Chapter 102
Maybe he could use Darian’s phone. Or the one at the office, that might be safer. If he were on the line with Ange talking shit and suddenly Darian picked up another phone and heard them? No. Stacy didn’t want to risk losing what they might have, what little they already had. A pay phone then, and soon, but Stacy didn’t know where to find one or when he’d get the chance to use it.
Part of that problem was solved when Darian pulled into the shop’s parking lot and Stacy caught sight of a pay phone at the end of the strip of stores. He stared at the phone as he climbed down from the pick-up and held the door for James.
Darian wouldn’t mind,he told himself. Just tell him you want to call your mom, how can he say no to that? It’s not exactly lying…but it wouldn’t be completely honest either, and Stacy didn’t want to start things off on the wrong foot. Ange was just a friend, he reasoned, but that wasn’t exactly the truth, either. Just thinking of him stirred Stacy’s blood. Talking to him again would turn him on, and seeing him—
“Hey.” Darian clapped a hand on Stacy’s shoulder, interrupting his thoughts. “You still with us here, Stace?”
A thin heat flushed Stacy’s face, and he ducked to hide the color in his cheeks. “I’m here.” Aware that he held the door open on an empty cab, he slammed the truck door shut and shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Before Darian could ask, he added, “I’m fine.”
That hand on his shoulder rubbed along the back of his neck, those thick fingers soft as they ruffled through the bottom of Stacy’s hair. “No offense, but you look like you’re a million miles away.”
“On a tropical island,” Stacy told him. “Ocean and sky as far as you can see. Palm trees swaying in Caribbean breezes. Not a soul around for miles except you and me.” He nudged Darian playfully. “Ever had sex on the beach? I’m not talking about the drink, either.”
Darian’s fingers tightened around Stacy’s neck, leading him towards the door of Druck’s. “You’re incorrigible.”
“What?” Stacy asked, grinning. “I think it might be a bit sandy but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”
As they entered the shop, Darian warned, “James?”
Stacy had to get the last word in. “I like how you don’t say no.”
* * * *
The rest of Stacy’s problem was solved when Lynnette came by the shop to pick up James.
A little after noon, James jumped off the stool he sat on that allowed him to look out over the swinging doors and rushed into the front part of the shop. “Mommy!” he shrieked, as happy to see her as he had been to see his father yesterday.
Looking up from a table leg he was varnishing, Stacy caught Darian’s level gaze. Quietly, his boss said, “I could introduce you. You’ll meet her sooner or later anyway.”
But Stacy wasn’t quite ready for that yet. He’d just met James—he didn’t need to meet the kid’s mother as well. Bad enough she’d slept with Darian once when Stacy hadn’t gotten that far yet himself. Wiping the varnish off the brush, he thought of the phone at the end of the strip. “Do I have to?”
Darian laughed. “You can say no, Stacy. I won’t be offended.” Relief flooded Stacy, and he grinned. “It’d be like me meeting your friend Lamar. After all I know about him, I hope for his sake I never get that chance.”
“What,” Stacy asked, half kidding, “you’d kick his ass?” Darian smiled, but it didn’t quite light up his eyes. “You wouldn’t.” The look of conviction on Darian’s face made him laugh. “Oh shit, I’d love to see that! Lamar’d never know what hit him.” With a nod towards the swinging doors, he teased, “You want I should take her out for you?”
Darian pegged a balled up rag at him, which Stacy swat away. “You be good,” his boss admonished. “Let James talk you up. Lynnette will be beside herself by the time you two meet.”
“At which time we can compare notes,” Stacy pointed out. “They say it’s not the size of the ship—”
“Don’t,” Darian warned.
Stacy’s grin widened. “But your dingy should fit nicely in my harbor.”
Darian rolled his eyes as he untied his apron. “Is sex all you think about?”
“I think about you,” Stacy admitted. He leaned down over the workbench and watched Darian’s fingers fumble with the knots in his apron. “That kiss last night. I stayed up forever thinking about that.”
Out in the showroom, Lynnette called out Darian’s name in a strident voice. “Let me get her out of here.” The strings slipped free and Darian removed his baseball cap to pull the apron off over his head.