to Amelia fill Loryn in on the joys of gaming as we enter my apartment. Loryn frowns a little and quirks a brow at me, “Should she be playing such a violent game?”

     “That’s what I said.”

     “How are you?” she pulls Amelia onto her lap after sitting on the sofa and hands her phone over. “You look tired.” She’s talking to me apparently. And what a polite way to say I look like shit.

     “You look gorgeous,” and s
he does, in a low cut long tee and light grey skinny jeans. “You didn’t wear that in front of Greg did you?” I may have to commit murder.

      “No, I wore my sweats and a vest,” dear god, that’s ten times worse
, Loryn doesn’t realize the fact she’d look hot in a bin liner. “Why?”

     “No reason,” shifting to
a comfy position in my seat I clear my throat. “What do you want to do?”

      She leans over and rests her head against my shoulder, I’m not instantly assa
ulted by the scent of cherries like usual, I’m assaulted by the scent of cheap aftershave. It makes me growl a little like a damn animal.

     “Why do you smell like a guy?”

     “Oh, I took a shower at Greg’s this morning, had to use his shower gel,” I bet he loved that. “We got dirty whilst walking the dogs. He fell over into a muddy puddle.” I laugh loudly at the image in my mind. “You’re mean. He’s my friend.”

     Your friend that wants to fuck you. “My bad babe. Well, go have another shower. With shower gel that smells like me.”

     “Cave man.”

     I grin mischievously at her and pull Amelia onto my lap, she doesn’t seem to notice
, clearly because she’s too focused on her game. “Mine.” And then I grab Loryn’s boob. She giggles and pushes my hand away, Amelia who is apparently annoyed at our play grunts a little, hops off my lap and disappears into her room still staring at Loryn’s phone.

     Loryn glances at me nervously, I stand and drag her up with me before walking her to my bedroom, “What are you doing? We can’t whilst Amelia… I mean… this is just so… why are we in the bathroom?”

     I release her, turn on the shower and hold my fingers under the spray until it reaches the desired heat and turn back to Loryn. Stepping forward I say nothing as I pull her top from her body.

     “What are you doing?” she covers herself, I frown and pull her arms away.

     “You’re having a shower.”

     “You’re not serious? Because I used his shower gel?”

     “You smell like him.”

     Her mouth drops open, “Talk about being possessive.” People have been saying that a lot lately.

     “I really don’t want to be thinking of your buddy whilst I’m burying my face between your legs. Have a shower,” I tug her jeans down to her ankles and kiss the soft skin of her naval
whilst on my knees. She places her hands in my hair and rubs my scalp lightly with her fingernails. Damn that feels good. I rest my forehead against her hip and wrap my arms tightly around her.

    
The air shifts and my body tenses as Loryn gulps. I hear her take a breath clearly ready to say something, “Luc…”

     Shaking my head against her flat stomach I cut her off abruptly, “Don’t.”
my voice is quiet, pleading and soft. “Please Loryn. Just… have a shower.”

    
A moment passes before she finally responds. “Okay.”

    
Tension gone. “Thank you,” I stand up and clear my throat before turning and gripping the door handle ready to open the door.

     She inhales again, I wait a moment, she clearly wants to say something and I really don’t want to hear it because I’m afraid it will change everything. “Make a pot of c
offee and have a movie ready please. No more Disney.”

    
“Yeah.” At least I have a couple of tasks to handle. That should keep my mind off things.

     Okay, so it’s a choice between RED with Bruce Willis or… “I want to watch this,” Loryn says and places a disk into the Blu-ray player.

     “What is it?”

     “Something I picked up earlier, I forgot about it. Just found it in my handbag.”

     “Your bag could hide a body Loryn,” I snort. “It’s got that much shit in there.”

     She scowls at me, “It has my necessities.”

     “Yes, I can see a six month old receipt for hairspray being a necessity.”

     “Stop going through my bag,” she gasps and slaps my arm.

     I shrug, “I couldn’t find Amelia. I thought maybe she was hiding behind the three empty chewing gum wrappers and the year old bus ticket.”

     “You’re an ass.”

     “An adorable ass.”

     “Shut up and watch the movie…”

     “Yes ma’am.”

     Amelia cuddles up into my side, Loryn cuddles up into the other. Smiling inwardly I pull them both tighter. This is the life. And then my smile drops. “What the fuck?”

     “It’s Jacob!” Amelia squeals excitedly and jumps up to apparently sit closer to the TV. Great.

     “I am not watching this, it’s weird.”

     “Stop being such a baby,” Loryn laughs. Jacob enters the s
creen in nothing but boxers and a towel hung loosely around his neck. Oh dear god. Then he leans forward and kisses the shoulder of a naked woman on her front in a bed by a large window. “Damn… he’s so hot.”

     “You’re a bitch.”

     “Naughty word,” Amelia chastises and comes over to tap my hand. “Don’t never say that to Loryn again.”

     “It’s ever.”

     She sighs and taps her little foot in frustration, “That’s what I said.”

     “Okay, I’m out,” I say after half an hour when Jacob starts undressing again. Going to stand, Loryn clamps her hand on my thigh and pulls me back down before shoveling more popcorn into her mouth. “This is like sexual harassment because you know him.”

     “You’re an idiot.”

     “Yeah daddy, you’re an idiot.”

     “You shouldn’t even be watching,” I narrow my eyes on her and turn my scowl onto Loryn. “She shouldn’t even be watching.”

     “Quiet, naked male on screen. Damn he’s hot.”

     “Jacob’s my boyfriend,” Amelia announces into the silence. I blink a few times and shake my head to clear my ears. She did not just say that. I refuse to believe she just said that. “He said he’s gonna marry me.”

     “What?”

     “Aww, how cute is that?” Loryn giggles and slides onto the floor beside Amelia. “Did he get you a ring and get down on one knee?”

     “Yeah, but I ate it,” Amelia grumbles seeming a little embarrassed. “It was made of candy.”

      Why don’t I know about this?

      “Can I be a bridesmaid?”

     “Sure.”

     “You are not getting married,” I laugh once in disbelief. This can’t be happening, how does she even know what this is?

     “Hey daddy?” apparently the conversation is about to change. “Are you and Loryn gonna get married?”

      “No,” my reply is instant and a little harsh. Loryn’s face remains impassive, thank god for that.

     “But you love each other right?”

     Loryn strokes Amelia’s hair and meets her inquisitive eyes, “Honey, your daddy and I are just very good friends.” Well, we’re a little more than that but Amelia doesn’t need to know that.

     “But you kiss and stuff and that’s what married people do.”

     “We aren’t getting married,” think Lucas think. “But Maya and James are! That will be fun right?”

     And finally that subject is dropped.

     Loryn helps me get Amelia to bed after the “Ten more minutes Daddy!” Argument which lasted twenty…

     “She made it to page thirteen this time,” Loryn whispers and kisses Amelia’s forehead as I place the Fairy tale book back on the shelf.

     I smile warmly at her and stop beside her. She looks up at me with questioning eyes.

     “What’s wrong?”

     I touch her cheek with my fingertips, “You make me happy Loryn.”

     A beautiful smile greets me, she touches my hand that is again
st her cheek and kisses my palm. “You make me happy too.”

     “Sucky, sucky?” I joke and laugh when she growls and aims a punch for my balls. Fortunately I dodge it and scoop her up into my arms. Rubbing my nose along hers I kiss her lips and her neck and carry her to my bedroom where I spread her out on the bed and do exactly as I promised earlier. I bury my face between her legs and don’t stop until she’s screaming so loud the windows rattle.

     “Where’s my shoe?” a boot flies from the closet, narrowly missing my face. Ducking quickly out of the way I wait for her to finish throwing stuff before I tell her it’s in the hallway. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

     “Because it was fun watching you panic.”

     “You’re a bastard.”

     “You’re late.”

     She gasps and checks the watch on my wrist, “Shit, shit, shit. Give me your keys.”

      “No.”

      “I’m late!”

      I shrug, “I don’t care.
”

     “LUCAS!”

     “Loryn,” I mimic with a whine. “Come on. I’ll drop you off.”

     She grunts and heads to the hallway. I follow on her heels, scoop Amelia up and we head on out.

     “You’re going the wrong way,” Loryn snarls and checks my watch again whilst I drive. “Please stop being so damn awkward.”

     After turning the radio up a beat, I turn the car in the right direction.

     “Left! Left! Here!”

     “Oh, would you look at that… I missed the turning,” dramatic sigh. “I guess we’ll have to go round again.”

     “Stop being a damn caveman! Greg is expecting me… like an hour ago!”

     “Sucks to be him.”

     We finally make it to the Animal Shelter after another ten minutes of me being awkward. What makes it worse is the fact dickhead… I mean Greg doesn’t look the least bit upset by our tardiness. I was sort of hoping he’d fire her and then I could have her more but no dice.

     “Loryn,” Greg grins and Loryn goes straight to him for a hug. “How are you today?”

     I lift Amelia out of her booster seat, she holds my hand
tight as Loryn and Greg greet each other like they haven’t seen each other for weeks. It takes everything I have not to punch him in the face when he places his hands on Loryn’s hips, my hips, the hips I grab when I’m driving into her from behind.

     “You remember Lucas right Greg?”

     I lean forward and shake his hand briefly.

    “Can I see the bunnies?” Amelia asks and Greg nods eagerly, “Sure, come on in sweetie.”

    I use this moment to pull Loryn to my side, she rolls her eyes and tucks her hand into my back pocket.

Notice my smug smile Greg? Oh yeah, you definitely do. It’s saying… she’s mine! And my ego is doing a little dance around you too and flipping you the finger.

    
“Lordy, lordy, lordy,” a familiar female voice says as we step inside the sterile smelling building. The sound of dogs barking comes from somewhere further in.

     Oh dear god, it’s the woman from the store, when I first asked Loryn out, “
Hey Penny.” Loryn hugs the woman known as Penny as she eyes me up and down.

     “My, my, my, you’re even better than how I remember,” she smiles
flirtatiously.

     “Penny,” Greg chastises and rolls his eyes. “This is my aunt. My incorrigible aunt who drives our family crazy.”

     “
They love me really,” she gives me a wink and chuckles a little. “And who is this gorgeous little girl?”

     “I’m Amelia,” my daug
hter says without hesitation accompanied by a huge welcoming smile on her face. At least she’s not shy.

     “Well aren’t you just adorable.”

     “She wants to see the bunnies,” Greg announces and leads us to a door at the end. “Loryn, you coming?”

     Loryn glances at me with those doe eyes before shrugging and following him through, leaving me with the fortyish woman and her flirtatious smile.
I shift nervously on the spot.